title stringlengths 13 112 | published_date stringlengths 10 10 | authors stringclasses 3 values | description stringlengths 0 382 ⌀ | section stringlengths 2 31 ⌀ | content stringlengths 0 81.9k | link stringlengths 21 189 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Utah couple's life transformed by quadruplets - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | Ashley and Tyson Gardner had two sets of identical twins by IVF. | null | When Ashley and Tyson Gardner found out they were going to have quadruplets, a photo of Ashley holding the ultrasound scans went viral.
The couple, from Utah, had struggled to conceive for eight years, but they eventually had two sets of identical twin girls by IVF treatment.
"When we first found out we were having quadruplets, it was pure terror and pure joy at the same time," Ashley explained.
"The doctors said we only had a 40% chance of having one baby, so to have all four to come at once was a huge blessing and a huge miracle."
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38684920 |
Past presidents taking the oath of office - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | Before you can become commander in chief, you must first take the oath of office. | null | Before you can become commander in chief, you must first take the oath of office.
BBC News looks back at the famous words, as spoken by some former presidents of the United States. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38651876 |
Donald Trump's big day: Who is performing? - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Donald Trump has put together a star-studded line-up for his official inauguration celebrations. | Entertainment & Arts | Although a host of big names have turned him down, Donald Trump has gathered a number of stars for his official inauguration celebrations. Meanwhile, other stars are appearing at alternative and anti-Trump events.
The official inauguration celebrations kicked off on Thursday with the Make America Great Again! concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC as part of the Welcome Celebration.
The bill included hard rockers 3 Doors Down (above), who have had two US number one albums.
Country singer Toby Keith joined them at the event. He released a statement explaining his decision. "I don't apologise for performing for our country or military," he said. "I performed at events for previous presidents Bush and Obama and over 200 shows in Iraq and Afghanistan for the USO [United Service Organizations]."
Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight also put in an appearance. He endorsed Mr Trump during the presidential election campaign, saying Mr Trump is "an answer to our problems" and "will save our nation".
During his speech on Thursday, Voight said: "We have been witnessed to a barrage of propaganda that left us all breathless with anticipation, not knowing if God could reverse all the negative lies against Mr Trump, whose only desire was to make America great again."
American-Indian DJ RaviDrums provided further entertainment. He said he was "on the fence" when he was first asked to perform. "But I talked to my dad and he said this is a great honour. My dad came to America from India with $8 and a one-way ticket to pursue the American dream. This is the dream!"
But - although Dreamgirls star Jennifer Holliday was announced as a performer at the concert, she dropped out after a vicious backlash.
"I woke up, and there was like this whole thing of terrible tweets and things on my Instagram," she said. "I live a pretty reclusive life. I pretty much stay to myself. You're not on the radio and then one morning you wake up and everybody hates you."
The honour of singing the national anthem during the main inauguration event itself on Friday has gone to 16-year-old Jackie Evancho, who came second on America's Got Talent in 2010.
Sam Moore, of legendary soul duo Sam and Dave, will lead the line-up at Liberty and Freedom: The Official Presidential Inaugural Balls.
He said: "I was a participant in the civil rights movement and have seen many positive changes and advancement in my 81 years of living in this wonderful country, but I know we must all join hands and work together with our new president."
The Radio City Rockettes will also turn on the style at the official balls - even though the decision caused consternation among some members of the troupe.
Other performers at the balls will include Tim Rushlow and his Big Band, Silhouettes, Pelican212, The Piano Guys, Circus 1903, Cache Olson, Lexi Walker and Erin Boheme.
There are alternatives to the official balls - the Peace Ball, for liberal activists, will feature Solange Knowles.
Grammy-winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding will also star at the Peace Ball in Washington.
Rock band Audioslave will play their first concert for 11 years at an Anti-Inaugural Ball in Los Angeles, organised by rock/hip-hop crossover band Prophets of Rage on Friday.
Veteran folk rocker Jackson Browne - who initially supported Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders - will play at the same anti-Trump event.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38678102 |
Saido Berahino: Stoke complete deal to sign West Brom's 23-year-old striker - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Stoke sign West Brom striker Saido Berahino for £12m on a five-and-a-half-year deal. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Stoke have signed West Brom striker Saido Berahino for a fee of £12m on a five-and-a-half-year deal.
The 23-year-old's contract had been due to expire at the end of the season, and the Baggies offered him a new deal for a third time in December.
He has not played since September and his relationship with the club had broken down since the 2014-15 campaign.
"I've had a tough two years but everything happens for a reason. I'm mentally stronger now," Berahino said
"Now I am finally here I just can't wait to start. For Stoke to show their faith in me is unbelievable," he added.
"On match fitness I am not there yet, but I am going to work hard to get myself back so I can help my new team-mates climb the table."
Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes said: "We've signed a young English striker who has already proven his ability in the Premier League.
"After a frustrating period he's now desperately keen to reignite his career and we look forward to seeing him do that with us."
Berahino reacted angrily to a bid from Tottenham being turned down on transfer deadline day in summer 2015 and two months later tweeted that he would never play for West Brom again under then-chairman Jeremy Peace.
And in January 2015, he scored four goals but barely celebrated in what was interpreted as a sign of his growing disillusionment at the Hawthorns.
Speaking after Saturday's 4-0 defeat by Spurs, West Brom boss - and former Stoke manager - Tony Pulis had said Berahino would not be sold "unless it is right for the club".
He added: "It has to be a two-way situation. That has always been the situation; we will not sell the lad because it suits him."
England Under-21 forward Berahino is the Potters' second signing of this transfer window after the loan deal for Derby keeper Lee Grant was made permanent. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38696547 |
Masters 2017: Barry Hawkins knocks out world number one Mark Selby to reach semis - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | England's Barry Hawkins denies world number one Mark Selby the Triple Crown by winning 6-3 to reach the Masters semi-final. | null | Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Barry Hawkins denied world number one Mark Selby the Triple Crown by winning 6-3 to reach the Masters semi-final.
World number 12 Hawkins, who was runner-up in 2016, took a lengthy opening frame before fellow Englishman Selby levelled with a 76 break.
Breaks of 63 and 60 gave Hawkins a 3-1 lead at the break before world champion Selby pipped him to the fifth frame.
It was 4-3 when Selby produced a superb 101 before Hawkins hit back to take the next two frames and seal victory.
He will play England's Joe Perry, who also produced a shock with a 6-1 win over world number six and 2011 champion Ding Junhui (China) in the last of the quarter-finals.
The world number nine had breaks of 55, 63 and then 127 in the seventh and final frame to secure the victory.
Earlier, Hawkins said his 6-1 opening-round win over former world champion and compatriot Shaun Murphy gave him extra belief going into Friday's match against Selby.
"I was quietly confident in my game, I played well against Shaun," he said.
"The last few times against Mark I've played him instead of playing the table, but today I managed to settle better and play the balls."
English defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Hong Kong's Marco Fu in Saturday's other semi-final.
Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app, or if you want to get involved yourself, read our Get Inspired guide. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38696872 |
India v England: Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni seal series in Cuttack - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Brilliant centuries from Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni give India a series-clinching 15-run win over England in a thrilling second ODI. | null | Brilliant centuries from Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni gave India a series-clinching 15-run win over England in a thrilling second one-day international.
India were reduced to 25-3 in Cuttack before Yuvraj, who struck 150, and Dhoni (134) shared a stand of 256.
They helped India to 381-6, the third-highest total made against England.
Eoin Morgan blasted an 80-ball hundred, Jason Roy, Joe Root and Moeen Ali all made half-centuries, but England ended 366-8 to go 2-0 down with one to play.
That in itself was England's fifth-highest total and their second of 350 or more in as many games, but they still have not won a series in this country since 1984-85 and have lost 21 of their past 25 ODIs against India in India.
The tourists looked well set to alter that record when Chris Woakes took three wickets in his first three overs, including the prolific Virat Kohli, but Yuvraj and Dhoni destroyed an England attack that had no control of length.
An unlikely chase was not out of the question on an ideal batting surface, only for India's spinners to run through the England top order, with the late hitting of Morgan not enough in the face of the home attack's greater nous.
Before returning for the first match, Yuvraj was out of the India ODI side for more than three years, dropped at the end of a 2013 when he averaged only 19.71 with the bat.
Recalled after some excellent domestic form, he made his first ODI century for six years and his highest score, dismantling the England bowling with stylish drives and brutal pulls.
England were right to initially probe the left-hander's historical weakness against the short ball, but too slow to change a plan that did not work.
Time and again short deliveries were dismissed to the leg-side fence, even after Yuvraj had registered his 14th ODI ton with Jake Ball the most persistent offender.
Yuvraj successfully overturned a caught-behind decision on 145 and a double century seemed possible until he edged the excellent Woakes, comfortably the pick of England's bowlers, to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
Dhoni relinquished the white-ball captaincy to Kohli before this series but once again proved his worth alongside the equally experienced Yuvraj - both 35 and with 580 caps between them.
Usually at his best at the end of the innings, Dhoni dealt with the inconvenience of having to arrive in the fifth over by batting until the 48th, initially as a foil for Yuvraj.
He was dropped on 43, a tough chance to a retreating Ball off a leading edge, and only really accelerated as he neared a century, announcing his intention with a huge six over long-on off Woakes.
From there it was carnage, as Dhoni took 41 runs off the last 20 balls he faced. Overall, India hit 214 from their final 20 overs and 120 off the last 10.
Liam Plunkett, ineffective on his return for figures of 2-91, was hammered for three sixes in an over, eventually getting a crumb of comfort when Dhoni hit a full toss to David Willey at deep mid-wicket.
England were not fazed by what would have been their highest successful run chase in ODIs, with Root and Roy sharing a stand of 100 that kept the tourists ahead of the curve.
However, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, England's tormentor during their 4-0 Test series defeat, had Root sky a sweep, bowled Ben Stokes and had Buttler stumped down the leg side, while spin partner Ravindra Jadeja found turn to bowl Roy.
Still England pressed on, captain Morgan returning to form with sixes over long-on and long-off, and Moeen's leg-side scoring bringing him a 40-ball half-century.
When Moeen dragged on to his stumps off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it looked to be a fatal blow to England's chances, but Morgan kept them alive in a fifty partnership with Plunkett that came in only 24 balls.
The Irishman reached his ninth ODI ton only to be run out by bowler Jasprit Bumrah when backing up too far, taking England's hopes with him as he departed.
Falling short by 15 in a game of 747 runs, England will reflect on a bowling effort that was too expensive and top-order batting that failed to capitalise on a strong position.
'India just got too many runs' - analysis
India got just too many runs. England's bowling wasn't focused enough on Yuvraj Singh and then they lost wickets at the wrong time.
It's unfair to blame England's death bowlers, but they still haven't got that right. Woakes is good but they haven't got another person that they can really rely on.
• None India's 381-6 is the third-highest score ever made against England in a one-day international.
• None The partnership of 256 by Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni is the second-highest for any wicket by any opponent against England in ODIs, bettered only by the 286 shared by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga for Sri Lanka in 2006.
• None Yuvraj is only the sixth man to make a score of 150 or more against England in an ODI.
• None England made their fifth-highest ODI total and their largest batting second. It was also the largest score they have ever made to lose an ODI.
• None 747 runs is the second-most made in an ODI in India, behind the 825 made by the hosts and Sri Lanka in 2009-10.
• None Joe Root has made a half-century in each of the five Tests and two ODIs against India this winter.
'We weren't at our best' - what they said
England captain Eoin Morgan: "We probably weren't at our best with ball or the bat but we still competed and it's tremendously disappointing not to get over the line.
"Bowling to MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh is very difficult at times. The margin for error is quite small and the challenge is to break the partnership a little earlier.
"We showed a lot of fight, we have a huge amount of talent. It's been a magnificent day's cricket."
India captain Virat Kohli: "I said to the team that if we had had a good start then where could we have ended up today? MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh brought stability and wonders to the team, their batting rate was outstanding.
"A 380 target, we thought, was a bit too far-fetched, but we bowled at the most difficult phase because of the dew and the ball was very hard to execute - and the guys showed great character.
"If we had not picked out the wickets in the middle then I'm not sure where the game would have gone."
Man-of-the-match Yuvraj Singh: "In the domestic season I've been hitting the ball really well and I've been working hard on my fitness. The results showed today.
"Me and MS Dhoni understand the situations really well, we started by hitting the ball down the ground really well and not taking any risks. Then we attacked when the time was right."
"Diet has been the key, as you pass 30 you've got to work hard on your fitness - I learned that from Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, all the greats." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38679657 |
Donald Trump inauguration speech was ‘angriest ever’ - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | An expert in US politics has claimed President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech was the angriest he had ever heard. | null | An expert in US politics has claimed President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech was the angriest he had ever heard.
Dr Mike Cornfield, associate professor of Political Management at the George Washington University, told BBC Radio 5 live's Anna Foster he thought President Trump's address was “extraordinary for a man who did not win the popular vote and who did not fill this mall”. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699639 |
Windsor Castle undergoes two-week 'high clean' - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Chandeliers and suits of armour are just some of the features being dusted down. | Berkshire | The chandelier, one of five in the Waterloo Chamber, dates from 1862 and was made by the Birmingham glass makers F and C Osler
Windsor Castle is undergoing a two week spring clean before it is re-opened to the public over the weekend.
Experts ensure the castle's State Apartments are cleaned from floor to ceiling during what the Royal Trust calls the annual "high clean".
Chandeliers dating from 1862 and commissioned by Queen Victoria are dusted, along with suits of armour on the Grand Staircase.
The castle will open its doors again to the public on Saturday.
A marble bust of German Emperor Frederick III of Prussia in St George's Hall is cleaned as part of the annual clean
Expert staff cleaning a cut glass chandelier, dated from 1862, in the Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle
The clean takes two weeks to complete and sees each room cleaned from top to bottom
Castle staff dust the suits of armour on the Grand Staircase
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-38674610 |
England: Alex Hales to miss rest of India tour through injury - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | England opener Alex Hales will miss the remainder of the tour of India after suffering a hand fracture. | null | Last updated on .From the section Cricket
England opener Alex Hales will miss the remainder of the tour of India after scans showed he has suffered a hand fracture.
The 28-year-old damaged his right hand during the second one-day international defeat by India on Thursday in Cuttack.
Right-hander Hales sustained the injury after attempting a catch in the outfield and jarring his hand on the ground.
He will return to England on Saturday and will see a hand surgeon next week.
The ECB said England will announce Hales' replacement in the Twenty-20 squad for the three-match series against India, starting on January 26, in "due course".
England play the final one-day game of their three-match series with India in Kolkata on Sunday.
They are yet to win on this tour, having lost four and drawn one of the five-match Test series that came before. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/38694820 |
Tottenham Hotspur: New stadium images revealed - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Tottenham Hotspur reveal more about what the club's new north London stadium will look like. | London | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Five facts about Spurs' new stadium
Tottenham Hotspur have revealed images of the club's new stadium which is being built in north London.
The 61,000-seat stadium will be the largest-capacity football club ground in the capital when it opens in 2018.
It will include what is believed to be the longest general admission bar in a UK stadium as well as heated seats, a micro-brewery and an in-house bakery.
Chairman Daniel Levy said the ground would "redefine sports and entertainment experiences".
The 61,000-seat stadium will be the largest-capacity football club ground in London
The stadium will have a retractable grass field and an artificial surface underneath it allowing the ground to host football games, NFL matches, concerts and other events.
Other features in the stadium include:
The new stadium is expected to cost £750m but will create about 3,500 jobs in the area when it is finished, according to the club.
A glass-walled tunnel will give people behind-the-scenes views of the action
The ninth-floor Sky Lounge will provide panoramic views of the area
Mauricio Pochettino's side will temporarily relocate for the 2017-18 season as the stadium is being built.
The Football Association (FA) has given Tottenham the option to hire Wembley but Conservative MP Bob Blackman warned in the Commons this could lead to the "potential abuse" of the "national treasure".
Wembley has also been suggested as a temporary home for Chelsea when a new 60,000-seat stadium is built at Stamford Bridge.
The stadium is expected to cost about £750m
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38682911 |
Diego Costa: Chelsea striker wants to stay, says manager Antonio Conte - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Diego Costa wants to stay at Chelsea and will be available for Sunday's Premier League game against Hull, says manager Antonio Conte. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Striker Diego Costa wants to stay at Chelsea and will be available for Sunday's Premier League game against Hull City, says manager Antonio Conte.
Costa, 28, was left out of last week's win at Leicester after a disagreement with a fitness coach, amid widespread reports of interest from Chinese clubs.
Chelsea said his omission was due to a back injury, and that training alone for two days was part of his recovery.
"He is very happy to play with us. I don't see any problem," said Conte.
"I heard a lot of speculation about Diego, but now the most important thing is he trained with us this week, he does not have any pain in his back and can play.
"He is an important player for us and we all know this. When he stays in good form he has always played with me."
In the days leading up to Chelsea's 3-0 win at Leicester, Costa was linked with a move to China worth a reported £30m a year.
The owner of Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjian said he would like to sign Costa, but new rules limiting the use of foreign players had forced a rethink.
BBC Sport understands Chelsea do not wish to sell Costa and the Blues' top scorer this season is under contract until June 2019.
Conte did not confirm if Costa - who has played 99 times for the club - would start against Hull.
But he said the Spain international reaching 100 appearances would be a "fantastic" achievement.
Asked if he would like Costa to sign a new contract, Conte added: "Now is better to be focused on the present, not the future."
Chelsea are seven points clear at the top of the Premier League before Sunday's visit of 18th-placed Hull.
Meanwhile, Conte said the club are "evaluating" an offer for goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.
He added the 29-year-old Bosnia international, who has been linked with a move to Bournemouth, is a "very important member of the squad". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38693189 |
Jan Vertonghen: Tottenham defender expected to be out for six weeks - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen is expected to be out for six weeks with an ankle ligament injury. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen is expected to be out for six weeks with an ankle ligament injury, according to his manager Mauricio Pochettino.
The 29-year-old centre-back turned his left ankle during the second half of last Saturday's 4-0 win over West Brom.
"When your mind is positive it's easier to recover," said the Argentine boss. "He doesn't require surgery.
"We have players that can perform in his place and we are very happy with the squad and the players we have."
Analysis: The best defence? the most powerful midfield? - How good are Tottenham?
Vertonghen has played in 20 out of 21 league matches this season, forming part of a defence that has conceded just 14 goals - the best record in the league.
Pochettino, however, was unsure as to when attacking midfielder Erik Lamela would return to action. The 24-year-old has been sidelined since the end of October with a hip problem.
"He will have a scan on Friday," he added.
"Still it is difficult to give the time that he can come back. We need to wait tomorrow because there is still some problems, and we are still not sure of the diagnosis." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38685142 |
Australian Open 2017: Champion Angelique Kerber cruises into last 16 - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Defending champion Angelique Kerber beats Czech Kristyna Pliskova for the loss of just four games at the Australian Open. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January.
Defending champion Angelique Kerber gave a much-improved performance as she beat Czech Kristyna Pliskova for the loss of just four games to reach the last 16 at the Australian Open.
The German top seed, who needed three sets in both of her opening two matches, won 6-0 6-4 in Melbourne.
Kerber faces Coco Vandeweghe in round four after the American beat Canada's Eugenie Bouchard 6-4 3-6 7-5.
Williams thrashed China's Duan Yingying 6-0 6-1 while French Open champion Muguruza, the seventh seed from Spain, won 6-2 6-4 against Anastasija Sevastova.
Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was another winner early on day five, needing three hours and 36 minutes to beat Serbia's Jelena Jankovic 6-4 5-7 9-7.
"Jelena was in total control in the third set but I was trying to hang in, it was amazing that I could turn it around," said Kuznetsova, who trailed 3-0 in the final set.
"I just waited and tried to recover some breaks. I was not playing my best."
• None Murray powers through to round four
• None Feature: Has Djokovic's desire burned itself out?
• None How to follow the Australian Open on the BBC
Kerber finally got into her stride with a crushing win over Kristyna Pliskova, the 58th-ranked twin sister of Czech fifth seed Karolina.
After early defeats in both of her warm-up tournaments, and three-set battles in the first two rounds in Melbourne, the world number one appears to have found her game.
"It's great to have another good match under my belt and to be in the fourth round again here," said the German.
"I'm looking forward to the next one. I think that I'm finding my rhythm in the tournament now. I think it was a little bit up and down, the first week." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38687216 |
US President Donald Trump's first speech - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | It was 20 minutes long and touched on jobs, patriotism, rebuilding, radical Islam and winning. We have boiled it down to two and a half. | null | It was 20 minutes long and touched on jobs, patriotism, rebuilding, radical Islam and winning. We have boiled it down to two and a half. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699839 |
James Paget Hospital patient evicted after two years - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | A hospital patient who occupied a bed for more than years was evicted after a hospital applied for a court order. | null | A patient who occupied a bed for more than two years was evicted after a hospital applied for a court order.
The unnamed man was treated at the James Paget Hospital, in Gorleston, Norfolk.
The hospital said he had been "fit for discharge". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-38698757 |
One solution to two big social problems - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In France, some students are snapping up cheap rents in exchange for helping old people out in their homes | Magazine | Here's a solution that could tackle two of the West's most urgent problems: a young generation priced out of affordable housing, and the loneliness and isolation of a rapidly ageing population.
For so-called millennials, like Mikyoung Ahn, a large home is a seemingly unattainable dream. She could not imagine living in a spacious detached house on the leafy outskirts of Paris, just half an hour from the Arc de Triomphe. She definitely couldn't imagine paying just 120 Euros (£100) a month to live there.
Yet, with the help of an innovative housing scheme, that idea is no longer a fantasy for the 25-year-old student from Seoul, South Korea.
An aspiring architect, she wanted to live and study in one of the world's cultural capitals. To realise her dream, she turned away from traditional student accommodation. Instead of moving in with other young people, Mikyoung chose as a landlady and housemate a 78-year-old widow with a passion for patchwork.
"I knew I was going away from home for university, and that I wouldn't have any family or any friends," she says. "But after the first meeting her, I knew it was going to be perfect."
Mikyoung and her landlady, Monique, have been living together since October, after they were matched by an organisation called Ensemble2Generations. This organisation and others like it pair elderly people with students, in an arrangement called homeshare.
The concept is simple, yet it attempts to bridge an intergenerational divide that exists in many parts of the world.
On one side are older people, who own properties that were purchased when house prices were comparatively cheap, but who may now need some help with daily activities like shopping and cleaning.
On the other side are young people, who cannot afford to rent a decent flat, but who may have some time to spare.
Monique has got Mikyoung into her hobby, quilting
Mikyoung helps Monique with a range of everyday tasks. She carries Monique's shopping in the supermarket, washes up, and has even created an instruction sheet to help Monique understand all the buttons on her TV remote.
"It's not a big deal," she says. "It's just life, you know. If I lived here, I would have to clean the dishes or take the trash out. I feel really this is my home - this is our home.
"Every night when I come back, I prepare the dinner and I put on the music that I have learned today. For example, Champs-Élysées or something like that, and we sing together."
Monique, who is a retired schoolteacher, is now an avid fan of Downton Abbey, after being introduced to the programme by Mikyoung.
"We have very good moments together, because we share a lot," says Monique. "We often sit together and watch TV programmes. Everything is simple between us."
Turning to Monique, she adds: "You are like a granddaughter to me."
Homeshare is not a new idea - it was first trialled in the USA and Spain during the 1980s. However, experts have recently started to view it as a scalable solution to two problems that continue to cause social problems. While young people are migrating to cities, pushing up the price of rent, many populations in the developed world are ageing.
Meet the people fixing the world in the new World Service programme, World Hacks
Homeshare schemes are now active in 16 countries across the world. Since 1999, an organisation called Homeshare International has acted as a network for homeshare schemes.
"The benefits to the householder are they feel much safer at home because of having someone else in the house," says Elizabeth Mills, the organisation's director. "They're happier, incidents of accidents and falls go down, and the reassurance for the householder's family is absolutely enormous."
Most programmes offer two homeshare arrangements for prospective participants. The first allows the student to live in an elderly person's home rent-free in exchange for help around the house. The second requires the student to contribute money to household bills, but places fewer burdens on their time.
It costs roughly 900 Euros a month for a student to live in the centre of Paris
So will schemes like this help solve the housing crises of millenials - and the problems of the elderly?
Research into homeshare projects in Spain and the USA indicates that participants are overwhelmingly satisfied by the arrangement. The Spanish study, for example, reported that 93.2% of elderly people had benefitted in some way from the programme, while 98.7% of students had benefitted.
The organisation that paired Monique and Mikyoung, Ensemble2Generations, conducts face-to-face interviews before placing people together. Students even have to put pen to paper to explain why they want a placement, so that their application can be examined by a handwriting expert. Despite this, some partnerships simply do not work out.
A major issue is that people of different generations may not always get on. Monique's previous housemate was a young gardener who spent a lot of time out of the house. When they did occasionally eat together, the gardener did not want to have a conversation. Instead, according to Monique, he just stared vacantly at his phone. But that did not shake Monique's confidence in homeshare.
"I never doubted whether I wanted to homeshare. I knew there were other people out there… It is a good solution for me."
And although the gardener did not provide much companionship for Monique, experts widely acknowledge that homeshare is an effective antidote to loneliness - a problem that affects over one million elderly people in Britain, according to Age UK. Helen Bown, a policy expert who specialises in social isolation, says that the emotional support provided by a homeshare relationship often exceeds its financial advantages.
"People talk about not feeling so lonely anymore, particularly people who are single, " she says. "People have talked about having a safety net, particularly at night.
"I think one of the most compelling things that people have talked about, consistently, is the impact emotionally for people - the positive relationship. The feeling that people are contributing; that they are part of a mutually beneficial relationship, not just a transaction of care and support."
This is certainly the case for Armelle, a 64 year-old woman living in Cergy, northwest of Paris. Eighteen months ago, Armelle's husband died of cancer. Devastated, and fearing loneliness, she got in touch with Ensemble2Generations. Since then, she has housed a 19-year-old student called Blandine, from Versailles, who is studying engineering at a local university.
"If my husband had been here, I would never have thought of accommodating a student," says Armelle. "But she's like a companion. It's so good to have a presence in the house. I enjoy Blandine's company a lot."
Armelle and Blandine have an easygoing friendship
Armelle and Blandine's relationship is like a casual friendship. They relax together in the evenings and chat about their lives. While she was away from the house for a few days, Armelle even allowed Blandine to have a house party.
"Though her contract says that she's not allowed to have friends over, I know that I can trust her," says Armelle, laughing. "I even helped her organise it."
The house has a large fireplace and a spectacular view over the lakes of Cergy. Unsurprisingly, Blandine is fond of these home comforts, and is not keen on moving into a cramped student flat for the next academic year.
"In student accommodation everything is in the same room, except for the bathroom," she says, wrinkling up her nose.
"I have a few friends who are offering to flat-share next year. I tell them, "Why not?" but I'm actually very comfortable here - I'm not sure I'm going to leave."
Join the conversation - find World Hacks on Facebook, and follow the BBC World Service on Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38399246 |
2019 Cricket World Cup: London Stadium major step closer to staging matches - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | London Stadium is found to have a potential playing surface big enough to host one-day international cricket matches. | null | Last updated on .From the section Cricket
London Stadium is a major step closer to hosting matches at the 2019 Cricket World Cup, after it was found to have a potential playing surface big enough for one-day internationals.
It emerged last month the England and Wales Cricket Board was considering high-capacity venues at the request of the International Cricket Council.
The 60,000-seat London Stadium is much larger than any UK cricket ground.
However, a number of other feasibility issues must be addressed.
To stage cricket, the stadium's seating configuration would be similar to that used for athletics, rather than as employed by tenants West Ham United for football matches.
Obstacles to overcome include the cost-effectiveness of turfing the entire playing area and the suitability of drop-in pitches, which are rarely used in the UK.
And, even though the tournament, which runs from 30 May to 15 July, is unlikely to encroach on either the football season or athletics' Anniversary Games, there must be sufficient time to convert the stadium.
If all of these challenges can be met then it is likely the stadium, which hosted the 2012 Olympics, will be used for a small portion of the World Cup, perhaps a one-week window, rather than throughout the seven-week competition.
Eleven traditional cricket venues - Lord's, The Oval, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Headingley, Cardiff, Southampton, Chester-le-Street, Taunton and Bristol - are in line to host matches.
Of that list, Lord's has the highest capacity - about 30,000.
However, the ICC is keen to replicate the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which saw attendances in excess of 90,000 in Melbourne, and games held at other large stadiums in Sydney, Adelaide and Auckland.
Of those, Auckland's Eden Park, traditionally a rugby ground, has dimensions that left the straight boundaries incredibly short.
London Stadium has previously been considered by Essex for domestic Twenty20 matches. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38689150 |
Andy Murray column on Novak Djokovic, beating Querrey and meeting Zverev - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | World number one Andy Murray on Novak Djokovic's Australian Open exit and coming up against an old friend at the Australian Open. | null | Coverage: Live radio and text commentary of every Andy Murray match on BBC Radio, the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app. Watch highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January.
I thought I was pretty good in my win over Sam Querrey. I certainly played better than the first two matches. Sam's a tough opponent with a big game so I was happy with it.
I probably warmed up for the match on three or four different occasions. Svetlana Kuznetsova was up a set and 4-1 on court before me, and then all of a sudden it was 3-0 in the decider to Jelena Jankovic. Then there was an injury time-out at the end.
You start warming up as soon as it gets to near the end of the match and then you just have to wait and hang around. It's really tough but there's not a lot you can do. I was ready to go out there for about an hour and a half.
The tough part is the mental side of it. You have to be switched on as you might just be about to go on and play in a Grand Slam match. It's about trying to find a way of staying relaxed and not using up too much mental energy.
The support in the arena was great. The court we were playing on isn't a ticketed court so you get really enthusiastic fans watching. Anyone can come in and watch - I think it's $45 for the day. And with Dan Evans playing on the court after me, the Brits have been there all day. It was loud crowd, so I really enjoyed it.
'I've known my next opponent for 17 years'
Next up is Mischa Zverev. We've known each other since we were 12 years old, so for 17 years. We're the same age and we grew up playing against each other in the juniors.
He's a very quiet guy, and very calm on the court. He plays serve-volley tennis which you don't see a lot nowadays and he's improved so much over the last few months. His brother, Alex, is one of the best players in the world right now and they train together all the time. Their parents coached them so whenever I was playing with Mischa, when Alex was only tiny he would be on the side of the court with a racket in his hand.
There's quite a different age gap between them and me and my brother but it's always nice to have your family around you and to have someone who understands what it's like to be a professional athlete - the stresses and everything you go through - it definitely helps.
Everyone was surprised by Novak Djokovic's exit in Melbourne, for sure. But out of the last few Grand Slams he made the final of the US Open, the third round at Wimbledon and won the French Open. Every single player on the tour, bar one or two, would sign up for those results. When you compare it to what his standards are, he'll probably be disappointed. But if you compare it to every other tennis player in the world, his last 12-18 months have been phenomenal.
I think everyone needs to give him a bit of a break. It is hard to keep up the intensity week after week, that's why everyone has been so impressed by the group of players at the top of the game over the last few years.
The same guys have been there for the last 10 years because their performances in the major events have been incredibly consistent. They're always in the finals and semi-finals. So when it doesn't happen once, everyone is really surprised and shocked.
But I think the players themselves are a lot more understanding, as we know how difficult it is and how incredible the consistency has been over the last few years. It's almost inevitable it will drop off at some point. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38689896 |
Masters 2017: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Neil Robertson, Fu beats Allen - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Neil Robertson 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Alexandra Palace. | null | Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Neil Robertson 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Masters at Alexandra Palace in London.
Australia's Robertson started with 74, but O'Sullivan made 63 and 51 as the pair shared the first six frames.
Neither player were at their best but Englishman O'Sullivan won the seventh, and a fluked red helped him take the next, before winning with a 68 break.
O'Sullivan will now play Marco Fu, who beat Mark Allen 6-2.
Fu made the highest break of the tournament - a 140 in the eighth frame - and followed it up with a 65 to advance to Saturday's semi.
The 2010 runner-up had started with breaks of 83 and 74 as he took a 3-0 lead, before Allen's 70 and 54 closed the deficit, but Fu kept his cool by winning three-in-a-row.
Meanwhile, 'The Rocket' is bidding for a record seventh Masters title and aiming to retain the trophy after last year's 10-1 thrashing of Barry Hawkins.
Now 41, O'Sullivan last won an event at the 2016 Welsh Open in February and has lost in three finals of events since.
In a disjointed match against Robertson - which featured a highest break of 74 in the opening frame - he made uncharacteristic errors by missing straightforward pots, but still managed to battle through.
"I can feel and sense that I am missing too many easy balls now. I need to cut them out," he told BBC Sport.
"I am going to keep dragging my career out as long as I can, that is all you can do.
"It is nice to know if your game is coming back or not. I don't want to be at the point where I am being delusional and carry on playing for 10 years thinking I am good but I am not.
"Hopefully I have three years left in my career but I am appreciative that I am still playing."
"A fascinating and intriguing encounter. It was not the best standard but it was engrossing.
"Both players were missing and you saw how much it meant to them. It was enjoyable in a strange way."
Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app, or if you want to get involved yourself, read our Get Inspired guide. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38680221 |
Saroo Brierley: The real-life search behind the film Lion - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The man whose Google Earth hunt inspired a Hollywood film says his life has changed once more. | Australia | Sunny Pawar as five-year-old Saroo in the new film Lion
He was the tiny boy from a poor family in India who fell asleep on a train and woke up 1,000 miles from home.
After fending for himself on the streets, five-year-old Saroo made it to an orphanage, where he was adopted by Australian couple Sue and John Brierley to begin a new life in Tasmania.
Years later, as a young man, he yearned to discover more about his origins. So he began an ambitious Google Earth search that would prove to be fateful.
Now his story has been told in Lion, a Hollywood film starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.
The image of Saroo's birth mother burned in his mind. He set out to find her with a laptop and unwavering determination.
It became an obsession. For years he pored over satellite photos night after night.
"I used mathematics and everything I could remember about the landmarks and the architecture of my home town," Saroo tells the BBC.
Saroo Brierley first chronicled his story in his book, A Long Way Home
Then one day he found it. A dusty village in central India filled with childhood memories - the forest, the temple, a little bridge, a brick wall, the waterfall where he used to play.
Memories of his mother swirled. He wanted to tell her: "I know you looked for me, but I spent my whole life looking for you."
Saroo wrote down his experience - including what happened next - in a memoir that spawned Lion, which opens in the UK and Australia this week. It has already screened in the US, and is hoping to generate awards buzz.
"I never thought that something like this would come to someone like me. I'm a pretty laid-back kind of person," Saroo says.
"People are just so enthralled and enchanted by the movie."
When his book achieved success, Saroo took time out from his job selling industrial equipment in his father's business in Hobart. Now he has a packed schedule of film promotional tours. His life has changed again.
Saroo's adoptive mother, Sue, hopes the film could help transform other lives too.
"Sadly we've got a lot more war happening [now] and I believe there are just as many children wishing they could join a family," she says.
"They're orphans of war, and just abandoned in camps." Adoption should happen "a lot more", she says.
Lion is the fifth film British actor Dev Patel has shot in India
The film's cast has also supported fundraising to help the millions of children living on India's streets.
Nicole Kidman has said she was moved to tears by the film's "beautiful" depiction of an adoptive mother's love.
"I really admire her as an actress," says Sue. "She's Australian, she's an adoptive mother - we're really on the same page."
Slumdog Millionaire star Patel spent eight months honing his Australian accent, bulking up and growing his hair out for Lion.
"His devotion in this film has just been amazing," Saroo says.
As for himself, Saroo says he has returned to India more than a dozen times, but Tasmania remains home.
"That's where my heart is, that's where my family is, that's where my friends are," he says. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38645840 |
Dunelm venetian blind thief gets community order - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Jessie Bellham, who stuffed the stolen Dunelm shade in his trousers, is sentenced for his troubles. | Northampton | Jessie Bellham stuffed the shade down his trousers
A thief who stole a Venetian blind by stuffing it in his trousers and jacket has been given a community order.
Jessie Bellham admitted stealing the £48.99 blind from the Dunelm Mill store in St James Retail Park, Northampton, last October.
He was given a 12-month order for burglary by Northampton Crown Court.
Bellham, of Chaucer Street, must carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and also spend 20 days in rehabilitation for drug dependency.
Pictures of the 39-year-old leaving the shop with the stolen shade tucked into his clothing attracted global attention.
The item was found abandoned by shop staff on a nearby canal path, shortly after the theft.
Pictures of his efforts went viral on social media
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-38682424 |
Newspaper headlines: President Trump's 'message to the world' - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | US President Donald Trump's inaugural address comes under focus on Saturday's front pages. | The Papers | The papers are dominated by coverage of the US presidential inauguration - with every front page featuring a picture of Donald Trump.
Mr Trump, says the Times, unveiled a new era - but it notes that the imagery was unusually dark for an inaugural address, with the president describing crime-ridden inner cities, catastrophic levels of drug addiction, and rusted-out factories.
The Daily Mirror describes it as a "chilling inaugural speech" in which Mr Trump vowed to put the United States first - "and to hell with every other country".
The Daily Mail says it was an incendiary speech, that both electrified and divided his nation.
It points out the the new president had been expected to finally go easy on the vitriol and enjoy the pomp and ceremony of the event. But it says he used the speech to fire both barrels at the political establishment.
In the view of the Financial Times, the new president made a defiant and uncompromising address, in which he promised to revive the country with an aggressive rejection of globalisation. The paper says his inauguration marked the end of an incredible journey that was propelled by a groundswell of populism.
The Sun says more than a billion people watched the swearing in of the new president on TV, with 900,000 spectators on the National Mall in Washington to witness Mr Trump give a thumbs up and fist pump. However the paper notes that the crowd in Washington was only half of that which saw Barack Obama become the first black president in 2009.
Writing in the Guardian, Gary Younge says there was no higher calling, no sense of a greater purpose, and no impassioned idealism. He describes the first words of Mr Trump's presidency as a "crude and unapologetic appeal to nationalism".
In the i, Michael Day describes the address as "lousy" and says "it hardly made the heart soar".
The editorials have mixed messages for President Trump.
The Sun says that now he is in the Oval Office, he may be stunned by the complexity of many of the problems he faces. It notes that plenty of people will write him off - but says that President Reagan was written off too - before he changed the world.
The Daily Mail claims his speech was "truly astonishing" - as he tore up the rule book and delivered an inauguration address unlike any heard before.
The Daily Express asserts that the progressive left-leaning programme, which seemed woven into Western democracy, is now being unravelled. It says this is a profound change, which will affect us all.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the inaugural address was what Mr Trump's supporters had gathered in their thousands to hear. But it says that for outsiders, it was an unsettling speech that seemed to presage the emergence of an inward-looking, isolationist America.
The Daily Mirror says the US and the rest of the world should be "very afraid" following what it describes as the new president's "rambling, pugnacious and protectionist speech".
The Guardian is equally horrified, saying his America First nationalism was both "crude and shameless". It concludes the reality of a Trump presidency is a "terrifying prospect".
A number of papers also leave space to comment on the person whose day it could have been: Hillary Clinton.
The Daily Mail says protocol demanded she attended the inauguration with her husband - and her solemn face showed the strain as she arrived at the US Capitol.
The Daily Express observes the former first lady looked more like she was attending a funeral.
For the Guardian, Mrs Clinton stood stoically as chants of "lock her up" emanated from the crowd. However, on a more positive note, it adds that she left the ceremony waving to supporters and smiling broadly.
Finally - despite their disagreements about President Trump - the papers all seem united on one point.
The Daily Mirror,Daily Express and the Sun all declare that the stand-out person at Friday's events was the new First Lady, Melania Trump.
Many commentators, including the fashion director of the Daily Telegraph, compare her to Jackie Kennedy.
The Guardian says she wore a sleek ice blue dress and jacket, which was custom-made by US designer Ralph Lauren.
For the Daily Mail, she did not put a foot wrong, describing her as the "dazzling new First Lady". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38700109 |
Donald Trump: 'America first, America first' - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | "A new vision will govern... it's going to be only America first, America first", the US president told the crowd at his inauguration. | null | "From this day forward, a new vision will govern... it's going to be only America first, America first", the US president told the crowd at his inauguration. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38698654 |
Teetotal Trump and the drinking presidents - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | What the chief executive's relationship with alcohol reveals about the occupants of the White House. | US & Canada | As Donald Trump becomes US president on Friday many will reach for a drink. Washington DC will be whirl of parties, galas and balls.
The celebrities may be skipping it this year but the US capital will still swing to the sound of clinking glasses and popping corks. Across the country, celebrating Trump supporters will toast his swearing-in with a drink while others will numb their nerves with booze.
Around the world, alcohol will help with this historic transition. In north London, for instance, the Old Queens Head pub is throwing an Armageddon-themed party to mark the start of Donald Trump's presidency.
But the man himself will not be boozing through his first hours as the most powerful politician in the world. In fact, he won't touch a drop of alcohol on Friday night or on any day of his presidency.
"I've never had a drink," Donald Trump told Fox News after his election last November. Unlike George W Bush, who was teetotal in office after giving up booze on his 40th birthday, Mr Trump has eschewed alcohol his whole life, making him a first among modern US presidents.
Donald Trump's teetotalism stems from the early death of his older brother Freddie
The reason for Mr Trump's sobriety is because his adored older brother Freddie died of illness stemming from alcoholism at the age of 42. "It was a very tough period of time," he said, that convinced him never to drink.
"If you don't start you're never going have a problem. If you do start you might have a problem. And it's a tough problem to stop," Mr Trump told Fox.
What is fascinating is his view that one drink could spiral into addiction. He discussed his fear that he might have a gene that would make moderate drinking impossible.
His approach to alcohol is also a window into a personality that appears to crave control over others. Mr Trump ordered his children to follow his example. Every day he would drum the message into them: No drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes. "I've been very tough on my children with respect to drink," he said.
So how do the teetotal presidents compare with those who enjoyed the pleasures of a drink? George W Bush went dry after years of heavy boozing and swapped a compulsion for drink for an obsession with fitness.
Remembered largely for the invasion of Iraq, George W's foreign policy record might not be seen as the best advertisement for a teetotal presidency.
Franklin Roosevelt (right) had a particular reverence for "cocktail hour"
Nor might the idealistic but muddled foreign policy of Jimmy Carter, another teetotal president. Life in the Carter White House was drearily dry and a chore for its more sociable visitors.
Senator Ted Kennedy remembered arid evenings of earnest discussion. "You'd arrive about 6.00 or 6.30pm, and the first thing you would be reminded of, in case you needed reminding, was that he and Rosalynn had removed all the liquor in the White House. No liquor was ever served during Jimmy Carter's term. He wanted no luxuries nor any sign of worldly living," Kennedy wrote.
The moderate drinkers fare better. Franklin D Roosevelt frequently tops the list of America's greatest presidents, the commander-in-chief who defeated the Great Depression and led the US through World War Two.
Throughout these turbulent years, FDR kept a martini close at hand and prized the rituals of cocktail hour, when he mixed stiff drinks for friends on his White House study desk. The conviviality of cocktail hour undoubtedly helped FDR unwind and briefly relieved the immense pressure he was under.
John F Kennedy would occasionally sip a daiquiri but preferred women to wine and kept a clear head through the brinkmanship of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But other presidents were more reckless with their drinking.
Lyndon Johnson was well known in Washington for his capacity to guzzle Cutty Sark whisky and soda when he was Democratic majority leader in the Senate, a habit he took to the White House. Johnson, who told his doctor after a heart attack that the only things he enjoyed in life were "whisky, sunshine and sex", enjoyed entertaining at his Texas ranch where the booze flowed.
LBJ's special assistant for domestic affairs, Joseph A Califano, remembered a ride around the ranch with the president: "As we drove around we were followed by a car and a station wagon with Secret Service agents. The president drank Cutty Sark scotch and soda out of a large, white, plastic foam cup.
"Periodically, Johnson would slow down and hold his left arm outside the car, shaking the cup and ice. A Secret Service agent would run up to the car, take the cup and go back to the station wagon. There another agent would refill it with ice, scotch and soda as the first agent trotted behind the wagon."
But the most disturbing picture of presidential drinking is provided by Richard Nixon, a man prone to morose self-pity who medicated his moods with booze.
According to his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, Nixon's trouble was that a small amount of drink would set him off and late-night threats of military action were made when the president was the worse for wear.
When North Korea shot down a US spy plane in April 1969, an enraged Nixon allegedly ordered a tactical nuclear strike and told the joint chiefs to recommend targets. According to the historian Anthony Summers, citing the CIA's top Vietnam specialist at the time, George Carver, Henry Kissinger spoke to military commanders on the phone and agreed not to do anything until Nixon sobered up in the morning.
By the early 1970s, Watergate was beginning to choke Nixon's presidency and the president was relying more on drink and sleeping pills to cope with the pressure. On the evening of 11 October 1973, he was incapable of speaking to the British Prime Minister Edward Heath on the phone.
Heath was keen to discuss the latest developments of the Arab-Israeli War but a transcript of the conversation between Henry Kissinger and his assistant Brent Scowcroft revealed the president was too drunk to talk to the prime minister.
Richard Nixon was a warning to future presidents on the danger of mixing hubris with drink. He is a reminder too of the awesome executive power a US president has when it comes to conducting foreign affairs.
With no previous political or military experience, Donald Trump is unlike any incoming president. His hubris is clear to all and his (sober) stream of excitable tweets prove an impetuous temperament.
Nixon's example might make us grateful booze is not in the mix too. But some of the most successful presidents found valuable perspective and balance at the bottom of a glass. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38651623 |
Jose Fonte: West Ham sign Southampton captain - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | West Ham complete the signing of Southampton captain Jose Fonte for £8m on a two-and-a-half-year deal. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
West Ham have signed Southampton captain Jose Fonte for £8m on a two-and-a-half-year deal.
The 33-year-old Portugal centre-back - who spent seven years at Southampton - made a transfer request with 18 months left to run on his Saints deal.
The transfer includes a possible £1m in add-ons and gives Fonte the option to extend his contract for a further year.
Southampton's director of football Les Reed said Fonte had the chance to sign an improved deal but requested a move.
Fonte, a Euro 2016 winner, said West Ham manager Slaven Bilic was a "very big influence" in convincing him to choose the Hammers ahead of other clubs.
"I thought that he really wanted me and that he sold me the project and the ambition of the club," Fonte told the club's website.
Fonte made 288 appearances at St Mary's and was the last remaining member of the Saints side that rose from League One to the Premier League.
"I also have part of my family living in London and they are big West Ham fans. It just made sense for me at this stage to join West Ham," he added.
"With the way that West Ham is going we can only look to be challenging in the top eight."
The Hammers confirmed Fonte will not be available for Saturday's trip to Middlesbrough. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38694821 |
Trump's inauguration: Story of the day - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | Donald Trump has been sworn in as 45th US president at an inauguration ceremony at the Capitol. Here are the highlights from the day so far. | null | Donald Trump has been sworn in as 45th US president at an inauguration ceremony at the Capitol. Here are the highlights from the day so far. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38696475 |
Martin McGuinness: The end of a long journey - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The BBC's Peter Taylor looks back as Martin McGuinness retires from frontline politics. | Northern Ireland | The political retirement of Martin McGuinness on Thursday due to ill health marks the end of a remarkable journey. Perceived by some as a terrorist, others as a freedom fighter, he ended up a statesman, a journey similar to those previously made by other historical figures from Menachem Begin to Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela.
It also marks the closing of a chapter in Northern Ireland's turbulent history in which Mr McGuinness played a crucial role both as perhaps the most important IRA leader on the island of Ireland and one of its most skilled and charismatic politicians. Without his endeavours, in umbilical political partnership with his former comrade-in- arms, Gerry Adams, I doubt if Northern Ireland, despite the continuing fragility of its institutions, would be where it is today.
I first met Martin McGuinness 45 years ago this month, shortly after the day that became notorious as Bloody Sunday when British paratroops shot dead 13 civil rights marchers in the Bogside enclave of Londonderry/Derry.
I remember watching a candle-lit procession on its way to the church where the coffins of the dead were lying and being told by the nationalist politician, John Hume, to keep an eye on one of the mourners.
He pointed to Martin McGuinness. I followed his advice and soon met him on the steps of the gasworks that served as the IRA's headquarters in the Bogside. At the time he was second in command of the IRA's Derry Brigade. He was soon to become its commander.
He did not fit the stereotypical role of an IRA commander at the time. He was personable, highly articulate and utterly committed to his cause of getting the "Brits" out of the North.
A few months later, following an IRA ceasefire, he was sitting down in a posh house in Chelsea, along with Gerry Adams, as part of the IRA delegation that met the Northern Ireland Secretary, Willie Whitelaw. The IRA said it wanted a British withdrawal by 1975. Not surprisingly, the talks got nowhere and it was back to the "war".
If anyone had looked into a crystal ball at that time and told me that the young IRA commander would go on to become Northern Ireland's deputy prime minister, sharing power and joking, as "the chuckle brothers" with his former arch enemy, Ian Paisley, and then would don white tie and tails to dine with the Queen at Windsor Castle, I would have said that pigs might fly. But pigs did.
"The chuckle brothers" - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness at the Northern Ireland Assembly, 2007
Mr McGuinness's role was critical in persuading the IRA's rank-and-file that "armed struggle" had run its course and the future road to Sinn Fein's holy grail of a united Ireland lay in sharing power at Stormont with its unionist opponents.
This was tantamount to accepting partition (the division of Ireland in 1922 into two states) and the role of the British state - albeit, as far as Sinn Fein is concerned, a temporary accommodation as a means to an end.
Remarkably Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness finally persuaded the majority of the IRA to swallow the political heresy and agree to the ceasefire of 1994 that was to lead on to the Good Friday Agreement four years later.
A measure of the faith and trust that rank-and-file IRA men and women had in Martin McGuinness is reflected in the sentiment I heard from many of them that "if it's good enough for Martin, it's good enough for us". Such sentiments speak volumes of Mr McGuinness and the esteem in which he was held as IRA leader.
These landmark steps were only made possible as a result of a protracted and fraught secret back-channel dialogue, via an intermediary, between MI6 and MI5 in which Mr McGuinness was the key conduit to the IRA's ruling Army Council.
But Mr McGuinness, because of his IRA past, remains a controversial figure. There are still some Unionists who would take issue with the tribute paid by Ian Paisley's son who said that by working with his father, Martin McGuinness had "saved lives" and "made countless lives better".
His critics can only see him as the former leader of a terrorist organisation responsible for a grievous toll of death and destruction. They will never forget - or forgive the IRA - for the lives of the hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians murdered in the IRA's campaign and the number of families who have been left bereft.
But for me, the true recognition of the journey Mr McGuinness has made came in an interview I did with the mother of Marie Wilson, the young woman who died in the IRA's bomb attack on the Remembrance Day parade in Enniskillen in 1987.
The intelligence services believe that Martin McGuinness, although he denies it, was at that time the acting head of the IRA's Northern Command that prosecuted the "war" in the North.
In words of moving candour, Mrs Wilson said she respected Mr McGuinness's role in helping to bring the conflict to end and making such attacks, she hoped, a thing of the past.
• None McGuinness will not stand in NI election | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38690431 |
Who will succeed Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness? - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As Martin McGuinness steps down, who will take over as Sinn Féin's leader in Northern Ireland? | Northern Ireland | Sinn Féin's successor as Northern Ireland leader of the party will be announced next week
Former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness has confirmed he will not stand in the Northern Ireland Assembly election.
His successor as Sinn Féin's leader in Northern Ireland will be announced next week.
So who will replace him? Three names are tipped as the most likely contenders - Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Health Minister Michelle O'Neill and MLA and former MP Conor Murphy.
Conor Murphy is a key member of the Sinn Féin negotiating team who has represented the party at the Hillsborough, Leeds Castle and St Andrew's negotiations as well as playing a key role in the Fresh Start agreement negotiated at Stormont House.
Conor Murphy has represented the party at the Hillsborough, Leeds Castle and St Andrew's negotiations
After his election to the assembly in 1998, he was the party's chief whip.
In 2005, he became the first Sinn Féin member to be elected as MP for Newry and Armagh.
Following Mr Murphy's re-election to the assembly in 2007, he was appointed minister for regional development, a position that he held until 2011.
He was criticised for the NI Water crisis as minister during the winter of 2010/11.
In 2012, ahead of a ban on double-jobbing, he left the assembly to concentrate on his role as an MP.
He returned to the Assembly in 2015 when Mickey Brady was elected MP for the constituency. Since re-entering the assembly he has been a member of both the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.
Health Minister Michelle O'Neill has held various senior positions within Sinn Féin.
She has worked in the Assembly since 1998, initially as political adviser to MP and former MLA Francie Molloy, before being elected to Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council in 2005.
As health minister since May 2016, tackling mounting hospital waiting lists has been a huge task for Mrs O'Neill
Mrs O'Neill was elected to the assembly for the Mid Ulster constituency in 2007, sitting on the education committee and serving as Sinn Féin's health spokesperson.
In 2011, she was appointed as minister for agriculture and rural development.
The following year, she announced that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) would move to a former British army barracks in Ballykelly, County Londonderry.
Following the announcement, it came to light that Strabane had been chosen as a more suitable location by an internal DARD assessment, a decision that Mrs O'Neill then overruled.
In February 2013, it was also revealed that the decision had been questioned by the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.
As health minister since 2016, tackling mounting hospital waiting lists have been a huge task for Mrs O'Neill.
In October, she launched a 10-year plan to transform health service, saying it would improve a system that was at "breaking point".
Opposition politicians questioned the lack of details in the plan, which was not costed.
But it set out a range of priorities, including a new model of care involving a team of professionals based around GP surgeries.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir has previously been a writer, journalist and publisher of the Belfast Media Group newspapers and the Irish Echo in New York.
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir became finance minister in May 2016
The former west Belfast councillor served as Lord Mayor of Belfast from June 2013-June 2014 and was broadly praised for reaching out to unionists, despite attacks by loyalist protestors.
Mr Ó Muilleoir subsequently stood unsuccessfully as Sinn Féin's candidate for South Belfast in the 2015 Westminster election, but was returned in the Stormont Assembly election of May 2016.
As finance minister, he was the first Sinn Féin minister to hold a major economic brief in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
His role has included leading the implementation of the devolution of corporation tax, due to happen in 2018.
However, he became embroiled in controversy in 2016 when news emerged about a back channel of communication between a Stormont committee chairman and a witness who was giving evidence on the Nama property loan sale.
Mr Ó Muilleoir denied knowledge of alleged coaching of loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson by finance committee chair Daithí McKay before his appearance. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38684941 |
Woody Harrelson shoots live movie hours after 'WW2 bomb' discovery - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Woody Harrelson says he has no intention of making another live movie like Lost in London. | Entertainment & Arts | The film is loosely based on a chaotic night out Woody Harrelson had in London in 2002
Woody Harrelson said directing his ground-breaking live film project was like "walking on a high wire".
Lost in London was filmed in multiple locations in the capital in the early hours of Friday.
In a cinematic first, the film was shot in a 100-minute single take and broadcast live to 550 US cinemas - and one in the UK.
But the project was almost derailed by the discovery of a suspected World War Two bomb just hours before the shoot.
Waterloo Bridge - where the closing scene of the film takes place - was closed for a few hours but reopened just in time for the live shoot to go ahead as planned.
Speaking after the filming ended around 03:40 GMT, Harrelson was incredulous at the timing of the "bomb" discovery.
"That thing has been there for 70 years and they discover it tonight? That's impossible!"
Lost In London was shot on a single camera, involved a crew of 325 and more than 300 extras who had been rehearsing for four weeks.
"I would never do this again. No way. It felt like walking on a high wire," said Harrelson afterwards.
There were no major gaffes - although one actor walked out of a scene, forcing Harrelson to ad lib during a phone call until the character returned.
"It felt like five minutes," Harrelson said. "It was only a matter of seconds. But, boy, those were some painful seconds."
The film was screened in just one cinema in the UK, London's Picturehouse Central, where it received an enthusiastic reception.
The comedy plot was loosely based on a real-life night out that Harrelson had in the capital in 2002 in which he ended up getting arrested and spending time in a police cell.
The film opens with the words: "Too much of this is true."
Harrelson, playing a version of himself, is seen coming off stage in the West End to discover he's the subject of a tabloid sex scandal just before he goes to meet his wife in a restaurant.
The film includes a fight in a nightclub and chase sequences on foot and by car.
Much of the comedy comes from the scenes with co-star Owen Wilson - and the script is sprinkled with references to Harrelson's past projects, including Natural Born Killers and Cheers.
"It was pretty thrilling," Wilson said after the filming.
"I had a lot of anxiety about doing it a couple of weeks ago but we practised... and I was really happy to be a part of it. Maybe I should start doing theatre."
Musician Willie Nelson turned up in a cameo role as did U2's Bono, as a voice on the end of a phone.
"I felt like we took some risks. It was scary - the whole process," Harrelson said.
Harrelson's next project will see him join the Star Wars franchise with a role in the spin-off movie about the young Han Solo.
Did he think Hollywood would ever adopt the as-it-happens style of Lost in London?
Harrelson laughed: "If someone was thinking of doing it all they'd need to do is talk to me and I would talk them out of it."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38686697 |
Final coin removed from Jersey's huge Celtic hoard - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The last of nearly 70,000 coins is removed from one of the largest Celtic hoards in the world. | Jersey | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The last of nearly 70,000 coins is to be removed later from one of the largest Celtic hoards in the world
The last of nearly 70,000 coins has been removed from one of the largest Celtic hoards in the world.
The cache - thought to date from about 30-50 BC - was found in Jersey by two metal detector enthusiasts after a 30-year search sparked by a tip-off.
Experts from Jersey Heritage removed the coins one by one from the field in Grouville for three years, with the last set extracted on Friday.
They said there was still work to do, such as cleaning and logging the finds.
Neil Mahrer has been leading the team removing and cataloguing the coins one by one
It is thought the hoard was buried by a tribe fleeing from advancing forces of the Roman Empire
"This is a significant milestone for the team," said Neil Mahrer, senior conservator. "It has been painstaking but thoroughly intriguing work, which has delivered some very unexpected and amazing finds along the way.
"There is still plenty to do, and I am sure the hoard will continue to surprise us as we clean and record the material."
The hoard is believed to have been buried by the Coriosolitae tribe of Celts as they fled from the invading forces of the Roman Empire.
It was excavated by a team from the Societe Jersiais, Jersey Heritage and Guernsey Museum in 2012.
A number of gold neck torques, jewellery, glass beads, a leather purse and a woven bag of silver and gold were among the items found
The exact value of the hoard is yet to be calculated and where it will end up remains undecided
Known as Catillon II, the Iron Age coin hoard is about six times bigger than any other Celtic hoard found in the world.
It also includes a large number of gold neck torques and other pieces of jewellery, as well as glass beads, a leather purse and a woven bag of silver and gold work.
Now the hoard has been separated, it will be valued and Jersey's government will vote on whether to pay to keep it on the island.
When it was first discovered, its value was estimated at about £10m.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Two men who found a hoard of coins worth at least £10m look back on their moment of discovery
Reg Mead and Richard Miles spent three decades searching in fields near where it was found after being told folk tales of ancient coins being found nearby.
It was unearthed in 2012 and quickly made headlines around the world because it was said it could change the way experts view Iron Age trade.
Richard Miles and Reg Mead: "There was something there that drew us to it"
Mr Miles said: "There was something there that drew us to it. Every Sunday, we would give it a try.
"The original story said the pot had been discovered on the tree line and we saw on old maps an old boundary that had been taken out.
"I found the first coin - and by the end of the first day we found 20 coins.
That led them to find the hoard even deeper in the ground.
"We were literally scooping out the earth it was so deep," said Mr Miles.
"Reg said 'Give it one final try' and he forced the spade into the ground as deeply as he could and it struck something solid.
"You could hear the metal [striking the] hoard."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-38608178 |
Trump inauguration: 'I'm so excited' - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | People in the US describe their feelings about going to Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington DC | null | US President-Elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated on January 20.
People are travelling from near and far to see history being made in Washington DC.
Here, Mr Trump's supporters, who will be making the journey to the capital, share their excitement about the event. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38685470 |
The man correcting stories about Muslims - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Every day, Miqdaad Versi searches newspapers looking for errors concerning Muslims and Islam, looking to challenge them. | UK | Every day, Miqdaad Versi searches newspapers looking for errors concerning Muslims and Islam
When one newspaper reported last year that "enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim" last year, Miqdaad Versi's instinct was to challenge it. He believes errors in the reporting of Muslims have become all too common, and has made it his mission to fight for corrections.
Miqdaad Versi sits in front of a rather geeky-looking spreadsheet at the offices of the Muslim Council of Britain in east London.
He is the organisation's assistant secretary general, but the task in front of him is a personal project.
The spreadsheet has on it every story published concerning Muslims and Islam that day in the British media - and he is going through them looking for inaccuracies.
If he finds one, he will put in a complaint or a request for a correction with the news organisation, the press regulator Ipso, or both.
Mr Versi has been doing this thoroughly since November, and before that on a more casual basis. He has so far complained more than 50 times, and the results are visible.
He was personally behind eight corrections in December and another four so far this month.
Miqdaad Versi tweets diagrams showing corrections and apologies made following his complaints
In the past, corrections to stories were mostly printed when individuals were the victims of inaccurate reporting, but Mr Versi is looking at a whole topic.
"Nobody else was doing this," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "There have been so many articles about Muslims overall that have been entirely inaccurate, and they create this idea within many Muslim communities that the media is out to get them.
"The reason that's the case is because nobody is challenging these newspapers and saying, 'That's not true.'"
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
Mr Versi goes through some of the corrections from December. Five of them concerned a review into integration by Dame Louise Casey. The Sunday Times reported that "Enclaves of Islam see UK as 75% Muslim" in a preview of the review.
This was incorrect, with the review actually citing a survey of pupils in one largely Asian school who thought 50-90% of the population in Britain were Asian.
The paper corrected the article, and later apologised. As the same story was reported in other publications, it led to five corrections.
Mr Versi highlights another article, concerning the Muslim president of the National Union of Students (NUS). She was accused on Mail Online of refusing to condemn so-called Islamic State, when she had openly done so.
Also in December, he points out a report in the Sun on Sunday confused the identities of two Muslim individuals - one fighting against extremism and one accused of extremism.
He has met several newspaper editors and has been pleased with the quick corrections he has received in some cases.
But he is concerned that these revisions are not obvious enough to the reader.
"Sometimes the corrections lack a clear acknowledgement of the error they made and often do not include an apology. In addition, they are rarely given the prominence of the original article," he says.
He adds that while he is concerned with "significant failings" in the reporting of Muslims, the same issues "might also be replicated for refugee, migrant or other groups".
One particularly high-profile correction in December last year - that Mr Versi was not behind - involved a 2015 article in which Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins wrongly suggested Zahid Mahmood and his brother were extremists with links to al-Qaeda, after they had not been allowed to board a plane to the US.
The Mail Online and Ms Hopkins apologised and paid £150,000 in damages.
At his home in Walthamstow, north-east London, Mr Mahmood says he has forgiven her. He now says it is not her original false accusations that he finds the most upsetting, but the public reaction.
"First they were all against us when Katie Hopkins published the article, and then when she made the apology a year later - then they all turn against her.
"There's no middle ground. It's not just about Katie Hopkins, it's the mindset of people - how they can very easily be led against somebody, or in favour of somebody."
Zahid Mahmood says he holds "no grudge" against Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins
Mr Mahmood says he feels this kind of reaction is causing divisions in society, and - keen to do his bit for unity - tells the BBC he is formally inviting Katie Hopkins to his home for tea and coffee.
"We have no grudge against her, and we would like her to learn and know that we are as British as she is.
"In fact, my wife's grandfather and great-grandfather both fought in World War One and World War Two. They fought for the very freedom of this country."
Mr Versi says he wants to improve community relations too. He thinks inaccurate reporting has far-reaching consequences, especially because negative stories are often widely circulated by far-right groups and then the corrections are not.
Some free speech campaigners, however, are concerned about this kind of work. Tom Slater, deputy editor of Spiked Online, says these complaints could create a fear of reporting certain issues.
"I, like anyone else, want a press that's going to be accurate... but what we're seeing here is quite concerted attempts to try and often ring-fence Islam from criticism."
Mr Slater says he found a recent correction to a story about a suspected "honour killing" particularly problematic.
Tom Slater worries such complaints are attempts to "ring-fence Islam from criticism."
In May 2016, the Mail Online and the Sun used the phrase "Islamic honour killing" in their headline.
Mr Versi successfully complained to Ipso that Islam does not condone honour killings and that the phrase incorrectly suggested it was motivated by religion.
The word "Islamic" was removed from the papers' headlines, and at the bottom of the articles they wrote: "We are happy to make clear that Islam as a religion does not support so-called 'honour killings.'"
Mr Slater says he found that statement added by the papers "absolutely staggering".
"We all know a religion is just an assortment of ideas and principles. What these papers were effectively asked to do, and what they did do, was to print one accepted interpretation of a religion - and to me this was just like backdoor blasphemy law."
Mr Versi, however, insists his work is about ensuring the facts are right - not silencing critics.
He says there are many examples where Muslims can be rightly criticised and he is not complaining about those.
"All I'm asking for is responsible reporting." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38655760 |
T2 Trainspotting: Critics praise film sequel - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Critics broadly praise T2 Trainspotting, but many note it will not have the same impact as the original. | Entertainment & Arts | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. T2 Trainspotting: What would you choose?
T2 Trainspotting has received broadly positive reviews from critics, although many noted it will not have the same impact as the original.
The sequel to 1996's Trainspotting sees most of the original cast reunited with director Danny Boyle.
Kate Muir of The Times said the film was "like riding a tragi-comic wave".
"The original actors have matured well, and while the lunatic enthusiasm of their youth has disappeared, they give their nuanced all here," she added.
Based on the Irvine Welsh novel Porno, T2 Trainspotting is set in the present day with the main characters now in middle age.
Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Ewen Bremner have all reprised their roles for the new film.
Writing in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw said: "Reuniting the cast of Trainspotting for a new adventure 21 years on could have gone badly.
"But Boyle and his four musketeers give it just the right frantic, jaded energy and manic anxiety."
He added that while "T2 isn't as good as T1", it "has the same punchy energy, the same defiant pessimism, and there's nothing around like this".
Danny Boyle (far right) directed both the original Trainspotting and the sequel
Boyle's masterstroke is to tackle the passing of time head-on. Where the characters in the original film were blissfully insouciant about their self-destructive hedonism, they are here all too aware of the cul-de-sacs and dead ends at which they've now arrived.
They are, to quote T2's most striking line, "tourists in their own youth" - a description that applies just as much to the audience member who goes to the film hoping to have the same giddy high they experienced two decades ago.
Overall, is it as good as the original? The answer is no - but it comes pretty darn close.
However, The Scotsman's Alistair Harkness was less positive about the film, awarding it three stars.
"The best that can be said about the new film is that it hasn't completely tarnished the original," he wrote.
"Boyle's frenetic, collage-like directing style gives the film a trying-too-hard feel and even though some of it does jolt T2 to life, the cast doesn't always have the emotional range to make it cohere."
The original cast have reunited for T2 Trainspotting
The Telegraph's Robbie Collin also gave the movie three stars.
"There's no chance of its successor matching that legacy, but it won't tarnish it either. Though the film feeds on its forerunner, it's worthwhile on its own terms," he said.
The Hollywood Reporter's Neil Young wrote: "T2 never threatens to find its own distinctive voice."
He also pointed out the female characters "are very much on the sidelines, even more so than in Trainspotting".
"Kelly MacDonald pops up for a one-scene, two-minute cameo (which nevertheless somehow nabs her fifth billing)," he said.
But the Scottish Daily Record's Chris Hunneysett was more positive, calling the film "an addictive hit of pure cinema".
He said that while it "won't capture the youthful zeitgeist the way Trainspotting did", Boyle "has created an unapologetically abrasive tale of longevity, loyalty and friendship".
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38689704 |
The dying officer treated for cancer with baking soda - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Naima Houder-Mohammed believed Robert O Young, the father of the alkaline diet, could cure her. It didn't turn out as she hoped. | Magazine | The father of the alkaline diet, Robert O Young, is hailed as an inspiration by one of the UK's most popular food writers, Natasha Corrett, but he faces a jail sentence for practising medicine without a licence. One patient who believed he could cure her cancer, British army officer Naima Houder-Mohammed, paid thousands of dollars for his alkaline treatment, which consisted mainly of intravenous infusions of baking soda.
In May 2009 Naima Houder-Mohammed was commissioned as a captain in the British army. The following year, tragedy struck. Naima was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She received treatment and was declared cancer-free. But in 2012, while training with the army skiing team, it was discovered the cancer had returned. Her condition was so serious she was offered end-of-life care.
"She refused to accept that this was the end," recalls her friend and former fellow officer, Afzal Amin.
"Naima was a fighter. She fought to get through selection for Sandhurst. She fought through Sandhurst and she fought her way through her life in everything she dealt with - army skiing or whatever it may have been. And this for her was another fight in that long list of victories."
As her medical options were limited, Naima did what many of us would do - she turned to the internet for a solution.
She came across Dr Robert O Young, an American alternative health writer selling a message of hope for cancer patients online.
Naima began an email correspondence with him, which reveals how pseudo-science can be used to manipulate the vulnerable.
Young is the author of a series of books called the pH Miracle, which has sold more than four million copies around the world.
These books lay out his "alkaline approach" to food and health which has influenced many others, including the work of the British clean-eating guru Natasha Corrett, whose Honestly Healthy brand promotes her take on an alkaline diet.
In one email Young sent to Naima in July 2012, he told her "there is a great need for a daily regime focused on… hyper-perfusing the blood with alkalinity". He went on: "I would suggest your healing program is going to take at least 8 - 12 weeks. It will not be easy but you will be in a controlled environment that will give you the care you need."
Naima set about raising the money she would need - in one email Young mentioned a figure of $3,000 (£2,440) per day.
Naima's family used their savings, ran fund-raising events and managed to pull together tens of thousands of pounds with the help of a charity so that Naima could be treated by Young.
But the treatment did not have the outcome she was hoping for.
On one recent sun-kissed Californian morning, we drove up into the hills outside San Diego to visit Young. As we turned off Paradise Mountain Road, the parched golden grass eventually gave way to groves of avocado trees and we entered a millionaire's paradise known as the "pH Miracle Ranch".
The front door, preposterously set behind a moat, is reached by walking across some stone slabs.
As Young welcomed us into the ranch, our eyes were drawn to an empty spherical fish-tank built into the wall that separated the living area from the kitchen.
Noting our interest, he began to share his alkaline view of the world, starting with what he calls the fish-bowl metaphor. "If the fish is sick - what would you do? Treat the fish or change the water?"
He went on: "The human body in its perfect state of health is alkaline in its design."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The pH of our blood is 7.4, which is slightly alkaline, so Young is broadly correct - although different compartments of our bodies, such as our stomach, function at very different pHs.
But then Young's "alkaline living" vision becomes complete fantasy. Young believes that in order to maintain the pH of our blood, we have to eat "alkaline" foods.
The main problem with this view is that it doesn't appear to take into account the stomach, which functions at a pH of about 1.5 and is the most acidic compartment in the body. Thus, everything we consume, regardless of its starting pH, becomes acidic before passing into the intestines.
Also, the categorisation of foods into alkaline or acidic does not appear to follow any consistent rules, with certain citrus fruits (full of citric acid) considered to be alkaline, for instance.
However, Young's view that alkalinity is good and acidity is bad goes beyond food. He told us: "All sickness and disease can be prevented by managing the delicate pH balance of the fluids of the body."
He believes that when your blood becomes acidic, something weird happens, and your blood cells transform into bacteria - a phenomenon he calls pleomorphism - thereby resulting in a diseased state.
This, frankly wild, view goes against all current scientific understanding.
When we put this to him, he simply disagreed, saying: "Germs are nothing more than the biological transformation of animal, human or plant matter. They're born out of that."
Dr Giles Yeo with Robert O Young at the "pH Miracle Ranch"
The biggest problem is that because Young believes that disease emerges from acidity, then by extension disease can be reversed with alkalinity - echoing his fish-bowl metaphor that you don't treat the disease, but you change the environment.
When Young said Naima would be cared for in a controlled environment, he meant the pH Miracle Ranch, which has a large area set aside as a "clinic" to treat cancer.
Young told us he uses the term "cancerous" as an adjective to describe a state of acidity.
Since 2005 he has brought more than 80 terminally ill patients to stay at his ranch for months at a time. Treatment has included intravenous infusions of an alkaline solution of sodium bicarbonate - the same Arm and Hammer stuff you stick in your fridge to absorb smells.
This was the "healing programme" that was being sold to Naima.
There is no doubting the impact of Young's message. In an email, Naima wrote to him: "I'll be pronounced text book perfect in a few months."
According to her friend Afzal Amin: "Naima was supremely confident that, with her willpower and this therapy, she would be healed. That was the overriding emotion in her that yes, I am going to better."
We put it to Young that someone like Naima, in a terminally ill state, who was desperate for a cure, would buy anything, try anything to help get better.
He responded: "But I wasn't selling her anything… I didn't force her to come here, it was her decision."
Yet, in one email Young insisted on Naima paying for her treatment, before she stepped on to the plane.
All in all, Naima and her family paid Young more than $77,000 (£62,700) for the treatment.
Young told us: "The doctors need to be paid and the people that are doing the massages need to be paid and the colonics, but I gave her the best price to make sure that those people were paid."
There is no evidence whatsoever that infusing an alkaline solution into your bloodstream will do anything against cancer. When we raised this with Young, he said: "These things need to be studied."
After about three months at Young's facility, her condition worsened and she was taken to hospital. Naima was brought back to the UK and died with her family. She was 27.
Afzal Amin told us: "They feel utterly betrayed. It's just horrific that somebody could exploit people for money. This is I think for them the most disturbing element, that for something as cheap as money he was just able to destroy people's lives."
Young's activities at the pH Miracle Ranch have not gone unnoticed by the authorities.
In 2011 the Medical Board of California began an undercover investigation after concerns were raised by a woman treated there.
Investigators were able to establish the prognosis of 15 cancer patients treated at the ranch - none of them outlived it.
One patient, Genia Vanderhaeghen, died from congestive heart failure - fluid around the heart - while being treated. Young told us he was "out of town" at the time.
According to an invoice we obtained, she had been given 33 intravenous sodium bicarbonate drips, each charged at $550 (£448), over 31 days. Some were administered by Young himself.
Last year Young was convicted of two charges of practising medicine without a license, and now faces up to three years in prison.
In court it was revealed that he is not a medical doctor and bought his PhD from a diploma mill.
We asked him if he felt remorse for what he had done. He said: "I don't have remorse because of the thousands if not millions of people that have been helped through the [alkaline diet] programme."
We asked Natasha Corrett to comment on the influence of Robert Young on Honestly Healthy. She told us: "We believe that our bodies should be fuelled with healthy and nutritious ingredients but we also believe that life is about having things in moderation."
Update, October 2018: Robert O Young was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison in 2017 for practicing medicine without a license.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38650739 |
Steven Gerrard: Liverpool to hire former captain as youth coach - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard is to return to the Premier League club as a youth coach. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard is to return to the Premier League club as a youth coach.
Gerrard, 36, who made his Liverpool debut in 1998, will begin the job in February.
The midfielder left Anfield at the end of the 2014-15 season to join MLS side LA Galaxy and retired as a player in November after a 19-year career.
"It feels like completing the circle, returning to the place where it all began," Gerrard said.
"However, this isn't a decision based on emotion - it's about what I can offer and contribute," he added.
"When I knew coming back was a serious option I wanted to make sure it was a substantive role.
"This gives me a great opportunity to learn and develop as a coach, while at the same time offering my knowledge, ideas and experience to the young players at an important period of their development."
• None Listen: Lawrenson feels move is good for Gerrard and Liverpool
Liverpool said he would bring "experience and expertise" to the role, as well as "unparalleled knowledge of the fabric and ethos" of the club.
Gerrard had been linked with the manager's job at League One side MK Dons after announcing he would leave LA Galaxy, but said the opportunity came "too soon" for him.
He is also working towards his Uefa A coaching licence, which is required to manage in the Premier League.
Gerrard played 710 times for the Reds, winning nine trophies. He is England's fourth most-capped player with 114 appearances and captained the side at three of the six major tournaments he played at.
Steven Gerrard's return to Liverpool was inevitable once he decided to end his spell at LA Galaxy.
The former Reds captain has been a constant presence at Anfield since coming back to Merseyside from the United States and manager Jurgen Klopp has never hidden his desire to bring the 36-year-old back into the fold.
Gerrard's willingness to work with the younger groups [he is likely to cover under-16 to under-23] shows his acceptance of the need to serve a coaching apprenticeship.
He is happy to be back at Liverpool and understands how the club works. Gerrard knows he will need to work his way up the ladder and will not simply be handed senior posts based on reputation, albeit a glittering one.
Just his presence around the club and his stature among supporters will have made this the easiest of appointments for Klopp and the club's hierarchy.
Liverpool's statement announced the appointment of a new Academy coach. The return of Steven Gerrard represents so much more than that in the context of the club's long-term future. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38698045 |
How May's Brexit speech played out on the front pages - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A look at how UK newspapers wrote up the PM's speech, in line with their own views on Brexit. | Entertainment & Arts | Britain's newspapers are for the most part deeply hostile to the EU, and committed to making a success of Brexit.
At the same time, they have created a narrative about the referendum result which casts it as a victory for the common man and woman against a liberal, metropolitan establishment that counts the mainstream media - whatever that now means - as its weapon of choice.
This is one of the more pleasing ironies about the state of media in Britain today.
A brief glance at this week's headlines gives ample evidence of what psychologists call confirmation bias - the tendency to interpret events in a way that accords with pre-existing prejudices.
For papers who backed Leave, Theresa May's speech showed a stern commitment to freedom and love of country. The Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Express, who between them have done most to advance the Brexit cause, lauded the prime minister's speech.
The Mail has been a strong backer of May, seeing her as much the most plausible Tory leader in the aftermath of David Cameron's resignation, and contrasting her ostensible gravitas with the lightweights in her cabinet. Just for clarity, I'm paraphrasing the Mail's position there rather than mine, and doing so based on several conversations with the most senior figures there.
Picture choices matter so much in newspapers. I must say I am a very big fan of cartoons on front pages, as this Charlie Hebdo front page from my previous job shows you, and the Mail's use of a cartoon to show the prime minister looking defiant in a way redolent of the Dad's Army title sequence achieves its desired effect.
Similarly the Sun has her looking cheerful next to supportive furniture (the headline and sub-headline).
The Telegraph and the Guardian use similar pictures but by using a much tighter crop, a blue background and a positive headline, the Telegraph seem to endorse the prime minister; whereas the Guardian seem to issue scepticism about her chances of success. Interestingly, the Financial Times, which like the Guardian backed Remain, also uses exactly the same picture, albeit with a different crop. Their headline, being longer than most of the others, equivocates.
Wednesday's front pages alone provide ample evidence of the way the same events are interpreted in wildly different ways by different newspapers - always and without fail in accordance with their prejudices.
In some ways, Fleet Street, as romantics like me still sometimes call it, is basically the industrialisation of confirmation bias.
Does that matter, when newspapers are in swift decline?
Of course it does, and hugely so. Despite their perpetual shrinkage, newspapers are still read by millions of people across Britain.
Moreover, they exert huge - some would argue disproportionate - influence on the news agenda of broadcasters like the BBC, Sky and ITV.
And in my experience, Westminster is still obsessed, to a really bizarre degree, with trying to influence newspapers.
This was perhaps understandable 20 years ago; but today, when fake news goes viral, it seem strange to me how much politicians care about headlines on page 17 of daily publications.
And yet they do. Which is why the other important point about Fleet Street is that it is strongly weighted toward Brexit, and in that sense in touch with voters who, albeit by a small margin, voted to Leave.
Most papers are delighted with the referendum result and support the prime minister. Given the sheer complexity of Brexit negotiations, it's lucky for Theresa May that, despite having backed Remain herself, she can generally count on Britain's newspapers to back her every move in Brussels.
That is not a luxury many previous prime ministers have enjoyed. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38666066 |
Should all countries use the Shanghai maths method? - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | When children in Shanghai took part in the Pisa tests of educational attainment, the world was shocked by their maths results. Should the rest of the world be teaching maths the same way? | Magazine | When the Chinese city of Shanghai took part in the three-yearly Pisa test of 15-year-olds' academic ability in 2009 and 2012 it topped the table in maths, leaving countries such as Germany the UK and the US - and even Singapore and Japan - trailing in its wake. What is its secret?
The life of a teacher in a Shanghai primary school differs quite a bit from that of teachers in most other countries. For one thing each teacher specialises in a particular subject - if you teach maths, you teach only maths.
These specialist teachers are given at least five years of training targeted at specific age groups, during which they gain a deep understanding both of their subject and of how children learn.
After qualifying, primary school teachers will typically take just two lessons per day, spending the rest of their time assisting students who require extra help and discussing teaching techniques with colleagues.
"If you compare that to an English practitioner in a primary school now, they might have five days of training in their initial teacher training year, if they're doing the School Direct route, for example," says Ben McMullen, head teacher of Ashburnham Community School, London.
"They might have some follow-up training during the first or second year of training - inset, staff meetings etcetera - but there's no comparison between the expertise of someone who's had five years of training in a specific subject to someone who's had only a handful of days."
It's a similar story in secondary school, where teachers spend less time in the classroom with pupils than they do on planning and refining lessons.
There are other differences too. School days are longer - from 07:00 until 16:00 or 17:00. Class sizes are larger. And lessons are shorter - each is 35 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes of unstructured play.
There is no streaming according to ability and every student must understand before the teacher moves on. In the early years of school basic arithmetic is covered more slowly than in the UK, says McMullen, who has travelled to Shanghai in one of the groups of British teachers sent every year by the Department of Education to watch and learn.
"They looked at our curriculum and were horrified by how much we were trying to teach," he says.
"They wouldn't teach fractions until year four or five. By that time, they assume that the children were very fluent in multiplication and division.
"This is essentially a 'teaching for mastery' approach: covering less and making smaller incremental movements forward, ensuring the class move together as one and that you go over stuff again and again until it's truly understood."
In a world where a lot is going wrong there is also a lot going right. So what if you could build a country with policies that actually worked, by homing in on ideas around the world that have been truly successful?
It seems that other cities in mainland China may not be on quite the same level as Shanghai. In the 2015 Pisa test Shanghai was bundled together with Beijing, Jiangsu and Guangdong, and they jointly came fifth in maths, behind Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
It's also been suggested that Shanghai's results in previous years could have been skewed by the failure to include about a quarter of pupils in the city. However Pisa insists its results demonstrate that the children of menial workers in Shanghai outperform the children of professionals in the West.
This is one of the key attractions of the system - it helps poor children realise their potential, increasing social mobility. But there are also drawbacks, according to Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London.
"The idea there is that effort brings rewards and so you will get this totally driven sort of idea but what you don't get - and what Chinese maths teachers are currently grappling with - is this creative problem-solving that requires space and mulling and dwelling," she says.
"We're actually much better at this in the UK and they're trying to develop that and learn from us."
Another criticism of the system is that parents work children too hard. An estimated 80% of students receive private lessons outside school.
"One of the downsides of parental interest in education is they get competitive - they're more competitive than the children - so they want to have all these extra classes," says Moore.
So is this a system other countries would do well to adopt?
"I would adopt the idea that anyone who teaches maths needs a deep understanding of the conceptual building of maths and a deep understanding of how children learn that," says Anne Watson, emeritus professor of maths teaching at Oxford University. "I would also want to take on board the idea of high expectations for everyone."
"Two things really appeal to me about this," she says. "The idea that everyone can be more of a maths master than I think we believe here in the UK. I also really like the incredible attention to the micro-detail. I'm really interested in this notion of incrementalism and moving things on in small chunks.
"The fundamentals of this policy are right and it's incredibly inspiring to think everybody can become more freed up by maths."
Ben McMullen's primary school has already been borrowing some of Shanghai's ideas, he says.
There is no streaming, pupils are interacting more and there is a "different atmosphere" in class.
"The younger learners moving up the school have an incredibly robust sense of maths, calculation and of concept," McMullen says.
And for teachers there is another great upside, he says - less marking.
Join the conversation - find the BBC World Service on Facebook and Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38568538 |
Martin McGuinness: A life in politics - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It is a short flick in the dictionary from "paramilitary" to "parliamentary"; it's more of a giant leap in a man's lifetime. | Northern Ireland | Out of the shadows: Martin McGuinness pictured on the Falls Road in 2001
It is a short flick in the dictionary from "paramilitary" to "parliamentary"; it's more of a giant leap in a man's lifetime.
Martin McGuinness, IRA commander turned Northern Ireland deputy first minister, switched from Armalite to an armistice.
When McGuinness triggered the latest political crisis by his resignation at Stormont, the talk on the street was not of the political future.
It was that shock picture, snapped through the back window of a rain-stained ministerial car window.
Martin McGuinness' appearance shocked many as he arrived to announced his resignation
It was about how frail and gaunt Northern Ireland's deputy first minister looked. It has been widely reported that he has a rare condition with a specific genetic link to Donegal - his past and the history that shaped him.
Martin McGuinness' mother was from Donegal. She moved to Londonderry, where, like generations of women before her, she found work in the shirt factories.
He was one of seven children - six boys and a girl - who grew up in Derry's Bogside in the 1960s.
Times were tough. The Bogside was hopelessly overcrowded as a result of gerrymandering and the poverty of that time. The McGuinness family of nine had two bedrooms, an outside toilet and a scullery - a tiny working kitchen.
Martin McGuinness says he made the transition to politics in the mid-1970s
In an interview for the Guardian in 2009, pressed on why he decided to join the IRA, he talked about how, in 1965, he applied for a job as a mechanic. The interview consisted of three sentences: "What's your name?"; "What school did you go to?" and: "Out the door."
He became a trainee butcher - an occupation ripe for future headline writers.
The young McGuinness was drawn to the civil rights movement, radicalised by discrimination and murder on the streets of his city and caught up in the riots.
He took the violent route. In 1972, at the age of 21, he was second-in-command of the IRA in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday, when 14 civil rights protesters were killed in the city by soldiers.
Martin McGuinness (left) carries the coffin of IRA man Charles English with his brother William McGuinness (right) at the funeral in Derry 1984
He had a leading role in the IRA during a time when the paramilitary organisation was bombing his home city to bits.
The following year, he was convicted by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court after being arrested near a car containing explosives and ammunition. He served two prison sentences - he was also convicted for IRA membership.
But he knew how to talk. His leadership potential was spotted early - not just by his own side.
He was 22 when he and Gerry Adams were flown to London for secret talks with the British government: MI5 considered him serious officer material with strategic vision.
He maintained that he left the IRA in 1974 making the transition to politics.
"Reports that I am chief of staff of the IRA are untrue. But I regard them as a compliment," he once said.
There were dark years that followed from the IRA hunger strikes to the Brighton bombing, when Margaret Thatcher and the Tory Party conference were targeted, to the 1987 Enniskillen bomb when 11 people died at a Remembrance Day ceremony.
He later said he had no knowledge of the Enniskillen bomb, calling it "absolutely wrong" and he dismissed suggestions that throughout the 1980s he was a leading member of the IRA, a time when the organisation was responsible for hundreds of murders.
In 1993, he was labelled "Britain's number one terrorist" in Central Television's The Cook Report. He called the report "cowardly and dishonest" television.
The shift to the politics of peace came slowly.
In 1986, the party decided to contest elections in the Republic of Ireland. Ten years later, the landscape in Northern Ireland had changed irrevocably. McGuinness was chief negotiator in the peace process.
Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness smile after being sworn in as first and deputy first ministers of the Northern Ireland Assembly
In 1997, he became MP for Mid Ulster.
He took on the post of education minister in the Stormont administration and his legacy was the decision to kill off the 11-Plus examination - a political hot potato that still stokes up a fiery glow in the eyes of those opposed to the move.
By 2007, he was Northern Ireland's deputy first minister standing alongside First Minister Ian Paisley. It was the kind of marriage that only a mad matchmaker contemplates.
The father of the Free Presbyterian Church - the DUP leader famed for "Never! Never! Never!" - and the hardliner republican once wedded to the armed struggle?
But there was a click. They became the poster boys for modern politics - the Chuckle Brothers who giggled together.
When a stony-faced Peter Robinson, DUP, stepped into the first minister's shoes, McGuinness said the "honeymoon" was over. The pair was more like the Brothers Grimm.
From rocky beginnings, it proved a slow thaw. When DUP leader Arlene Foster took the reins, it proved frostier again.
A month after she took on the post of first minister in January 2016, she said it was difficult for her because he gave the graveside oration at the funeral of the man who, she believes, tried to kill her father.
The ice thickened and became impenetrable after McGuinness resigned in protest at her refusal to stand aside for an investigation into a botched green scheme that she set up.
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness met the Queen for the first time in June 2012
Nevertheless, over the past ten years for Martin McGuinness, there were seismic moments.
There was the famous handshake with Queen Elizabeth II; there was a toast to her Majesty at Windsor Castle as the band played God Save The Queen - gestures that stuck in the gullets of hard-line republicans and loyal servants of the Queen alike.
In recent years, he said: "My war is over. My job as a political leader is to prevent that war and I feel very passionate about it."
He did it his way... right up to the moment on Monday 9 January, when he signed off at Stormont, saying the time was right to "call a halt to the DUP's arrogance". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38593596 |
100 Women: Rally driver may sell trophy to continue racing - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | A groundbreaking rally driver is having to crowdfund her next race after losing her sponsors. | null | Louise Cook, the only woman in history to win a rallying world championship competing against men, needs to raise £25,000 after her two main sponsors dropped out.
The 28-year-old's next stop is the next round of the World Rally Championship in Sweden in February, but she now has two weeks to come up with the cash or will face losing her place.
She was forced to put her trophy up for auction but has held off selling it, as well-wishers have been stepping in to crowdfund her.
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. We create documentaries, features and interviews about their lives, giving more space for stories that put women at the centre.
Other stories you might like:
Who is on the BBC's 100 Women 2016 list? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38684048 |
Australian Open 2017: Dan Evans joins Andy Murray in fourth round - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Dan Evans joins Andy Murray in the last 16 of the Australian Open with a brilliant win over Australia's Bernard Tomic. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January.
Dan Evans joined Andy Murray in the last 16 of the Australian Open with a brilliant performance to give Britain two men in the fourth round.
Top seed Murray made short work of American Sam Querrey, winning 6-4 6-2 6-4 in one hour and 59 minutes.
Evans, the world number 51, then upset Australian 27th seed Bernard Tomic with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3) victory.
It is the first time Evans has made a Grand Slam fourth round, and he next faces 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
• None Feature: Has Djokovic's desire burned itself out?
• None How to follow the Australian Open on the BBC
Querrey was the man who upset then world number one Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last summer, but Murray made sure he did not fall victim to another shock after the Serb's surprise defeat by Denis Istomin on Thursday.
With six-time champion Djokovic out, Murray is a clear favourite among many observers to finally land the third leg of the career Grand Slam.
"I don't worry about that, really," said Murray, who has lost four Melbourne finals to Djokovic.
"Obviously, if you're to get to the final, then it has an effect. A lot of the times when I've been in the final here, I've played against him. Had some tough ones."
• None Andy Murray column: Everyone needs to give Djokovic a break
Querrey gave the Scot plenty to think about in the early stages of their third-round match, attacking the net and hurrying the top seed, but a first-serve percentage of just 57% was not enough to keep Murray at bay.
The American missed a fleeting chance with a break point in game eight and Murray immediately took advantage, getting the break himself in the next game with a beautiful lob.
He took a firm grip on the match with a run of six out of seven games, easing through the second set with two more breaks.
There was a flurry of resistance as Querrey reeled off three straight games to lead 3-2 in the third set, but Murray once again turned up the pressure with his return to break for a fifth time on his way to a comprehensive victory.
"Sam, especially in the first set, was hitting a huge ball," added Murray, who had no problem with the ankle he turned during his previous match.
"There was a key moment at 3-4 when I saved a break point and then managed to break the next game and had the momentum after that."
British number three Evans is set to move inside the world's top 50, with 180 ranking points already secured in Melbourne, plus at least £135,000 in prize money.
After failing to convert a match point against Stan Wawrinka in the third round of last year's US Open, the 26-year-old from Solihull grabbed this opportunity with both hands.
"It was tough, Bernard is difficult," said Evans. "He is unorthodox and I found it hard at the start. I am happy to come through in three tight sets. It could have gone either way."
Evans followed the best win of his career over seventh seed Marin Cilic on Wednesday with another terrific performance, setting the pace and holding firm when under pressure late in the second and third sets.
He was broken after holding two set points on serve in the second set but recovered superbly when facing two set points two games later, then raced through the tie-break with some brilliant all-court tennis.
When Tomic threatened again late in the third set, Evans fought off another three break points with some magnificent play that even drew applause from his opponent.
There were worrying signs of possible cramp, and a brief rain shower came to the Briton's aid when serving at 5-5, 40-40, allowing him to recuperate and dominate a second tie-break to clinch the win.
Evans, who is without a clothing sponsor, has been buying his own T-shirts in Melbourne.
"I am happy with them at the minute," he said. "One shrunk in the wash so I had to change it, but I reckon they look all right."
Murray will start as a strong favourite against Zverev, but there is plenty of danger lurking on the Scot's side of the draw.
Former winner Stan Wawrinka, the US Open champion, is through to the last 16 after a 3-6 6-2 6-2 7-6 (9-7) win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki.
The Swiss, a potential semi-final opponent for Murray, will play Andreas Seppi next after the Italian beat Belgian Steve Darcis 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-2).
Should Murray get past Zverev on Saturday he will face a daunting quarter-final against four-time champion Roger Federer or fifth seed Kei Nishikori.
In two of his previous Grand Slams, Evans had come tantalisingly close to breaking into the fourth round - especially at the US Open last September, when he had match point to knock out eventual champion Stan Wawrinka.
Against Tomic, he looked from the first point as if he believed this was a match he was going to win. The third set in particular was very physical, as the Australian dragged Evans around the court, and yet he was still fresh enough to win the tie-break in convincing manner.
Evans will be a top-50 player for the first time after the Australian Open - some rise from the position of 772 he found himself in just 20 months ago. Perhaps hitting his mid-20s and developing a taste for the big occasion from Davis Cup ties spurred him to commit to the ceaseless dedication, and long spells away from home, required to be a top player.
Evans should be at his peak over the next four years. With help from his coach Mark Hilton, he has built the foundations to allow this not to be as good as it gets. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38687231 |
Hong Kong: Twenty years later - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Hong Kong has spent 20 years under Chinese sovereignty. What's changed? | China | This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from the UK to China. The BBC's Helier Cheung, who sang in the handover ceremony, shares her personal reflections on the last two decades.
As a child, you don't always appreciate when you're witnessing history.
On 1 July 1997, I was part of the choir singing in the handover, in front of China's leaders and millions of viewers around the world.
It was a historic day. But I was nine at the time, so my most vivid memories were:
All of us in the choir had grown up speaking Cantonese. So singing in Mandarin felt both familiar and unfamiliar - it signified a culture we recognised, but did not grow up with.
In 1997, I (second from left) got to sing in the handover ceremony
Nearly 20 years later, I was back in Hong Kong reporting for the BBC
There were lots of dancers with pink fans, and I remember China's then-President Jiang Zemin holding up a piece of calligraphy that read "Hong Kong's tomorrow will be better".
But that night, I saw on TV that some had been protesting against the handover. It was one of my first lessons about Hong Kong's divisions - some were happy to be part of China again, but others were afraid.
I didn't always follow politics then, but politics still affected me. Some of my friends emigrated ahead of the handover, because their parents weren't sure about life under China.
And 1997 was also the start of the Asian financial crisis, so I overheard adults talking about stock market crashes, and suicides.
As a child, it was more comforting to be oblivious about the news.
Even as my friends and I went to secondary school, we rarely thought about developments in mainland China - we were teenagers after all.
This all changed in 2003. Hong Kong was hit by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which travelled over from southern China.
People started wearing face masks to protect themselves from Sars
Suddenly whole buildings were being quarantined. School was cancelled - shortly before our exams - as well as our junior high ball.
To some, it almost seemed unfair - the virus had spread here after officials in mainland China covered up the outbreak.
Yet Hong Kong, which handled the outbreak more transparently, was the focus of a lot of international coverage, and was the city with the most deaths - nearly 300.
My friends and I became more pragmatic. We did everything we were told to - wearing face masks, disinfecting our hands and taking our temperatures before school each day.
But we kept meeting up in McDonald's after class, as we always did. One friend told me: "If you die, you die, there's nothing you can do. You just need to do the best you can."
By summertime, Hong Kong was Sars-free. But another crisis, this time political, was rumbling.
The government wanted to introduce national security legislation, known as Article 23.
It would have outlawed treason, secession and sedition - words I had to look up - and allowed our government to outlaw groups banned in mainland China.
The bill struck a nerve. Although many countries outlaw treason and secession, to many Hong Kongers it reminded them too much of mainland China.
On 1 July 2003, half a million people, including some of my classmates, marched against the bill.
A few days later, the government was forced to shelve Article 23, after one of its political allies, a pro-business party, withdrew its support.
My friends were jubilant, telling me they had "made history". Many felt that, although there was no democracy, it was possible to vote with their feet.
Many people wore black to show their opposition to Article 23
The Sars outbreak and Article 23 row made local and Chinese politics seem more relevant to our daily lives.
And by the late 2000s, mainland China felt more entwined with Hong Kong than ever.
When I was a child, some of my classmates, somewhat cruelly, mocked "mainlanders" as people who squatted and were poor. But now, more people were learning Mandarin, and Hong Kong's economic future seemed to depend on China's.
China loosened travel restrictions, making it easier for mainland tourists to visit Hong Kong.
It gave the economy a much-needed boost, but resentment was also growing.
I was studying abroad by then, but whenever I flew home I would hear people gripe about the sheer number of tourists, and how rude some appeared.
Mainlanders' shopping trips to Hong Kong have been a source of irritation to people in the city
Some tourists bought up huge quantities of baby milk powder, leaving local parents without enough.
I could no longer recognise many of the shopping malls my school friends and I used to frequent. We grew up with cheap jewellery stalls and snack shops - but now shopping centres were dominated by designer brands that wealthy Chinese tourists preferred.
The other big change was in politics. When I was at school, expressing an interest in politics was more likely to get you teased than admired.
But by 2012, students were holding hunger strikes to oppose a government attempt to introduce "patriotic education" classes.
And in 2014, something surprising, almost unthinkable, happened. Tens of thousands of people, led by students, took over the streets, demanding full democracy.
Growing up, it was easy to avoid talking about politics.
But with protesters sleeping in the streets for weeks, the subject was suddenly unavoidable.
Families and friends started arguing - in person and on Facebook - and "unfriending" people they disagreed with.
Supporters felt it was worth sacrificing order and economic growth for true democracy, but critics accused the protesters of "destroying" Hong Kong.
One woman told me her relatives were angry she took part in the protests and now, two years later, they still didn't want to meet her for dinner. "Hong Kong's become so split," she said.
Hong Kong was split between "yellow ribbons" who supported the protesters, and "blue ribbons" who supported the police
Recently, after years in the UK, I got to return to Hong Kong as a reporter.
A lot feels the same. The territory is still clean, efficient, and obsessed with good food.
But young people seem more pessimistic - with politics and soaring house prices their main bugbears.
Surveys suggest young people are the unhappiest they have been in a decade - and that up to 60% want to leave.
Recently, some have even started to call for independence from China, frustrated with Beijing's influence and the lack of political reform.
Their resentment stems from Hong Kong's handover or even the Sino-British negotiations in the 1980s.
"We were never given a choice," one activist said. "No-one ever asked Hong Kongers what they wanted."
Protests have become angrier. Most demonstrations I witnessed growing up were peaceful - even festive.
Now, some rallies are more confrontational and prone to clashes, while the government seems less willing to make concessions.
Pro-Beijing and pro-democracy protesters sometimes end up clashing
It's not surprising that, in an online poll run by a pro-government party, people chose "chaos" as the word to describe Hong Kong's 2016.
From violent protests, to legislators swearing and scuffling in parliament, politics has definitely been chaotic at times.
But, chaotic or not, what really strikes me about Hong Kong is how alive and adaptable it is.
Hong Kong's streets are busy late into the night
Whether in business or politics, Hong Kong is full of people fighting to be heard.
Local entrepreneurs are constantly devising controversial or creative ways to make money - such as renting out "capsule units" in their homes, or starting a rabbit cafe.
And, even as artists complain of pressure to self-censor, pop music has become more political and fresh news websites and satirical news channels have popped up.
Hong Kong may be a relatively small territory with a population of 7.3 million, but I love the fact it has never lost its ability to surprise me.
Helier Cheung's report can also be heard on From Our Own Correspondent | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-38489435 |
Davos 2017: The bosses obsessed with exercise - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Many of the bosses at the World Economic Forum in Davos are not just obsessed by corporate success, but also physical fitness. | Business | Chip Bergh usually does between 12 and 14 hours of sport a week
Ask Levi boss Chip Bergh how he's finding his first trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, and his immediate response is to say how frustrated he is by the lack of time to exercise.
The sports-obsessed chief executive - who competes in triathlons and is a vegan - normally exercises daily from 5.30am to 7am doing a mixture of swimming, running and weights.
In total, he does between 12 and 14 hours of sport a week.
"No-one is as intense as me," he quips.
Yet, in the testosterone-fuelled world of alpha males (and it is normally males) who make up the top ranks of the corporate world, exercise is often pretty high on the agenda.
And it makes sense - the kind of drive, discipline and determination needed to push yourself to work out and compete - are exactly the same skills needed to get to the top.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Mr Bergh, who was headhunted to lead the 163-year-old jeans firm after almost three decades at consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, credits his exercise regime with helping him succeed in the new role.
When he took the helm, Levi was losing out to cheaper and more fashionable rivals, with sales half of their annual $7bn peak.
He changed all but one of the 11-strong executive team, and two thirds of its next tier of management alongside making significant cuts, including outsourcing its IT, finance and customer services.
Sales and profit have now grown for the past four years.
Exercise, he says, gave him the strength to make such dramatic changes.
"I really do firmly believe it plays a part in performance. For me personally when I'm healthy and exercising, eating right and getting enough rest, I'm much more productive at work," he says.
His conviction of the benefits of exercise meant that when he joined he set up a "Live wellth" programme at the firm, including a cheap gym membership deal for staff and a nutritional onsite cafe at its San Francisco headquarters.
For any company, encouraging staff to take care of their health makes sense, he says, due to the risk of high healthcare costs if they don't.
"It's not just the performance side of this, but the potential avoidance of costs," he says.
Nerio Alessandri, chief executive of Technogym, thinks companies should offer their staff fitness facilities
It's an issue companies are increasingly cottoning on to, says Nerio Alessandri, the founder and chief executive of Italian fitness equipment manufacturer Technogym.
In fact, he says providing machines, fitness programmes and apps to companies is now its fastest growing market.
Increasingly, he thinks the so-called millennial generation - those born between 1980 and 1999, and a group that accountancy firm Deloitte predicts will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2022 - will expect their workplaces to offer fitness facilities.
"It's a key way to attract talent. They don't want the car, or the other perks," he says.
We're talking - whilst sitting on big bouncy balls - in the firm's pop-up store in Davos, while impossibly honed and fit-looking company representatives run and cycle furiously on stationary machines beside us.
The World Economic Forum is littered with posters encouraging people to walk
Mr Alessandri himself works out every morning for an hour at 6.30am, and cycles and runs at the weekend, but crucially, he says, whilst wobbling frenetically on the ball, he never stops moving.
"Exercise is one of the rules of the champion chief executive. If you're not healthy, you don't have a healthy mind, you don't have creativity, you don't have energy and productivity goes down," he says.
At Technogym's head office in Cesena in northern Italy, taking the lift is banned unless someone has a physical issue. There are no chairs, just balls for seats and all meetings take place at high tables to force them to stand up.
But what if a staff member isn't into fitness? "It's an opportunity. We make them," he jokes.
Armani was not impressed by Nerio Alessandri's attempt at fashion design
In fact, he says his personal mission is to try to address the sedentary lifestyle that has been linked to health problems.
"People were born to move for 30km a day. Today, it's less than 1km a day. We're committed to covering the gap," he says.
Mr Alessandri, who originally wanted to be a fashion designer but turned to fitness equipment after a rejection from Armani, believes the secret is to make the workout equipment look good.
"If it's like a piece of art, not a machine, then you put it on display and you're more likely to use it. If it's ugly, you stick it in the garage and never use it," he says.
So far, the regime appears to be working. The firm has supplied the equipment for the past six Olympics and sales hit $581m in 2015, the most recent full-year figures available.
"Let's move for a better world is my mantra," he says.
It's a mantra shared by the WEF. In Davos, posters are everywhere telling attendees of the benefits to the planet of walking instead of driving.
And temporary signs in the village display the number of steps and time taken to reach a particular destination.
Signs are placed across Davos helping delegates to calculate their daily step count
Given the almost constant traffic gridlock on the streets in the morning and evening, I'm not sure delegates are heeding the message.
But Tupperware chief executive Rick Goings says the WEF's emphasis on health and fitness persuaded him to make changes at his own firm. Its base in Orlando, Florida now boasts a fitness centre as well as biking and walking paths.
And Mr Goings himself fits the mould of a typical high achiever - he too is an exercise freak.
"I can still bench press my weight. I never miss a workout and do at least an hour every other day no matter what. Fitness gives me energy," he says.
He also meditates every day.
"How old do you think I am?" he asks, thrusting his face forward. I guess late 50s.
"Seventy-one," he says triumphantly. "And no plastic surgery." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38677104 |
Donald Trump's mother: From a Scottish island to New York's elite - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the Hebridean island of Lewis. | Scotland | By 1934 Mary Anne MacLeod had become a glamorous New Yorker. This photo, was taken on the steps of a Long Island swimming pool
Donald Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born and brought up on the Hebridean island of Lewis but emigrated to New York to live a very different life.
Mary Anne was one of tens of thousands of Scots who travelled to the US and Canada in the early years of the last century looking to escape economic hardship at home.
She first left Lewis for New York in 1930, at the age of 18, to seek work as a domestic servant.
Six years later she was married to successful property developer Frederick Trump, the son of German migrants and one of the most eligible men in New York.
The fourth of their five children, Donald John, as he is referred to on the islands, is about to become US president.
His mother was born in 1912 in Tong, about three miles from Stornoway, the main town on the isle of Lewis.
Genealogist Bill Lawson, who has traced the family tree of Mary Anne MacLeod back to the early 19th Century, says her father Malcolm ran a post office and small shop in his later years.
Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod, aged 14, sits on the windowsill of a house in the village of Tong
Economically, the family would have been slightly better off than the average in the township, he says.
However, life during and after World War One, in which 1,000 islanders died, was very hard and many young people were leaving the Western Isles.
Lewis had also suffered the Iolaire disaster in 1919 when 200 servicemen from the island had drowned at the mouth of Stornoway harbour, coming home for the first new year of peace.
Mr Lawson says: "Mary Anne MacLeod was from a very large family, nine siblings, and the move at that time was away from the island.
"The move by Viscount Leverhulme to revive the island had gone bust and there was not much prospect for young people.
"What else could she do?"
Mr Lawson adds: "Nowadays, you might think of going to the mainland but in those days most people went to Canada. It was far easier to make a life in America and many people had relatives there."
The genealogist says Mr Trump's mother was slightly different in that her sister Catherine, one of eight members of the MacLeod family to have emigrated to America, had moved from Canada to New York.
When Catherine returned to Lewis for a visit in 1930, her 18-year-old sister Mary Anne went with her to look for work.
It appears that she found work as a nanny with a wealthy family in a big house in the suburbs of New York but lost the job as the US sank into depression after the Wall Street Crash.
Mary Anne returned briefly to Scotland in 1934 but by then she had met Fred Trump and soon returned to New York for good.
The couple lived in a wealthy area of Queens and Mary Anne was active with charity work.
Mary Anne en-route to America in the early 1930s
Donald Trump still has three cousins on Lewis, including two who live in the ancestral home, which has been rebuilt since Mary Anne MacLeod's time.
All three cousins have consistently refused to speak to the media.
John A MacIver, a local councillor and friend of the cousins, says: "I know the family very well.
"They are very nice, gentle people and I'm sure they don't want all the publicity that's around.
"I quite understand that they don't want to talk about it."
Mr MacIver says Mary Anne MacLeod was well-known and much respected in the community and used to attend the church on her visits home.
Mr Trump's mother became a US citizen in 1942 and died in 2000, aged 88.
But she returned to Lewis throughout her life and always spoke Gaelic, Mr MacIver says.
According to genealogist Bill Lawson, surnames are a relatively recent phenomenon on the islands and official records only go back to the early decades of the 19th Century.
His research took him back as far as John Roy MacLeod, which in Gaelic is Iain Ruaidh, named for a tendency to red hair.
Mary Anne Trump regularly returned to Lewis and spoke her native Gaelic language on her visits
Mary Anne Trump's paternal MacLeods came from Vatisker, a few miles further north of Tong.
Her great-grandfather Alexander Roy MacLeod and his son Malcolm were thought to have drowned together while fishing in the 1850s.
On Mary Anne's mother's side, the Smiths were among the families cleared from South Lochs area of Lewis in 1826.
The period of the Highland Clearances on the mainland had largely missed Lewis but after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 some of the better lands for sheep-grazing on the island were cleared of tenants.
In most cases the displaced tenants were relocated elsewhere on Lewis rather than sent overseas.
According to Mr Lawson, all four lines of Mary Anne MacLeod's maternal ancestry had been moved to Stornoway parish from elsewhere on the island as a result of the Clearances.
His research also found another fishing tragedy when Donald Smith was drowned in October 1868 after his boat was upset in a squall off Vatisker Point.
His widow was left with three children, of whom the youngest, Mary, Donald Trump's grandmother, was less than a year old.
Mary succeeded her mother at 13 Tong but it was the smallest of the crofts in Tong.
After her marriage to Malcolm MacLeod, they were able to acquire the Smiths' original croft of 5 Tong and move there.
Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne was the youngest of their 10 children.
Mary Anne Trump's billionaire son Donald visited the house in which his mother grew up, and his cousins in 2008.
On that trip, the now president-elect said he had been to Lewis once before as "a three or four-year-old" but could remember little about it.
Donald Trump on a visit to Tong in 2008
Donald Trump and his sister Maryanne (left) on their visit to Tong
It is estimated he spent 97 seconds in the ancestral home during his whistle-stop tour.
At the time, he said: "I have been very busy - I am building jobs all over the world - and it's very, very tough to find the time to come back.
"But this just seemed an appropriate time, because I have the plane... I'm very glad I did, and I will be back again."
Donald Trump next to a piper at the opening of The Trump International Golf Links Course in July 2012
The president-elect was accompanied by his eldest sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a US federal judge, who has regularly visited her cousins on Lewis.
Mr Lawson says: "If you want to celebrate anyone, you should perhaps celebrate Maryanne, who has done a lot of work for the island.
"Donald arrived off a plane and then disappeared again. One photoshoot, that was it.
"I can't say he left much of an impression behind him." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38648877 |
Trump inauguration's only black marching band braves backlash - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The only black college marching band to play at the Trump inauguration reaches Washington, braving an intense backlash. | US & Canada | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Marching Tornado Band has travelled all the way from Alabama.
The only marching band from a historically black college to perform at the Trump presidential inauguration has experienced intense backlash. Regardless, on Thursday morning, the Talladega Marching Tornadoes blew into Washington.
When students awoke after the 19-hour bus trip from Talladega, Alabama, one of the first scenes that greeted their bleary eyes in the nation's capital was Senator Bernie Sanders, waiting to cross the street.
It was a sight few of the Talladega College marching band members thought they'd ever see - a former presidential candidate strolling to work - as the vast majority had never even been outside the state of Alabama.
"They're so talented, these young people. We're really excited to give them this opportunity," said Dr Sharon Whittaker-Davis, the school's vice-president of student affairs, as she watched the students pour out of the buses and into the African American Civil War Museum in Washington. "We're here."
After 19 hours on the bus from Talladega, Alabama, the Marching Tornadoes arrive in Washington
The night before, the mayor of tiny Talladega and a crowd of about 100 well-wishers cheered as the buses pulled out of town. It was a loving send-off that contrasted sharply with the treatment the band had faced in previous weeks.
Several other high schools and colleges, including historically black institutions like Howard University, declined the invitation or didn't even apply to play at Donald Trump's inauguration.
As soon as it was announced that the Marching Tornadoes was the sole black college to accept, they were called sell-outs, race traitors and worse.
The college president received demands for his resignation, and then death threats. Alumni begged their alma mater not to go.
"Please do not march in this. Stand with people of colour against racism," one comment read on the band's Facebook page.
However, after college president Barry Hawkins appeared on Fox News to explain his decision to let the band perform, donations to a GoFundMe page raising money for the trip shot through the roof, soaring to almost $650,000 (£527,000).
The extra money will go towards scholarships, new band uniforms, new instruments and a new practice space - the college has only 700 students, almost all of whom receive some type of financial aid.
Omarosa Manigault, Donald Trump's director of communications, take selfies with the Talladega Tornadoes
Many of the band members come from low-income backgrounds and are the first in their families to attend college.
The students were eager about the invitation and took the ensuing backlash personally.
"I just couldn't understand why they would do that to us," said 21-year-old alto saxophone player Eriel House.
"We're students. We're not involved in a political party. We just wanted to go show our talents."
"[He's president] regardless," said Shylexis Robinson. "I just want to march on Pennsylvania Avenue, period."
Once in Washington, the trip organisers had hoped to take the students straight to the Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall.
But because streets were already blocked off for the inauguration, they instead headed to the African American Civil War Museum - a tribute to the black soldiers who fought for the Union.
Talladega College itself was founded in 1867 by the descendants of slaves.
Students took selfies in front of a monument to black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War
Inside the darkened museum, the students swished around in their matching blue-and-crimson tracksuits, peering into display cases of rusty slaves' shackles, a yellowed 1862 copy of the New York Times announcing the "preliminary emancipation" of slaves, and a sign that reads: "We Serve Colored Carry Out Only".
When Mr Hawkins announced to the group that a special guest awaited the students across the street, a student said: "Obama?"
Instead, Omarosa Manigault - former Apprentice star, director of Mr Trump's African-American outreach during the campaign, and now his director of communications - waited beside a statue of four black Union soldiers.
"You have shown and exhibited such great courage... we can't move forward unless we are together," Ms Manigault called out.
"On behalf of the president, Donald J Trump, I want to just thank you, welcome you here and I cannot wait to see y'all show up and show out tomorrow at the inauguration parade!"
Milling around the memorial, Melissa Harris traced her hand along the names inscribed on the monument.
"I think I found one of my ancestors on one of these walls," she said.
"I hope we get to meet President Obama," another girl sighed.
"I don't think it's hitting us yet that he's going," said Marissa Melchor quietly.
"He's not dying," her friend said rolling her eyes.
"It feels unreal," Ms Melchor replied. "But reality is going to hit us."
Elkena Washington on the E-flat alto saxophone and Melissa Harris on piccolo
The students piled back onto the buses and took a long, slow ride through packed traffic to the University of the District of Columbia campus.
There the students got their first meal since the previous day, and listened to remarks from local business people who donated to their GoFundMe campaign.
None of the students who spoke to BBC News expressed a strong support for incoming President Trump, but they seemed cautiously optimistic.
"I don't like everything about him. I think it's going to be a pretty interesting couple of years," said Bernard Norris, an 18-year-old trombone player.
"I just wish him the best of luck and I hope he does the country right... I hope something good comes out of this."
In the hallway outside the dining hall, 21-year-old first chair trumpeteer Marco Vera said that even though he is excited to perform, it was hard to hear some of the remarks Mr Trump made during the campaign.
"Coming from a Hispanic background, having to see my parents struggle through everything to get where we're at... it hurts," he said.
"Yeah, he said some stuff about us, but I'm performing for my college. I'm performing for my parents. My parents told me to go out there and showcase my talent... so I'm just going to go out there and make my family proud."
The Marching Tornadoes on Friday morning, just before they departed for the Pentagon | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38685680 |
Trump inauguration: What the president's supporters want - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | During the election, the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan spoke to many Trump supporters on the campaign trail. Now she asks what their hopes are for the new administration. | US & Canada | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mr Trump's supporters who will be going to the inauguration
What do the millions of Trump supporters want from their new president? The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan catches up with some of the voters she met while travelling across America during the election campaign.
Sarah Jo works for the Republican Party of Arkansas and I met her at her office in Little Rock a few days before the second presidential debate in October.
While other Republican women in the state had voiced concerns over Donald Trump's threat to bring up Bill Clinton's past as an election issue, Sarah Jo was steadfastly behind her candidate.
She remains so today, and has travelled to Washington DC for the inauguration.
During the primaries she was the "odd one out" with her friends, who all supported Marco Rubio.
"I wasn't a bandwagon type of person. I wanted to support who I thought was best, and I guess I picked the right horse."
She wasn't upset about the comments Trump made on the Access Hollywood tape saying he would grab a woman "by the pussy".
"Everybody makes mistakes and I'd be mortified if something like that was caught on camera," she says.
For Sarah Jo, the appeal lies in his promise of change, and his background as a businessman. Her two priorities are tax reform and repealing and replacing Obamacare.
She's hopeful her candidate can heal divisions in the country.
"I am prayerful that he takes into account every single American citizen, not just those who voted for him. Change can't occur overnight but I think we are going to see great things with his first 100 days in office."
Will Estrada is the definition of a Washington insider. He's a lawyer, a lobbyist and the chair of the Loudon County Republican Party.
When we met in August, some local congressional candidates in the Virginia district were refusing to endorse the party's nominee.
But Will's loyalty was never in doubt. Now, as an invited guest to the inauguration, he'll get to witness Trump being sworn in up close.
"I think Trump has a huge opportunity to restore America's respect on the world stage," he says. "Trump is a phenomenon who defies expectations. He's rewritten the rule book. It's exciting to watch."
He has two "non-negotiables": the repeal of President Obama's healthcare reforms, and a conservative pick for the vacant Supreme Court seat.
"We'd seen the growth of government way larger than our founders had intended," Will says of Obamacare, adding that he's "fine" with Mr Trump's undefined plan to replace it.
Back in the summer Will was an ardent critic of Hillary Clinton and agreed with the calls of many Trump supporters to "lock her up". But he understands why the new president has backed away from his promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Mrs Clinton.
"It would have created more divisiveness if a president went after Hillary Clinton. I'd like to move forward - the Clintons are a relic of the past."
I met Marco Gutierrez at the Republican National Convention in Ohio last July, where he was holding a "Latinos for Trump" sign. A real estate investor in California's Discovery Bay, he became one of the faces of Donald Trump's minority outreach.
Many Hispanic voters were incensed by Mr Trump's plan to build a wall, but not Marco. He believes the barrier will stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigration across the border.
"My only reservation is the way the immigration force will work as far as protecting innocent families," he cautions.
His public support for Mr Trump has cost him some friends and clients, but his wife, a fourth-generation Mexican-American, supports him.
Marco was just 17 when he came to the United States from Mexico in 1991. His parents, who'd been working in the US fields for many summers, had been granted amnesty after Ronald Reagan's change in immigration policy.
"When I came here I had 75 cents in my pocket and a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt," Marco says. "That was the beginning of my new life in the United States"
Even though he benefitted from an amnesty, Marco now believes in tougher immigration laws.
"Trump's a firm believer in results and so far I see results. That he's willing to sit down and talk about the problems. I think by March we're going to be able to judge whether he's making a difference. We have to give him a chance."
I met Bill Hartmann, a self-employed building repair man, as he delivered Trump yard signs in Detroit ahead of the Michigan primary back in March.
"He was the only candidate who said he wanted to make America great again. And that's what turned me on."
When he watched Clinton supporters in tears on election night, Bill says he had a flashback to the sadness he felt when Barack Obama won in 2008. "I could totally relate to that".
Bill won't be among the inauguration crowds in Washington DC, but will be watching on a big screen at a local hall, with other supporters.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"I think people have lost respect for America," Bill says, "especially with Barack Obama going and bowing to other leaders in the world. Donald Trump doesn't want to be part of the new world order, he wants America to be independent."
Bill believes Trump's business past, can help deliver a fresh approach to foreign policy.
"He's someone who would be a good negotiator in contracts and agreements with foreign nations, he always seems to be open to discussion regardless of who the individual is."
It was hard to miss June Savage when we met at a Trump rally in Miami, Florida. Dressed in a top hat, red boots and draped in an American flag, she was holding a Women for Trump placard.
The former Miss Miami finalist, a lifelong Republican who works as a real estate agent, backed Mr Trump because he's a political outsider.
"You can't ask an attorney to be POTUS anymore. You need people who have built things, who have hired and fired people and who can stand up to these billionaire heads of state."
She's met the new president and sees his direct approach as a strength. "He has a big mouth - we all know that. He says a lot of things that maybe people like or do not like."
Her one concern is Mr Trump's addiction to social media, but she says everyone has the same tendency these days.
And to June, one of the biggest assets of a Trump presidency, is his VP pick, Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana.
"They always say behind a good man is a very good woman," she says. "Not to call Mike Pence a woman, but he's definitely the woman in this marriage. So you have a very strong man, which is Pence, behind Trump."
I met Martha, a retired teacher and volunteer for the Trump campaign in Texas, at a watch party for a Republican primary debate in Houston in February.
Originally from Argentina, Martha came to the US nearly 30 years ago, and believes his wall on the US-Mexico border is a good idea.
She hopes Trump keeps the promises he talked about during the campaign, including "draining the swamp", reducing illegal immigration and beefing up national security.
She does have some advice for her new president though: get a thicker skin.
"Right now I think he's jumping on every negative comment that people in the media make of him, and he should just ignore it."
Cathy jokes she may be the only Trump supporter in her town of 11,000 in Massachusetts. We met as she campaigned for Trump in the neighbouring state of New Hampshire in the weeks before the election.
Cathy says she's become more conservative with age, but remains socially liberal. She was fed up with politicians from both parties.
She hopes Mr Trump can unite the country, and blames President Obama for making things worse.
"I just don't remember having racial divides as badly in my lifetime as we have in the past administration," she says.
But it was Mr Trump's economic policies that sealed her vote. Her father was a manufacturer who owned a textile mill in upstate New York in the 1980s.
"I know what's happened with trade agreements with other countries who don't have the same human rights standards and can lower costs, and unfairly compete with American workers."
On the campaign trail she said she heard similar stories from disenfranchised voters.
"A lot of people felt all of these jobs are disappearing and the government wasn't listening to us, things are decidedly worse for a lot of people."
Security, healthcare and the military also rank as Cathy's key concerns for a Trump administration.
And even though she's concerned about climate change, she doesn't think "pie in the sky agreements" are the way forward.
Cathy believes more needs to be done in making US cars more fuel efficient.
"We need to get our house in order before we start dictating to the rest of the world." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38682568 |
Melbourne car deaths: Mobile footage shows driver - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | A bystander films the driver of a car arrested in Melbourne in connection with the death of three pedestrians struck by a vehicle. | null | Three people, including a young child, have died after a car deliberately hit pedestrians in central Melbourne, police say.
At least 29 people were injured, among them a baby who is in a critical condition after the car hit a pram.
Police have arrested the driver but say the incident was not terror-related.
Footage filmed by a bystander showed a maroon car driving in circles in front of nearby Flinders Street railway station. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38688521 |
Baby boy delivered by mother in car near Aberdeen - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A mother delivers her own baby in a car in Aberdeenshire as her husband tries to get her to hospital for the birth. | NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland | Shelley and Alexander Jack with their new son Lucas and his brother Jensen
A mother delivered her own baby in a car as her husband tried to get her to hospital for the birth.
Shelley Jack, 26, was being driven by husband Alexander, 30, from their Inverallochy home to Aberdeen after contractions started.
However, before they could make it, their baby son was born in their Mitsubishi Outlander - near Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire golf resort.
They then continued the journey. Baby Lucas is now home and doing fine.
The unusual birth happened in the early hours of 10 January.
Mrs Jack told BBC Scotland: "I went to my bed as normal. But I woke up with stomach cramps, woke my husband to tell him I thought something was happening, and started to pace round the room.
"I started to panic as I am a bit of a worrier with stuff like that and told my husband to phone Aberdeen maternity.
"The midwife on the phone told us to come straight through."
She continued: "We got in the car. About 15 minutes from our house I had no space between my contractions at all.
"I said, I'm sure they aren't supposed to go this quick.
"I was trying to move about the seat to relieve the pain but nothing shifted it. My husband saw the pain I was in and started to drive faster but kept trying to assure me that I'd only just started and I would get there in time to get pain relief if I wanted."
Mrs Jack went on: "My waters popped round about Ellon and from there I knew this wasn't normal and the baby was trying to come out.
"I screamed to my husband to phone an ambulance as I felt my body starting to push something out and the pain was horrendous at this point.
"He phoned the midwife back. She also told me that if I felt my body pushing that I wouldn't be able to control it and that I would have to take off my trousers and just let the baby come.
"I thought this was absolutely crazy - who has a baby in their car on their own?
"I wouldn't give in - probably in denial that this would actually happen - but somewhere between the Trump golf course and the Cock and Bull restaurant I realised this baby really was coming out and I did what the midwife told me to do and the baby came out with a few pushes.
"I caught him in my hands and cradled him into my chest. My whole body was shaking uncontrollably.
"My husband by this point was hysterical as I think he didn't realise I was actually being serious when I said the baby was coming out."
They then carried on their journey to hospital, where baby Lucas was tended to.
He weighed in at 7lbs 5oz.
His mother added: "Baby Lucas is settling into our family really well and his one-year-old big brother Jensen is just delighted with his baby, giving him lots of kisses and cuddles. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-38679533 |
Newspaper headlines: Donald Trump inauguration in focus - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Donald Trump's inauguration as US president on Friday comes into focus on the front pages. | The Papers | It is show time for the showman, the Times declares, as the papers look ahead to the inauguration of America's 45th president.
For the Mail, Mirror and the Sun, it is the Day of the Donald.
But the Sun says the inauguration is set to be the most divisive and volatile ever, with more than 25,000 police and secret service agents in place to quieten the thousands of protestors.
When Mr Trump takes the oath of office, the Guardian says, it will be a scene that not so long ago was unthinkable to the political establishment.
Even now, says the i, the world is having to pinch itself.
In the Mail's words, it is an astonishing contrast with eight years ago when Barack Obama came to office on a wave of hope and expectation.
Mr Trump is pictured on many of the front pages giving a salute as he arrives at Andrews Air Force base near Washington DC for the inauguration, accompanied by his wife Melania.
The Guardian says he faces immediate pressure to deliver an inaugural address that can start to heal a divided nation and reassure an anxious world.
According to the Telegraph, he will pledge to rebuild the US middle class in a speech that will focus on boosting blue collar jobs and rolling back big government.
The paper says his team has laid out plans to slash the infrastructure of the state with $10.5tn in spending cuts over the next decade.
For its lead, the Telegraph reports that the Prince of Wales has described climate change as the "wolf at the door" - and urged world leaders to take immediate steps to combat what he sees as the biggest threat to the planet's future.
In his bleakest comments on the subject to date, the paper adds, Prince Charles says action on climate change "must be urgently scaled up, and scaled up now".
It says his warning is contained in the foreword to a new book he has co-authored, which is being published next week.
The jailing of a woman who plied her four-year-old daughter with drugs before she died is the lead for the Mail.
It says social workers knew Poppy Widdison was at risk before her mother gave birth, and their "shocking failures have been laid bare".
It asks why they are still in jobs and describes Michala Pyke as the mother from hell.
The paper's headline - "betrayed before she was even born".
The Guardian leads on an attack by Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron on Labour over its stance on Brexit.
In an interview for the paper, Mr Farron accuses Jeremy Corbyn of "lamely giving up" while Britain "drives off a cliff" as it leaves the EU.
In what the paper calls an overt attempt to grab votes in pro-Remain constituencies, Mr Farron describes Labour as the most ineffective opposition in living memory over its perceived failure to hold the government to account on the issue.
Finally, a company processing household waste found a highly unusual item in the piles of rubbish - an OBE.
The Sun says the medal was in its gold-embossed leather case.
The owner of the east London firm tells the Times: "You can imagine our astonishment when we found the medal.
"We come across some weird and wonderful things in our waste hauls but this really is something that needs to find its way home." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38686228 |
Novak Djokovic: The waning of his winning obsession has led to a lost sense of direction - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Novak Djokovic's ferocious focus took him to the top of the game but it is hard to see him rekindling the flames of that obsession, writes Russell Fuller. | null | When asked what he would take away from his stunning defeat by Denis Istomin in the second round of the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic said he would take his bags and go home.
The world number two exuded the utmost class in the aftermath of Istomin's five-set victory in the Rod Laver Arena. He signed autographs, offered sincere congratulations to the current world number 117, and declined the opportunity to comment further on the malaise which has affected him since winning his first French Open title last June.
Istomin has had a fine career - spending plenty of time in the world's top 50 - but after an injury-affected 2016, he had to win the Asia Pacific Wildcard play-off in China (saving four match points in his semi-final) to qualify for this Australian Open.
His only previous tournament this year was in Thailand, where he lost to the world number 211 in the second round of the Wind Energy Holding Bangkok Open.
• None Cash fears Djokovic's best days are behind him
• None How to follow the Australian Open on the BBC
Lukas Rosol was 100 in the world when he beat Rafael Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon 2012, but Istomin can claim an even bigger upset given Djokovic's recent record in Melbourne, where he has won five titles in the past six years.
Conquering the clay of Roland Garros last year has affected Djokovic's sense of direction.
That burning desire to become only the eighth man in history to win all four of the sport's Grand Slams drove him forward. An unwitting consequence of that magnificent achievement appears to be a diminished appetite for the incessant demands of the tennis tour.
He has lost surprisingly since then to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon; to Juan Martin del Potro in the first round of the Olympics; to Roberto Bautista Agut and Marin Cilic in the autumn of last season; and now to Istomin.
There have been personal problems and niggling injuries along the way, and he has still been good enough in that time to win titles in Toronto and Doha - and finish as runner-up at both the US Open and the ATP World Tour Finals.
I would be very surprised if Djokovic fails to add to his Grand Slam tally of 12, but I think it unlikely he will ever be able to dominate the sport as he has in the past.
After all, from the start of 2011 through until last year's French Open, Djokovic won 11 Grand Slam titles and appeared in all but five of the 22 finals staged.
That is a staggering effort which bears comparison to the standards set by Roger Federer, who won 16 of his 17 Grand Slams in a six and a half year period. But 35-year-old Federer has added only one since he turned 29.
It is perhaps just not possible in the modern age to sustain such relentless success for any longer.
In Djokovic's case, the years of obsession and dedication began at the age of six, when he was spotted watching some lessons through the fence of a newly built tennis academy in his home town.
He was invited to come and play the following day by a coach called Jelena Gencic, who would have a profound effect on his career.
As Djokovic himself said at the World Tour Finals in November: "Every year is an evolution for me. It's hard to expect to repeat all these things forever. Nothing is eternal. I'm trying to do the same things. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't."
What might the future hold for Djokovic?
He says regaining the world number one position from Andy Murray is not his main priority, and that may be wise given Murray would move more than 3,500 ranking points ahead of him by winning a first Australian Open title.
He says he has no plans to add to his current coaching team of Marian Vajda and Dusan Vemic, and if Djokovic sticks to his schedule we won't see him again until the second week in March when he is due to defend his Masters title at Indian Wells.
And what does this mean for the men's game in 2017 - and for the ongoing Australian Open?
It leaves Andy Murray in pole position, it gives the returning Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal even greater hope of further glories, and offers encouragement to the next generation of players who have had to bide their time so patiently. Twenty three-year-old Dominic Thiem and 19-year-old Alex Zverev currently look best placed to take advantage. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38681767 |
US frisbee team captures frozen lake crossing - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | Unusual mobile phone footage shows the frisbee skittering across the ice in the US. | null | A youth frisbee team has filmed a frisbee crossing a frozen Maine lake in the wind.
Falmouth Rogue coach Shea Gunther captured the action on his phone while skating behind the frisbee.
He told the BBC: "I noticed how the wind would catch an errant throw, so I turned my camera on and threw it into the wind so it would skitter. And skitter it did". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38684425 |
NHS staff shortages: Why so persistent? - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Why is it that the NHS always seems to be short of staff, and is there anything that can be done to resolve the problem? | Health | The NHS has relied on nurses from home and abroad since its birth
NHS staff shortages seem an everyday fact of life - or at least a factor mentioned in several news stories each week. But why do these shortages persist and is there anything that can be done to get rid of them?
In this week's In Business on BBC Radio 4, I spoke to historians, economists, nurses, doctors and other healthcare staff to try to get to the bottom of these questions.
And to pose another one - does the NHS have the right mix of staff with the right mix of skills or could changing traditional roles rather than just boosting numbers help?
The Royal College of Nursing says England is currently short of at least 20,000 nursing staff.
And the Royal College of Midwives says the country needs 3,500 more midwives.
Meanwhile, GP leaders and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine say the UK urgently needs greater numbers of general practitioners and emergency doctors - just a few of the medical specialities struggling with recruitment and retention right now.
Increasingly, an older population, with often complex health needs, adds extra demand.
But these problems are far from new.
Stephanie Snow, medical historian at the University of Manchester, says staff shortages have existed since the very birth of the NHS, in 1948 - though people are often quick to label recruitment crises as one-off problems.
She told the BBC: "Over the first decade in particular, the NHS expanded its specialist services rapidly and there were many new technologies on board.
"All of these things led to unprecedented increases in the number of staff required.
"By the time we get to the late 1960s, hospitals had to turn to mass recruitment, looking towards countries such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka - where courses were taught in English and aligned to the UK's General Medical Council, as a consequence of colonial rule."
Physician associates are a relatively new role within the NHS
Meanwhile, Anita Charlesworth, director of Research and Economics at the think tank, the Health Foundation, argues the UK has perpetually trained lower numbers of medical and nursing students than it needs.
She said: "There is not a problem that we don't have enough bright, young people who would meet the standards and would love to have a career in medicine and nursing.
"They just can't get a place. We have systematically trained fewer than we need."
And she suggests being able to recruit doctors and nurses from overseas has offered a "get out of jail card" for successive staff shortages.
Dr Mark Porter, of the doctors' union, the British Medical Association, argues we have generally staffed a health service we can afford - rather than look at what the population needs.
But he says planning for the NHS workforce of the future is not easy.
He said: "It is difficult to get planning perfect for every one of 50 or 60 specialities all of the time.
"The population's needs are genuinely not quite as predictable as one might imagine.
"We know the trajectory illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes are taking over the next five years.
"But what about the next 25 years?
"Will public health messages and new technology be successful, or won't they?
"The answer could give us completely different trajectories in the future."
Nurses starting work on the first day of the NHS
For its part, the government says it plans to increase the numbers of doctors and nurses it trains and boost other healthcare staff too.
At the Conservative Party conference in October 2016, Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said: "My job is to prepare the NHS for the future, and that means doing something today that we have never done properly before, and that's training enough doctors."
The government announced there would be up to an extra 1,500 medical school places each year from 2018 in England.
And, looking back, the NHS Confederation said there had been an extra 32,467 doctors employed in England in 2014 compared with 2004.
Health chiefs also say current plans to scrap nurse bursaries will help increase the number of nurse training places available this year - though whether this will work in practice is unclear and has been disputed by nursing leaders.
Other positions such as nurse apprentices and physician associates are being explored.
Physician associates (PAs) - trained to do some of the jobs junior doctors do, might be able to cut some pressures on wards.
But current numbers are tiny, most cannot prescribe and they are not professionally regulated in the same way doctors are.
Ms Charlesworth is worried options for filling shortages quickly might be running out.
She said: "There's a massive gap globally now in the number of doctors and nurses compared to projected demand.
"So India keeps many more of its doctors.
"It has fantastic leading hospitals that are an exciting place to work if you are a young Indian doctor.
"There is a global shortage of clinical healthcare staff."
And of course there is another issue to consider.
It is estimated about 10% doctors and 7% of nurses working in the NHS in England are nationals of other EU countries.
The question is - could Brexit make NHS recruitment and retention problems even worse?
To find out more and to hear some possible solutions, listen to: BBC Radio 4 - In Business, The NHS- The Recruitment Dilemma.
Presented by Smitha Mundasad and produced by Rosamund Jones
• None BBC Radio 4 - In Business, The NHS- The Recruitment Dilemma | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38640068 |
Trump prods reluctant Melania to speak - BBC News | 2017-01-20 | null | Donald Trump persuaded wife Melania to address a group of supporters at a lunch in Washington. | null | Donald Trump and his wife Melania visited a group of supporters at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
"This is a gorgeous room. A total genius must have built this place," the 45th US president remarked.
Mr Trump thanked his wife, who suffered through "fake news" throughout the campaign, he said.
He also invited her, with a bit of insistence, to make a few remarks. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38681430 |
Dan Evans: Britain's latest tennis star snubbed by Kevin Pietersen - BBC Sport | 2017-01-20 | null | Meet the new British tennis star who bought his own shirts and was snubbed by ex-England cricketer Kevin Pietersen. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Four days ago, Dan Evans was not exactly a household name.
The British tennis player had just reached his first ATP final and moved to number 51 in the world rankings.
But that was not enough to get a photograph with former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen, who turned down Evans' request when they met outside a restaurant in Melbourne this week.
However, the 26-year-old might soon be the one getting asked for selfies after his stunning start to the Australian Open.
Evans caused a shock when he reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3) win over Australian 27th seed Bernard Tomic on Friday.
The Birmingham-born player will pocket at least $130,000 (£79,000) for reaching the fourth round, regardless of whether he beats France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
But the British number three was a little rankled by the snub from the batsman, 35, who is in Australia to play for Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League.
"There was some serious rage for about 20 minutes after that happened," said Evans.
"He didn't want me to have my picture with him. Quite funny, isn't it, how things work out? He was my favourite cricketer until that point.
"I think he was worse for wear, That was his excuse when he replied [on Twitter]. It was so embarrassing, as well. He didn't even just say, 'No'. He handed me off, as well."
However, it appears the two made up after the win over Tomic, with Evans tweeting a picture of himself at a Melbourne Stars game in the BBL on Saturday.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller asked if he had got the tickets from Pietersen and Evans replied with the message of "sure did".
'He would have been proud of my efforts'
Immediately after winning the final point of the match against Tomic, Evans was overcome with emotion and was seen pointing up to the sky.
He later revealed it was a tribute to his former coach Julien Hoferlin, who died of cancer last year.
In 2014 Hoferlin criticised Evans, saying tennis was just a "brief interlude in his life".
Speaking after his victory on Friday, Evans told the BBC: "When he [Horferlin] coached me I didn't give 100% at the time and there was off-court stuff he wasn't happy with.
"I wish he could have seen what happened tonight, he would have been proud of my efforts. He always said I could do it and that I should be playing top-40 tennis. Tonight was for him."
Evans managed to overcome being distracted by an unruly spectator at the Hisense Arena.
"This guy was coughing as I was throwing the ball up, as well as screaming at me when I was losing points," he said.
Evans was also asked about comments from Tomic's father and coach, John, who once told him he was not good enough to train with his son.
The British number three said Tomic Sr congratulated him in the changing room after the match.
"It was nice of him," added Evans. "I didn't have a problem with him at all, to be honest. It was his opinion." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38693517 |
Chapecoense plane: Footballer Neto dreamt of crash - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | Chapecoense football club player Neto is one of six survivors of a plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia last November. | null | Chapecoense footballer Neto is one of six survivors of a plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia last November.
Almost two months after the accident, the BBC's Julia Carneiro met him at the Conda Arena in the city of Chapeco. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38698277 |
Quiz of the week's news - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A weekly quiz of the news, 7 days 7 questions. | Magazine | It's the weekly news quiz - have you been paying attention to what's been going on in the world over the past seven days?
If you missed last week's 7 days quiz, try it here
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38679701 |
Theresa May congratulates Trump on taking office - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Theresa May says she looks forward to meeting the new US president and expects "very frank" talks. | UK Politics | Theresa May has congratulated Donald Trump on taking office as US president - and says she looks forward to meeting him in Washington.
The prime minister stressed her belief he was committed to advancing the "special relationship" with the UK.
But Mrs May told the Financial Times she expects "very frank" talks on areas where their opinions seem to differ such as the EU and Nato.
The PM said she hoped for early progress on a US-UK trade agreement.
Mrs May said she believed Mr Trump "recognises the importance and significance of Nato", despite him being quoted earlier in the week as describing the military alliance as "obsolete".
"I'm also confident the USA will recognise the importance of the co-operation we have in Europe to ensure our collective defence and collective security," she told the FT.
Mr Trump also said recently he did not really care if the EU separated.
Mrs May, who this week outlined for the first time her plan for Brexit, said: "The decision taken by the UK was not a decision about breaking up the EU.
"I want the EU to continue to be strong and I want to continue to have a close and strategic partnership with the EU. It is important for security issues. With the threats we face it's not the time for less co-operation."
Mr Trump was sworn-in as the 45th US president on Friday.
In a statement issued after the inauguration, Mrs May said: "From our conversations to date, I know we are both committed to advancing the special relationship between our two countries and working together for the prosperity and security of people on both sides of the Atlantic.
"I look forward to discussing these issues and more when we meet in Washington."
In her FT interview, Mrs May said she was "confident we can look at areas even in advance of being able to sign a formal trade deal".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "We will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come", Donald Trump said
But despite Mr Trump's indication he backed a quick post-Brexit trade deal, there was a heavily protectionist tone in the inauguration speech.
Some Labour MPs questioned how the prime minister's aim of a free trade deal with the US would be possible given the "America first" strategy outlined by Mr Trump.
David Lammy tweeted: "Every decision on trade will be made to benefit Americans. Hmm - looking forward to this trade deal, then."
Chris Bryant said: "I'm not sure a UK trade deal with Trump will be very mutually beneficial."
However, speaking to the BBC in Myanmar, also known as Burma, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was every reason to "be positive and optimistic" about a trade deal.
"I think the new president has made it very clear that he wants to put Britain at the front of the line... and obviously that's extremely exciting and important".
Earlier Mr Johnson offered his own "warmest congratulations" to Mr Trump.
He said the UK would "work hand in glove for the stability, the prosperity and the security of the world".
Meanwhile, Thousands of women are expected to join a march in London later as part of an international protest campaign on the first full day of Mr Trump's presidency.
Mr Trump has appeared to make good on a pledge to return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to the White House's Oval Office.
The bust of Sir Winston Churchill can be seen on the far left as Mr Trump prepares to sign his first orders in the Oval Office
The sculpture of the World War Two prime minister's face is said to be a replica of one given to President Lyndon B Johnson in the 1960s and first appeared in the Oval Office during George W Bush's administration in 2001.
It was replaced by a bust of civil rights champion Martin Luther King Jr during Barack Obama's presidency.
The presence of the Churchill bust was noticed as Mr Trump signed his first orders as president.
A report that the bust of Dr King no longer remained in the Oval Office was later found to be discredited. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38702859 |
Empathy and education in the age of Trump - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A Davos cocktail party may not, at first, seem like the ideal place to teach people to understand those with whom they disagree, but that's what some academics are doing. | Business | Donald Trump has been sworn in as president, after running a divisive campaign
The rarefied environs of a Davos cocktail party may not, at first, seem like the ideal place to teach people to understand those with whom they disagree.
But Peter Salovey thinks there is no better place to preach the gospel of empathy.
As president of Yale, he has direct access to the university's distinguished alumni. Some, such as Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman and Chinese billionaire Zhang Lei, are the very epitome of the so-called global elites against whom there has been somewhat of a populist backlash in the past year.
Prof Salovey comes to the World Economic Forum with a message.
He says the business leaders in Davos would do well to understand the ordinary men and women behind populist uprisings, such as the one in his own country, which culminated on Friday with the inauguration as President of such an unlikely candidate as Donald Trump.
"We live in a complex world, a world where our fellow citizens are telling us that they feel left out," says the convivial psychology professor.
In such times, he adds, reaching across cultural, political and economic divides is more important than ever, and Prof Salovey thinks he knows how to help Davos delegates do just that.
Prof Salovey says the Davos elite must try to understand what has driven populist uprisings
"How does one learn how to listen, how does one learn how to think critically, how does one learn how to communicate? And how does one learn to develop emotional intelligence, the ability to empathise with another person?"
The answer, he says, lies in education - in particular, the humanities.
To that end, the function room at the Belvedere Hotel in which Yale's annual reception is held features some rather novel exhibits, at least for a forum mostly dedicated to dealing with the immediate present.
In conjunction with the Smithsonian, delegates can explore some of the world's most endangered languages by watching interactive videos of their last remaining native speakers, or flick through an archive of pictures displaying ordinary Americans at work in factories and farms - taken for propaganda purposes at the behest of Franklin D Roosevelt, in order to highlight the success of his New Deal.
Perusing such artefacts, says Prof Salovey, can help the gathered Davos crowd grapple with complex problems such us: "What are the fundamental problems that humans have grappled with for millennia? What are ways in which we share a common humanity?"
Davos delegates at Yale's annual reception can look through old photographs to try to learn from the past
He says people do feel that they have worked hard and paid their dues, and yet still they feel downwardly mobile. "That's not the American dream," he adds.
One person who understands the American dream all too well is Lonnie Bunch, the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which was opened to great fanfare by President Obama in Washington just a few months ago.
President Obama, pictured here with Lonnie Bunch at a reception at the White House a day before opening the NMAAHC
Since then, nearly a million people have wandered through its doors, and encountered one of America's darkest moments, in slavery, and one of its greatest strengths, in the huge contributions of African Americans to the country's cultural makeup.
"I think it is crucially important in the times we are living in to be able to give people a sense of hope and possibility, but to also help them understand that despite how bad you may think things are, they were once worse, and people struggled to improve, across racial lines," says Mr Bunch.
Addressing the assembled businessmen and women, he says: "You can't be a good businessman without understanding the societal issues that have shaped the moment you are in.
"Businessmen always forecast what they think is the next trend. Part of that comes from understanding the past.
"What we want is not only for people to understand the past but also to bring those skills of the humanities - critical thinking, nuance, ambiguity - to basically be able to be nimble, to wrestle with a variety of issues, not just have a single point of view."
However, Mr Bunch stresses, "change doesn't happen without struggle, without sacrifice."
Alluding to the incoming US administration, the historian says that it is "incumbent upon all who enter the museum to be an activist, to help make America better".
Mr Bunch has been director of the Smithsonian Institution's NMAAHC since 2005
For his part, Prof Salovey is committed to defending the values of educational institutions such as Yale, not just as bastions of free expression, but also as havens for diversity.
"We believe that the most stimulating educational environment that we could create comes when we have a wonderful mix of the world on our campus," he says, in a thinly veiled broadside at Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric.
"We have policies on campus who support students called 'Dreamers', who came to the US as children, but perhaps their parents were not documented.
"We support DACA, the act that gives a status to people whose immigration status may be ambiguous, or undocumented."
Prof Salovey cites his own family heritage - his grandparents, he says, were uneducated immigrants and education lifted their children out of poverty.
This, he says, is the American value he most wants to protect.
"We want to educate the world," he emphasises.
"I'm not willing to give up on that, and I will advocate as vigorously as I know how, to continue that tradition in all of our institutions of higher learning." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38695006 |
Barack Obama's last day as 44th president - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | From leaving a note for his successor on the Oval Office desk to giving a final speech. | null | Barack Obama spent his last day in the White House and as the 44th president of the United States.
He received his successor, Donald Trump, at the White House in the morning and boarded Air Force One one final time in the early afternoon to go spend some time in California. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699742 |
#WomensMarch against Donald Trump around the world - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A day after his inauguration, women around the world march to protest at Donald Trump's election. | In Pictures | President Obama may have been out of office for only one day, but it was enough for this woman to express her loss in London | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38703840 |
Lawro's Premier League predictions v Split star James McAvoy - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | BBC football expert Mark Lawrenson takes on actor James McAvoy in this weekend's Premier League fixtures. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson will be making a prediction for all 380 Premier League games this season against a variety of guests.
Lawro's opponent for this week's Premier League fixtures is actor James McAvoy, star of new film 'Split'.
McAvoy is a Celtic fan and says he grew up supporting them for many reasons.
"I think your choice of football club quite often is not your choice," he told BBC Sport. "It is thrust upon you by your family, wherever you grew up, or sometimes even your religion, so it is a kind of environmental thing that you just soak up.
"That is why I am a Celtic fan but why I enjoy being a Celtic fan is different and I have much more power over that.
"In London, I keep an eye on Arsenal but I am not really an Arsenal fan. I am more of a plastic Gooner just because I used to live two doors away from the East Stand when they played at Highbury.
"That was amazing. When I couldn't get tickets, which was quite often, I would be able to watch the game on TV, open the windows and turn the sound down, and just have the roar of the crowd in the background."
You can make your Premier League predictions now, compare them with those of Lawro and other fans by playing the BBC Sport Predictor game.
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
Last week, Lawro got four correct results, including one perfect score, from 10 Premier League matches. That gave him a total of 70 points.
He beat UFC star Michael Bisping, who got three correct results, with no perfect scores, for a total of 30 points.
All kick-offs 15:00 GMT unless otherwise stated.
James McAvoy's prediction: I am looking for a thriller. 3-3
James McAvoy's prediction: I still keep an eye on Arsenal, and they just surprise you every now and again with the most ridiculous result. I am going to be positive here, though, and say they will take Burnley apart. 3-0 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38632703 |
Week in pictures: 14-20 January 2017 - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A selection of the best news photographs from around the world, taken over the past week. | In Pictures | Ice skaters competed in the women's platoon during the first ice skating marathon on natural ice in Noordlaren, the Netherlands. Skating on natural ice in the Netherlands reportedly dates back into the 13th Century when it was a method to get fast and easily from one place to another on the frozen canals in the country. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-38688378 |
Trump inauguration speech: 'Angry', 'authentic', 'primal' - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Conservative commentators react to Trump's speech online. | US & Canada | Donald Trump campaigned on becoming a president unlike any Washington has ever seen. With his inauguration speech, he's already set the tone.
Earlier this week, Trump posted a photo of himself sitting at a desk at Mar-a-Largo, a permanent marker hovering over a notepad.
"Writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago, three weeks ago. Looking forward to Friday," he tweeted.
It's unclear whether the president-elect actually wrote the speech himself, but the content was pure Trump: the same populist message that resonated throughout the primaries and the campaign.
"Today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people," he said at the beginning of his remarks.
For some on Twitter, it bore an eerie similarity to the Batman villain Bane's speech in The Dark Night Rises, so much so that someone posted a 10-second mash-up of the two.
But such snarky reactions, warned Fox News commentator Guy Benson, underestimate how popular his rhetoric is with Trump supporters.
"People panning the speech still don't seem to understand how resonant the 'I will never ignore you' theme has been, and still is," he wrote, referencing Trump's many callouts to those who feel left out of American progress.
Trump spoke of a country whose citizens had too long been ignored by the coastal elite: "Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land."
He painted a picture of a broken and damaged country, dotted with rusting-out factories "like tombstones", city streets plagued with "crime and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives," and the wealth of the middle class "ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world".
It was an unusually bleak speech for an inaugural address.
According to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, the speech was not intended to follow tradition: "Donald Trump's speech was not an inaugural address. It was a primal scream aimed at Washington, DC."
Author Hugh Hewitt called it "authentic, determined, almost grim". He wrote, "I expected more joy, but it cannot be said that POTUS @realDonaldTrump said anything he hasn't said before. He has a plan and it's going to roll out fast."
Others were sceptical of the breadth of those plans. Trump said the country was poised to "free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow", as well as "eradicate from the face of the Earth" radical Islamic terrorism.
Writer Ben Shapiro expressed doubt about Trump's plans to both take power away from DC, and use his position as President to steer trade and create jobs.
"These cannot both be true," he wrote.
Many also noted that it's easy to campaign as an outsider, railing about America's problems, but harder to lead, when one must find solutions.
"After three months in which Trump is president and it's still the same Washington, that speech is going to seem wildly imprudent," wrote Noah Rothman, assistant editor at Commentary Magazine.
Commentator Mary Katherine Hahn thinks voters aren't interested in sweeping rhetoric. "I am unabashedly ideological. The country is not. His message is populist & popular. His opponents dismiss that at their political peril."
Pollster Frank Luntz said President Trump seemed to pivot, if not in tone then at least in substance: "President Trump's inaugural speech was the best delivery I've ever seen from him."
A more well-known conservative kept mum on his opinion. When the Washington Post asked George W Bush what he thought of the speech, he merely replied, "Good to see you."
One high-profile Twitter user was an unabashed fan. Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke tweeted multiple times in favour of Trump's speech. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38697908 |
Mild panic greets Trump digital transition - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As Obama moves out the White House, he today also gives up key online real estate - a move already creating controversy. | Technology | President Trump's first tweet on the @POTUS account showed this image
Much is written about the Herculean effort to move one family out of the White House and a new family in within the space of just a few hours.
But in our modern age, the digital moving trucks must also roar into action, as prime presidential online real estate gets a makeover, and eight years of President Obama's social media chat is confined to the national archives.
Let’s start with WhiteHouse.gov, the official website for the President, which as of noon Friday, has a brand new look - and has already provoked mild panic.
Many noted that pages about climate change were swiftly deleted. So too were pages about LGBT rights and various science policies.
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Pages about everything were deleted as what was essentially Obama’s homepage was replaced with Trump’s.
That means posts about any former policy positions no longer exist on the White House website if you follow the original links.
So while the web address pointing to the White House’s position on climate change no longer works, the same can be said about Obama’s pages relating to the economy. Unpredictable as he is, no-one is suggesting Donald Trump is about to describe “money” as a hoax.
That said, on the new whitehouse.gov, a search for “military” will yield 154 results. “Climate change”? None.
Nervous internet sleuths have found one reference to climate change, a promise to lift the "harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rules".
Make of that what you will. People on Twitter certainly are.
Also wiped clean was the White House's petition website. On Friday, by 4pm in DC, only two petitions were posted on the site. The first demanded the release of the President's tax returns. The other demanded he put his businesses in a blind trust. If either petition gets 100,000 signatures, the White House has to provide a response - at least, that was the rule the previous administration set itself.
Trump reportedly gave up his cell phone upon assuming the presidency
Speaking of which, it’s all change on Twitter too.
From today @POTUS - President of the United States - has been taken over by the Trump team. All previous tweets from Obama’s team - and Obama himself - have been deleted from that account, but archived under @POTUS44. The 44 relating of course to the fact Obama was the 44th US President.
The tweets were not, as a smattering of people blurted out, “deleted by Trump” once he had control of the account.
Twitter removed them - and that's because scrubbing the account of Obama’s tweets is a smart move for everyone involved. Had Twitter left the old tweets in place you’ll find yourself seeing people retweeting Obama’s words but with Trump’s identity attached, a recipe for misinformation disaster.
Trump’s first tweet on @POTUS posted a picture and a link to his inaugural address - the full text of which was posted on Facebook. Is Trump having a change of heart over his social network of choice?
Maybe. Facebook certainly offers the chance to speak more clearly at length, and, as the leader of the free world, it would be more useful to post to an audience of almost two billion rather than Twitter’s rather limited 300m.
We won’t know for sure until about 3am, DC time, tomorrow morning. Everyone will be surely waiting for those twilight hours to see if the President springs back into life posting his thoughts on his own personal account, @realDonaldTrump.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38699809 |
Bulls and bullying: the fight over animal rights and tradition - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Animal rights activists caught in social media cross-fire regarding banned bull-taming tradition. | BBC Trending | Tamil actress Trisha Krishnan deleted her Twitter account as a result of a row over bull-taming
A ban on the ancient practice of bull-taming has spurred thousands to protest in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. While the demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, the argument over the festival has turned ugly online.
This week around 4,000 protesters camped out on a beach in the state's capital, Chennai (Madras) - with hundreds more gathering in other parts of the state.
The crowd, who are mostly students, are against India's ban on Jallikattu, a 2,000 year old bull-taming tradition, which takes place as part of an annual harvest festival.
Bull-taming involves men chasing and removing prizes tied to the bull's horns. Animal rights activists argue it's abusive and results in mistreatment of the animals, but protesters contend the practice central to Tamil identity and that the bulls are rarely harmed or killed.
The men participating in Jallikattu attempt to grab prizes attached to the bull's horns
Jallikattu was banned by India's supreme court in 2014, a ruling that was upheld in 2016. The lawsuit that led to the ban was filed by animal rights groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). And as protests against the ban have spread, PETA activists and supporters have found themselves targeted on social media.
"I have been threatened with rape I'm called all sorts of names which I can't repeat," says Poorva Joshipura, CEO of PETA India.
"The general public are being incited and influenced through lies and online bullying and fake news which has unfortunately become so common in our world today," Joshipura tells BBC Trending radio.
She takes particular issue with memes containing false personal information which have been shared online.
"One is a picture of me wearing my vegan boots (footwear made without leather or any animal ingredients), boots that I really like a lot. The meme falsely says that the boots are made of leather," Joshipura says. "I have been campaigning against the leather industry for years."
Hear more on this story on the BBC World Service.
The Indian film actress Trisha Krishnan has also been caught up in the debate. In 2010, Krishnan worked on a PETA campaign. Reports on social media suggested that she had tweeted, and then deleted, her support of a Jallikattu ban.
One of the social media posts spreading about the actress was a fake obituary claiming she had died of HIV.
The faked obituary poster of Trisha Krishnan lists cause of death as "HIV affected" - insinuating that the actress is sexually promiscuous. It also calls her father a "poramboku" (wastrel) and her mother a "peethasirukki" (boastful woman).
In response, Krishnan first denied that she supported the ban and later deactivated her Twitter account, releasing a statement saying: "I'm a proud Tamilian by birth and I believe and respect the Tamil culture and tradition and I will never go against the sentiments of my own people who have been instrumental in my growth and stature."
Krishnan declined a request by BBC Trending for an interview. Her spokesperson told us that "PETA and Trisha are separate", stressing that the actress had only collaborated with the group on one campaign.
Bull tamers must hold on to the animal's hump for about 15-20 metres or three jumps of the bull to win a prize
Krishnan wasn't the only high profile person targeted on social media. The actor Vishal also received online backlash for being a supporter of PETA, and subsequently deactivated his Twitter profile.
False allegations that the PETA India CEO Poorva Joshipura wears leather boots have been circulating online
The pictures and rumours have been spread by groups such as Chennai Memes, a politically active viral marketing agency which made up the leather boots rumour about Poorva Joshipura.
Gautam Govindaram, one of the founders of Chennai Memes, defended the group's decision in creating the meme, telling BBC Trending: "I'm sure she has at least one product that is made of leather. She can't say that she has never used any product in her lifetime that has not been made of leather. I can be 100% sure I mean if she's born and she's one year old or two years old she must have come across with something made of leather."
Operating primarily on Facebook, Chennai Memes create around 20 memes a day, often referencing local and national political and social issues.
The group were cited by local media as being key to galvanising and mobilising the youth-led protests over the Jallikattu ban - creating shareable posters and spreading information on dates and timings of events through their Facebook page, which has more than 600,000 fans.
Govindaram added that the group was not behind the memes targeting the actress Trisha Krishnan.
"It's not exactly only us, it's the entire people here in the state of Tamil Nadu who are making a stand," he says. "Why should an organisation from another country come here, tell us about our traditions and why do they have the government of India in the palm of their hand?"
A number of villages in Tamil Nadu are reported to have defied the Jallikattu ban and held bull-taming events this week. And other prominent South Indian film stars, like Rajinikant and Kamal Haasan, have expressed their support of the sport.
Next story: The Instagram star who cuts Michelle Obama's hair
Johnny Wright has several celebrity clients but perhaps none is as famous as the former First Lady. READ MORE
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38656721 |
France's Socialists open battle for party's future - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | France picks its Socialist presidential nominee in a fight for the party's direction, even its survival. | Europe | Seven candidates are vying for the Socialist nomination, including one woman, Sylvia Pinel
France is choosing its left-wing presidential candidate this weekend, in what is seen as a crucial test for the direction - even the survival - of the governing Socialist Party.
Six men and one woman are competing for the nomination, with former Prime Minister Manuel Valls currently seen as the frontrunner. But will this contest go any way to uniting a Left bitterly divided by five years in power, and a president too unpopular to seek a second term?
With the tide out, the muddy inlet of Saint-Brieuc seems to sleep in the watery afternoon sun. Its shore deserted but for two Portuguese men picking their way along the sand, looking for worms.
The northern coast of Brittany has until recently been a staunch Socialist area
Above them, a small, green-topped lighthouse sits on the rocks, and basking in the wan sunlight at its foot is a local pensioner, Patrick Labbe.
"This is a left-wing stronghold," Patrick told me. "But that's less and less the case. The Socialist Party has been a disaster on social issues - just look around Saint-Brieuc and you'll see so much destitution."
Saint-Brieuc sits on the northern coast of Brittany; one of the most reliably Socialist regions in France, and a source of support for left-wing candidates seeking to win the first round of the primary contest on 22 January.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
But Patrick says attitudes are changing: "I voted for [President] Hollande, and like a lot of French I'm disappointed."
"The Socialist Party will struggle to pick itself up. There's a lot of abstention. People are turning to the extremes, in particular Marine Le Pen. Those who are really disappointed want a big change."
Sparking interest in this primary is seen as crucial to reviving the chances of France's governing party, and uniting a scattered field of candidates on the left.
As Patrick Labbe headed home on his bicycle, Manuel Valls was arriving at a local factory a few kilometres away, to drum up some support.
Peering into the cabs of armoured cars, as men in blue overalls applied the finishing seals, Mr Valls seemed as coolly polite as the atmosphere itself, the workers barely glancing up as their former prime minister passed by.
Manuel Valls (R) is currently favourite but Arnaud Montebourg (L) is seen as one of his two main challengers
Mr Valls is the favourite to win the left-wing nomination - seen as more authoritative and experienced, according to one poll, if a little remote.
But after serving as prime minister to France's least popular post-war president, and forcing through some of the government's most hated liberal reforms, his challenge has been to reinvent himself as a unifier of the Left.
Since launching his campaign, the former prime minister has reversed his position on key issues like labour rights, and the government's use of the constitution to bypass parliament.
One opinion poll suggested Benoit Hamon (R) could win the nomination if he went through to the run-off
Perhaps it's no surprise, given the strong competition from party rebel Arnaud Montebourg, who has been snapping at his heels for weeks. A former industry minister, who was sacked after refusing to support Mr Valls's liberal reforms, he's promised an end to austerity and more investment.
And in the past couple of days, hard-left candidate, Benoit Hamon, has surged from behind to challenge Mr Montebourg for a place in the primary run-off on 29 January. Among his core proposals are a monthly payment of €750 (£650; $800) to every French citizen, regardless of income; and the legalisation of cannabis.
A fourth Socialist party candidate and former education minister, Vincent Peillon, is trying to catch up with them with plans to revamp Europe, lower taxes on the poor and invest in green technology.
Three hopefuls from other left-wing parties are currently trailing well behind: Sylvia Pinel (Radical Party of the Left), Jean-Luc Bennahmias (Democratic Front) and Francois de Rugy (Ecology party).
Far-left Jean-Luc Melenchon (L) and Emmanuel Macron are both polling ahead of all the Socialist candidates
But the real competition could come from outside the primary itself, because two of the Left's most popular politicians aren't even taking part.
Jean-Luc Melenchon is running for the presidency on his own, far-left ticket, and could pose a real challenge to candidates like Mr Montebourg or Mr Hamon, should they win.
And then there's Emmanuel Macron, the renegade protege of President Hollande, who resigned from his ministerial post to launch a new political movement called En Marche, promising liberal values and a fresh approach to politics.
His growing appeal among young voters has surprised many sceptics who initially wrote him off as a "champagne bubble" that would quickly burst.
These days his presidential campaign attracts crowds in their thousands, where the leading primary candidates manage only hundreds.
Mr Macron classes his movement as "neither left nor right" but his centrist agenda is attracting many formerly Socialist voters.
The truth about this primary contest is that whoever wins the nomination could quickly find themselves face to face with the real battle for the Left.
Follow BBC News coverage on the French presidential election campaign here
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38676370 |
Meet the mum with quadruplet toddlers - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Meet the mum to quadruplets who went viral after sharing a video that 'sums up motherhood'. | Education & Family | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ashley and Tyson Gardner had two sets of identical twins by IVF
What is it like being the mother of quadruplets?
Utah couple Ashley and Tyson Gardner had struggled to conceive for eight years, but they eventually had two sets of identical twin girls by IVF treatment.
A photo of Ashley holding the ultrasound scans had already attracted huge attention online so shortly after the girls' second birthday, she posted a video on YouTube, that went viral, to show what her everyday life is like.
The film, suitably called "Sums up motherhood in 34 seconds", shows Ashley having a brief break from the constant job of looking after her children by sneaking into in the pantry and treating herself to a stick of red liquorice.
"They don't ever go away. They want everything you have," she says in the video and to prove her point, after only a few seconds, one of her daughters peeks under the door and calls out to her.
The couple have a large social media following and their pages are littered with photos of smiling babies, but when they were told they were going to have four children at once, they did not know what to think.
"When we first found out we were having quadruplets, it was pure terror and pure joy at the same time," Ashley explained.
"The doctors said we only had a 40% chance of having one baby, so to have all four to come at once was a huge blessing and a huge miracle.
"The odds of both eggs splitting are literally one in a million.
"But I didn't know anyone who'd had quadruplets. I didn't know if it was physically possible for a woman, I knew nothing about it.
"I had vertigo and morning sickness for the first 16 weeks. I couldn't eat anything and I lost 20 pounds in my first trimester.
"My body hurt, my bones hurt and my hips would dislocate every time I rolled over."
In order to support the family, the couple run four businesses from home.
"We work when the girls are asleep - during their naptime and then after they go to bed, until one or two in the morning, every single night.
"It's really helpful we both work from home, because every other morning one of us takes the girls and the other gets to sleep in.
"Having quads was expensive in the first months.
"They were on a high-calorie formula that cost $25 (£20) a can and needed lots of nappies."
The couple's social media fans helped to ease the expense.
"My heart was truly touched by the amount of nappies and baby outfits that turned up by our door when they were born," she said.
"There really are amazing, kind, good people out there and I'm so grateful to those who follow our story and love these babies."
Ashley and Tyson regularly blog and vlog about their children's progress.
"When my pregnancy announcement went viral, so many people prayed for me and my babies. Now I feel it's my duty to show these people what they prayed for," she explained.
Ashley insists that she goes about her daily life "like anybody else, it just takes a bit longer".
"We do everything times four. We take them shopping with us and load them into the car several times a day.
"Just because there are four of them, we can't let that stop us living our lives. We don't just stay at home."
Ashley described the "special relationship" that the toddlers share.
"There are four of them and they work together to conspire against you, which is really funny. They're definitely tearing the house down.
"Each set of twins has their 'own language' and talk to each other.
"If one girl steals a toy from another one, her twin will steal it back for her. They protect one another."
At times, the quads can be overwhelming for Ashley and Tyson.
"We're first time parents and we're learning as we go like anyone else. There are definitely anxieties.
"Not many people have raised four toddlers at the same time so you're kind of on your own.
"I feel like we're doing a good job. Just the fact that there's four of them and they're all healthy and happy and growing and thriving is an amazing miracle to science and to God." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38690621 |
Liverpool 2-3 Swansea City - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | Swansea lift themselves off the bottom of the Premier League table with a thrilling victory at title-challenging Liverpool. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Swansea lifted themselves off the bottom of the Premier League table and dealt a huge blow to Liverpool's title hopes with a thrilling win at Anfield.
Gylfi Sigurdsson scored from close range with 16 minutes left to give Paul Clement his first win as Swans boss and the club their first away league victory over the Reds.
Roberto Firmino had struck twice to draw the hosts level after Fernando Llorente's two goals in four minutes after the break.
The defeat leaves Liverpool seven points behind leaders Chelsea, who now have a game in hand, at home against Hull on Sunday.
The Tigers are one of three teams, along with Sunderland and Crystal Palace, leapfrogged by Swansea, who move up to 17th after only their second win in eight league games.
In the wake of last weekend's demoralising 4-0 defeat by Arsenal, Clement said Swansea would be "naive" to ignore the possibility of Premier League relegation this season.
On the evidence of their performance at Anfield, it would be equally naive of anyone to write them off.
In the space of seven days they have gone from a side who collapsed at the first setback to one capable of rallying under extreme pressure.
Their first-half defensive display - which saw them restrict Liverpool to a couple of half-chances - belied their status as the club with the division's most porous defence.
Their second-half performance was clinical, epitomised by Llorente's two strikes - a close-range finish following Federico Fernandez's header from a corner, followed by a header from Tom Carroll's cross - and Sigurdsson's decisive, well-placed finish. These were their only three efforts on target.
It was also gutsy. They had to dig very deep against a side who, before Saturday, were unbeaten in the league in over a year at home and who had scored 26 goals in their previous nine league games.
In the programme for this match, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp described October's encounter with Swansea in Wales - a 2-1 win sealed by a late James Milner penalty - as "one of the toughest we have had all season."
The German may feel the need to revise that after Saturday's game.
Despite having Philippe Coutinho back in the side - and ending the game with Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge on the pitch - the Reds were short of attacking invention and strength in the absence of Sadio Mane, who is at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal.
Their failure to move the ball quickly enough in the first half meant they did not properly test Swansea's packed defence.
And while Firmino scored his first goals in six games - the first a header from Milner's cross, the second a fierce finish after he had chested down Georginio Wijnaldum's delivery - a total of five shots on target and an Adam Lallana deflected effort against the bar is scant product from nearly 75% possession.
With this result coming after successive away draws at Sunderland and Manchester United, the Reds are in danger of allowing a title challenge to slip away before February has even begun.
Their next game, at home to the league leaders, is now surely a must win.
What the managers said...
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "It's hard to accept. In the first half we created four or five chances which we didn't take.
"The start of the second half we were poor and then we played brilliantly and scored two. Then we were a bit passive and one player was alone in our box, which is completely senseless.
"The most disappointing moment was the third goal and I can't explain it as we had so many chances to challenge.
"It's really difficult to accept at this moment. It is fair Swansea won, no - but was it deserved, yes."
Swansea manager Paul Clement: "We frustrated Liverpool and defended really well. We showed great togetherness and it was a massive team effort.
"At half-time I told the players we would get at least one chance, but to get three was unbelievable.
"It's very important for the confidence of the side that we can come to a big team and get a result. We need to work hard on the training pitch and make sure we get another result in 10 days' time."
Reds first to 50 goals - the stats you need to know
• None Liverpool's unbeaten Premier League run at Anfield has ended after 17 matches (11 wins, six draws).
• None Firmino has scored three goals in his past two Premier League games against Swansea.
• None Llorente has now scored eight Premier League goals but his first two away from home.
• None Liverpool conceded three goals at Anfield in a league game for only the second time under Klopp.
• None The Reds are the first Premier League team score 50 goals this season, while Swansea are the first to concede 50 (both now on 51).
• None Swansea have won back-to-back away league games in the same season for the first time since May 2015.
Liverpool will attempt to overturn a 1-0 deficit when they host Southampton in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg on Wednesday (kick-off 20:00 GMT). The Reds then welcome Wolves to Anfield in the FA Cup fourth round on 28 January (12:30), before another home game - the big one in the Premier League against Chelsea - at 20:00 on 31 January.
Swansea's involvement in the FA Cup ended in the last round so their next game is at home against Southampton in the Premier League on 31 January (19:45).
• None Substitution, Swansea City. Jay Fulton replaces Leroy Fer because of an injury.
• None Offside, Liverpool. Dejan Lovren tries a through ball, but Divock Origi is caught offside.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Leroy Fer (Swansea City) because of an injury.
• None Leroy Fer (Swansea City) has gone down, but that's a dive.
• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Divock Origi with a headed pass.
• None Attempt missed. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick.
• None Attempt missed. Adam Lallana (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Daniel Sturridge.
• None Attempt missed. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38620045 |
Trump inauguration: Compare 2017 with 2009 - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It's been eight years since a new president took the oath of office at the US Capitol. Here's some side by side comparisons of Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 and Donald Trump's in 2017, | US & Canada | It's been eight years since a new president took the oath of office at the US Capitol.
Here are some side-by-side comparisons of Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 and Donald Trump's in 2017.
App users should tap here to fully explore the interactive images. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38682574 |
Bake Off: Angus Deayton to present Creme de la Creme - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Angus Deayton will take over from chef Tom Kerridge as host of the Bake Off spin-off. | Entertainment & Arts | Deayton previously hosted Have I Got News For You
Angus Deayton is to host Great British Bake Off spin-off Creme de la Creme.
The show, for professional pastry chefs, is staying on the BBC despite the main show moving from BBC One to Channel 4.
The first series, broadcast on BBC Two in 2016, was hosted by chef Tom Kerridge.
Deayton is best known as a former presenter of topical quiz Have I Got News For You. He was sacked from the show in 2002.
The show will see 10 teams of chefs competing in tasks to make perfect pastries and spectacular showpieces.
Deayton will be joined on the Love Productions show by judges Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham, London.
Tom Kerridge had taken on presenting duties for the debut series
Love Productions' executive producer Kieran Smith said: "We're delighted Angus has taken up the baton to host the new series.
"His distinct humour and presenting style brings a fresh dynamic to the show."
The show will return to BBC Two later this year.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
• None Bake Off format 'to stay the same'
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38688912 |
Brexit: Berlin business leaders unimpressed with UK's message - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | An appeal over a post-Brexit trade deal was met with sniggers in Berlin, Damien McGuinness writes. | Business | Two British officials failed to win favour from German business leaders in Berlin
The distinguished audience members were too polite to heckle. But the eye rolling, frowns and audible tutting made it quite clear how the Brexiteers' message was going down with German business leaders.
Owen Paterson, a former minister and Conservative MP, and John Longworth, co-chair of Leave Means Leave, came to Berlin on Saturday with a clear mission - to persuade German business leaders to lobby Chancellor Angela Merkel to give Britain a good trade deal.
They should have been on safe territory.
The two men are confident, witty speakers with impressive business and free-trade credentials.
Mr Longworth is a former head of the British Chamber of Commerce. Mr Paterson's years spent trading in Germany meant he could open his address with a few remarks in German - which drew an appreciative round of applause - and a well-judged joke about multilingual trade.
But it turned out they had entered the lion's den.
The laughter from the audience quickly turned to sniggers as they heard the UK described as "a beacon of open, free trade around the world".
Westminster's decision to leave the world's largest free trade area does not look like that to Germany.
When Europe was blamed for spending cuts and a lack of British health care provision, there were audible mutters of irritation from the audience.
The occasional light-hearted attempts at EU-bashing - usually guaranteed to get a cheap laugh with some British audiences - was met with stony silence.
Brexiteers argue German manufacturers will want to still sell to UK customers
In another setting - at another time - this gathering of the elite of Germany's powerful business community would have lapped up the British wit.
Every ironic quip would ordinarily have had them rolling in the aisles. But British charm does not travel well these days.
Rattled by the economic havoc Brexit could unleash, Germans are not in the mood for gags.
Britain used to be seen by continentals as quirky and occasionally awkward - but reliably pragmatic on the economy.
However, since the Brexit vote, Europeans suspect endearing eccentricity has morphed into unpredictable irrationality. The UK has become the tipsy, tweedy uncle, who after too much Christmas sherry has tipped over into drunkenly abusive bore.
When the audience was asked how many of them welcomed Brexit, only one hand went up - and it turned out that belonged to a businessman who wanted more EU reform and was fed up with Britain slowing things down.
Brexiteer rhetoric over the past year has often focused on the size of Britain's market and how keen German manufacturers are to sell to British customers.
Many leave campaigners remain convinced that German business leaders will force Mrs Merkel to grant the UK a special free trade deal in order not to lose British trade.
But that's not what's happening.
Angela Merkel has said Britain will not be able to cherry-pick the best bits of the single market
Instead German firms are remarkably united in their support of the chancellor in her rejection of British "cherry-picking" - even if it means losing business in the short-term.
When you talk to German bosses they say their top priority is in fact the integrity of the single market, rather than hanging on to British customers.
That's because their supply chains span across the EU.
A German car might be designed in Germany, manufactured in Britain, with components made in various parts of eastern Europe, to be sold in France. This only works if there are no cross-border tariffs, paperwork or red tape.
German companies - more often family-owned and with deeper connections to their regional heartlands - tend to look at the wider picture, sometimes thinking more long-term.
They supported Mrs Merkel on sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, even though that meant a blow to trade. The financial hit was deemed less bad for business than worsening unrest in nearby Ukraine.
The same calculations are being made over Brexit.
Theresa May's speech on Brexit last week made front page news in Germany
This doesn't mean German business is thinking politically, and not economically. But rather, it indicates a wider attitude towards how business can thrive long-term.
German business leaders tell you that the British market may be important. But it is only one market, compared to 27 markets in the rest of the EU.
Leave campaigners also still underestimate the political and historical significance of the EU for Germany, where it is seen as the guarantor of peace after centuries of warfare.
It is tempting to see the clashes between Westminster and the EU27 as one big decades-long misunderstanding of what the EU is.
An idealistic peace-project versus a pragmatic free-trade zone. This makes it even more ironic that London may reject the free-trade area it spent so much time creating.
Germany was shocked and saddened by the UK's vote to leave the EU. But the decision was quickly accepted in Berlin.
"The Brits never really wanted to be members of the European Union anyway," is something you often hear these days.
Many Germans now want to just work out a solution that does the least amount of harm to the European economy. Hence the irritation in Germany when British politicians keep rehashing the pre-referendum debate.
"It was frustrating to hear the same old arguments from the referendum campaign," one business leader told me when I asked him what he had thought about Saturday's discussion.
Germany has moved on, he said. Maybe Britain should too.
The Brexiteers might not have persuaded their audience in Berlin. But if they return to London with a better idea of the mood in Germany's business community, then the trip may well have been worthwhile. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38707997 |
Meet the British family spanning six generations - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | A family from Yorkshire is thought to be the only one in Britain with six generations alive at the same time. Grandmother Sue Godward and her daughter Niki Mellor spoke to 5 Live. | null | A family from Yorkshire is thought to be the only one in Britain with six generations alive at the same time.
There are 47 family members; the eldest is great-great-great grandmother Hilda Hanson, who is 103 and known as “little gran”.
The youngest, baby Finley, was born on Christmas Day.
Grandmother Sue Godward and her daughter Niki Mellor managed to baffle 5 live’s Eleanor Oldroyd with their confusing family tree.
This clip is originally from 5 live Breakfast on Saturday 21 January 2017. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38704598 |
Utah couple's life transformed by quadruplets - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | Ashley and Tyson Gardner had two sets of identical twins by IVF. | null | When Ashley and Tyson Gardner found out they were going to have quadruplets, a photo of Ashley holding the ultrasound scans went viral.
The couple, from Utah, had struggled to conceive for eight years, but they eventually had two sets of identical twin girls by IVF treatment.
"When we first found out we were having quadruplets, it was pure terror and pure joy at the same time," Ashley explained.
"The doctors said we only had a 40% chance of having one baby, so to have all four to come at once was a huge blessing and a huge miracle."
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38684920 |
World landmarks recreated with Lego - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | An artist has recreated more than 70 global landmarks using Lego bricks. | null | More than 70 famous world landmarks have been recreated with Lego.
The models were put together by professional Lego builder Warren Elsmore and feature a new exhibition at The Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire.
Mr Elsmore said each creation could take several months to build. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-38697427 |
Saido Berahino: Stoke complete deal to sign West Brom's 23-year-old striker - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | Stoke sign West Brom striker Saido Berahino for £12m on a five-and-a-half-year deal. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Stoke have signed West Brom striker Saido Berahino for a fee of £12m on a five-and-a-half-year deal.
The 23-year-old's contract had been due to expire at the end of the season, and the Baggies offered him a new deal for a third time in December.
He has not played since September and his relationship with the club had broken down since the 2014-15 campaign.
"I've had a tough two years but everything happens for a reason. I'm mentally stronger now," Berahino said
"Now I am finally here I just can't wait to start. For Stoke to show their faith in me is unbelievable," he added.
"On match fitness I am not there yet, but I am going to work hard to get myself back so I can help my new team-mates climb the table."
Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes said: "We've signed a young English striker who has already proven his ability in the Premier League.
"After a frustrating period he's now desperately keen to reignite his career and we look forward to seeing him do that with us."
Berahino reacted angrily to a bid from Tottenham being turned down on transfer deadline day in summer 2015 and two months later tweeted that he would never play for West Brom again under then-chairman Jeremy Peace.
And in January 2015, he scored four goals but barely celebrated in what was interpreted as a sign of his growing disillusionment at the Hawthorns.
Speaking after Saturday's 4-0 defeat by Spurs, West Brom boss - and former Stoke manager - Tony Pulis had said Berahino would not be sold "unless it is right for the club".
He added: "It has to be a two-way situation. That has always been the situation; we will not sell the lad because it suits him."
England Under-21 forward Berahino is the Potters' second signing of this transfer window after the loan deal for Derby keeper Lee Grant was made permanent. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38696547 |
Masters 2017: Barry Hawkins knocks out world number one Mark Selby to reach semis - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | England's Barry Hawkins denies world number one Mark Selby the Triple Crown by winning 6-3 to reach the Masters semi-final. | null | Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Barry Hawkins denied world number one Mark Selby the Triple Crown by winning 6-3 to reach the Masters semi-final.
World number 12 Hawkins, who was runner-up in 2016, took a lengthy opening frame before fellow Englishman Selby levelled with a 76 break.
Breaks of 63 and 60 gave Hawkins a 3-1 lead at the break before world champion Selby pipped him to the fifth frame.
It was 4-3 when Selby produced a superb 101 before Hawkins hit back to take the next two frames and seal victory.
He will play England's Joe Perry, who also produced a shock with a 6-1 win over world number six and 2011 champion Ding Junhui (China) in the last of the quarter-finals.
The world number nine had breaks of 55, 63 and then 127 in the seventh and final frame to secure the victory.
Earlier, Hawkins said his 6-1 opening-round win over former world champion and compatriot Shaun Murphy gave him extra belief going into Friday's match against Selby.
"I was quietly confident in my game, I played well against Shaun," he said.
"The last few times against Mark I've played him instead of playing the table, but today I managed to settle better and play the balls."
English defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Hong Kong's Marco Fu in Saturday's other semi-final.
Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app, or if you want to get involved yourself, read our Get Inspired guide. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38696872 |
Chelmsford Morris group's 'fit, mildly eccentric men' plea - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A decades-old Morris dancing group says it desperately needs "fit, mildly eccentric men" to join in order to keep going. | Essex | Chelmsford Morris was founded in 1972 and currently has about 30 members - but most are now women
A decades-old Morris dancing group says it desperately needs "fit, mildly eccentric men" to join in order to keep going.
Chelmsford Morris was founded in 1972 and currently has about 30 members.
However, the vast majority of members are now women and some male members are expected to retire soon.
Club bagman Celia Kemp said the the situation meant "the men of Chelmsford Morris may have to stop dancing in 2017 because of a shortage of dancers".
"Eccentricity is not a requirement but is usually the definition of a Morris dancer," says Celia Kemp
"The women's side is doing really quite well," she said. "They are going from strength to strength.
"But we really need some younger people to join. We have nine grown up sons between us and none of them have taken up Morris dancing.
"We would like people who have perhaps got fed up with the gym and who want to try something new - it is also such a good social life.
"Eccentricity is not a requirement but is usually the definition of a Morris dancer."
Dances usually involve six or eight men. But the club currently has seven male dancers who can perform most of the dances.
"That is really pushing it," says Ms Kemp, "because people have lives outside Morris and you need people in reserve." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38663448 |
Did ye get healed? - How Van Morrison's music helped me recover my life - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The former Beirut hostage John McCarthy explains how Van Morrison's music helped heal his life and inspire other writers | Entertainment & Arts | I have a special connection to an enigmatic Belfast man whose music crosses jazz, blues, folk and rock.
In the late 1980s, I was held hostage in Beirut. Of my five years in captivity, four were spent with the Irish writer Brian Keenan.
Stripped of virtually all external stimuli, we had to keep our minds and hearts going with memories.
Two lonely men, we shared things that had touched us - books, films and music.
Our soundscape then was as blank and depressing as the concrete walls of our cells. But music would emerge from our memories and we would hum snatches of songs as they came to us.
Brian talked of traditional Irish music and of the great Belfast musician Van Morrison.
I had never seen Morrison in concert but knew some of his hits - Brown Eyed Girl, Gloria and Moondance.
But as Brian spoke, I somehow I felt as though I had stood with him in a crowded Belfast concert hall watching Morrison leaning into the microphone as he sang one of his soulful ballads - or throwing himself about the stage like a wild man, overwhelmed by the power of the music.
Morrison is only a few years older than Brian and was born only a few streets away in East Belfast.
They went to the same school and came from the same modest backgrounds. Morrison's father had been a shipyard worker and they had grown up in near identical, small terraced houses. However, only a short walk away, was another world, a street lined with large villas called Cyprus Avenue.
Morrison wrote about it on a track on his seminal album, Astral Weeks. Brian took me to these streets for the first time to record a BBC radio documentary, Van Morrison and Me.
Two years ago, Morrison played a concert on Cyprus Avenue which Brian attended.
He dedicated the song "Motherless Child" to Brian, something he has never forgotten and which deeply moved him.
"It's a song which has a very special significance for me. Chained to a wall, never knowing if you were ever getting out, ever going home, your whole sense of who you were evaporated. And you felt lost and lonely, a bit like a motherless child," Brian said.
When I was finally released in 1991, I strove to come to terms with what had happened with the help of my girlfriend Jill Morrell, who had been campaigning constantly for my release.
We settled in a cottage in the Oxfordshire countryside and Morrison's music became a key part of our liberation soundtrack.
Jill and I tried to make sense of those extraordinary times, writing a memoir of my captivity and her campaign.
One song particularly touched us both, and that was Wonderful Remark.
I remember one night getting a magnifying glass to read the lyrics crammed onto the cassette's sleeve notes.
As I read, I was stunned. Morrison's words seemed to capture the emotional heart of our experience over the hostage years: "How can you stand the silence, that pervades when we all cry? How can you watch the violence that erupts before your eyes?"
How did he come to write that?
I had met Morrison once or twice since my release at charity events and hoped that personal connection might help persuade him to speak to me about his music.
So I was delighted when he agreed to meet me at the Culloden Hotel, a beautiful former bishop's palace on the outskirts of Belfast. When I asked him about Wonderful Remark, he told me that it was a song about hard times he had suffered in New York.
He was short of money and felt stranded, a situation which contrasts to mine. But we both experienced similar feelings of frustration and sadness, as Morrison explained: "It was a song about my circumstances but it was nothing compared to what you've been through. It was about people who were supposed to be helping you and they weren't there.
"It was about the business I'm in and the world in general. A lot of the times you can't count on anybody."
Brian took me from Cyprus Avenue to other locations which feature in Morrison's songs. Hyndford Street, where Morrison grew up and the nearby Beachie River.
Brian told me he used to go there as a boy with his father: "If we missed school, we'd go round there and catch frogs and newts. And it was a place where you could go courting where nobody could see what you were up to."
John McCarthy and Brian Keenan next to a mural celebrating Belfast's most famous musician
Ian Rankin is another writer who says he has been influenced by Morrison's music at an important moment in his life.
In his mid-20s he was living in London, frustrated that he was not making progress as an author.
He told me how, after suffering panic attacks, his doctor advised him to rest.
So he grabbed a handful of Van Morrison cassettes and caught a train up to Scarborough to reflect on his life.
"It's very personal music and I thought here's someone who understands something of what I'm going through, they've seen highs and lows," he said.
While Wonderful Remark is the stand-out Morrison song for me, Ian was most influenced at the time by tracks from Morrison's 1973 album Hard Nose the Highway: "What I learnt was something about ploughing your own furrow. Don't let the world get in the way, if you want to be a writer, be a writer."
Ian decided to move to France to concentrate on writing novels. He has since written 21 Inspector Rebus books and become a world-famous author.
Van Morrison - Sir Van Morrison now - is rightly regarded as one of the truly original songwriters and performers of his generation.
His official accolades include two Grammys and an Ivor Novello award. One song - Someone Like You - has appeared in no less than seven Hollywood movies.
But the real accolades are from the millions of people, like me, who have, time and time again, been moved by his songs.
When I asked him how he had managed to touch so many people's lives, he said it was about working with the natural talent with which he had been born.
"I think it comes from God, whatever that concept is. A lot of people are given gifts and they don't develop them. I thought because I was given this gift, I had to develop it."
You can listen to John McCarthy reflect on Van Morrison's influence on his life on BBC World Service at 14:06 GMT on Saturday or on demand afterwards via iPlayer Radio. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38601706 |
Us/Them play revisits Beslan school siege - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Belgian creators of a play, Us/Them, which relives the Beslan killings through the eyes of two children, say recent attacks have brought the story closer to home. | Entertainment & Arts | The 2004 Beslan school siege is remembered for the deaths of more than 330 people including 186 children, after a Russian school was seized by Chechen rebels. But the Belgian creators of a play, Us/Them, which relives the atrocity through the eyes of two children, say recent attacks have brought the story closer to home.
The actress Gytha Parmentier has now played Us/Them in three languages.
When the play opened in 2014 she was speaking in her native Flemish. Later she had to translate into French the words of her character - a young girl who dies in the Beslan siege.
Now she's making the one-hour piece work in English opposite Roman Van Houtven, the only other member of cast.
Last year the play was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival and it has now arrived at London's National Theatre.
"Acting in English, Roman and I had to learn to move our mouths in a very different way," she said. "But acting in a different language gives a new juiciness to what's in the script."
That script is by Carly Wijs, who also directs. She recalls the spark for the play came when her eight year-old son mentioned news coverage he'd just seen of the terror attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in 2013.
"Godfried had been watching the report on the children's news and I was struck by the way he described it. He spoke in a way which was almost aloof - at eight you're just becoming aware of things which are on your planet but not really of your own world of home and family.
"Then Bronks, which is a fantastic production company in Brussels, asked me for a theatre idea for children. So I thought I would break a taboo by writing about Beslan while borrowing Godfried's tone and his very objective manner."
In Belgium Wij/Zij has been listed as suitable for children of nine and above; in London the National Theatre pitches Us/Them for young people aged 12 and over.
The highly physical production is made for touring and the Dorfman stage at the National is almost bare apart from balloons and string.
The production avoids the off-putting cuteness which can trip up adult actors impersonating young children. The result is heart-breaking yet somehow heart-warming too.
The show may not strike theatregoers in advance as an obvious excursion for kids. But it's an unexpectedly charming hour in the theatre perfect for family viewing. However, the National has mainly programmed performances late in the evening which may be a bad call.
Wijs says her view of the events of 2004 was influenced by one TV documentary in particular.
"There was a beautiful BBC programme called Children of Beslan which was helpful: they spoke to many survivors. But our play isn't a documentary. It has to work for children who know nothing of Beslan and also for their parents who remember all that went on."
Parmentier says there are clear differences between how children and grown-ups react.
"Adults tend to laugh and cry in a different way: often the laughter is in relief when they think something horrible is about to happen on the stage and it doesn't.
"I think parents automatically work out a narrative arc in their minds but children are happy to switch their attention from one thing to another."
Wijs thinks for children almost the most horrifying thing is when the girl has to undress to her underwear because it's getting hot and stuffy in the school gymnasium.
"To them it's a nightmare but I suspect adults barely register the moment."
The play pre-dates last March's terror attacks in Brussels in which a total of 35 people died and hundreds were injured. Wijs lived in the Molenbeek district, a focus in the city of Islamist radicalisation.
"We haven't changed the play because of those bombings but if the Brussels attacks had come first I wonder if I could have created the play. I've just done another play in Brussels which is full of light and comedy - it's a reaction to the depressing times we live in.
But both women say they haven't ignored recent violence closer to home.
"In 2015 in Belgium we had a performance in Namur in (French-speaking) Wallonia, a few days after the Bataclan attack in Paris", says Parmentier.
"We and the theatre thought hard about whether we should cancel: would it be too hard to watch a play about so many people being killed? But instead the theatre arranged an audience discussion after the show and people were full of questions about what they had just seen. I think the play helped some of them process what had happened in Paris."
Us/Them is playing at the National Theatre until 18 February. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38695475 |
Donald Trump inauguration speech was ‘angriest ever’ - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | An expert in US politics has claimed President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech was the angriest he had ever heard. | null | An expert in US politics has claimed President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech was the angriest he had ever heard.
Dr Mike Cornfield, associate professor of Political Management at the George Washington University, told BBC Radio 5 live's Anna Foster he thought President Trump's address was “extraordinary for a man who did not win the popular vote and who did not fill this mall”. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699639 |
Global protests on Donald Trump inauguration day - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | Protests were held around the world as Donald Trump became the new president of the United States. | null | Protests were held around the world as Donald Trump became the new president of the United States. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699844 |
A message of hope at Washington march - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | More than half a million people demand to be heard a day after Donald Trump is elected. | US & Canada | For such a divisive figure, Donald Trump managed to unify hundreds of thousands of Americans at the Women's March on Washington.
Moments after Mr Trump was sworn in as the 45th president on Friday, he delivered a thundering speech in which he promised to improve the lives of millions of Americans.
A day later, throngs of women, men and children streamed into the same area where he made that pledge, in order to take a stand for gender and racial equality.
Though Mr Trump's named was mentioned frequently, the march, which organisers estimate attracted more than half a million, was not only about the new US president.
Messages ranged from "Thank you for making me an activist Trump" to "We will not be silenced," but the common thread throughout the patchwork of signs was hope.
"It's about solidarity and visualising the resistance," said Jonathon Meier, who took a bus from New York.
"And I think it not only helps with the healing process, but it gives me hope for the next four years."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Washington DC is leading anti-Trump protests around the world.
A sea of activists, some clad in knitted, pink "pussy" hats and others draped in American flags, ambled about the National Mall, stopping to catch a glimpse of some of the high-profile speakers and singing along to songs like "This Little Light of Mine".
Peppered among the many protest signs were images of ovaries and female genitals, a nod to concerns over losing access to birth control and abortion care under a Trump administration.
Jellema Stewart, who travelled from Buffalo, New York, said she was marching for her grandmother, who died at age 38 during an illegal abortion in the 1950s.
"I'm here to make sure her voice is heard," she said. "I marched in 2004 for reproductive rights and it's now 2017 and we're still fighting for the same thing."
Ms Stewart also said she was energised by thousands at the rally, insisting that it sends a message to the new president.
"He gave racism a voice again," she said of Mr Trump. "So we have to be louder than the racism and discrimination that came out of this election and show him that we are definitely a force. To show him that we count and we will be watching."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
All eyes across the world seemed to be watching, not only the march in Washington, but the dozens of other sister marches that took place in more than 60 countries.
Aerial images showed thousands massing in so-called "solidarity marches" in the UK, Canada, and Australia as well as in US cities including New York, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.
For demonstrator Chrystian Woods, the marches signalled that the US would not be defined by who was in White House.
"It's not about being anti-Trump," she explained.
"It's letting the world know that America is more than just that. America is love, inclusiveness and unity and that America is accepting people who are not like us."
"I believe deeply this country is for all of us," said Brooklyn resident Amy Briggs.
"I would have been very dejected yesterday if I wasn't able to be here and experience this solidarity," she said as a young female approached her to sign a rainbow flag.
The mood was festive among the peaceful protesters, but some were cautious about what comes after the pink hats come off.
Leigh Caputo, a Baltimore public school teacher, said she did not want people to think a march was the only solution.
"I'm hopeful that this [march] mobilises people because there's a lot of work to be done," said Ms Caputo.
In the months leading up to the event, the organisers faced intense scrutiny over claims that the name exploited past African-American movements and catered to white women.
Critics on Facebook told white women to "check their privilege", leading to heated discussions about racial divisions and what the march could achieve.
It is difficult to ignore the fact that 53% of white women did vote for Mr Trump while the female half of more than 90 million eligible voters did not cast a ballot at all. So what about the sea of white women at the march?
Lesley Mansfield, who travelled from Sante Fe, New Mexico, agreed that it was puzzling that so many women voted for Mr Trump.
"It's a reality we have to be aware of," she said. "But being here reminds us that there are people who think like we do - like the majority who voted for Hillary Clinton."
Those sobering statistics did not seem to loom over those in attendance on Saturday, and like the Trump supporters who stood in the same spot 24 hours earlier, they were full of hope for America's future. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38707986 |
Sorry cats, doggos run the internet now - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | After years of stability, we've recently we've seen signs of a dramatic shift in online governance. | Technology | This is Igor, a very good dog
Like many a BBC reporter before, I come to you with news of a coup, and perhaps the most significant transition of power you’ll read about this weekend.
Cats on the internet are over. Done. "Cheezburgers" are off the menu. Play yourself out, Keyboard Cat.
While in years past we’ve perhaps welcomed the charming cynicism of the likes of Grumpy Cat, it seems people of the internet are now, in stranger times, longing instead for the unconditional and unwavering love of dogs - and I have the highly subjective data to prove it.
Let’s start with Reddit. The top three posts of all time on its r/aww subreddit, the section for all things cuddly, are all about dogs.
"But wait!" you might say. "The fourth one is a cat!". Ah, but is it? It begins with a cat, but watch closely as it climbs out of its cage and into the one next to it. What does the cat find? A dog! That should be all the proof you need.
If it isn’t, here’s something a bit more concrete.
This is Gavin, a very good dog
Socialbakers is a company that monitors social media for trends and stats relating to things that are most popular. I got in touch with them about this, and within hours they came back to me with the goods.
For starters, the runaway champion of most popular animal on Facebook is a dog named Boo. He’s got more than 17.5m likes, more than double that of his closest competitor, Grumpy Cat.
In third place, Nyan Cat - who isn’t even a real cat, for crying out loud.
On Instagram, fine, I’ll admit, the top celebrity is a cat. But 2nd, 3rd and 4th place? All dogs. All good dogs.
When it comes to searches on Google, dogs .
But more significant was the historic moment on 3 January 2016, when, for the first time, the term "cute dogs" overtook "funny cats" in global searches.
Like any viral phenomena, there’s a new vocabulary to get your head around if you are to be a part of this new term of internet governance.
Dogs aren’t just dogs. They’re doggos. Puppies are puppers. And while not all puppers can be considered doggos, all doggos are most certainly puppers. Or woofers. Woofers that bork. If you want, you can boop a doggo’s snoot. That is - to lightly bop on one’s nose.
This is Loki, a very good dog
When in mild distress, or sometimes just for emphasis, their chosen curse word is the ferociously aggressive "heckin".
Oh, and if a dog sticks his or her tongue out a little bit? That's a blep.
Like any new language, the best way to learn is to engross yourself in the culture - and one fine place that speaks fluent doggo is the happiest corner of the internet, Facebook’s Cool Dog Group (CDG).
Here you’ll find the likes of Igor, who, let me tell you folks, is a born superstar, believe me.
Igor’s just one of hundreds of puppers posted every week, a most welcome addition to news feeds that would otherwise be clogged up with baby pictures and wedding photos. You’re welcome.
It’s the grassroots of doggo appreciation that has the movement set to make huge strides in 2017.
It’s being spearheaded by Matt Nelson, a 20-year-old who studies golf course management in North Carolina, and a man described by serious newspaper Washington Post as "the internet’s most famous dog rater".
Nelson runs the WeRateDogs account on Twitter. People submit dogs to be rated, and Nelson will consider the merits of said dog and provide a score out of 10.
Recent scores: 12/10 for Hercules, 13/10 for Duchess and 14/10 for Sundance who, in a short clip, plays the drums.
Late last year this generous but fair system was brought into disrepute by the user Brant, who questioned why all the dogs got such unfathomably high ratings.
"They’re good dogs, Brent," replied Nelson - an era-defining retort which you can now buy on a hoodie. Or a mug.
Since then, popularity has exploded. He now has over a million followers.
"We started up an e-commerce store," Matt tells me. "We have a book deal. So many things I thought you could never do with just a Twitter account."
You could say there’s plenty of data out there to suggest that I’m wrong, and that cats are still very much in control. And you’d be right - I found plenty evidence which completely disproves the theory I’ve outlined here, but I’ve left it out as I don’t care.
There was one piece from Gizmodo in 2015 that suggested there were scientific reasons to why cat memes were more popular online - but to that I say WRONG. Fake meows.
Because the web is just different now. Looking at cat pictures was a way to waste time by mucking about on the internet.
This is Zulu, a very good dog
Now, like the therapy dogs of the real world, internet doggos are supplying a much needed diversion from the humourless drudgery that makes up much of the modern social web.
"Dogs are just a pure innocent thing," Matt Nelson says. "They are the embodiment of unconditional love, and that’s what people want now.
"I see my account as this refuge of something bright on the internet."
And so that’s it. Sorry cats. You had a good run.
Before publishing, my editor told me I was brave to write to this piece.
"No no," I said. "Brave is allowing people to leave comments…"
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38702996 |
Donald Trump protests: 'Why I've decided to march' - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | As women globally take to the streets as part of a day of protests, Hannah tells us why she decided to march. | null | As women across the world take to the streets as part of a day of protests against Donald Trump, Hannah tells us why she decided to join them. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38707101 |
Women's March: Thousands join UK anti-Donald Trump marches - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | Thousands of people attend anti-Trump protests in London and Edinburgh. | null | Thousands of protesters have joined rallies in London and Edinburgh as part of an international campaign on the first full day of Donald Trump's presidency.
Organisers aim to highlight women's rights, which they perceive to be under threat from the new US administration.
The BBC's Sian Grzeszczyk was at the London protest. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38704266 |
Irish jockey Jack Kennedy performs amazing acrobatics to stay on horse - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | Irish jockey Jack Kennedy manages to stay on his horse Bilko despite almost being thrown off it at a meeting at Thurles. | null | Irish jockey Jack Kennedy manages to stay on his horse Bilko despite almost being thrown off it at a meeting at Thurles.
WATCH MORE: McCoy 'has breakfast every morning now'
Pictures courtesy of At The Races. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/38694316 |
Trump's @POTUS Twitter account used Obama crowd image - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Donald Trump's account is rapidly evolving after using an image of Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration | US & Canada | Donald Trump changed the image at the top of his new @POTUS account after Twitter users spotted it was from Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration.
Mr Trump inherited the official presidential account as he was sworn in as America's 45th president.
The original image showed flag-waving crowds in front of the US Capitol.
But it was changed about an hour later, amid claims from Mr Trump's opponents that crowds at his inauguration were not as large as in 2013.
Trump supporters on social media branded claims Mr Trump was trying to make his inauguration appear better-attended "pathetic" and a "non-story".
The header image has since changed again from a stock picture of an American flag to an image of the new president gazing out of a window.
Mr Trump's @POTUS account has gained millions of followers since its launch, as all 13.6m followers of Barack Obama's account - now archived at @POTUS44 - are in the process of being ported over to the new Trump account.
The new president's first tweet was a link to a Facebook post of the full text of his inauguration address.
His former twitter account still has more than 20m followers.
The header image was changed again shortly afterwards
Speaking ahead of the event, Mr Trump said his inauguration would have "an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout".
But the number of people who turned out to view his midday swearing-in appeared to be smaller than the estimated two million who turned out for Obama.
Images of the National Mall, taken from the top of the Washington Monument, showed sections of the white matting laid down to protect the grass were largely empty.
There will be no official estimate of the crowd's size to settle the issue.
Obama's 2009 inauguration (top) appeared to be better attended
For decades, the US National Park Service provided official crowd estimates for gatherings on the National Mall.
But the agency stopped providing counts after organisers at 1995's Million Man March threatened a lawsuit. They complained that the National Park Service undercounted attendance at the march.
More people turned out to witness Mr Trump and his entourage travelling along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House on Friday afternoon. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38698837 |
Picasso prints at Barnsley's Cooper Gallery - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 17 Picasso prints will be on show at a free exhibition until April. | Sheffield & South Yorkshire | Pablo Picasso visited South Yorkshire in 1950 for an international peace conference
An exhibition of original prints by world-renowned artist Pablo Picasso are to go on show at a museum in Barnsley.
The 17 linocut prints are on display from Saturday at a free exhibition at the town's Cooper Gallery.
The valuable prints are out on loan from the British Museum and were previously on display at the Lady Lever Art Gallery near Liverpool.
Barnsley-born Ian Macmillan has written a poem about a previous visit by the artist to South Yorkshire.
Mr Macmillan was inspired by Picasso's visit to Sheffield in 1950 for an international peace conference.
The Spanish artist is acknowledged to be one of the most important artists of the 20th Century.
He experimented with a wide range of styles and themes in his long career, most notably inspiring Cubism.
The prints are on loan from the British Museum for the first time
Picasso experimented with a wide range of styles and themes in his long career, most notably inspiring Cubism
The artworks at the gallery include prints showing the development of key Picasso prints including Jacqueline Reading that depicts the artist's wife, Jacqueline Roque.
Mr Macmillan said: "It shows the dynamic cultural times we're living through round here and that the town is becoming even more of an artistic and creative hub."
The Picasso prints are on show until 29 April.
Pablo Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-38687986 |
US President Donald Trump's first speech - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | It was 20 minutes long and touched on jobs, patriotism, rebuilding, radical Islam and winning. We have boiled it down to two and a half. | null | It was 20 minutes long and touched on jobs, patriotism, rebuilding, radical Islam and winning. We have boiled it down to two and a half. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38699839 |
Stoke City 1-1 Manchester United - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | Wayne Rooney becomes Manchester United's all-time leading goalscorer with a sensational stoppage-time free-kick that rescues a point at Stoke. | null | Last updated on .From the section Football
Wayne Rooney became Manchester United's all-time leading goalscorer with a sensational stoppage-time free-kick that rescued a point at Stoke.
Substitute Rooney curled in from the left-hand corner of the penalty box for his 250th United goal, one more than Sir Bobby Charlton.
Stoke looked set for a third straight Premier League win, clinging to a lead given to them when Juan Mata poked Erik Pieters' cross into his own net.
United wasted chances, hit the woodwork and were denied by Potters keeper Lee Grant.
But their 25th and final effort at goal preserved a 17-game unbeaten run, albeit if the dropped points mean they lose ground in the race for the top four.
They are three points behind fourth-placed Arsenal and 11 off leaders Chelsea, who both play on Sunday.
• None See how Rooney equalled Charlton's record in the FA Cup win over Reading
• None Follow reaction to all of Saturday's Premier League games
Rooney, so often the fulcrum of the United side since joining from Everton as an 18-year-old in 2004, has had to make do with a bit-part role under Jose Mourinho this season.
Indeed, this 546th appearance came from the bench, but still delivered a moment of history.
United had been frustrated for so long by Stoke's stoic defence and their own wastefulness, and a free-kick awarded just outside the home penalty area looked to be the visitors' last chance as five minutes of added time ticked down.
Rooney, largely ineffective since joining the action, looked prime to cross, but instead arced a wonderful, dipping, right-footed shot inside the far post past the previously unbeatable Grant.
The 31-year-old, who surpassed Charlton's England scoring record in 2015, beat the club mark that had stood since 1973 and gave United a point that looked to have gone.
'Wayne becomes a legend' - what they said
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney: "It means a hell of a lot. It is a great honour and I am very proud. It is difficult at the minute to be over-pleased because of the result, but in the grand scheme it is huge honour.
"It is not something I expected when I joined. I am proud and I hope there is more to come.
"The players who have played for this club have been world class."
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho: "The record is the record. It is the record of the biggest club in England and one of the biggest in the world. Before him the record belonged to a legend of English football. Now Wayne becomes a legend of Manchester United."
Former record-holder Sir Bobby Charlton: "I would be lying to say that I'm not disappointed to have lost the record.
"However, I can honestly say that I'm delighted for Wayne. He deserves his place in the history books.
"He is a true great for club and country, and it is fitting that he is now the highest goalscorer for both United and England."
Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson: "Wayne thoroughly deserves his place in the history books of this great club and I am sure that he will go on to score many more goals.
"Well done Wayne, I am absolutely delighted for you, you have been a great servant to this club and long may it continue."
Stoke City manager and former Manchester United striker Mark Hughes: "It is an outstanding record and won't be surpassed. It has taken 40-odd years for Sir Bobby's record to be broken which shows how high a mark it was."
• None This was only Rooney's second Premier League goal of the season after netting on the opening day against Bournemouth.
• None Of his 250 Manchester United goals, this was the 11th that had come in the 90th minute or after and the sixth scored from a direct free-kick.
• None 180 of his goals have come in the Premier League, with 39 in European competition.
• None 136 have been at home, 106 away and eight at neutral venues.
• None He has scored 193 with his right foot, 27 with his left and 30 with his head.
United frustrated until the last
Rooney's intervention was all the more dramatic given the struggles of his team-mates on a bitter afternoon in the Potteries.
United had almost all of the play - 65% of the possession, 25 efforts on goal to Stoke's six, almost a third of the game was played in City's defensive third - and yet the visitors could barely find a way through.
Soon after deflecting into his own net, Mata dinked over from close range with the goal at his mercy, while Grant made excellent saves from Marouane Fellaini and Paul Pogba.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was strangely subdued and on more than one occasion he opted to pass when an effort on goal looked the better option.
An isolated figure in the first half, the former Sweden forward gained more support in the second - Marcus Rashford providing pace and incision down the left, fellow substitute Jesse Lingard hitting the top of the crossbar.
It all looked to count for nothing until Rooney's late moment of magic gave the visitors a point they totally deserved.
Tireless Potters remain on the up
Despite the desperate disappointment of seeing victory snatched away, Stoke can take encouragement from further evidence of continued improvement.
As recently as 31 December, a five-game winless run had them only seven points above the relegation zone, but they have since won two and drawn one.
Conceding 32 in their first 19 matches, they have shipped only two in the past three - and on Saturday keeper Grant's brilliance was matched by Bruno Martins Indi, who put in a colossal performance at the heart of defence.
Though attacks were largely limited to counters, Marko Arnautovic created problems down the left and Peter Crouch was a handful for the United defence, despite playing a lone hand up front.
A day that began with new signing Saido Berahino being paraded on the pitch ultimately ended with a sucker punch, but realistically Stoke should see this as point gained rather than two dropped.
'We need to pick ourselves up'
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes: "We are disappointed but we need to pick ourselves up. We were within seconds of beating a very good Manchester United team.
"My only criticism to the guys is that we didn't keep the ball long enough. We are good enough to do that but we needed more care to get up the other end of the pitch.
"In the end we tried to protect what we had and I can't criticise what we did for the free kick."
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho: "It was a big game with two teams in the beginning trying to win. But after 25 minutes one team tried to win and the other tried to defend, which they did amazingly well.
"They showed great work-rate and did everything to try and stop us. We did everything well except in front of our target.
"We missed unbelievable chances. We hit the post, the keeper saves, we missed chances. The opposition goalkeepers are always amazing against us."
Out of the FA Cup, Stoke do not play again until 1 February, when they host Everton in the Premier League.
United have two games before then, holding a 2-0 lead when they travel to Hull in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final on Thursday and entertaining Wigan in the FA Cup on 29 January (16:00 GMT, live on BBC One).
• None Attempt missed. Giannelli Imbula (Stoke City) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Julien Ngoy.
• None Goal! Stoke City 1, Manchester United 1. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the top right corner.
• None Joe Allen (Stoke City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Jesse Lingard (Manchester United) hits the bar with a right footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
• None Attempt saved. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ander Herrera.
• None Attempt blocked. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Paul Pogba.
• None Attempt missed. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Jesse Lingard with a headed pass.
• None Attempt saved. Ander Herrera (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Jesse Lingard.
• None Attempt blocked. Daley Blind (Manchester United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Wayne Rooney with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38620111 |
Women's March: A united message spanning generations - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Thousands of men, women and children took part in the Women's March in London. | UK | "Stand united, we will never be divided," was the message chanted by the crowd as people marched through central London.
Cheers erupted every few minutes as the crowd held up placards to the beat of drum and bass music from a portable sound system.
"Girls just wanna have fundamental rights", "Women won't be trumped" and "Burn bras not bridges" were some of the messages directed at US President Donald Trump from the UK.
Women - and men - of all ages descended on the capital for the Women's March in London on the first full day of his presidency.
There was a united message from the crowd, who came with glitter on their faces and even fancy dress to take part in the two-mile walk.
Many were parents who said they wanted to send out a message for the next generation that they have a voice and can stand up for the women's rights they believe to be under threat from the new US administration.
Danae Savvidou said she had attended the march for her 10-month-old daughter
Mum-of-one Danae Savvidou, 25, travelled alone from Gloucestershire to London to take part in the event for the sake of her 10-month-old daughter.
She said: "She was born during the presidency of a man who openly supported women's rights and protected them.
"I feel like we've gone back 100 years and I feel sad for her generation.
"Donald Trump isn't presidential material. He's openly misogynistic and racist as well. I see America as a leader and partners in the Western world. He represents such a big nation.
"Our leaders over here are right wing as well. It's not going the right way for me.
"Brexit is a concern. I hope we protect the rights the EU offers, such as employment rights and maternity. These issues need to be spoken about. When a nation is doing badly, women suffer.
"Personally I want my daughter to see what I've done today to show you can do things to change the world and she does have the power."
It was a message which resonated with many other parents as they walked with their children in the fresh winter's air along Piccadilly.
The march had many parents attending with their children
Nancy Pegg, 39, a mum-of-two from south-west London, came along with her daughter Sophie, nine, who carried a yellow banner emblazoned with the words "Yes to equality".
She said: "This is about equality for girls not in a fortunate position.
"Trump is a concern but empowering women is the main motivation. I think it's important for my daughter to have a powerful voice and to know she can be a strong force.
"We live in a male-dominated world. I want to show her anything her brother can do, she can do too. There are no boundaries."
Although the event was labelled a Women's March, there were hundreds of men in the crowd showing their support.
Car horns beeped to galvanise the demonstrators who, in turn, greeted the drivers with cheers as the march progressed to its rally in Trafalgar Square.
The Raise Voices Choir motivated the protesters by singing "Don't let Trump get his way" to their own version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
Student Patrick Bone, from Shepherd's Bush, London, attended because he felt "progress made in the last decades is in threat of being eroded".
He added: "Trump's election signalled a rise of the populist right who look to blame economic problems on minorities or disenfranchised groups.
"His election was a catalyst for something that's been coming a long time.
"This march is to show we will stand and be counted. This is only the beginning. The work begins today."
Tom Amies, 33, a doctor from Middlesex, walked beside his wife Lydia, 34, as he carried their 11-month-old daughter Niamh in a baby carrier sling.
"This is for my daughter, he said.
"There has been a political slide to the right and a sense of misplaced trust. Trump wants to repeal Obamacare. It shows how good we have it with the NHS.
"There are going to be people there who have that healthcare for life-saving treatment and they will no longer be able to afford it."
Lydia Amie, husband Tom and daughter Niamh attended the march as a family
The demonstration brought representatives from all nationalities, including Americans who felt they needed to take a stand even though they were thousands of miles away from their country.
Retired banker Carol Moore, 68, originally from New York, came to represent the Democrats Abroad UK Women's Caucus.
She said: "I've come because of the horror of seeing Donald Trump win. He is divisive and will hurt the middle classes by repealing the healthcare act.
"This march has taken on huge visibility here in the UK because the issues are global. Women's pay was an issue when I worked in the City.
"There is still the issue of sexual violence and how it's prosecuted and handled here.
"I hope this is a message to women to recognise they have a voice to fight issues here in the UK and around the world."
Business development manager Anna McDermott, 29, originally from California, has been in the UK for 11 years.
She said: "As an American, I cannot accept what Donald Trump says and I can't accept him as a president.
"I do hope this sends out a message. 'Good morning. Welcome to day one of the resistance. This is the world shouting back'."
As the crowd moved into Trafalgar Square, the noise quietened so demonstrators could listen to the speakers on the stage, who included TV presenter Sandi Toksvig and Labour MP Yvette Cooper.
However, the final address was given by 10-year-old Sumayah Siddiqi who read out a poem to the crowd which had a message of optimism with the words "I shall stand for love".
Sumayah Siddiqi addressed the crowds at the Women's March | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38706746 |
One solution to two big social problems - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In France, some students are snapping up cheap rents in exchange for helping old people out in their homes | Magazine | Here's a solution that could tackle two of the West's most urgent problems: a young generation priced out of affordable housing, and the loneliness and isolation of a rapidly ageing population.
For so-called millennials, like Mikyoung Ahn, a large home is a seemingly unattainable dream. She could not imagine living in a spacious detached house on the leafy outskirts of Paris, just half an hour from the Arc de Triomphe. She definitely couldn't imagine paying just 120 Euros (£100) a month to live there.
Yet, with the help of an innovative housing scheme, that idea is no longer a fantasy for the 25-year-old student from Seoul, South Korea.
An aspiring architect, she wanted to live and study in one of the world's cultural capitals. To realise her dream, she turned away from traditional student accommodation. Instead of moving in with other young people, Mikyoung chose as a landlady and housemate a 78-year-old widow with a passion for patchwork.
"I knew I was going away from home for university, and that I wouldn't have any family or any friends," she says. "But after the first meeting her, I knew it was going to be perfect."
Mikyoung and her landlady, Monique, have been living together since October, after they were matched by an organisation called Ensemble2Generations. This organisation and others like it pair elderly people with students, in an arrangement called homeshare.
The concept is simple, yet it attempts to bridge an intergenerational divide that exists in many parts of the world.
On one side are older people, who own properties that were purchased when house prices were comparatively cheap, but who may now need some help with daily activities like shopping and cleaning.
On the other side are young people, who cannot afford to rent a decent flat, but who may have some time to spare.
Monique has got Mikyoung into her hobby, quilting
Mikyoung helps Monique with a range of everyday tasks. She carries Monique's shopping in the supermarket, washes up, and has even created an instruction sheet to help Monique understand all the buttons on her TV remote.
"It's not a big deal," she says. "It's just life, you know. If I lived here, I would have to clean the dishes or take the trash out. I feel really this is my home - this is our home.
"Every night when I come back, I prepare the dinner and I put on the music that I have learned today. For example, Champs-Élysées or something like that, and we sing together."
Monique, who is a retired schoolteacher, is now an avid fan of Downton Abbey, after being introduced to the programme by Mikyoung.
"We have very good moments together, because we share a lot," says Monique. "We often sit together and watch TV programmes. Everything is simple between us."
Turning to Monique, she adds: "You are like a granddaughter to me."
Homeshare is not a new idea - it was first trialled in the USA and Spain during the 1980s. However, experts have recently started to view it as a scalable solution to two problems that continue to cause social problems. While young people are migrating to cities, pushing up the price of rent, many populations in the developed world are ageing.
Meet the people fixing the world in the new World Service programme, World Hacks
Homeshare schemes are now active in 16 countries across the world. Since 1999, an organisation called Homeshare International has acted as a network for homeshare schemes.
"The benefits to the householder are they feel much safer at home because of having someone else in the house," says Elizabeth Mills, the organisation's director. "They're happier, incidents of accidents and falls go down, and the reassurance for the householder's family is absolutely enormous."
Most programmes offer two homeshare arrangements for prospective participants. The first allows the student to live in an elderly person's home rent-free in exchange for help around the house. The second requires the student to contribute money to household bills, but places fewer burdens on their time.
It costs roughly 900 Euros a month for a student to live in the centre of Paris
So will schemes like this help solve the housing crises of millenials - and the problems of the elderly?
Research into homeshare projects in Spain and the USA indicates that participants are overwhelmingly satisfied by the arrangement. The Spanish study, for example, reported that 93.2% of elderly people had benefitted in some way from the programme, while 98.7% of students had benefitted.
The organisation that paired Monique and Mikyoung, Ensemble2Generations, conducts face-to-face interviews before placing people together. Students even have to put pen to paper to explain why they want a placement, so that their application can be examined by a handwriting expert. Despite this, some partnerships simply do not work out.
A major issue is that people of different generations may not always get on. Monique's previous housemate was a young gardener who spent a lot of time out of the house. When they did occasionally eat together, the gardener did not want to have a conversation. Instead, according to Monique, he just stared vacantly at his phone. But that did not shake Monique's confidence in homeshare.
"I never doubted whether I wanted to homeshare. I knew there were other people out there… It is a good solution for me."
And although the gardener did not provide much companionship for Monique, experts widely acknowledge that homeshare is an effective antidote to loneliness - a problem that affects over one million elderly people in Britain, according to Age UK. Helen Bown, a policy expert who specialises in social isolation, says that the emotional support provided by a homeshare relationship often exceeds its financial advantages.
"People talk about not feeling so lonely anymore, particularly people who are single, " she says. "People have talked about having a safety net, particularly at night.
"I think one of the most compelling things that people have talked about, consistently, is the impact emotionally for people - the positive relationship. The feeling that people are contributing; that they are part of a mutually beneficial relationship, not just a transaction of care and support."
This is certainly the case for Armelle, a 64 year-old woman living in Cergy, northwest of Paris. Eighteen months ago, Armelle's husband died of cancer. Devastated, and fearing loneliness, she got in touch with Ensemble2Generations. Since then, she has housed a 19-year-old student called Blandine, from Versailles, who is studying engineering at a local university.
"If my husband had been here, I would never have thought of accommodating a student," says Armelle. "But she's like a companion. It's so good to have a presence in the house. I enjoy Blandine's company a lot."
Armelle and Blandine have an easygoing friendship
Armelle and Blandine's relationship is like a casual friendship. They relax together in the evenings and chat about their lives. While she was away from the house for a few days, Armelle even allowed Blandine to have a house party.
"Though her contract says that she's not allowed to have friends over, I know that I can trust her," says Armelle, laughing. "I even helped her organise it."
The house has a large fireplace and a spectacular view over the lakes of Cergy. Unsurprisingly, Blandine is fond of these home comforts, and is not keen on moving into a cramped student flat for the next academic year.
"In student accommodation everything is in the same room, except for the bathroom," she says, wrinkling up her nose.
"I have a few friends who are offering to flat-share next year. I tell them, "Why not?" but I'm actually very comfortable here - I'm not sure I'm going to leave."
Join the conversation - find World Hacks on Facebook, and follow the BBC World Service on Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38399246 |
Wayne Rooney: Goals from the Man Utd record-breaker - BBC Sport | 2017-01-21 | null | BBC Sport picks out some great goals from Wayne Rooney's Manchester United career after the striker became the club's all-time leading goalscorer. | null | BBC Sport picks out some great goals from Wayne Rooney's Manchester United career after the striker became the club's all-time leading goalscorer.
WATCH MORE: It's a great feeling - Rooney on breaking record
Available to UK users only. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38705054 |
The policemen who dressed as women to hide from IS - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | When Islamic State seized control of his hometown and began killing his police colleagues, Iraqi officer Abu Alawi resorted to unconventional measures to stay alive. | Magazine | When the so-called Islamic State group seized control of a town near Mosul and began killing police officers, some of them resorted to unconventional measures to stay alive, reports John Beck.
For more than two-and-a-half years it helped keep the middle-aged former police officer hidden from IS and safe from the bullets and knives that killed almost all his colleagues.
When the jihadists arrived in his hometown of Hammam al-Alil in mid-2014, as they swept across northern Iraq, the first things they did was to round up police and army officers.
They killed the higher-ranking men immediately, but eventually offered an amnesty of sorts to the rest. If they renounced the government in Baghdad and pledged to live under IS rules, then they'd go free.
Abu Alawi stayed in hiding. At first in his home or a bolthole dug in his garden. But IS searches became more stringent and he realised that he'd have to move further afield.
Ahmed, 22, from a pro-government militia, stands in a burnt-out building used by IS as a prison
The solution, he decided, was a niqab - the black, face-concealing veil that IS forces all women under its rule to wear. From then on, when a sympathetic friend would tip him off about impending searches, he'd shroud his moustachioed face and portly figure and move somewhere safer, disguised as a woman.
There was a thrill, he said, in "playing" with IS, but when he passed close by the black-clad militants it wasn't fun any more. Then he feared he'd share the fate of friends who'd donned the same disguise but been less lucky, or less convincing, and were arrested as a result.
"They were near to me so many times and I was so afraid," he said, miming a heart pounding in his chest. "All the time I was thinking I was going to be checked and discovered."
IS eventually left Hammam al-Alil, setting oil wells alight as it went
Hammam al-Alil is a former spa town, once famous for the therapeutic powers of its thermal springs. It's hard to imagine holidaymakers visiting now. I met Abu Alawi there as he waited for a Danish non-governmental organisation to distribute blankets and solar heaters on a cold and damp winter morning. Men and women split into separate queues and stood patiently between the muddy puddles.
After IS arrived, I was told, they gathered the former officers in the town's main square. Then they blindfolded them, loaded them on to trucks that drove a short way out of town, and shot or beheaded them.
Federal police took me to one mass grave, a police shooting range turned rubbish dump. The awful smell was the first sign of what had happened there.
Then came the clouds of flies and, lying amid the refuse, between discarded children's toys and food packaging, the badly decomposed remains of a man - his hands and legs bound and marked by signs of torture.
"Under here it's all bodies," our escort said, gesturing towards a series of narrow trenches covered with bulldozed earth and he cautioned that the area was probably still booby-trapped with improvised explosive devices. He estimated there were at least 350 people buried in the area.
Another man in the aid distribution queue, Abu Ali - younger, taller and thinner than Abu Alawi - produced his old police ID card.
He'd buried it in his garden while IS was here, and he too had survived the massacre, in part thanks to a niqab.
"All I did was hide, hide and wear the veil like this," he said, stooping over to minimise his stature.
His brother, a fellow officer, was executed, leaving behind a wife and seven children. And when they left Hammam al-Ali, IS took Abu Ali's father with them to Mosul as a human shield.
This was not a unique story. Everyone I spoke to in the town had lost someone, some entire families. One militia member in his early 20s said IS had killed his parents and murdered or captured seven of his brothers.
But a semblance of normal life has in some ways returned to the town.
At the dilapidated thermal baths near the banks of the Tigris, smiling children and soldiers played in the warm waters.
Others collected grey mineral-rich mud in bottles and touted its therapeutic qualities.
It may be the start of healing, but the scars of occupation by IS will last for some time yet.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38663595 |
World v Trump on global climate deal? - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As the new president settles in, much of the world reaffirms its commitment to the Paris agreement. | Science & Environment | As a pro-coal president strides into the White House, the rest of the world is rallying in defence of the climate.
Donald Trump has called climate change "a hoax" and filled his cabinet with representatives of fossil fuel industries.
One of the world's leading climate scientists told me she was positively scared about his potential impact on the planet.
But so far the leaders who joined with President Barack Obama in Paris in 2015 to sign the global climate deal are standing firm.
As Mr Trump ponders pulling out of the UN climate deal, China, India, Germany, the EU and the UK have all reaffirmed their promise to curb CO2 emissions.
And in the USA itself, moves have already been made to consolidate the low-carbon economy in a sign that fossil fuel companies will still face a battle over CO2 emissions, even with support from the White House.
Only this week, China's President, Xi Jin Ping, warned Mr Trump that walking away from the Paris deal would endanger future generations.
As Mr Trump promises to boost jobs by scrapping President Obama's clean energy plans, China is pushing on with a $361bn (£293bn) investment in renewable energy by 2020.
China's Xie Zhenhua says the world will pressure the Trump administration over clean energy
China's green aspirations are undermined by its expansion of coal-fired power stations, but this week it also suspended plans for 104 new coal plants.
Xie Zhenhua, the veteran climate negotiator who forged a close partnership on clean energy between the two mega-powers, told China Daily that the global momentum behind low-carbon technology was unstoppable.
He was quoted as saying: "Industrial upgrades aiming for more sustainable growth is a global trend… it is not something that can be reversed by a single political leader.
"The international community and US citizens will pressure the Trump administration to continue clean energy policies."
The State Department may not dismiss this flippantly: while US-Chinese relations may be increasingly frosty in many areas, climate change and clean energy remain a valuable sphere of co-operation.
American politicians may also be wary of watching China seize the moral heights as world leader in tackling climate change.
Its energy minister, Piyush Goyal, said this week: "We respect the fact that America has chosen its leader.
"However, clean energy is not something that we are working on because somebody else wants us to do it - it's a matter of faith and the faith of the leadership in India.
"Nothing on Earth is going to stop us from doing that."
Solar energy prices are now on a par with coal in India, which boasts the world's biggest solar farm and the first chemical plant to eat its own CO2 emissions.
It will continue to expand coal-fired generation for the next few years, but its National Electricity Plan projects no further increase in coal-based capacity after 2022 - much earlier than previously suggested.
India's Tuticorin plant is the world's first zero-emission chemical facility
Dollars, technology and jobs will pour into clean energy in these countries, and the USA will surely be keen not to miss out.
Meanwhile, moves are being made to consolidate President Obama's climate legacy.
The US previously pledged $3bn to the UN's green fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change and get clean technology.
Mr Trump won support among some voters for promising to stop payments and spend the cash on American citizens instead.
But this week President Obama slipped the fund a further $500m.
And it won't just be on the international stage that Mr Trump's team will face fossil fuel battles.
Some early skirmishes on American soil are already under way.
This week, the Environmental Protection Agency cemented stricter efficiency standards for cars.
Republicans will try to reverse this - but when carmakers previously resisted efficiency rules, they ended up producing such uncompetitive gas-guzzlers that the industry had to be bailed out.
Even Republican plans to boost extraction of fossil fuels, while popular in some states because the industries create jobs, will provoke local resistance from people who don't want oil pipelines, or don't want the tops blown off their mountains to get to coal.
It may be hard to persuade investors to put cash into coal anyway.
Many states will resist fossil fuels, too.
California has long led the way on car emissions and recently insisted it will keep its right to set its own tighter regulations for cars.
Mr Trump's team may try to rescind this.
The Paris climate agreement resulted in 195 nations pledging to reduce emissions
There are already CO2 trading schemes between states on the east and west coasts, and last week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans to build enough offshore wind capacity by 2030 to power 1.25 million homes.
Here's the big picture: as the world moves together to tackle climate change, it is clearly problematic if the biggest historic polluter threatens to pull in the opposite direction.
Will Angela Merkel, for instance, be so sanguine about Germany's controversial switch to renewables if the US forces its already-low energy prices even lower, triggering protests from German industry?
In the words of Jo Haigh, professor of atmospheric physics at Imperial College, London: "If Trump does what he said he'd do, and others follow suit, my gut feeling is that I'm scared. Very scared."
But he may not. And they may not. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38676898 |
Eight ways President Donald Trump will make history - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | From his bank balance to his lack of pets - here's how Donald Trump is making presidential history. | US & Canada | Donald Trump has already pulled off a series of presidential "firsts"
Donald Trump is guaranteed to make history as the 45th president of the United States.
And whether you love or loathe him, it's a fact that the Republican will set a range of records as soon as he occupies the Oval Office.
From his age to his bank balance, via his notable lack of pets - here are just some of "The Donald's" historic "firsts".
Donald Trump celebrated his 70th birthday on 14 June, which makes him the oldest man in US history to assume the presidency. The previous record-holder, Ronald Reagan, was 69 when he took office in 1981.
Perhaps keen to allay fears about his senior status, the business mogul had his doctor prepare a gushing letter pledging that he would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency".
Right-wing Indian activists celebrate The Donald's 70th birthday in New Delhi
The average age of all 44 previous incoming presidents is a sprightly 55.
The youngest ever incumbent - Theodore Roosevelt - got the job aged 42 years and 322 days, after President William McKinley's assassination in 1901.
Mr Trump is the first billionaire president. Exact estimates of his personal wealth vary, with Forbes putting it at $3.7bn (£3bn) and the man himself claiming in a statement that it's "in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS".
Many of America's past presidents have also been extremely wealthy, of course. Recent estimates say George Washington's estate would be worth half a billion in today's dollars.
Donald Trump has said he will take only a dollar in salary - like former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger (L)
Before his 1963 assassination, JFK reportedly lived off a $10m trust fund thanks to the vast wealth of his father - investor and alleged bootlegger Joseph P Kennedy, Sr.
Mr Trump will be following in the footsteps of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by taking just a symbolic dollar as a salary.
When Mr Trump began unveiling his cabinet picks, the number with fat wallets quickly drew the scorn of Democrats.
"Donald Trump's administration: of, by and for the millionaires and billionaires," tweeted Vermont Senator and Democrat presidential contender Bernie Sanders.
For better or worse, this will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history.
According to the Washington Post, commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross is worth around $2.5bn on his own - roughly 10 times what George W Bush's first cabinet were worth in 2001, when the media branded them an assembly of millionaires.
Treasury appointee Steven Mnuchin quite literally bought a bank after 17 years at Goldman Sachs, and reports put his wealth at over $40m.
It has been estimated that the cabinet could be good for an eye-watering $35bn, all told. As Quartz pointed out, this is more than the annual gross domestic product of Bolivia.
Mr Trump's triumph is also significant because, until now, no-one has been elected president in more than 60 years without experience as a state governor or in Congress.
The last president with no political experience, Dwight Eisenhower, was Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War Two, before he was elected to office in 1953.
Some Trump voters saw his lack of political experience as a guarantee of authenticity
But as Mr Trump tells it, his lack of links to the Washington establishment is an asset not a flaw - and more than made up for by his experience as a deal-maker.
Mr Trump has named his son-in-law, real estate developer Jared Kushner, as a senior adviser - prompting cries of nepotism from opponents.
Some claim the appointment makes the 36-year-old the most powerful presidential son-in-law in US history.
He isn't the first to fit that profile, however.
President Woodrow Wilson's Treasury Secretary, William Gibbs McAdoo, was also married to his daughter, Eleanor.
First Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are set to wield considerable clout
That said, their case pre-dates America's 1967 anti-nepotism statute, and Mr McAdoo was already a cabinet secretary when he wed.
Ivanka Trump, Mr Trump's elder daughter and wife of Mr Kushner, is also being spoken of as the most influential "First Daughter" ever.
So much fuss has been made of what Donald Trump owns that you might have missed one glaring absence - a pet.
It looks likely that he'll be the first US President in over a century not to have an animal pal in the White House, after plans to have him adopt a goldendoodle dog reportedly fell through.
According to the Presidential Pet Museum, almost every commander-in-chief has had a pet, and some had a virtual menagerie.
John F Kennedy stands out for owning a veritable Noah's Ark - everything from a rabbit named Zsa Zsa to a canary called Robin - but the crown belongs to Calvin and Grace Coolidge (White House occupants from 1923-1929), who the museum says "quite literally had a zoo".
Barack Obama's Portuguese Water Dog, Bo, is among the more traditional pets to live at the White House
Their animal companions included at least a dozen dogs, a donkey named Ebenezer, and various creatures presented as gifts by foreign dignitaries - among them lion cubs, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo named Billy, and a black bear.
Donald Trump won the presidency on a pro-job platform, and has blamed free-trade policies for the collapse of the US manufacturing industry.
This is a rare stance for a US president, probably last seen in his fellow Republican Herbert Hoover in the 1930s.
In September 2015, Mr Trump told the Economist China is "killing us", and that millions of Americans are "tired of being ripped off".
He said that as president, he would consider a 12% import tax to make the Chinese "stop playing games".
During his election campaign, Mr Trump also threatened to rip up Nafta, the free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico, which has been in place for 23 years.
The Republican has long been opposed to the TPP, which he views as a poor deal for the US
He also vowed that the US would quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, a 12-nation agreement, on his first day in the White House.
Former model Melania Trump is as trailblazing as her husband.
She will be the first presidential spouse from Slovenia, and the first non-native English speaker.
She is only the second FLOTUS born outside the US, though - the first being Louisa Adams, wife of the sixth US President, John Quincy Adams (1825-1829), who was born in London.
As Mr Trump has been married twice before, Melania will also be the first third wife to reside in the White House. The only other US president to have divorced was Ronald Reagan, who split from his first wife, actress Jane Wyman, long before leading the nation.
Melania speaks Slovenian, English, French, German, and Serbian, and may be the most competent linguist to hold the role of FLOTUS.
Melania Trump will be the first non-native English speaker to be FLOTUS
She is the first president's wife to have posed nude, for GQ magazine in 2000 among others.
Mr Trump is no stranger to men's magazines either. He appeared on the cover of Playboy in March 1990 with the tag-line: "Nice magazine, want to sell it?" | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38637123 |
Newspaper headlines: President Trump's 'message to the world' - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | US President Donald Trump's inaugural address comes under focus on Saturday's front pages. | The Papers | The papers are dominated by coverage of the US presidential inauguration - with every front page featuring a picture of Donald Trump.
Mr Trump, says the Times, unveiled a new era - but it notes that the imagery was unusually dark for an inaugural address, with the president describing crime-ridden inner cities, catastrophic levels of drug addiction, and rusted-out factories.
The Daily Mirror describes it as a "chilling inaugural speech" in which Mr Trump vowed to put the United States first - "and to hell with every other country".
The Daily Mail says it was an incendiary speech, that both electrified and divided his nation.
It points out the the new president had been expected to finally go easy on the vitriol and enjoy the pomp and ceremony of the event. But it says he used the speech to fire both barrels at the political establishment.
In the view of the Financial Times, the new president made a defiant and uncompromising address, in which he promised to revive the country with an aggressive rejection of globalisation. The paper says his inauguration marked the end of an incredible journey that was propelled by a groundswell of populism.
The Sun says more than a billion people watched the swearing in of the new president on TV, with 900,000 spectators on the National Mall in Washington to witness Mr Trump give a thumbs up and fist pump. However the paper notes that the crowd in Washington was only half of that which saw Barack Obama become the first black president in 2009.
Writing in the Guardian, Gary Younge says there was no higher calling, no sense of a greater purpose, and no impassioned idealism. He describes the first words of Mr Trump's presidency as a "crude and unapologetic appeal to nationalism".
In the i, Michael Day describes the address as "lousy" and says "it hardly made the heart soar".
The editorials have mixed messages for President Trump.
The Sun says that now he is in the Oval Office, he may be stunned by the complexity of many of the problems he faces. It notes that plenty of people will write him off - but says that President Reagan was written off too - before he changed the world.
The Daily Mail claims his speech was "truly astonishing" - as he tore up the rule book and delivered an inauguration address unlike any heard before.
The Daily Express asserts that the progressive left-leaning programme, which seemed woven into Western democracy, is now being unravelled. It says this is a profound change, which will affect us all.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the inaugural address was what Mr Trump's supporters had gathered in their thousands to hear. But it says that for outsiders, it was an unsettling speech that seemed to presage the emergence of an inward-looking, isolationist America.
The Daily Mirror says the US and the rest of the world should be "very afraid" following what it describes as the new president's "rambling, pugnacious and protectionist speech".
The Guardian is equally horrified, saying his America First nationalism was both "crude and shameless". It concludes the reality of a Trump presidency is a "terrifying prospect".
A number of papers also leave space to comment on the person whose day it could have been: Hillary Clinton.
The Daily Mail says protocol demanded she attended the inauguration with her husband - and her solemn face showed the strain as she arrived at the US Capitol.
The Daily Express observes the former first lady looked more like she was attending a funeral.
For the Guardian, Mrs Clinton stood stoically as chants of "lock her up" emanated from the crowd. However, on a more positive note, it adds that she left the ceremony waving to supporters and smiling broadly.
Finally - despite their disagreements about President Trump - the papers all seem united on one point.
The Daily Mirror,Daily Express and the Sun all declare that the stand-out person at Friday's events was the new First Lady, Melania Trump.
Many commentators, including the fashion director of the Daily Telegraph, compare her to Jackie Kennedy.
The Guardian says she wore a sleek ice blue dress and jacket, which was custom-made by US designer Ralph Lauren.
For the Daily Mail, she did not put a foot wrong, describing her as the "dazzling new First Lady". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38700109 |
Presidential inaugural ball: Trumps enjoy first dance - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | null | President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have the first dance at the inaugural ball. | null | President Donald Trump and his wife First Lady Melania Trump have the first dance at the inaugural ball. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38702978 |
Donald Trump's life story: From hotel developer to president - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Long before Donald Trump became US president, he was just "The Donald", celebrity and property tycoon. | US Election 2016 | Long before he was a contender for the US presidency, Donald Trump was America's most famous and colourful billionaire.
Once considered a long shot for the presidency, the 74-year-old is now out of office after a single term - but he remains a force within the Republican party.
Scepticism over his candidacy for the 2016 election had stemmed not only from his controversial platform on immigration and outrageous campaign style but from his celebrity past.
Yet the businessman had the last laugh when he defied all predictions to beat much more seasoned politicians in the Republican primary race.
He then went a step further by winning the presidential election, one of the most divisive and controversial contests in living memory, against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump is the fourth child of New York real estate tycoon Fred Trump. Despite the family's wealth, he was expected to work the lowest-tier jobs within his father's company and was sent off to a military academy at age 13 when he started misbehaving in school.
After attending the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania he became favourite to succeed his father when his older brother, Fred, chose to become a pilot. Fred Trump died at 43 from alcoholism, an incident that his brother says led him to avoid alcohol and cigarettes his entire life.
Mr Trump says he got into real estate with a "small" $1m loan from his father before joining the company. He helped manage his father's extensive portfolio of residential housing projects in the New York City boroughs, and took control of the company - which he renamed the Trump Organization - in 1971.
His father died in 1999. "My father was my inspiration," Mr Trump said at the time.
Shifting his family's business from residential units in Brooklyn and Queens to glitzy Manhattan projects, Mr Trump transformed the rundown Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt and erected the most famous Trump property, the 68-storey Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Other properties bearing the famous name followed - Trump Place, Trump World Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and so on. There are Trump Towers in Mumbai, Istanbul and the Philippines.
And Mr Trump developed hotels and casinos, an arm of the business that has led to four bankruptcy filings (for the businesses, not personal bankruptcy).
He also built an empire in the entertainment business. From 1996 until 2015, he was an owner in the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants. In 2003, he debuted an NBC reality television show called The Apprentice, in which contestants competed for a shot at a management job within Mr Trump's organisation. He hosted the show for 14 seasons, and said in a financial disclosure form that he had been paid a total of $213m by the network during the show's run.
He has written several books, and owns a line of merchandise that sells everything from neckties to bottled water. According to Forbes, his net worth is $2.5bn (£1.9bn).
In September, the New York Times reported that despite his purported wealth, Mr Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax both in 2016 and in his first year in the White House. The former president dismissed the report as "fake news".
Mr Trump has been married three times, though his most famous wife was his first - Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech athlete and model. The couple had three children - Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric - before they filed for divorce in 1990. The ensuing court battle made for numerous stories in the tabloid press. Those stories included allegations that he was abusive towards Ivana, though she later downplayed the incidents.
He married actress Marla Maples in 1993. They had a daughter named Tiffany before divorcing in 1999. He married his current wife, Slovenian model Melania Knauss, in 2005, and the couple have one son, Barron William Trump.
Trump with his wife Melania and children at his campaign announcement
His children from his first marriage now help run Trump Organization, though he is still chief executive. Ivanka, his eldest daughter, followed her dad to the White House, where she and her husband, Jared Kushner, served as senior advisers.
Mr Trump expressed interest in running for president as early as 1987, and even entered the 2000 race as a Reform Party candidate.
After 2008, he became one of the most outspoken members of the "birther" movement, which questioned whether Barack Obama had been born in the US. Those claims have been thoroughly debunked; Mr Obama was born in Hawaii. Mr Trump finally admitted there was no truth to the claims although, characteristically, there was no apology.
It was not until June 2015 that Mr Trump formally announced his entrance into the race for the White House.
"We need somebody that literally will take this country and make it great again. We can do that," he said in his announcement speech, promising that as a candidate with no need to fundraise he answered to no special interests and was the perfect outsider candidate.
Under the banner Make America Great Again, Mr Trump ran a controversial campaign built on promises to strengthen the American economy, build a wall on the border of Mexico and the US, and to temporarily ban immigration by Muslims "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
Despite massive protests at his campaign events and the best efforts of his Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Mr Trump became the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president after the Indiana primary.
Few expected to ever see Trump in the Oval Office
Mr Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency was rocked by controversies, including the emergence of a recording from 2005 of him making lewd remarks about women, and claims, including from members of his own party, that he was not fit for office.
But he consistently told his army of supporters that he would defy the opinion polls, which mostly had him trailing Hillary Clinton, and that his presidency would strike a blow against the political establishment and "drain the swamp" in Washington.
He took inspiration from the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, saying he would pull off "Brexit times 10".
It was something few pundits believed would happen as polling day approached, despite his campaign receiving a late boost from fresh controversy over an FBI investigation into his opponent's emails.
As his stunning victory was still sinking in across the US, his supporters got the chance to see him in the Oval Office when he and President Obama met for transition talks two days after election day.
He is the first US president never to have held elected office or served in the military, meaning that he had already made history before he was sworn in as America's 45th president on 20 January 2017.
Mr Trump's presidency has been marked by the coronavirus pandemic - and his own infection
Much like his candidacy, Donald Trump's presidency was marked by drama and controversy.
In January 2017, he signed his first executive order, banning travel from seven countries, most with Muslim-majorities. The ban, decried as xenophobic by critics, has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
Months later, he shocked Washington by firing FBI Director James Comey. The sudden dismissal was described as potentially obstructing justice in a subsequent report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which probed alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. The two-year long investigation did not establish criminal collusion.
Soon after, Mr Trump faced accusations that he had pressured a foreign government to dig up dirt on Democratic rival Joe Biden. The allegations prompted a Democratic-led impeachment inquiry, and Mr Trump became just the third US president in history to be impeached.
But Mr Trump maintained his loyal base thanks to a number of campaign promises kept. Perhaps his most enduring legacy: nominating three right-wing justices to the Supreme Court, which will shape the country's policies for decades to come.
His 2020 election year was dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. He faced intense criticism for his handling of the crisis, as the US leads the globe in deaths and infections. The voracious campaigner was even forced to take a break from the trail in October, after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 himself.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US President Donald Trump on Covid-19 in his own words
He eventually lost the election to Democratic rival Joe Biden, though Mr Trump received 74 million votes, more than any other presidential candidate except for Mr Biden, who got seven million more.
But Mr Trump's unsubstantiated allegations of widespread electoral fraud and claims that votes were stolen, made after the election, led to him making history of a different kind.
His historic second impeachment - a first for an American president - was on a charge that he incited a mob to storm the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021. That riot followed a "Save America" rally, which Mr Trump addressed, that was organised to challenge the result of the presidential election.
The former president was later acquitted by the Senate. Mr Trump has continued influence over the party despite some senior politicians distancing themselves recently, and has hinted he might consider running for a second term. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35318432 |
Martin McGuinness: The end of a long journey - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The BBC's Peter Taylor looks back as Martin McGuinness retires from frontline politics. | Northern Ireland | The political retirement of Martin McGuinness on Thursday due to ill health marks the end of a remarkable journey. Perceived by some as a terrorist, others as a freedom fighter, he ended up a statesman, a journey similar to those previously made by other historical figures from Menachem Begin to Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela.
It also marks the closing of a chapter in Northern Ireland's turbulent history in which Mr McGuinness played a crucial role both as perhaps the most important IRA leader on the island of Ireland and one of its most skilled and charismatic politicians. Without his endeavours, in umbilical political partnership with his former comrade-in- arms, Gerry Adams, I doubt if Northern Ireland, despite the continuing fragility of its institutions, would be where it is today.
I first met Martin McGuinness 45 years ago this month, shortly after the day that became notorious as Bloody Sunday when British paratroops shot dead 13 civil rights marchers in the Bogside enclave of Londonderry/Derry.
I remember watching a candle-lit procession on its way to the church where the coffins of the dead were lying and being told by the nationalist politician, John Hume, to keep an eye on one of the mourners.
He pointed to Martin McGuinness. I followed his advice and soon met him on the steps of the gasworks that served as the IRA's headquarters in the Bogside. At the time he was second in command of the IRA's Derry Brigade. He was soon to become its commander.
He did not fit the stereotypical role of an IRA commander at the time. He was personable, highly articulate and utterly committed to his cause of getting the "Brits" out of the North.
A few months later, following an IRA ceasefire, he was sitting down in a posh house in Chelsea, along with Gerry Adams, as part of the IRA delegation that met the Northern Ireland Secretary, Willie Whitelaw. The IRA said it wanted a British withdrawal by 1975. Not surprisingly, the talks got nowhere and it was back to the "war".
If anyone had looked into a crystal ball at that time and told me that the young IRA commander would go on to become Northern Ireland's deputy prime minister, sharing power and joking, as "the chuckle brothers" with his former arch enemy, Ian Paisley, and then would don white tie and tails to dine with the Queen at Windsor Castle, I would have said that pigs might fly. But pigs did.
"The chuckle brothers" - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness at the Northern Ireland Assembly, 2007
Mr McGuinness's role was critical in persuading the IRA's rank-and-file that "armed struggle" had run its course and the future road to Sinn Fein's holy grail of a united Ireland lay in sharing power at Stormont with its unionist opponents.
This was tantamount to accepting partition (the division of Ireland in 1922 into two states) and the role of the British state - albeit, as far as Sinn Fein is concerned, a temporary accommodation as a means to an end.
Remarkably Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness finally persuaded the majority of the IRA to swallow the political heresy and agree to the ceasefire of 1994 that was to lead on to the Good Friday Agreement four years later.
A measure of the faith and trust that rank-and-file IRA men and women had in Martin McGuinness is reflected in the sentiment I heard from many of them that "if it's good enough for Martin, it's good enough for us". Such sentiments speak volumes of Mr McGuinness and the esteem in which he was held as IRA leader.
These landmark steps were only made possible as a result of a protracted and fraught secret back-channel dialogue, via an intermediary, between MI6 and MI5 in which Mr McGuinness was the key conduit to the IRA's ruling Army Council.
But Mr McGuinness, because of his IRA past, remains a controversial figure. There are still some Unionists who would take issue with the tribute paid by Ian Paisley's son who said that by working with his father, Martin McGuinness had "saved lives" and "made countless lives better".
His critics can only see him as the former leader of a terrorist organisation responsible for a grievous toll of death and destruction. They will never forget - or forgive the IRA - for the lives of the hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians murdered in the IRA's campaign and the number of families who have been left bereft.
But for me, the true recognition of the journey Mr McGuinness has made came in an interview I did with the mother of Marie Wilson, the young woman who died in the IRA's bomb attack on the Remembrance Day parade in Enniskillen in 1987.
The intelligence services believe that Martin McGuinness, although he denies it, was at that time the acting head of the IRA's Northern Command that prosecuted the "war" in the North.
In words of moving candour, Mrs Wilson said she respected Mr McGuinness's role in helping to bring the conflict to end and making such attacks, she hoped, a thing of the past.
• None McGuinness will not stand in NI election | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38690431 |
Could tuition fees really cost £54,000? - BBC News | 2017-01-21 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The headline cost of increased fees might be £9,250. But repaid with interest over 30 years it could be much higher. | Education & Family | The last time tuition fees were increased there were waves of student protests
How much will it cost to get a degree in England when tuition fees increase to £9,250 in the autumn?
If that seems high for a three-year degree, that's how much a think tank has calculated a student could have to pay back with interest.
And that wouldn't be the full size of the debt. There could be another £40,000 still outstanding when fee loans are written off after 30 years.
When fees start increasing from this autumn, it will mean borrowing about £28,600 for three years, with the amount then rising with inflation each year.
But while students have battled for years over the headline figure of £9,000 and now £9,250, the Intergenerational Foundation says they're missing the much bigger picture of what it will really cost in repayments.
And it's going to publish its findings in a report called The Packhorse Generation.
These extra costs start to rack up while a student is still at university, because interest is charged as soon as students start their courses, adding thousands to the debt before students have even graduated.
Students pay back fee loans from their earnings after graduation
Students start paying back their fee loans once they earn more than £21,000 per year - and the more they earn the more they pay each month, until the debt, plus interest, is cleared.
So this means total repayments can vary widely.
The think tank, which campaigns for fairness between generations, forecasts that:
A more likely scenario is that a graduate would start on a lower salary and gradually progress upwards.
And the think tank gives an example of someone starting out on £22,000 and then rising over the years to £41,000, with the projection that they would pay back about £31,000 and leave a further £69,000 unpaid.
These are not necessarily bad deals for students if it helps them into a good career.
But Estelle Clarke, a former City lawyer on the advisory board of the Intergenerational Foundation, argues that we're failing to understand the "stranglehold" of debt that we're building up for young people.
She also warns we should be looking nervously at the vast scale of write-offs in the current system.
Would the sell-off of student loans mean tougher terms?
At present the taxpayer picks up the tab for unpaid loans after 30 years, allowing graduates to walk away from tens of thousands of pounds of debt and interest charges.
"Taxpayers end up paying for this system twice over. Firstly, they will shoulder the burden of an economy deprived of cash as millions of graduates' incomes are diverted to loan repayments," says Ms Clarke.
"And secondly, they shoulder the burden of the non-repayment of most loans due to the extortionate ratcheting up of interest in spite of regular payments made."
But the government has long considered selling off more of the student loan book to the private financial sector.
Would a private operator, looking hungrily at monthly repayments from millions of graduates, want more favourable terms and a bigger slice of that unpaid debt?
Ms Clarke warns that there is not nearly enough protection for students against future changes to repayment arrangements to "extract even more cash from graduates' pockets".
"No other lending has so little protection," she says.
New York plans to offer free tuition to middle-income families
By international standards, the only real comparison for such levels of student borrowing is the United States.
But as England is increasing the cost of tuition, the US has been trying to reverse out of a spiral of higher fees and higher debt.
This month the governor of New York announced a plan to scrap tuition fees at state universities and colleges for families earning up to $125,000 (£102,000) per year, which would help 80% of households.
It reflected deep-seated middle class anxieties about student debt - especially for families not rich enough to afford the fees and not poor enough to get financial support.
This really can be a lifetime of debt, with warnings this month of aggressive tactics from lenders trying to recover student loans from pensioners, with the over-60s in the US still owing £55bn of student debt.
Under the Obama administration there had been growing efforts to tackle student debt.
But with the election of President Trump the future of student loans, now measured in the trillions, has become much less predictable.
The Department for Education argues that England's system is already extremely accessible, because there are no upfront costs for any students.
Instead the costs are backloaded to be paid after graduates are working.
And since graduates are likely to earn more, they can afford the cost of repayments, which in turn supports the next generation of students.
"The English system of student funding is sustainable, and has been recognised as such by the OECD," said a Department for Education spokeswoman.
"Critically, our system removes financial barriers for anyone hoping to study - with record numbers of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university last year."
But this is something of a turning point - with fees and debts about to begin a long upward curve. And the Intergenerational Foundation's warnings cast a cold light on the scale of the escalating costs.
Will this be the next stage of a sophisticated, self-funding, open-access, affordable university system, or unwitting steps towards a financial sinkhole?
• None New York to scrap tuition fees for middle class | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38651059 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.