newsDB.json

{"_default": {"1": {"text": "The 29-year-old Buckinghamshire local adds a spoonful of sperm to her morning drink.\u00a0\nShe has been doing this every day for the last month and insists it\u2019s given her a healthy dose of get-up-and-go.\u00a0\nThe nutritional adviser said: \u201cI\u2019d been feeling run down and had no energy, but now I\u2019m full of beans and my mood has improved.\u201d\nSo how does she source her semen? Tracy has convinced her 31-year-old single friend to help her out.\u00a0\nHe now drops over three tubs a week but it took a little while to bring him round to the unique idea.\u00a0\nTracy said: \u201cWhen I first approached him, he was concerned I\u2019d use it to impregnate myself.\n\u201cBut once I\u2019d convinced him it was for my beauty regime he agreed \u2013 after all, he has a regular supply at hand!\u201d\n\u201cIt can taste really good \u2013 depending on what my friend has been eating. My other mates think I\u2019m strange, but I don\u2019t give a toss.\u201d\nTracy is a vegan and chooses to mix the semen with almond or coconut milk, fruit and seeds.\u00a0\nBut she also drinks her friend\u2019s sperm on its own, commenting: \u201cEvery batch tastes different, depending on what he\u2019s been eating.\u00a0\n\u201cIf he\u2019s been drinking alcohol or eaten something particularly pungent like asparagus, I ask him to give me a heads up so I know not to drink it neat.\n\u201cThings like pineapple and peppermint make it taste better, but I\u2019ll happily take it straight off a spoon usually.\u201d\nTracy\u2019s fixation on sperm began after a beautician advised her to rub it on her face to cure her rosacea.\u00a0\nSince then, Tracy\u2019s been treating herself to semen facials three times a week and now adds ingestion to the list.\u00a0\nTracy said: \u201cI felt the need to share this information. People are so weird about sperm when in actual fact a teaspoon is filled with amazing goodness.\n\u201cI want a relationship where my partner asks if I want one shot or two shots of sperm in my smoothie each morning!\u201d\nAccording to doctors, there is currently no scientific evidence to suggest sperm prevents the flu.\u00a0\nExperts have shared their advice on what really works to cure a winter cold as the temperature drops.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "SINGLE mum-of-two Tracy Kiss drinks sperm smoothies to boost her immunity.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/730170/Mum-drinks-sperm-boost-immunity-tracy-kiss", "title": "\u2018Every batch tastes different\u2019: Single mum drinks SPERM to keep winter colds at bay"}, "2": {"text": "Appearing on This Morning to appeal for their son\u2019s whereabouts, Caroline Heeler-Frood and husband Jeremy put out a desperate plea for Arthur to return in time for Christmas.\u00a0\nArthur, from Axminster, Devon, was reported missing on September 6, nine weeks ago.\u00a0\nThat day, just as he usually did, Arthur set off on his bike to college but he failed to return home later that day.\u00a0\nAs Arthur was at college there was no obligation for them to contact his parents of his absence.\nCaroline said: \u201cI drove up to the Post Office where he would usually park his bike but there was no sign of it.\u00a0\n\u201cI started to get very anxious, as this had never happened before.\u201d\u00a0\nA day after Arthur\u2019s disappearance his parents received a letter from him which sated he had run away, that he was bored of his life, and for them not to find him.\u00a0\nHe asked them to understand why he had to do this and said he\u2019d return in under a year.\u00a0\nArthur\u2019s parents described him as the type of boy who was quite adventurous, and they encourage all their children to be independent.\u00a0\nArthur\u2019s older brother is currently away travelling as part of his gap year, and his sister began her first year of university this year.\u00a0\nCaroline said: \u201cHe might have been anxious because his sister just started uni this year, his older brother has been away for a year already, and he was not looking forward to being at home on his own.\u00a0\n\u201cHe spent quite a biota time in his bedroom over the summer.\u00a0\n\u201cHe was an avid reader, but he was not forthcoming and didn\u2019t want to share anything with us.\u201d\u00a0\nAlthough it was apparent Arthur had planned his trip away, he took with him limited supplies, including hair clippers and \u00a3350.\u00a0\nHe left his passport home as well as camping equipment and waterproof shoes.\u00a0\nIn a desperate plea made on air, Caroline said: \u201cArthur please, please just make contact with us, we\u2019re just desperate to know you\u2019re safe.\u00a0\n\u201cI just don\u2019t think you can possibly realise how agonising this has been for us.\u201d\u00a0\nIf anyone has any information about Arthur\u2019s whereabouts contact police or Missing People charity on 116 000.\u00a0\nAnother life-changing story which was shared on This Morning was told by a leukaemia victim given six days to live.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "THE FAMILY of missing 15-year-old Arthur Heeler-Frood have put out a desperate plea for him to return in time Christmas. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/729994/missing-person-arthur-heeler-frood-axminster-devon-this-morning", "title": "Family of missing 15-year-old boy desperately plea for him to return on This Morning"}, "3": {"text": "The new trend has seen a number of people attempt to cash in big as they believe their fivers are linked to the devil.\u00a0\nOne seller has listed their five pound note for a whopping \u00a3300,000 - and they even offer an explanation as to why it is worth so much.\u00a0\nThe digits on the note are AA01 666247, which the seller describes as: \u201cAA01 The first serial numbers.\u00a0\n\u201c666 The devil\u2019s number.\n\u201c24 Hours a day.\u00a0\n\u201c7 Days a week.\u201d\u00a0\nAnd the listing appears to be no joke, as the seller currently has 100 per cent positive feedback.\u00a0\nThere are a host of other eBay sellers who believe their five pound notes are linked to Satan.\u00a0\nAnother seller is offering a fiver with the serial number AL53 666282 on eBay, with a starting price of \u00a350,000.\u00a0\nIn the item\u2019s description, the seller writes: \u201cA very RARE \u00a35 note unfolded serial number AL53 666282.\u00a0\n\u201c53 representing coronation year.\u00a0\n\u201c666 sign of the devil Lucifer.\u00a0\n\u201c282 could also represent 2nd of april 1982 Falklands War.\u00a0\n\u201cA superb collectors item for the Falklands war, satanical collector or illuminati collectors.\u201d\u00a0\nAnother five pound note going for \u00a35,000 has a series of numbers which add up to 666.\u00a0\nThis comes after a warning was issued that the new \u00a31 coin could leave you short changed if you do THIS.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "NEW FIVE POUND notes which are believed to be linked to Satan are being offered on eBay for up to \u00a3300,000. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/729962/new-five-pound-notes-ebay-satan-devil", "title": "New five pound notes with links to SATAN are being offered on eBay for a whopping \u00a3300,000"}, "4": {"text": "Watching his two little boys running red-faced around the garden, laughing as they throw leaves at each other, former England rugby captain Matt Dawson is the picture of fatherly pride. He clearly adores being a dad but after almost losing his younger son, Sami, to a rare strain of meningitis earlier this year, his happy family life is something he certainly doesn\u2019t take for granted.\nSami suddenly fell ill in February, only weeks after celebrating his second birthday.\nHe spent a fortnight fighting for his life in intensive care at Great Ormond Street Hospital after contracting Men W, a strain of meningitis most commonly associated with young people, mainly students. Luckily, Sami now appears to have made a full recovery but his son\u2019s illness is something Matt, 44, will never forget.\nMeningitis is the inflammation of the lining of the brain and the spinal cord and septicaemia is the blood poisoning form of the illness. According to the Meningitis Research Foundation, 3,200 cases of meningitis and septicaemia occur in the UK each year.\nA tenth of these turn out to be fatal and a quarter of all survivors are left with life-altering repercussions. Having witnessed how devastating the illness can be first hand, former scrum-half Matt is now desperate to raise public awareness of meningitis and together with pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, has launched Tackle Meningitis, a campaign that is backed by the Meningitis Research Foundation and Meningitis Now.\nIts aims are twofold: to make people more familiar with the early symptoms of meningitis and aware that there are different strains of the disease.\n\u201cI wish I had known more about meningitis and what to look out for before Sami got ill,\u201d admits Matt, who also has a four-year-old son, Alex, with his wife Carolin, 31, a former model.\n\u201cPeople tend to think of the \u2018tumbler test\u2019 but before a rash there are other less well-known symptoms such as fever, vomiting, headache, limb pain, pale skin, cold hands and feet, quick breathing, neck stiffness and aversion to light.\u201d\nLooking back, Matt can see that Sami had almost all of those early symptoms. Yet when he woke up hot and uncharacteristically grumpy on that February morning, he and Carolin assumed their son had a bad cold or virus and gave him paracetamol.\nThroughout the course of the day, Sami\u2019s symptoms became more worrying. He was sick, drowsy and had what appeared to be a small seizure, something he had experienced with a temperature in the past.\nBy mid-afternoon, he also had a very faint rash on his stomach. Concerned, Matt called his private doctor, who was unable to see Sami for a few hours and advised Matt to take him to A&E.\nBy the time he was examined at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, only minutes after arriving, the very faint rash, which Matt and Carolin had assumed was a heat rash, had become something more obvious and within minutes Sami was being pumped full of antibiotics and put into an induced coma.\n\u201cWe were told he most probably had meningitis and we both felt complete disbelief,\u201d says Matt.\n\u201cWe just hadn\u2019t realised how ill he was.\u201d\nOver the next few hours, Sami was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital and with friends and family helping out with Alex, Matt and Carolin were able to stay by their desperately sick son\u2019s side.\n\u201cWhen we arrived at Great Ormond Street a doctor told me that the next 48 hours were crucial and I just kept thinking: \u2018Is our son going to die?\u2019\u201d says Matt.\n\u201cThe doctors couldn\u2019t give us any real hope and simply told us: \u2018It\u2019s up to Sami now\u2019.\u201d\nBy then the lesions covering Sami\u2019s body made it obvious he was suffering from meningitis and blood tests later revealed he had Men W. This strain is on the rise, from 22 cases in 2009 to more than 200 in the last 12 months, according to figures from the Meningitis Research Foundation.\nAs with many parents, Matt and Carolin had assumed their son was protected from the disease as he\u2019d had the Men C vaccination as a baby. However Sami had not had the Men B jab (which offers some protection against Men W) as it was not given to babies in the UK until this year.\n\u201cAll we could do was wait, which made me feel so helpless,\u201d recalls Matt, his voice trembling slightly.\n\u201cWe just stayed by Sami\u2019s side, reading to him in case he could hear us. It was almost impossible to process the fact that our little boy\u2019s life hung in the balance and there was nothing I could do.\u201d\nFortunately Sami rallied and five days into\u00a0the illness Matt and Carolin were told he had turned a corner. The next day he was brought out of his coma and although very weak, he still managed to speak.\n\u201cIt was amazing,\u201d says Matt.\n\u201cWe were so incredibly lucky.\u201d\nAfter a further eight days in hospital, Sami was allowed home to recover and luckily hasn\u2019t been left with any side-effects. Since Sami\u2019s illness the whole family has been vaccinated against Men W.\nLast year a programme began to immunise teenagers aged between 14 and 18 with the Men ACWY vaccine. Young people under the age of 25, particularly students who haven\u2019t been vaccinated, are being encouraged to visit their GP or health centre for a free jab.\nA particularly aggressive strain of Men W, ST-11, is now causing cases of severe illness in all age groups in the UK and Europe. Affecting young adults the most, it is relatively uncommon in children as young as Sami. Yet as Matt knows only too well, nobody is really immune.\n\u201cMeningitis can happen to anyone,\u201d he says.\n\u201cI want people, and in particular young people, to be aware of the risks and to get immunised so we can give everyone the best chance against this dreadful disease.\u201d\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "THE England rugby ace tells LUCY BENYON how his family\u2019s terrifying experience with meningitis has spurred him to back a campaign to raise awareness of a rare form of the disease.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/729482/Rugby-Matt-Dawson-son-meningitis-charity-disease-awareness", "title": "Rugby ace Matt Dawson: I kept thinking our son was going to die"}, "5": {"text": "Telecoms - do fewer complaints mean there's less to complain about?\u00a0\nIf there's one huge monthly outlay for many of us, it's paying for our TV services, landline phones and mobiles and broadband internet.\u00a0\nAll of these forms of communication are so crucial to the way we live our daily lives but they don't come cheap. They probably represent one of the largest chunks of monthly expenditure after our mortgage/rent and electricity/gas bills.\u00a0\nAnd given how much money we are paying for all of these packages, we shouldn't ever have to put up with problems. Resolver.co.uk users regularly get in touch to tell me about issues they are suffering with bad connections, poor customer service or their bills and packages going up in price.\u00a0\nOn the flip side there was actually a recent report from UK communications regulator Ofcom that showed a decline in the number of complaints made between April and June 2016 about these sort of providers.\u00a0\nBut to me that doesn't necessarily mean there is less to complain about. It may simply mean people aren't taking the time to complain, or are finding it hard to do so.\u00a0\nI know from experience - ever since we launched Resolver to make complaining easier - that so many people are put off raising issues because they see it as wasting time, impossible to get satisfaction from big businesses and also complicated to do.\u00a0\nAnd if anyone has ever waited on hold for ages or searched fruitlessly for the right email address to contact, you'll know the frustrations that can be involved. That's exactly why we exist, to get around those problems and make life simpler for everyone with an issue to raise.\u00a0\nOur free and independent template emails do just that and we can see the benefit clearly during 2016 so far. Users of Resolver.co.uk have taken the time to raise 2,600+ issues about TV providers, 2,500+ relating to landline phones, 18,000+ about mobile networks and 14,000+ regarding internet and broadband.\u00a0\nI always remind people that they have far more power than they assume. Big companies can only continue to be big companies if they have customers.. And no-one wants to lose customers due to bad service.\u00a0\nAnd often the only time they hear or know about bad service is when people like you get in touch with them to tell them about it.\u00a0\nSo what can you do to help with that? Here's some of my key tips for dealing with communications providers when you have a problem.\nMake it clear you may leave\u00a0\nDon't wait until the last minute. Know when your contract is up - put it in a diary or calendar - and tell your provider you are thinking of leaving them. They won't want to hear that. But you have no reason to stay loyal unless they are loyal to you back with a decent deal renewal.\nUsually they will offer you some good reasons to stay a customer, especially if you provide quotes from competitors and ask them to match the prices. However, and this is key, you don't have to accept their first offer. Even if they say it is the best possible price they can give you, it isn't always. Always keep negotiating until YOU are happy.\u00a0\nCompare all the alternatives\u00a0\nEvery month, Resolver.co.uk publishes a list of the top companies for customer service to help people like you know which are the best businesses to buy from. This allows you to go off, search out other deals and decide which is right for you based on\u00a0\nprice, reviews, customer feedback and our own independent chart. There's so much competition out there today that you can sometimes find the same deal, or nearly as good, by switching provider.\nAnd that's never as much hassle these days as you believe it to be. Besides, if you can get more for your money as a 'new' customer elsewhere, then it makes total sense even if it means a few days of disruption and some phone calls and forms. That's the only way bad businesses begin to shape up, when they realise they are losing custom.\u00a0\nContact Customer Retention\u00a0\nIn every company of all shapes and sizes, there's a group of people whose one and only job is to keep you happy and keep you as a customer. Don't be afraid to speak to them and move on from Customer Services if the employee there is not giving you what you want.\nYou might even find that they will actually offer you a much better deal than the one already offered by their own colleague in another department. They have far more room to move and ultimately they do not want to lose you. Just be polite and friendly and don't demand. Simply ask for what you want and feel is the best deal and base it on quotes elsewhere or changes in your own circumstances.\u00a0\nKnow your important dates\u00a0\nAlways be careful to never to let a contract 'roll over' into a new period. Sometimes this will mean any special offers you've previously had given to you will be taken off your bill and you'll find you're paying far more with little or no way to get out of the new contract.\nAlways start way ahead of time to be able to negotiate new deals and pricing. You'd be surprised how many people forget this and not all companies will inform you of your impending contract end date or that it is time to renew. Many contracts are continuous and simply roll over unless you make the effort and act to cancel them.\nSo be careful and read all the terms and conditions carefully and check through any letters received in the post or emails arriving in your inbox that you may think are circulars or spam but are actually far more important.\u00a0\nFinally remember this: never be afraid to tell a company if you are not experiencing good enough service or the price is not right for you. You are the customer and you deserve the best. Now go out and get what you're entitled to and that's simply the best deal possible for you personally.\u00a0\n\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "JAMES WALKER, the consumer champion helping you resolve your consumer complaints, talks about telecoms complaints. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/729570/James-Walker-consumer-champion-telecom-complaints", "title": "James Walker: How to make a complaint to telecoms AND get the best result "}, "6": {"text": "This is the first time since the post of Royal Blue Permanent was created in the 16th century that the incumbent has granted an interview to the press and we are honoured that she has chosen the Beachcomber column to do so.\u00a0\n\u201cLady Calpurnia,\u201d I began, after tugging a forelock in the timehonoured fashion. But she made a dismissive hand gesture and insisted that I call her \u201cCallie\u201d.\u00a0\n\u201cOnly if you call me \u2018Beachie\u2019,\u201d I replied, so with that settled, the interview began.\n\u201cPerhaps,\u201d I suggested, \u201cyou could start by giving a brief account of the history and duties of Royal Blue Permanent.\u201d\n\u201cI\u2019d be delighted to,\u201d she said. \u201cThe post was created by Queen Elizabeth in 1573 after she is said to have thrown a regal tantrum after losing her quill pen. She was calmed down by her main grammatical advisor, the Apostropher Royal, who suggested that a cupboard should be built to house the royal quill, ink and \u2018anye thyng else Her Majestie\u2019s calligraphic needes may require\u2019. The Royal Stationery Cupboard was then constructed and the post of Keeper of the Cupboard created.\n\u201cOriginally the duties of that post mainly comprised the plucking, selection and sharpening of goose quills and the topping up of ink wells but later responsibilities were added as further stationery items became available.\u201d\n\u201cSo where does the post of Royal Blue Permanent come in?\u201d I asked.\u00a0\n\u201cI was coming to that,\u201d she said. \u201cBy 1786, the activities of the Keeper of the Stationery Cupboard had become so numerous that it became necessary to set up Her Majesty\u2019s Stationery Office to handle its commercial side. To appease the Keeper of the Cupboard, the additional role of Royal Blue Permanent was added to his responsibilities, particularly with regard to parliamentary matters.\u201d\n\u201cParliamentary matters?\u201d I queried.\n\u201cYes,\u201d she confirmed. \u201cThese are manifold, though two of them are particularly essential to preserve the smooth running of the state. First, the Cupboard is where the portfolio that the Minister Without Portfolio doesn\u2019t have is kept securely, and secondly, it houses the Grey Stick which is only ever seen at the royal opening of Parliament where it is carried by Grey Stick in Waiting in case Black Rod forgets to bring his Black Rod.\u201d\n\u201cThese are vital responsibilities,\u201d I agreed, \u201cso why has your role been kept so secret until now?\u201d\n\u201cThe very existence of the Cupboard became a state secret in 1649 when if was briefly used to store the head of the recently executed Charles I while Cromwell decided what to do with it. Shortly after that however the Great Cupboard Feud broke out between Royal Blue Permanent and the Master of Furnishings, Fixtures and Fittings.\u201d\n\nTo be continued tomorrow.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "WE ARE privileged today to be granted an interview with Lady Calpurnia Graffix, holder of the post of Royal Blue Permanent, which includes the duties of Keeper of Her Majesty\u2019s Stationery Cupboard. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/comment/beachcomber/729730/Beachcomber-99-years-old-still-stationary-cupboard", "title": "Beachcomber: 99 years old and STILL as stationary as a cupboard..."}, "7": {"text": "Doom-sayers in the United States are out of the same box as the moaners in Britain who continue to predict that Brexit means Wrecksit.\nSupposing he becomes president, the moment Trump sits at his desk in the Oval Office will be intensely sobering.\n\u201cGee, I really am the most powerful man in the universe,\u201d he will say and perhaps for the first time in his life he will be terrified.\nBecause, as a predecessor Harry Truman observed: \u201cThe buck stops here.\u201d Yes I know it was Truman who used the atomic bomb but that was before anyone else had it.\nEven if Trump has a rush of blood, picks up the phone and orders World War Three, a vast braking system will begin.\nThink of Sir Humphrey then multiply by a hundred.\nBut it won\u2019t happen because The Donald isn\u2019t stupid. Actually the more I think about it President Trump sounds like a pretty good idea.\nFor a start he would be a far greater friend to Britain than devious Hillary Clinton. And mutually admiring Trump and Putin are a marriage waiting to happen.\n--------------------------\nA deeply worrying word is creeping into the Brexit debate: \u201cadvisory.\u201d\nIt was always there in the small print but now the High Court has put it at the centre and even Nigel Farage seems to accept that the referendum vote is only advice from the voters and not a binding instruction.\nIt\u2019s unlikely that MPs will stop the process of withdrawal from the EU because the nation has spoken in the most democratic way possible but the Brexit that emerges could be very far from the complete break envisaged by voters.\nThe tiny consensus that controls politics and the law share one belief above everything: that they know best.\n--------------------------\nThe Roman Empire was killed by decadence and the same goes for Britain. Soon the process will be complete.\nThat\u2019s the message from the news that team sports at exclusive Wellington College are no longer compulsory and instead pupils can take Zumba lessons.\nI\u2019m sure Zumba is a very energetic dance but it doesn\u2019t live up to the idea that the battle of Waterloo, one of the greatest team efforts in history, was won on the playing fields of Eton.\nIn another example of decline homework has been scrapped at a primary school in Fort William after a poll by pupils and parents.\nChildren are expected to spend homework time reading books, magazines and comics.\nOr more likely devoting the entire evening to computer games and chatting on social media.\n--------------------------\nThe triple lock state pension which guarantees maximum inflation proofing is in danger.\nA Work and Pensions Committee report saying the system is unaffordable is just the latest in a growing climate of opinion that the old are pampered at the expense of the young.\nWhat a joke. Anyone who thinks life on the old-age pension is a luxury holiday can\u2019t have shopped for groceries or paid a gas bill within the past few decades.\nThe state pension is not a benefit. In most cases it is a hard-earned right for a lifetime of work and tax.\nThe same Labour-led committee also wants winter fuel allowances and free travel passes to be means-tested, neglecting the fact that 40 or 50 years of PAYE more than pays for such scraps.\nBritain has one of the poorest pension systems in the civilised world and now that repeated tax attacks have virtually wiped out the private pension system the state handout is more important than ever.\nThe over-60s also vote. Or do politicians think we should lose that right too?\n--------------------------\nOn my usual Sunday morning walk to the park I had to negotiate a trail of broken glass and rubbish.\nThen it dawned on me that the big firework display had happened the night before, supposedly a family occasion but from the debris a battle between armies of yobs.\nThe same goes for New Year\u2019s Eve and I will never forget the carnage left after the Millennium celebrations.\nThese occasions have become an excuse for disgusting behaviour and violence. A crying shame.\n--------------------------\nSo-called smart motorways with variable speed limits and average speed checks have resulted in a massive increase in fines.\nAt the same time traffic is slowing down, reaching just 13.7mph on London\u2019s M25 at peak times. Cycling would be quicker.\nLocal authorities are also planning draconian penalties on diesel-powered vehicles and company car drivers are facing a huge increase in tax.\nCameras spy on us. Everyone I know complains that journeys are taking longer what with endless roadworks and cycle lanes.\nSupposed improvements seem calculated to make motorised transport more and more intolerable.\nNo one voted for this process of outlawing cars or was consulted.\nWe can\u2019t be trusted.\n--------------------------\nThe Crown, the new series about the early years of the Queen\u2019s reign, is superb, convincingly acted with no expense spared on the production.\nThe detail is perfect. Even the door of the fake 10 Downing Street was scaled so that the 6ft 4in actor playing Churchill would look right and real surgeons operated on King George VI\u2019s fake body.\nI\u2019m also looking forward to watching The Grand Tour, the new Jeremy Clarkson and Co show.\nBut these are only available to people paying the subscription fees for Netflix or Amazon Prime. The same is true of the sport on Sky and BT.\nIs it time to scrap the licence fee and let the BBC raise money in a similar way?\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "I DOUBT if Donald Trump will win but it won\u2019t be the end of the world if he does. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/peter-hill/729826/Donald-Trump-US-presidential-election-wins-it-won-t-be-the-end-of-the-world", "title": "Peter Hill: It won\u2019t be the end of the world if Donald Trump wins"}, "8": {"text": "When you have grown up in an era when all shops were closed on a Sunday, did half days on Wednesday and pubs would shut at 2.30pm each day you will know true suffering.\u00a0\nEven though we are well used to 24 -hour shops and restaurants and the internet providing opportunities to gamble, bank and find a life partner 24/7 I\u2019m sure that I\u2019m not the only one left feeling this way.\u00a0\nThese thoughts are not limited to commerce and entertainment but to one\u2019s likes, dislikes and emotions too.\u00a0\n\nIt always feels like I\u2019ve tortured a teddy bear if I confess to a genuine dislike of chocolate (so awkward when presented as a gift), prefer prosecco over champagne (it\u2019s a migraine thing), have a dread of weddings (12 hours around a table with people you run out of conversation with in 20 minutes) and have never watched Strictly or Bake Off (just haven\u2019t).\u00a0\nIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve killed Bambi to say I will pass on the cake, strawberries aren\u2019t my thing and I don\u2019t like trainers as footwear beyond the gym or track.\u00a0\nFor some reason I have an aversion to bobble hats, grey shoes on men and the word \u201cgobsmacked\u201d too but I own all of these quirks without shame or issue.\u00a0\n\nAm I allowed though to feel the things I feel? Are you?\u00a0\nIs it OK to not like that guy everyone else thinks is a real card?\u00a0\nTo hate the school-gate cliques? Social media?\u00a0\n\nAm I allowed to feel lonely for no reason, to have flickers of sadness when all is well and to feel like the only one who is not seeing the funny side nor that elusive silver lining?\u00a0\nSometimes our thoughts almost feel like they are not our own.\u00a0\nThey can be mean, unworthy or so downright nasty you\u2019d move seats on the bus to get away from them.\u00a0\n\nThere is something admirable about owning up.\u00a0\nLike singer Adele who confessed to post-natal depression and finding motherhood less than a fairy story.\nMaybe for some it is and we are so often sold the line that being a mum is deeply rewarding and from this path of conventional approval is somehow deviant or abhorrent.\u00a0\n\nThus those who feel sad, depressed or overwhelmed feel odd and marginalised simply for being in their own truth.\u00a0\nFeeling that our thoughts are somehow wrong or unacceptable only compounds our feelings of alienation.\nHow grateful we are though when some honest person offers a \u201cis it just me or this really dismal?\u201d type of comment when you\u2019re all dying a small death under the umbrella of social niceness.\u00a0\n\nSufi poet Rumi beautifully allows us to give house room to all our thoughts whether whimpering or wailing in his piece The Guest House where he urges us to honour all our feelings politely as though they were visitors.\u00a0\n\u201cThe dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.\u201d\u00a0\nYou\u2019re allowed to be human in all its complex nuances.\u00a0\nYou are a fully paid-up member of humanity.\u00a0\nNot only are you allowed but most welcome.\n________________________________________\nOn Desert Island Discs Michael Bubl\u00e9 shared with us the music he can\u2019t live without.\u00a0\nHe put Kirsty Young straight on his rocky road to fame which was one of rejection, humiliation and tenacity and not some Hollywood sugar -sweet journey to easy street.\u00a0\nHe had his dark years and his belief in the power of song pulled him through.\u00a0\nHis choice of songs by Sinatra, Eminem and Leonard Cohen really showed him to be an authentic voice of now with a respectful nod to the talents who have gone before.\n________________________________________\nSomeone once asked the composer Brian Eno what he was up to after being in Roxy Music.\u00a0\n\u201cSame notes, different order,\u201d was his smart as a whip reply.\u00a0\nThe right words in the right order can change lives and worlds.\u00a0\nThe old clich\u00e9, \u201cI will believe it when I see it\u201d has a whole new resonance when you think of it instead as: \u201cI will see it when I believe it.\u201d\n\n________________________________________\nIf you like shopping you may well have a few shoe boxes at home.\u00a0\nWhy not turn one into a happiness box?\u00a0\nCover it in some beautiful paper and fill with little things that can lift your mood.\u00a0\n\n\nA bottle of lavender oil or perfume, red lipstick, a favourite photograph, book of poetry, a crystal or shell or packet of sweets.\u00a0\nThis box is to be opened on those days when the blues and blahs come visiting.\u00a0\nEqually you can put together themed boxes for special occasions as gifts such as anniversary boxes with old photos and memento s or new baby boxes.\u00a0\nSuch a delightful and thoughtful gift to yourself or others that shows you care.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "ONLY people of a certain age will understand the remnants of the \u201cam I allowed?\u201d mindset. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/carole-ann-rice/729428/Strictly-Come-Dancing-Bake-Off-Michael-Buble-Happy-Mondays", "title": "HAPPY MONDAYS: Growing up in an era where shops closed on SUNDAY"}, "9": {"text": "I don\u2019t want to be looked down on because I live in the \u201cwrong\u201d place or went to a non-Oxbridge university (although actually I went to none at all) or didn\u2019t pack my terrified children off to some grim but over-priced boarding school in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0\nAt heart I have a mortal dread of the so-called \u201celite\u201d, those who presume privilege because of their wealth and social status, and I believe I am at one with most people in that sense of foreboding.\u00a0\nAll of which brings me to Brexit and the decision by the High Court not to allow the Prime Minister to invoke Article 50 (which will start the formal process of leaving the EU) without going to Parliament.\u00a0\nIn an instant the 17.4 million of us who voted for Brexit have effectively been overruled.\u00a0\nThe instruction to Government that we delivered, accepted by the Act of Parliament that initiated the referendum and by Theresa May and her ruling party, is to be ignored in favour of a vote in Parliament that will almost certainly go against it.\u00a0\nBrexit will assuredly be achieved, in the end, hopefully after a general election that will destroy Corbyn\u2019s spiteful and useless Labour Party and spell the beginning of the end for the unelected House Of Lords.\u00a0\nBut this largely unwanted and totally unwarranted delay may also create months of economic turmoil... and, yes, this is exactly the outcome that many Remainers hoped would result from the Brexit vote itself.\u00a0\nTheir palpable disappointment that Osborne\u2019s fiscal Armageddon didn\u2019t occur, and the acrid stench of sour grapes they have wafted over the minimal disruption that followed, has been one of the saddest and most anti-British displays of petulance it has ever been my misfortune to witness.\u00a0\nWhat is even more disturbing is that the prime movers behind this legal ruling are the most insidious of all the elites in this country.\u00a0\nThey are a rabble of stinking rich bankers, financiers, hedge fund buccaneers and sneering, gimlet-eyed investors who give not a single hoot for anyone who doesn\u2019t live in one of London\u2019s smarter postcodes, shop in Sloane Street and send their children to Eton and Harrow.\u00a0\nMany of them are Mrs May\u2019s \u201ccitizens of the world... citizens of nowhere\u201d, the conveniently anonymous global rich who flooded London in the Noughties, buying up homes in Chelsea and Kensington and leaving them largely uninhabited.\u00a0\nThe same people who despoil the very foundations of our capital city by hollowing out vast \u201ciceberg\u201d basements under their mansions.\u00a0\nFor these people the bloated EU, with its endless layers of overpaid executives, pettifogging bureaucrats and impenetrable rules and regulations, its army of lawyers and pen-pushing time-wasters is exactly what is required: a bullying behemoth that baffles and blind-sides ordinary folk like us and allows these people to line their pockets.\u00a0\nThe poster girl for this greedy elite is Gina Miller, the Guyanaborn wife of a multimillionaire financier who has led the campaign by \u201cWrexiteers\u201d to frustrate the will of the public.\u00a0\nFormer model Miller, an investment expert and philanthropist, inspired the character of Blackeyes in one of maverick playwright Dennis Potter\u2019s infamously louche plays (well, he\u2019s dead and can\u2019t argue otherwise) and was also allegedly a slinky female silhouette at the beginning of a Bond film. How appropriate.\u00a0\nFor many of those who have been backing Miller\u2019s efforts, and those of one Deir Dos Santos, a Brazilian hairdresser who was, bafflingly, the first to lodge a complaint about Article 50 with the courts, are also silhouettes.\u00a0\nThey are shadows, cyphers, under-the-radar movers and shakers. They are as far removed from you and I, the Mr and Mrs Ordinary Folk who voted for Brexit for all the right reasons, as it is possible to get.\u00a0\nFew of them will ever have ventured north of Oxford Street let alone into the heartlands where Brexit was won.\u00a0\nWhat interest would they have in clawing back the nation\u2019s sovereignty, taking back control of our borders and revitalising our economy?\u00a0\nBritain, for them, is a big, beautifully civilised casino where they can spin their wheels, place their bets and quietly make fortunes off everyone else\u2019s backs.\u00a0\nThey are comfortable with the stifling EU: it suits them, they know how to play by its curious, self-serving rules and win.\u00a0\nNot only must we not allow this spoilt bunch to derail Brexit, we must make sure, afterwards, that life in Britain becomes a lot less easy for them.\u00a0\nThis selfish and exploitative elite have been at the root of Britain\u2019s problems for too long: it is time they were rooted out.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "LIKE Groucho Marx, I don\u2019t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member. I want to be judged on who I am and what I do rather than who I know, where I go or how much money I have in the bank. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/martin-townsend/729217/Brexit-Article-50-voices-silenced-exploitative-elite-word-editor", "title": "A word from the editor: Our voices have been silenced by the exploitative elite"}, "10": {"text": "We all have loved ones who would not be with us today without the hard work of its dedicated staff, from the receptionist to the neurologist.\nThe NHS\u2019s principle of care that is free at the point of delivery is the cornerstone of a compassionate society but it can only remain that way if it works.\u00a0\nIn just eight months almost 80,000 people who needed the help of our emergency services found that they were unable to get through to 999, a figure that has almost doubled in a year. That desperate people have found their calls unanswered is disgraceful.\nCall handlers, who are dealing with nine million calls each year, are dangerously under-resourced. If we do not support them they cannot support us.\u00a0\nIf this continues the story of Eddie Corley\u2019s struggle to reach help for his injured wife June could become all too familiar. When it comes to emergency care, people\u2019s lives must never be left to chance and no one should find themselves in a life-threatening situation based on a post-code lottery.\nThis is an issue that could affect every one of us \u2013 999 is a number you never want to use but are always glad to know it is there.\nWe must work to make sure that this service, which we have always been able to rely upon, remains available to anyone who requires it across the country.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\nRemember when planners swore that the future of warfare would be short, sharp, shock-tactics and \u201casymmetrical warfare\u201d became a byword for slashing conventional forces? You should \u2013 it was only six years ago.\nAnd it\u2019s clearer than ever that other nations weren\u2019t using the same script. Britain pulled tanks out of Germany, axed Nimrod maritime spy planes and shrunk the Royal Navy to its smallest size in history, believing that they wouldn\u2019t be needed to fight jihadis in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.\nMeanwhile Russia became the world\u2019s fourth largest defence spender, investing a whopping 7.5 per cent of its GDP to revamp its creaking hardware.\nVladimir Putin is an ex-KGB chief intent on reliving past glories. Despite Crimea and Syria, Russia\u2019s real aim \u2013 like China, also ramping up its navy \u2013 is to become a great maritime power. And the jewel in the crown is its submarine fleet.\nTrue, Britain is awaiting two new aircraft carriers but only one will be used at any one time. When it comes to maritime presence, quantity trumps quality.We need more destroyers and frigates \u2013 and the sailors to crew them.\nThe days when Britannia ruled the waves may be gone but, with the US focused on potential naval conflict with China, never has the need to invest in our Senior Service been more urgent.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\nPrince Harry deserves much praise for the way he has carved out a role for himself with his charity work, not least through his Invictus Games.\nHe has been rewarded... it was on a visit to Toronto on behalf of the Games that he met Meghan Markle with whom he has found romance. \nEarly days but we wish them both well.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "WE ARE rightly proud of the NHS. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/726723/NHS-crisis-stretched-999-emergency-services-leave-thousands-without-help", "title": "It\u2019s an emergency, our 999 services need help as thousands stranded without help"}, "11": {"text": "The comments from Geoffrey Van Orden come as the European Parliament\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on a report calling for action following the threat of terrorism, conflict in the Middle East and increased aggression from Russia.\nEurosceptics fear that federalists in the EU will seek to force through a more integrated\u00a0defence strategy, including an EU army.\nMr Van Orden slammed the \u201cayatollahs of European integration\u201d for what he saw as using Brexit to bring about a European Defence Union.\nHe told EuroparlTV: \u201cI suppose many would say that the United Kingdom has been the most hesitant about a European Defence Union. We don't want to see a European army.\n\u201cMaybe with the prospect of the UK now leaving the European Union, they see this as an opportunity. And indeed I've heard that some of the ayatollahs of European integration that exist in this Parliament have specifically said this.\u201d\nThe East of England MEP maintained that NATO forces alone would be able to cope with increasing threats.\n\u201cWe have serious threats which are common to all of our countries and more widely among the democracies,\u201d he said last month. \u201cWe need solidarity among the democracies.\n\u201cWe have a strongly functioning defence organisation. It's called Nato. It guarantees the commitment of the US to the security of the European nations. That's what's important. That's what has credibility, and that's what we need to be strengthening.\u201d\nBacking the proposal is former Estonian foreign minister and Estonian Reform Party MEP Urmas Paet, who said the EU had to do more to to protect itself.\nHe said: \u201cThe first reason is of course the situation inside Europe and around it, because there are lots of new risks, be it terrorism, also inside Europe, or new conflicts, around Europe in the south and in the east.\n\u201cAnd also because of the increasingly aggressive behaviour of Russia, if you look at what happened and is still happening in Ukraine, at what is happening in Syria..\u201d\nMr Paet said more and more European nations shared his stance.\nHe added: \u201cIf you look for example at NATO, around 75 per cent of all NATO costs are covered by the United States. And Europe covers only 25 per cent \u2013 I simply don't think that it is fair enough.\u201d\nThe comments come after the UK agreed to send 800 British soldiers, tanks and drones to Estonia, at the border with Russia as part of a NATO offensive in the region following fears of Russian agression.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "A FORMER senior military officer and Conservative MEP has dismissed the idea more money needs to be pumped into building a European army.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/730011/Tory-MEP-blasts-ayatollahs-european-integration-european-army", "title": "Tory MEP blasts 'ayatollahs of European integration' after calls for new 'European army'"}, "12": {"text": "The Former Labour minister was accused in leaked documents of ordering updates worth \u00a3450,000 at the Mayfair premises including \u00a3100 a roll wallpaper worth \u00a310,500 and \u00a35,000 to \u201crefurbish\u201d a safe.\nLady Scotland insists the cost was nearer \u00a3330,000.\nShe has also claimed to have had support from the Prime Minister.\nAsked about the case during her official visit to India, Mrs May told journalists: \u201cObviously the UK is a strong supporter of the Commonwealth.\n\u201cWe believe as an organisation it has a role to play in dealing with some of the shared challenges we are seeing round the world.\n\u201cWe believe it does need to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.\n\u201cThat means there does need to be reform in the secretariat and the way the Commonwealth operates.\n\u201cBaroness Scotland of course needs to respond to the allegations that have been made and she will be judged on how she delivers on that need for reform, for the Commonwealth Secretariat to be operating effectively and efficiently.\u201d\nMeanwhile a statement emerged in The Telegraph today from Lady Scotland, who took the post in April.\nShe said the work on the building was proposed by her predecessor, Kamalesh Sharma, and approved by the board of governors before she joined the secretariat.\nShe has also insisted that she had made \u201creally clear there was to be no extravagance\u201d.\nSociety interior designer Nicky Haslam was involved in the project.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "THERESA May has refused to give embattled Baroness Scotland her full backing when pressed about the row over allegedly expensive refurbishment at the Commonwealth Secretary General\u2019s grace and favour home in London.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/729698/Baroness-Scotland-Theresa-May-home-refurbishment-row", "title": "New blow for Baroness Scotland as PM refuses to give full backing over refurbishment row"}, "13": {"text": "The Clintons\u2019 daughter could make history by becoming the First Daughter for the second time if her mother wins the US election.\u00a0\nChelsea, 36, went through her awkward teenage years while living in the White House with her mother and her father, then US President Bill Clinton.\u00a0\nBut her experience as First Daughter will be very different if Mrs Clinton is elected as the first female President of America.\nAt the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Chelsea spoke about how her parents had made her realise the importance of public service.\u00a0\nShe told the convention: \u201cI am here as a proud American, a proud Democrat, a proud mother and in particular a very, very proud daughter.\u201d\n\nChelsea has taken a more prominent role at the Clinton Foundation - her family\u2019s non-profit corporation - in recent years.\u00a0\nEstablished by her father, the Clinton Foundation aims to improve global health, empower women, boost economic growth and combat climate change.\u00a0\nChelsea used to be a special correspondent at NBC News but left the job in order to focus on the Clinton Foundation and prepare for the birth of her first child.\u00a0\nThe young professional started her career at a consulting firm McKinsey and Company before moving on to hedge fund Avenue Capital Group.\u00a0\nShe has also taught graduate classes at Columbia University and worked for New York University in the past.\u00a0\n\nChelsea has been a constant presence on the campaign trail and has helped to paint a touching picture of her mother. \u00a0\nShe spoke about life growing up with her \u201cwonderful, thoughtful, hilarious mother\u201d during the Democratic convention this summer.\u00a0\nChelsea said: \u201cShe\u2019s a listener and a doer. She\u2019s a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love.\u00a0\n\u201cSo, this November, I\u2019m voting for a woman who is my role model, as a mother, and as an advocate.\u201d\u00a0\nChelsea married hedge fund boss Marc Mezvinsky during a lavish wedding in New York in 2010.\u00a0\nThe young mother gave birth to their second child, Aidan, in June - nearly two years after the birth of their daughter Charlotte.\u00a0\nShe told the convention: \u201cWe are so thankful that he is healthy and thriving.\n\"And well, we are a little bit biased but we think he is just about the cutest baby in the world - a view I'm sure my mum shares.\"\u00a0\nShe said her daughter Charlotte loves Elmo and blueberries but \u201cabove all she loves Facetime with her grandma\u201d.\nWHO IS CHELSEA CLINTON?\nWhen Mr Clinton was still US President, his daughter left the White House to study history at Stanford University.\u00a0\nChelsea went on to do a master\u2019s degree at Oxford University and a master\u2019s in public health at Columbia University.\u00a0\nShe has also completed a PhD in international relations from Oxford University.\u00a0\n\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "CHELSEA Clinton devotes huge amounts of her time to championing her mother, but what else does she do? ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/694804/Chelsea-Clinton-what-does-Hillary-Clinton-daughter-do-facts-Bill-US-Democratic-President", "title": "What does Chelsea Clinton do? What kind of First Daughter would she be if Hillary wins?"}, "14": {"text": "\nPresident Erdogan has come under fire for arresting leading politicians and lawmakers from an opposition party as part of a widespread purge of all the nation\u2019s core institutions following the violent military coup in July.\nThe HDP, a left wing, pro-Kurdish party with strong convictions about women\u2019s rights, saw many of its top brass rounded up and detained on Friday amid accusations that they support the armed Kurdish militia, the PKK.\nBritain, the EU and America send aid and arms to a Kurdish group with links to the PKK currently fighting the Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Mr Erdogan claims some of the money and weapons handed to the Kurds in Syria is being used to kill Turks by the PKK, who have committed a string of terrorist atrocities across the Middle Eastern nation.\nThe 62-year-old AK Parti leader said: \u201cEurope, as a whole, is abetting terrorism. Even though they declared the PKK a terrorist organisation, this is clear.\n\"We see how the PKK can act so freely and comfortably in Europe.\"\nBut the arrests of the HDP figureheads along with nearly 110,000 other people, including top military generals, teachers and media broadcasters, has led to condemnation from many Western leaders, who fear Mr Erdogan is acting like a tin pot dictator.\nThe United States expressed deep concern, while Germany and Denmark summoned Turkish diplomats over the Kurdish arrests and European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the actions \"call into question the basis for the sustainable relationship between the EU and Turkey\".\nThe Turkish president hit back at his critics, saying: \u201cI don't care if they call me dictator or whatever else, it goes in one ear, out the other. What matters is what my people call me.\u201d\nIn response to the police swoop, the HDP have decided to boycott the Ankara-based parliament.\nHDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said: \u201cAfter discussions with our parliamentary group and our central executive board, we have decided to halt our legislative efforts in light of everything that has happened.\u201d\nPrime Minister Binali Yildirim said the HDP had been funding terrorism and that \"not only those bombing and burning, but also those supporting terror\" would pay the price.\u00a0\nThe party's deputies would be betraying the people if they failed to attend parliament sessions, he said.\nMr Yildirim added: \u201cFor years, we called on you to say you are against terror and terrorist organisations. You would not listen\u2026For years, they transferred the money we sent for the municipalities to terror.\n\"Turn back from this road while it's still possible\u2026 Come to parliament and say what you have to say.\u201d\nThe government alleges 800 security officers and 300 civilians have been killed by acts of terror in Turkey since a ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in October last year.\nThe latest deadly attack took place on Friday, when 11 people were killed and 100 others wounded after a car bomb detonated in the largely Kurdish-populated South Eastern city of Dyarbakir.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "CONTROVERSIAL Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has sensationally accused the European Union of funding terrorism in his country and says he does not care if the West brands him \u201ca dictator\u201d.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/729360/Turkey-President-Erdogan-European-Union-EU-Martin-Schulz-terrorism-PKK", "title": "'The EU is funding TERROR in the Middle East', rages Turkey's president Erdo\u011fan"}, "15": {"text": "The beleaguered Labour leader pounced on the ruling of three judges that Article 50 can only be triggered by the House of Commons to issue an extraordinary four-point blackmail note to the prime minister.\nIn a bombshell intervention the unpopular left-winger said Mrs May will have to accept his demands or face a backbench rebellion which would force her to call a snap general election.\u00a0\nMr Corbyn is insisting that Britain maintains access to the single market, guarantees all EU workers' rights, keeps Brussels laws on consumers and the environment and agrees to pay for any EU capital investment lost by Brexit.\u00a0\nIf Mrs May refuses to accede to all four demands in a binding parliamentary law, he has vowed to build a cabal of Labour, Green, SNP and Remain-backing Tories to block her from activating Article 50.\u00a0\nThe breathtaking blackmail attempt was tonight set to spark fury amongst eurosceptic MPs who have warned that a europhile establishment is trying to betray the public and reverse the result of June's referendum. \u00a0\nIn a dynamite interview with the Sunday Mirror the embattled Islington MP called the four huge demands his party's \u201cBrexit bottom lines\u201d.\nHe said: \u201cThese must be the basis of the negotiations. And it doesn\u2019t necessarily cause a delay.\n\u201cThe court has thrown a big spanner in the works by saying Parliament must be consulted. We accept the result of the referendum.\n\u201cWe are not challenging the referendum. We are not calling for a second referendum. We\u2019re calling for market access for British industry to Europe.\u201d\nOn whether Mrs May will accept the extraordinarily brass-necked demand, he added: \u201cSorry, but we live in a democracy and the Government has to be responsive to Parliament. It\u2019s not my timetable so it\u2019s up to her to respond.\u201d\nAnd he was scathing of the PM's handling of the early stages of Brexit, insisting that if she listens to Labour she can get Britain's negotiating strategy back on track.\u00a0\nHe said: \u201cShe has set a timetable that can easily be achieved.\n\u201cShe just has to set out the negotiating basis which she refuses to do.\n\u201cI would have set out very quickly the relationship with Europe.\n\u201cIt would have stemmed the run on the Pound if we had made clear we wanted to maintain market access to Europe.\u201d\nMr Corbyn's hand has been significantly strengthened by Thursday's ruling that the PM cannot use royal prerogative powers, but must instead consult parliament before activating divorce talks with Brussels.\u00a0\nThe Government has vowed to appeal the decision but legal experts have indicated it is watertight, meaning the prime minister now faces the prospect of having to get Brexit past an incredibly europhile House of Commons.\u00a0\nThe PM has a wafer-thin majority of just 12 and could be forced to call a snap general election if parliament tries to throw a spanner in the work, despite promising not to hold another national vote until 2020.\u00a0\nAnd Mr Corbyn, who according to the latest polls is currently the public's third pick to be the next prime minister - behind Mrs May and 'don't know' - said he is relishing the prospect of an election campaign.\u00a0\nHe said: \u201cIf the Government calls an election we\u2019re ready for it.\n\u201cWe have the members, the organisation and the enthusiasm. We welcome the challenge.\n\u201cIt would give us the chance to put before the British people an alternative economic strategy for this country.\u201d\nThe latest polling by YouGov revealed that just 16 per cent of the British public believe Mr Corbyn would make the best prime minister, compared to 36 per cent who plumped for 'don't know' and 47 per cent who backed Mrs May.\u00a0\nAnd a new ICM poll released earlier this week showed that Labour is on just 27 per cent of the vote nationwide, an astonishing 16 point behind the Tories.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "JEREMY Corbyn tonight sensationally vowed to collude with Remain backing MPs in parliament to block Brexit unless Theresa May accedes to his demands. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/729207/Brexit-Jeremy-Corbyn-Labour-collude-Remain-MPs-stop-Article-50", "title": "'I'll BLOCK Brexit' Corbyn vows to collude with Remain MPs unless PM agrees to HIS demands"}, "16": {"text": "Astronomers have spotted an eye-in-the-sky some 114million lightyears from Earth which was the result of two galaxies colliding.\nUsing the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope \u2013 some 66 telescopes in the Chilean desert \u2013 experts had spotted that a spiral galaxy dubbed IC 2163 had smashed into a similar galaxy known as NGC 2207.\nThe collision resulted in a tsunami of stars and swirling carbon monoxide gas which gave the appearance of an eye complete with eyelids.\nLead author of the study published in Astrophysical Journal, Michele Kaufman said: \"Although galaxy collisions of this type are not uncommon, only a few galaxies with eye-like, or ocular, structures are known to exist.\n\"Galactic eyelids last only a few tens of millions of years, which is incredibly brief in the lifespan of a galaxy.\u00a0\n\u201cFinding one in such a newly formed state gives us an exceptional opportunity to study what happens when one galaxy grazes another.\u201d\nData from the ALMA Telescope revealed that the gas on the outer portion of the eye is travelling at an astounding 100 kilometres per second.\nHowever, as it moves inwards, it quickly decelerates and changes motion, aligning itself with the swirling trajectory of the galaxy.\nCo-author, Bruce Elmegreen, from IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, explained: \"What we observe in this galaxy is very much like a massive ocean wave barreling toward shore until it interacts with the shallows, causing it to lose momentum and dump all of its water and sand on the beach.\u201d\nMs Kaufman continued: \"Not only do we find a rapid deceleration of the gas as it moves from the outer to the inner edge of the eyelids, but we also measure that the more rapidly it decelerates, the denser the molecular gas becomes.\u00a0\n\"This direct measurement of compression shows how the encounter between the two galaxies drives gas to pile up, spawn new star clusters and form these dazzling eyelid features.\"\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "A CLASH of galaxies has created a huge \u2018cosmic eye\u2019 made up of a tsunami of stars, astronomers have reported.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/729761/Collision-galaxies-HUGE-cosmic-eye-in-the-sky", "title": "SHOCK DISCOVERY: Huge COSMIC EYE made up of tsunami of stars after clash of galaxies found"}, "17": {"text": "Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist with the SENS Research Foundation \u2013 a firm which \u201cdevelops and promotes rejuvenation biotechnology\u201d \u2013 says that humans will one day be able to live forever and points to the progress humans have made in the last few centuries.\nIn the 1800s, the average lifespan was around 40 years old, compared to today where it has almost doubled.\nThanks to the advancement of modern medicine, science has beaten many infectious diseases and wiped out what killed off humans early.\nWhile death is considered a natural part of life, there is no reason why we should die, aside from the fact that at a certain point in one\u2019s life, in the \u00a020s, the regeneration of cells is outpaced by the death of cells, leading us to ageing.\nHowever, Mr de Grey believes that if we keep making the same progress as we have been doing in recent times, it will only be a matter of time before scientists conquer degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and heart disease.\nMr de Grey said at the technological Inman Connect conference: \u201cThere\u2019s almost one thing that kills everybody now in the developed world.\u00a0\n\u201cIt\u2019s the accumulation of these various types of molecular and cellular damage that the body does to itself as a side effect of just being alive at all.\u201d\nMr de Grey says that his research has led him to the conclusion that molecular and cellular damage will one day be a thing of the past thanks to regenerative medicines such as stem cell and gene therapies coupled with drugs and vaccinations.\nThe 53-year old Brit criticised the modern pharmaceutical industry for focussing its efforts on delaying diseases, rather than beating them.\nHe continued: \u201cWe will not cure cancer this way. We will not cure Alzheimer\u2019s this way.\u201d\nHe explained that companies pursue the current avenue because \u201cit can be done reasonably quickly, sold for a lot of money and because people are desperate for anything.\u201d\nMr de Grey: \u201cI think it\u2019s really important to understand that the relationship between quality of life and quantity of life is not as most people think about it.\u00a0\n\u201cToday most people think about those two things as some kind of trade off, and that makes sense today because there are many things we like doing that are not very good for us.\n\u201cBut we are talking about a world in which quality will confer quantity, in which you will live longer because you are living better. That\u2019s the critical thing here.\u201d\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "HUMANS could potentially live forever, according to a a leading researcher on the subject.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/727666/END-OF-DEATH-Humans-live-FOREVER-aubrey-de-grey", "title": "END OF DEATH: Humans will one day be able to live FOREVER, says leading researcher"}, "18": {"text": "Experts placed the microscopic tubes in the leaves of spinach in the hope of making bomb detection easier and safer.\nOnce the tubes are inserted, the plant has the ability to detect nitro-aromatics \u2013 elements found in land mines and other explosives.\nA team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) put nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes into the leaves.\nThey then put nitro-aromatics into water, and waited for the spinach to soak it up through the soil.\nOnce the water has been drawn through the roots of the spinach and is in the leaves, a laser is then shone onto the plant which makes the nanotubes emit an almost infrared fluorescent light that can be detected by an infrared camera which can be placed on a smartphone.\nMichael Strano, a chemical engineering professor at MIT and leader of the research team, said of his research paper published in Nature Materials: \u201cThe goal of plant nanobionics is to introduce nanoparticles into the plant to give it non-native functions.\n\u201cThis is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier.\n\u201cPlants are very good analytical chemists.\u00a0\n\u201cThey have an extensive root network in the soil, are constantly sampling groundwater, and have a way to self-power the transport of that water up into the leaves.\n\u201cPlants are very environmentally responsive. They know that there is going to be a drought long before we do. They can detect small changes in the properties of soil and water potential. If we tap into those chemical signalling pathways, there is a wealth of information to access.\u201d\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "SCIENTISTS can now use SPINACH to detect bombs after tiny tubes were embedded in the plant leaves which made them sensitive to certain chemicals.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/727655/WARFARE-Bionic-SPINACH-detect-bombs", "title": "VEGETABLE WARFARE: Bionic SPINACH being used to detect bombs"}, "19": {"text": "Since 1970, a staggering 58 per cent of vertebrae populations have died, and by 2020, experts believe that two thirds of fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals will have disappeared.\nAs the human population continues to grow and moves into other animals natural habitats, other species are left with nowhere to go and become extinct.\nA report from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) says deforestation, increased demand for food, as well as a rise in pollution, are pushing extinction rates to 100 times their natural level.\nFreshwater animals have seen an 81 per cent decline in their numbers, while a plethora of animals, including killer whales, African elephants, leatherback turtles, gorillas and rhinoceroses are on the brink of extinction.\nExperts are heralding it as the biggest mass-extinction event since the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.\nMike Barrett, director of science and policy at WWF-UK, said: \"For the first time since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, we face a global mass extinction of wildlife.\n\"We ignore the decline of other species at our peril - for they are the barometer that reveals our impact on the world that sustains us.\n\"Humanity's misuse of natural resources is threatening habitats, pushing irreplaceable species to the brink and threatening the stability of our climate.\u201d\nHowever, he added: \"We know how to stop this. It requires governments, businesses and citizens to rethink how we produce, consume, measure success and value the natural environment.\n\"In the UK, this demands a serious plan to strengthen protection for habitats and species and new measures to fast-track low-carbon growth.\"\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "THE Earth is currently going through a mass-extinction event as vast populations of the animal kingdom continue to die off.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/727648/MASS-EXTINCTION-dinosaurs-earth-wwf", "title": "Earth experiencing BIGGEST MASS-EXTINCTION since the dinosaurs "}, "20": {"text": "Despite huge advances in scientists\u2019 understanding of the Universe in recent decades, where the Cosmos came from remains a mystery.\nEqually mysterious to experts are black holes \u2013 but now some experts are starting to consider whether the two are connected in some way.\nAt the beginning of time, 13.8 billion years ago, there was a dense and super-hot energetic point where the laws of physics did not apply \u2013 what is known as a singularity.\nThe only other thing in the Universe where a singularity occurs and the laws of physics are thrown out of the window is at the event horizon of a black hole, which is unexplainable by current scientific methods.\nWhat is fascinating about black holes is that the event horizon is two-dimensional in our three-dimensional universe.\nThis means that there is something that we are unable to perceive and the theory, which was first suggested in 2014 and is now under serious scrutinisation, claims that our Universe is the result of a singularity of a huge black hole.\nIn simpler terms, there is a possibility that our three-dimensional Universe is surrounding the event horizon of a four-dimensional Universe.\nA 2014 study from the Perimeter Institute and University of Waterloo stated: \"In this scenario, our Universe burst into being when a star in a four-dimensional universe collapsed into a black hole.\u201d\nRe-visiting the theory recently, Ethan Siegel, a professor of physics and astronomy at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, explained how a black hole could have formed in another universe which led matter to \u201cfall\u201d into our Universe.\nDr Siegel wrote for Forbes: \"As the black hole first formed, from a star\u2019s core imploding and collapsing, the event horizon first came to be, then rapidly expanded and continued to grow in area as more and more matter continued to fall in.\n\u201cIf you were to put a coordinate grid down on this two-dimensional wrapping, you would find that it originated where the gridlines were very close together, then expanded rapidly as the black hole formed, and then expanded more and more slowly as matter fell in at a much lower rate.\u00a0\n\u201cThis matches, at least conceptually, what we observe for the expansion rate of our three-dimensional Universe.\"\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "OUR Universe could have been born from a black hole in a four-dimensional Universe, an astonishing new theory has claimed.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/726632/big-bang-universe-black-hole-singularity", "title": "Our Universe was born from black hole in 4D Universe, astonishing theory suggests"}, "21": {"text": "The World Rugby awards are usually a New Zealand monopoly but for once they found themselves beaten by England when it came to names in lights yesterday.\nEngland have three nominees on the player of the year shortlist to New Zealand\u2019s two which, with Eddie Jones up for coach of the year and his Grand Slam winners in the running for the team gong, indicates who are the coming side in the world game.\nTo put this into context, England have only had two players \u2013 Owen Farrell in 2012 and Tom Croft in 2009 \u2013 nominated in the 12 years since they won the World Cup.\nMaro Itoje could even become the first man to land an historic double at the awards ceremony in London next Sunday as he is up for breakthrough player too.\nSuch adulation brings with it the possibility of heads being turned \u2013 the average age of the nominated trio is only 23 \u2013 but England scrum-half Ben Youngs is adamant minds will remain firmly fixed on this weekend\u2019s game against bogey team South Africa.\n\u201cThe boys have a focus on now being the time for us. We\u2019ve got to crack on and keep moving forward. There\u2019s absolutely no chance of complacency from the side,\u201d said Youngs.\n\u201cNo one in the side has ever beaten South Africa and it\u2019s something we all want to experience. We feel like the time is now to try to get rid of the last ten years and get a win against them this weekend.\u201d\nItoje is out of action for the Old Mutual Wealth Series with a broken hand so it was with some relief that England were yesterday able to confirm the availability of Courtney Lawes, along with Mako Vunipola.\nLawes, who will win his 50th cap, has shaken off a knee problem to fill the dual role of chief lineout target and destructive defence missile against South Africa.\nThe physical side of a match-up which has proved beyond England for a decade is the struggling Springboks\u2019 one trump card and the emphasis in training this week has been to ensure the home side can negate it.\n\u201cWhenever I have played them I have never felt that we have been outclassed, more physically beaten up,\u201d said Youngs, who has been involved in five of the defeats.\n\u201cI\u2019ve never come off the field feeling there\u2019s a massive gap. I\u2019ve just felt that whenever we\u2019ve come unstuck against them we haven\u2019t been able to match them physically or deal with their physicality round the corner and their breakdown stuff.\u201d\nMelbourne Storm rugby league coach Jason Ryles was working with the squad at their Pennyhill Park base yesterday. The Australian\u2019s temporary presence on the invitation of Jones is hardly a vote of confidence in England defence coach Paul Gustard, but the head coach wants an expert on the two-man tackles he believes will stop the Springboks in their tracks.\n\u201cEveryone knows the biggest thing they bring is physicality. They come at you like a wave. It keeps coming, battering you down,\u201d said Youngs.\n\u201cI think they\u2019ll go back to tradition and try to beat us up to a degree but the boys are really focused on that. Jason has come in to help with our two-man tackles to make sure we\u2019re physical in that area.\n\u201cThey\u2019re big guys and we need to get them down early. With the ball-carrying threat they have we don\u2019t want to get into a one-on-one wrestling match.\u201d\nThe Springboks could be without star wing Bryan Habana, who has a knee injury, but Wasps-bound full-back Willie le Roux and Leicester wing JP Pietersen are on course to be fit.\n\u201cI know my body well so I will be ready for selection,\u201d said Pietersen.\nCoach Allister Coetzee confirmed that second-row Eben Etzebeth will be playing two months of club rugby in Europe at the end of the tour.\nRelegation-threatened Bristol, who sacked director of rugby Andy Robinson yesterday, are favourites to land him on a \u00a340,000-per game deal.\n\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "ENGLAND, to their frustration, do not have the opportunity to take on the All Blacks head to head this autumn, but they have managed to claim a notable victory over the world champions.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/729778/Rugby-Union-England-New-Zealand-Maro-Itoje-Owen-Farrell-Billy-Vunipola-News", "title": "England trio Farrell, Itoje and Vunipola nominated for player of the year award"}, "22": {"text": "Sakho has been frozen out at Liverpool ever since he was sent home early from the club's USA pre-season tour.\nJurgen Klopp claimed the defender had been disrespectful after he was late for a flight and missed a team dinner and training session.\nHe is yet to make a single appearance for the Reds this term and has since been training with the Under-23s.\nAnd France boss Deschamps has revealed he has spoken to Sakho in a bid to resolve the situation but has claimed it's \"very complicated\".\n\"I talked with Mamadou Sakho to see where abouts he is,\" Deschamps said.\n\"It sounds very complicated.\n\"I do not know if there is another solution for him to go elsewhere because he does not play at Liverpool.\n\"His situation is very complicated,\" he added.\n\"It is up to him to find a solution so that he can express himself on the pitch.\"\nSakho has struggled to find his way back into the Liverpool side after he was banned for testing positive for a fat burner in the summer.\nThe charge was later dismissed by UEFA but the former Paris Saint-Germain star lost his place in the France squad for Euro 2016.\nHe has made 80 appearances for Liverpool since signing from PSG in 2013 for \u00a318million.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "MAMADOU SAKHO has a complicated situation at Liverpool, according to France boss Didier Deschamps.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/729911/Liverpool-Transfer-News-Mamadou-Sakho-Talks-Didier-Deschamps-France", "title": "Liverpool star holds transfer talks: Manager reveals deal is complicated"}, "23": {"text": "A national newspaper sting filmed him instructing fake businessmen on how to circumvent Football Association regulations on third-party ownership of players.\nHe was forced to leave his post 'by mutual agreement' with the FA and now English football is on the hunt for a new man to run the national team for the second time this year.\nWhen Allardyce stepped down, there was no safer pair of hands around to steady the ship in the meantime than the under-21s boss.\nWhen Roy Hodgson left, Southgate himself was said to think he did not have enough experience for the job.\nWell, there can be no better preparation for becoming England manager than\u2026being England manager.\nAt present, he is still in charge until the end of the year, with home games against Scotland and Spain remaining in which to prove himself.\nA 0-0 draw in Slovenia will not sit well on his record but his successes - most recently at the Toulon Tournament - with the England under-21s make him a very feasible candidate for the job in the long-term.\nAfter sacraficing a 2-0 lead against Spain to draw, Southgate will now be given a 'rigorous' interview by the FA.\nManchester City fans will always hold a special place in their hearts for 'Bobby' as the man who brought them their first league title in 44 years.\nThe Italian racked up 191 games at the Etihad and even had a brief spell in England as a player: a month on loan at Leicester in 2001.\nMancini is known for his hands-on training sessions and disciplinarian style. Mario Balotelli found out exactly how harsh he could be on a number of occasions.\nEnglish players generally react poorly to being told what to do and the previous bosses have been much more 'softly-softly' in their approach.\nBut with none of those managers having brought the FA the success they so desire, the winds of change are certainly beginning to blow.\nThere's not much about Wenger England fans don't already know. Since his arrival in English football in 1996, the 66-year-old has built Arsenal into one of the world's top sides with three Premier League titles and six FA Cups.\nHis contract is up at the end of the season and more than ever it looks as though it will not be renewed barring something quite remarkable happening over the coming months.\nWenger's legacy in English football will be one of lifestyle - he turned the Gunners from boozers eating egg and chips before matches into finely-tuned athletes.\nBut these days he is relatively hands-off with his players and rarely even talks to them during the week. If he were to enter into international management, the limited time available with his squad might make his reservation a hindrance.\nThis is by far the most left-field name to have been thrown into the ring so far.\nRangnick is currently the sporting director for Red Bull Leipzig and said to be very happy doing it.\nWHO IS RALF RANGNICK? IN-DEPTH PROFILE\nHowever, he has a background in management been the top dog at a long list of German sides including Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Schalke and Leipzig themselves.\nHe is part of a project at Leipzig bringing wisdom from the business world into into football - perhaps England need some of his analytics to break their major tournament curse?\nAgain? Really?\nWell yes. Hoddle led England through qualifying for the 1998 World Cup with a solitary blemish, defeat to Italy at Wembley.\nBut when they were eliminated on penalties by Argentina in the second round, red card recipient David Beckham attracted much of the blame and vitriol of the fans.\nHoddle meanwhile kept his job until February 1999, when comments of his suggesting disabled people had sinned in a previous lifetime emerged and he was sacked.\nHoddle enjoyed unspectacular spells in management afterwards with Southampton, Tottenham and Wolves and has not worked as a football manager in 10 years.\nBut he has been employed as a tactical expert by a number of bosses and runs his own football academy in Spain.\nWidely touted as a potential candidate to replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, there are few English managers more highly rated than Howe.\nThe 38-year-old is popular with players, other managers and fans alike. He has managed in the top three divisions of English football and not looked remotely out of his depth in the Premier League, guiding an unremarkable Bournemouth team into mid-table safety.\nThe top job might be a bridge too far for the managerial youngster but there is no doubting his ability. If England come calling, could he possibly turn it down?\nSouthgate 1/10\nWenger 16/1\nMancini 20/1\nHowe 20/1\nRangnick 33/1\nHoddle 33/1\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "SAM ALLARDYCE lasted just 67 days as England manager, a shorter reign than any of his predecessors.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/722159/Next-England-manager-candidates-assessed", "title": "Next England manager candidates assessed: Gareth Southgate set for interview"}, "24": {"text": "The Wallabies ran riot in Cardiff to score five tries and send Wales to their heaviest home beating in a decade.\nEdwards\u2019 defence has leaked 32 tries in the last six matches, but he is determined to find the answers and restore some pride ahead of next weekend\u2019s clash with Argentina.\n\u201cTheir attack coach Stephen Larkham got the better of me. I\u2019ll hold my hands up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m a determined person.\n\u201cThey had 80 per cent of the possession in the first half and 75 per cent of the territory, we conceded three tries and it could have been more.\n\u201cThe tackling wasn\u2019t too bad but first and foremost we lost the advantage line. Their front five were consistently gaining ground and creating quick ball.\u00a0\n\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult to hold out a team in periods like that, especially the way the game has gone in the past 12 months with more and more tries being scored.\n\u201cBut do I think we can defend better? Yes I do. And am I incredibly determined to make that happen? Yes I am.\u201d\nOn the other side of the Atlantic, Andy Farrell helped orchestrate Ireland\u2019s first victory over New Zealand in 111 years with Lions coach Warren Gatland watching from the Chicago stands.\nFarrell got the nod over Edwards for the role of defence guru for the triumphant 2013 tour of Australia and Edwards could be third in line for the post after Paul Gustard\u2019s defensive systems allowed England to whitewash the Wallabies and win a Six Nations Grand Slam.\nWales\u2019 bid to tame the Pumas will be aided by the returns of captain Sam Warburton, Jonathan Davies, Jake Ball and Liam Williams.\nUncapped scrum-half Tomos Williams has been called into the squad as cover for Rhys Webb, who looks likely to miss the rest of the series with ankle ligament damage.\nAnd Edwards believes his players will deliver the perfect response against Argentina next week.\nHe said: \u201cWe are playing a top-eight team who play in the Rugby Championship \u2013 I can\u2019t think of a better team to bounce back against. We need to come out and do what Australia did to us.\n\u201cComing into the campaign Australia were the best side in the Rugby Championship after the All Blacks but I don\u2019t think Argentina are miles behind them. They are a massive challenge.\n\u201cArgentina play quite a loose game. They\u2019ve got quite a powerful pack and strong driving lineout, which they have been renowned for.\n\u201cBut have got some quick and nimble backs who don\u2019t mind playing, even from inside their 22.\u201d\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "WALES defence coach Shaun Edwards has shouldered responsibility for the humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/729771/Wales-Shaun-Edwards-Australia-Rugby-Union-News-Cardiff-Ireland-New-Zealand-Warburton", "title": "Wales coach Shaun Edwards takes blame after crushing Australia defeat"}, "25": {"text": "In an old BBC documentary, an even-more-youthful future Davis Cup captain Leon Smith, then coach to the Murray brothers, was sounding an earnest note of caution to camera.\n\u201cThe people you see on television, the top ones in the world, have worked hard all their life,\u201d he said.\n\u201cThey have given up all social life, they are playing four, five, six hours a day. There is training and fitness. They see physiotherapists every day. They work with sports psychologists and they travel the world.\n\u201cIt is a tough life. If you want to make it, you really have to give up a lot of your life.\u201d\nThankfully, for himself and for the nation, Andy Murray was up for the challenge.\nFast forward four years and Murray is \u201cat home\u201d in his cramped and decidedly untidy student digs at the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy near Barcelona.\n\u201cI like staying here,\u201d he says. \u201cOther places might be nicer but it reminds me I am nowhere near at the top yet. I like the fact I don\u2019t get treated any different to anybody else.\u201d\nHe had already won the US Open junior championship the previous year but was just about to enter the national conscience permanently with a run to the third round of Wimbledon.\nMurray\u2019s first visit to SW19 was also mine and after a thrilling Saturday afternoon five-setter against David Nalbandian, his life had changed forever.\nHe took his final bow from the tournament that year with ignominious exit in the first round of the mixed doubles on a packed Court Three a couple of days later but already the awkward 18-year-old sensed the difference.\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting so many people when I got off court,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t move at all. I said I would try to sign everybody\u2019s autograph and I tried to, but I couldn\u2019t because they were all pushing. It\u2019s a little weird.\u201d\nHis relationship with his public remained uneasy and a joke about supporting England\u2019s opponents that misfired saw him retreat into his tennis as much as possible.\nDismissed as too fragile to survive a five-set clash; a series of winter boot camps in Miami answered those criticisms. His fitness was in his control, and Murray fixated on becoming the most athletic player on the tour.\nMental strength was harder to garner but under the tutelage of Ivan Lendl he slowly equipped himself with the tools to win the crunch points.\nOlympic gold in 2012 provided the final piece of the jigsaw \u2013 a belief he could win things. Three weeks after Murray had cried following defeat to Roger Federer at the Wimbledon final, the main focus of the nation had turned to the Olympic Park and the rowing lake.\nBut those lucky enough to attend the raucous circus that sprung up on Centre Court finally saw Murray at his best, beating both Federer and Novak Djokovic to capture honour for his country as much as himself. That victory paved the way for him to end Britain\u2019s 77-year Wimbledon hoodoo and a similar-length drought in the Davis Cup.\nThe fact he had been born a week apart from Djokovic, though, seemed cruel barrier to that elusive no. 1 spot.\nFatherhood, though, gave Murray a fresh perspective. The fact he felt he could go out and celebrate his second Wimbledon triumph with a few rare glasses of bubbly this summer \u2013 in the company of journalists, no less \u2013 showed he had finally discovered greater confidence in himself as a person. He could be his own man.\nNow his near invincibility since that night at Drama nightclub in the heart of the West End has finally catapulted him to the very top of his game.\nHe had given up his social life, worked hard on his fitness, seen the physios, spoken to the sports psychologists and travelled the world. Finally, he had that true belief in himself.\nAmong the many tributes to pour in was a short tweet from Federer himself \u2013 World No.1 for a record 302 weeks.\n\u201cWe have a new king in town. Congrats Sir Andy Murray,\u201d he wrote.\nThe Swiss, like Smith all those years ago, appreciates just how big his achievement is.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "ANDREW MURRAY, as he was back then, had the path to the top of the world spelled out to him in 2001 when he was still a squeaky-voiced 14-year-old.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/729351/Andy-Murray-Tennis-Novak-Djokovic-Leon-Smith-David-Nalbandian-Wimbledon-Olympics-Federer", "title": "Andy Murray reaps reward from years of graft by usurping Novak Djokovic as World No 1"}, "26": {"text": "Remembering all your passwords can often be a challenge.\nIt seems that as we place more and more of our lives online, creating multiple accounts, many users fall in to the trap of re-using the same passwords, or rehashing obvious choices.\nNow new data has shown that British users are still incredibly bad at creating passwords that are tough to crack, leaving many of us to attack from cyber criminals.\nThe news comes from analysis of the password database leaked in the hack on Yahoo back in 2012.\nResearchers speaking to the Daily Mail showed that the most popular password choices are still obvious examples such as \"123456\", \"qwerty\" - and of course, \"password\".\nOther top choices included \"welcome\", \"ninja\", \"abc123\" and \"princess\", with many others made of simple combinations of the user's name, age or birthday.\nThe data was analysed by a team of researchers from the Lancaster University, headed up by Dr. Jeff Yan.\nHe told the Daily Mail, \"Why do [some] use such obvious passwords? A main reason I think is that they\u2019re either unaware of or don\u2019t understand the risks of online security.\"\n\"Just like everybody knows what one should do when red lights are on in the road, eventually everybody will know 123456 or the like is not a good password choice.\"\nIf you think you've been the victim of an online hack, you can check out  guide to the next steps to take here.\nThe Yahoo hack, which was revealed earlier this year, saw over 200 million user accounts exposed to hackers, who then sold on the details online.\nThe details included user names, birth dates and email addresses along with passwords, which were not encrypted.\nYahoo also confirmed that it had been hit by a data breach earlier this year which also put details of more than 500 million user accounts at risk.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "LEAKED database of user data reveals that many of us are STILL not using secure online passwords - if you use one of these, you may need to take action.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/729687/online-passwords-britain-yahoo-leak-password-qwerty-123456", "title": "Britain is STILL awful at online passwords - here are the worst culprits"}, "27": {"text": "WhatsApp has updated its iOS app to natively support GIFs for the first time.\nUsers can now send and receive animated pictures \u2013 as well as convert videos to GIFs directly within the app.\nIt's the headline feature of WhatsApp version 2.16.15, which also allows iPhone users to send Live Photos and short video clips as GIFs.\nUnfortunately, there is no native GIF search \u2013 like messaging rivals iMessage, Facebook Messenger, Twitter or Slack \u2013 so you'll have to leave WhatsApp itself to find a GIF to send.\nThis marks the first time it has been possible for GIFs to play within the app.\nThe news comes as WhatsApp also introduced the ability to embed a previous text in your reply, like a Quote-Tweet on Twitter, and send bold, italic and strikethrough text.\nWhatsApp does not include an integrated GIF search, so you'll have to source your image from another app, or a third-party iOS keyboard.\nGIPHY is one of the most comprehensive GIF search engines available and boasts a number of solid companion apps for iPhone owners, including iMessage integration, a GIF keyboard, and standalone search app.\nInstalling any of these apps is a great way to ensure you always have a suitable GIF to hand.\nYou can search GIPHY for an emotion () or a television show () an actor () or fictional character () to accompany your next text message.\nWithin GIPHY, you can tap the Share icon to send it directly to WhatsApp.\nThis saves you the extra hassle of saving the GIF to your Camera Roll, then loading it from within your chosen WhatsApp conversation or group chat.\nWhen the GIF is delivered, the animation can be played directly within the chat window.\nEnable the GIPHY keyboard by downloading the app from the App Store, then heading to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard.\nSelect GIPHY Keys from dropdown marked Third-Party Keyboards, and then tap on the name in the list and toggle on the option labelled, Enable Full Access.\nYou can now summon the GIPHY Keys keyboard by holding down on the globe icon in the lower left-hand corner of your iOS keyboard and highlighting the name of the app.\nThis lets you search for the GIFs you want without having to leave your chat app \u2013 including WhatsApp.\nHow to convert videos to GIFs in WhatsApp\nAlthough WhatsApp has not bundled its own GIF search engine within the app, it has included a rather nifty trick to create your own animated images.\nAny video that's six seconds or shorter can be converted into a GIF within WhatsApp itself.\nSimply tap on the + symbol on the left hand-side of the keyboard and then tap Photo & Video Library from the menu.\nPick the video you want to convert from your camera roll.\nYou can then trim, annotate, doodle and crop the video as usual, but providing that the video is the correct length, there is a toggle in the top right of the screen that lets you pick between sending a fully-fledged video or a GIF.\nTap on the word GIF to generate your animated image and send it within your chosen chat.\nWhatsApp also claims users can generate GIFs from Live Images, however,\u00a0\u00a0was not able to test this feature at launch.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "WHATSAPP has finally updated its app to allow users to send and receive animated GIF images. You can also convert videos to GIFs within the iOS app. Here's how to add GIFs to your existing chats.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/729564/WhatsApp-How-To-Send-GIFs-Convert-Videos", "title": "WhatsApp: How to send GIFs, convert any video into a GIF in your chats"}, "28": {"text": "Following the revelation that Apple had delayed its highly-anticipated AirPods beyond their original October launch date, the US firm has remained silent on when customers can expect the futuristic headphones.\nBut a new report from the company's supply chain in China points to a UK release date in early 2017.\nThe news comes from the  which talked to a number of marker watchers who believe AirPods manufacturing supplier Inventec will see a profit boost in January, following the launch of the device.\nInventec is now expected to start shipping AirPods by January 2017, the paper claims.\nThe connection between Inventec, known predominantly as a PC supplier business, and Apple's AirPods first came from reliable technology analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities back in September.\nLast month, a spokesperson for Apple told\u00a0: \"The early response to AirPods has been incredible.\n\"We don\u2019t believe in shipping a product before it\u2019s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers.\"\nApple announced the AirPod headphones during the iPhone 7 launch event, back in September.\nWith the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple decided to ditch the industry-standard 3.5mm audio port.\nAirPods are a flagship product designed to showcase what is possible in the new wireless audio world.\nThe new Bluetooth headphones boast high-quality audio playback and are designed to harness the power of the cloud to automatically pair with all of your Apple devices.\nSimply place the AirPods close to your iPhone and with one tap, they are immediately set-up with all the devices signed into your iCloud account, including your iPad and Mac.\nAirPods will intelligently switch between iPhone, Apple Watch and your MacBook as you move between gadgets.\nBeam-forming directional microphones in the stem also let you use voice assistant Siri while wearing the headphones, who can be summoned with a double-tap.\nSiri lets you select and control your music, change the volume, check your battery life, as well as the other standard queries the virtual assistant is used to fielding from iPhone owners. An accelerometer built into each AirPod detects when you\u2019re speaking, enabling the microphones to focus on the sound of your voice, filtering out external noise.\nBecause these new headphones do not include any wires \u2013 they need a battery and, with the ultra-efficient Apple W1 chip powering them, they pack some five hours of battery life for audio playback.\nApple AirPod headphones ship with a companion charging case, that lets you top-up the wireless headphones with an additional 24 hours of battery life.\nIf you fancy a pair they will set you back \u00a3159, which includes the AirPods and charging case.\n\u00a0has got our hands on an early pre-production pair of AirPods from Apple, and have been using them regularly for the past few weeks.\nAirPods are incredibly impressive.\nThe Apple wireless headphones are comfortable to wear, easy to set-up and sound good.\nFor such a diddy device the battery life is also reasonably good and the charging case will give them a boost when they run low.\nOn the negative side, not everyone is going to like the design as, until people get use to them, they do look a bit odd.\nAnd we have noticed some slight interference with the sound at busy train stations (we are however testing an early review pair and not a finished product).\nAt \u00a3159 the AirPods aren't cheap but, we've got a feeling when they do finally launch, they are going to be hugely popular.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "APPLE has delayed its highly-anticipated bluetooth headphones \u2013 AirPods \u2013 until 2017, according to the latest rumours from the iPhone manufacturer's supply chain.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/728860/AirPods-UK-Release-Date-Update-Apple-Headphones", "title": "AirPods Release Date - This new update is NOT good news for Apple fans "}, "29": {"text": "Apple finally lifted the lid on its all-new Macbook at a major event in Cupertino last week.\nThis powerful new laptop is packed with upgrades including a faster processor, brighter display and much slimmer design.\nHowever, unlike most of its rivals, one thing that Apple has decided not to include is an interactive touchscreen.\nInstead, the US tech firm has opted for a unique Touch Bar which replaces the function keys that usually run across the top of the MacBook Pro keyboard.\nFeaturing a clever\u00a0multi-touch Retina display, the Touch Bar changes to the app you're using \u2013 bringing interactive ways to adjust or browse through content.\nFor example, loading the Safari web browser triggers the Touch Bar to summon a slew of helpful shortcuts, including on-screen buttons to load new tabs, search the page, or refresh the page.\nNow Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, has revealed why the company has avoided a touchscreen.\nSpeaking to the Independent Schiller said: \"The Mac from the very first has had a menu bar fixed at the top. It\u2019s core to the identity and the experience you get. But iOS doesn\u2019t have a menu at the top. It never will.\n\"The thought of pointing at a menu at the top of an iPhone feels wrong.\n\"If you made the Mac a touchscreen you\u2019d have to figure out how to make it a good experience with your finger on a touchscreen.\n\"Trust me, we\u2019ve looked at that \u2014 it\u2019s a bad experience. It\u2019s not as good or as intuitive as with a mouse and trackpad.\"\nAlthough many have been critical that Apple hasn't included a touchscreen the tech firm may have a point.\nMicrosoft unveiled its Surface Book laptop in the UK earlier this year which features a detachable touchscreen.\nIt's clever stuff, but having tested this ultimate portable Windows PC earlier this year, Express.co.uk soon became hugely frustrated with the experience.\nAlong with the bizarre gap that's created between the keyboard and the display.\nThere\u2019s also the matter of the annoying bounce whenever you use the Surface Book\u2019s touchscreen in laptop mode.\nWith a touch display you're also left with a screen covered in fingerprints.\nApple's products have always been about the user experience and producing the Touch Bar makes the new MacBook more interactive without compromising the design.\nTaking about this new technology, Schiller revealed: \"It\u2019s part of our thinking about where to take the notebook next.\n\"Others are trying to turn the notebook into the tablet. The new MacBook Pro is a product that celebrates that it is a notebook, this shape that has been with us for the last 25 years is probably going to be with us for another 25 years because there\u2019s something eternal about the basic notebook form factor.\n\"The team came up with this idea that you can create a multi-touch surface that\u2019s coplanar with the keyboard and the trackpad but brings a whole new experience into it, one that\u2019s more interactive, with multi-touch.\"\nExpress.co.uk has had an exclusive first-look at the new Touch Bar and our initial impressions are good.\nUsing it is incredibly intuitive and it makes tasks such as editing photos, replying to messages and even taking a screen shot a lot quicker, easier and far more fun.\nThe Bar also includes Touch ID which unlocks the MacBook with your fingerprint and allows you to securely pay for goods online.\nWe hope to bring you a full review of the MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar soon.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "APPLE'S new MacBook Pro 2016 has finally been unveiled and senior VP Philip Schiller, reveals why it doesn't feature a touchscreen.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/728790/New-Macbook-Pro-2016-Apple-Microsoft-laptop-touch-screen", "title": "New Macbook Pro 2016: Apple hasn't made the same mistake as Microsoft - here's why"}, "30": {"text": "Samsung is clearly feeling pretty confident about its latest smartwatch, the Gear S3.\nThe South Korean company has slapped a hefty \u00a3349 price tag on its latest wearable device, which we weren't too impressed with during our hands-on time back in September.\nMeanwhile, rival Apple \u2013 who at one time had the most expensive smartwatch on-sale \u2013 now sells a variation of the Apple Watch for \u00a3269.\nThe Apple Watch Series 1 starts from \u00a3269 for the 38mm case, and \u00a3299 42mm case.\nAlthough it sports the same dual-core processor as the Apple Watch Series 2, the entry-level wearable is not waterproof to 50metres, nor does it have an in-built GPS.\nSamsung finally started to take orders for its highly-anticipated Gear S3 smartwatch last week \u2013 some 60 days after the company first unveiled the gadget timepiece on-stage at the IFA consumer technology tradeshow in Berlin.\nFollowing on from the success of the Gear S2, the next-generation Samsung wearable comes in two new styles, dubbed Frontier and Classic.\nFrontier has been designed to act as both a fitness-minded watch, as well as a leisure wearable.\u00a0\nMeanwhile, the Classic variation \u201cpays homage to the minimalist, elegant style found in the most iconic timepieces,\u201d according to Samsung.\nBoth variants of the tech timepiece keep the same spinning bezel mechanism that made the Gear S2 such a departure from other smartwatches.\n\"Whether you thirst for adventure, or prefer a more classic design, both are the perfect blend of form and function,\" the South Korean firm teases on its website.\u00a0\n\"Welcome to a new generation of smartwatches.\"\nBoth the Gear S3 Frontier and Gear S3 Classic for \u00a3349 through its online store.\nUnlike last year, the Gear S3 is now compatible with any standard 22mm watch band, so owners can quickly swap-out and customise their device, without being beholden to a single manufacturer, like some rival wearables.\nSamsung has also increased the size of the battery (upping the battery life to a staggering four days) and included a GPS to give the smartwatch more autonomy from your paired Android phone.\nUnfortunately these internal refinements come hand-in-hand with a number of unwelcome changes to the design \u2013 and size \u2013 of the Gear smartwatch range.\nThe Gear S3 Classic and Frontier are both incredibly large, bulky devices.\nSamsung has ditched the understated, compact design it employed with the Gear S2 in favour of a bigger battery, larger display and GPS chipset.\u00a0\nHere\u2019s the thing \u2013 we\u2019re not sure it is worth the trade-off.\nFor one thing, the latest iteration of the Samsung Gear smartwatch now appears to only target a male audience. The South Korean firm says that\u2019s by design, since its research shows 80 per cent of smartwatch owners are men.\u00a0\nBut that trend quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when the only accomplished smartwatches on the market are swollen wrist-behemoths, like the Gear S3 Frontier.\u00a0\nAnd even amongst the target audience, the chunky Gear S3 series will only appeal to those looking for a large watch.\nUnlike rival smartwatch ranges from Apple and Motorola, there is no choice of screen size with the Gear S3 Classic and Frontier.\u00a0\nThat didn\u2019t matter so much with the slight,\u00a0one-size-fits-all Gear S2, but it feels like an issue that will alienate more than a few buyers this time around.\nThe S3 Classic is the least appealing of the two, thanks to its plain silver face, which lacks the design flourishes seen on the Gear S3 Frontier.\nSamsung's wearable operating system, TizenOS, still performs admirably, and the spinning bezel is a brilliant way to navigate around the beautiful, simplistic operating system.\nHowever the\u00a0app ecosystem hasn\u2019t grown in any meaningful way since it launched alongside the Samsung Gear S2, which is disappointing.\n\u00a0will be spending some more time with the Gear S3, and will have a full in-depth review soon.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "SAMSUNG has unveiled the pricing for its Gear S3 smartwatch, and our least favourite variation is the most expensive \u2013 out-pricing some models of the Apple Watch.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/728722/Samsung-Gear-S3-UK-Price-Stock-More-Than-Apple-Watch", "title": "Samsung Gear S3 - The worst version of this smartwatch costs more than an Apple Watch "}, "31": {"text": "The retailer said the UK closures come as part of an overhaul which will affect around 100 stores as it looks to cut back on clothing and home while boosting its Simply Food chain.\nDetails of the restructure came as it said underlying pre-tax profits fell 18.6 per cent to \u00a3231.3 million in the six months to October 1, while bottom-line profits crashed 88.4 per cent to \u00a325.1 million.\nChief executive Steve Rowe also outlined plans to shut 53 stores across 10 international markets - including 10 in China and seven in France, while pulling out of Belgium, Estonia, Hungary and Lithuania - putting around 2,100 jobs at risk.\nM&S said it will close around 30 of its 304 full-line stores - selling clothing and home as well as food - and downsize or replace around 45 shops to Simply Food outlets.\nIt will also relocate some other outlets, while opening other stores in so-called under-served areas.\nThe group remained tight-lipped on the number of UK staff impacted by the plans, but said that, where possible, it would keep \"job continuity\" for affected employees.\nThe group insisted it would have more stores overall after the revamp, with already-announced aims to open more than 200 Simply Food outlets by the end of the 2018/19 financial year.\nMr Rowe, who took over from Dutchman Marc Bolland in April, said: \"Over the next five years we will transform our UK estate with around 60 fewer clothing and home stores, whilst continuing to increase the number of our Simply Food stores.\n\"In the future, we will have more inspiring stores in places where customers want to shop.\"\nHe added: \"These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns.\"\nThe latest restructure moves come as M&S revealed more sales falls in its embattled clothing division, with like-for-like sales down by 5.9 per cent in the first half.\nBut it narrowed the sales decline from 8.9 per cent in the first quarter - its worst performance for a decade - to 2.9 per cent in the second quarter.\nSame-store food sales fell 0.9 per cent over the half-year, while it saw growth of 0.3 per cent at M&S.com, leaving overall UK like-for-like sales 3 per cent lower.\nMr Rowe said the group did not have a full list of outlets closing, adding that it would look at the overhaul on a \"store-by-store\" basis over the next five years.\nHe said M&S will have less space, but more stores as part of a \"rebalancing\".\n\"This is not about the M&S brand disappearing. We will be in more locations in the future,\" he added.\nThe group said the UK restructuring will cost it around \u00a3350 million over five years.\nM&S will also close loss-making owned businesses across 10 international markets at a cost of \u00a3150 million to \u00a3200 million over the next year.\nThe firm currently has 468 overseas stores across 58 international markets, with 194 owned stores and 274 franchise stores.\nMr Rowe - a company veteran with 26 years' service - is leading a shake-up to turn around its clothing arm and get group profits back on track.\nHe has already axed 525 jobs at the retailer's head office in a bid to cut costs in August.\nThe group said on announcing half-year results that its profit margins will take a hit from the sharp falls in the pound since the Brexit vote.\nBut it said it would continue to cut prices across its clothing lines and in its food arm as it looks to ramp up sales.\nM&S has seen its position shift from a retailer able to attract all age groups to a place seen by younger consumers as catering primarily for older generations - despite glamorous advertising campaigns and, most recently, two well-received collections from model Alexa Chung based on the store's fashion archive.\nCommentators say younger shoppers are being lured away by competitors which are cheaper, faster and more aspirational.\nMeanwhile the so-called fast fashion retailers like Primark and H&M have improved their quality and a new category of \"grown-up\" stores such as Reiss and Cos and have emerged.\nCustomers have also complained that they are confused amid racks of clothing divided into various brands but with little indication as to what separates one from another, and that items singled out by fashion experts - and there are many such pieces in every collection - are difficult to find within cluttered stores, if they have not already sold out.\nOther grumbles have also referred to too few shop assistants on hand to help navigate the racks and offer guidance on styling.\nEarlier this year, Mr Rowe announced that the \"neglected\" Mrs M&S was at the centre of plans to turn around his store's fortunes, saying he planned to \"celebrate and cherish\" the \"loyal\" army of women shoppers aged 50 and over - who have proved to be not quite so loyal after all.\nM&S knows its average customer is female, in her 50s, and shops with the group 18 times a year.\nTo cater more successfully to her, Mr Rowe talked about cutting back on fashion-focused clothing in favour of plans to \"re-establish our style authority\", with an emphasis on stylish wardrobe essentials to win back customers.\nHe also talked about providing pieces that can be worn with confidence as well as a focus on stylish everyday items and \"unrivalled quality\".\nHe pledged to reduce promotions and clearance sales and invest in lower everyday prices - a trend that is taking hold more widely across the retail industry in response to consumer demand.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "MARKS and Spencer will shut 60 clothing and home stores as it focuses on food and bosses warned of more than 2,100 job losses under plans to axe 53 overseas shops.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/729928/marks-and-spencer-shut-60-stores-profits-plunge-80-job-losses", "title": "Marks and Spencer to close 60 stores as profits plunge by 88 PER CENT "}, "32": {"text": "The budget airline lifted half-year post tax profit 7 per cent to 1.168billion euros (\u00a31.04billion) as its cut costs by 10 per cent, the same rate as the drop in average fares to 50 euros.\u00a0\nIt carried 65 million passengers, up 12 per cent.\u00a0\nChief executive Michael O\u2019Leary predicted fares would fall at between 13-15 per cent in the second half.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\nPoundland boss Kevin O\u2019Byrne is leaving to become the chief financial officer at Sainsbury\u2019s.\u00a0\nO\u2019Byrne took charge at the discount retailer earlier this year, but the chain was then taken over by South African group Steinhoff.\u00a0\nHe will receive an annual salary of \u00a3625,000 when he takes up his role in January, succeeding John Rogers who has stepped up to run Sainsbury\u2019s recently acquired Argos chain.\u00a0\nO\u2019Byrne previously ran DIY chain B&Q after being finance chief at Dixons Retail.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\nA leading investor in HSBC has urged the bank to step up the search for new bosses.\u00a0\nDouglas Flint is due to step down as chairman next year, with chief executive Stuart Gulliver leaving in 2018.\u00a0\nDavid Cumming, head of equities at Standard Life Investments, said: \u201cThe key is that we get outside blood to liven up a relatively slow-moving and defensive, bureaucratic culture.\u201d\u00a0\nThird-quarter profit shrank from just over $6billion to $843million (\u00a3680million), following a loss on the sale of its Brazilian business and adverse currency movements.\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\nJCB sealed its second major deal in two months after a \u00a335million order from A-Plant, the UK\u2019s biggest plant hire firm.\u00a0\nThe order for 1,200 machines including excavators and fork lift trucks secures JCB jobs, 5,500 of which are in Staffordshire factories.\u00a0\nIt follows a \u00a340million contract in September for over 700 machines for UK plant hire group Ardent Hire Solutions.\u00a0\nJCB sales director Dan Thompstone said: \u201cBusiness like this is testament to JCB\u2019s innovative products supported by unrivalled parts and service back-up from the JCB UK dealer network.\u201d\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "RYANAIR hiked its passenger growth forecast by 10 per cent to over 200 million a year by 2024 as it looks to win market share from rivals squeezed by price competition.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/729776/City-News-Ryanair-Sainsbury-HSBC-JCB", "title": "City News: Ryanair, Sainsbury\u2019s, HSBC, JCB"}, "33": {"text": "The FTSE 100 rivals warned investors not to expect a big upturn next year as they plan for prices in the low $50s-per barrel compared with current rates of about $48 for Brent.\nBut their efforts to balance investment in future growth while battling tough trading conditions and rising debt met with contrasting reactions as Shell\u2019s share price rallied 84p to 2199p while BP slumped 21\u00bep to 462p.\nShell, whose \u00a335billion acquisition of BG Group made it the world\u2019s top liquefied natural gas producer, boosted underlying net profit for the three months to the end of September by 18 per cent to $2.8billion, compared with analysts\u2019 forecasts of $1.71billion.\nIts capital spending this year will be about $29billion, $18billion below what it and BG spent in 2014, while next year it will spend about $25billion, at the lower end of its $25-30billion previous guidance.\nChief executive Ben van Beurden, pictured, said: \u201cShell delivered better results this quarter, reflecting strong operational and cost performance. But lower oil prices continue to be a significant challenge across the business, and the outlook remains uncertain.\n\u201cOur investment plans and portfolio actions are focused firmly on reshaping Shell into a world-class investment case at all points in the oil-price cycle, through stronger returns and improved free cash flow per share. We are making good progress towards this aim in spite of challenging market conditions.\n\u201cWe have been managing the company through the downcycle by reducing costs and investment levels, while executing our asset sales plans and starting up new projects. Costs are set to reduce further as deal synergies and improvements are delivered in full.\u201d\nBP\u2019s net profit nearly halved to $933million although this was better than analysts\u2019 forecasts of about $780million. Its investment this year will fall to about $16billion from an earlier forecast of $17-19billion and should be between $15-17billion in 2017.\nBP\u2019s chief financial officer, Brian Gilvary, hailed \u201cgood progress in adapting to the challenging price and margin environment\u201d, but any firming in oil prices would not be \u201csignificantly north of what we see now\u201d.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "SHELL and BP are targeting more spending cuts to counter lower-for-longer oil prices after corporate belt-tightening helped them deliver better-than-expected quarterly earnings. ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/727830/Shell-BP-tighten-belt-over-low-oil-prices-spending-cuts", "title": "Shell and BP tighten the belt over low oil prices with spending cuts"}, "34": {"text": "Orders from America, China and the European Union (EU) shot up in October amid a weaker pound, according to the Markit Manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI)Output in the sector was measured at 54.3 in October, down from the 27-month high of 55.5 in September, but well above the long-running average of 51.5 - any reading above 50 indicates growth. New order volumes increased for the third consecutive month and at rate almost as fast as September\u2019s recent high, showed the index. A fall in sterling helped boost demand for British goods abroad, but domestic demand was also strong, showed the index.\nAll sectors reported output growth, but the strongest sub-sector was intermediate goods sector, which saw production rise at the quickest pace in a year.At the same time the employment index rose to its highest level in a year. However, the weaker pound also increased import costs for managers, which input costs rising at the fastest rate since January 2011.Sterling is down around 20 per cent against the US dollar and 15 per cent against the euro following the vote to leave the EU.\nExperts said the manufacturing sector is set to help Britain's economy grow again the fourth quarter of the year. Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: \"The level of the survey\u2019s output balance in October is consistent with quarterly rises in manufacturing output of just shy of one per cent. \"This provides another reason to be optimistic that the economy hasn\u2019t lost too much momentum, after last week\u2019s surprisingly-upbeat Q3 GDP figures.\"\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "BRITAIN'S manufacturing exports jumped last month, helping to provide another boost for the economy in the final quarter of the year.", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/727620/UK-manufacturing-exports-soar-Brexit-economy-boost-weak-pound", "title": "Britain's manufacturing exports soar in yet ANOTHER Brexit economy boost"}, "35": {"text": "The grocer said the \u00a355m hub marks a commitment growing its business both in the region and across the rest of the UK.\nSouthampton's new warehouse is the German firm's largest to date and will support the creation of up to 400 new staff.\nThe regional distribution centre forms part of a \u00a31.5billion investment and boost to Britain's economy between now and 2018.\n\nThe hub will service stores in and around Hampshire, Dorset and West Sussex, as Lidl expands operations in the south of England.\nAt the same time, there are two more warehouses under construction, while four existing centres are being expanded.\nMarco Ivone, regional director at Lidl UK, said: \u201cThe opening of our new Southampton RDC marks an incredibly exciting time for the business, particularly in the South.\n\"Not only is it necessary to accommodate the scale of our existing and future operations in the area, we have been able to create significant job opportunities as a result of the new warehouse and will continue to invest in the South as we move forward with our expansion plans.\u201d\n\nLast month competitor Aldi also announced a \u00a3300m investment in Britain by opening 70 new stores and refurbishing more than 100 UK stores.\nThe firm's chief executive Matthew Barnes said investment plans have been \"unaffected\" by the Brexit vote.\nAldi and Lidl have enjoyed increased popularity among British shoppers in recent years, as an alternative to Britain's bigger supermarket chains.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "SUPERMARKET Lidl has opened a multi-million pound Southampton distribution centre and announced hundreds of new jobs, in a huge vote of confidence in Britain ahead of its exit from the European Union (EU). ", "site": "dailyexpress", "url": "http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/727517/Lidl-UK-economy-boost-southampton-distribution-centre", "title": "Lidl opens \u00a355MILLION distribution centre in MAJOR boost to Britain's economy"}, "36": {"text": "Factory output increased by 0.6pc in September, beating economists'\u00a0forecasts of 0.4pc and reversing some of the contraction seen earlier in the summer, according to official figures.\nThe sector still contracted by 0.9pc in the quarter, though modest growth in August and September could suggest that manufacturers are building momentum.\nAs a result the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) believes the economy overall grew by 0.4pc in the three months to October, slowing a touch from the 0.5pc in the three months to September.\nPrivate sector surveys have also indicated some pick-up in growth in September and October, with export orders in particular growing.\nThe Office for National Statistics said that over the past 12 months, however, manufacturing output was only up by 0.2pc as the sector has struggled to grow consistently.\nOther industries also reported weak figures.\nOil and gas went into reverse, with output diving by 3.8pc, largely because of repair work on North Sea oil rigs.\nThe electricity and water supply sectors also contracted in part because warm weather hit demand for heating, leading to overall production industry output falling by 0.4pc in September.\nOfficials at the ONS said the referendum result appeared\u00a0to have had no impact on factory output at all so far.\n\u201cManufacturing was broadly flat across the third quarter while oil and gas were weak overall, with widespread summer maintenance shutdowns hampering production more than usual,\u201d said statistician Kate Davies.\n\u201cThere are no obvious signs so far of either the weaker pound or post-referendum uncertainties affecting the output of UK factories, which continued broadly in line with recent trends.\u201d\nEconomists believe more growth could come in October.\n\u201cIndustrial production probably bounced back in October; manufacturing surveys point to further solid gains and output in the energy supply likely [rebounded],\u201d said Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Economics.\nNIESR's\u00a0Oriol Carreras\u00a0said: \"Robust consumer spending growth continues to support the economy. Looking ahead, this contribution from consumers is expected to wane over the course of next year due to a substantial rise in the rate of inflation.\u201d\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Factory output increased by 0.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/08/manufacturing-growth-beats-forecasts-as-industry-shows-no-impact/", "title": "Manufacturing growth beats forecasts as industry shows no impact from Brexit"}, "37": {"text": "Britain's jobs market is \u201cthriving\u201d again after a summer dip following the Brexit vote, according to a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.\nThe monthly REC/Markit barometer showed the number of people finding permanent roles climbed at the fastest pace in eight months in October, marking the third consecutive month of increases.\nStarting salaries for permanent staff rose at the fastest pace in five months, while vacancies also climbed in October in a sign of increasing employer confidence.\nKevin Green, chief executive of the REC, said: \u201cDespite ongoing uncertainty, the UK jobs market is thriving again in most areas of the UK.\u201d\nHowever, he warned that a chronic skills shortage and concerns that the Government will introduce strict immigration curbs after it leaves the EU presented \u201creal threats\u201d to the ability of businesses to meet demand and the Government to deliver public services.\nHe urged policymakers to ensure the UK remained \u201copen for business\u201d.\n\u201cThis is a great place to be but there are real threats coming over the hill,\u201d said Mr Green. \u201cThe Government urgently needs to outline a strategy to address employability skills within UK education and promote apprenticeships and other routes into work. We also need immigration policies that reflect immediate labour market needs.\n\u201cWe can\u2019t afford to see businesses relocate overseas, taking jobs with them and leaving us poorer as a nation.\u201d\nOfficial data show Britain\u2019s jobs market has remained resilient following the EU referendum result in June, with employment rising to a record high in the three months to August.\nHowever, the Bank of England has warned that leaving the EU is likely to push up unemployment in the coming years, while rising inflation will erode household incomes.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Britain's jobs market is “thriving” again after a summer dip following the Brexit vote, according to a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/08/uk-jobs-market-thriving-after-summer-pause/", "title": "UK jobs market 'thriving' after summer pause"}, "38": {"text": "Companies in the eurozone are growing at their fastest pace since January as German economic growth picked up in the Autumn, according to a set of influential\u00a0surveys.\nOutput, orders and hiring are all on the up, firms told IHS Markit\u2019s purchasing managers\u2019 index (PMI) survey.\nThe index rose to 53.3, well above the 50 level that indicates growth.\nAlthough there have been downturns in individual countries in recent years, the overall\u00a0eurozone economy has been growing since mid-2013 on the index, with both the manufacturing and services sectors currently expanding.\nGermany is leading the way with a very solid score of 55.1 and its fastest rate of job creation for five years.\nEconomists said that the figures would\u00a0translate only to modest overall growth, however.\n\u201cThe October PMI signals a mere 0.3pc GDP growth rate, suggesting the fourth quarter could see growth unchanged on that seen in the second and third quarters despite the ECB\u2019s further efforts to stimulate the economy,\u201d said Chris Williamson at IHS Markit.\n\u201cHowever, with backlogs of work rising at the fastest rate for over five years, hiring showing tentative signs of accelerating and business confidence improving, there\u2019s a strong suggestion that growth will pick up as we move closer towards the end of the year.\u201d\nMr Williamson expects Germany to grow by 0.5pc in the final quarter of 2016, Spain at 0.6pc to 0.7pc growth and Ireland at almost 1pc.\nBut there may be clouds ahead: Ireland\u2019s growth is \u201cdown sharply from earlier in the year as worries mount about the potential impact of Brexit\u201d.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Companies in the eurozone are growing at their fastest pace since January as German economic growth picked up in the Autumn, according to a set of influential surveys.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/04/strong-germany-bolsters-steady-eurozone-economy/", "title": "Strong Germany bolsters steady eurozone economy\n"}, "39": {"text": "The US Federal Reserve\u00a0held interest rates unchanged on Wednesday despite the strengthening US economy, but indicated that rates could go up\u00a0after next week's presidential election.\nThe central bank's rate-setting committee\u00a0is now widely expected to hike the target for the benchmark federal funds rate from 0.25pc-0.5pc\u00a0at its next meeting in\u00a0December, though political uncertainty could push that out into next year.\n\u201cThe Committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen but decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives,\u201d the Fed said on Wednesday.\n\u201cThe stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting further improvement in labor market conditions and a return to 2pc inflation.\u201d\nLast December the Fed made its first increase in interest rates in almost a decade and indicated it would raise rates several times through 2016.\nBut slower than expected growth early in the year delayed that plan.\nEmployment \u201ccontinued to strengthen\"\u00a0while the economy \u201chas picked up from the modest pace seen in the first half of the year\u201d, the Fed said on Wednesday.\n\u201cThe Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run. However, the actual path of the federal funds rate will depend on the economic outlook as informed by incoming data.\u201d\nWith the election just around the corner, the Fed is typically seen as cautious to act, both for fear of being accused of seeking to influence the vote, and because its response to the election may be different depending on which candidate - Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton - wins, and gets to implement their chosen economic policies.\n\"Assuming Clinton wins, markets are likely to react with relief given expectations of policy continuity. This, coupled with the reasonably firm growth, rising employment and a gradual pick-up in inflation should reinforce market expectations for a December rate hike,\" said economist\u00a0James Knightley at ING.\n\"Should Trump win then this is likely to hurt market sentiment given uncertainty as to what he will actually do when in power. It is hard to imagine the Fed hiking in this environment.\"\nThe rest of the world also watches the Fed's decisions closely. A rising interest rate tends to push up the value of the dollar, as well as encouraging investors to put more money into the US, with the result that funds flow out of other countries.\nOther central banks sometimes follow the Fed's actions themselves. The Bank of England, for example, was expected to raise interest rates this year, as the Fed had broken new post-financial crisis ground with its hike last year - though in the end, the Brexit vote encouraged the UK's central bank to cut its interest rate instead.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "The US Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged on Wednesday despite the strengthening US economy, but indicated that rates could go up after next week's presidential election.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/02/fed-holds-off-hiking-rates-for-now-as-election-looms/", "title": "Fed holds off hiking rates for now as election looms"}, "40": {"text": "Canada\u2019s long-awaited and much-delayed trade deal with the EU could be back on the cards at last as Wallonia \u2013 the region of Belgium that threw a spanner in the works earlier this month\u00a0\u2013 appears to have decided to back the treaty.\nThe EU and Canada have been negotiating the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) for seven years, and hoped to sign the\u00a0deal this month.\nBut Wallonia withheld its approval, preventing the EU from achieving the unanimous backing of all member nations that it requires.\nAs a result Canada\u2019s trade minister declared the EU \u201cincapable\u201d of managing international treaties and walked out of talks to return\u00a0home, while\u00a0the EU\u2019s President Donald Tusk warned the deal\u2019s collapse could be the end of Brussels\u2019 attempts to strike any trade deals.\nBelgium\u2019s Prime Minister Charles Michel said that Wallonia was now in agreement, and the regional parliaments may now agree to CETA by the end of Friday night, opening the door to the deal being signed.\nMr Tusk said that once the regional votes had taken place, he will inform Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.\nAny extra concessions given to Wallonia may mean other countries will want to look again at the deal, however.\nPotential hazards include a request that the European Court of Justice should look at the system of resolving trade disputes used in the treaty.\nPreviously Mr Trudeau had asked \u201cwhat is the EU for?\u201d, if it was unable to sign an agreement with a nation that has a very open, pro-trade stance.\nOther deals such as TTIP, a mooted treaty with the US, have ground to a halt as different EU nations put forward widely varying demands. Politicians in the US have also turned against the idea during the current Presidential election campaign.\nBritain is watching CETA closely as the UK wants to reach a trade agreement with the EU as it leaves the union, but also because the Government wants to do its own post-Brexit deals with countries including Canada.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Canada’s long-awaited and much-delayed trade deal with the EU could be back on the cards at last as Wallonia – the region of Belgium that threw a spanner in the works earlier this month – appears to have decided to back the treaty.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/27/eus-canada-free-trade-ceta-deal-could-be-back-on-as-walloons-agr/", "title": "EU\u2019s Canada free-trade CETA deal could be back on as Walloons agree to last-minute deal"}, "41": {"text": "As winter warmers go, the Nordics have provided plenty of inspiration, whether it\u2019s nestling in natty knitwear or diving into steamy saunas. But nothing heats the insides quicker than a measure of akvavit (otherwise known as\u00a0aquavit).\nAkvavit is a misunderstood niche spirit and unless you know the Nordic drinking and dining scene, chances are you won\u2019t be familiar with it. Now is the time to try it, particularly since it sits nicely with the region\u2019s fashionable fare.\nAkvavit is a spirit distilled with botanicals, most notably caraway and dill. Other ingredients frequently employed include cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel and coriander with lemon or orange peel and even grains of paradise occasionally added. \u00a0\nThe base ingredient for most spirit produced in Sweden and Denmark is grain, but in Norway they tend to favour potatoes and rest the akvavit in casks. The variety of base ingredient alone presents versatility, throw in a range of botanicals and maturation and you start to see the potential, particularly when pairing with cuisine.\nThe dill and coriander are\u00a0obvious accents for simple starters. In crisp, unaged akvavit the drink can cut through the oil of salmon, or more fittingly a gravadlax starter and the botanicals can match the intensity of the ingredients on the plate. Danish producer Aalborg\u2019s is one of the most available brands in the UK, its Taffel variant driven by the caraway (\u00a321.95, Amathus) sweeter and just as useful with herring, or indeed roast pork and pickles.\nThey also have the Dild, as the name suggest with more dill (\u00a329.95, Amathus), which can also work with open sandwiches and, dare we say it, the faithful sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord. Both available at amathusdrinks.com, one of the leading retailers for akvavit.\nSk\u00e5ne (\u00a324.64, amathusdrinks.com) is Swedish and a touch smoother, the distillers suggest pairing it with fish soup or crayfish at midsummer parties, but the subtler expression of fennel also makes it useful with a fish main.\u00a0\nAmong the most interesting brands available in the UK is the Norwegian Linie (\u00a332, thewhiskyexchange.com). The company discovered the benefits of ageing by accident when stock sent to the Far East in the 19th century was returned unwanted. Recognising the improved flavour they set about recreating this akvavit and continue to rest the spirit in sherry casks.\nAmathus also stocks Linie Double Cask Madeira (\u00a335.26) and a Linie port wine and the spice, oak and robust warmth of these ensure they work beautifully with the cheese board. Sip all of them neat with Nordic cuisine but the mix of botanicals in akvavit make it an interesting cocktail: try dill akvavit replacing vodka in a twist on the Bloody Mary.\nThis version comes from the excellent Nick Kobbernagel-Hovind who created the drink in Ruby, a bar in Copenhagen and one of the best in the world.\nGlass: Collins\n60ml dill akvavit\u00a0 5ml ruby port 60ml tomato juice 17ml fresh lemon juice 6 dashes Worcestershire sauce 2 heavy dashes Tabasco 1 pinch celery salt 5 grinds of black pepper\n\u2009Pour all the ingredients into a shaker with ice and roll it gently for 6 seconds, then strain into the glass over ice. Garnish with pickled pearl onion and a celery salt rim if\u00a0preferred.\n\u2022 Join Telegraph Bespoke and Diana Henry for an exclusive Nordic dining experience at Aquavit London, three days before the restaurant opens to the public. Tickets are \u00a3125 and include a 4-course preview menu, paired wines and the chance to hear from the chefs behind this new destination restaurant. Visit telegraph.co.uk/diningexperience or call 0800 542 5859.\nBen and Tom are The Thinking Drinkers and will be performing their drinking show at the Museum of Comedy in London from Nov 23-Dec 23\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "As winter warmers go, the Nordics have provided plenty of inspiration, whether it’", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/drinks/aquavit-this-winters-coolest-drink/", "title": "Aquavit: this winter's hottest spirit"}, "42": {"text": "Anyone who feels that one cannot discuss Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign trail make-up without succumbing to the misogyny of those who attempt to reduce her to\u00a0her appearance need only consider the first televised election debate in\u00a0September 1960 between Nixon and JFK.\nNixon - who had recently been in hospital - looked pale, exhausted, and unwell.\u00a0His decision to eschew cosmetics in place of a product called \u201cLazy Shave,\u201d\u00a0intended to conceal five o\u2019clock shadow, lead to a sweaty and\u00a0saturnine\u00a0appearance under the lights. As Chicago\u2019s mayor, Richard J. Daley, exclaimed:\u00a0\u201cMy God, they\u2019ve embalmed him before he even died.\u201d Kennedy, in contrast,\u00a0glowed with lusty good health - young, tanned and athletic - like the New\u00a0England princeling he was. I don't need to tell you who won.\u00a0\nClinton\u2019s self-presentation has been as vital a part of her campaign as any other\u00a0candidate\u2019s. More than this, she gets it. A quarter of a century of obsessive\u00a0scrutiny has made her an adept manipulator of this visual language.\u00a0Where once she resented the attention, now she exploits and satirises it. As\u00a0she noted, when her book, Hard Choices,\u00a0was released in spring 2014, her\u00a0favourite alternative title had been: The Scrunchie Chronicles, 112 Countries And\u00a0It\u2019s Still All About The Hair. At the same time, said hair has never looked better,\u00a0and never seemed more articulate of her coming of age as a candidate.\nIn the past, Clinton\u2019s style was subject to dramatic morphings. Back in the\u00a0Seventies, as Hillary Rodham, partner in one of the country\u2019s oldest law firms,\u00a0she favoured an unadorned look: glasses, straight brown hair, cosmetics-free.\u00a0However, as she and her husband endeavoured to conquer public life, slap and\u00a0peroxide became weapons in her arsenal.\nFor the 1992 election, the aspiring first lady countered her reputation for being a\u00a0feminist \u201cball-breaker\u201d with a femininely feathered fringe on a shoulder-length\u00a0coiffure, teamed with pearlised pink lips; becoming a chic crop and scarlet mouth\u00a0once her husband was in office. The Nineties saw her experiment with length,\u00a0wave, blue eye shadow, and her famous headbands (Clinton\u2019s pre-scrunchie\u00a0accessory of choice).\nThese vacillations suggested a woman uncomfortable with the decorative aspect\u00a0of the first lady role, a doer rather than a preener, who only started to find her\u00a0look when this look became about her. Once the focus shifted to her own political\u00a0career, the whole thing became more relaxed.\nAs New York Senator from 2001, and Secretary of State from 2009, Clinton\u2019s\u00a0wielding of hair and make-up became more about variations on a theme: short\u00a0crop, apricot blush, spot of interest about the lips \u2013 be they red, rosy, coral, or the\u00a0telegenic plum created for her by make-up artist Kriss Soterion for the\u00a0Democratic primary debates of 2008.\nIn 2012, as she approached becoming a private citizen for the first time in 30\u00a0years, the hair went long again, a presager of the strategically soft bob with\u00a0honeyed highlights that she has sported on the campaign trail. And - with the\u00a0exception of her dizzy and lipstickless appearance at the 9/11 memorial after\u00a0which her pneumonia was revealed - Clinton has never looked better: happy,\u00a0confident, and truly beautiful.\nFor the television debates, Clinton has accompanied her alternately red, blue and\u00a0white outfitting with a coral-red lipstick, peachy complexion, and black, but in no\u00a0way harsh, eye make-up. It is a simple, but efficient guise that says: \u201cWarm,\u00a0relaxed, and confident with this stuff\u201d.\nThere is a glow about Hillary, despite the arduousness of the campaign. Twitter\u00a0commentators have declared her debate demeanour Christ-like, and there is\u00a0something angelic about her beatific beam. This, not least, when compared with\u00a0a man whose satsuma complexion shade has been satirised as \u201cRage Red\u201d and\u00a0\u201cVeiled White Supremacy,\u201d\u00a0juxtaposed with luminous teeth, and lunatic hair.\u00a0\nAs Hitler recreated himself as a fascist Charlie Chaplin, so Trump has fashioned\u00a0himself as a capitalist clown: a decrepit parody of wealth\u2019s teeth and tan \u2013 the\u00a0bigger the lie, the bigger the hair. Over half a century on from Nixon v Kennedy, it\u00a0is to be hoped that the victor in today\u2019s visual contest also wins the race.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Anyone who feels that one cannot discuss Hillary Clinton’s campaign trail make-up without succumbing to the misogyny of those who attempt to reduce her to her appearance need only consider the first televised election debate in September 1960 between Nixon and JFK.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/people/hillary-clinton-used-to-resent-the-obsessive-scrutiny-of-her-loo/", "title": "Hillary Clinton used to resent the obsessive\u00a0scrutiny of her looks. Now she's learnt it can give her a political advantage"}, "43": {"text": "As you walk into Valerie Armstrong\u2019s house, you cannot help but notice a wall, almost completely covered in family photographs.\nIn one, she is sitting with her husband, David Wood, in front of the Taj Mahal; in another, they are eating lunch with their two young sons, now grown up. Birthdays, graduation ceremonies and summer holidays, spanning more than 33 years of marriage, are all woven into this rich tapestry of memories. She looks at them and manages a smile.\n\u201cComing home is very hard. It is a beautiful house, but every corner of it is breathing Dave. It is hard to even walk in.\u201d\nArmstrong, 68, is dealing with an unimaginable tragedy. Three months ago, while the couple were at their holiday home in southern France, Wood disappeared without a trace.\nOn the morning of Aug 2, the 61-year-old telecoms engineer set off to walk part of the mountain route between the village of Marie in Alpes-Maritimes and Clans, a small town about 6km to the south \u2013 but never returned.\u00a0\nIt is a straightforward and scenic hike, past rocky outcrops, streams and forest, and one he enjoyed most days, walking as far as he could manage, before turning back. No one has ever gone missing in the area before and the fact that such an extensive search has unearthed not one shred of evidence as to his whereabouts is, say police, highly unusual.\n\u201cHe knew the area extremely well and knew the people,\u201d says Armstrong, an artist and painter. The couple had stayed in their house, just above Marie, for six weeks of every summer for the last six years. \u201cThe villagers absolutely took us in. Dave was well known. He is a big man with a mass of white hair. He is funny, very loving, warm and a fantastic father. People who know him really love him.\u201d\nSitting on the sofa of their home in Woodbridge, Suffolk, she cannot bring herself to use anything other than the present tense.\u00a0\nTo add to the confusion, Wood was in good health, apart from a recent diagnosis of elevated blood pressure \u2013 which prompted his decision to walk more and get fit \u2013 and a brief bout of labyrinthitis, an inner ear infection that can cause nausea, dizziness and problems with balance and hearing.\u00a0\nWood had been gone for about an hour when Armstrong first called his mobile to see where he was. Nothing seemed amiss; he said he was on his way back, about half an hour away. Half an hour passed and she rang again. He told her he was tired and had taken a rest. Again, he said he was about half an hour away.\n\u201cHe was supposed to be back by 2.30pm in the afternoon,\u201d recalls Armstrong. \u201cHe had a conference call booked. He had to be back. It is completely odd that he went so far.\u201d\nThat was the last time the couple spoke. After that, Wood\u2019s phone rang without answer.\nA large-scale search, headed up by Lieutenant-colonel Dominique Blasius, of the Alpes-Maritimes police department, lasted 10 days and included officers, abseil teams, hundreds of local volunteers, sniffer dogs and a helicopter. Wood had been carrying two phones \u2013 an iPhone and a French mobile. Police attempted to use his iPhone signal to geolocate him but, because he hadn\u2019t used it that day, an exact location hadn\u2019t been logged. The best police could do was narrow it to two remote areas the size of a kilometre each. Nothing was found.\nHis elder son Danny, 32, a product designer in Brighton, who immediately flew out with his brother to help with the search, put out a plea on Facebook for information.\n\u201cIf he fell on the path or just off the path, he would have been found,\u201d he wrote, in a post that has since been shared more than 2,000 times. \u201cThe forest nearby is very dense and, although he is an inquisitive person, he would not put himself in any unnecessary risk, so walking deep into it seems highly unlikely, especially as he knew that he had to be back home soon, these areas have also been heavily searched.\u201d\nIt was discovered that a couple on a motorbike had passed Wood on the path to Clans, when he stopped them to ask the direction of Marie. For some reason, he had been heading the opposite way. It is thought this was the last time he was seen.\u00a0\nAfter 10 days, the couple\u2019s younger son, Richard, 30, an engineer, had the bright idea to buy a drone to better scour ground that was less easily accessible by foot. After almost three weeks, however, the family returned to the UK, none the wiser.\u00a0\nToday, Armstrong has the look of a woman haunted by grief. Her eyes well with tears but she is determined not to be broken by the weight of either expectation or despair.\n\u201cIt is pulling us apart,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if he is dead or alive. I think we all fear the worst but there is no proof. There is nothing. I keep asking, 'Dave, if you have died send me a message. Tell me something. I have got to know.\u2019 It is awful. It is eating us up. Danny, Richard and I are in a parallel universe. They are going to work, and that is helping them I think, but our heads are continually somewhere else. All the time I am thinking about him.\u201d\nThe couple met 40 years ago in Cambridge: Armstrong was working as an art therapist, Wood was doing a PhD. She calls it \u201cfriendship at first sight\u201d. It wasn\u2019t until they were both single, five years later, that he dropped everything and travelled to Spain to be with her. After that they \u201cshared everything\u201d. \u00a0\nTheories as to what happened to him abound. Did he fall and hurt himself? Did he have heatstroke and get lost? The possibility that Wood was involved in something dubious has inevitably crossed her mind.\u00a0\n\u201cBut none of those things makes sense. I heard all his conference calls. He was a very honest and honourable man. He wouldn\u2019t get himself into something strange. He just wouldn\u2019t. There was a time when we thought, was it foul play? Has someone hurt him by mistake?\u201d\nLieutenant-colonel Blasius is aware time is against them. \u201cHowever, we are not abandoning the search and I remain firmly convinced that David Wood suffered a cerebral malaise, became disoriented, and is still somewhere between the village of Clans and that of Marie,\u201d he says.\nHe has employed unorthodox methods of scanning the terrain, including a diviner and a spiritual medium.\u00a0\nOne hypothesis is that Wood\u2019s labyrinthitis had recurred, disorientating him and driving him deep into the mountains. In which case, he could be still be alive, lost in the denser forested areas.\n\u201cIf he is, I dread to think what kind of state he is in,\u201d says Armstrong.\nHospitals as far as Italy have been handed his description and now boar hunters are back out, combing the mountains, the hope is that his whereabouts will become known. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\nFor now, Armstrong has no plans to return to France \u2013 \u201cthere is no point\u201d \u2013 and believes her energy is best directed into generating publicity around his disappearance.\nI remark on the incredible resilience and strength of resolve she has displayed throughout our conversation.\n\u201cI have got to,\u201d she replies. \u201cIf I collapse under all this, I might not be able to get back up. It is so terrible and there is no end in sight. It is not like the person you love most in the world has been killed by a car and then you grieve and go through all the process of grieving. I can\u2019t do that. I don\u2019t know if I am grieving.\u201d\nFor more information visit:\u00a0www.facebook.com/TrouveDavidWood\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "As you walk into Valerie Armstrong’s house, you cannot help but notice a wall, almost completely covered in family photographs.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/the-real-life-missing-my-husband-went-for-a-walk-on-holiday-and/", "title": "The real life Missing: My husband went for a walk on holiday and never came back"}, "44": {"text": "It was early 1998. I was on a ferry, and on the car radio, an agony aunt was talking to a man who described himself as a six-foot rugby-playing policeman who, for 10 years, had been beaten almost daily by his five-foot-two wife. I vividly remember my \u201cwhat the hell?\u201d response. That actually happens to men?\nI sensed there was a story in this somewhere, and began to research. With surprising ease, I found people who knew a man it had happened to. In fact I had \u2013 and still have \u2013 the same conversation over and over again when I tell people that I have written about this topic. I could script it, and it goes exactly like this\u2026\nAn expert I spoke to in the late 90s\u00a0opined that the situation for male victims then was much the same as it had been for women thirty years earlier. Around the same time, a senior policeman told me that we shouldn\u2019t talk about male victims for fear that it takes the focus away from women.\nI continued to research, speaking to both male and female victims and found that just as the types of abuse reported by men are similar to the types of abuse reported by women, the impact of that abuse is much the same. What appears to be different is an unwillingness on the part of many men to accept that what has happened is actually abuse, many of them seeing it as something \u201cthat just happens\u201d.\nPart of male socialisation and the sexist stereotypes society imposes on our men and boys is to \u201cgrow a pair\u201d, \u201cman up\u201d, or \u201ctake it like a man\u201d. Therefore, it could be argued, men\u2019s weakness is their fa\u00e7ade of strength.\nAccording to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and the 2014/15 British Crime Survey, male victims (29pc) are more than twice as likely as women (12pc) to not tell anyone about the partner abuse they are experiencing, and only 10% of male victims will tell the police (26pc\u00a0women). These figures show that domestic abuse is, in general, underreported, and that surely calls into question the current trend towards a gendered approach.\nOver the years that I\u2019ve been observing this issue, the conversation has moved from being about domestic abuse to stopping violence against women and children. A laudable aim, for who in their right mind wouldn\u2019t want that to happen? My concern \u2013 and one that is shared by people who work with abused men \u2013 is that it appears that in this narrative male victims are being sidelined.\nIn 2015, 109,000 men reported to English and Welsh police forces that they were victims of domestic abuse, which constitutes 23pc of the overall total. This is not an insignificant number. Another study found that while men are eight times more likely to commit overall violence than women, there is gender parity in partner abuse. More worrying is the fact that more than 70pc of non-reciprocal violence is instigated by women. Things have changed, and not in a good way.\nGiven that the research indicates only 12% of male victims contact the police, it's probably\u00a0safe to assume the real figures are greater.\u00a0 Take those numbers and consider the help available for men. Twenty organisations offer refuge or safe house provision for male victims in the UK \u2013 a total of 82 spaces, of which 24 are dedicated to male DV victims only (the rest being for victims of either gender). For female victims, there close to 7,500 spaces for women and their children.\nSo where do we as a society go from here? We need an open and honest debate. We need to encourage all victims to come forward and seek help. We need to acknowledge that the barriers abused men face are not only attributable to a lack of visible and accessible support services, and the marginalisation of men in the public narrative of domestic abuse, but are also related to sexist stereotypes of what it means to be a \u201creal man\u201d.\nI believe we need to follow the lead of the female victims of domestic abuse who have come to me after reading my novel,\u00a0A Suitable Lie. They see this book as a commentary on domestic abuse and the horrors it inflicts. What they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0see is gender. They see violence and its impact; they feel listened to; and they feel hope that together \u2013 women and men \u2013 we can rid our society of this scourge.\nPerhaps that generosity of spirit and empathy is where the experts need to go. Because, while they argue about who is doing what to whom and in what numbers,\u00a0people\u00a0are being hurt by other\u00a0people. And\u00a0people\u00a0and their children are not receiving the help and support they need.\nA Suitable Lie is published by Orenda Books, \u00a38.99\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "It was early 1998.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/until-we-treat-male-and-female-domestic-abuse-victims-the-same-w/", "title": "Until we treat male and female domestic abuse victims the same, we'll never be rid of it"}, "45": {"text": "Today's IFS report\u00a0suggests that if the previous Chancellor's relentless focus on getting the public finances into surplus is abandoned, it will mean a deficit of at least \u00a315 billion in 2020. This is neither a One Nation approach, nor does it meet the Prime Minister\u2019s test of being \"for everyone\".\nSince June 23rd, our decision to leave the EU is being misinterpreted in all sorts of ways - from a justification for bizarre policies on reporting foreign workers, to a mandate to withdraw entirely from the European Single Market or from\u00a0free trade. Clearly voters in the referendum rejected \"business as usual\", but they did not reject the need for government to get to grips with the deficit. That was the central plank of the Conservative Manifesto which delivered a majority government just 18 months ago. The very first pledge in that manifesto was to \u201ckeep our economy secure by running a surplus so that we start paying down our debts\u201d.\nSpeaking to voters on both sides of the referendum debate, it is clear to me that the decision for many was less about the impact of Brexit on them, but more about their children and grandchildren. Voters rightly thought about the future and how Britain can be most successful in a globalised world, in a way that will deliver that most basic of human desires \u2013 for those who come after us to have greater opportunities than we did. Abandoning plans to deliver a budget surplus as the Chancellor has suggested does nothing to help achieve this.\nI have just turned 30, and it doesn't surprise me that the IFS found in recent research that my generation are half as wealthy as those born a decade earlier were at the same stage of life. People born in the 1980s are the first generation to earn less than those born in the previous decade; we\u2019ve been locked out of the property market which has delivered huge capital wealth to those before us; we face higher housing and rent costs; and we have far less generous pension schemes.\u00a0\nMore young people today believe they will start their own business than own their own home; while the start of that statement gives me great hope, the latter half is a disaster.\nMy generation, and to an even greater extent the one behind, face the triple-whammy of exorbitant student debt burdens, compulsory pension contributions, and higher taxes that deplete our incomes and ability to save. We live in a world of skewed transport costs, where it's cheaper for us to jet across Europe for a weekend in the sun than to travel home by train to see our parents. For the Chancellor to turn around post-EU referendum and land us with even greater debts to clear in the future, while continuing to protect pensioners with a triple-lock and universal benefits is simply unethical.\nAs the Chancellor himself said last at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham \u201cThe deficit remains unsustainable\u2026. And piling up debt for our children and our grandchildren to pay off is not only unsustainable... it\u2019s unfair\u2026 and it\u2019s downright un-Conservative.\u201d\nPublic Sector debt has trebled in ten years and now stands at 84 per cent of GDP, a figure set to grow by a further \u00a355bn this financial year. Eight years after the financial crash, in 2016 we will borrow \u00a31,700 for every person in the UK in work. It is worth remembering that the last time the public finances were in surplus was in 2001, in the last year of Ken Clarke\u2019s financial plans that were carried over into the early years of New Labour.\u00a0\nSo while we must invest in major infrastructure projects that secure our economic future, from HS2 to Crossrail 2, Heathrow (and for that matter Gatwick) expansion, renewal energy projects, upgrading roads across the regions, and build the new homes we desperately need, there is no reason to do this off the backs of the next generation. Borrowing to build new homes young people cannot afford, with debt we expect those same young people to pay back, is far from a sustainable future that works for everyone.\nPhilip Hammond must stick to his predecessor's plans for a surplus. With employment levels at a record high, more businesses operating in the UK than ever before, inflation low, and interest rates on the floor, he has a moral duty to act now to secure younger Britons' future. If he fails to act in a way that delivers generational equality, he'll not only be storing up crippling debts for millennials:\u00a0he'll be storing an electoral crisis for the Conservative Party.\nOwen Meredith is Deputy Chairman on the Tory Reform Group\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Today's IFS report  suggests that if the previous Chancellor's relentless focus on getting the public finances into surplus is abandoned, it will mean a deficit of at least £15 billion in 2020.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/08/dont-let-up-on-cutting-the-deficit-chancellor-or-you-will-be-bet/", "title": "Don't let up on cutting the deficit, Chancellor, or you will betray millennials"}, "46": {"text": "Theresa May risked angering her hosts when she rejected calls from the government in Delhi to relax UK visa rules. But the Prime Minister, on a visit to India, was right to stand her ground. The biggest problem with illegal immigration in this country involves people overstaying after their visas have expired.\nMany are believed to be students who either come here with little intention of completing an academic course or simply stay on after finishing their degree. But tourists and people on work visas have been equally able to break the terms of their visas because the Home Office for many years had no way of knowing who had left the country.\nThe inability to count arrivals and departures has been a major hindrance to the UK\u2019s non-EU immigration policy since exit checks were abolished in 1998 on the grounds that they were ineffective. Ever since, ministers have pledged to restore some sort of comprehensive departure check; but it is only in the past year that data collected on travellers leaving at the borders have been routinely passed to the Home Office, ostensibly to help them track down overstayers.\nHowever, even when it is known that someone has not left the country, finding out where they are is not an easy business since they will often disappear into communities where they have family connections.\nThere are concerns that British inflexibility may harm efforts to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with India but there is no reason why these two matters should be connected. Just like any other country, the UK is entitled to operate an immigration system that requires holders of visas to return home after they expire.\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Theresa May risked angering her hosts when she rejected calls from the government in Delhi to relax UK visa rules.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/07/britain-like-india-has-the-right-and-duty-to-enforce-visa-contro/", "title": "Britain, like India, has the right and duty to enforce visa controls"}, "47": {"text": "I was about 24 hours into my first labour when I was told I could, at last, receive the epidural I\u2019d been begging for. By this stage I resembled nothing so much as a mortally wounded animal, howling to be put out of its misery. Yet,\u00a0the anaesthetist warned me that the\u00a0magic pain relief bullet he was about to fire up my spine might later cause me a headache.\n\u2018A headache?\u2019 I wanted to yell - but couldn\u2019t, because I\u2019d long since lost the power of speech.\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m in so much pain my body\u2019s about to give out, and my mind gave up hours ago when I started moaning \u201cI \u2013 can\u2019t \u2013 cope\".\u2019\nA sore\u00a0head\u00a0is one of the few potential side effects of having an epidural anaesthesia, which numbs the pain nerves during labour. It can also, it is said, decelerate the birth itself - as the numbness it induces can make it harder to push the baby out.\nPerhaps. But my second baby popped out in three heaves -\u00a0despite me topping up my epidural medicine as often as the machinery would allow me. \u00a0\nSo why, then, do so many women feel ike availing themselves of this - or other effective pain relief medication during labour - is tantamount to surrender; even failure?\nA 2014 study of women\u2019s experiences of maternity care in England found that only 29 per cent\u00a0have an epidural for pain relief during labour. Why so few? We're encouraged to have our babies\u00a0as \u2018naturally\u2019 as possible. But, surely,\u00a0giving birth, by any means, is the most natural thing in the world and cannot be made \u2018unnatural\u2019 - no matter what interventions we might require to ease the process along?\nYet, a\u00a0harmful mythology surrounding the benefits of \u2018natural\u2019 birth persists. Goodness knows women aren\u2019t supposed to do anything else naturally, be it ageing,\u00a0growing body hair or even going make-up free. But when it comes to childbirth, we are encouraged to simply \u2018breathe through the pain.\u2019\n(Of course, before the advent of modern medicine, far more women died during labour, which was arguably also very natural. We draw the line at allowing this to happen now.)\nIn my pregnancy yoga class, the teacher read us grateful letters from former pupils who had supposedly used just their \u2018golden thread breaths\u2019 to get them over the threshold during childbirth. Hypnobirthing, meanwhile, blithely assures women that \u2018in the absence of fear and tension...severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labour.\u2019 \u00a0\nI hate to break it to any women planning to procreate, but in my limited experience, it does. \u00a0\nWe just don\u2019t talk about it very much. As with many other things that happen to women, it is not the done thing to go on about it. Those of us who have been through it perhaps don\u2019t want to put others off. (My own mother promised me childbirth was \u2018lovely\u2019. I duly screamed at her after my son was born: \u2018It wasn\u2019t!\u2019)\nBut there also exists a cultural conspiracy to hush things up;\u00a0to primly draw a curtain around the woman screaming on the labour ward and pretend her pain is less real if we just don\u2019t mention it.\nA Royal Society of Medicine meeting will be advised next month that women should feel no shame for requesting pain relief during labour and that medication like\u00a0epidurals have\u00a0no ill effect. It\u2019s a departure that can\u2019t come soon enough.\nDoctors will also say women have been misled into thinking a painful birth is better for them and the baby. Such demystification is long overdue and an important first step towards tackling the unjust stigma that still surrounds the woman who has \u2018given in\u2019 and asked for some proper pain relief.\nAfter giving birth to my daughter six months ago, the midwife told me: \u2018You didn\u2019t need that epidural. You\u2019d been doing really well.\u2019\nDear midwife, I did. And if my daughter is pregnant\u00a0someday, I will tell her just one thing: the drugs do work.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "I was about 24 hours into my first labour when I was told I could, at last, receive the epidural I’d been begging for.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/family/dont-trust-the-natural-birth-myth-the-drugs-do-work---believe-me/", "title": "Don't trust the 'natural birth' myth. The drugs do work - believe me"}, "48": {"text": "I love any television drama with an orb and sceptre in it. From Wolf Hall to The Lost Prince and Victoria, I\u2019m so glued to the box I can almost lick the screen. So imagine my pain when I realised I can\u2019t share in the orb-tactic experience that is The Crown: a ten-part series covering the modern royal family, which is expected to run to sixty episodes eventually and has already cost \u00a3100 million.\nWhy am I an exile from this small screen bliss? Because, unlike half the nation, I don\u2019t have Netflix. And it\u2019s my own puritanical fault. Something at the core of me objects to the subscription model, where TV programmes are streamed to the customer on demand. A schoolmarm side of me dislikes the idea of the impatient, voracious, sensation-bloated viewer being gratified whenever they like. Perhaps because I know that needy person could so easily (will?) be me.\nI still have a sentimental 20th-Century attachment to drama as Event TV; the notion that a vast proportion of the population will sit down and tune in to exactly the same gripping programme at precisely the moment as their neighbours, friends and family \u2013 that the next day your colleagues will talk through the screening with the certainty you watched it too. Later, in the pub, regulars will discuss an unseen plot twist over their pints and everyone will feel they have a small stake in family entertainment.\nExtraordinary to think it now, but on Christmas Day 1986 just over 30 million people tuned in to EastEnders to see Dirty Den hand over divorce papers to his wife Angie. In the US, the \u201cWho Shot JR?\u201d episode of Dallas attracted a mind-boggling 90 million viewers. Clearly, quite a few people cared more about these characters than they did about their own family. Woe betide the unworldly fool who phoned at a key moment: they would be excommunicated for life.\nMany of my classmates in the 1980s channelled their teenage passion and anxiety into TV soaps. One friend was so distraught when Bobby Ewing was shot that she kept bursting into tears for a fortnight. Another became so addicted to Neighbours that when she started medical training, she fell swiftly in love with an anaesthetist, who was the only other doctor at Guy\u2019s to sneak off at teatime for a dose of Scott and Charlene.\nI was more of a BBC drama junkie myself. My recent delight at The Night Manager zoomed me back to the first, great addictive Le Carr\u00e9 adaptation, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), starring Alec Guinness. When it was on, a spaceship full of aliens could have landed in the garden and my mum and I wouldn\u2019t have budged. We needed our fix.\nOf course, Saturday night light entertainment was the top communal experience for decades. It seems apt that Terry Johnson\u2019s play Dead Funny, which explores a fan club\u2019s obsession with comedians of the golden TV era, was revived this week at London\u2019s Vaudeville theatre. I watched it on Thursday and laughed like a drain, while wondering what anyone under 30 would make of it. How could today\u2019s young understand a world in which grown men\u2019s emotions were fixed in aspic in the 1970s, because they\u2019d watched too much Benny Hill and Sid James? But it makes perfect sense to anyone who gets misty-eyed at the mere mention of \u201cErnie\u2019s ghostly gold-tops a rattling in their crate.\u201d\nNetflix, Amazon and the iPlayer have changed the landscape of our televisual viewing. No longer will we idly watch something unfamiliar just because it\u2019s on the box and then find ourselves seduced by Etruscan history. Boredom first drove me to One Man and His Dog, but respect and Collie-love kept me watching. My knowledge of the classic cinema canon comes almost entirely from Sunday afternoon viewing, when the only alternative TV was sport.\nHow else would I have watched Ice Cold in Alex fifteen times? Or Went the Day Well, Random Harvest, Whisky Galore, or Black Narcissus? And I\u2019m grateful to all those times the afternoon\u2019s viewing was so deathly I had to read a book, or climb a tree instead. My children will never know the quiet despair of tuning on the box to find it\u2019s Crown Court and so opt for Jane Austen instead.\nToday\u2019s subscription audiences have their own narrow taste bounced back at them. The top sites have sophisticated algorithms to make sure you\u2019re fed more of what you think you crave; \u201cCritically \u2013 acclaimed Emotional Underdog Movies and \u201cVisually Striking Foreign Nostalgic Dramas\u201d are two real genres from over 75,000 on the Netflix database. An article in the Atlantic found that in 2014 the top two Netflix US viewing topics were \u201cAbout Marriage\u201d and \u201cAbout Royalty\u201d. The Crown is no accident of the dramatist\u2019s imagination. It\u2019s evolutionary science, or the TV equivalent of IVF: put the two strongest themes in a test-tube and hatch a sure-fire winner.\nAnd while that\u2019s well and good for undemanding, mainstream viewing, can you imagine anyone, ever, saying they\u2019d like a comedy about three celibate men cohabiting on a small island off the Irish coast? Bang goes Father Ted. Let\u2019s hope and pray some producers stay bold enough to keep giving the public what it doesn\u2019t want and never imagined.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "I love any television drama with an orb and sceptre in it.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/05/television-on-demand-no-thanks-i-want-more-of-the-shows-that-i-d/", "title": "Television on demand? No thanks: I want more of the shows that I don't ask for and don't like"}, "49": {"text": "A booby-trapped tunnel dug by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is not the first place you\u2019d expect to find a noted French philosopher. But Bernard-Henri Levy, writing dispatches from the front line of the battle for Mosul, is not unusual. Kurdish Peshmerga units are full of embedded Western journalists and this isn\u2019t a coincidence. It\u2019s a canny move by the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil to ensure the world knows about the Kurds\u2019 role in the offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq\u2019s third city, from Isil.\nYet while it makes for good reading, the bravery of the Kurdish Peshmerga (\u201cthose who stand in the face of death\u201d) forces is not actually the most notable aspect of the operation. More remarkable is the level of cooperation between the Kurds troops and the Iraqi national army.\nTwo years after Iraq\u2019s military turned tail and fled Mosul, leaving its residents to suffer under Isil\u2019s black flags, the same force is now leading the charge to retake the city. Better still, the operation has warmed relations between Baghdad and Kurdish leaders. The entente is fragile, but if it can hold, a stable Iraq might just emerge.\nThe operation has been set up carefully, with Western help. Iraqi troops have promised to stay in line and respect Kurdish territory. In turn, the Peshmerga have promised they won\u2019t enter Mosul. That part was easy, says Mike Knights, a fellow at the Washington Institute, because the Kurds have no desire to repeat the mistakes made in 2003, when they conquered Mosul from Sunni Baathists, looted everything then tried to rule over a hostile population.\nThis time, the Kurds have their eyes on a bigger prize. In August, Erbil and Baghdad finally signed a deal to share revenues from oil production around Kirkuk, a city home to a large Kurdish population \u2013 and Iraq\u2019s richest oil reserves. Erbil badly needs the cash: since oil prices plunged, the Kurdish government has only been able to pay about half of the wages owed to its bloated civil service, according to Renad Mansour of Chatham House.\nIn Kirkuk, a special accommodation has been reached. Baghdad pays the salaries and the Peshmerga provide the security. Oil revenues are split fifty-fifty. That might not be a glorious step towards the independence the Kurds crave, but until an upturn in the oil price, that ambition is on the back burner. In addition to the oil deal, Baghdad has also been sharing Western-provided weaponry with the Peshmerga and including Kurdish officials in international summits.\nThe Mosul offensive is helping to strengthen this trust, but victory in the battle will bring two dangers. With Isil defeated, there will be a power vacuum in the city. Two other players will be trying to influence what happens next: Mosul\u2019s Sunni population and Iraq\u2019s Shia militias, who have mostly been kept out of the battle so far.\nMosul\u2019s Sunnis could make a strong case to be given more autonomy, along the lines of Kurdish Iraq. Iraq\u2019s constitution in theory grants them a large degree of self-governance, but it was never honoured by the previous regime in Baghdad. The city has been through hell under Isil and the coming battle could be even worse. It\u2019s also home to many former Baathists who supported Saddam Hussein. So even if they are granted more autonomy, it\u2019s not clear how its factions will agree to share power peacefully.\nAn even bigger challenge are the Shia militias. These bands are full of extremist, anti-Sunni soldiers and are backed by Iran, which is working to keep Iraq weak and unstable. If Iran gets its way and can boost the power of its cronies in Baghdad, led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki, Iraq could fall back into chaos.\nAvoiding this fate will take patience, military strength and clever strategy. The West must keep together its coalition of European and US forces aiding Iraq\u2019s shaky government. But it must also help persuade Baghdad to accept reality and give the country\u2019s Sunnis more autonomy in a proper federal system. In order to hold Iraq together, its leaders must be prepared to split it up.\nThis will take years, not months, but it\u2019s a prize worth fighting for. If Iraq\u2019s sects and ethnic groups can find a way to share power, the country could become an example to the whole region. And as for Isil, which is about to lose the self-declared capital of its gruesome caliphate, it may simply collapse into the discarded wreckage of history where it belongs.\n\u00a0\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "A booby-trapped tunnel dug by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is not the first place you’d expect to find a noted French philosopher.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/05/when-the-fight-for-mosul-ends-the-real-battle-for-the-future-of/", "title": "When the fight for Mosul ends, the real battle for the future of Iraq can begin"}, "50": {"text": "The Rise of Donald Trump may have contributed to a spike in the number of British children being counselled for anxiety, new figures from the NSPCC suggest.\nThe charity said concerns about the state of the world \u2013 including, specifically, the US election \u2013 were helping drive a spike in calls to its ChildLine service.\nIn the year to April 2016, ChildLine received 11,706 contacts \u2013 either by telephone or online \u2013 in which children mentioned anxiety, up 35 per cent on the previous year.\nBut the rate in the last six months is already 11 per cent higher, with almost 1,100 such contacts a month.\nIts new \u201cworries about the world\u201d web page, has already been visited almost 5,000 since it was set up in September.\nThe charity said it had received significant numbers of calls in which children spoke of concerns related to the Brexit referendum while fears relating to terrorism also loom large, especially since the Paris and Brussels attacks.\nDame Esther Rantzen, president of Childline said: \u201cAt Childline we know children and young people are sometimes frightened and distressed by events in the wider world.\n\u201cSeeing pictures of crying and bewildered toddlers being pulled from bomb-damaged homes upsets all of us.\n\u201cOften we fail to notice the impact these stories are having on young people.\n\u201cThe good news is that so many children are able to express their anxiety to Childline, knowing that we will take them seriously, so that we are able to reassure them.\n\u201cSometimes these stories also reveal related concerns in their own lives, such as being subjected to racist bullying.\u201d\nPeter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC said: \u201cThe world can be a worrying place but we need to ensure our children are reassured rather than left overwhelmed and frightened.\n\u201cIt\u2019s only natural for children and young people to feel worried sometimes, but when they are plagued by constant fears that are resulting in panic attacks and making them not want to leave the house then they need support.\u201d\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "The Rise of Donald Trump may have contributed to a spike in the number of British children being counselled for anxiety, new figures from the NSPCC suggest.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/31/us-election-fears-boosting-calls-to-childline-says-nspcc/", "title": "US election fears boosting calls to ChildLine, says NSPCC \u00a0"}, "51": {"text": "Sir John Chilcot is set to be urged today to apologise to families of the Iraqi War dead for taking nine years to complete his report into the 2003 Iraq War.\nThe head of the Iraq War inquiry is due to give evidence to the House of Commons liaison committee, one of the most powerful in Parliament which comprises select committee chairmen.\nBob Neill, the chairman of the Justice committee, said he would like to see \u201can explanation for the delay at the very least.\n\u201cIt has been a very long delay and people would like to know why that is in a bit more detail than we have had so far.\u201d\nHe added that it was \u201cimportant to recognise the distress caused\u201d by delays to the inquiry which began in 2009 and was meant to take two years.\nHe said that \u201cmaybe there are lessons to be learned about keeping people in the loop\u201d on long running inquiries.\nThe report \u2013 which ran to 2.6 million words and cost over \u00a310.3million \u2013 was eventually published in July.\nBernard Jenkin, the chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committee, added: \u201cThe length of time it has taken has been very distressing for the families.\n\u201cI won\u2019t be at all surprised if the families are still looking for closure.\u201d\nMembers of the families of soldiers who died in the conflict said they were satisfied with the scale and scope of Sir John's report, despite the length of time it took to complete.\nHowever some said they hoped Sir John would be urged by the MPs to allow his inquiry team to cooperate with a proposed \u00a3160,000 civil\u00a0action against former Labour Prime Minister\u00a0Tony Blair for his conduct before and after the war.\nRoger\u00a0Bacon, whose son, Major Matthew\u00a0Bacon, was killed in Basra in 2005,\u00a0Sir John\u2019s support for the legal action would \u201chave done us good to see he is on that side\u201d.\nHe added it would be a \u201cgood thing\u201d if Sir John\u2019s inquiry team was able to help the legal team, which is being led by London lawyer Matthew Jury.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Sir John Chilcot is set to be urged today to apologise to families of the Iraqi War dead for taking nine years to complete his report into the 2003 Iraq War.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/02/sir-john-chilcot-to-be-urged-by-mps-to-apologise-for-inquiry-del/", "title": "Sir John Chilcot to be urged by MPs to apologise for inquiry delays to families of soldiers killed in Iraq war\u00a0"}, "52": {"text": "Pension\u00a0cold calling could be banned within weeks after concerns were raised by former ministers, the industry and campaigners.\nLord Young, a Conservative peer and Treasury spokesman in the Lords, said that there will be an \"announcement\" within weeks amid speculation that the ban could unveiled in the Autumn Statement.\nHe said that he expects that the announcement \"will meet the expectations that have been arouse\".\nIt comes amid concerns that more than 10 million pensioners are being targeted annually by cold callers in the wake of the\u00a0pension\u00a0freedoms.\nThe freedoms enable workers to to use their\u00a0pension\u00a0pots like bank accounts and withdraw thousands of pounds to save, invest or spend as they wish.\nHowever there is mounting evidence that fraudsters are using the freedoms to trick people into parting with their life savings by cold calling them with offers of \"once in a lifetime\" investment opportunities.\nIn many cases the investment turns out to be \"non-existant\" and people lose all or a significant proportion of their retirement savings.\nPolice have disclosed that reported fraud has risen from \u00a310million in the year before freedoms were introduced to \u00a318million in the year after.\nDuring a debate in the Lords Baroness Bakewell of Hardington, a Liberal Democrat peer, highlighted concerns that have been raised by Steve Webb, who served as a pensions minister under the Coalition.\nShe said: \"This is also an excellent opportunity to mention concerns that we have about cold calling\u00a0and\u00a0pension\u00a0scams.\n\"I know that my colleague Steve Webb, the previous Pensions Minister, was also worried about this development.\n\"When we get to Committee we will probe the Government on their latest thinking on\u00a0pension\u00a0scams. In the meantime, I would welcome the Minister\u2019s views at this stage.\"\nLord Yong replied: \"She and other noble Lords asked about cold calling and scams. I understand that there will be an announcement in a few weeks\u2019 time.\n\"At this stage, I can say no more than that, but I hope it will meet the expectations that have been aroused during this debate.\"\nBaroness Altmann, a former Conservative pensions minister, said: \"I'm delighted, it is a no brainer. The Government should be protecting people and sending a clear message that anyone trying to cold call you is not working in your interests and you need to hang up.\"\nMr Webb said: \"The Minister's comments are the clearest sign yet the Government is starting to listen on this important issue.\u00a0\n\"If the Chancellor was to use his Autumn Statement to announce a ban on cold-calling with early implementation this would be very welcome and would help to protect savers from unscrupulous scammers.\" A government spokesperson said:\n\u201cWe are determined to tackle the scourge of nuisance calls especially those of a fraudulent nature. We take the issue of\u00a0pension\u00a0scams, and the targeting of vulnerable people through cold calls, very seriously and are currently considering ways to protect consumers from\u00a0pension\u00a0scammers.\"\nA Government spokesman said:\u00a0\u201cWe are determined to tackle the scourge of nuisance calls especially those of a fraudulent nature. We take the issue of pension scams, and the targeting of vulnerable people through cold calls, very seriously and are currently considering ways to protect consumers from pension scammers.\"\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Pension cold calling could be banned within weeks after concerns were raised by former ministers, the industry and campaigners.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/02/pension-cold-calling-could-be-banned-within-weeks-government-sug/", "title": "Pension cold calling could be banned within weeks, Government suggests"}, "53": {"text": "Raheem Kassam, a former aide to Nigel Farage, has dropped out of the race to\u00a0become Ukip leader, saying \"the path to victory is too narrow\".\u00a0\nMr Kassam told his supporters: \"As of today, I am formally suspending my campaign for Ukip leader.\n\"After much consideration, I have decided not to pursue my campaign to be Ukip leader any further. This was a very difficult decision, and I want to thank everyone who supported me in the process.\n\"It is a decision I have not taken lightly, but following meetings this weekend I realised the path to victory is too narrow. I would encourage my supporters to back Peter Whittle, who I think would make a fantastic leader of the party.\"\nMr Kassam worked as chief aide to Mr Farage until he\u00a0stepped down after\u00a0being accused of turning the party\u00a0leader\u00a0into a \"thin-skinned, aggressive man\" who was making Ukip a \"personality cult\". He is now editor-in-chief of Right-wing blog Breitbart London.\nMr Kassam had\u00a0launched his campaign to become the new leader with the slogan \"Let's make Ukip great again\",\u00a0which was strikingly similar to Donald Trump's \"Make America great again\"\u00a0motto. Mr Kassam has been involved in the foundation of the British version of the US Tea Party movement.\nHe cited three reasons for his departure from the leadership contest.\n\"On their own, the following issues would not have caused me to take this decision, but taken together, the following reasons created an impossible route forward for me,\" he said.\n\"1. The top of the party is treating this like a coronation:\u00a0I am not satisfied about the integrity of the process, and having put a number of complaints in to the party chairman.\u00a0I was disappointed that incidents whereby Members of the European Parliament are using party databases to effectively campaign against me \u2013 ostensibly against the rules \u2013 were not challenged.\n\"2. Disgraceful treatment by the media:\u00a0I am tough and I can take it, but when\u00a0Times\u00a0journalists show up at my elderly parents' house at dusk, intimidating them, I draw the line. Billy Kenber at The\u00a0Times\u00a0has a lot to answer for and I will be pursuing a harassment complaint further.\n\"3. Fundraising:\u00a0While we raised enough for our deposit, and got over 200 assentors to my nomination, we could not raise enough for this to be more than a digital campaign run from SW1, and to not feature at events all around the country would have made me a hypocrite, given how much I criticise the establishment for ignoring the country.\"\nUkip has found itself with another leadership contest on its hands after the sudden resignation of newly-elected leader Diane James after just 18 days in post.\nFormer leader Mr Farage then returned, assuming the role of acting leader, but it has now emerged that a new leader will be in placed before Christmas.\nBut Steven Woolfe, the front-runner to replace Mr Farage and Ms James, dramatically ended his leadership campaign and resigned from the party, claiming it was \"ungovernable\" without Mr Farage at the helm.\nThe deadline for nominations closes at noon today.\nWho could be the party's next leader? Here are some of the potential contenders.\nWidely seen as a good media performer who has burnished her reputation with numerous appearances on BBC1's Question Time, the 51-year-old former journalist was unable to stand in the summer's election because she had been suspended from the party over comments she made suggesting Mr Farage was a \"divisive\" figure. Previously a Farage favourite, she was his choice as interim leader after his swiftly-retracted resignation in 2015. The suspension has since been lifted, clearing the way for her\u00a0leadership bid. Deputy party chairman from 2014-16, she was responsible for writing much of the party's 2015 election manifesto.\nUkip's former deputy leader and the current head of the party's delegation in the European Parliament. Many observers were surprised when the 39-year-old history lecturer announced he would not stand in the race to succeed Mr Farage. He is regarded as one of the potential candidates most likely to be able to capitalise on the high level of support for Leave among Labour's traditional working-class strongholds in the North.\nFormer party director Lisa Duffy is chief of staff to Ukip MEP Patrick O'Flynn and had Ms Evans' support in this summer's election, in which she came second to Ms James with 4,591 votes, many drawn from the anti-Farage wing of the party.\nHaving come second in the leadership contest she may feel she could be in with a chance of taking the role the second time around. The ex-TK Maxx store manager previously\u00a0sparked controversy for her comments in which she called for a \"total ban\" on Muslim faith schools, while insisting she is \"not far-Right\".\nPeter Whittle was Ukip's candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election and is a member of the London Assembly. Openly gay, he was the only LGBT candidate in the mayoral contest. He has also served as Ukip's cultural spokesman.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Raheem Kassam, a former aide to Nigel Farage, has dropped out of the race to become Ukip leader, saying "the path to victory is too narrow".", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/31/raheem-kassam-pulls-out-of-ukip-leadership-race-because-path-to/", "title": "Raheem Kassam pulls out of Ukip leadership race because 'path to victory is too narrow'"}, "54": {"text": "Non-EU migrants will see their partners banned from coming to the UK if they have an outstanding debt of \u00a3500 with the NHS, according to reports.\u00a0\nAmber Rudd, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce that those living in the UK with debts could also be refused \"leave to remain\".\nIt follows the news that a hit squads of debt collectors are to be sent into hospitals to collect payment from health tourists.\u00a0\nIt came after a report revealed the NHS recoups less than half the money it spends on treating overseas patients.\nThe Home office are expected to announce the new measures today and the new rules will become law within months.\nA source told the\u00a0Sun: \"This is a tightening of the rules.\u00a0If someone has come to Britain previously, run up a debt of \u00a3500 or more, gone home, then apply for a family visa, they could be refused.\"\nNHS Trusts collected just \u00a3255m of at least \u00a3500m spent providing treatment to foreign patients last year, according to the latest\u00a0report by the National Audit Office (NAO).\nThe report reveals that the NHS is failing to claim back money from foreign patients because half of doctors and a quarter of nurses do not think it is their job to ensure payments were made.\nLast month it was revealed that pregnant\u00a0women will be forced to hand over\u00a0passports\u00a0before they give birth at NHS hospitals under controversial proposals to clamp down on health tourism.\nA pilot scheme backed by the Home Office will see\u00a0every mother-to-be\u00a0told to prove their right to use the health service when their labour is booked in.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Non-EU migrants will see their partners banned from coming to the UK if they have an outstanding debt of £500 with the NHS, according to reports.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/03/home-office-to-crackdown-on-non-eu-migrants-using-the-nhs/", "title": "Home Office to crack down on non-EU migrants using the NHS\u00a0"}, "55": {"text": "The urban myth that close-door buttons do not actually work in lifts has been debunked\u2026in Britain at least.\nFor decades people have claimed that the button did nothing to speed up the time taken for the doors to close and was put there simply for the placebo effect, which made passengers feel more in control.\nThis week Karen Penafiel, executive director of the US National Elevator Industry,\u00a0told the New York Times that lift buttons in the US had not worked for decades.\nThe change happened since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, which meant that lifts had to ensure that someone with a disability had time to get inside.\u00a0\nHowever Nick Mellor, technical director of the Lift and Escalator Industry Association (LEIA) said that it was not the case in Britain.\u00a0\n\"It varies according to the application of the lift, so a lift in Canary Wharf, for example, will have a much shorter delay than a quiet residential block,\u00a0but the close door buttons do still work.\u00a0\n\"Close door buttons aren't on all lifts but they do tend do work when they are present. We have an equivalent standard to the American with Disabilities Act which determines how long the doors should stay open, so there is already a built-in delay.\n\"It might be that people have noticed a bigger delay in some lifts and thought that the close-door buttons are not working.\"\nApex Lifts, London\u2019s biggest lift manufacturing and servicing company, also said the systems work differently to in the US.\u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cOver in the UK we normally tend to wire up the buttons so they do actually work,\u201d said a spokesman. \u201cThey are normally most common in places like multi-story car parks.\u201d\nHowever it would not be the first time that buttons have turned out to be dummies.\u00a0In 2013 it emerged that many buttons on pedestrian crossings in Britain are fakes, with traffic controlled by an automated system rather than the request of walkers.\nThousands of junctions across the country operate on a Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique.\nIt works by \u201cvehicle detectors\u201d adjusting the lengths of time between the traffic being stopped depending on how heavily the roads are being used at that time.\nThe system was developed by the Transport Research Laboratory in Wokingham and has a maximum time of two minutes that people will wait for the green man.\nThe junctions operation from 7am to midnight in some areas and the waiting times vary by time of day and the location, but the revelations have angered some who feel pedestrians are being tricked by the fake, or placebo, buttons.\nIn Edinburgh between 50 and\u00a060 of 300 junctions have crossings where the green man comes on automatically, while in Manchester 40 per cent of the buttons are placebos and don\u2019t need to be pressed to stop the traffic at busy times.\nThe automated system can also have added benefits. In 2012 Transport for London changed the setting at a crossing in north London after Orthodox Jews told them they were not allowed to operate electronic machinery on the Sabbath.\nThe change means that from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday the pedestrian crossing operates on an automated programme rather than via pressing the button.\nThe door buttons on the London Underground also no longer work.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "The urban myth that close-door buttons do not actually work in lifts has been debunked…", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/02/close-door-buttons-do-work-in-british-liftsbut-not-in-us-elevato/", "title": "Close-door buttons DO work in British lifts\u2026 but not in US elevators"}, "56": {"text": "Bomb squads have been called to schools across the country following a Government warning over a lab chemical that can explode if not stored correctly.\nAt least a dozen schools have reportedly summoned military bomb disposal teams to conduct controlled explosions in recent days.\nAnd some of the blasts have prompted complaints on social media from local residents, who said they were given no warning.\nLast week, schools received a reminder from the advisory body Cleapss (the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Equipment) on how to correctly store the substance 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine.\nThe chemical, also known as 2,4-DNP, is used in A-level chemistry lessons and can become dangerous if it is allowed to dry out.\nIt is supposed to be stored in a labelled jar which is then kept inside an outer jar topped up with water as a precaution.\nThe advisory note said Cleapss had \u201crecently received a number of calls regarding the chemical\u201d.\nAnd a warning on the Cleapss website read: \u201cIf there is no water in the outer container or the reagent bottle has not been placed inside an additional container you must assume that the material has dried out, meaning that an additional risk is present.\u201d\nDr Dave Kinnson, a chemistry safety adviser from the University of Southampton, told BBC Radio 4: \u201cIt\u2019s used to test carbonyl compounds and in the school labs it is often used as part of the A-level programmes.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve always known if this material is not stored properly and allowed to dry out it could become dangerous and could become explosive. But if it\u2019s kept wet it is perfectly safe.\n\u201cI think the fuss has started because schools have checked their stocks and are following advice. If they have found stock which could have dried up they are taking precautions. It\u2019s better to be safe than sorry.\u201d\nOn Monday, The Thomas Adams School in Wem, Shropshire\u00a0came under fire from local residents after it blew up the chemicals on its playing field without providing a warning of the blast.\nOne resident complained on the school\u2019s Facebook page that the noise was \u201cimmense\u201d and \u201cworrying\u201d, especially when families were out celebrating Halloween.\nOther explosions have been carried out at St Albans Catholic High School in Ipswich, Suffolk;\u00a0the De Montfort School in Evesham, Worcestershire;\u00a0Clacton County High School in Essex;\u00a0Turton School in Bolton, Lancashire;\u00a0the Nottingham Academy;\u00a0Luttterworth College in Leicestershire and Winstanley College in Orrell, Wigan.\nOther schools in Redditch, Worcestershire, and the West Midlands have also reportedly had controlled blasts along with three in Camarthenshire - the Queen Elizabeth High School at Camarthern, the Coleg Sir Gar's Graig campus in Llanelli and the Ysgol Gyfyn Emlyn School in Newcastle Emlyn.\nPCSO Matt Ladkin who set up a cordon before the chemical was destroyed at Clacton High School, said: \"They dug a hole one foot deep between the rugby pitches. It made a heck of a bang. It was one of those things you don't see every day.\"\nWhen asked why bomb disposal experts were carrying out the blasts on school premises, Dr Kinnson said: \u201cSchools have playing fields so it is easy to blow it up on open ground. There are also risks with transporting it elsewhere.\n\u201cBut perhaps contacting local residents would have been helpful. There still might be more cases. Schools and my colleagues in universities will probably be checking their stocks.\u201d\nA controlled explosion of the chemical was also carried out at Swansea University last Thursday and a campus of Gower College in the Welsh city was evacuated on Monday\nAdvice issued by the Government said: \"The Department for Education would like to remind all schools and post-16 institutions of the importance of ensuring all chemicals used for practical science activities are stored safely.\"\u00a0\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Bomb squads have been called to schools across the country following a Government warning over a lab chemical that can explode if not stored correctly.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/02/controlled-explosions-carried-out-in-schools-after-a-level-chemi/", "title": "Controlled explosions carried out in schools after A-level chemistry chemical stored incorrectly\u00a0"}, "57": {"text": "Prescribing anti-psychotic medication to violent criminals when they leave prison could prevent around 1,500 serious crimes in Britain each year, a new study suggests.\nAlthough medicating prisoners on their release is controversial, the University of Oxford believes that it could dramatically cut the risk of violent offending.\nResearchers studied 22,275 prisoners who were released from jails in Sweden between 2005 and 2010, some of whom were prescribed drugs.\nThere was a 42 per cent reduction in the rate of violent reoffending for those prescribed anti-psychotic drugs and 52 per cent reduction for those given medication for addictive disorders.\u00a0Antidepressants were found to have no impact on reoffending rates.\nAround 3,000 serious violent crimes are committed by ex-prisoners in Britain each year but the\u00a0study suggests the number could be halved if criminals were given drugs on their release.\nProf\u00a0Seena Fazel of the University of\u00a0Oxford\u2019s Department of Psychiatry, who led the research, said: \u201cThis study raises the possibility that prescribed medications may provide a way to cut the risk of violent reoffending, as part of a wider package of support. The research also highlighted that medications seem to work beyond their immediate effects on symptoms.\n\u201cWe have shown that in a population with many mental health problems and high risks of reoffending, improving adherence and links with community health services may offer an effective way to improve outcomes for the individual prisoner and also public health and safety more broadly.\u201d\nThe researchers say the results highlight the link between mental illness and violent crime.\nIn the past drugs have been used in the past to \u2018chemically castrate\u2019 sexual offenders, but always after abuse has taken place.\nMany of the therapies used also have serious side effects such as breast growth, bone thinning, mood changes.\nBut the new treatment would be more controversial because it would work before a crime has been committed. It is likely that any treatment would have to be on a voluntary basis.\nEarlier this year, experts in Sweden announced they are trialling a drug which can prevent paedophiles from abusing children.\nThe medication degaralix stops the brain from making testosterone\u00a0and can combat hyper-sexuality and aggression, turning off the need to seek out sexual contact with youngsters.\nFour men who rang a sexual offenders helpline have so far agreed to take part in the study.\nThe new research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Prescribing anti-psychotic medication to violent criminals when they leave prison could prevent around 1,500 serious crimes in Britain each year, a new study suggests.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/01/treating-criminals-with-anti-psychotic-drugs-could-prevent-1500/", "title": "Treating criminals with anti-psychotic drugs could prevent 1,500 crimes a year, study suggests"}, "58": {"text": "Smartphones and tablets in bedrooms disrupt the sleep of children even if they are switched off, a new study has shown.\nResearchers at King\u2019s College London and Cardiff University reviewed 11 studies involving more than 125,000 children to find out if technology was impacting sleep.\nThey found that using smartphones or tablets before bedtime doubled the risk of a disrupted night\u2019s sleep and raised the changes of feeling excessively sleepy the following day by two-fold.\nBut crucially, sleep was also significantly disturbed by the mere presence of devices \u2013 almost to the same level as actually using a gadget \u2013 suggesting that they should be removed from bedrooms altogether to improve sleep.\nIt is thought that the \u2018always on\u2019 nature of social media and instant messaging means children are continuously stimulated by devices in their environment, even when they are not using them.\nDr Ben Carter, of King\u2019s\u00a0College\u00a0London, said: \u201cOur study provides further proof of the detrimental effect of media devices on both sleep duration and quality.\n\u201cSleep is an often undervalued but important part of children\u2019s development, with a regular lack of sleep causing a variety of health problems.\n\u201cWith the ever growing popularity of portable media devices and their use in schools as a replacement for textbooks, the problem of poor sleep amongst children is likely to get worse.\u201d\nPrevious studies have shown that seven in 10 children and nine in 10 teenagers have at least one device in their bedrooms, and most are used near to bedtime.\nIt is thought that screen-based media devices adversely affect sleep through a variety of ways, including delaying or interrupting sleep time; psychologically stimulating the brain; and affecting sleep cycles, physiology and alertness.\nSleep disturbance in childhood is known to have adverse effects on health, including poor diet, obesity, sedative behaviour, reduced immune function and stunted growth, as well as links with mental health issues.\u00a0\nThe new research was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Smartphones and tablets in bedrooms disrupt the sleep of children even if they are switched off, a new study has shown.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/31/smartphones-and-tablets-in-bedrooms-disrupt-sleep-even-when-swit/", "title": "Smartphones and tablets in bedrooms disrupt sleep even when switched off"}, "59": {"text": "Arsenalare facing an anxious wait to discover the full extent of what Chile have called \u201ca low grade\u201d calf muscle tear to Alexis Sanchez that will rule him out of Thursday\u2019s World Cup qualifier against Colombia.\nSanchez suffered the injury during training on Tuesday but is staying in South America in the hope that he can play next Tuesday against Uruguay.\nArsenal will be anxious that no risks are taken but, equally, will know that their influence will be limited while Sanchez is with Chile, for whom he is the star player.\nSanchez\u2019s schedule with Chile has been a constant concern to Wenger, with his player having already accumulated more than 100 international caps by the age of 27 even while largely playing in Europe.\nHe has not missed a Chile match since March 2013, taking in 50 games. A statement from the Chile FA said that Sanchez would remain with their medics and, according to reports in Chile, he has a nine millimetre tear.\n\"He will remain in Santiago, under treatment and in evaluation for the meeting against Uruguay,\" said a statement.\nSanchez, who has scored eight goals for Arsenal this season as their main central striker, played the entire 90 minutes of Sunday\u2019s 1-1 draw against Tottenham. He has also played all 15 of Arsenal\u2019s Premier League and Champions League games this season, even after helping Chile to win the Copa America during the summer.\nArsenal lost Sanchez for almost two months in November last season when he suffered a hamstring tear at a time when Wenger was already concerned about his game-load but he still ended the 2015-16 season having played 58 times for club and country. Sanchez has played 50 or more games in each of the past three seasons. \u00a0Chile are fifth in their World Cup qualifying section with 16 points from 10 games, five points behind leaders Brazil.\nArsenal also face an important sequence of matches in November, including a trip to Old Trafford to face Jose Mourinho\u2019s Manchester United as well as their Champions League group decider against Paris St Germain.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Arsenal are facing an anxious wait to discover the full extent of what Chile have called “a low grade” calf muscle tear to Alexis Sanchez that will rule him out of Thursday’s World Cup qualifier against Colombia.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/11/08/arsenal-forward-alexis-sanchez-suffers-injury-in-chile-training/", "title": "Arsenal anxiously await update on Alexis Sanchez's 'low grade' muscle tear"}, "60": {"text": "Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Manchester United striker, has admitted that he should have scored more goals following his move from Paris St. Germain in the summer, though insists he is happy with his performances.\nThe Swede ended a run of six matches without a goal by scoring twice in Sunday's win at Swansea - his first Premier League goals since finding the net against Manchester City on Sept\u00a010.\nAnd, while he knows he could have added a few more to his tally, the 35-year-old is happy with how his first season in English football is going.\n\"I think I could have scored a couple more goals than I have done,\" he told Inside United.\u00a0\"I missed pretty good chances which I didn't see myself doing but it's a different game here.\n\"With my performance, I am happy. I know I can do more, I know the team can do more and I want to do more and I will do more.\"\nUnited's performances have also been patchy, with the win at the Liberty Stadium their first in five league matches which, combined with the EFL Cup and Europa League defeats to Chelsea and Fenerbahce respectively, has led to questions being asked about United's quality.\nBut Ibrahimovic is confident they will get it right.\n\"It will click,\" he said. \"We just wait for the moment when everything is clicking among each other, not only inside the pitch, but outside it.\n\"I don't say things are bad because things are good. We've been a little unlucky in certain games but we believe and, when you believe, it will come.\n\"I like to train hard, that's my philosophy. If you train hard, you get what you want to get. Hard work pays back, according to me... and it does after 20 years of experience.\"\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Manchester United striker, has admitted that he should have scored more goals following his move from Paris St.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/11/08/zlatan-ibrahimovic-admits-he-could-have-scored-more-since-joinin/", "title": "Zlatan Ibrahimovic admits he could have scored more since joining Manchester United"}, "61": {"text": "The minefield of selecting the United Kingdom's all-time top 100 sportsmen and women is tiptoed across with good reason.\nThis year has proved beyond all challenge that this country is in a golden age across a range of sports that no nation can match for depth or breadth. For that reason, we undertake an audit, to help understand what we most deeply appreciate and why.\nOne thing we can agree on. As wide as the choice of names is the menu of criteria. When Telegraph Sport reporters began nominating candidates, from W G Grace to the Brownlee brothers, it became obvious that the reasons for choosing this or that athlete were almost as numerous as the contenders themselves.\nOur cricket correspondent, Scyld Berry, for instance, argued for W G Grace on the basis that affecting society and changing the game itself is a vital measure.\nNaturally there was a tumble of other yardsticks, from pure talent, to longevity, to perseverance, to numerical benchmarks to charisma.\nThe ability to quell personal demons also popped up as an achievement worth recognising. All the while, the personal memories of each judge were calling up from their well to shape our choices.\nSuccess comes in British sport these days in a cascade; so much so that we have come to expect it.\nAndy Murray\u2019s first Wimbledon title felt like a catharsis that allowed Fred Perry to finally rest in peace. His second, this summer, was a triumphant affirmation of his talent and strength of character. It was, in that sense, unsurprising. A double Wimbledon men\u2019s champion? Consumption of a couple of jugs of Pimm\u2019s would have been required back in the 1980s or 90s even to imagine such a thing.\nWith Murray, you can throw in a US Open title and successive Olympic golds, as well as his colossal contribution to Britain\u2019s return from the wastelands of the Davis Cup. Through application and willpower, Murray escaped a place in history as the player who was good but not great, forever doomed to fall behind Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Murray\u2019s career is a study in refusing to accept easy money for finishing fourth.\nSee? Mention any big name and the brain starts charging down avenues of assessment, stopping to look at character as much as conquest.\nMost bizarre of all is that the picture just keeps improving. London 2012 was an epic mission accomplished, in medal terms, but then along came Rio 2016, where Britain became the first country to reach the podium more times than they had in a home Olympics four years previously.\nWhich is where we might bring in gender, and the probable imbalance in the final 100 between men and women: a disparity that reflects huge socio-economic factors but also the familiar category error of comparing women\u2019s sport to men\u2019s.\nMany of the derogatory comments about women\u2019s activities stem from the foolish premise that Rebecca Adlington would lose a swimming race with Adam Peaty, or that Virginia Wade would have been blown away by Murray.\nJess Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis and Katherine Grainger compete against the best of their sex in their chosen sport, and the entertainment value from that is just as high. Of all the benefits of Britain\u2019s Olympic success, the advances made by women\u2019s sport is the most valuable.\nThe escalation of triumphs has left few sports behind, most notably football, where England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have between them reached one international final in 66 years of trying, though Wales\u2019 march to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 was a notable progression.\nFifty years on from Sir Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore \u2013 1966 and all that \u2013 there is no subsequent English footballer demanding inclusion in the top 10 of a top 100. Across the other nations cases can be made for George Best, Ryan Giggs, Gareth Bale and Kenny Dalglish. There is no disguising the truth, however, that football is going to be poorly represented, given its hold on our everyday agenda.\nCharlton fills the roles of Munich air disaster survivor, World Cup and European Cup winner, and elder statesman of the English game. That CV takes some beating. It also introduces a note of conduct, or integrity, which takes us off the straight road of counting caps, titles and medals.\n'How we feel\u2019 about someone in sport shapes the list-making. In an age when looking up to superstar athletes is ever more complicated, those we consider to have affirmed our world view, or just made us feel better about life, are bound to shine more brightly.\nIf sport is essentially human struggle - against the opponent, nature, the clock, or against oneself \u2013 the eye will be pulled towards those who suffered for their art. In rugby union Jonny Wilkinson\u2019s self-pummelling perfectionism refused to give him a break even after he kicked the winning drop goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final in Sydney.\nFor many that moment of self-realisation would have blown away the pain forever. But it stalked Wilkinson for the rest of his career, and into retirement, where his confessions shed new light on the obsessive nature of successful sportsmen and women: the hidden price they pay.\nMartin Johnson, on the other hand, was Wilkinson\u2019s antithesis: a mighty leader who considered it his brief to conquer often and emote as little as possible. Away from England, others who consider rugby their favourite sport will prefer to reward the brilliant creativity of the Wales sides of the early 1970s. For a mass of observers, the pinnacle in sport is to be able to bamboozle: to deliver the shock of the unexpected. A case in point: the panache that elevated a Gareth Edwards or Phil Bennett above the bump and grind.\nBut still with struggle, sheer physical sacrifice, often called courage, takes sport into that wider realm where spectators identify games and pastimes as metaphors for life. So when Tony 'A P\u2019 McCoy wins 20 consecutive National Hunt jockey titles while smashing just about every bone in his body, endurance and indomitability become a daily spectacle we have only to travel to Fakenham or Taunton to examine. There are few areas of life where you can turn a Monday afternoon into a study of the human spirit (while also profiting from it, if you back a winner).\nBoxing is another sport that takes people to places most of us would have no wish to go, to face the fists and the brutal intent of another. On that path to the outer reaches, Joe Calzaghe and Lennox Lewis are among those who matched technical skill with bravery to leave an indelible mark in history.\nEqually the triathlete Brownlee brothers climbed higher ground when Alistair helped Jonny over the line this year in Mexico: an immortal study not only of Corinthianism but familial solidarity.\nThis search is not confined to the household names, the headline-hogging 'mainstream\u2019 sports. Nick Faldo and Ian Botham will have to fight it out with lower-profile champions. Again the sheer breadth of achievement is a major part of this story.\nWho would have thought that guilt trips could be such a part of this search. 'Who can we put in\u2019 has become 'Who had we better not leave out.\u2019 There are some truly great Olympians for example who are sometimes less swiftly acknowledged than the cyclists or stars of track and field. Ben Ainslie, a seaborne warrior, is one.\nSo the precise order of the top 100 is arguably less important than the process of working out how we measure success, which steers us from thought into the deeper mine of feeling. It might not be too grand to say it will tell us a lot about how we see life.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "The minefield of selecting the United Kingdom's all-time top 100 sportsmen and women is tiptoed across with good reason.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2016/11/07/the-search-for-the-uks-greatest-ever-sportsperson-starts-now/", "title": "The search for the UK's greatest ever sportsperson starts now"}, "62": {"text": "More Of That could be a fascinating contender in Saturday\u2019s BetVictor Gold Cup following the glowing\u00a0 endorsements of Jonjo O\u2019Neill.\nThe participation of the 2014 World Hurdle winner is subject to rubber-stamping by his owner,\u00a0 J\u2009P McManus, and some rain, but trainer O\u2019Neill seemed to suggest Cheltenham would be on the cards after a recent reappearance at Carlisle was declined because of the ground.\n\u201cI\u2019m desperate to run him,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cOur horses are running a bit below par at the moment, but he seems in good form.\u201d More Of That was restricted to only three chase starts last term. He won twice over Saturday\u2019s course and distance before finishing third in the RSA Chase at the Festival.\nO\u2019Neill felt More Of That\u2019s breathing was not quite right that day and the eight-year-old has since had another corrective wind operation.\nMore Of That is 11-2 second-favourite with the sponsor for Saturday\u2019s race behind Paul Nicholls\u2019 Frodon and is currently due to carry 11st 6lb. After typically tongue-in-cheek remarks that he thought he had \u201cimproved him a stone and a half\u201d and that Sir Tony McCoy \u201cwould come back for this fella\u201d after riding him in work recently, O\u2019Neill was asked whether the gelding could become a realistic contender for the Gold Cup in March.\n\u201cI definitely think he is, I think he\u2019s the best horse I\u2019ve trained, but unfortunately he has had a few problems,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully, he\u2019s on the up. I would just have in the back of my mind that he\u2019d always have a little doubt getting the trip in the Gold Cup because he\u2019s got a lot of pace. He\u2019s really special.\u201d\nJoining More Of That in the field would be stablemate Taquin Du Seuil, also a former Festival winner, who \u201cdid everything you could ask\u201d when shaping nicely on a pipe-opener at Chepstow.\nCheltenham\u2019s clerk of the course, Simon Claisse, reports that more rain is forecast over the next five days than they have received during the past two months. \u201cWe could get two bouts of 9-10mm Tuesday night and Friday night,\u201d he said. \u201cCome Saturday, we might end up good to soft.\u201d\nA deluge is required to save Friday\u2019s cross-country race. A decision will be made tomorrow whether to replace it with a handicap.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "More Of That could be a fascinating contender in Saturday’", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/racing/2016/11/07/jonjo-oneill-talks-up-more-of-that-for-cheltenham-glory/", "title": "Jonjo O'Neill talks up More Of That for Cheltenham glory"}, "63": {"text": "With 29 skippers from 10 different countries, this year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Globe boasts the healthiest mix of nationalities we have ever seen in sailing\u2019s greatest single-handed race. Sadly, however - and for the first time in five editions - there were no female sailors departing from Les Sables d\u2019Olonne on Sunday morning.\nIt is a huge shame. You think about some of the famous women who have competed in past editions; Isabelle Autissier, Catherine Chabaud, Sam Davies. Most of all Ellen Macarthur, of course, who as a 24 year-old finished second back in 2001, still the best ever result by a British sailor in the Vend\u00e9e Globe and one that made her a household name on both sides of the Channel, earning her the nickname \u2018la petite anglaise'.\nSo why are there no female sailors in this race?\nRest assured it has nothing to do with the physical nature of the event. In my opinion, the appetite is there, but timing plays an important role. Many of those who might have considered entering were part of Team SCA, the first all-female Volvo Ocean Race Team in over a decade. There simply wasn\u2019t the time to put a challenge together after last year's Volvo Ocean Race.\nI am, though, confident we will see plenty of women in the next edition. There were five female sailors in this year\u2019s La Solitaire du Figaro, which is seen as the feeder series to the Vend\u00e9e Globe. I think at least three of them could enter in 2020, and I know there are others who would love another crack, including me. Who knows what the future may hold.\nIt actually feels odd for this Vend\u00e9e Globe not to feature any women because in many ways female sailing is riding the crest of a wave at the moment. The new CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, Mark Turner, has introduced bold new rules incentivising teams to sail mixed, while as well as Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race we recently saw the first all-female team compete in the Extreme Sailing Series.\nAll this is happening at a time when UKSA, the Cowes-based charity, has moved to address a gender imbalance in the sport which sees fewer women taking up its courses than men and still fewer going on to work in the industry.\nThe Women into Sailing careers initiative was launched during Cowes Week this year and I was delighted to play a part. As a proud UKSA ambassador, and a graduate of one of the its professional training courses, I look forward to seeing the next generation of female sailors coming through.\nThis is a key moment. Women\u2019s sport is taking off and we do not want sailing to be left behind.\n\u00a0\nDee Caffari finished\u00a0sixth in the 2008-2009 Vendee Globe becoming in the process the first woman to sail solo, non-stop, around the world in both directions.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "With 29 skippers from 10 different countries, this year’", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2016/11/07/lack-of-female-skippers-in-this-years-vendee-globe-a-shame-but-w/", "title": "Lack of female skippers in this year's Vendee Globe a shame but women's sailing is thriving\u00a0"}, "64": {"text": "We\u2019ve all been there: a hastily typed-out email has been sent to the wrong person, or worse, hit by an embarrassing spelling mistake thanks to your iPhone's\u00a0over-enthusiastic autocorrect function.\nBut Gmail\u00a0has added a new feature that will spare\u00a0your blushes. An update to the email service\u2019s iOS app now lets you undo emails you have sent erroneously.\nThe new feature comes as part of the biggest redesign of the Gmail iPhone app in four years that makes it look similar to the version for Android as well as adding a few new features.\nGoogle added the undo send feature to its email service for the web last year as well as for Android, but it has long been one of the most-needed features on the iOS version.\nWhen you send an email, a black bar will appear at\u00a0the bottom of the screen giving you the chance to undo it for five seconds. During this time, the app is essentially holding the email in quarantine until the five seconds expires, at which point it will actually be sent.\nIf you undo, you\u2019ll be taken back to the email compose screen at which point you can make any necessary tweaks to the email. The feature works whether or not you have \u201cundo send\u201d activated on the web version of Gmail.\nGmail has also vastly improved the search function, making it quicker and adding search suggestions. You can also swipe right or left on emails to archive them.\nUndo send has been a feature in other email apps such as Spark and Google's own Inbox for some time.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "We’", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/07/the-gmail-app-finally-lets-you-unsend-embarrassing-emails/", "title": "The Gmail app finally lets you unsend embarrassing emails"}, "65": {"text": "Facebook has admitted that until now its Messenger chat bots have been somewhat rudimentary.\nThe company, which launched chat bots for Messenger back in April, purposefully prevented users from discovering businesses within the app because the technology wasn\u2019t ready, a top executive has said.\n\u201cThe first websites were really bad, the first apps were terrible. And the first bots weren\u2019t great either,\u201d David Marcus, vice president of Facebook Messenger, told the Telegraph at technology conference Web Summit.\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to encourage a lot of discovery inside Messenger for experiences that weren\u2019t that good in the early days.\u00a0But now that has changed we\u2019re providing more discoverability.\u201d\nSix months after it launched chat bots, Facebook is adding a new feature that will make it easy for users to engage with businesses in Messenger. From today, when users click on an advert in their News Feed it could open a conversation in Messenger with the company. \u00a0\n\u201cCompanies and developers can buy adverts in the News Feed that will get them a lot of traffic in Messenger,\u201d said Marcus.\nFacebook said that early uses of chat bots, by companies including the airline KLM and drinks makers Absolut, have proven successful. KLM, for example, has a bot that can provide customers with their travel itineraries and boarding passes within Messenger, as well as help them reschedule flights.\nFacebook, which said \u201cmillions of conversations\u201d occur between businesses and customers every day, expects there to be a dramatic uptick in the number of helpful bots on its platform.\u00a0\u201cGradually the flywheel is starting to work on our behalf,\u201d said Marcus.\nThere are currently 34,000 developers working on bots for Messenger.\nFacebook's Messenger is head-to-head in a fight with Apple\u2019s iMessage, Google\u2019s Allo, Microsoft\u2019s Skype, and its own WhatsApp to be the most useful chat app.\nThe billion-user social network will be hoping that third party bots can distinguish Messenger from the other apps, of which iMessage now has apps, Skype has bots, and Duo has the intelligent Assistant.\nWhile Facebook is going to encourage users and businesses to contact one another on Messenger, it won\u2019t be launching its own intelligent assistant M for a while.\n\u201cWe want to make sure that it\u2019s meaningful and useful to people,\u201d said Marcus. \u201cIt\u2019s still a work in progress.\u201d\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Facebook has admitted that until now its Messenger chat bots have been somewhat rudimentary.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/08/facebook-messenger-boss-admits-bots-are-a-work-in-progress/", "title": "Facebook Messenger boss admits bots are a work in progress"}, "66": {"text": "Artificial intelligence is the key to the future of online retail, business bosses have said, providing a crucial way to help shoppers find what they want.\nAlex Baldock, chief executive of Shop Direct, which runs very.co.uk and Littlewoods, told the Telegraph Festival of Business in London that artificial intelligence was the company\u2019s \u201cbig bet\u201d.\n\u201cYou have three seconds to seize the shopper\u2019s attention - it\u2019s called thumb stopping, the three-second audition,\u201d Mr Baldock said. \"That\u2019s where personalisation comes in.\u201d Shop Direct is owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, proprietors of Telegraph Media Group, the publisher of the Daily Telegraph.\nMr Baldock was joined on a panel discussing the role of technology in business by Adrian Blair, the chief operating officer\u00a0of Just Eat, the food delivery website.\nBoth Mr Baldock and Mr Blair affirmed that all their online growth was now coming from mobile:\u00a0Just Eat, for example, currently takes 80pc of its orders on mobile devices.\nThe delivery company also uses chatbots and artificial intelligence for restaurant recommendations, and customers can now order food using an Amazon Echo, a voice command device produced by the US tech giant.\n\u201cWhen I was a student I would have dreamed of that,\u201d Mr Blair said. \u201cThrough technology we have made it unbelievably simple to order food, and have cut out the payment step. Those sorts of things point the way to the future, making things unbelievably easier for the customer, and more efficient for the provider.\u201d\nJust Eat is also trialing land-based drone deliveries, which would deliver food to the customer by road. The consumer would then input a code to remove their food from the drone, which Mr Blair described as having a \u201crectangular R2D2 face\u201d.\nFacing threats from Deliveroo and Uber Eats, Mr Blair said that unlike his competitors, Just Eat\u2019s restaurants employ their own drivers, and so avoid the legal issues that have plagued rivals.\n\u201cThat makes the economics of our business look very attractive,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are able to operate at a scale others would struggle to match because of our model.\u201d\nAlso on the panel was Dr David Landsman, executive director of industrial conglomerate Tata. He said that automated manufacture was used throughout the company, from creating teabags to steel and cars.\n\u201cOnce you can bring in the five digital forces - cloud computing, big data, social media, artificial intelligence, mobile - you can start looking at whole process and virtualise the whole factory, and work out what\u2019s going to happen before it does,\u201d he said.\nJenny Knott, chief executive of Icap\u2019s Post Trade Risk and Information division, also argued the AI had a role to play in the future of financial services - particularly alongside blockchain, a type of digital ledger that can speed up secure transactions.\nMs Knott said blockchain was an immutable, \u201cgolden version of whatever you are keeping a record of\u201d. She tipped big things from \u201cblockchain with a brain\u201d - partnering the technology with artificial intelligence and big data.\n\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly empowering in creating transparency,\u201d Ms Knott said. \u201cIt will be very powerful in affecting how we operate.\u201d\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Artificial intelligence is the key to the future of online retail, business bosses have said, providing a crucial way to help shoppers find what they want.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/08/artificial-intelligence-the-next-big-bet-for-online-retailers-sa/", "title": "Artificial intelligence the next \u2018big bet\u2019 for online retailers, say bosses"}, "67": {"text": "Facebook has unveiled its 10 year plan to become more than just a social network, which includes developing social uses for artificial intelligence and virtual reality, as well as launching satellites and drones that can beam internet to earth.\nAs part of its mission to\u00a0\u201cconnect the world\u201d, the social media giant is working on a standalone VR headset and an AI picture-editing tool that will let users add\u00a0\u201cintelligent\u201d\u00a0filters to videos as they film.\nIts plan also includes bringing internet access to an extra 4 billion people around the world using its\u00a0solar-powered, unmanned Aquila drone\u00a0and a\u00a0satellite that can beam high-speed internet to far-flung regions.\n\u201cFacebook\u2019s mission is to make the world more open and connected,\u201d\u00a0said Mike Schroepfer, Facebook\u2019s chief technology officer, outlining the plan at the annual Web Summit conference.\nThe\u00a0\u201cmost important problems we\u2019re trying to solve for the future\u201d\u00a0are bolstering internet access, building\u00a0\u201ctruly intelligent machines\u201d\u00a0and creating VR for\u00a0\u201cthat lets us experience anything with anyone at any time\u201d, he said.\nSchroepfer\u00a0highlighted progress Facebook has made over the past year, including the Aquila drone\u2019s first flight, and the creation of an app that can add stylised filters to videos as they\u2019re filmed using AI. More recently, Facebook\u2019s AI achieved a breakthrough at the end of last week when it achieved 100 per cent on a picture recognition test written last year.\n\u201cBut by human standards we\u2019re still a way off intelligence,\u201d\u00a0Schroepfer\u00a0admitted.\u00a0\u201cOur existing AI systems are pretty darn basic.\u201d\nSchroepfer said Facebook is also building a standalone VR headset that doesn\u2019t require a mobile phone or computer to power it.\u00a0\n\u201cIt has everything needed to work VR,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s this technology that we think will eventually bring VR to the masses.\u201d\nThe Facebook executive acknowledged the company has had some setbacks, including the loss of a satellite when Space X\u2019s unmanned rocket exploded on the launch pad back in September.\n\u201cYou don\u2019t make big bets without big failures,\u201d\u00a0said Schroepfer.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s a bummer that\u2019s going to set back our work in space for a little bit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Facebook has unveiled its 10 year plan to become more than just a social network, which includes developing social uses for artificial intelligence and virtual reality, as well as launching satellites and drones that can beam internet to earth.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/08/facebooks-10-year-plan-drones-satellites-and-virtual-reality/", "title": "Facebook's 10-year plan: Drones, satellites and virtual reality"}, "68": {"text": "Apple has added a discreet way to call the police or ambulance into its next iPhone update, which is\u00a0set to be released in the coming weeks.\nPressing the power button (the one that locks and unlocks the phone)\u00a0five times in a row will dial the emergency services number, as well as alerting a designated emergency contact and giving them their current location. The \u201cEmergency SOS\u201d feature can be turned off in the iPhone\u2019s settings.\u00a0\nWhile it could see some people dial emergency services by mistake, it will also be an inconspicuous way to phone in an emergency, or if the iPhone\u2019s touchscreen is broken.\nThe feature, spotted in Apple forums, will be included in iOS 10.2, and emerged in beta versions of the operating system for developers. It is likely to be released publicly towards the start of next month.\nWhen pressing the button on the side of the device five times, the iPhone will count down from three and then call the emergency service number in one of 14 countries, including the UK and US. The number in the UK is likely to be 112, the European standard for emergency services that renders the same result as dialling 999.\niPhone users can designate specific emergency contacts, who are sent an alert with location details when the feature is activated.\nEmergency SOS was added to the Apple Watch earlier this year.\u00a0To activate it, users holding down the side button and select\u00a0the feature to activate it, at which point the Watch will connect to an iPhone to call emergency services and alert emergency contacts. On the iPhone, emergency contacts can be\u00a0added in the Health app.\nThe feature is designed as a way for people to be able to discreetly alert emergency services as well as close contacts if they are in trouble.\nThe iPhone previously had a way to ring emergency services it via Siri with the command \u201ccharge my phone 100 per cent\u201d. The voice command was deactivated, possibly since the attention it received made it more obvious.\n\u00a0iOS 10.2 will also add 27 new emoji to the iPhone, a new TV app for watching shows across different platforms, and improve music controls in the Control Centre.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Apple has added a discreet way to call the police or ambulance into its next iPhone update, which is set to be released in the coming weeks.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/08/iphone-update-adds-a-hidden-way-to-call-the-police-in-an-emergen/", "title": "iPhone update adds a hidden way to call the police in an emergency"}, "69": {"text": "US drugs giant Pfizer will shut two of its three manufacturing plants in the UK in the next four years, putting 370 jobs at risk.\nThe Park Royal site in London, which Pfizer\u00a0inherited when it acquired Hospira in September, is earmarked for closure by May 2017, leaving 100 employees\u00a0out of a job. The site takes liquid medicines and puts them into dosed vials, which are then sold to hospitals.\nPfizer's global cold chain packaging and distribution site in Havant, in Portsmouth will shut by the end of 2020, with 270 job losses.\nThe global packaging site will be consolidated in Puurs, in Belgium,\u00a0where there are\u00a0better production capabilities to\u00a0support\u00a0the\u00a0product pipeline, a spokesman for Pfizer said.\n\"These decisions have nothing to do with Brexit,\" the spokesman said. \"This review process has been going on since 2010 and the team just felt there were more production\u00a0capabilities at the site in Belgium to support future demand and\u00a0to ensure we can support the supply chain.\"\nShe said consolidating operations at Puurs would help Pfizer\u00a0leverage scale at the Puurs site, consolidate cold chain operations, and allows for greater network flexibility.\nPark Royal, on the other hand,\u00a0is an \"aging facility which will require significant investment in the near future and\u00a0the lease was up\".\nPfizer will retain a manufacturing site similar to that of Park Royal in south London, where some capacity will move.\nPfizer has long been a critic of the way drugs are reimbursed for use on the NHS, complaining that breakthrough medications take too long to reach UK patients or are often not paid for at all, because the cost is too high.\n\"The UK\u00a0has a tricky commercial environment and doesn't always link life sciences investment to the way patients use medicines, but this decision is not linked to Brexit or medicines access,\" a spokesman said.\nPfizer said in a statement that the\u00a0proposed decision to exit the\u00a0sites was not a reflection of the \"excellent work performed by our colleagues\".\n\"Our priority at this time is to support affected colleagues and where possible to mitigate against job losses resulting from these proposals,\" the company said.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "US drugs giant Pfizer will shut two of its three manufacturing plants in the UK in the next four years, putting 370 jobs at risk.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/08/pfizer-to-close-two-manufacturing-sites-in-uk-with-370-job-losse/", "title": "Pfizer to close two manufacturing sites in UK with 370 job losses"}, "70": {"text": "Cloudy conditions hampered the efforts of many UK sky-gazers to see the supermoon as the natural satellite came closer to Earth than it has in decades.\nHopes for a clear view of the moon, appearing 14 per cent bigger and up to 30 per cent brighter than usual, were dashed in most parts.\nThe event, described as \"undeniably beautiful\" by American space agency Nasa, will not be matched until the moon makes a similar approach in 2034.\nAberdeenshire in Scotland and north-eastern parts of Wales had the clearest conditions for an unobstructed view on Monday November 14, Simon Partridge of the Met Office said.\nThere is hope for those who missed the moon on Monday, with clearer skies forecast for areas north of the M4 on Tuesday, November 15.\nDr Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: \"It's been a cloudy night for most of the UK and even a supermoon can't get through thick clouds.\n\"Tuesday's moon will be almost as large and bright as Monday's, so we still have a chance to enjoy the sight if the weather obliges.\"\nThe Met Office said visibility should be better on Tuesday for areas from Luton and Bristol northwards, although viewers will not see a full moon.\nOn Monday, the gap between the Earth and the moon closed to its shortest point, known as the perigee - a distance of 221,525 miles. The last time the moon was this close to the Earth was in 1948.\nThe reason the distance varies is the moon's slightly elliptical orbit. On average, it is 238,900 miles from the Earth, but at the perigee it is about five per cent closer. At its furthest orbital point from the Earth, the apogee, it is five per cent more distant.\nPerigee and apogee distances vary from month to month due to several factors, such as whether the long axis of the lunar orbit is pointed towards the sun.\nMonday's event was billed as the biggest and best in a series of three supermoons. \u00a0The first was on October 16 and the third is due on December 14.\nAfter that, the event will not be matched until the moon makes a similar approach in 2034.\nYou can view other supermoon pictures in our gallery here.\nEver looked\u00a0up at the night sky to see a full\u00a0moon so close you could almost touch it? Well done, you've spotted a\u00a0supermoon.\u00a0\nThe impressive sight\u00a0happens\u00a0when a full moon\u00a0is closest to Earth. It orbits our planet in an oval shape so sometimes it comes closer to us than at other times.\u00a0To us Earth-lings,\u00a0the moon appears\u00a030 per cent brighter and 14 per cent bigger.\u00a0\nBy the way, supermoon is not an astrological term. It's scientific\u00a0name is perigee-syzygy, but supermoon is more catchy, and is used by the media to describe our celestial neighbour when it gets up close.\nAstrologer\u00a0Richard Nolle first\u00a0came up with the term and he defined it as \"\u2026 a new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90 per cent\u00a0of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit\", according to earthsky.org.\nRobin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: \"It will be above rooftops and trees and chimneys and always appears bigger that way because you're comparing it to foreground objects.\n\"I'm always pleased\u00a0for people to get their binoculars out and look up at the craters and the seas.\"\nAs well as being closer and brighter, the moon will look orange and red when it first rises.\u00a0As the moon gets higher in the sky, it returns to its normal white/yellow\u00a0colour.\u00a0\nThey're fairly frequent, although November's supermoon will be a once-in-a-generation sight.\u00a0There\u00a0are\u00a0six supermoons in 2016. We've already had four, and after next week\u00a0there's one on December 14. \u00a0\nEach\u00a0full moon of the year is given a name - although they vary according to the source. October's full moon is\u00a0referred to as the Hunter's moon because it\u00a0appears\u00a0very soon after sunset, and traditionally generated\u00a0more light for farmers working in the fields and hunters to spot wildlife.\u00a0\nIt might look close, but of course it's not that close.\u00a0November 14's\u00a0full moon will be the closest for 70 years.\u00a0The moon will come 221,524 miles from Earth -\u00a0almost touching distance in space terms.\u00a0\nThe closest full moon of the whole of the\u00a021st century will fall on December 6, 2052.\nPossibly, yes. Most people know that tides are governed by the gravitational pull of the moon and, to a lesser extent, the sun. Because the sun and moon go through different alignments, this affects the size of the tides.\nWhen the moon is closer to Earth, it\u00a0can lead to slightly higher tides, and greater variations between the tides.\nFull moon:\u00a0We all know what these are. They come around every month and light up the night at night.\nHarvest moon: The\u00a0full moon closest to the autumn equinox.\nBlack moon:\u00a0Most experts agree that this\u00a0refers to the second new moon in a calendar month.\u00a0The last black moon was at the start of October 2016 and the\u00a0next one\u00a0is expected in 2019.\nBlue moon:\u00a0A phenomenon that occurs when there is a second full moon in one calendar month.\u00a0Joe Rao\u00a0from space.com\u00a0explains: \"A second full moon in a single calendar month is sometimes called a blue moon. A black moon is supposedly the flip side of a blue moon; the second new moon in a single calendar month.\"\nThe infrequent nature of this lunar event led to the phrase \"once in a blue moon\" to signify a rare occurrence. It does not actually mean the moon will be blue.\nBlood moon: Also known as a\u00a0supermoon lunar eclipse. It's\u00a0when\u00a0the shadow of Earth casts a reddish glow on the moon, the result of a\u00a0rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year. \u00a0There was one in September 2015, and before that in 1982\u00a0but the next one won't be until 2033.\u00a0\nStrawberry moon: A rare event when there's a full moon on the same day as the summer solstice. It happened in June 2016 for the first time since 1967 when\u00a017 hours of sunlight gave way to a bright moonlit sky.\nDespite the name, the moon does appear pink or red. The romantic label was coined by the Algonquin tribes of North America who believed June\u2019s full moon signalled the beginning of the strawberry picking season.\nAside from mythical meanings and unfounded alarmist proclamations, any full moon - never mind a supermoon as big as this \u00a0- has long been seen as having the ability to trigger emotional reactions and extreme behaviour.\nAnd while it may be easy to scoff, these theories have been given added credence in recent years by claims that there is a spike in admissions to hospitals when the moon is full, and by police forces reporting a rise in crime.\nJust last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that nearly all the staff in a hospital in Connecticut were convinced that a full moon ensured they had a busy night ahead of them.\nMeanwhile, a study published in the World Journal of Surgery in 2011 found that more than 40 per cent of medical staff believed lunar phases had an impact on human behaviour and, in 2007, Sussex Police announced that they would put extra officers on patrol on nights when the moon was full, following research that showed \u201ca correlation between violent incidents and full moons\u201d.\nOne theory is that the water in our bodies is affected by the movement of the moon in much the same way as its gravitational pull controls the tides. As the fluid in our body shifts, it tips the balance in our minds, which can trigger extreme emotions.\nThe \u201clunar effect\u201d, though, has been rubbished by a series of studies which have found no statistical correlation between lunar phases and events such as births, deaths, suicides, violence and psychiatric hospital admissions. However, says Dr Niall McCrae, a lecturer in mental health at King\u2019s College London and the author of 'The Moon and Madness\u2019, we should not dismiss the moon\u2019s effect so swiftly.\nAlthough he agrees the idea that our internal waters have some sort of tidal motion is \u201cunfounded\u201d, Dr McCrae points to studies that have shown the impact of moonlight on sleep as a feasible demonstration of the moon\u2019s effect on the brain. Swiss researchers found in 2013 that, on average, people slept for 20 minutes less when there was a full moon. It may not sound like much, but such differences might well be the reason for the centuries-old association of lunacy with lunar cycles.\nThe moon\u00a0is the Earth's only natural satellite. It's 4.6 billion years old and was formed between 30-50 million years after the solar system was formed.\u00a0\nThe moon is smaller than Earth.\u00a0It's about the same size as Pluto. In fact its\u00a0surface area is actually less than the surface\u00a0area of Asia - about 14.6 million square miles, according to space.com.\nA\u00a0new moon occurs every 29.5 days. The moon 'disappears' from the sky when it is between Earth and the sun\u00a0with it\u2019s illuminated side facing away from us.\nWhen the moon is opposite the sun we see a full moon as it's fully lit up by the sun. In between, we see a crescent moon as only some reflected sunlight is seen.\u00a0\nThe moon has earthquakes, caused by the gravitational pull of Earth. Experts believe the moon has a molten core, just like Earth.\u00a0\nOnly 12 people have ever walked on the moon and they were all American men, including (most famously) Neil Armstrong who was the first in 1969 on the Apollo II mission.\u00a0\nThe last time mankind sent someone to the moon was in 1972 when\u00a0Gene Cernan visited on the Apollo 17 mission.\nAlthough\u00a0Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon,\u00a0Buzz Aldrin was the first man to urinate there. While millions watched the moon landing on live television, Aldrin was forced to go in a\u00a0tube fitted inside his space suit.\nWhen the\u00a0astronauts took off their helmets after their moonwalk, they noticed a strong smell, which Armstrong described as \u201cwet ashes in a fireplace\u201d and Aldrin as \u201cspent gunpowder\u201d. It was the smell of moon-dust brought in on their boots.\nThe mineral, armalcolite, discovered during the first moon landing and later found at various locations on Earth, was named after the three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil ARMstrong, Buzz ALdrin and Michael COLlins.\nAn estimated 600 million people watched the Apollo 11 landing live on television, a world record until 750 million people watched the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.\nOne of President Nixon\u2019s speechwriters had prepared an address entitled: \u201cIn Event of Moon Disaster\u201d. It began: \u201cFate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace.\u201d If the launch from the Moon had failed, Houston was to close down communications and leave Armstrong and Aldrin to their death.\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Cloudy conditions hampered the efforts of many UK sky-gazers to see the supermoon as the natural satellite came closer to Earth than it has in decades.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": null, "title": "What is a supermoon and when can I see the next one after clouds hampered view for many sky-gazers?"}, "71": {"text": "Primark could benefit from a UK outside of the EU if the\u00a0Government were\u00a0able to negotiate tariff-free trade deals with countries such as Sri Lanka, which is a big manufacturer of clothing, its boss has said.\nGeorge Weston, chief executive of Associated British Foods, the FTSE\u00a0100 food and retail giant that owns Primark, said the referendum result had thrown up a number of mixed opportunities and threats.\nFor Primark, he said it would be beneficial if\u00a0certain tariffs imposed on clothes imported from Sri Lanka -\u00a0on which the EU currently levies an 11pc import charge -\u00a0were axed.\u00a0In other places, such as Bangladesh, he said retaining tariff-free imports would be welcome.\n\u201cThe EU has chosen to support manufacturing industries in some countries but not others,\u201d he said.\nThe devaluation of sterling will hit\u00a0Primark\u2019s UK sales next year because it sources its goods in dollars. The retailer will not, however,\u00a0pass this on to consumers,\u00a0and will instead take a significant margin hit, which will affect profits.\nMr Weston\u00a0said the company\u2019s food supply chains were\u00a0short and did not involve crossing euro-sterling boundaries.\nMoreover, the devaluation of the pound should help ABF\u2019s manufacturing business, such as sugar and muesli, allowing it to replace cheap imported goods with its own products and to build export markets.\nMr Weston's comments came as\u00a0ABF reported full-year results that beat analyst expectations, thanks largely to favourable exchange rate movements, which boosted sales.\nGroup revenues\u00a0rose 5pc to \u00a313.4bn\u00a0in the year to\u00a0September 17,\u00a0while pre-tax profit\u00a0soared 47pc to \u00a31.04bn.\nThe\u00a0huge jump in earnings was down to a\u00a0favourable comparison with the year before, when ABF was hit by a number of\u00a0exceptional costs and other one-off charges. Stripping these out, adjusted profits rose\u00a05pc.\nPrimark\u2019s sales climbed 11pc, as it opened 22 stores in the year,\u00a0although like-for-like sales, which exclude store openings and closures, fell, in what Mr Weston called a market that was \u201cdown everywhere\u201d.\nFast-selling items last year included bomber jackets, while this autumn\u00a0denim jackets, coloured skinny jeans and striped dresses are de rigeur.\nThe plan is to open a further 25 Primark stores next year in the UK, Europe and three in the north east of the US.\n\u201cSome of the lessons we learned in the first year of trading in the US we can\u00a0implement next year,\u201d Mr Weston said. \u201cWe are doing really well, but we are much less known in the US.\u201d\nUS consumers, he said, had different tastes in terms of colour patterns and there were more small and large sizes to cater for.\n\u201cFlip flops sell fantastically well in the states, we learned that,\u201d he said. \u201cBoard shorts have to cover your knees and boxer shorts must be blue or black or white, rather than patterned.\u201d\nOn the sugar side, higher prices last year helped the business perform well and marked \"something of a turning point\", according to ABF chairman Charles\u00a0Sinclair.\n\u201cThe profit decline of recent years has been arrested as EU and word sugar prices turned upwards,\u201d he said. ABF\u2019s programme of cost-cutting also boosted margins, which fed through to increased profitability in sugar.\nNext year, the divison's\u00a0performance should be even sweeter as it feels the full impact of higher pricing and takes advantage of the end of EU\u00a0sugar quotas 2017, which will allow it to boost production.\nAnalysts at Liberum said: \"Despite short-term concerns,\u00a0ABF\u2019s long-term fundamentals appear robust and we retain our conviction that Primark and sugar will power mid-term profit growth.\"\u00a0\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Primark could benefit from a UK outside of the EU if the Government were able to negotiate tariff-free trade deals with countries such as Sri Lanka, which is a big manufacturer of clothing, its boss has said.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/08/abf-shares-jump-on-unexpectedly-sweet-profits/", "title": "Primark owner ABF sees bright side from Brexit but warns sterling fall could hit margins"}, "72": {"text": "Avant Homes, a privately-owned house builder, has reported a 43pc boost in revenues as the chief executive demanded the Chancellor\u00a0use the Autumn Statement to help the whole UK housing market, not just the South-east.\u00a0\nRevenues stood at\u00a0\u00a3160m for\u00a0the six months to October 31, and operating profit is believed to have increased by over 75pc\u00a0to around \u00a316m in the same period.\nAvant builds high-end family homes in the north of England, Scotland, and the Midlands. The average asking price of one of its homes is \u00a3246,000, which has increased 16pc in the last six months. This is above the median value of a home in the UK.\nThe group reported a record number of sales in this six-month period, and said there was \"no discernible\u00a0impact\" flowing from the EU referendum result on the company, with its strongest selling months in\u00a0August and September.\nIts focus away from the volatile development markets of London and the South-east means that it sells largely to families, or second-time buyers, who need to move into a bigger home, and are less swayed by political uncertainty.\nColin Lewis, the chief executive, urged Philip Hammond, the Chancellor,\u00a0to focus on housing policy and infrastructure, such as high-speed rail and better motorways,\u00a0across the country when he presents his first Autumn Statement on November\u00a023.\u00a0\nHe said: \u201cDespite this strong trading, continuing macroeconomic uncertainty remains and I would therefore urge the Government to utilise the forthcoming Autumn Statement to set out its plans to support the UK housing market.\n\u201cThese plans must acknowledge the multifaceted natured of the UK housing market with a view to supporting the entire UK industry, not just those developers who operate in the South-east.\u201d\nAvant\u00a0completed 721 homes in the six months to October, but\u00a0has an internal target of building 2,000 homes per year.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Avant Homes, a privately-owned house builder, has reported a 43pc boost in revenues as the chief executive demanded the Chancellor use the Autumn Statement to help the whole UK housing market, not just the South-east.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/02/avant-homes-reports-soaring-revenues-as-it-demands-government-he/", "title": "Avant Homes reports soaring revenues as it demands Government helps housing markets across the UK\u00a0"}, "73": {"text": "Cala Homes, the UK\u2019s largest private house builder, has been approached by a Chinese company over preliminary takeover talks.\nCala, which is owned by Legal & General and Patron Capital, builds large, high-end homes across the country, in affluent areas in the Midlands, Scotland, and around the M25, in what chief executive Alan Brown described as \u201cWaitrose-type markets\u201d. Its average selling price is \u00a3538,000, far higher than the UK average of \u00a3202,389.\nSky News reported that China's largest developer, Vanke Group, has been ruled out as\u00a0the mystery Chinese company\u00a0which is being advised on the deal by KPMG. Meanwhile L&G and Patron have employed investment bank Lazard to advise them.\nA spokesman for Cala said: \"Thanks to the quality of our brand and strong financial and trading performance, from time to time we may find ourselves the subject of speculation but from our perspective it is very much business as usual.\"\nEarlier this month, it reported a jump in pre-tax profits by 18pc to \u00a360.1m, with revenue up 15pc to \u00a3587.1m. Mr Brown said that while the company eyed up an IPO in 2014, it was not planning to do so in the near future but was focused on reaching a revenue target of \u00a31bn.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Cala Homes, the UK’s largest private house builder, has been approached by a Chinese company over preliminary takeover talks.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/28/chinese-investor-eyes-up-high-end-house-builder-cala-homes-for-t/", "title": "Chinese investor eyes up high-end house builder Cala Homes for takeover"}, "74": {"text": "DCC, the support services group, has bought Hammer, a Basingstoke-based data storage company, for \u00a338.3m.\nA recent entrant to the FTSE 100, DCC\u00a0distributes products in the oil, electronics and healthcare sectors and also operates in waste management.\nThe\u00a0Dublin-based company\u00a0said Hammer's business was complementary to its existing server and storage business, and that the deal \u2013 which is subject to competition clearance from the European Commission \u2013 should be competed by the end of December.\nHammer distributes server and storage products for a broad range of suppliers including Dell, Intel, NetApp, Seagate and Western Digital, and sells to\u00a0resellers, cloud service providers and system integrators from sales offices in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Holland and Belgium.\nDCC\u00a0has agreed to acquire 100pc of the issued share capital of Hammer based on an initial enterprise value of \u00a338.3m, and will pay in cash.\nAn initial payment, made on the deal's completion, will be followed by further payment based on Hammer's future trading results.\nIn its financial year ended 31 January 2016, Hammer, which employs 165 people,\u00a0made an operating profit of \u00a36.3m\u00a0on revenue of \u00a3155m.\nDCC can also boast good recent results, partly off the back of previous acquisitions.\u00a0The company's\u00a0operating profit rose to \u00a3300.5m for the year ending March 31, from \u00a3221.7m last time round.\u00a0\nLast year DCC bought French gas company Butagaz from Shell for \u20ac464m, and snapped up Esso\u2019s unmanned petrol station business in France for \u20ac106m.\nTommy Breen, DCC's chief executive, said:\u00a0\"The acquisition of Hammer will significantly strengthen the product and service capability offered by Exertis to its reseller customers.\n\"In addition, Hammer's expertise will better enable us to take advantage of positive industry trends, including growth in cloud datacentres and demand for big data analytics.\"\nJefferies reiterated their advice to invest in DCC.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "DCC, the support services group, has bought Hammer, a Basingstoke-based data storage company, for £38.", "site": "dailytelegraph", "url": "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/14/dcc-buys-tech-storage-distributor-hammer-in-383m-deal/", "title": "DCC buys tech storage distributor Hammer"}, "75": {"text": " Clinton is expected to get 332 electoral votes, while Trump is predicted to get just 206, according to the Moody's Analytics model, which is based on three economic and three political factors. \n Overall, the U.S. is growing and that favors Clinton. Most Americans can feel their pocketbooks getting better. Moody's predicts key swing states -- Florida, Ohio, Colorado and Pennsylvania -- all going blue this year. \n But here's what really tips the model heavily toward Clinton: Cheap gas and President Obama's high approval rating. \n \"Even those who don't have a car typically pass a gas station and see prices dropping or falling of a daily basis,\" writes Dan White, a senior economist at Moody's, who worked on the model for the 2016 election. \n Gas prices are down, while American incomes and home prices have been rising. At the end of the day, that means a lot of people are better off than they were a few years ago. \n The other deciding factor this year is President Obama. Many see Clinton as an extension of President Obama's policies. Right now, that's a good thing. His approval rating has surged this year to 55%. \n \"Historically, no incumbent president since Ronald Reagan in 1988 has had a surge anywhere close to [Obama's] magnitude in their eighth year in office,\" notes White. \n The economy and Obama's rising popularity are likely to make the difference to those coveted few undecided voters, according to the Moody's model. \n \n The economic factors in the Moody's model are: Two-year change in real household income, real home price growth and gas prices. The political factors are the two-year change in the president's approval rating, political fatigue (some states have a tendency to switch party votes every few yeas), and how Democratic-leaning a state is. \n There's just one red flag: This is not a normal election. \n The model doesn't account for personalities, only data. As Moody's notes, \"It is very possible that voters will react to changing economic and political conditions differently than they have in past election cycles.\" \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "A model that has correctly predicted the winner of every U.S. presidential race since Ronald Reagan in 1980 is forecasting a big victory for Hillary Clinton.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/01/news/economy/hillary-clinton-win-forecast-moodys-analytics/index.html", "title": "Moody's Analytics model predicts big Clinton win"}, "76": {"text": "From high fashion to thrift-store chic, military appropriations are ubiquitous. Luxury fashion houses have long borrowed elements of both ceremonial swagger and utilitarianism from the style sheet of military uniform. \nIn the 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent designed his famous pea coats, igniting a trend for exquisite military-inspired clothing and coats soon followed by designers including Dries Van Noten, Balmain and Givenchy, among many others. \nAccessories have also benefited from similar inspiration, evidenced by Tom Ford's aviator sunglasses and Louis Vuitton handbags and luggage. At the other end of the fashion scale, in the 1960s, hippies wore cargo pants and army jackets as political statements. \nNow camouflage prints are visible on anything from Nike athletic shoes to bandages and sticking plasters for children. The military influence even goes beyond clothes to interior design, seen in campaign chairs with leather straps and austere lines, to portable Hermes desks.\nThe genius of military design \nI remember my father's wardrobe in the spare room at home, where his army uniform hung neatly next to his crested blazer from Trinity College, Melbourne. This wardrobe was a constant fascination to me growing up for the way in which its contents represented power, intellect and sophistication. \nI noticed the nuances of clothing and how what we wear affects how we feel and behave. I also noticed how costumes functioned in movies -- how often, for example, the villains' frightening outfits were derived from extreme military looks, such as those of the SS or the Gestapo. \nI saw how rock musicians, from the Beatles to Duran Duran and beyond, referenced military clothing in their stage costumes and on their album covers.\nI once came across a photograph of Lord Albert Victor in full military regalia. The striking blue and the encrusted gold and silver used in the trimmings and sashes were strong and imperial. They were powerful evidence of the genius that underlay military design. Then I caught sight of myself in a mirror. \nFollowing men's fashion that year, I was dressed in fatigue cargo pants tucked into leather boots and a loden green sweater. My hair was slicked back as severely as if I had just stepped out of a plane after flying a bombing mission in World War II. \nI laughed at myself, of course, but the echoes between the photograph and my own clothes made me determined to explore further. Where does our fascination with military style come from and how far will we take it in the name of fashion? \nThis book looks at types of military style and how they have been absorbed into the mainstream of fashion. Each chapter reveals a different visual aspect of the military style vocabulary, celebrating its widespread appeal. In other words why, as the cultural critic Troy Patterson observed recently in The New York Times, 'half the people you see on the street are dressed to kill.'\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Once you begin to notice the extent to which military styles have influenced fashion, it's impossible to ignore it.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/fashion/military-style-invades-fashion/index.html", "title": "Does this glamorize war?"}, "77": {"text": "It's also one of the world's most mysterious. \nOnly a few thousand tourists enter the Democratic People's Republic of Korea each year. Visits are only granted through specific tour groups, itineraries are heavily planned by tour guides, and certain areas are strictly off limits, so everyday life in North Korea is often hidden from outsiders. \nBut when 25-year-old photographer Elaine Li made her first trip to the North Korea's capital in October, what struck her most was the sense of familiarity. \nBorn and raised in Hong Kong, Li is no stranger to city life. Her portfolio -- largely filled with images of skyscrapers, traffic jams and amusing commutes -- has built the young photographer a following of over 133,000 on Instagram. \nWhile schools, restaurants and city landmarks were all on her itinerary, it was a ride in the subway that felt closest to home. She spoke to CNN Style about the experience. \nCNN: What were your first impressions of the Pyongyang Metro? \nElaine Li: The first thing I noticed was that, although the stations are very dimly lit, the interiors are very fancy. You see chandeliers on the ceilings, marble pillars and paintings of Kim Jong Il. \nThe next thing I noticed was the newspaper stands that are on display across the platform itself -- you'll see people standing around and reading them. \nThis was all very interesting to me because, in cosmopolitan cities like Hong Kong, we are bombarded with advertising. In Pyongyang, they are bombarded with propaganda. \nWere you given any restrictions when photographing the subway?\nIn general I had no issues getting permission to take photographs on the trains or stations.\n The tour guides accompanied us for the whole commute, but on the platform we were free to roam around. \nAs for traveling on the train itself, we were only allowed to travel for a few stops, and only got off at certain stations. \nThe only restriction was that we were not allowed to take photographs from inside the tunnels, I am not sure why.\nWhat was it like on the trains? \nThe first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. It seemed so tame -- no one was saying anything -- and perhaps could even be described as a little lifeless. \nBut then I came back to the subway in Hong Kong and I realized ... people here lack communication as well. \nEven though the Hong Kong trains are louder and it seems more lively at first, the reality is that commuters here do not communicate. They are glued to their smartphones. In Pyongyang I did see some people on their smartphones, but far fewer.\nInstead they were looking around, seemed almost shy, but not really talking to each other either. I realized that, in a way, this commute was just like commutes in so many other Asian cities. \nDid you interact with any commuters? \nAt one point I almost missed my train because I was taking a picture of a female conductor while the rest of my tour group was on the train -- and the door slammed shut. \nThe conductor I was photographing then whistled to the train driver, indicating that he should open the door and let me on. \nAnother interaction was with an elderly man. I wanted to give him my seat so patted him on the shoulder, but at first he didn't understand. So another lady communicated to him that I wanted to give him my seat. \nThese interactions were definitely the most interesting parts of my journey. They were so small but felt so human. It reminded me that wherever we are, we all have these common human interests, such as taking care of our elderly. \nWhat has the response been to your photography? \nIt's been very heavily mixed. Some people say these images are eye opening, and show a side to the country that they don't usually get to see. Others ask why I would ever go to North Korea in the first place, then claim my images are propaganda and that I'm sponsored by North Korea. \nThe preconceptions that people have were really reflected on the comments I've received. But I just wanted to document what was in front of me, and share what I experienced as honestly as possible. \n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Buried 100 meters (328 feet) underground, the Pyongyang Metro is one of the deepest commuter systems in the world. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/06/design/north-korea-subway-commute/index.html", "title": "Ride the world's most mysterious commute"}, "78": {"text": " Yes, Trump's win was a surprise to many on Wall Street. \n And yes, the fact that Trump said a lot of controversial things while trying to get elected is a cause for concern. \n But it's worth noting that the market was mostly flat Wednesday morning. By way of comparison, major indexes fell about 2% four years ago after President Obama was re-elected. \n Global markets are also, for the most part, acting calmly. Japan's Nikkei, one of the first to open as the election results rolled in, did plunge 5%. But market losses in China and Europe were far more muted. \n So investors should take a deep breath, relax and put things in perspective. \n If any long-term investor panicked and sold after the Black Monday crash in 1987, they'd have missed out on \"yuge\" gains since then. \n Ditto for when stocks cratered in 2000 after the tech bubble imploded. \n And they also would have not participated in the big rally that has occurred since March 2009 -- just a few months after Lehman Brothers collapsed and it seemed that the financial word was ending. \n John Canally, chief economic strategist with LPL Financial, conceded the Trump win will mean more uncertainty until it becomes clear what he will try to do with regards to trade policies, government spending and future appointees for the Federal Reserve. \n But Canally stressed that long-term investors should not make any significant changes to their portfolio due to the election. \n \"Don't get your political views twisted with your economic and market views,\" Canally said. \"If Brexit was a 10 on the earthquake scale, this is a 5 or 6. If you remove the names, Republicans winning the White House and Congress is generally market friendly.\" \n Canally said the biggest worry for investors around the world should be just how antagonistic President Trump winds up being to trade partners like Mexico and China. \n \"Will Trump really rip up trade deals? That is a big concern and it could slow economic growth around the globe,\" he said. \n Canally noted that there could be plenty of potential economic positives from a Trump presidency, such as less regulation, tax cuts and increased infrastructure spending. \n And the worst-case scenario for investors has been avoided. This election is truly over. We don't have a repeat of 2000. \n \"The result is known, and that is great,\" Canally said. \n David Jilek, chief investment strategist at Gateway Investment Advisers, added that Trump's positive tone during his acceptance speech also may have helped to reassure investors. \n \"We have a robust enough economic system that any continued uncertainty surrounding this election can be tolerated. There is nothing long-term investors should really do differently now that Trump has won,\" Jilek said. \n \"Almost all markets have recovered from bigger sell-offs Tuesday night except Mexico,\" Jilek added, alluding to continued concerns about Trump's stance on immigration and his call to build a wall on the Mexican border of the United States. \n So it appears that many investors may be willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. He may not be as bombastic as Commander-in-Chief as he was as a candidate. \n Along those lines, Thomas Wilson, senior investment manager at Brinker Capital, said the reaction he was getting from clients Tuesday night as election returns were coming in was one of hope and not fear. People were looking for opportunities. \n \"This is interesting. All the texts and calls I got were about putting cash on the sidelines back to work,\" Wilson said. \n \"If Trump is pragmatic and can effectively work with Congress, then that should lead to better growth and higher stock prices,\" he added. \"But that is not a foregone conclusion though.\" \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Global markets recovered from bigger sell-offs Wednesday morning after Donald Trump was declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election and then gave a measured acceptance speech. U.S. stocks actually rose slightly at the open.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/investing/markets-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/index.html", "title": "Don't panic! Trump win may not be bad for stocks"}, "79": {"text": " Banks and ATMs all over India were closed on Wednesday, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shock decision a day earlier to withdraw 500 and 1,000 rupee notes \u2014 the country's two largest denominations \u2014 from circulation at midnight. \n Indians use cash for most transactions, and the measures were making it hard for them to conduct business or purchase everyday items. \n \"Everyone is facing a difficulty right now,\" said Pravin, an Uber driver. He was searching for a bank or store that would exchange his three 1,000 and four 500 rupee notes for smaller bills. \n \"If I don't get money, I won't work today,\" he said. \n \n The currency move is an attempt to combat corruption and recover \"black money,\" billions in illegal funds often stashed overseas by tax evaders. \n For now, it means an incredible 23 billion notes (more than 80% of those in circulation) are now just \"pieces of paper,\" as Modi put it during his speech Tuesday. They will either have to be deposited or exchanged. \n That will have to wait till banks reopen on Nov.10, which is when the Reserve Bank of India says it will roll out new higher security 500 and 2,000 rupee notes. The shutdown should allow banks to stock up on the new notes, although ATMs will only have them a day later. \n Many were confused by the announcement and the bank closure, even if they recognized Modi's decision could be good for the country. \n \"It's very difficult, I need to buy food for my kids,\" said Vijay Kumar, a security guard and father of three. \"I need to change these notes, but we don't know what to do. Not everyone has a TV in their homes.\" \n The news went down badly on India's financial markets, which also suffered from the global sell-off triggered by Donald Trump's surprise victory in the U.S. presidential election. The main SENSEX index fell more than 5%. \n Modi also faced criticism from P Chidambaram, the country's former finance minister and a member of the opposition Congress Party. In a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Chidambaram expressed \"support\" for the removal of black money, but questioned the effectiveness of the currency ban. \n \"Introduction of a new series of notes is estimated to cost between [$2.2 billion] and [$3 billion],\" he said. \"The economic gains should be equal to that amount.\" \n But Arun Jaitley, the current finance minister, downplayed that figure, calling it \"highly exaggerated.\" \n \"Once the entire currency is printed the cost would be known,\" he said. \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "The world's fastest growing economy woke up to a countrywide bank shutdown. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/news/economy/india-rupee-notes-bank-shutdown/index.html", "title": "India shuts banks as it prints new rupee notes"}, "80": {"text": "The series, \"Dancing with Costica,\" reinterprets a collection of black and white images by famed Romanian war photographer, Costic\u0103 Acsinte, whose photos Long stumbled upon in a Flickr archive.\nFascinated by the nameless subjects portrayed in his images, Long reimagines the photos by adding her own, colorful touches using software such as Lightroom and Photoshop. Long elaborates on her creative process in the gallery above, where the original and edited images appear side by side.\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Australian photographer and artist Jane Long often threads elements of fantasy into her works. But her latest series takes surrealism to a whole new level.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/31/arts/wartime-photos-transformed-into-ghostly-fantasies/index.html", "title": "Wartime photos transformed into ghostly fantasies"}, "81": {"text": " Voters in five states will decide Tuesday whether to legalize recreational marijuana, and a key argument for supporters is that it will bring in big tax revenue. \n In California, advocates say legal pot could generate $1 billion a year, with much of it going to substance abuse education and programs to prevent driving under the influence. \n Is that projection realistic? Other states that have approved non-medical marijuana offer some clues. \n Colorado is probably the best example. Voters approved recreational weed there in 2012, the earliest of any state that still has it. And, like California, it already had legal medical marijuana, so there was already a network of medical dispensaries and growers. \n Legal recreational weed went on sale in Colorado in 2014, and state economists had great expectations. Analysts projected that the first full fiscal year, through June 2015, would bring in $70 million in tax revenue. \n \"It was a brand new industry with new challenges, so any estimate was going to be educated guesswork,\" said Joe Henchman, vice president of state and legal affairs for the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group. \n But just a few months after legal sales began, tax flow was disappointing, and economists decided they had been too optimistic. So they lowered that estimate to $54.7 million. \n They should have waited. Sales picked up. Colorado wound up with $106 million in tax revenue from recreational weed from the first full fiscal year that it was legal. \n As it turns out, the market was just getting started. The next year, the state pulled in $163 million. \n \"It took a little bit longer for the market to fully establish itself than originally projected,\" said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. \n Colorado is off to an even stronger start in its current fiscal year, which began July 1. The state reported $17.6 million for July and $19 million for August, its two strongest months so far. \n Colorado charges a 10% sales tax on pot on top of its regular sales tax. Sellers cover a 15% excise tax, plus application and license fees. \n In California, $1 billion a year is the high end of the estimate from the state Legislative Analyst's Office. The low end is the high hundreds of millions. \n That forecast is written right into Proposition 64, the ballot item that voters will consider. It's based on cultivation taxes of $9.25 per ounce of buds and $2.75 per ounce of leaves, plus a 15% excise tax. \n A billion dollars may seem small compared with California's overall budget of $170 billion. But the revenue is earmarked for a slew of projects, including substance abuse prevention and treatment, cleanup of environmental damage from illegal pot growth, and programs to reduce drunken and stoned driving. \n \"I'm not trying to scoff at a billion dollars,\" said Adam Orens, co-founder of the Marijuana Policy Group. \"A lot can be done with it. Voters should take that into consideration.\" \n \n Recreational marijuana is also on the ballot in Massachusetts, Maine, Arizona and Nevada. \n It is already legal in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Two of those states, Washington and Oregon, have been selling legal weed long enough to provide reliable data. \n Washington collected $77 million in taxes during its first full fiscal year of recreational legalization, which ended on June 30, according to the Tax Foundation. The current year is projected to bring in at least $270 million in taxes. \n Voters were told that legalization would bring in as much as $1.9 billion over five years, said the Tax Foundation, with 40% going to the general fund and the rest going to substance abuse prevention, research education and health care. It remains to be seen whether tax revenue will match that forecast. \n Oregon started selling recreational marijuana in late 2015. In the most recent month available, January 2016, it collected about $3.5 million in tax revenue -- triple the expectation, according to the Tax Foundation. \n Four states -- Florida, Missouri, Arkansas and North Dakota -- are voting on whether to legalize medical marijuana, which is taxed, but not nearly so much as recreational pot. California brings in about $50 million in annual tax revenue from medical marijuana. \n --Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of Adam Orens, co-founder of the Marijuana Policy Group. \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "California is one of five states voting on legalization for recreational marijuana on Election Day. Economists are projecting $1 billion annual tax revenue. But is that just a pipe dream?", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/07/news/economy/california-marijuana-tax/index.html", "title": "Legalized marijuana votes: Tax jackpot or pipe dream?"}, "82": {"text": "Why? Nobody knows. Some of the more popular theories include madness, drinking problems, a gory fight with artist friend Paul Gauguin and a desire to be coddled by his mother. \nMore than a hundred years later, it is still the most debated event in the famed Dutch artist's life.\nBut a new book suggests another likely motive: He heard wedding bells.\nVan Gogh suffered a breakdown and cut off his ear after receiving a letter informing him that his brother Theo was getting married, says art expert Martin Bailey in his book,\"Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence.\"\n\"It was fear that pulled the trigger and led to the breakdown,\" Bailey told CNN in an interview. \"Fear of being abandoned in both an emotional and financial way.\"\nPutting the clues together\nSome historians have dismissed this theory, as they assume Van Gogh learned of his brother's engagement long after the ear episode. But Bailey disagrees.\n\"There are other more ridiculous theories out there. I look at the facts and the news of the wedding almost certainly reached him that day,\" he said. \n\"It's a matter of putting all the clues together. We don't have that letter, but in another one Van Gogh sends in January, he mentions receiving money from his brother on the 23rd of December.\"\nBailey believes the money had to come with the news that Theo and art dealer Jo Bonger were engaged.\n\"What has escaped the attention of Van Gogh scholars is that the fianc\u00e9e received a telegram of congratulations on 23 December from her older brother Henry,\" said Bailey. He added that Theo had written to his own mother two days earlier, and would want to share the news with his older brother to avoid him getting the information from others. \nVan Gogh and his brother were close, and the struggling artist relied on Theo for financial support. Van Gogh was likely despairing that Theo's marriage would harm their close relationship and that the pressures of supporting a growing family would leave Theo less money to give to his brother, Bailey said.\n\"At a deeper level, there may possibly have been an element of jealousy; Theo had succeeded in finding love, whereas Vincent had failed to sustain long-term relationships,\" wrote Bailey in the book.\nThe Van Gogh story everyone wants to hear\nBailey's book focuses on Van Gogh's stay in Arles, in the south of France, where he lived in a self-described \"Yellow House\" and became enchanted by bright colors.\n\"The sunny environment of the south opened his eyes to a new way to use light and colors. He had never been so dramatic and bold. It was a period of great creativity, and the first time he had his own home,\" Bailey said.\nBut it is the \"ear chapter,\" as some call it, that grabs casual readers' attention.\n\"It's the Van Gogh story everyone wants to know about. Writing about that period, I had to include it,\" Bailey told CNN. \"There was an enormous public interest, both now and back at the time, when newspapers wrote about the event.\" \nAfter cutting off his ear Van Gogh put on his beret and dragged himself to a nearby brothel to give the severed earlobe, wrapped in paper, to a young woman recently identified as Gabrielle Berlatier.\nAfter Berlatier fainted on the spot at the sight of the ear, Van Gogh fled -- and the ensuing chaos caused a stir in the local press.\nBailey writes that Van Gogh would describe the events as \"a simple artist's bout of craziness and then a lot of fever following a very considerable loss of blood, as an artery was severed.\" \nBut while the wound healed, the mutilated ear was a terrible disfigurement and became a constant reminder of what the painter had done. \n'Wedding was only the trigger'\nWhile news of the wedding was what pushed Van Gogh over the edge, Bailey told CNN it was not the sole catalyst.\n\"There is still a lot of debate around Van Gogh's medical problems, and there are thousands of papers in medical journals debating them. The wedding was only the trigger,\" the author said. \nWhile his own doctors believed the artist suffered from epilepsy, recent experts have suggested absinthe poisoning, alcoholism, bipolar disorder, and sunstroke among other factors. There is no consensus. \nSelf-mutilation might have well been the artist's plea for help. \nAn 1893 letter discussing Van Gogh's medical records states the Dutch impressionist was \"prey to aural hallucinations,\" Bailey said. Cutting off his ear might have been a vain attempt to silence those noises. \n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "The theories behind why Dutch artist Van Gogh slashed off his ear in 1888 are still the topic of debate. Now, an author presents a new one. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/31/world/van-gogh-ear-slash-motive-trnd/index.html", "title": "The real reason Van Gogh sliced off his ear"}, "83": {"text": "I nodded.\n\"And you're not Chilean\" he responded, alluding to an aspiration of his firm, Hariri Pontarini Architects, for the Bah\u00e1'\u00ed Temple in Chile: they wanted to create a universally attractive form. \nOpenness, in spirit and in form\nPreviously a barren golf course owned by the elite Grange School in Santiago, the 10-hectare site -- which took nine years to find - has been transformed into a space envisioned to be open to all, regardless of background, religion, gender, or social standing. \n\"This is a place that is welcoming all the religions, or if you have no religion,\" said Hariri, who is a Bah\u00e1'\u00ed himself, during the opening of the Temple in October 2016. \n\"It's an architectural challenge. How do you give something a form that means this?\" \nIn spirit and in structure, the building was to embody the unity of mankind, which is a central belief of the Bah\u00e1'\u00ed Faith, an independent religion founded in 19th century Iran. \nThe Chile Temple is the final Bah\u00e1'\u00ed continental temple to be built, joining eight others, including the Temple for North America in Wilmette, Illinois, and the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India.\nA Bah\u00e1'\u00ed Temple has only a few criteria: it needs to be \"a nine-sided domed structure with nine entrances to symbolically welcome people from all directions of the earth for prayer and meditation.\" \nFaced with this architectural challenge, Hariri and his creative team did not want to take inspiration from other buildings. It could not look like a mosque, a synagogue or a church as this may alienate certain people. \nEqually, drawing on the culture of one or some of the indigenous communities of Chile was not a priority, as it would involve excluding others. \"They're not all the same, you can't just lump everything together,\" Hariri told CNN, \"if I went Quechua, the Mapuche would not be represented, and so on. It is very delicate.\"\nIn search of a \"feeling\" \nRather, they were in search of a \"feeling\" and aesthetic cues were taken from taken from outside of architecture.\n\"We looked to organic forms: a cheekbone is a universal thing, right?\" asked Hariri rhetorically, later mentioning the veins of a leaf, the curve of a woven Japanese basket, and the folding of robes in paintings of the old masters. \nOn some days, the Temple looks like it has always existed as part of its organically formed backdrop, the Andes. The radial gardens, designed by acclaimed Chilean landscape architect Juan Grimm, are made to blend into the Andean environment, creating a \"garden that has no limits.\" \nAbove all, light is the defining trope of the structure: Hariri feels that \"light is universal\" and can act as a symbol of unity. The temple was designed to cause visitors to feel like they were gazing up at the heavens or turning towards the light, like a plant moves to face the sun. \nNine wing-like panels of translucent cast glass subtly spiral to form the temple dome, converging 90 feet above the ground with a clear glass oculus holding a Bah\u00e1'\u00ed symbol known as \"the greatest name.\" Daylight passes through the glass and floods the white marble interior and after sundown, light from within causes the structure to quietly glow in the night.\n\"The temple is like a drapery of light,\" says Hariri, \"It's not light passing through -- it's captured light.\"\nEarthquake resistant \nIn pursuit of this \"feeling\", the multidisciplinary team adopted three-dimensional modeling software CATIA, made for industrial design and aerospace engineering and rarely used in architecture, which was a daring move and \"breathtakingly hard\" 13 years ago at the beginning of the project.\nAnother technical feat was the installation of a pendulum isolation system to make the building resistant to seismic activity. Three universities -- in Canada, Los Angeles and Chile -- collaborated to create a system that allows for 600 millimeters of movement, so that the whole building rocks and returns to the center in case of an earthquake. \nCoexisting with innovations in technology and machine-to-machine production is an artisanal quality, created by the use of ancient materials like bronze, cast glass, and stone. \nThe bronze doorways are molded by hand, and the cast glass on the exterior of the Temple was invented using melted down test tubes and petri dishes in the studio kilns of Jeff Goodman, a Canadian glass artist known for his ornate blown-glass creations.\nOver 30,000 square meters of glass were fired in a bespoke factory of six kilns to produce around 1,100 glass panels of various shapes and sizes, which slot into place to form the exterior of the \"wings,\" supported by steel frames coursing through the edifice like the veins of a leaf.  \n\"It is a very deliberate intersection between the ancient and the absolute new. That's not just architectural, it's philosophical,\" mused Hariri, intimating the Bah\u00e1'\u00ed belief that all the religions of the past and future are one, \"this extension both forward and back is very symbolic.\"\nFaith in the theories\nLooking at the finished structure, Hariri is happy and perhaps relieved: there was no guarantee that the computer modeling would translate into the desired effect of \"embodied light,\" captured in the glass. \n\"That was one of our biggest worries, would that in fact happen -- it's a theory!\" he breathed, \"You hope it does, that [the light] does kiss that marble.\" \nThe Temple is built to last 400 years: time will tell if the theory of a universally attractive form holds, too. So far, so good.\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "A barren golf course in Chile has been transformed into a space envisioned to be open to all, regardless of background, religion, gender, or social standing. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/25/architecture/bahai-temple-chile/index.html", "title": "Can one temple unite every faith?"}, "84": {"text": " France's Total signed an agreement in principle on Tuesday to help Iran develop its giant South Pars gas field, together with Chinese state oil company CNPC. \n \"Following Total's successful development of phases 2 and 3 of South Pars in the 2000s, the group is back to Iran to develop and produce another phase of this giant gas field,\" said Total CEO Patrick Pouyann\u00e9 in a statement. \n Total (TOT) will operate the South Pars project with a stake of 50.1%. CNPC will own 30% and Iran's Petropars 19.9%. \n The first phase will consist of 30 wells and two platforms connected to existing onshore treatment facilities by two pipelines at a cost of about $2 billion. \n Total's commitment represents the first Western investment in Iran's oil and gas industry since international sanctions were eased at the start of this year. The company said its investment was \"in strict compliance with national and international laws.\" \n The lifting of sanctions in January has allowed Iran to pump up its oil output. So far this year, it has increased oil production by about 900,000 barrels per day to 3.7 million. \n Its immediate aim is to produce four million barrels per day and it has clear potential to become a much bigger player. The country sits on 9% of the world's proven oil reserves and claims nearly a fifth of the planet's natural gas. \n The new South Pars project will have production capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day, or 370,000 barrels of oil equivalent. The produced gas will be fed into Iran's gas network. \n \n Years of sanctions left Iran short of the cash it needs to develop its potential. It's hoping to raise $185 billion dollars in investment in the energy sector alone within five years. \n But efforts to lure foreign partners had stuttered since the sanctions were lifted. \n The U.S. still has restrictions in place that block most American companies from investing in Iran. And Western companies have been reluctant to jump in given doubts over the financing of U.S. dollar-based transactions. \n A number of banks outside the U.S. were fined billions of dollars by the U.S. government for breaching guidelines on doing business with Iran before the sanctions were lifted. \n Unlike American oil majors, Total is not restricted from signing contracts with Iran, where its operations date back to 1990. \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Total has signed a $2 billion deal to develop Iran's giant South Pars gas field in partnership with China's CNPC and the National Iranian Oil Company. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/news/economy/iran-total-south-pars-gas/index.html", "title": "Total agrees $2 billion deal to develop Iran's giant gas field"}, "85": {"text": " Google Capital, one of Alphabet's two venture capital arms, quietly added Snapchat to its list of investments as part of a brand refresh and website redesign on Friday. \n No details were provided about the timing, reasoning or size of the Snapchat investment. \n Winnie King, a spokeswoman for Google, confirmed that Snapchat is one of Google Capital's portfolio companies, but declined to comment beyond that. Noah Edwardsen, spokesman for Snapchat, said the company does not comment on financing. \n Google Capital re-branded Friday as CapitalG (Alphabet, get it?). It was formed in 2014 to invest in more mature businesses. The goal, according to its website, is \"to make returns-driven investments in leading companies around the world.\" \n This investment operation has also backed Airbnb, Glassdoor and SurveyMonkey. GV, Alphabet's other venture capital arm for early-stage companies, has invested in Uber and Nest, the latter of which Google ended up acquiring for $3.2 billion in 2014. \n An investment in Snapchat opens the door for a closer relationship with a buzzy startup that is expanding into several areas of interest for Alphabet. \n \n Snapchat is a rising star in social media, long a weak spot for Google (GOOGL, Tech30). It also recently expanded into hardware with Spectacles, a pair of sunglasses with a built-in wireless video camera. The product quickly drew comparisons to Google Glass, its failed attempt at smart glasses. \n Beyond that, the investment gets Alphabet a ticket to what is expected to be one of the hottest upcoming tech IPOs since Facebook (FB, Tech30). \n Snapchat, which recently re-branded as Snap Inc., has raised more than $2 billion in funding and is widely rumored to be planning a public offering early next year at a valuation as high as $35 billion. \n Other prominent Snapchat backers include Alibaba (BABA, Tech30), Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30) and Fidelity. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Google's parent company Alphabet now owns a piece of Snapchat.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/04/technology/google-snapchat-investment/index.html", "title": "Google Capital is now an investor in Snapchat"}, "86": {"text": "At the same time, stories of sexual assault and objectification at our finest universities have shined a harsh light on some of the darkest realities of being female in our country. In June, a rape victim at Stanford University wrote a letter to Brock Turner, the man who assaulted her behind a dumpster, that was read by millions, including on-air by CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield. Earlier this month, Harvard University canceled the men's soccer season after another op-ed written by female victims, this time soccer players whose male teammates assigned them sexual ratings and ideal intercourse \"positions.\" \nThe press attention devoted to sexual assault, particularly when magnified by election coverage, provokes uncomfortable, disturbing emotions. But the media coverage is good news for women, because of one fact: We're talking about it.\nThese experiences are all too familiar, for myself and millions of others. From the time I was 11 years old, I've survived unwanted kisses and exposure to strange men's genitals, slut-shaming, relationship violence and sexual harassment. It's time that victims and the media speak out about these issues, especially when it comes to institutions of higher learning, our most hopeful melting pots.\nAnd yet, on the same day that Harvard took action against its men's soccer team, Rolling Stone magazine and writer Sabrina Erdely were found guilty of defamation in the infamous 2014 article, \"A Rape on Campus.\" University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo's triumph against Rolling Stone and Erdely -- the jury awarded Eramo $3 million -- is a pyrrhic victory. Although the story's lead anecdote was quickly debunked, it remains true that sexual assault is a problem on college campuses. \nAs the documentary \"The Hunting Ground\" revealed, universities have long betrayed students by questioning victims' integrity, by framing assault as an unprovable, unprosecutable offense and by levying shallow penalties such as \"suspension after graduation.\" Imagine if UVA and other elite universities fought as valiantly to protect their students as they did their brand.\nAnd what about Harvard, my alma mater? When I was a freshman in 1983, Harvard police proudly demonstrated the emergency blue-light campus phones and warned us about strange men in Harvard Yard. Beyond these rudiments, we faced a deafening silence about acquaintance rape, relationship violence and sexual degradation. In my experience, if assaulted, most women told no one, not even our own mothers, for fear of being disbelieved, blamed or labeled as less valuable potential wives or employees.\nLucky for me, my 19-year-old sister, who had been at Harvard for a year, stopped by my dorm during freshman orientation. Sitting on my college-issue twin bed, she told me,  \"Les, this is what's gonna happen.  A cute guy, probably a football or hockey player, is going to come up to you at a party.  It's gonna feel great, like he really likes you.  He's going to ask you to go to his room for some reason.  Just don't go, no matter what. OK?\"\nTwo nights later, I went to my class ice cream social. A boy with ice-blue eyes and straight black hair, wearing a Harvard hockey jersey, flirted and told me about a better party hosted by upperclassmen from the team. Did I want to go? Sure, I agreed, flattered. Would this be my first Harvard boyfriend? He put his hand on the small of my back, steadying me as I threw my ice cream cone in the trash as we left.\n\"Just one thing,\" Mr. Blue Eyes said as we walked down the worn marble steps from the freshman union. \"It's getting cold. I need to stop by my room to get a sweatshirt. OK?\"\nRemembering my sister's words, I stammered some excuse and rushed back inside. I'm grateful I never found out if I could have been assaulted that night. But over four years at Harvard, I discovered other truths: that (if their experiences were anything like those surveyed for the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey) as many as close to 20% of my classmates were victims of rape or attempted rape, that we were most at risk during freshman year and that the real threat came not from strange men infiltrating campus, but from classmates in my coed dorm, in the carrels next to me at Widener Library and sitting behind me in Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare class. \nIf a 19-year-old like my sister knew we were vulnerable, why didn't the smart, seasoned folks running Harvard? If they knew, why didn't they protect students? The painful answer is that many administrators at Harvard, UVA and other campuses surely did know then, and do know now, the risks students face. Yet too little has been done to prevent sexual violence on campuses. Universities apparently fear that confronting assault will hurt a school's reputation, so they repeatedly leave students vulnerable. \nSo bravo, Harvard, for taking a stand to right years of wrongs, by declaring publicly that written and verbal degradation of women is intolerable, a gateway to more serious behavior. There's more to be done to end sexual assault and discrimination, but this is a step forward. And shame on those who dodge chances to raise awareness about intimate violence, and the people who try to tell the messy, complex truths about rape culture in dorm rooms, bedrooms, and boardrooms today. Every school, employer, family and bystander has one simple obligation when it comes to sexual assault: to protect everyone from it.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Leslie Morgan Steiner writes that extended media coverage of sexual assault is a positive step forward because it means we're finally talking about the issue. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/opinions/changing-conversation-sexual-assault-steiner/index.html", "title": "Why reporting on sexual assault is a good thing"}, "87": {"text": "The bathroom, and more specifically the public restroom, is where the rights of transgender people come into close proximity with the privacy rights of everyone. Indeed the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the issue in the case of a transgender high school student in Virginia who is seeking to use the boys' bathroom at school. \nWhat does all of this present?  An opportunity to build a better society by building a better bathroom -- one that moves away from the common view that bathroom privacy is about gender privacy and that communal bathrooms are OK if they are gender-separated.  \nIn my religious tradition (Jewish) and the tradition of other faiths as well, there is a different approach to bathroom ethics:  Bathroom time is private time and no one else, no matter what gender, should be with you in the bathroom, unless you need help.\nOur society should build unisex, single-room mini-bathrooms for all, like the kind you find in an airplane. These bathrooms would address not only the issue of transgender bathroom usage, but also of privacy concerns generally. \nYour house (and mine, too) has a unisex private bathroom, as do restaurants, shops, and many other establishments. The truth is that such bathrooms are more modest in every way than communal facilities, which at best are only semi-private and which many find uncomfortable and even immodest.\nNothing is ever gained by public bathrooms. Humans are private creatures and bathrooms are private spaces. Unisex bathrooms not only accommodate the needs of individuals with so many special needs, but they address the needs of those among us who are simply shy to use bathroom facilities when others are present. \nThis is so important in a good society: Independent of the transgender issues, communal bathroom layouts have long marginalized the privacy needs of children and adults who need assistance, including those with disabilities. \nOf course, this is a vital concern to all who think that the needs of the weak or disabled are the deep moral imperative. Unisex mini-bathrooms would protect the dignity of these individuals. They and their caregivers (especially of the opposite sex) would be freed from the critical comments they might encounter when using gendered public facilities.\nConversely, those patrons who are uncomfortable with the presence of an opposite-sex person in a bathroom, regardless of age or disability, would be accommodated.\nIf we all adopt this plan, the bathroom areas of public places would resemble the bathrooms we are all used to in our homes: They will be a room suitable for either gender, with a toilet. Everyone has their own private space. If showers are provided, each shower would be completely self-contained. Communal showers would (and should) disappear -- they are a gross intrusion on privacy, as everyone knows.\nNo question, retrofitting millions of public bathrooms across the country to make them private may seem like too monumental a thing to ask or expect. But there are many bathroom adjustments smaller businesses could make quickly to address a social need without creating a prohibitive expense.\nNot surprisingly, many businesses have already instituted these unisex mini-bathrooms, since they are efficient and employees value their bathroom privacy\nBeyond that, the change to unisex bathrooms could be incorporated into building codes, and as with all changes to building code -- such as requirements to provide access for people with disabilities -- government agencies routinely do not mandate that every structure be brought up to code immediately. Rather, all new buildings could be expected to comply at the time of construction, and all existing buildings could be brought up to code at the time of renovation. \nIt would move us in the right direction.\nFighting over who uses which genders' bathroom, or over the \"true gender\" of transitioning individuals, misses a wonderful occasion to build a better culture for us all.  For the purpose of bathroom access, it ought to be irrelevant to debate the status of transgender people, or what a person's supposedly \"true\" gender really is under American law. \nIn fact, it is even irrelevant, whether the issue is of transgender, disability and caregiver access, or simply a situation in which an opposite-sex parent is helping a child new to the bathroom. We need a solution that protects the dignity and privacy of every person in a bathroom.\nLet's build a better bathroom.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The conflict over transgender bathrooms should be addressed with private, unisex bathrooms for all, says Michael Broyde.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/28/opinions/the-bathroom-issue-were-not-talking-about/index.html", "title": "Transgender bathroom issue: a solution?"}, "88": {"text": " The news follows complaints from potential shoppers that the new MacBook Pro laptop isn't compatible with current device accessories. \n Apple's (AAPL, Tech30) suite of new MacBook Pro computers, which was announced last week, only include USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports. This means even new iPhones can't plug into new MacBook Pros without an adapter. \n To use MacBook Pros with existing accessories, people need to buy adapters, and the cost adds up. \n Apple is attempting to placate some critics with an unusual pivot on pricing. \n As listed on the website, price cuts include $10 off its USB-C to traditional USB adapter, which now costs $9. It also lowered the price on its Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter from $49 to $29. \n The discounts are available through the end of the year. \n While it's possible to purchase low-cost adapters on Amazon and elsewhere around the web, official Apple adapters are generally better quality and more reliable than the cheaper products offered online. \n The MacBook Pro isn't the only new Apple product product flooded with criticism for its dongle and accessory requirements. \n In September, the iPhone 7 line killed the headphone jack in favor of wireless AirPods. An adapter is required in order to use traditional headphones with the new devices. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "In a surprise move, Apple is slashing prices on its dongles and accessories.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/04/technology/apple-dongle-price-cuts-macbook-pro/index.html", "title": "Apple cuts prices on dongles after complaints"}, "89": {"text": "I was 19 then, and I didn't realize that as I sat there watching the Cubs play the Detroit Tigers that that moment would eventually lead to me becoming a small part of baseball history: one of the few people living today who were at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs' last World Series.\nIn the 71 years that have passed since then, so much has happened: 12 different U.S. presidents have come and gone, countless wars have been started and stopped and Cubs fans have grown only more and more depressed. \nEven though I was a Tigers fan in 1945, this past weekend, when the Chicago Cubs won the National League Championship Series that would take them to that field again, I couldn't help but think back on that game I attended all those years ago. \nIt was early October. The sky was that picture-postcard blue. The US flag and Cubs banners flying high above centerfield.\nIt was a beautiful afternoon.\nAnd, yes. Afternoon. They still played games early in the day back then.\nAlthough the war had just ended, they still played by the wartime league rules, meaning, they didn't use the traditional 2-3-2 game pattern, but instead the now-uncommon 3-4. And even though the teams didn't fly then, there were no travel days given. \nTrain travel had been restricted during World War II to keep train tracks clear for military use. It was not unusual in those days to see a troop train passing by or a freight train with war material. To support the war effort, Major League Baseball had minimized team travel.\nSo even though the war had just ended, the Series that year didn't move to Wrigley Field till the fourth game. \nI distinctly remember arriving at Wrigley Field with my father that day. Our seats were incredible; they were almost measured-out, midpoint on the first base line, only two or three rows back from the field. \nThe players were close; and when I say close, I mean hold-out-your-arm-straight-in-front-of-you-and-you-could-touch-them close. It was a thrill to be so near.\nWhen Hank Greenberg -- who had just been discharged from military service and was back playing left field -- jogged in at the end of one of the Cubs' turns at bat,  the future Hall of Famer was so close that if he hadn't stopped and turned left to step down into the Tigers dugout, he'd have bumped into the railing right in front of us. \nGreenberg was one of the few from the old days playing that day. The others were all gone. Some had retired. Some had been traded. And some, like Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Yogi Berra and over 500 other players, were off serving their country in World War II -- still in uniforms, but without names and numbers. \nBecause I had only just moved to the area, I wasn't as familiar with the new guys. But that didn't matter. I was watching the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers play in the World Series at Wrigley Field, generally recognized as one of most beautiful ballparks in the land. Nothing could compare to that. \nThe Cubs had come home to Wrigley for Game 4 with a lead over the Tigers but they lost three of their four games there.  \nEven though I wasn't a Cubs fan at that game all those years ago, I can share the sentiment often sung by the beloved, longtime Cubs announcer Harry Caray, for whom \"Take Me Out to the Ballgame\" was almost a trademark: \"Let me root, root, root for the home team...\" \nThis time, 71 years later, it's the Cubbies' turn. \n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Val Lauder describes what it was like to attend the 1945 World Series, and how she feels watching the Cubs finally make it to Wrigley Field again, 71 years later. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/28/opinions/1945-world-series-lauder/index.html", "title": "I was there the last time the Chicago Cubs were in the World Series -- in 1945"}, "90": {"text": " Earlier this year, the company announced plans to launch a tiny-sized NES Classic Edition -- a system so petite it can fit in the palm of your hand. The news pulled at the heartstrings of everyone who grew up in the '80s, evoking memories of sitting on the carpet of your childhood home and defeating King Bowser in the final level of Mario Bros. \n More than three decades later, Nintendo (NTDOF) has stuffed 30 of its classic games -- from all the Mario Bros. franchises to Legends of Zelda, Pac-Man and Castlevania -- into one mini console (5 inches x 4 inches x 1.6 inches). The system, due out November 11, serves them up in a Netflix-style menu that makes it easy for scrolling. You won't find a single physical game cartridge included. \n Considering those games have been available for download on Nintendo's Wii system for years, it was unclear if packing them into a retro-style console was a gimmick or something worth the $60 price tag. \n But the magic of classic Nintendo is unquestionably preserved in this mini system. I can't remember reviewing another product that's made me smile quite as much. \n The USB-powered system comes with one controller -- the second is sold separately ($10). But it's possible to switch to two-player mode and trade off using the same controller. Set up is easy: Plug it into an outlet or your computer and connect the HDMI cable to a TV or monitor. \n \n Also included: gritty graphics, familiar music and the satisfaction of recalling which green pipes in Mario Bros. transport you to coin-filled secret lairs. \n Once you've powered up the system, you'll select from one of three display options: \"Pixel Perfect,\" which gives you a modern sharper image; a 4:3 aspect ratio mode; and another that slightly (and purposefully) distorts the picture for nostalgia's sake. \n The games hold up, if you can get past the simplicity and old-school graphics. But what makes the experience special is that you're playing through the iconic console itself. \n \n If you purchase an original Nintendo classic console on eBay now, it will cost at least $100 -- and that's before investing in games. The fact that the NES mini puts everything you need into one portable package is not only convenient but also cost efficient. \n While there's a lot to love about the console, there are a few areas in need of improvement. The short length of the controller's cord isn't optimized for sitting on the couch -- perhaps that's why we always played on the floor years ago. \n The system also doesn't connect to the internet. This means it's not upgradable. You'll be satisfied with 30 games, but it limits Nintendo from ever pushing out other titles, features or updates. \n Nintendo isn't too concerned about this; after all, it's saving the real innovation for its Nintendo Switch console -- part mobile, part home system -- coming in early 2017. \n But overall, the old adage holds up for Nintendo's throwback console: Good things really do come in small packages. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Nintendo Classic Edition review: So much nostalgia packed into one little console", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/04/technology/nintendo-nes-classic-edition-review/index.html", "title": "Nintendo Classic Edition review: It's worth the hype"}, "91": {"text": "Everybody's doing it, and while it is easy, it helps us change the subject and ignore the harder issues facing African-Americans.\nWhat is unfolding in that city, of course, and is receiving national attention, is the aftermath of the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died of a \"very tragic injury to his spinal cord,\" according to Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez. The exact cause of those injuries remain under investigation. Gray family lawyer said the 25-year-old's \"spine was 80% severed\" while in police custody.\nThe circumstances around the man's killing and public outrage in the black community have led to peaceful protests.\nAnd unfortunately, though understandably, things have boiled over, with riots and looting by some. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard, and Baltimore schools were closed.\nAnd people have lined up to condemn the riots, the looting, and the violence. For example, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was in front of the cameras Monday night referring to the rioters as \"thugs.\" \n\"What we see tonight that is going on in our city is very disturbing,\" the mayor said. \"It is very clear there is a difference between what we saw over the past week with the peaceful protests, those who wish to seek justice, those who wish to be heard and want answers, and the difference between those protests and the thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city.\"\nPresident Obama also referred to the riot participants as \"thugs.\"\nIn an interview with CNN's Don Lemon, Gov. Hogan   seemed to channel his inner 1950s Southern governor. \"What we've now seen is outside agitators, gangs and just really thugs as the mayor called them, that are out there threatening people, injuring people and destroying property, and we're not going to put up with it,\" Hogan said before he and Mayor Rawlings-Blake walked away from the interview when Lemon's questioning apparently became a little too difficult for them.\nAnd Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, blamed the violence on \"breakdown in the family structure, the lack of fathers and the lack of moral code in our society.\" He added: \"The mayor obviously could have been stronger with saying: 'We are going to secure the city. We are not going to have thievery. We are not going to have thuggery.' \" He then added, \"None of this excuses thuggery and thievery.\"\nWhenever there is a killing of an unarmed black person by police, typically, the victim is demonized as a thug, as are the protesters and rioters who react to the killing.\nThis is because black people are viewed in their entirety as criminals. Whites who protest or riot are not called thugs, because the word thug serves as a proxy for the N-word, whether it's black or white people using the descriptors.\n\"No, it's not the right word to call our children thugs,\" Baltimore City Council member Carl Stokes told CNN's Erin Burnett. \"These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us.\"\n\"But how does that justify what they did?\" Burnett asked Stokes. \"That's a sense of right and wrong. They know it's wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old persons' home. I mean, come on.\"\n\"Come on? Just call them n****rs. Just call them n****rs,\" Stokes exclaimed in frustration.\nSome leaders slam 'thug' as the new n-word\nBut as people line up to condemn the unrest and lecture so-called thugs on how to behave, few condemn the oppressive conditions, the unjust policies, the structural racism, the police brutality and the poverty that have plagued Baltimore for years. And if the looting of the CVS disturbs you more than the alleged severing of a man's spine, then you have lost your humanity, and your priorities are all wrong.\n\"When I go to Baltimore, on the East Coast, I'm dealing with 1950s-level black-and-white racism,\" Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts told a White House task force on policing. \"It's taken a step back. Everything's either black or everything's white, and we're dealing with that as a community.\"\nMr. Gray's death was the breaking point, but it was a long time coming.\nAs the Baltimore Sun reported, the city has paid about $5.7 million since 2011 in over 100 police brutality lawsuits and $5.8 million in legal fees. The police have beaten, maimed and killed their victims, which include children, a pregnant mother, a 65-year-old church deacon and an 87-year-old grandmother -- mostly African-American. \nAnd as Bill Quigley wrote in the Huffington Post, the disturbing statistics about daily life in Baltimore are more shocking than recent events. \nThe poverty rate is 23.8%.  White babies born in Baltimore will have a life expectancy six years longer than black babies. Black babies are nine times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. The high school graduation rate for Baltimore City schools is 56.4%. \nAgain, the numbers are downright disturbing.   \nMeanwhile, in the midst of Baltimore urban rebellion, some voices have invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to a strategy of nonviolence. However, they fail to mention what Dr. King said about riots:\n\"It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.\"\nJohn Angelos, COO of the Baltimore Orioles, echoed King's words:\n\"I agree ... that the principle of peaceful, nonviolent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept.\"\nThat said, my personal concern, outrage and sympathy isn't focused on one night's property damage, but on the past four-decades during which an American political elite has shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and American cities to China and other countries, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American's civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.\nWe need to keep in mind that people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don't have jobs and are losing economic, civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant.\nAs we watch the events unfold in Baltimore, not unlike Ferguson -- and Los Angeles 20 years ago, and cities such as Detroit, Watts and Newark which experienced urban rebellions sparked by acts of police brutality in the 1960s -- shaming the rioters is the easy way out when we refuse to address black suffering.\nIt is clear that no expense will be spared in bringing America's military might to bear on the black folks of Baltimore. But where were the resources to eliminate poverty and unemployment and end predatory policing in the black community?\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "In light of the current unrest in Baltimore, riot shaming seems to be the new fad.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/29/opinions/david-love-thugs-riot-shaming/index.html", "title": "Calling people 'thugs' solves nothing"}, "92": {"text": " The city is exploring possible routes for the first ever Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system that uses a pipeline to carry passengers and goods in levitating capsules. \n \"[Dubai] is our number one priority so we will do everything to make that happen,\" said Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd, speaking after signing the company's first commercial deal with local transport authorities. \n Hyperloop One is also considering the feasibility of building tracks in other countries, including Russia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the U.K. \n But Dubai now has a head start and its first passenger track could be operating by 2021. \n One of the routes being considered -- between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates -- is 102 miles and typically takes more than an hour by car. Hyperloop would cut that journey time to just 12 minutes. \n Dubai is home to the world's busiest international airport. Using Hyperloop, passengers could be in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, within 48 minutes, and Doha, the capital of Qatar, in 23 minutes. \n \"As the central global transport hub, pursuing the implementation of a Hyperloop in the UAE makes sense,\" Lloyd said. \n Here's how it works: Electric propulsion moves a capsule, or autonomous vehicle, along the pipe in a low pressure environment, to reach speeds of at least 740 miles per hour -- unprecedented for a ground-based system. \n In May, Hyperloop One had its first public test of its acceleration technology and announced that it had raised $80 million in new funding. \n Dubai's DP World, the world's third largest port operator, has also invested $50 million and is already working with Hyperloop One on a cargo track planned for 2020. \n The Hyperloop: 11 things to know \n The technology is being developed in the United States but the plan is to marry that innovation with the transport routes in the United Arab Emirates, and eventually the Gulf region. \n \"Demonstrate the prototype, have a viable idea, then have the discussion about how to finance it, how to regulate it but we can prove it works. This is the show me technology and were going to show the world,\" Lloyd told CNNMoney. \n Hyperloop is the vision of Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, who made the technology patent-free in a bid to encourage international scientific collaboration around the futuristic concept. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Dubai and Hyperloop One have agreed to explore potential routes for the world's first super-fast transportation network and a passenger track could be operating by 2021", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/technology/hyperloop-dubai-abu-dhabi/index.html", "title": "Dubai could build the world's first Hyperloop"}, "93": {"text": "Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the infamous MOVE bombing, in which police fired 10,000 rounds of ammunition into a row house on the 6200 block of Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The police then dropped military-grade explosives on the house, burning an entire city block to the ground.\nFast forward to today, and that deadly, violent chapter provides valuable lessons for a society that so far has decided to ignore them.  \nMOVE was a revolutionary black power group founded in 1972. The group had a \"back to nature,\" almost religious element to its lifestyle -- members were vegans and animal lovers, shunned technology, and wore their hair in dreadlocks.  Their appearance and way of life led to conflict and tension in the community, and in a city with a long history of racism, police brutality, corruption and framings \u2014 and surveillance and harassment of political organizations such as the Black Panthers \u2014 the Philadelphia Police Department depicted MOVE as a terror threat.\nIn 1977, Mayor Frank Rizzo ordered a police barricade of MOVE headquarters. After 15 months, on August 8, 1978, the police moved in. One police officer was killed, in what Philadelphia Tribune reporter Linn Washington, who was on the scene, concluded was an act of police gunfire.  \nNine MOVE members were convicted of third degree murder, conspiracy and other charges, with sentences ranging between 30 and 100 years. They remain in prison. But three officers charged in the videotaped beating of a MOVE member were found not guilty.\nThis set the stage for the bombing seven years later, a sequence of events depicted in the 2014 PBS documentary, \"Let the Fire Burn.\"\nOn May 12, 1985, with the district attorney having prepared warrants to evict MOVE members from their home, police evacuated the entire block and told residents not to return for 24 hours. SWAT teams converged on the area, and gas and water lines were shut off.\nThe police pumped water and tear gas and later fired thousands of rounds of ammunition into the MOVE home, claiming MOVE had fired on police with automatic weapons, yet none of the four firearms found in the home were automatic weapons.\nAt the suggestion of a member of the police bomb squad, a state police helicopter dropped a bag of C-4 explosives on the roof of the MOVE home -- in a residential area.\nSix children were among the 13 people in the MOVE house during the bombing. Mayor Wilson Goode, then the city's first black mayor, later testified he was fully aware the device would be used but said he gave an order to put out the fire.\n\"Commissioner (Gregore) Sambor said to me, he said, 'Let's let the bunker burn, to eliminate that high ground advantage and that tactical advantage of the bunker,' and I said OK,\" testified Fire Commissioner William Richmond at a hearing after the bombing.\nSome of the officers involved in the 1978 MOVE operation were involved in the 1985 operation. It was also alleged that people who attempted to flee from the burning building, including children, were shot at by police. \nOnly two people -- one woman, Ramona Africa, and a child, Birdie Africa, also known as Michael Moses Ward -- survived the destruction of Osage Avenue. \"N****r lover\" was reportedly written on the police locker of James Berghaier, the officer who helped the burned child out of the house. Berghaier subsequently left the force due to a stress disorder.\nA federal judge awarded the survivors $1.5 million, and a commission found that city officials were negligent and police training and supervision were lacking. However, no government officials or police officers were prosecuted for their role in the bombing.\nSadly, the MOVE bombing provided a preview of police state tactics that are commonplace today, and a militarization of local police forces, brought about by the wars on drugs and terror and funded by asset forfeiture and the feds. Indeed, law enforcement is using weaponry utilized by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the Defense Department's 1033 program, along with similar Department of Justice and Homeland Security programs, the cops receive free surplus military arms, aircraft, Humvees, mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, you name it.  \nGive wannabe soldiers with no training all the military hardware they want. What could possibly go wrong? \nWell, people die, and children are endangered, such as 19-month old \"Bou Bou\" Phonesavanh, who was hit with a flash-bang grenade during a raid by police looking for drugs that did not exist. The child was placed in a medically induced coma, leaving the family with a $1 million medical bill.\nAddressing police militarization in the wake of events in Ferguson, Missouri, Sen. Claire McCaskill and Rep. William Lacy Clay, both Missouri Democrats, are introducing legislation to require more training and oversight for police departments receiving military equipment from federal programs and ban the use of certain surplus by local police. \nUnfortunately, the Fraternal Order of Police opposes any attempt to restrict the equipment used by law enforcement. This blue mentality that justifies and protects the police without criticism -- even as crime decreases -- threatens to further isolate the profession, as Radley Balko suggested recently in the Washington Post.  \nThirty years after MOVE, the concept of policing must change. A recent Department of Justice report found serious deficiencies in the Philadelphia police on policies and training on the use of deadly force and a lack of public trust in the police policing themselves.  \nNoting an increase in police-involved shootings as crime has dropped, the report called for more police accountability and community oversight, independent and consistent investigations of police shootings, training in handling violent encounters and de-escalating tense situations.\nIn the meantime, black and brown communities across the country, particularly poor and working people, bear the brunt of heavy-handed police tactics. Regularly monitored and harassed, they are fearful and suspicious of police, and with good reason, because police behave like an occupying army in many of their neighborhoods.  \nIt stands to reason that in white communities -- where law enforcement plays a different role -- police generally do not behave as they have carried on in the unrest in Ferguson last year, or Baltimore this year, or in West Philly in 1985. Yet the militarization of the police should concern everyone. Resisting the abuses of an oppressive government is an issue that should resonate with opposite ends of the political spectrum. Dismissing the victims of police brutality as violent black thugs who deserved their fate is delusional. \nUltimately, no one is safe if any one of us is not safe. \nAs in any police state, when the police become the army, they need an enemy, and the enemy ends up being us. \"To serve and protect\" is becoming \"to suppress and control.\" \nAnd with billions of dollars in military surplus, the police will find a way to use it.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "As in any police state, when the police become the army, they need an enemy, and the enemy ends up being us.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/13/opinions/love-move-bombing-anniversary/index.html", "title": "The dangerous militarization of our police"}, "94": {"text": " The company announced new apps and features for its products to coincide with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film prequel to the Harry Potter series opens in theaters November 18. \n OK Google, the voice activated assistant for Android, casts Harry Potter \"spells.\" Using the commands \"lumos\" and \"nox\" turn the flashlight on and off, and \"Silencio\" silences notifications and the ringer. \n You can interact with the world of Fantastic Beasts on Google Street View. A virtual reality app for Google's Daydream View lets you wave a wand to find escaped magical creatures. Google announced the wizarding VR feature in October when it launched the Daydream View. The device goes on sale this month. \n Google (GOOG) takes you on digital adventures from the point of view of the film's main character, \"magizoologist\" Newt Scamander. You can get a glimpse of his magical world a Street View set in 1926 New York. \n \n Popular locales from the film like MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA), Steen National Bank, The Blind Pig, and Tina and Queenie Goldstein's apartment also appear in Street View. \n Google announced the magical offerings in a post on Tuesday, and said YouTube creators will be debuting Fantastic Beasts content all month, too. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "A suite of Google projects are offering special features timed to the new Harry Potter prequel -- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/01/technology/android-google-harry-potter-spells/index.html", "title": "Android phones cast 'Harry Potter' spells"}, "95": {"text": " It's the latest bad news for the innovative camera company, which recently saw its stock drop 20% because of terrible sales figures. \n The Karma, which costs $800, was the very first drone made by GoPro (GPRO, Tech30). It's a black and white quadcopter that folds and can fit into a backpack. It's meant to capture stunning aerial footage from a mounted GoPro camera, which is sold separately. \n GoPro's announcement, made Tuesday evening, includes 2,500 Karma models that were sold since Oct. 23. \n \"In a very small number of cases, Karma units lost power during operation. No related injuries or property damage have been reported,\" the company said in a statement. \n GoPro said it's coordinating with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates drone usage in the United States. \n \"Safety is our top priority,\" GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman said in the statement. \n GoPro isn't offering replacement units right now, but the company says it's giving customers a full refund. It plans to \"resume shipment\" of the drones \"as soon as the issue is resolved.\" \n The interruption in sales could further hurt the device maker, which continues to struggle with weak sales. GoPro is being forced to compete in a suddenly crowded market for \"action cameras,\" devices meant to take a beating on intense activities like hiking, skydiving and surfing. They're now also made by the likes of Sony, Polaroid and Xiaomi. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "GoPro is recalling a batch of its first-ever drone because it turns off while in the air.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/technology/gopro-karma-recall/index.html?iid=SF_LN", "title": "GoPro recalls Karma drone because it loses power mid-flight"}, "96": {"text": "Shane Kimbrough, a NASA astronaut currently living on board the International Space Station, filed his ballot in Tuesday's presidential election, according to a Tumblr post by NASA.\nNASA told Yahoo News that Kimbrough filed his ballot in the 2016 election from the space station sometime over the past few days.\nFor astronauts who will be in space on Election Day, the voting process starts a year before launch. At that time, they are able to select the elections in which they want to participate.\nThen, six months before the election, astronauts are provided with the form \"Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request -- Federal Post Card Application.\"\nNASA astronaut David Wolf was the first American to vote in space while on the Russian Mir Space Station in a 1997 local election, according to NPR.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "From infinity and beyond, he found a way to vote.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/politics/nasa-astronaut-space-vote-election-2016/index.html", "title": "This NASA astronaut voted from space"}, "97": {"text": " The car rental company's stock tanked over 50% Tuesday morning after it cut its forecast for future growth and reported weak earnings Monday night. \n It was the stock's worst performance since the financial crisis in 2008. And even though it pared back some of the losses by midday Tuesday, the stock was still down over 30%. \n \"We are clearly disappointed with our performance this year,\" Thomas Kennedy, Hertz's CFO said on a call with analysts Monday. \n Investors were worried about what this meant for other car rental companies. Avis' stock also dropped as much as 18% Tuesday morning, though it didn't report any results. \n The gloomy day for car rental companies, particularly Hertz (HTZ), comes amid speculation that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft are eating into their business. Ride-sharing serves the same role for some travelers that renting a car would. It can also sometimes be cheaper and be less of a hassle for people who don't want to spend time looking for parking. \n Late last year, Uber and Lyft surpassed car rental companies' market share of ground transportation for business travelers, according to a study by Certify, a business expense management company. \n Sign up for CNNMoney's morning market newsletter: Before The Bell \n Hertz recognizes the power of ride-sharing. It even inked a deal with Uber and Lyft this year to provide rental cars to drivers who don't own a car. It's unclear how effective the collaboration has been. \n As for Hertz, the company's stock soared between 2009 and 2014 -- along with many U.S. stocks -- but it's gradually slid down since. \n So far this year, Hertz's sales are off about 3% and the company has recorded a net loss of $51 million. At this point last year, it had a net profit of $203 million. Its quarterly profits widely missed analysts' expectations on Monday -- one of the key reasons why Hertz plunged. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Hertz's stock price tanked over 50% on Tuesday after it reported earnings Tuesday and cut its forecast. ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/investing/hertz-stock-earnings/index.html?iid=SF_LN", "title": "Hertz falls off a cliff after cutting its forecast"}, "98": {"text": "The British ambassador to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft, accused Russia of abusing its veto power.\n\"In the end, no resolution of this Security Council can end this war. The only thing that can end this war is a change of policy in Moscow,\" he said after the veto.\n A separate counterresolution by Russia that did not call for a halt in airstrikes on Aleppo failed to get the necessary votes to pass.\n\"It was one weird day\" at the Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after the failed vote and his veto. He called it a \"strange spectacle.\"\nThe Russian veto had been expected as Russia and the United States have been fighting over Russia's support of the Assad regime.\nFriday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said airstrikes by Syrian troops with Russian support should be investigated as war crimes as they hit hospitals and civilians.\n\"This is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives,\" Kerry said.\nFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault also condemned the attacks and said the conflict has reached a \"moment of truth\" for the Council.\nSyria's regime says it is targeting terrorists in besieged Aleppo, a stronghold of opposition forces fighting the regime.\n\"Everyone knows that there is only one way to save Aleppo and that is for an immediate end to the aerial bombardment that the Syrian regime and their Russian backers are pursuing,\" Rycroft said Saturday.   \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Saturday that demanded a halt to Syrian government airstrikes in Aleppo and access for humanitarian aid.  ", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/08/world/russia-veto-syria-un-resolution/index.html", "title": "Russia vetoes UN resolution on Aleppo"}, "99": {"text": "Looming over the two days of talks between Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers is the location itself, which was devastated when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city in August 1945. The bomb, which led to the end of World War II, killed 140,000 people. \nThree days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people. \nBut a senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said America's top diplomat will not issue an apology for its use of nuclear weapons and the devastation it causes. \n\"If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to  apologize, the answer is no,\" the official said. \"If you are asking whether the secretary -- and I think all Americans and all Japanese -- are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes.\"\nKerry, though, did seek to use his visit to \"recognize the huge loss of life\" that occurred during the war, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.\nKerry and the other ministers will visit Peace Memorial Park, a World War II memorial and museum that has become a symbol for nuclear disarmament. \n\"It is also an acknowledgment that since the end of World War II that the United States and Japan have become the closest of friends and strong allies,\" Toner said.\nThe Japanese government and public hope the location of the summit in Hiroshima will foster better understanding among nations about Japan's staunch nuclear stance. \nRecent comments by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump proposing arming Japan and South Korea with nuclear weapons have raised eyebrows here in the country. \nAnd Kerry's trip to Hiroshima could pave the way for President Barack Obama to visit the city next month, when he travels to Japan for the G7 leaders summit. The senior State Department official said the White House had not made a formal decision. \nThe Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries -- in addition to the U.S. -- includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. \nThe Syrian civil war, the migrant crisis facing Europe and violence in Ukraine were some of the topics discussed during the first day of talks, aides traveling with Kerry said. \nKerry also led a discussion about the political chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, after having visited both countries this week. The fight against ISIS also dominated the discussions. Some of the European members are grappling with security challenges in the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris.\nBut Japan hopes to highlight pressing concerns in Asia, including China's activities in the South China Sea and the North Korean nuclear threat.\nOn Sunday, Kerry and the other ministers paid a visit to the seaside Itsukushima shrine that dates to the late sixth century, one of Japan's most well-known cultural sites. \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Secretary of State John Kerry's arrival to Hiroshima for a G7 meeting with his foreign counterparts marks the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the city, where the U.S. became the only country to use a nuclear weapon during World War II.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/10/politics/john-kerry-g7-no-apology-hiroshima/index.html", "title": "John Kerry at G7: No apology for Hiroshima "}, "100": {"text": " Tesla founder Elon Musk announced the purchase of Grohmann Engineering on Tuesday, saying it marked a significant step in Tesla's bid to dramatically increase its production. \n The electric automaker did not say how much it was paying for the firm, which employs about 700 people. \n But Musk did say that he expects to hire another 1,000 skilled engineers over the next two years to work at Grohmann. \n The company is in a very niche industry: It designs the factory machines that produce cars. \n Musk described the purchase as an important first step toward manufacturing cars in Europe. \n \"Tesla is going to make very significant investments in Europe... we're going to be contributing a lot,\" Musk said. \"We sell a lot of cars in Europe. But obviously we think the right thing to do is start producing cars... [in] the European market.\" \n Tesla is expected to sell nearly 18,000 vehicles in Europe this year, which is about one-fifth of the firm's production, according to forecasts from LMC Automotive. \n Grohmann currently has a number of big car manufacturers as clients, which could create a conflict of interest for Tesla. \n But Tesla (TSLA) struck a note of cooperation. \n \"There are a number of existing clients for Grohmann and of course we will honor those contracts and try to be as helpful as we can,\" Musk said. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Tesla is buying a specialist German firm -- Grohmann Engineering -- to help it ramp up production of its electric cars.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/news/tesla-factory-germany-grohmann-engineering/index.html", "title": "Tesla says it's buying a German firm, Grohmann Engineering"}, "101": {"text": "Rep. Todd Young will hold the Republican seat, complicating Democrats' efforts to take back the Senate. Bayh, a former governor and senator in the state and the scion of a famous political family, entered the race this summer at the last-minute urging of Democratic leadership. \nHe was once seen as a heavy favorite in the race but saw his numbers plummet as GOP groups targeted his career after leaving the Senate and painted him as a Washington insider.\nYoung defeated another US representative in a competitive Republican primary this spring.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Evan Bayh failed to recapture his old Senate seat in Indiana, according to a CNN projection, succumbing to a barrage of Republican attacks that stripped him of his once-sizable lead in the polls.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/08/politics/evan-bayh-todd-young-indiana-senate-election-results/index.html", "title": "Todd Young defeats Evan Bayh in Indiana Senate race"}, "102": {"text": " The company said it will cut the third shift of production at the Lordstown, Ohio plant, which makes the compact Chevrolet Cruze. It's also cutting jobs at the Lansing, Mich., Grand River plant where it makes the Chevy Camaro and the Cadillac ATS and CTS. \n GM (GM) said the job losses will hit 1,200 factory workers in Ohio and 800 in Michigan, though some of those workers may be offered other positions. The jobs will be eliminated in January. GM had 97,000 U.S. workers as of the end of last year. \n Each plant will continue to operate two shifts a day to make the same cars they do now -- but fewer of them.  \n The company currently has 97,000 U.S. employees, having added about 20,000 jobs since its 2009 bankruptcy reorganization. \n The Lordstown plant makes the Cruze sedan. GM also makes a hatchback version of the Cruze at a plant just over the border in Mexico. GM started selling that Mexican-made version of the car in the U.S market with the 2017 model. \n President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly told automakers that, if elected, he intends to impose a 35% tax on cars they build in Mexico for the U.S. market. \n GM spokesman Tom Wickham said that the timing of the company's announcement had nothing to do with Tuesday's election, but was instead aimed at giving affected workers the 60-day notice they are legally entitled to. \n He added that the company did not announce the layoffs before the election because it did not want to be accused of trying to affect the election results. \n \"There is no connection between the two issues,\" he said. \"Lordstown production adjustment is being made based on the softening car market and outlook for 2017.\" \n Cruze sales are down nearly 20% so far this year in the U.S., primarily because GM decided to cut back on less profitable sales to rental car companies, Wickham said. \n Most small car models have seen slumping sales in recent years thanks to low gasoline prices. Sales of the compact Cadillac ATS and the midsize CTS are both off 16% this year, while sales are down 8% the Camaro, which is made at the affected Michigan plant, are down 8%. \n But while sales of these models are down for GM, pickup trucks and SUVs, which produce much bigger profits than small cars, continue to sell briskly. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "GM eliminating third shift from Ohio plant and one in Michigan, cutting 2,000 positions in first permanent layoff since 2010.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/news/companies/gm-layoffs/index.html?iid=SF_LN", "title": "GM announces first layoffs in six years, cuts 2,000 jobs"}, "103": {"text": "At the Washington Star, where I began as a reporter, one of my greatest thrills was being able to work in the same newsroom with Mary McGrory, who was the exception to the mostly male rule. \nShe was a trailblazing columnist who changed the way we look at -- and write -- about politics. I would have been honored just to carry her bags (which I often did). She was a female star, a role model -- not to mention being a brilliant writer who asked the direct questions no one else would. There weren't enough women in the newsroom then, but we were starting to sprout. The boys club was daunting, especially if you wanted to cover politics. I approached it with the sense that maybe I was trying to be initiated into a fraternity where I didn't quite belong.\nBut women did make the move to politics and we did belong. I was in print -- at the Star, then at Newsweek, then at U.S. News and World Report. I ironically always thought that TV was going to be my backup job. Then, of course, print started to literally disappear. And what I discovered was that the skills of being a good broadcast journalist are largely the same as being a good print journalist -- both require the same ability to report, write and explain. Those requirements have remained steadfast.\nLuckily, other things are very different from back in the day. Here at CNN, it's not uncommon for women to dominate -- whether as correspondents in the field or on political panels. It's not only a different environment, it's a broader environment and I think we cover the news better because of it.\nBut while certain things are better, my younger colleagues have it far from easy. In fact, when I look back -- especially on my days writing weekly at Newsweek (imagine that!) -- the schedule seems so, well, relaxed. \nAt CNN, it isn't uncommon for moms to be at the office early and work through the evenings, particularly in a busy period like the election. The 24/7 news cycle means that they don't have the ability that I had to take a break in my day, go home for dinner, and then continue to work and write in the privacy of my own home. That was definitely true in my print reporter days. And I even remember when, on the campaign trail, all of the focus was getting a story on the evening news. How quaint that all seems now.\nToday, the girls on the bus are always on -- either traveling, or in the studio or reporting off camera. I marvel -- absolutely marvel -- at their ability to juggle. Sure, I had to juggle things to find balance, too, but not like this. They are champions at what they do, and I stand in awe.\nWhen we are in the bureau at the same time -- a rarity these days -- we realize how much we miss the daily camaraderie. In our corner of CNN Washington world, I have my office, and Dana Bash is next door, and Brianna Keilar is there, too. We talk all the time. The great thing about women at CNN is that we value each other and counsel each other. Mommy guilt is a very real thing; we have all been through it, with a sense that no matter where you are you think you should be somewhere else. But we thrive, and so do our children. \nThe support flows both ways between generations here. One tiny example: When I was trying to figure out a cool song to dance to with my son at his wedding, the dance party began in the office next door. We celebrate together, we confide in each other and we trust each other's judgment and reporting.\nYou bring who you are to every story you cover, but you don't cover a story differently just because you are a woman. That diversity may just bring a different question or point of view to an interview or to a piece. It took a while for us all to recognize that, but at least we do now.\nAnd that's not changing.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "When I first started out covering politics the boys club was daunting, especially if you wanted to cover politics.  I approached it with the sense that maybe I was trying to be initiated into a fraternity where I didn't quite belong.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/05/politics/girls-on-the-bus-how-things-have-change-gloria-borger/index.html", "title": "How things have changed since the era of the 'Boys on the Bus'"}, "104": {"text": " The drugstore chain and pharmacy benefits manager giant reported sales for the third quarter that missed forecasts. CVS (CVS) also warned that earnings for the fourth quarter and all of 2017 would be worse than expected. \n Shares plunged nearly 15% on the news. \n The biggest problem for CVS appears to be increased competition from rival Walgreens (WBA), which now owns European pharmacy giant Boots and is also in the process of buying Rite Aid (RAD). \n CVS said that it expects to lose more than 40 million prescriptions. \n CEO Larry Merlo said that some prescriptions have begun \"migrating out of our pharmacies this quarter\" and that the company is \"currently experiencing slowing prescription growth in the overall market.\" \n CVS bought pharmacy benefits manager Caremark a few years ago, a deal that may be backfiring on the company. CVS may be alienating some companies who are worried about how much power it holds in the prescription drug business. \n Walgreens has sought to take advantage of those fears. It has partnered with Caremark rival Optum Rx, which is owned by insurance giant UnitedHealth (UNH). \n Walgreens also has a strategic alliance with Prime Therapeutics, the mail order unit of more than a dozen Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans. \n Another pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts (ESRX), announced at the end of September that Walgreens will replace CVS as the drug store of choice for Tricare, a prescription plan that Express Scripts runs for members of the U.S. military. \n CVS is trying to diversify its business to deal with these competitive threats. The company has also bought Omnicare, a company that runs pharmacies for nursing homes. CVS also now runs in-store pharmacies at Target. (TGT) \n But many analysts believe that CVS has paid too much attention to its pharmacy benefits and mail order businesses -- at the expense of improving its own stores. \n CVS said same-store sales at the front end of its pharmacies fell 1% in the quarter. The company blamed weak traffic. \n Meanwhile, Walgreens has won raves for investing more in the front end of the store, i.e. beauty care, food, toys and other items. \n \"CVS is missing out on growth that could be easily attained by a slightly more imaginative approach to its front of store business,\" said Neil Saunders, CEO of retail research firm Conlumino, in a report. \n \"We continue to be disappointed that the group cannot see the front of house opportunity,\" he added. \n It's a problem that CVS needs to quickly address before the problem gets worse. Customers aren't the only ones that are unhappy. Investors are annoyed too. The stock is now down more than 25% this year. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Drugstore giant CVS is warning of slowing sales and profits. The company said it may lose more than 40 million prescriptions as it faces tougher competition from top rival Walgreens.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/08/investing/cvs-earnings-stock-walgreens/index.html?iid=SF_River", "title": "CVS isn't healthy -- stock plunges nearly 15%"}, "105": {"text": "The Russian star, who has five grand slam titles to her name, is eligible to compete again on April 26 2017. The penalty followed a positive test for banned substance meldonium at this year's Australian Open.\n\"I believe that the game, the fans, the tour ... everybody is going to welcome Maria back,\" Simon told CNN's Open Court host Pat Cash at this year's WTA Finals in Singapore.\n\"We're looking forward to seeing her back on tour. I do believe that the fans and everyone else is going to be excited to see her back as well.\"\nSharapova's original two-year ban was reduced to 15 months in October, meaning she will be able to compete in the French Open in May. \nSimon spoke of his admiration for the way Sharapova has conducted herself since receiving the ban. \n\"She's gone through a long and difficult year going through this process,\" he said. \"I think she's shown a tremendous level of integrity.\n\"Maria owned up to everything she did. We wish all athletes and people would own up to what they do and take responsibility for their actions. \n\"She did. She's gone through the process. She received no special considerations due to her celebrity status.\"\nSimon acknowledged the impact the ban has had on the Russian's career. \n\"She's paid a hefty fine,\" he said. \"She's lost all her ranking; she's lost 15 months of income. That's a significant hit for anybody. She's paid her dues and she's available to come back when her suspension will end in the spring.\"\nVisit cnn.com/tennis for more news and videos\nSimon is not the only CEO in world tennis to welcome Sharapova's comeback. Johan Eliasch, CEO of tennis manufacturer Head who sponsor Sharapova, congratulated the Russian star after her ban was reduced.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Steve Simon, CEO of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), says he is \"looking forward\" to seeing Maria Sharapova back on the circuit once she has served her drugs ban.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/09/tennis/steve-simon-wta-maria-sharapova-drugs-ban-return/index.html", "title": "WTA chief welcomes Sharapova's return from ban"}, "106": {"text": "Just eleven months before taking to the water in the Narca 17 sailing division, Santiago Lange had found himself in a Barcelona operating theater, staring up at a cancer surgeon. \nNow, having become a gold medalist despite having most of a lung removed, the 54-year-old Argentine returned to that same Spanish city for one final twist in his remarkable tale.\nAt a prestigious awards ceremony in the 18th century Casa Llotja De Mar, Lange was crowned the Rolex World Sailor of the Year in the presence of some 500 guests. \n\"People keep saying it's like a Hollywood movie,\" he told CNN via a Skype call from his home in Argentina prior to the ceremony. \nThe oldest sailor in Rio, Lange was competing at his sixth Olympic Games. But -- despite all the odds -- he has never given up on his quest to become a champion, and achieved that goal by a single point in the final race of his Olympic regatta in the Nacra 17 Mixed Multihull, with sailing partner Cecilia Carranza Saroli.\nLange shakes his head in disbelief at the reaction both in Brazil -- \"I must surely be the first Argentinian that Brazilians have cheered,\" he jokes -- and back at home.\n\"Even now it's still crazy. I took a plane in Argentina, the captain spotted me and announced over the system. Everyone on the plane stood up and clapped,\" he says.\n\"And if I'm on a toll road, I'm not allowed to pay a toll. It seems it has had an impact on a lot of people, and everyone seems so happy about our success.\"\nThat Lange was able to even make it to the start line, let alone be celebrating a golden finale, is down to medical ingenuity and his own remarkably rapid recovery.\nHe was diagnosed with cancer in March 2015, but dithered over the medical advice for surgery to remove a lung because \"the problem is I like to use my lung!\"\nThe operation left him with just 20% use of his left lung -- hardly ideal for the potential exertions of an Olympian -- but Rio, whether realistic or not, became a carrot dangled in front of him.\nDespite eight hours of surgery, the next day he was up walking around. Five days later he was at home and walking five kilometers a day. From day 10 to 30 of his recovery, he cycled 450 km with his sons.\nBy November last year -- 41 days after surgery -- he was back in the boat.\n\"The beginning was enormously tough,\" he recalls. \"Really from then until May or June was so tough because you have to be fit and able to breathe to work your brain.\n\"And it made me grumpy all the time. Really, Ceci deserves a second gold medal for putting up with me!\"\nBy the time they got to Rio, gold seemed possible -- but their initial target was just to finish higher than fourth, so Lange could at least add to his previous two Olympic bronze medals.\nIn the dramatic deciding race, the Argentines were penalized and dropped to the rear of the fleet before clawing their way back to sixth. Placing any lower, they would have lost the gold.\nThere was no immediate celebration -- they weren't sure where they had finished. Lange recalls thinking he'd missed out on a medal altogether before journalists on a nearby boat relayed the news.\n\"There was no words, really, just in my mind an absolute feeling of happiness,\" he says. \"It was a sensational moment.\"\nHave your say on our Facebook page\nWatching on the shoreline were his 87-year-old mother and his brothers, while his sons Yago and Klaus -- also part of Argentina's sailing team -- swam out to meet his boat for an emotional celebration.\n\"Luckily, Ceci spotted them,\" he adds. \"All Games are very emotional but to be at an Olympic Games opening ceremony with your sons and then to win gold like that was so special.\n\"We'd spent so much time in Rio beforehand that we had lots of Brazilians cheering for us as well.\"\nLange was given a cellphone for an interview back in Argentina -- it was left on, and the rest of his family's celebrations played out to a massive public audience. Two months on, it is still often replayed.\nMuch of the past weeks have been spent at home, where Lange has pursued his other job as a naval architect. He studied the subject in England and has just finished building his own motorboat with a hybrid engine as a hobby.\nHis prowess on the design side and on the water also saw him enlisted by Artemis Racing for the Swedish team's 2013 America's Cup campaign, which was hit by the tragic death of Andrew \"Bart\" Simpson in San Francisco Bay.\n\"That's one of the hardest moments of my life,\" Lange says, as his usually upbeat voice turns solemn. \"I was there that day and it's hard because we know how much of a great man Bart was. He was a great sailor but also a great friend to everyone, and that was so, so tough.\"\nThe effervescent Simpson would certainly have been among the first to congratulate Lange on his Olympic triumph.\nAt his age, surely that is the end for him at the Games? He jokes he has to carry on as \"it helps me remember my life every four years\" -- but he is serious when he says Tokyo 2020 is his new ambition.\nVisit cnn.com/sailing for more news and videos\n\"I do it for the love of sailing -- the outcome is just a positive side effect,\" he concludes. \"I love sailing and I love the Olympic Games. It's my life.\"\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Last year, Argentinian sailor Santiago Lange was diagnosed with lung cancer but recovered to win Olympic gold and the Rolex World Sailor of the Year award", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/08/sport/santiago-lange-cancer-survivor-sailing-awards/index.html", "title": "Cancer survivor wins World Sailor of the Year"}, "107": {"text": "It is a line that encapsulates the sporting mentality that has seen South Korean golfers swarm the upper echelons of the women's game.\nSince 2008, nearly 40% of the major championships on the LPGA Tour have been won by South Koreans. It boasts six of the world's top 10 ranked players and 40 of the top 100.\nA fiercely competitive society married with an intrinsic dedication to getting better has fostered a generation of women that has transformed and revolutionized the game.\n\"Koreans are the most disciplined people on earth,\" PGA coach Brian Mogg, who has an academy in Seoul, told CNN's Living Golf show.\n\"You tell them to do something but they don't just do it, they do it to the nth degree, and they do it hard and passionate. When you put hard work and discipline together you're going to create some success.\"\n'Se Ri Pak's kids'\nThe pioneer for this influx of golfing prodigies was Se Ri Pak.\nShe became the first South Korean to capture a major at the 1998 LPGA Championship. Such was her limited grasp of English at the time, Pak didn't realize it was a major until after she'd clinched the title.\nPak would go on to win a whopping 39 professional tournaments and five majors in a career that was spawned by a fastidious father who would occasionally make her spend the night alone in a cemetery to toughen her up.\nTen years after her breakthrough triumph, Pak's \"kids\" began to permeate the LPGA's ranks and started a trend that now sees its women dominate.\nThere have been 11 more major winners from the country since. \nInbee Park has seven to her name at just 28. World No. 1 Lydia Ko, a two-time major champ who won her first pro tournament aged just 14, was born in Seoul before moving to New Zealand.\n\"Se Ri has raised the standard of Korean golf and helped the careers of so many players,\" two-time major champion In Gee Chun says. \n\"Not only that, her success has lifted the whole golf industry in the country.\"\nHa Na Jang, who has three LPGA Tour victories and $2 million career earnings to her name, adds: \"Se Ri is a golfing legend in Korea. It's an honor for me to try to follow her path.\"\nA winning mentality\nSuch is the South Korean mentality, Pak's kids didn't just want to emulate their idol, they wanted to eclipse her.\nFrom an early age only those who win are rewarded, creating single minded competitors who work tirelessly to reach the peak of their profession.\n\"When I look at American players I can see that they're friends, cheering for each other,\" Jang explained. \"But there is a lot of rivalry between Korean players. They consider each other as competitors, not as a friend or fellow player.\"\n\"This sense of rivalry makes me work harder all the time,\" Chun adds. \"If I see others achieve success it makes me work harder to achieve my goals. I think everyone has that kind of competitive spirit.\" \nChan-Goog Yang, head pro at Seoul's Sky 72 club, develops the theme further.\n\"In Western culture, although the winner is important, they respect all competitors and reward them for their effort, regardless of where they finished,\" Yang says. \n\"In Korea, however, only the winner is rewarded. Only first place. This has an effect on young children who learn from an early age, no matter what form of competition, you are either a champion or nothing.\"\nSingle minded\nThis unflappable temperament is vital out on the course, when a golfer often has to battle their own mind as well as the opposition.\nTrusting your swing is imperative, and this is where a paucity of golf courses in South Korea has actually proved beneficial. Most players hone their skills on the driving range instead, which can make their swing water tight.\nAdd that to the rest of the package, and it's no wonder South Koreans are ripping it up on the links.\n\"With other sports an umpire decides whether you've won or lost,\" Yang explains. \"Whereas in golf, results can be seen straight after you hit the ball, which is why it fits so well with a Korean's character. \n\"Phrases such as \"see you later,\" \"let me see\" or \"we'll see\" -- phrases that suggest waiting -- do not suit a Korean's character. It's all about \"what I do\" and \"what I get.\" Koreans need to know what they have done and what they will receive immediately, which fits right into golf.\"\nAs world No. 12 So Yeon Ryu explains, on the rare occasion a bad shot occurs, South Koreans are well equipped to deal with it.  \n\"We all learn how to control our mind especially when you're upset or when you're happy so Koreans just naturally know how to manage your anger or your happiness because it's our culture,\" she said.\nRevitalizing the Tour\nThis surge of South Korean superstars has not only changed the golfing landscape on the course, but also revitalized its fortunes off it.\nFive years ago there were 23 events on the LPGA Tour. That numbers now stands at 33, and 14 of those are sponsored by Asian companies.\nEight of those tournaments are being staged in Asia this season, while the Korean Ladies' Professional Golf Association organizes 78 national tournaments a year with prize money totaling $20 million. \nYoung players progress through three levels of competition, and by the time they take flight towards the United States and the LPGA Tour, they are primed to prosper.\nHave your say on our Facebook page\nSo, too, is the LPGA. Its first retail store in Seoul opened recently, and it plans 100 more in South Korea by 2018.\nBut it is on the course that success will continue to be measured, and according to Mogg, the very fabric of South Korean culture is the best support the game can have.\nVisit cnn.com/golf for more news and videos\n\"It's pretty much a disciplined culture, very much an inherent and rigid way in terms of daily roles and how you follow these patterns of behavior and golf is an extension out of that,\" he said. \n\"I think that's probably at the root of why you're seeing so much success.\"\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "South Korea has dominated women's golf since Se Ri Pak's breakthrough major victory at the 1998 LPGA Championship.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/02/golf/golf-korea-pak-park/index.html", "title": "South Korea: Factory of champion golfers"}, "108": {"text": "A blend of youth and experience proved to be a winning formula with youngest member Emily Moffitt, 21 and veteran John Whitaker starring alongside Bertram Allen and Eduardo Menezes. \nThe team had won four previous rounds during the 15-leg 2016 championship and were handsomely rewarded for their efforts bagging more than $8 million prize money between them. \nIt proved to be a nail-biting climax to the season in the Qatari capital with Valkenswaard United narrowly taking the overall title with 328.5 points, ahead of the Antwerp Diamonds on 326 and the Monaco Aces -- who dropped out of the title race after Daniel Bluman clocked 12 faults -- on 315.5.\nFrom the beaches of Florida to the floodlights of the spectacular Al Shaqab arena, the Valkenswaard quartet have topped the overall standings throughout the 15-leg series, having won victories in Miami, Hamburg, Monaco and Vienna.\n\"It's been brilliant, it's been a long season,\" said Bertram Allen. \"We were battling out the whole year. If you're not consistent and fully revved up and concentrate, you have a bad result and that will compromise the end of the season.\"\nIt was a close-run competition that Valkenswaard United almost lost a grip on in Doha when Allen racked up 12 faults, only just scraping into the second round as eighth-place team.\n\"I was really disappointed with my fence down,\" said Whitaker. \"That put pressure on Bertram to get a fast clear to keep us up there.\n\"We only just made the second round. I jumped clear and I thought: 'we are in with a shot' again. I'm very relieved to win, we have had a great season.\"\nQatar's showjumping palace\nThe Doha edition of the GCL was won by the Paris Jets with Rolf-G\u00f6ran Bengtsson and Nicola Philippaerts jumping seven seconds clear from the rest of the competition to claim their first win of the series.  \nShow jumping is rapidly growing in the Middle East state of Qatar. Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, was at the Al Shaqab arena to witness the conclusion to the GCL team competition.\nThe stadium was founded in 1992, and has gone on to become one of the world's leading equestrian facilities, staging international events in showjumping, dressage and endurance riding.\n It boasts an equine hospital, a swimming pool to aid animals' recovery, air-conditioned stables, and large indoor and outdoor stadia. The venue's floodlights mean that this weekend's competition is taking place at night, too.\n Visit cnn.com/equestrian for more news and videos\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "On the day they finished sixth, but for Valkenswaard United it was enough to take the inaugural Global Champions League title in Doha, Qatar.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/04/sport/valkenswaard-united-gcl-team-champions/index.html", "title": "Valkenswaard Utd wins prestigious team title"}, "109": {"text": "Australia went down 37-10 at Eden Park in Auckland, prompting Wallabies coach Michael Cheika to say: \"The way they play the game is outstanding.\"\nAccording to the All Blacks official website, Cheika said of their record-breaking run: \"I don't think they need our comments. \n\"We have to learn that you cannot turn the ball over against these chaps because they will punish you.\"\nHis reaction follows a bad-tempered atmosphere between the fierce rivals ahead of Saturday's game and in the post-match reaction.\nThe New Zealand Herald earlier published a full page cartoon of Cheika with a red nose and under the heading \"Send in the clowns.\"\nAustralian captain Steven Moore was quoted by the newspaper as saying it had been \"disrespectful.\"\nAnd Cheika echoed the comment in his post-match interview on the official Wallabies website.\nNew Zealand coach Steve Hansen downplayed the clown incident after the record-breaking win, denying that the All Blacks lacked respect. \n\"Our guys respect them a lot, we went to war with these guys,\" he said on the All Blacks site.\n\"At what point does winning mean you are not respecting them.\" \nThe win marks another high point for New Zealand. The team made a clean sweep in The Rugby Championship, finishing top of the southern hemisphere competition with six victories and 30 points.\nAll Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett was top scorer with 81 points, and the top try scorer was teammate Ben Smith with five.\nVisit cnn.com/rugby for more news and videos\nThe focus will shortly move to the northern hemisphere with the autumn internationals. Ireland has the toughest task in the first round of matches on November 5 as it takes on the record-breaking All Blacks, while Australia faces Wales in Cardiff.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "The mighty All Blacks have underlined their dominance of the game, setting a world record of 18 straight Test wins with victory over the Wallabies.", "site": "cnn", "url": "http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/22/sport/all-blacks-record-bledisloe/index.html", "title": "Record-breaking All Blacks sidestep clown affair "}, "110": {"text": "The prospects for the UK's public finances have deteriorated by \u00a325bn since the March Budget, an influential think tank has warned.\nThe Institute for Fiscal Studies said weak growth would lead to lower-than-expected tax receipts, increasing borrowing by \u00a325bn by 2019-20.\nThe weaker prospects for the economy would result in a \"significant increase in the deficit\", it said.\nIts forecasts come ahead of the Autumn Statement on 23 November.\nThe event will mark Philip Hammond's first significant test since he became chancellor.\n\"The new chancellor's first fiscal event will not be easy,\" said IFS research economist Thomas Pope.\n\"Growth forecasts are almost sure to be cut, leading to a significant increase in the deficit even if all the very challenging spending cuts currently planned are in fact delivered.\" \nMr Hammond has already said he will prioritise spending on new homes and transport rather than following his predecessor George Osborne's aim to balance the books by 2020.\nThe IFS said he now had \"two big decisions\" to make; one on whether he should increase spending or cut taxes to boost the economy and the second on what new fiscal targets he should announce.\nMr Pope said given uncertainty over the economic outlook, Mr Hammond \"might be wise to respond cautiously for now\".\n\"Any new fiscal targets should be reasonably flexible,\" he said.\nSeveral groups have reduced their UK growth forecasts and raised their inflation forecasts since the EU referendum.\nLast month, the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for 2017 UK economic growth to 1.1% as it warned that the global recovery remains \"weak and precarious\".\nInternational body the OECD also cut its forecast for next year from 2% to 1%, saying: \"Uncertainty about the future path of policy and the reaction of the economy remains very high and risks remain to the downside.\"\nLast week, the Bank of England upgraded its growth forecasts for this year and next, but cut expectations for 2018 to 1.5% from 1.8%.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "The prospects for the UK's public finances have deteriorated by \u00a325bn since the March Budget, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37902922", "title": "UK public finances to be '\u00a325bn worse off' by 2020"}, "111": {"text": "Theresa May has rejected calls to relax Indian visa rules, saying the UK has a \"good system\" for applications.\nThe prime minister, who is in Delhi to pave the way for the UK's first post-Brexit trade deal, said the UK was already able to attract \"the brightest and the best\" from outside the EU.\n\"Nine out of 10 visa applications from India are already accepted,\" she said.\nBut she said the UK could give ground if Indians who overstayed their visas could be returned more swiftly.\n\"The UK will consider further improvements to our visa offer if, at the same time, we can step up the speed and volume of returns of Indians with no right to remain,\" she told reporters.\nHer government also intends to make it easier for wealthy Indian business executives to come to the UK.\nA small group of high-net-worth individuals and their families will be offered access to the Great Club - a bespoke visa and immigration service - to make visa applications smoother.\nThousands of Indians on work visas will also be able to join the Registered Travellers Scheme which will mean they can get through UK border controls more quickly.\n\"As we leave the EU, we want to ensure that the UK remains one of the most attractive countries in the world to do business and invest,\" Mrs May said.\nThe prime minister flew into Delhi late last night to be greeted by the worst smog this city has seen in nearly 20 years.  \nWhere better to get a taste of life beyond the EU - than India. With such deep historical links between the two countries - surely the UK can cut through the bureaucratic smog that saw Brussels spend nearly a decade negotiating, but ultimately fail to agree a deal with the world's fastest growing economy. \nBut Indian business leaders are confused. No-one knows what the UK's relationship with Europe will eventually look like, and many are unsure about how much can be usefully discussed until the UK has withdrawn from the EU - a point that is at least two years away. \nSome things are clear and all too familiar. Trade and immigration are linked. If the UK wants better access to Indian markets, the government in Delhi wants a looser approach to UK work and student visas. This week saw Britain's visa rules for foreign visitors tightened. \nSpecific deals will be announced over the next 24 hours but more clarity around a trade relationship that has stagnated or even declined in recent years is likely to remain enveloped in the Delhi smog. \nVisa issues risk dominating Theresa May's first trade trip since becoming prime minister.\nIndia's Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a technology summit in Delhi he wanted to encourage \"greater mobility\" for its young people in education. \nHe said: \"Education is vital for our students and will define our engagement in a shared future. \n\"We must therefore encourage greater mobility and participation of young people in education and research opportunities.\"\nCobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria earlier said restrictions on staying in the UK after their studies meant the number of Indians attending UK universities had halved in the past five years.\nHe said \"movement of people\" would form a key part of any trade negotiations.\nThe number of study visas issued to Indian nationals fell from 68,238 in the year to June 2010 to 11,864 five years later, official UK figures show.\nThe solution, according to Karan Bilimoria, is to exclude foreign students from Britain's statistics on net migration, which Mrs May has pledged to cut to below 100,000 annually - down from 336,000 in the year to June 2015.\n\"We need to immediately get the government, Theresa May, on this visit to announce and say 'we're no longer going to include international students within the net migration figures,'\" crossbencher Lord Bilimoria told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.\nHe added: \"The reality is Theresa May when she was home secretary did deliver very, very negative messages towards immigration.\"\n\"She has got a lot of bridge-building to do when she goes to India.\"\nMrs May will be accompanied on the three-day trip by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and trade minister Greg Hands as well as representatives from 33 UK companies.\nDeals expected to be confirmed during the trip include:\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Theresa May rejects calls to relax Indian visa rules, saying the UK has a \"good system\".", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37891734", "title": "Theresa May rejects calls to raise Indian visa quota"}, "112": {"text": "The Bank of England has made a dramatic rise to its inflation forecast for next year, predicting that the rate will almost triple.\nThe Bank now expects inflation to hit 2.7% next year, up from the current rate of 1%.\nIt also raised its forecast for economic growth next year to 1.4% from 0.8%, but cut expectations for 2018 to 1.5% from 1.8%.\nAn interest rate cut this year was no longer an option, the Bank indicated.\n\"In light of the developments of the past three months, all MPC [Monetary Policy Committee] members agreed that the guidance it had issued following its August meeting regarding the likelihood of a further cut in [the] bank rate had expired,\" the Bank said.\nThe sharp rise in inflation expectations was blamed on the slide in the pound since the referendum, which is driving up prices of imported goods.\nThe Bank does not expect inflation to return to its 2% target until 2020.\nThe revisions to growth indicate that the Bank now thinks the impact of the Brexit vote will be felt later than expected.\nInflation is an approaching risk and the economy is facing difficult times ahead, according to the Bank.\nYes, it has upgraded its growth forecasts markedly for this year and next.\nBut it has downgraded growth for 2018 as business investment and trading relationship uncertainty start to feed through to economic output.\nThat downgrade is so substantial that at the end of 2018, the Bank believes the economy will be on aggregate more than 2.5% smaller than expected before the Brexit referendum vote.\nThat's a bigger relative decrease in output than the Bank predicted earlier this year.\nThis is economic pain delayed, not cancelled.\nMore from Kamal\nReaction to Bank's rate decision\nOther forecasters see an even more dramatic rise in inflation. This week the National Institute for Economic and Social Research said it expected inflation to quadruple to about 4% in the second half of next year. \nThe think tank also warned that prices would \"accelerate rapidly\" during 2017 as the fall in sterling is passed on to consumers.\nExplaining the raised growth forecasts for this year and next, Bank governor Mark Carney said that, since the vote to leave the EU, household spending had held up better than expected.\n\"For households, the signs of an economic slowdown are notable by their absence,\" he said.\nBut he warned that households would see \"very modest\" growth in their incomes over the coming years.\nThe Bank of England argues that food and energy prices have stopped falling and an increase in the price of imported goods will weigh on household budgets.\nThe Bank also warned that Britain's access to EU markets could be \"materially reduced\" following Brexit, which would hit economic growth over a \"protracted period\".\nThe pound jumped higher against the dollar and euro - to $1.24 and \u20ac1.12 - following the Bank's move away from a rate cut and the High Court's ruling that parliament must vote on the start of the Brexit process. \nMr Carney said the court defeat for the government was \"just one of many twists and turns that are likely to happen\" as the UK leaves the European Union.\nHe told BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed there was already economic uncertainty about Brexit, but that at the moment households were \"looking through that uncertainty\".\nThe Bank governor also reiterated he would leave his post in 2019, even if the court ruling means the Brexit process is delayed.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "The Bank of England makes a dramatic rise in its inflation forecast, with no rate cut expected in 2016.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37860880", "title": "Bank sees sharp rise in inflation in 2017"}, "113": {"text": "Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said he will be staying on an extra year after his initial term comes to an end in 2018, to help oversee the UK's Brexit negotiations with the European Union.\nMr Carney's decision came after increasing speculation about his future as the head of the Bank of England.\nGovernors are traditionally appointed for an eight-year term, but when Mr Carney took the job in 2013 he initially signed up for five years, with an option for a further three. He has now said he will stay until June 2019.\nIn his letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond, Mr Carney said his move should help \"contribute to securing an orderly transition to the UK's new relationship with Europe\".\nDuring the referendum, Mr Carney had come under pressure from some Brexit campaigners for his remarks that voting to leave the EU would push the UK into a recession - seen by some as outside the governor's non-political remit.\nThe governor defended his intervention, saying the Bank's role was to \"identify risks, not to cross your fingers and hope risks would go away\". \nNevertheless, this sparked calls for him to resign.\nMr Carney \"never seems to want to recognise the result of the referendum and get on with it,\" said one MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, recently. \nSince his arrival three years ago, Mr Carney has presided over measures designed to boost the UK economy in the aftermath of the global economic crisis.\nThere have been bouts of quantitative easing - pumping money directly into the financial system.\nHe introduced a policy of \"forward guidance\" at the Bank, also aimed at raising confidence; though just six months after its implementation in 2013 this needed a rethink.\nThe Bank had originally said it would not consider raising interest rates until the unemployment rate fell to 7% or below.\nBut when that seemed likely to happen much sooner than anticipated the Bank altered its stance, saying it would focus on a range of economic variables rather than just the jobless numbers before changing rates.  \nBut Mr Carney did then give clear hints that rates would have to gradually rise towards 2017.\nInstead, the opposite has happened, and in the wake of the UK's Brexit vote the Bank actually cut rates to 0.25% this summer. \nWhen Mark Carney became the Bank of England's governor in June 2013, he was the first non-Briton to be appointed in the Bank's 300-year history.\nHe came after a successful stint as Canada's central banker, where he was credited for shielding the country from some of the worst effects of the 2008 financial crisis.\nIn March 2008, just a month after his appointment, he cut Canadian interest rates. This and other measures helped boost market confidence and enabled Canada to recover from the crisis more quickly than some of its peers.\nLikened more than once to the Hollywood actor George Clooney, ahead of his arrival in the UK Mr Carney was touted as a \"rock star\" banker, a change from the usual Bank of England head.\n\"He's got star quality, and he knows how to use it,\" said fellow Canadian and former government colleague Scott Reid.\nMr Carney's appointment was a break with tradition in many ways. \nHe had a commercial banking, as well as a public sector background - unlike his two most recent predecessors who had spent their careers within the Bank of England and academia.  \nMr Carney worked for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs in New York before returning to Canada to work for the country's Finance Department - and then Canada's central bank.\nAnother difference was the size of his pay packet, which was well above that of his predecessor, Sir Mervyn King.\nHis starting annual salary of \u00a3480,000 (plus \u00a3144,000 pension allowance) was \u00a3175,000 more than Sir Mervyn received - and that's not counting his \u00a3250,000 annual accommodation allowance.\nSo what is it about Mr Carney that separates him from other central bankers? \n\"He's extraordinarily charismatic,\" says Scott Reid. \"You go to his speeches and you'll find them just as dry as anyone's. \n\"But it's the way he does things, he takes the time to linger on you... and the public and the press find that very intoxicating.\n\"He such a fetching figure - but let's not be shy about that. He's conscious of it. He's shrewd when it comes to his image.\"\nMarried to an Englishwoman, the 48-year-old's postgraduate education was at Oxford University, where he studied economics.\nHis former tutor during his Masters degree, economist Peter Oppenheimer, says \"he was a typically bright, transatlantic student\". \n\"That sounds terribly old fashioned, but he wasn't the sort of young man who walked around in torn sweaters.\" \nProf Oppenheimer says Mr Carney was an interesting choice to run the Bank of England. \"He wasn't an insider, he wasn't an academic economist, and he was a practical banker of a certain kind. \n\"The really good governors of the post-Second World War period have been people with practical banking experience, such as Gordon Richardson and Robin Leigh-Pemberton. \n\"They have been the outstanding governors. More so than Bank insiders, or people with long academic careers.\" \nIt's been said Mr Carney wanted to stay to help the UK through the challenges of Brexit, and that leaving early might be seen by some of his critics as admitting defeat.\nCrucially, he has the backing of the Prime Minister, Theresa May, who believes he is the right person to be Bank of England governor.\nThere is also the matter of market confidence. \nFollowing the referendum result and all the personnel changes in the Conservative government, many in the markets see Mr Carney as one of the few voices of continuity in the UK. \n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "When Mark Carney became the Bank of England's governor in 2013 he was the first non-Briton to be appointed in the Bank's 300-year history. He will now stay until 2019.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23050597", "title": "Mark Carney: The 'film star' Bank of England governor"}, "114": {"text": "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the 500 ($7.60) and 1,000 rupee banknotes will be withdrawn from the financial system overnight.\nThe surprise move, announced on Tuesday evening, is part of a crackdown on corruption and illegal cash holdings. \nBanks will be closed on Wednesday and ATM machines will not be working.\nIndia is overwhelmingly a cash economy. New 500 and 2,000 rupee denomination notes will be issued to replace those removed from circulation.  \n\"Black money and corruption are the biggest obstacles in eradicating poverty,\" Mr Modi said.\nPeople will be able to exchange their old notes for new ones at banks over the next 50 days but they will no longer be legal tender.\nThe announcement prompted people across the country to rush to ATMs that offer 100 rupee notes in an attempt not to be left without cash over the next few days.\nThe move is designed to lock out money that is unaccounted for - known as \"black money \" - which may have been acquired corruptly, or be being withheld from the tax authorities. \nFinance Secretary Shaktikant Das warned people with large stashes of hidden cash that banks would closely monitor the exchange of old notes for new ones.\nMr Modi has set his stall out as a modernising, anti-corruption crusade. \nScrapping notes that are very, very common is his biggest offensive yet. Most transactions in daily life are in cash and 45% of those are in notes in denominations of 500 rupees and over.\nNot a single news organisation seemed to know this was coming. I saw one news anchor produce a wad of 500s from his own pocket on air wondering whether these were now just pieces of paper - and also wondering if the bars of Delhi would see a sudden surge of business.\nIt has caught the country completely off guard. There will also be limits on cash point withdrawals over the next couple of weeks.\nRead more from Simon here\nThe 500 and 1,000 rupee notes are the highest denomination notes in the country and are extremely common in India. Airports, railway stations and hospitals will only accept them until 11 November.\nPeople will be able to exchange their money at banks between 10 November and 30 December.\nMr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came into power in 2014 promising to bring billions of dollars of black market money into the country's financial system. His government is half way through its term of office.\nThe announcement comes just over a month after the government raised nearly $10bn through a tax amnesty for Indians to declare hidden income and assets.\nThe BBC's Justin Rowlatt in Delhi says the issue of \"black money\" is a huge problem in India and the latest move is the prime minister's big demonstration that he is taking it seriously.\nThe idea is to lock out money that is unaccounted for and make it visible for tax purposes - banks will be happy to exchange a few thousand rupees, but will be asking questions of those who turn up with hundreds of thousands or millions in currency.\nThere are no precise figures available but experts say the government's move could be \"a very powerful measure\" to curb \"black money\".  IIFL Holdings Ltd Chairman Nirmal Jain told Bloomberg that it will have \"a deflationary impact in general and more specifically on real estate prices - making homes affordable\".\nIt seems not. An individual can put as much as he or she likes into the bank - but withdrawals are limited so the banking system may end up being flooded with cash.\nGovernment guidelines say it is possible to exchange 4,000 rupees - but it is not clear if this is per day or in total.\nCritics say the new rules may make it especially difficult for people who choose to keep their cash at home rather than in a bank account and for people with large rupee cash reserves who live abroad.\n If there is a legitimate explanation for the cash, the authorities say, it will be possible to exchange it.\nCash points will close on Wednesday and in some places also on Thursday - a development that it seems may cause cash blockages or queues at ATMs.\nIt's a bold step because many people who voted for Mr Modi were small traders who overwhelmingly did their business in cash.\nOur correspondent says these are people who probably do have a few hundred thousand rupees - a few thousand dollars - stored under their beds and will have problems when they turn up in the bank on Thursday trying to change their money.\nThe move leaves a lot of uncertainty about the Indian economy at least in the short term.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "India's PM says existing 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes will be withdrawn from the financial system overnight.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37906742", "title": "India scraps 500 and 1,000 rupee bank notes overnight"}, "115": {"text": "The Scottish government will seek to oppose the UK government in the Supreme Court during the appeal over the triggering of Article 50.\nThe High Court ruled last week that MPs must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU.\nThe UK government immediately said it would appeal to the Supreme Court, with a hearing due next month.\nThe Lord Advocate, Scotland's most senior law officer, will now apply to be heard in the case.\nA spokesman for Downing Street said it would be for the courts to decide whether the intervention was granted, but insisted it would \"work very closely with all of the devolved administrations as we develop our plans for negotiating our exit from the EU.\"\nPrime Minister Theresa May argues that the result of the EU referendum - and existing ministerial powers - means MPs do not need to vote on the triggering of Article 50.\nBut a panel of three High Court judges agreed with campaigners that the move would be unconstitutional, and that parliament would need to vote before the formal process of leaving the EU can begin. \nScotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, believes that the consent of the Scottish Parliament and the UK's other devolved parliaments and assemblies should also be sought before Article 50 is triggered. \nThe Scottish government had legal representatives observing the High Court case, and later said it was considering whether to become directly involved when the appeal is heard.\nConfirming that it would seek to intervene, Ms Sturgeon said she believed Scotland should be treated as an \"equal partner\" in the United Kingdom.\nIf the Supreme Court was to allow the Scottish government's intervention and ruled against the UK government, it could mean there would have to be a vote on Article 50 in Holyrood as well as in Westminster.\nThe Welsh government has also said it will seek a role in the Brexit appeal case, while the Northern Ireland Attorney General has told a court in Belfast that one of two legal challenges to Brexit should be fast-tracked directly to the Supreme Court.\nMs Sturgeon stressed that she was not attempting to veto the process of England and Wales leaving the EU.\nBut she said the \"democratic wishes of the people of Scotland and the national parliament of Scotland cannot be brushed aside as if they do not matter\".\nVoters taking part in June's referendum were asked the question: \"Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?\" \nIn the UK as a whole the leave campaign won by 52% to 48%, but voters going to the polls in Scotland decided by 62% to 38% to remain in the EU.\nMs Sturgeon has pledged to do all she can to protect Scotland's place in Europe, and to maintain its membership of the single market. \nBy BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith\nAs if Theresa May didn't have enough on her plate following last week's High Court ruling forcing the government to give MPs a say before Brexit is triggered, now the Scottish government has piled in.\nIn effect it has said if MPs are going to be given a say, the Scottish Parliament should also have to give its approval.\nThe difficulty for Mrs May is that she knows the Scottish Parliament is overwhelmingly opposed to Brexit and her fear will be that Nicola Sturgeon is in effect threatening to blow Brexit out of the water.\nScotland's first minister insists she is not playing the veto card. She respects the right of the rest of the UK to leave the EU, but wants to protect the interests of Scotland which voted against Brexit.\nIt may be she is simply trying to increase her leverage over Theresa May to try and secure a particular Brexit deal for Scotland - something Mrs May has already ruled out.\nBut there is another problem and it is on delay - the danger that Brexit gets snarled up in the courts. \nWe have already had the High Court ruling - the Supreme Court  will decide on the appeal in January - and now Scottish lawyers are piling in and the danger is the timetable of triggering Brexit by March gets put through the legal shredder.\nThe first minister said: \"The Scottish government is clear that triggering Article 50 will directly affect devolved interests and rights in Scotland. \n\"And triggering Article 50 will inevitably deprive Scottish people and Scottish businesses of rights and freedoms which they currently enjoy.\n\"It simply cannot be right that those rights can be removed by the UK government on the say-so of a prime minister without parliamentary debate, scrutiny or consent.\"\nShe also urged the prime minister to \"live up to her promise to treat Scotland as an equal partner in the United Kingdom and listen to the will of the people of Scotland\".\nAnswering questions from journalists, the first minister was pressed on the basis on which the Scottish government will seek to involve itself in the case.\nShe said: \"If there is a need for legislation in the House of Commons that raises the question of legislative consent, not just in the Scottish Parliament but in Wales and Northern Ireland as well.\n\"If that is going to be an issue that the court is looking at... then it is absolutely right that the Scottish government is formally represented to make sure that the views that we would take around these processes are heard by the court.\"\nThe first minister said she would not go into the detail of what the Lord Advocate will argue, but made it clear she personally believes the UK government should seek approval for triggering Article 50 through a legislative consent motion at Holyrood.\nShe also said she believes there are those both in the Welsh and Northern Irish governments who would take a similar view about their own parliaments.\nMs Sturgeon is due to unveil proposals for a \"flexible Brexit\" - which would see Scotland remain in the single market even if the rest of the UK leaves - in the coming weeks. \nThe Supreme Court has set aside four days, from 5 until 8 December, for the appeal hearing, which will see all 11 Supreme Court justices sit on the panel.\nJudgment will be reserved at the conclusion of that hearing and follow at a later date, probably in the new year.\nAll five parties in the Scottish Parliament backed remaining in the EU ahead of the referendum, but the Scottish Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats have warned Ms Sturgeon against using the result to push for a second vote on Scottish independence.\nScottish Labour said it supported the objective of getting the \"best possible deal for Scotland\", which it said meant \"remaining part of the UK and retaining a close \nScottish Greens MSP Ross Greer said it was \"reasonable that MSPs who represent the people of Scotland are consulted before any steps are taken to remove us from Europe against our wishes.\"\nAnd Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie called on the prime minister to \"end all this and simply accept that there must be a democratic vote before Article 50 is invoked\". \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "The Scottish government will seek to oppose the UK government in the Supreme Court over Article 50.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37909299", "title": "Scottish government seeks to intervene in Brexit case"}, "116": {"text": "US voters are choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump after a gruelling and rancorous presidential election campaign. \nMrs Clinton and Mr Trump cast their ballots in New York polling stations, alongside their spouses.\nHigh turnout is being reported across the country with polling stations due to begin closing on the East Coast at 19:00 EST (24:00 GMT).\nMr Trump has again declined to say whether he will accept the results.\n\"We're going to see how things play out,\" the Republican candidate told Fox News on Tuesday, while alleging there had been voting irregularities. \"I want to see everything honest.\"\nSome polling locations have reported equipment failures and long lines, but they appeared to be routine problems. \nMr Trump filed a suit against the Clark County Registrar of Voters in Nevada, accusing the state of keeping early voting stations open longer than the designated closing time. \nBut a judge rejected the request, citing concerns about revealing the identities of poll workers. \nThe Manhattan real estate mogul's lawyers had asked for relevant early ballots not to be mixed with other ballots.\nPolling in Nevada shows the race between Mr Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, is extremely tight. \nMrs Clinton voted at her local polling station in Chappaqua, New York, with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at her side. \nThe former Secretary of State told reporters: \"I know how much responsibility goes with this. \n\"So many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country, and I will do the very best I can if I'm fortunate enough to win today.\"\nResults are expected some time after 23:00 EST (04:00 GMT on Wednesday) once voting ends on the West Coast. \nState projections will not be available until polling ends - in most states between 19:00 EST (24:00 GMT) and 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT). \nThere are signs of a high turnout among Hispanic voters, which is believed to favour Mrs Clinton.\nMr Trump was expected to attract support mainly from white voters without college degrees.\nFinancial markets and betting exchanges have largely predicted a Clinton win.\nHowever, Mr Trump has predicted he will pull off an upset victory like Britain's \"Brexit\" referendum in June to leave the European Union.\nOn the eve of the vote, opinion polls gave Mrs Clinton a four-point lead over Mr Trump.\nA record number of Americans - more than 46 million - voted early by post or at polling stations.\nElection day voting began just after midnight in the small New Hampshire village of Dixville Notch, where seven votes were cast - four for Mrs Clinton, two for Mr Trump and one for the libertarian Gary Johnson.    \nAll 50 states and Washington DC are voting across six different time zones.  \nAmericans are also voting for Congress. \nAll 435 seats in the House of Representatives - where Republicans currently hold sway - are up for grabs, though it is forecast to remain in Republican hands.\nBut a third of seats in the Senate, which is also in Republican hands, are also in play, and Democrats hope to snatch control of that chamber. \nElection day follows a bitter campaign during which the candidates have traded insults and become mired in a slew of scandals.\nOn Sunday Mrs Clinton's campaign received a boost when the FBI said newly discovered emails sent by an aide showed no evidence of criminality.\nMr Trump and Mrs Clinton are seeking to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama.\nAfter two four-year terms in the White House, he is barred by the US constitution from running for re-election.\nWho will win? Play our game to make your call\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "High turnout is reported as voters choose between Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump for US president.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37904843", "title": "Election 2016: Voting under way for next president"}, "117": {"text": "Flood the Channel Tunnel. Ban cats from going outdoors. Bring back fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.\nThese are three demands - all rejected -  from users of the government's e-petitions service.\nPetitions gaining more than 100,000 signatures can be considered for a debate in parliament. \nWhile some petitions - like Jamie Oliver's petition to tax sugary drinks - can make it all the way into law, others aren't quite so successful. \nBut what the Petitions Committee gives to Jamie Oliver, it takes away from may others, rejecting petitions that fall foul of its standards - set out in full here. \nHere's a quick run through some of the most common reasons petitions never make it:\nThe Petitions Committee can't nominate someone for an honour - there's already a system in place for members of the public to nominate people directly.\nThere's hope for some petitioners though - this petition calling for police horses and dogs to be given the same legal protections as their human colleagues will be debated in parliament's Westminster Hall on 14 November. \nThe most popular e-petitions ever cover some slightly less unusual subjects.\nThe petition with the most signatures - over four million of them - called on the government to hold a second EU membership referendum if either Leave or Remain were backed by less than 60% of voters and saw a turnout of less than 75%.\nThe petition, which attracted a flood of signatures after June's Brexit vote, was debated in September, but there's been no sign of another referendum. \nAnother petition that gained widespread attention was a call for parliament to ban Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from entering the UK. \nIt was debated in January 2016. Mr Trump remains free to visit Britain.\nDespite these petitions successfully making it into the debating chamber, one member of the public felt Parliament would be better off without having to talk about them:\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Parliament debates petitions with more than 100,000 signatures - but not all of them get that far.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37870930", "title": "The e-petitions sent to government that get rejected"}, "118": {"text": "Donald Trump has been elected 45th president of the United States. But what plans has the UK got in place and what could it mean for its position in the world?\nIt is 20 January 2017 and a cold wind is blowing across Washington's Capitol as Donald John Trump raises his right hand and proclaims that he will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.\nAs he looks the chief justice in the eye, hundreds of millions of people around the world are wondering what his four-year term will bring.\nAmong them are UK civil servants and politicians, pondering - with negotiations for leaving the European Union also soon to begin - what all this means for their country.\nSo, how well prepared is the UK for dealing with Mr Trump, who has never previously held elected office, and how is the future looking?\nThe UK and US share a language and much cultural heritage, but, argues Tim Oliver, a fellow in European-North American relations at the London School of Economics, the truly \"special\" quality in their relationship is the sharing of intelligence, as well as co-operation over nuclear weapons and special forces.\nMr Oliver says there is a risk this could \"sour\" because of the \"degree of distrust and unease\" felt by the government towards Mr Trump, \"an erratic president who appears willing to do anything when it comes to torture, bombing, relations with authoritarian states\".\nCritics accuse Mr Trump of isolationism, but he describes his foreign policy stance as one of \"Americanism, not globalism\". He has suggested that Nato countries which do not pay their dues into the military alliance could lose US protection in the event of an invasion by, say, Russia.\nThe UK would not be directly affected by that, as it has met its Nato spending target. But, as the country leaves an EU moving towards closer defence and foreign policy ties, could this cause problems?\n\"A stronger Nato would suit a Brexited UK better,\" says Kori Schake, who acted as senior policy adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. \n\"But I also think he'll quickly discover how much the US gets from our allies and how important their contributions are to what the US tries to get done in the world.  It's pretty lonely out there without Nato allies.\"\nBefore the European Union referendum, President Barack Obama warned the UK it would go to \"the back of the queue\" for signing trade deals with the US if it opted for Brexit. Mr Trump, however, has been far more positive.\nHis trade adviser, Dan DiMicco, said last month that he \"absolutely\" wanted to do a deal with the UK as soon as possible after Brexit, which is set to happen in early-to-mid-2019.\n\"I could see that happening,\" says Ms Schake, \"especially since the EU seems unwilling to move forward with the US-EU deal.  \n\"A bilateral agreement with Britain could be a huge opportunity for Trump to prove he's in favour of 'the right kind of deals'.  But whether that would constitute a good deal for Britain is more difficult to say.\"\nMr Trump's election website does not mention Europe or the UK in its section on trade, focusing more on relations with China and Pacific countries.\nTheresa May did not offer an opinion on the candidate she would prefer as US president. But last year, after Mr Trump suggested that parts of London had become so radicalised that police did not dare enter, she called his remarks \"divisive, unhelpful and wrong\".\nAsked about these last month, Mrs May played down the significance of her criticism, saying: \"I made those comments in relation to some particular references he had made.\"\nForeign Secretary Boris Johnson has also made quips at Mr Trump's expense and MPs have even held a debate on barring him from the UK. So, in the early days of the Trump administration, one might anticipate some awkward moments, requiring delicate diplomacy.\n\"The UK government has a genius for figuring out how to get along with and be influential with new American administrations,\" says Ms Schake, who works as a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.\nTony Blair managed to move from a close friendship with Bill Clinton to another with George W Bush. \nMore trickily, in 1992, John Major's Conservative Party, fresh from an unexpected victory over Labour, helped George HW Bush's re-election campaign. Bush lost to Clinton and there was some initial awkwardness, which was overcome.\nThe problem is, Ms Schake argues, that \"Trump seems to be exceedingly thin-skinned and grudge-holding\", adding: \"But it's a mighty large crowd of foreigners who've had alarming or disparaging things to say, so he won't have much choice other than to take friends where he can get them.\"\nPersonal relationships are key to diplomacy and civil servants will have been gleaning as much information on Mr Trump and his potential team as they can.\n\"Hillary Clinton is clearly extremely well known in the UK. People will know the sort of people she's looking to use in her administration,\" said Jill Rutter, a former Downing Street and Treasury civil servant who works for the Institute for Government, her comments coming before the US voted.\n\"Often the people in senior positions will have held more junior or middling roles in previous ones, so you can build connections.\n\"I would have thought that extremely difficult with Trump. You can look back at the George W Bush administration, but how many of the people who served in it would do the same for Trump?\"\nMany mainstream Republicans criticised or refused to endorse Mr Trump, including both Presidents Bush and Mr McCain.\nWe know his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, will be vice-president. Other senior figures in his campaign include New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.\nMr Trump is a famous man, with a long career in business and a stint in reality TV, but, argues Mr Oliver, he comes with many \"known unknowns\", particularly the identities of those who would serve in his administration.\nAnother complication exists. In the US, senior appointees have to be confirmed by the Senate. Even with a Republican majority, the party establishment may be less than helpful, making personnel even harder to predict.\nThen, says Mr Oliver, the UK, and the rest of the world, will have to deal with \"unknown unknowns, such as what Trump might say or do next\".\n\"I don't know to what extent the British embassy in Washington has been able to get close to the Trump campaign,\" said Ms Rutter.\n\"If he gets elected, then we will have to go into the Washington version of Kremlinology, trying to work out what's really going on.\"\nWell, that's started.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, but what might it mean for the UK?", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37851551", "title": "What does a Donald Trump win mean for UK politics?"}, "119": {"text": "Pub and bar owners should provide warnings on the health dangers of alcohol or be denied a licence, a parliamentary committee has heard.\nAlison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, said customers should know \"what they are doing to their body\".\nLandlords should provide details of the calories in drinks and the impact of heavy drinking \"over time\", she said.\nLabour's Lord Davies of Stamford said it was \"unclear\" how this would work.\nThe exchange came in a hearing staged by the House of Lords Licensing Act 2003 Committee, looking at the effect of that piece of legislation - which allowed 24-hour drinking in England and Wales - and how it might be improved.\nThe act says councils have to look at issues of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm when granting or denying licences.\nMs Hernandez told peers that health should be another consideration: \"Local authorities are responsible for public health now. It's moved from the NHS, so local authorities should be including that in their day-to-day decision-making anyway.\"\nShe said: \"It's about individuals understanding what they are doing to themselves, to their bodies, to their health. There's a responsibility on the licensees, I would argue, or there should be under this objective, to make people aware.\n\"Just like we have on cigarette packets exactly what happens to you if you choose to smoke, it should say what happens to you if you choose to drink - and if you choose to drink to a certain amount, what that might have. \n\"It might be calories. It might be 'this is the amount of calories you are taking in'.\n\"It might be public health information service that says the impact of sustained drinking over time. It may be that it affects the cost of the alcohol sale.\"\nBut Lord Davies was sceptical, admitting that previous public health campaigns on sugar consumption and smoking had worked, but wondering how landlords could do the same for alcohol.\nHe said: \"It's quite unclear to me how they would apply a public health criterion in [granting licences]... It's the wrong instrument.\"\nThe 2003 Licensing Act came into force in 2005.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Bar owners should give warnings on the dangers of alcohol or be denied a licence, peers are told.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37909337", "title": "Pubs 'should reveal alcohol calories'"}, "120": {"text": "Engineers have finished assembling the telescope that will succeed Hubble.\nThe huge new observatory known as James Webb is on track to be launched in exactly two years from now.\nIt will go into space on a European Ariane rocket from French Guiana, but before that is possible the delicate hardware must be tested to ensure it will survive the ride.\nThis work will begin in the coming weeks at the US space agency\u2019s (Nasa) Goddard space centre in Maryland.\n\"We have to shake it as it will be shaken by the rocket,\" explained senior project scientist John Mather. \n\"Number two: we have to put loud noises on it, as it will feel the loud noises on launch - 150 decibels or something.\n\"From here we go down to [the Johnson space centre in Texas] and prove that it focuses. That was the number one challenge: how do you know it will focus in space, especially after we learned that Hubble was not quite in focus when we launched?\n\"We\u2019ve learned how to do that.\" \nThe James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a cooperative venture between Nasa and its European and Canadian counterparts. \nWhen the contributions from all the parties are included, the value of this next-generation science facility is close to $10bn.\nWebb will carry technologies capable of detecting the light from the first stars to shine in the Universe. \nIt will also reveal in unprecedented detail the chemistry and behaviour of planets far beyond our Solar System.\nTo help achieve this, it is fitted with a mirror that has a diameter of 6.5m - roughly seven times the light-collecting area of Hubble's main mirror.\nThis reflector is so big in fact that it must be capable of folding. \nOnly by turning the edges inwards will the beryllium/gold segments fit inside the enclosure atop the Ariane.\nAfter years of development, the past 12 months have finally seen the telescope take on a recognisable form. And on Wednesday, Nasa called a media event to showcase the progress and to mark the milestone of two years to lift-off.\nSo far, everything is on track. \u201cWe\u2019re on schedule and on cost,\u201d said Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden.\nAlthough we talk of the \"telescope\" being finished, this really only refers to the optical parts of the observatory - its mirrors and instruments. \nNot yet incorporated into the full structure is the spacecraft bus, or chassis - that part that includes all the housekeeping hardware like the computers, telecommunications systems, and the thrusters to maintain Webb\u2019s position in orbit. \nNor have engineers attached the giant shield that will shade Webb's observations from the light of our Sun.\n\"The sunshield is as big a tennis court,\" quipped Dr Mather. \"Try to imagine Roger Federer and Rafa (Nadal) running back and forth on our telescope. Imagine how large that is and what a difficult job it was. But it\u2019s finished.\"\nAerospace contractor Northrop Grumman, which leads the Webb industrial programme, will bring all the elements together once this next phase of critical testing is done.\nJames Webb is a flagship mission for Nasa, Esa and CSA. It is also a high-risk project for them all. \nAssuming the observatory survives the dangers of launch, it will take roughly six months to prepare for use by astronomers.\nThis commissioning period will involve a number of pivotal stages such as the unpacking of the mirror and the unfurling of the five-membrane sunshield. \nWebb must then also be left to chill down to make it sensitive to the infrared light coming from the most distant stars in the cosmos.\nThose six months ahead of routine science are already being dubbed the \"six months of terror\" because of the requirement for all of the in-space deployments to go exactly to plan.  And unlike with Hubble, there will be no astronauts available to fix a problem after launch because Webb will be stationed too far away for them to reach - about 1.5 million km from Earth.\nThis underlined the need to make sure the coming months\u2019 testing was performed with care, said Dr Mather. \"We need to make sure we won\u2019t be terrified by doing our job now.\"\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Engineers finish assembling the telescope that will succeed Hubble. James Webb, as it is known, is now on track to be launched two years from now.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37861015", "title": "James Webb: Two years to Hubble successor's launch"}, "121": {"text": "The Paris agreement on climate change has come into force.\nGovernments have agreed to keep the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - and preferably 1.5 degrees.\n\"This is a moment to celebrate,\" United Nations climate chief Patricia Espinosa told Reuters.\n \"It is also a moment to look ahead with sober assessment and renewed will over the task ahead.\"\nThe Eiffel Tower in Paris is expected to be lit up in green light on Friday to mark the entry into force of the historic climate pact. \nDelegates from almost 200 countries are meeting in Marrakech next week to consider the way ahead beyond Paris.\nThe deal agreed in the French capital less than a year ago commits governments to moving their economies away from fossil fuels. \nOn Thursday, a UN review of national pledges to cut carbon said they fall short of the levels needed to keep the rise in global temperatures under 2C.\nThe report found pledges from governments that have ratified the accord would see the world on track for a rise in temperatures by the end of this century of between 2.9 and 3.4 degrees C.\nRoger Harrabin, BBC environment analyst \nThe Paris climate pact comes into force less than a year since it was agreed. The last major climate deal - the Kyoto Protocol - took eight years to come into force. Paris is the first agreement tying rich and poor nations in a common endeavour to protect the climate. However, the national targets for cutting carbon emissions are voluntary. The UN tried a mandatory approach but countries that were failing to meet their targets simply quit. \nThe process of the Paris deal is binding, including a commitment for governments to keep returning to the issue to ratchet up the clean energy targets that they all agree are inadequate. Governments that rushed to enshrine Paris in law have had one eye on the US elections. Hilary Clinton has pledged to take President Obama's emissions cuts further. Donald Trump wants to tear up the agreement.\nEnvironmental groups and other experts have urged governments to do more.\nWorld Bank group president Jim Yong Kim said even with the commitments made in Paris and encouraging action on the ground, \"we will not meet our aspiration of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees unless we move faster and at the scale that is needed\".\n\"As the world heads into (the meeting) in Marrakesh, we must regain the sense of urgency we felt a year ago,\" he said.\nIn Marrakech governments and parties will work on details of a \"rulebook\" which will measure and review global climate action. \nWhat was agreed in Paris?\n\u2022         To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century \n\u2022         To keep global temperature increase \"well below\" 2C (3.6F) and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C\n\u2022         To review progress every five years \n\u2022         $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.\nDonald Trump has called manmade climate change \"a hoax\" and said he would \"cancel\" the Paris Agreement and other international efforts to address the issue. He says he supports clean water and air, but wants to slash funding to the Environmental Protection Agency in the US. \nHillary Clinton backs the Paris deal, saying climate change is a threat to American security. She supports stringent regulation of the energy industry and opposes expanded drilling in Alaska, but has not made the environment a central part of her campaign.\nRead Anthony Zurcher's global guide to where the presidential candidates stand on all the issues - and how they compare to world leaders. \nWhat solutions to air pollution make sense to you that you would like us to investigate?\nUse this form to ask your question: \nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question. \n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "The Paris agreement on climate change has come into force, with efforts due to continue next week on the way ahead.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37872111", "title": "Paris climate deal enters force as focus shifts to action"}, "122": {"text": "Scientists have transformed the humble spinach plant into a bomb detector.\nBy embedding tiny tubes in the plants' leaves, they can be made to pick up chemicals called nitro-aromatics, which are found in landmines and other buried munitions.\nReal-time information can then be wirelessly relayed to a handheld device.\nThe MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) work is published in the journal Nature Materials.\nThe scientists implanted nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes (tiny cylinders of carbon) into the leaves of the spinach plant. \nThey then delivered the nitro-aromatics into the water taken up by the roots and directly to the leaves in droplets. It takes about 10 minutes for the spinach to take up the water via the roots into the leaves.\nTo read the signal, the researchers shine a laser onto the leaf, prompting the embedded nanotubes to emit near-infrared fluorescent light. \nThis can be detected with a small infrared camera connected to a small, cheap Raspberry Pi computer. The signal can also be detected with a smartphone by removing the infrared filter most have.\nCo-author Prof Michael Strano, from MIT in Cambridge, US, said the work was an important proof of principle.\n\"Our paper outlines how one could engineer plants like this to detect virtually anything,\" he told the BBC News website.\nProf Strano's lab has previously developed carbon nanotubes that can be used as sensors to detect hydrogen peroxide, TNT, and the nerve gas sarin. \nWhen the target molecule binds to a polymer material wrapped around the nanotube, it changes the way it glows.\n\"The plants could be use for defence applications, but also to monitor public spaces for terrorism related activities, since we show both water and airborne detection,\" said Prof Strano.\n\"Such plants could be used to monitor groundwater seepage from buried munitions or waste that contains nitro-aromatics.\"\nUsing the set-up described in the paper, the researchers can pick up a signal from about 1m away from the plant, and they are now working on increasing that distance.\nFollow Paul on Twitter.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Scientists have transformed the humble spinach plant into a bomb detector.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37823909", "title": "'Bionic' plants can detect explosives"}, "123": {"text": "\"Dare to fail\" is one of those mantras that engineers like to repeat. It's how you learn.\nThat is certainly the attitude being taken by the European Space Agency (Esa) in the wake of its Schiaparelli mishap.\nThe probe's telemetry is still being analysed but it looks increasingly like the Italian-built robot did not make a soft landing on Wednesday.\nQuite the contrary. It very probably hit the ground at high speed after jettisoning its parachute too early and firing its thrusters for only a few seconds.\nBut Esa is holding to the line that no firm conclusions can be drawn until a full reconstruction of events is made from the telemetry.\nAnd even if it is shown that Schiaparelli crashed, we should still consider it a partial success. The reason? We will know why it didn't work and the lessons can then be taken forward to make sure the next landing achieves a better outcome. \nTo repeat another of those mantras: \"You're allowed to fail so long as you understand why you failed.\"\nFor Esa's ExoMars programme, of which Schiaparelli was a part, the stakes could not be higher, however. \nThe next phase - the next landing - for ExoMars would see a British-assembled rover try to put down on the Red Planet in 2021.\nThis six-wheeled robot is an expensive project and is already struggling to get the full funding it needs to proceed.\nDecisions on its budget will now be clouded by what has happened this week.\nSchiaparelli was touted as the technology demonstrator - the project that would give scientists and engineers the experience, expertise and confidence to go forward with 2021.\nThey will certainly have filled their store of knowledge. By the bucket load. But will Esa member-state ministers meeting in December still have the stomach for another Mars landing, and - more to the point - the enthusiasm to part with the 300m euros that is likely needed to carry the rover project through to completion?\nIn a press conference at Esa's mission control on Thursday, the agency's director-general Jan Woerner was bullish in his assessment of how member states would react. The progress that had been made would be \"obvious\" to them, he said. We'll see.\nAt a minimum, the ministers will want the board of inquiry set up in the wake of Schiaparelli's apparent loss to report quickly, with a clear and detailed explanation of the things that went wrong and how they can be put right.\nOn the plus side, Esa officials can point to the outstanding success of getting Schiaparelli's \"mothership\" into orbit. The Trace Gas Orbiter, as it is known, has the potential to deliver some fascinating insights on Mars' atmosphere and what its rarest molecules might say about the existence of life at the Red Planet today.\nOriginally, no observations were planned for many months while the TGO tidied up its orbit. Now, mission mangers are expecting to squeeze in some early science, just in time for those end-of-year deliberations. A good performance would be timely and perhaps give the ministers a feel-good factor.\nAnd then next week, the key parties working on the rover - including their Russian partners - will conduct a major review of the status of the much-delayed project.\nThe findings also will inform the coming budget discussions.\nIt would be a massive blow to European pride if ministers decided to abandon the aspiration to land on Mars (and the cause of no little disappointment in the UK where rover prototypes have been significant \"vehicles\" for STEM inspiration and education).\nIt would also highlight Europe's deficiency in its exploration of the Solar System. \nBeyond TGO, Esa has a satellite planned for Mercury and one for Jupiter. But neither is near-term.\nThe former doesn't get to its target until the mid-2020s, and the latter doesn't start serious science until 2030. \nThere's a daring mission to fly close to the Sun that will launch in 2018, but that's not a planetary body - not one you can land on anyway. \nAnd if we've learnt anything in the past couple of years with the Rosetta comet mission, it is that the public is most engaged when probes touch down on something.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Landing on planetary bodies is hard - as we saw with Europe's Schiaparelli probe - but it is the space endeavour that most engages the public.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37722026", "title": "Schiaparelli: The imperative to touch another world"}, "124": {"text": "Recent centuries have seen a big jump in the rates of erosion in the iconic chalk cliffs on England's south coast.\nA new study finds that for thousands of years the rocks were being beaten back by the waves at perhaps 2-6cm a year.\nThe past 150 years has seen this retreat accelerate 10-fold, to more than 20cm a year.\nThe speed-up was clocked with the aid of a smart technique that tracks changes induced in rocks when they are exposed to energetic space particles.\nThe research, led from the British Geological Survey and conducted by Martin Hurst and colleagues, is reported in the leading American journal, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\nThe group believes the findings will help us understand some of the coming impacts of climate change.  \n\"Our coasts are going to change in the future as a result of sea-level rise and perhaps increased storminess, and we want this work to inform better forecasts of erosion,\" Dr Hurst, currently affiliated to Glasgow University, told BBC News.\nThe research was centred on East Sussex and its towering cliffs at Beachy Head and Hope Gap.\nOriginally laid down 90 million years ago, these soft chalk faces are now being eaten away by the relentless pounding they get from the sea.\nDr Hurst's team was able to estimate the pace of this reversal by examining the amount of beryllium-10 in nodules of flint embedded in the eroded platform in front of the cliffs.\nThe radioactive element is produced when cosmic rays - that constantly shower the Earth - hit oxygen atoms in the flints' quartz minerals.\nThe longer the nodules have been exposed, the greater their build-up of beryllium-10.\nAt Beachy Head and Hope Gap, the gently sloping platform, which is only uncovered at low tide, extends seaward several hundred metres.\nIt represents all that is left after millennia of cliff removal. \n\"The lower rates of erosion that we report - about 2.5cm at Hope Gap and around 6cm at Beachy Head - are averaged over that timeframe - through about the past 7,000 years of the Holocene,\" explained Dr Hurst.\n\"But comparing that to observations based on topographic maps and aerial photography of the last 150 years - the difference is quite stark. These historical observations from 1870 to the present suggest erosion rates of 20-30cm a year at the two sites.\"\nThe estimates of change in the deep past are tricky because the platform appears younger than it really is.\nThis stems from the fact that its surface continues to erode downwards, removing its oldest exposed flints. The regular tidal covering of water also has to be considered because it will restrict the flux of cosmic rays reaching the platform, thus limiting the amount of beryllium that can be induced in the nodules.\nBut the team is confident in its analysis and puts forward some ideas to explain the recent big up-tick in erosion.\nThese concern the available gravels at the foot of the cliffs that constitute the beach.\nOrdinarily, this material acts as a buffer, limiting the energy of crashing waves.\nBut there is good evidence that the beaches in this region of the south coast have got thinner through time and perhaps therefore offer less protection today than they once did.\nIn the modern era, groynes and sea walls have been erected further down the coast and these may have interfered with the along-shore transport of gravels. And further back in time, several hundred years ago, it is possible also that there was a phase of more storms. These could have removed significant volumes of gravel and pushed the rates of erosion into a new, more aggressive regime that persists even now.\nCo-author Dr Dylan Rood from Imperial College London told BBC News: \"The coast is clearly eroding, and Britain has retreated fast. A nearly tenfold increase in retreat rates over a very short timescale, in geological terms, is remarkable. \n\"The UK cannot leave the issue of cliff erosion unresolved in the face of a warming world and rising sea levels. Cliff erosion is irreversible; once the cliffs retreat, they are gone for good.\"\nJonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Recent centuries have seen a big jump in the rates of erosion in the iconic chalk cliffs on England\u2019s south coast, a new study finds.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37893804", "title": "Cosmic clue to UK coastal erosion"}, "125": {"text": "Gay Premier League footballers would perform better if they were to come out, a parliamentary hearing on homophobia in sport has been told.\nBritish race walker Tom Bosworth and former NBA star John Amaechi told MPs that players would be able to focus on their sport instead of \"hiding\".\nNo current Premier League players are openly gay.\nBosworth added that a non-openly gay footballer \"cannot be enjoying life as much as he could be\". \nThe Olympian, who came sixth in the 20k race walk at the Rio Games, said his own results improved after he came out publicly.\nAmaechi, who played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz during the 1990s and 2000s, said he was in contact with gay footballers who were reluctant to come out.\n\"If someone is using 1% of their energy to stop themselves being who they are, that is the difference between being good and being great,\" said the Briton. \nBoth men were addressing the Culture, Media and Sport Committee after a recent BBC Radio 5 live survey found 82% of sports fans in England, Wales and Scotland would have no issue with their club signing a gay player.\nHowever, 8% of football fans said they would stop watching their team.\nMPs were told football needed to do more to tackle homophobia.\nAmaechi, 45, criticised the game's leaders and \"troglodyte men\" for the \"toxic atmosphere of homophobia\" in the sport and urging for tougher sanctions.\n\"Football has the money and resources to do what it wants but it purposefully does nothing,\" he said.\n\"I have spoken to Premier League football players who do not think their club would be supportive.\"\nBosworth, 26, added: \"British Athletics were fantastically supportive and I'm fortunate, but it's not like that with all sports.\n\"Football is the one that stands out. If it changes, it will be the game-changer.\"\nFormer England footballer Lianne Sanderson, who is also gay, also gave evidence to the committee and said one Premier League player coming out would spark \"a domino effect\" that would lead to others following suit.\nFootball Association chairman Greg Clarke has said the sport must do more to provide an environment in which gay players feel comfortable to come out.\nBosworth told MPs he had suffered abuse on social media after revealing his engagement to his partner during the Rio Olympics.\nHe said abuse on social media \"can be a killer\" and admitted he should have reported some comments to the police but didn't.\nHe added that his partner was sent a homophobic message, written on a swastika, in the post.\nAmaechi, born in the US but educated in Stockport, described social media trolls as \"terrorists who are not worthy of participating in public discourse\".\nHe also revealed he received around \"two death threats a year\", which were sent to either his or his sister's house.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Former NBA player John Amaechi and race walker Tom Bosworth say gay Premier League footballers would perform better if they came out.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37908505", "title": "Homophobia in football: Footballers 'would perform better if they came out'"}, "126": {"text": "Stephen Curry claimed a record 13 three-pointers in a single game as Golden State Warriors beat New Orleans Pelicans 116-106 on Monday. \nThe reigning NBA Most Valuable Player had shared the previous record (12) with Kobe Bryant and Donyell Marshall. \nHis history-making exploits came three days after the 28-year-old had failed to record a three-pointer in a game for the first time in two years. \nCurry had previously gone a record 157 games with at least one three-pointer.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Stephen Curry claims a record 13 three-pointers as Golden State Warriors beat New Orleans Pelicans 116-106 on Monday.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/37906636", "title": "Stephen Curry shoots NBA three-point record in Warriors win"}, "127": {"text": "Lewis Hamilton is doing everything he can to keep his championship hopes alive. \nWhat else can he do?\nHe has won the last two races from pole position and, had things gone slightly differently in Mexico last weekend, Hamilton might have got the break he needed.\nA few centimetres either way and title rival Nico Rosberg's car might have been damaged in his collision with Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the first corner.\nRosberg will be champion if he wins the next race in Brazil. But it could yet turn around for Hamilton.\nRosberg is playing the calculated game, which is exactly the right thing to do. His job is to win the World Championship. And no-one in six months' time will remember or care whether he won it by finishing second in the last four grands prix.\nHamilton has had the worst of the luck with reliability at Mercedes, but equally he has let himself down with a couple of shaky weekends and some bad starts.\nBut you can point at problems Rosberg has had in free practice, or some of his weak races, such as Monaco.\nUltimately, whoever is champion deserves it. And if you win a world title by beating Hamilton in the same car in races, then you have not done a bad job.\nWhen Hamilton is on his game, he has that little bit of an extra edge. But he is not always on his game, and that is what gives Rosberg hope.\nAnd you have to say that, after being given a kicking last year, Rosberg has left no stone unturned in his pursuit of this year's title.\nIf Hamilton pulls this back from the position he is in, it will have been a masterful achievement. And Rosberg has to be careful at the next race in Brazil on 11-13 November.\nKnowing he can be champion that weekend if he wins will make it all the harder for him to follow his one-race-at-a-time approach.\nWorld championships are won and lost in the head. The closer the championship gets, the more nervy a driver becomes.\nRosberg does not have to attack - he knows he can take the cautious approach.\nBut I expect Red Bull to be pretty strong at Interlagos. Their Renault engine has improved a lot recently, and the car will be quick through the twisty middle sector.\nEqually, Brazil often throws up a chaotic race, not least because the weather is so changeable.\nIt is the highest risk for Rosberg not to finish second or third, which he needs to do to stop Hamilton taking back control. A good example was 2012, when Sebastian Vettel was so nearly taken out in a first-lap collision, but survived and hung on to the championship by the skin of his teeth as his rival Fernando Alonso finished second but did not quite make up enough ground.\nThe Mexican Grand Prix ended in something close to farce. In more than 30 years in motorsport, I have never seen such a crazy situation as three people finishing third in an F1 race.\nVerstappen crossed the line third but was demoted before he got to the podium. A frustrated Vettel went to the podium and therefore had to answer all the questions he did not want to be asked. And then he found out he, too, had been penalised and the guy who finished fifth, Verstappen's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, was ultimately classified third.\nIt was a strange race, in that a manic first lap and crazy finish - produced by the various tyre strategies of Verstappen, Vettel and Ricciardo - bookended what was in between a pretty dull grand prix.\nThe series of controversial incidents during the race in Mexico City have led to a lot of discussion about Formula 1's rules and regulations in such circumstances.\nMany people - including Verstappen himself - have pointed out what they see as a contradiction between the fact that race-winner Hamilton did not receive a penalty for cutting across the grass at Turns One and Two on the first lap, and that Verstappen did for doing it later in the race.\nI have been an official driver steward at a number of grands prix. And the way the rules are operated - and all the drivers and teams know about this - there was no contradiction.\nFirstly, the start and first lap are treated differently from the rest of the race. That's not to say you can get away with anything - as was proved when Carlos Sainz was penalised for pushing Fernando Alonso on to the grass - dirty driving is still dirty driving and will be punished.\nBut little incidents, details of driving, are tolerated that would not be during the main part of the race, simply because it's an inevitably more hectic environment with so many cars together at the same time.\nOn the first lap, Hamilton locked a wheel and ran wide at Turn One. He cut across the grass and rejoined in Turn Two.\nThere were several reasons why he was not given a penalty: it was the first lap, when there is more latitude; he was not fighting with anyone - he was clearly in the lead and the battle was for second behind him; and he lifted off as soon as he rejoined the track.\nThat was quick and clear thinking from Hamilton and it was crucial because the stewards work on the basis of a rule that dictates a driver must not gain a \"lasting advantage\" by going off the track.\nThe lock-up and flat spot meant Hamilton ended up in a risky situation - it means big vibrations that not only shake the driver around but also risk breaking the suspension.\nThis famously happened to Kimi Raikkonen at the Nurburgring in 2005. He led much of the way, ran a long time on a tyre with a flat-spot on it, and the suspension shattered on the very last lap of the race.\nVerstappen fitted his medium tyres to take him to the end of the race on lap 12, whereas Vettel did not stop until lap 33 - so had tyres with 21 laps less wear on them.\nComing up behind them was Ricciardo, who fitted new soft tyres on lap 51, with only 20 laps to go.\nOn old medium tyres, it is easier to lose tyre temperature on long straights, which was almost certainly a contributing factor to Verstappen locking up at the start of lap 68.\nHe went off the track and across the grass within half a metre or so of the line Hamilton had been on at the start. \nCould he have got the car back on to the track? Almost certainly. But he would have lost at least one position to Vettel and probably another to Ricciardo as well.\nThe problem was that going across the grass meant he gained and kept a lasting advantage as opposed to losing one. Hence the penalty.\nVerstappen's refusal to give the place to Vettel set up Ricciardo's attack on the German on the penultimate lap, as the Ferrari was being held back to the Dutchman's pace.\nRicciardo got a good run on Vettel out of Turn Two and I was surprised that Vettel did not move to the inside earlier to cover and try to send him around the outside - especially as he said afterwards he knows Ricciardo will often have an \"optimistic\" attempt, without question or hesitancy.\nThat gave Ricciardo a chance to have a go down the inside and he went for it at the exact moment they were coming into the braking area.\nVettel started to close the space in the braking area. This is something that has been discussed at a lot of drivers' briefings this season, predominantly in the context of Verstappen's driving.\nA new clarification was brought out at the US Grand Prix, the week before Mexico, spelling out what was acceptable in this area.\nThe FIA said drivers' could not make any change in direction in the braking area that led to another driver having to take evasive action.\nWhy is this area so sensitive? Think back to the Australian Grand Prix at the start of the season. There, owing to a misunderstanding in the braking area, Fernando Alonso's McLaren was launched over Esteban Gutierrez's Haas into an almighty accident.\nThose are the risks of moving in the braking area.\nSo it was hardly surprising that the move was investigated and Vettel ended up being penalised.\nThe stewards did well to give Verstappen his penalty early enough before the podium ceremony; it was just a shame they could not manage that in time to get Ricciardo up on to the podium.\nVettel has escaped sanction for the expletive-laden tirade he launched over the radio in the race.\nBut he has to bear in mind that he now has six penalty points on his licence - and if any driver gets 12 in any 12-month period, that is an automatic one-race ban.\nThe Vettel we are seeing now - both in and out of the car - is not the same man who won four consecutive world titles with Red Bull, or even who won three races for Ferrari last year.\nFerrari came into this season expecting to challenge Mercedes, but it has been a disappointing year, with questionable strategy and technical errors. \nIt looked for a while as if Vettel might win the opening race of the season in Australia, only for the team to make a bad strategic call when the race was stopped for Alonso's accident. Another potential victory went begging in Canada for similar reasons.\nThey have been leapfrogged by Red Bull - Vettel's former team - and only at seven of the 19 races so far this year has Ferrari's gap to pole position been closer than it was in 2015.\nIt has become a very frustrating season and there is no question there is a lot of pressure on that team.\nEmotions are running high, and you can hear it in Vettel's radio messages, about slower drivers, blue flags, people blocking him - all expressed in the manner of someone who is very frustrated.\nYes, they are being broadcast. But they are being broadcast because he is making them. If he didn't, they couldn't broadcast them.\nHis comments about FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting - even though they were rooted in the fact that he felt no action was being taken about Verstappen, whose driving Vettel has been unhappy with on a number of occasions this year - are the ones that really caused an uproar.\nWhen you're in the car, the emotions run high. Your brain is processing things at 200mph and all the energy and adrenalin means these things can bubble out. \nI've done it as well. I remember in one race I was complaining about something and my engineer came back and said: \"Allan, keep calm.\" The exact words Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said to Vettel on Sunday. And I replied: \" I am ******* calm!\" Clearly, I wasn't.\nThe bizarre thing about it all is that Vettel was voted driver of the day by the fans, and I suspect it was at least as much to do with his outpouring of emotion as it was for his driving.\nSo, fine, warn Vettel about certain aspects of his behaviour. But the fans connect to the emotions and action involved, and F1 needs to be aware of that.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Nico Rosberg's one-race-at-a-time approach could backfire on him at the Brazilian Grand Prix as the mind games intensify.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/37861016", "title": "Lewis Hamilton's world title fortune could turn around at Brazilian GP"}, "128": {"text": "This has been the era where British sport has blessed its loyal followers like never before: fourth, third and second places in the Olympic medal table; the Tour de France yellow jersey won in four of the past five years; the miracle of a first male Wimbledon champion in 77 years, a marvel repeated three years on; the Davis Cup won for the first time since tennis was played in slacks and cable-knit jumpers.\nIt goes on. A first Olympic diving gold, a first Olympic gymnastics gold, and then a second, from the same man, a few hours later. Multiple Formula 1 world titles, Lions series won. The first woman in history to win an Olympic boxing gold, the first to retain one too.\nAnd now another bequest, from a man who has already provided so much. A British tennis player as world number one is an idea as ludicrous to recent memory as anything else in that giddy list, but with Andy Murray, we should no longer be surprised. \nTo a nation systematically unable to produce tennis champions despite finances and facilities at the elite level to embarrass others as well as itself, Murray is the gift that keeps giving.\nOnly 26 men have held that solitary ranking since the calculations went computerised 43 years ago. It is not a gimmick, or a marketing exercise, or even a reward in itself, but a defining benchmark. You cannot fluke it or get lucky with a judging panel. It is deserved. It is definitive.\n\"Being number one is the pinnacle of all the ambitions of every player,\" said Novak Djokovic, the man just deposed, when he began his own long reign three years ago. \"This is the dream.\"\nIt hasn't made every player happy. The only certain thing about being world number one is that the day will come when you will no longer be world number one.\nAndre Agassi has described how miserable it made him, how the achievement seemed to legitimise his father's cruel ambitions and obsessions rather than his own. John McEnroe, who spent a cumulative total of 170 weeks at the top of the pile, found it lonely atop the exposed summit.\n\"You're out there on your own island,\" he once said. \"And you feel like you're disengaged, not only with the rest of the world, but the rest of your competitors, some of them friends.\"\nClimbing the mountain is often an easier task in sport than defending your splendid isolation. \nThe England rugby union team who won the World Cup in 2003, having gone into that tournament as Grand Slam winners and on an unbeaten home run stretching back 22 games and four years, finished third in the subsequent Six Nations and fourth in the next two.\n\"In a game, thousands of decisions are being made, but it only needs a few to be the wrong ones for the team's fortunes to reverse,\" says Matt Dawson, scrum-half in that team. \"When it goes, it goes quickly.\"\nIt was the same for the England cricket team who rose to number one in the Test rankings after beating India in the summer of 2011: whitewashed in their next Test series, against Pakistan in the UAE, and then dismantled at home to South Africa the following summer, losing their captain Andrew Strauss and, for a while, their star batsman Kevin Pietersen.\nBeing world number one gets you respect. It also makes you a target. Everyone wants your scalp. Every defeat is automatically a headline.\nEven your own motivation can begin to slide, if only subconsciously, if only by minute fractions. How to focus on the next target when you can climb no further? Where can you go from the top but down?\nMurray's character may insulate him from those uncertainties for a while yet.  \nFind out how to get into tennis in our special guide.\nThe 29-year-old's new position reflects both his own remarkable consistency over the past 12 months and the personal and physical problems that have shackled Djokovic, but it is also testament to a desire for self-improvement only occasionally found in sportsmen of his age.\nRanked 17th in the world a decade ago, he was gloriously log-jammed at four in those four seasons from 2008 to 2011, the unprecedented trio of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal seeming to block any further ascent. \nHe dropped to sixth in 2014 after his back surgery and then appeared stymied at second for the past year as 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic went through the peak of his reign.\nThe belief and the hard work never dropped off. Different coaches, tweaked training, a renewed focus on the basics that, in this year alone, has seen his second serve refashioned and accelerated.\nIn defeat by Kei Nishikori in the US Open quarter-finals in September and Juan Martin del Potro in the Davis Cup semi-finals soon afterwards, he seemed physically spent - only to emerge revitalised in the past two months on this celebrated spree across first east Asia and now western Europe.\nAnd it is testament to self-belief too - that in an era decorated by three of the greatest players of all time, he could be crowned the best; that seven years and two months after first reaching number two, he could still take that final special step.\nPlenty of fine Grand Slam-winning players have never been world number one, Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic and Michael Stich among them. \nMany who have got there are arguably now in Murray's shadow: Pat Rafter, Carlos Moya, Marcelo Rios; definitely Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Thomas Muster; quite possibly Marat Safin and Andy Roddick, Ilie Nastase, Gustavo Kuerten and Lleyton Hewitt too.\nRankings in sport do not always reflect the accepted wisdom. Angelique Kerber may sit above Serena Williams in the women's tennis rankings, but with Williams having won five of their past six meetings and seven times as many career titles, the debate over who is the better player would be short. \nTriathlon's world rankings, based only on the year's World Series results, have Spain's Mario Mola as world number one, when every judge in the sport would define double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee as the best in the world.\nFew could dispute Nick Faldo's claim to be the best golfer in the world when he topped golf's rankings. A few days after going to number one himself, Ian Woosnam would win the Masters. \nLuke Donald's ascension in 2011 was deserved - he was the first player in history to win the money title on both European and PGA tours in the same season - but because he had never finished as runner-up in a major, let alone won one, there were those who disputed the algorithm's accuracy. So too with Lee Westwood, number one in the same year, still to win a major five years on.\nThe number alone can be less important than the aura a player brings to it. After an unparalleled 12 months - that Davis Cup triumph, winning BBC Sports Personality for the second time, reaching his first French Open final, winning his second Wimbledon, taking Olympic singles gold yet again - Murray has that too.\nAnd this may yet be the start of something even more beautiful, rather than the pinnacle. \nAfter five defeats in the Australian Open final, never will Murray have a better chance of winning it than this January, Federer and Nadal faded, Djokovic - his nemesis in four of those finals - jaded. \nThe French Open title could conceivably be the next unprecedented prize to be pouched. And then Wimbledon again, and why not, after all that has been before?\nIt is dreamy, fanciful stuff. But that has been Murray's motif: ripping up precedent, making the impossible real.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Andy Murray becoming world number one could be the start of something even more beautiful, says Tom Fordyce.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/37882468", "title": "Andy Murray: Number one ranking 'may be start' of more success for Briton"}, "129": {"text": "Saracens' in-form prop Mako Vunipola is aiming to become a \"world-class\" player under the current England set-up. \nVunipola started in all three of England's Test wins against Australia in the summer, and is likely to again start on Saturday against South Africa, with Joe Marler on the bench. \nVunipola, 25, has been one of the Premiership's outstanding performers this season, but wants to improve. \n\"The biggest message is not to be happy about where we are,\" Vunipola said.\n\"There is more accountability and responsibility on the individual. Eddie Jones [England coach] keeps sending me texts if I need a nudge,\" he told BBC Sport.  \nWhen asked whether achieving world-class status was his personal goal, Vunipola replied: \"Definitely. We want to be the best we can be.  For me it's about improving 1% in every area.\" \nAlong with younger brother Billy, Vunipola's work-rate and ball-handling skills have caught the eye over the past few months, something he traces back to his upbringing in the Pacific Islands. \n\"When I was younger, coming from Tonga, I always enjoyed having the ball in my hands,\" he added. \n\"Growing up with my brother and two cousins, we played rugby against each other a lot.\"\nAnd the older Vunipola feels that in the modern game, front-row forwards are required to handle like backs.\n\"You need all fifteen players to be complete players,\" continued Mako Vunipola, who has also played down suggestions his brother could play in the NFL at the end of his rugby career.\n\"He's got to learn the rules first,\" Mako Vunipola said.\n\"I'm excited for him if he does get the chance, but it's a long time away and he's still got a lot of things ahead of him first. \n\"So I think he is just running his mouth a little bit.\"\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "England prop Mako Vunipola believes he has the potential to become a 'world-class' player in Eddie Jones' set up.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/37908182", "title": "Mako Vunipola: England prop believes he can achieve 'world-class' status"}, "130": {"text": " Hyperloop One, the firm that wants to build a futuristic super-fast transport system, has announced that the first version may connect Dubai and Abu Dhabi.\nIn a video, it promised journey times of 12 minutes between the two cities.\nThe technology is still in testing phase so details of the deal were sketchy.\nInitially, it will explore the feasibility of building a line linking the two cities.\nHyperloop was originally  an idea from Tesla's boss and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who conceived the technical details of the transport system but left it to commercial firms to make the vision a reality.\nThe high-speed transportation system would use electric propulsion to accelerate a passenger or cargo pod through a low-pressure tube at speeds of up to 700mph. The vehicle would levitate above the track, which is likely to be built on stilts above the ground.\nThere are currently two main firms attempting to make it a reality - Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and Hyperloop One.\nHyperloop One, which hosted its Dubai announcement at the top of the world's tallest building - the Burj Khalifa - has signed a feasibility deal with the emirate's roads and transportation agency.\nIt will explore the possibility of using the technology at Dubai's Jebel Ali port.\nJourney times between Dubai and Abu Dhabi are currently an hour or more.\nIt suggested that the system could also be used to cut journey times from Dubai to Riyadh to 48 minutes and from Dubai to Doha to 23 minutes.\nRival Hyperloop firm HTT signed a deal in March to bring its technology to Slovakia, aiming to link Bratislava with Vienna and Budapest.\nThe team at Hyperloop One is expected to unveil the first glimpse of what the transportation pods will look like soon.\nProf David Bailey, from the Aston Business School, said the plan in the United Arab Emirates was \"more feasible\" than previous announcements to use Hyperloop to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.\n\"Building it through the desert means you can plan a route that is straight - it doesn't do curves very well - and the government there will see it as a way to be at the forefront of a new technology,\" he told the BBC.\nBut he added there remained a lot of \"technical and other hurdles\" to overcome, not least whether people would want to travel at such high speeds and in such a manner.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "A firm behind super-fast transport system, Hyperloop, has signed a deal in the United Arab Emirates.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37908915", "title": "Hyperloop may become reality in Dubai"}, "131": {"text": "Facebook is facing legal action over alleged bias in its housing and employment ads.\nThe claim, brought by a group of Facebook users, alleges the platform's \"ethnic affinity\" option is racially biased.\nThe option is there to enable marketers to exclude certain demographics and target others.\nFacebook said the lawsuit was \"utterly without merit\" and that it would defend itself \"vigorously\".\nThe lawsuit was filed in Northern California with the lead plaintiff named as Suzanne-Juliette Mobley, according to the Courthouse News Service. It also names up to  9,999 defendants as advertisers who allegedly \"used Facebook's platform to discriminate based on race, gender, national origin and other protected attributes\".\nIt claims that allowing advertisers to block users from seeing ads based on these groups is in violation of the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act.\nThe 14-page lawsuit adds that there is no option to exclude the demographic of \"white or Caucasian Americans from the target audience\".\nFacebook told Courthouse News that the lawsuit was without merit.\n A spokesman later told the BBC: \"We are committed to providing people with quality ad experiences, which includes helping people see messages that are both relevant to the cultural communities they are interested in and have content that reflects or represents their communities - not just generic content that's targeted to mass audiences. \n\"We believe that multicultural advertising should be a tool for empowerment. We take a strong stand against advertisers misusing our platform: our policies prohibit using our targeting options to discriminate, and they require compliance with the law. We take prompt enforcement action when we determine that ads violate our policies.\"\nPublic interest website Pro Publica led an investigation into the claims last month, creating adverts for the housing market that excluded African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics.\nWhen they showed the adverts to civil rights lawyer John Relman he concluded that they were \"as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find\".\nIn a blogpost, Facebook's head of multicultural, Christian Martinez said: \"Living in the US, most of the advertising that I see in traditional media is targeted to people in the majority - people who don't look like me, who don't speak Spanish, and who may not share my experience. \n\"The experience of ads constantly reminding you that you're different from the majority is incredibly marginalising, and it's not right.\"\nHe added that companies offering \"multicultural advertising options\" allows people to find content that is relevant to them.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Facebook faces a lawsuit over an option that allows advertisers to exclude certain ethnic groups.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37908919", "title": "Facebook sued over 'discriminatory' house and job adverts"}, "132": {"text": "YouTube has introduced support for technology that promises to make its videos appear more vibrant and realistic.\nHigh dynamic range (HDR) clips feature a wider range of colours and a greater number of brightness levels between black and white. This boosts contrast and can make images seem more detailed.\nHowever, users will require compatible screens to see the improvements.\nAnd HDR-encoded videos may also look odd when played back in normal mode.\nWhile YouTube is offering one of the first ways for the public to share videos in the new format, professional streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Video have offered HDR films and television programmes for several months.\nThe Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 video game consoles also recently added HDR support.\n\"YouTube's move is a big vote of confidence in HDR,\" said David Mercer, from the technology consultancy Strategy Analytics.\n\"It really is all about whiter whites and blacker blacks - it sounds corny, but when you've seen a really good demo, it can be quite spectacular.\n\"But we will all need HDR screens to enjoy it.\"\nMany of the latest 4K televisions support the innovation, which can help water appear to glisten, stars to sparkle and generally adds \"pop\" to footage.\nBut it is still relatively rare to find HDR-capable computer monitors or laptop displays.\nCreators will also need access to compatible video cameras and editing programs. \nApple's Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid all added support for HDR video formats in recent months. \nBut consumer-orientated software, including YouTube's own web-based Editor, have yet to do so.\nTo ensure those without compatible displays do not miss out, YouTube will, by default, play a standard dynamic range (SDR) version of a clip if necessary.\nTo make this possible, the Google-owned service will automatically generate a \"down-converted\" version of HDR material posted to its platform in a similar manner to how it already creates lower-resolution copies of uploads.\nHowever, professional video editors are normally advised against relying on such automated technology because it can cause colour shifts, which result in unnatural looking footage.\nA YouTube support document acknowledges this risk.\n\"On challenging clips, it might not deliver the perfect result,\" it says.\n\"We're working on improving automated SDR down-conversion so that it works great for all material.\"\nVideos that have been colour-graded to enhance their look will be among those most at risk of being tarnished, undermining the extra effort taken to create them.\nFor now, the only way round this is for creators to separately upload both an HDR copy of a video and a manually tweaked SDR version, which will appear on different YouTube pages.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "YouTube introduces support for HDR - a technology that makes videos more vibrant but can cause unintentional side-effects.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37908975", "title": "YouTube adds HDR technology to make videos more vibrant"}, "133": {"text": "Few pieces on this blog have provoked a reaction quite like my piece published on Friday about Apple and its \"dongle dilemma\".\nOver the weekend, many of you sent emails, tweets and Facebook messages to share your views. \nI thought I'd share a few of them here.\nA lot of the notes concerned the use of the word \"dongle\" itself.\nTim: \"I appreciate the alliteration, but 'dongle' (and 'dilemma') are wrong in this case. 'Adapter anarchy' might have been better. A dongle is not an adapter, even if Wikipedia cites it as an additional usage of the word.\"\nThis was echoed by several readers on Twitter.\n@jeffdyeruk:  \"Clearly you don't know what 'dongle' or 'legacy' means.\"\n@Dadge: \"Connectors and adapter are the right words, aren't they? Not sure why you use the word dongle.\"\nThough several readers disagreed over precisely what a dongle is, the broad consensus is that the word should be reserved for devices that can be plugged in directly - like an adapter that adds wi-fi to a laptop.\nI'd argue the word, like many in technology, is evolving to cover any little bit of kit you stick into your computer. \nBut I suspect this won't be the end of it.\nOn Reddit, Asterysk wrote: \"I still laugh at the word dongle. I'm 29.\"\nMe too, on both counts.\nIn the piece, I declared that we should perhaps give Apple a break as it often ditches bits of tech we think we can't live without, only to be proven right a year or so down the line.\nI said the company's ditching of the CD/DVD port was one case where it had got it right as barely anyone used CDs of DVDs anymore.\nWell, turns out I was wrong.\n@Warren_S_Nel: \"Just read your article about Apple, and I regularly put CDs into my brand new Windows laptop.\"\n@MWJowett: \"The last time i put a CD in my laptop was yesterday!\"\n@HampshireHog66: \"You asked 'when did you last put a CD in your PC?' Last night. It was a very good movie.\"\nBut the wider truth is that disc use has plummeted. \nServices such as Netflix and Steam mean we no longer need to head out to the likes of Blockbuster to rent or buy movies and video games - at least that's true for those of us that have a decent broadband connection\nHowever, this underlines the issue many have with Apple's latest decision.\n@mr_vpw: \"I'm not sure your comparison to the DVD drive is fair. Downloads were already standard. USB-A isn't even vaguely abandoned.\"\nThe underlying discussion of this dongle (adapter\u2026) debate is one about Apple's future direction.\nI wrote that \"only an idiot\" would write off Apple - the richest company in the world - at this point. But, via email, one reader took exception to that view too.\nRob: \"As someone who believes Apple's days are numbered, why am I an idiot to think so? Historically, Apple has almost gone under a number of times. Each time, Jobs has returned to pull the company's fat from the fire. If he can do that again, I think it's more than Apple he'll be saving.\n\"Since his passing, Apple has done nothing innovative and this recent debacle just shows just how much they still believe their brand can ignore their market, despite falling market share and strengthening competition from the Far East; and how critical he was to each of their recoveries in the past by seeing past the present to what the market needs tomorrow.\n\"I would expect a BBC journalist to consider this possibility, as well as that Apple have something up their sleeve, rather than simply insulting those who's opinion differs from his; especially when that opinion has historical support and his does not.\"\nI, of course, didn't meant to insult Rob, or anyone else. \nRather, I wanted to make the point that it's too early to write off Apple's chances to reinvent itself, and maybe even the computing industry, again. \nSteve Jobs may be gone, but other bright minds - including Britain's own Jony Ive - are still in place and could still do great things.\nWhatever happens, 2017 is shaping up to be a remarkable year in the history of Apple. A time, perhaps, as pivotal as the year leading up to the first iPod.\nWhat is striking, however, is that in all the correspondence that came my way, not one stood up in defence of Apple's choices.\nGiven its reputation for having dedicated, vocal fans, that feels rather telling.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "A blog about Apple's decision to cut the price of its \"dongles\" prompts a lively debate.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37903587", "title": "Discussing the dongles"}, "134": {"text": "The concern that the 2016 US presidential election may be hacked, by Russia or some other bad actor, could hold the same place in history as the Millennium Bug: a whole load of worry over nothing.\n\"Unless the election is extraordinarily close, it is unlikely that an attack will result in the wrong candidate getting elected,\" suggest Matt Bernhard and Professor J Alex Halderman, security experts from the University of Michigan. \nBut they say the risk the election process could be disrupted by hackers should be taken extremely seriously. \nIn the run-up to the big day, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been carrying out \"cyber hygiene\" tests on voting systems across the country. Officials are confident in the technology, but there are weaknesses that have security professionals standing by on election day ready to step in if irregularities are spotted. \nThe task facing any hacker isn\u2019t insignificant. In the US, voting is done via electronic booths, the vast majority of which are not connected to the internet. \nFurthermore, different states, and areas within those states, use different systems - a logistical headache but something of a security godsend, as a fractured system is much harder to attack en masse. \nBut any would-be election hacker wouldn\u2019t need to target the whole country, or even an entire state. Instead, finding methods to implant minute differences, in areas which promise to be a close-run battle, could both affect the national picture and be difficult to detect. \nAnd so just as candidates target swing states that could go either way, so too could hackers be looking at \"hack states\" to target. \n\"Two out of the last four presidential elections were so close that a change of a few counties in one state would have changed the result of the national presidential election,\" said Andrew Appel, professor of computer science at Princeton University, in an interview with BBC News. \n\"It\u2019s not necessary to cheat in 9,000 different jurisdictions. If the election is close in just one state, changing several tens of thousands of votes might be enough.\" \nProf Appel is part of a team of cybersecurity experts that will be working together on Tuesday to advise election officials on cybersecurity-related matters - helping to identify genuine attacks from, say, just your bog-standard computer glitch, of which there may be plenty. \n\"There may be questions about some piece of machinery that is showing some symptom,\" he explained. \n\"Does that look like a hack or is that normal? That kind of question.\" \nAny security audit, whether it\u2019s to protect a company or a property, focuses on the points of weakness. And in this election, the points of weakness are the electronic voting booths. \nThe greatest concern of the group, which is mostly a mixture of academics and security professionals, is that the security in place on voting machines in some crucial areas just isn't up to scratch. \nFor starters, 10 states use touchscreen-only voting machines, an immediate concern.\n\"You touch the screen and indicate the candidate you want,\u201d explained Prof Appel. \n\"There\u2019s no paper involved, and at the end of the day it indicates how many votes the candidate got. There would be no way to tell if it was done fraudulently.\" \nSeveral security experts have demonstrated how this process can be tampered with, by installing malicious software capable of changing a switching a person's vote once it is in the machine, or by spoofing the smart cards used to identify a voter.\nOther states use what\u2019s known as optical scan voting. That\u2019s when a voter fills in a little oval on a page to cast their ballot. It\u2019s logged by the computer, to make counting much quicker, but also stored as a hard copy. If the computer says the vote goes a certain way and there\u2019s suspicion of shenanigans, it can be crossed checked against the paper copy. \nSo where are the \u201chack states\u201d? \nVerified Voting is an organisation that tracks the use of voting machines, and their security, across the US. It\u2019s a painstakingly put together dataset which gives you an idea of the complexity of the US voting system. \nBy using this resource, and combining it with polling data, Mr Bernhard and Prof Halderman were able to isolate key states with both poor voting booth security and a tight race. \nThey named the states most at risk as Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado. \n\"As jurisdictions with close races are most vulnerable to having their results perturbed or cast into doubt, these are the ones to be concerned about,\u201d the researchers wrote. \nMost experts are in agreement that the voting machines provide the biggest risk - the key under the mat for anyone looking for a way in. \nBut hackers may look to other means to agitate the process. \n\"A well resourced adversary, for instance a foreign government, could do plenty of other things to disrupt the election,\u201d wrote Mr Bernhard and Prof Halderman. \n\"Cutting the power to a few key precincts could throw the entire election into chaos.\" \nFurthermore, Prof Appel pointed to previous incidents in which voter registration databases were breached. In September, the FBI urged districts to work with the DHS to ensure their database systems were secure. \n\"The thing that could go wrong is that a voter could show up at the polling place and be told they\u2019re not listed when in fact they should be listed,\u201d Prof Appel explained. \nIn concluding their data analysis on the at-risk states, Mr Bernhard and Prof Halderman offered a summary. \n\u201cThe 2016 election is less secure than it should be. \n\"While we think it\u2019s unlikely that hackers will be able to silently change who wins, attacks that attempt to disrupt or discredit the electoral process in critical states are a distinct possibility.\" \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Key swing states are using outdated and insecure voting systems, a source of much concern for cybersecurity experts on polling day.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37902613", "title": "US election: Experts keep watch over 'hack states'"}, "135": {"text": "Broadcaster ITV has forecast a further fall in advertising revenue because of increasing nervousness about the strength of the economy.\nThe company behind the X-Factor and Cold Feet said advertising revenue in the three months 30 September was down 4% on the same quarter last year.\nBut ITV predicted a further 7% fall in the final quarter of 2016 due to \"the political and economic uncertainty\".\nThat would see net advertising revenue fall 3% over the full year, ITV said.\n\"In recent weeks the political and economic uncertainty has increased and we are currently seeing more cautious behaviour by advertisers,\" ITV said in a trading update.\nHowever, the broadcaster said its recent push to boost other revenue streams, such as with content from its production arm ITV Studios, would help to offset the fall in advertising.\nITV's total revenues rose 5% to \u00a32.16bn, but revenue from non-advertising sources rose 15%, helped by a strong performance from its studio business.\nChief executive Adam Crozier said: \"ITV is now a much more balanced and resilient business. Even against the current uncertain economic backdrop, we expect 2016 earnings to be broadly in line with last year.\"\nITV said advertising revenues fell about 11% in October after a jump in the same month last year when it benefitted from the Rugby World Cup.\nThe group boosted viewing figures, with the main ITV channel's share of viewing up 3%. Its online viewing jumped 49% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2016.\nITV's share price rose 1% in early trading, which analysts said was probably due to the revenue fall not being as bad as many experts had forecast.\nTamsin Garrity, media analyst at Jefferies, said the figures were \"slightly better than our cautious scenario\", having pencilled in a drop of more than 8% for the fourth quarter of 2016.\nMeanwhile, George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: \"Given the current economic uncertainty, it may not be much of a surprise to see the group's customers are pulling their horns in, but it is still not good news for the group. \n\"For the time being, ITV remains the prime place to advertise on a national scale. Coronation Street's status as a national treasure isn't endangered by a weaker economy. \n\"The challenge for the group now is to retain this premier position as Netflix and others grow in the on-demand sphere. Viewing habits are changing and ITV will have to change with them.\"\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Broadcaster ITV forecasts a further fall in advertising revenue due to increasing nervousness about the strength of the economy.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37934201", "title": "ITV forecasts a further fall in advertising revenue"}, "136": {"text": "The government has been blamed for huge extra costs and lengthy delays to the modernisation of the Great Western railway network in England and Wales.\nThe National Audit Office (NAO) says the estimated cost of the project since 2013 has shot up by \u00a32.1bn to \u00a35.6bn.\nMeanwhile delays have added between 18 and 36 months to the project's timescale.\nYesterday the government said electrification of four short parts of the network would now be \"deferred\".\nThe audit office's report puts the blame for the project's problems firmly on poor government planning.\nIt said the modernisation plan was a \"case study in how not to manage a major programme\".\n\"Before 2015, the Department of Transport did not plan and manage all the projects which now make up the Great Western route modernisation industry programme in a sufficiently joined up way,\" said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.\nThe Great Western network, which stretches from London out to South Wales and the south west of England, is particularly busy and overcrowded.\nThe number of passengers arriving at Paddington during the daily peak period is predicted to rise by 81% in the five years up to 2018-19.\nBecause it will take longer to electrify the lines, the government has been forced to change a multi-billion pound order for new, all-electric trains. \nThey will now have to be fitted with diesel engines, so that they can go anywhere, but that makes them heavier, which means they are more expensive to run, more polluting and do more damage to the track. \nThey may even be slower than the trains they are replacing, so believe it or not, journeys could possibly take longer. \nAnd it is not just passengers in the south west that will suffer. \nWhen one line gets brand new trains, the old stock is used to upgrade services in different parts of the country. \nSo problems in the west country may also mean people in the north of England and Scotland have to wait longer for their better trains.\nModernisation of the Great Western network started in 2014 and involves electrifying various lines including the one between Maidenhead and Cardiff; ordering new trains; modifying or building new bridges; and changing various services.\nAmong the problems identified by the NAO were that by the time an overall plan was eventually devised last year:\nThe result, the NAO said, was that electrification alone would cost an extra \u00a3330m and the extent of that element should now be reconsidered.\nThe government auditor also said that the new trains would have to be reconfigured so that they could run under both electrical and diesel power.\nMeanwhile the Great Western franchise operator, FirstGroup, would have to bear much higher costs which, combined with less passenger revenue than expected, meant the government would earn less money than expected from the franchise.\nMr Morse added an optimistic note, saying: \"It is encouraging that since 2015 the department and Network Rail have a better grip and put in place structures to manage the programme in an integrated way.\" \n\"However, significant challenges to the timetable still remain and there is more to do to achieve value for money,\" he added. \nBut Meg Hillier MP, chair of the parliamentary committee of public accounts, was not impressed.\n\"The Department for Transport and Network Rails' failure to integrate crucial elements of the modernisation into one programme from the start has cost passengers and taxpayers' time and money,\" she said. \n\"I do not understand why it took the department two years from agreeing to buy new trains to produce a business case,\" she added.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "The government has been blamed for huge extra costs and lengthy delays to the modernisation of the Great Western railway network in England and Wales.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37914853", "title": "Great Western rail modernisation costs rocket, says NAO"}, "137": {"text": "More than 370 jobs are at risk after the US drugs giant Pfizer announced plans to shut two of its UK sites.\nThe firm said its Hospira UK Ltd site at Park Royal, north London, was expected to shut by August next year.\nIts packaging and distribution site in Havant, Hampshire, is set for closure by the end of 2020.\nThe plans are part of an ongoing review of Pfizer's worldwide operations and are not related to the outcome of the EU Referendum, the firm said.\nPfizer proposes transferring work currently undertaken at its Havant facility - which employs more than 270 people - to its site in Puurs, Belgium.  \nThe Park Royal site - which has about 100 staff - is due to complete production in May next year, with a site exit in August.  However, the firm said it was subject to consultation.\nIt added its decision to close the Park Royal site was based on it being \"an ageing facility which will require significant investment in the near future and due to the expiration of the building lease\".\nA Pfizer spokeswoman said the plans were not a reflection on the \"excellent work performed by our colleagues\" and \"in no way related to the result of the Brexit decision\".\nThe firm will work to support affected staff who will be considered for \"a limited number of positions elsewhere within Pfizer\", she added.\nPfizer plans to sell the Havant site as an ongoing pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.\nThe firm said it would work to ensure its north London customers, with existing contracts, were able to find a new supplier without any disruption to supply.\nLeader of Havant Borough Council Michael Cheshire said the authority had tried to convince Pfizer to remain in the town but added \"global economic forces have prevailed\". \nHe said it would now seek to support affected staff.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "More than 370 jobs are at risk after the US drugs giant Pfizer announces plans to shut two of its UK sites.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-37921236", "title": "Pfizer jobs at risk over UK sites closure plan"}, "138": {"text": "McDonald's is suing Florence for \u20ac18m after it was blocked from opening a restaurant on one of the Italian city's most historic plazas.\nThe fast-food giant had its plans for an outlet on the Piazza del Duomo rejected by Florence's mayor in June.\nThe decision was upheld in July by  a technical panel in charge of preserving the city's ancient heart.\nBut McDonald's, which modified its proposals to fit with city guidelines, has now launched a bid for damages.\nThe chain is claiming it has been discriminated against, and wants to recoup the \u20ac17.8m (\u00a315.9m; $19.7m) it estimates it will lose over the next 18 years, according to Italian newspaper Firenze Today.\nIt argues it put forward a plan to \"operate respectfully towards the local policies, even accepting to introduce typical local products in our offer, as requested from the local commerce regulation\".\n\"We completely agree that the cultural and artistic heritage and the Italian historical town centres have to be protected and guaranteed, as well as the traditions and the historical small shops, but we cannot accept discriminatory regulations that damage the freedom of private initiative without being advantageous to anyone,\" McDonald's told the BBC in a statement.\nBut Florence's mayor Dario Nardella says they were not prejudiced in rejecting the bid to open a branch on the piazza, famous for its Gothic and Renaissance architecture.\nHe told the city council earlier this year: \"McDonald's has the right to submit an application, because this is  permitted under the law, but we also have the right to say no.\"\nThis is the second high profile spat over an Italian location this year for McDonalds. Last month it was reported that cardinals at the Vatican had been angered by plans to open a branch in a piazza next to Saint Peter's Square.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "McDonald's is suing Florence after the Italian city rejected its bid to open a branch in a historic square.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37910431", "title": "McDonald's sues Florence for 18m euros for blocking restaurant"}, "139": {"text": "HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver has urged the government to clarify the status of EU workers in the UK.\nMr Gulliver was asked if the bank planned to move staff from its UK offices following the Brexit vote.\nHe said the government should be given time to negotiate the process of the UK leaving the European Union. \nBut he added: \"The thing I would say that is slightly more urgent is clarity around the status of EU nationals with jobs working in the UK.\"\nOf HSBC's 42,000 staff in the UK, about 2,000 are from the EU.\nThe bank warned in February, when it decided to keep its headquarters in London, that it could transfer some of its workforce to its Paris office if the UK left the EU.\nMr Gulliver's comments came as HSBC reported a sharp fall in third-quarter profits, driven by the sale of its Brazilian business.\nPre-tax profit at Europe's largest bank dropped to $843m (\u00a3678m) in the three months to the end of September, down from $6.1bn in the same period a year ago. \nHSBC took a $1.7bn loss on the sale of its Brazilian unit, and it also pointed to customer compensation in America and currency moves for the fall in profits. \nBut adjusted profit, which excluded one-off costs, rose 7% to $5.6bn, higher than analysts had expected.\nHSBC is the last of the UK's major banks to report quarterly results, after Lloyds, RBS and Barclays posted better-than-expected profits for the period.\nMr Gulliver said: \"Reported profits were down, but adjusted profits were higher than last year's third quarter in all four global businesses and four out of five regions.\" \nDavid Cumming, head of UK equities at Standard Life, said HSBC's results were \"slightly above consensus\", with costs a bit better than expected and its investment banking reasonably strong.\nHSBC shares rose 4% in Hong Kong and London. \nThe headline numbers in bank financial results can often be misleading, and that is the case with HSBC. \nA big fall in reported profits - from about $6bn in the third quarter last year to $800m this - masks what was a reasonable performance from Europe's biggest bank. \nThe headline numbers were held back by a string of one-offs - the fall in value of the bank's own debt, the $1.7bn loss on the sale of the Brazil operations, and some customer compensation payments in America. \nLook past the non-recurring items and profits were slightly better than the same period last year.\nThe bigger issue for most HSBC shareholders is leadership. Douglas Flint, the long-serving chairman, leaves next year, with Stuart Gulliver, chief executive, going in 2019. Investors want reassurance that succession planning is in hand, and that the bank will break with tradition and appoint an outsider to replace Flint. \nHenri de Castries, the French fund manager who already sits on the board, is favourite to take over, but were he to bow out then the bank would face a tricky search for a new leader. \nThere aren't many experienced financial services executives who have both the track record to sit at the top of HSBC, and the stamina to win over the myriad of regulators who will need to approve the appointment.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "HSBC's chief executive urges the government to clarify the status of EU workers in the UK.", "site": "bbc", "url": "http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37893503", "title": "HSBC boss urges government clarity on EU workers in the UK"}, "140": {"text": "Marks & Spencer is shutting 30 UK stores and converting 45 more into food-only shops as part of a major business overhaul that will slash the amount of shopfloor space devoted to its ailing clothing ranges.\nThe retailer\u2019s new chief executive, Steve Rowe, said more than 100 UK stores were in the firing line as part of a wider shakeup designed to end a long-running slump in clothing sales and devote more space to its more successful food business. He outlined plans to open 200 new Simply Food outlets. \nM&S refused to identify which 30 \u201cfull-line\u201d stores \u2013 which sell clothing, homewares and food \u2013 are to close or identify the 45 outlets that will be converted into food stores. The chain has 304 full-line stores and the closures and conversions will take five years to complete.\nThe retailer is also looking to relocate underperforming stores. Overall, the changes will mean a reduction of 10% in the floorspace devoted to racks of skirts, jumpers and trousers, with the plan expected to cost \u00a3150m over three years.\nThe turnaround plan outlined by Rowe also includes the closure of 53 loss-making overseas stores in 10 countries. They include 10 stores in China, seven in France and others in Belgium and Hungary, resulting in 2,100 job losses. Only company-owned stores in Ireland, Hong Kong and the Czech Republic will be spared.\nThe embattled retailer intends to put clothing and food on an equal footing with same amount of selling space devoted to both sides of the business. Currently two-thirds of its floor space is given over to racks of clothing and homewares. \nRowe, who began his retail career aged 15 as a Saturday boy at M&S\u2019s Croydon store in south London and took over as chief executive six months ago, insisted the decision to close stores and reduce the space given over to clothing was not an admission of defeat.\n\u201cThis is not about cutting jobs, it\u2019s about making sure we\u2019ve got the right estate for future shopping habits,\u201d he said. \nEarlier this year, he announced 500 job cuts at the group\u2019s head office in London and a plan to shift another 400 jobs out of the capital.\nThe M&S veteran is seeking to revive the fortunes of the 132-year-old retailer which has seen profits go backwards in recent years. His biggest job is stopping the rot in its clothing business which has now in its fifth consecutive year of falling sales. M&S believes the growth of online fashion shopping means it can devote more store space to food without losing sales. About 17% of M&S\u2019s clothing sales are currently made online, a figure that is expected to grow.\nRowe is also axing the chain\u2019s Indigo, Collezione and North Coast labels to focus on brands that are \u201cmost relevant to our customers\u201d including Autograph, Per Una and Blue Harbour.\n\u201cThese are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multichannel and focused on delivering sustainable returns,\u201d said Rowe.\nThe plan was not well received by investors; shares finished the day as the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 \u2013 down more than 5% as analysts complained that Rowe\u2019s plan to revive M&S was not radical enough. \u201cBeing such a large company, it is going to take some time to turn M&S round even if all goes according to plan,\u201d said Haitong analyst Tony Shiret. \u201cWe think that it should have gone further in its UK clothing space closure.\u201d\nM&S\u2019s decision to retreat from the high street will be a blow for some towns, where it is a main destination store, especially following the demise of BHS. But as more purchases are made online, stores in smaller or less attractive town centres and shopping centres are finding life difficult.\n\u201cThe closure of the local M&S will have a psychological effect and feel like another nail in the coffin for that town\u2019s high street,\u201d said Local Data Company analyst Matthew Hopkinson. Hopkinson points to places such as Swindon and Stockton-on-Tees where shoppers have been drawn away from the high street by out-of-town retail parks.\nM&S has been battered by low-cost rivals such as H&M, Zara and Primark and shoppers are increasingly spending their spare cash on leisure activities, rather than buying new clothes. The turnaround plan was unveiled as the retailer reported a 19% fall in underlying profits to \u00a3231m in the six months to 1 October.\nTo win back shoppers, Rowe has already cut clothing prices and promised to pay more attention to its most loyal group of shoppers \u2013 fiftysomething women he has dubbed \u201cMrs M&S\u201d. He said changes he had already made in the clothing business were going down well. \u201cThe initial feedback we\u2019ve had from customers has been good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve improved the fit on many garments and, for the first time in a number of years, we\u2019ve grown full-price market share.\u201d\nRowe has promised a less slavish pursuit of catwalk trends after being criticised for failing to meet the needs of its middle-aged customer base. \nHis new strategy is an about turn from that of his predecessor Marc Bolland, who believed the retailer could be a global brand and reopened stores in France after a decade-long absence.\n\u201cWe have made mistakes in the past and we are taking action to correct some of these,\u201d said Rowe, who revealed M&S would continue to expand overseas using a franchise model. The mistakes are expensive ones \u2013 it will cost up to \u00a3200m to shut loss-making stores in European markets such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as outposts in China.\n\n\n\n\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Boss says revamp affects 25% of UK floorspace with more emphasis on food, and will also shut 53 overseas shops", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/m-and-s-marks-spencer-close-80-stores-major-overhaul", "title": "M&S to close 30 UK stores and cut back on clothing"}, "141": {"text": "The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has reshuffled his government to boost bailout reforms in the hope of getting the EU to agree to critical debt relief by the end of the year. \nHeralding a new political era for his country, the embattled leader said on Sunday the time had come to expedite measures demanded by international creditors and \u201cturn the page\u201d. Hardline ministers who had criticised policies including privatisations were dumped for moderate technocrats in what was interpreted as a further shift to the centre by the man who once personified the hope of Europe\u2019s radical left. \n\u201cWe are very near the end of a long period of very difficult decisions,\u201d he told his newly assembled cabinet. Tsipras said reform negotiations had to be concluded by 5 December so that eurozone finance ministers, holding their last meeting this year, could begin debating how best to cut the country\u2019s debt. \nAt over \u20ac320bn (\u00a3285bn), Greece\u2019s debt pile is regarded as its biggest impediment to economic recovery. \nIn a move aimed at placating the lenders who have bailed out Greece three times since its economic near-collapse six years ago, the respected US-based economics professor Dimitri Papadimitriou was appointed economy minister. The 70-year-old head of the Levy Economics Institute, a thinktank, will have oversight of investment policies and EU structural funds.\nSignalling he would push ahead with the often unpopular policies demanded by Greece\u2019s lenders \u2013 the European Union and the International Monetary Fund \u2013 Tsipras also retained the finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos. The Oxford-educated economics professor has won plaudits for his low-key efficacy, in sharp contrast to his forerunner, Yanis Varoufakis.\nStergios Pitsiorlas, a veteran leftist who helped found the ruling Syriza party, was elevated to the position of deputy economy minister. In his previous role as chairman of Greece\u2019s privatisation agency, Pitsiorlas had been praised for his no-nonsense approach to disposing of cash-draining state assets. The shipping minister, Theodoros Dritsas, who was against further investment in Piraeus port by the Chinese conglomerate Cosco was among those dropped, while Panos Skourletis, the energy and environment minister, who had vehemently opposed the partial privatisation of the Public Power Corporation, was moved to the interior ministry.\nSkourletis, an established Syriza figure, was described by insiders as too powerful to be removed altogether. He was replaced by George Stathakis who had held the economy ministry portfolio. \nThe septuagenarian leftist ideologue Aristides Baltas, who had been culture minister, was similarly replaced by Lydia Koniordou, Greece\u2019s foremost female classical actor. \nA new migration ministry was also established, reflecting the country\u2019s frontline role in the refugee crisis and allowing the deputy migration minister, Ioannis Mouzalas, to tap into resources and administrative backup in his promoted role as minister. \nThe popularity of Tsipras\u2019s two-party coalition has been in free-fall. A Public Issue poll last week put the government 24 percentage points behind the centre right New Democracy, the main opposition party. Tax increases and sustained cuts to wages and benefits have corroded its support with thousands of pensioners recently taking to the streets in protest in Athens.\nWith many of the measures beginning to bite this winter, the challenges remain immense for the country still seen as Europe\u2019s weakest link. Tsipras told his 48-member cabinet that by completing reforms Greece could \u201cfollow the roadmap\u201d of being included in the European Central Bank\u2019s quantitative easing programme early next year, which would see the bank acquire Greek government debt. The government is also aiming to regain access to debt markets by the time its latest bailout expires in 2018.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Alexis Tsipras says time has come to speed up measures agreed with the country\u2019s international creditors", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/06/greek-prime-minister-tsipras-reshuffles-cabinet-to-boost-bailout-reforms", "title": "Greek prime minister reshuffles cabinet to boost bailout reforms"}, "142": {"text": "Austerity policies introduced into welfare and social care by the UK government amount to \u201csystematic violations\u201d of the rights of people with disabilities, a UN inquiry has concluded.\nIt says a range of measures aimed at reducing public spending since 2010, including controversial changes such as the bedroom tax, and cuts to disability benefits and social care budgets have disproportionately and adversely affected disabled people.\nThe highly critical report, published in Geneva on Monday afternoon, says the rights of disabled people to live independently, to work, and achieve an adequate standard of living have been negatively affected by austerity measures.\nIt makes 11 recommendations, including calling on the UK government to carry out a study of the cumulative impact of all spending cuts on disabled people, and to ensure the human rights of disabled people are upheld. \nThe report was welcomed by disability campaigners. Linda Burnip, a founder of Disabled People Against Cuts (Dpac) said it \u201ccame as no surprise to anyone who has followed the stripping away of disabled people\u2019s rights over the last six years.\u201d\nThe UK government, however, rejected the UN report, saying in a formal response its findings presented an inaccurate picture of life for disabled people in the UK. \u201cWhile the government continues to improve and build on the support available to disabled people, it stands by and is proud of its record.\u201d\nThe report is withering about the manner in which ministers have conducted welfare and social care reforms, arguing that they pushed ahead with changes even when they knew they would have an adverse impact on disabled people.\nCuts such as those to personal independence payments and the independent living fund had \u201chindered various aspects of [disabled people\u2019s] right to live independently\u201d, it says, making them more reliant on family and carers and in some instances forcing them into institutional care.\nThe bedroom tax and other cuts to housing support had led disproportionately to debt and eviction, it says. \u201cEvidence indicates that persons with disabilities affected by cuts in their housing benefits have undergone high levels of stress anxiety and depression as a consequence of the shortfalls in their budget.\u201d\nIt is highly critical of what it calls the \u201cfunctional assessments\u201d of disabled people who have applied for social security benefits, noting that their experience tended to be one where they were \u201cmerely processed rather than being listened to or understood\u201d.\nGovernment attempts to decrease the disproportionately high levels of unemployment among disabled people have had little impact, the report notes, while notorious \u201cfit-for-work\u201d tests were riven with flaws.\nIt noted that disabled people had suffered from a climate in which they were portrayed as \u201clazy and putting a burden on taxpayers\u201d. They had continued to experience \u201cincreasing hostility, aggressive behaviour and sometimes attacks to their personal integrity\u201d.\nThe report, issued by the committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, concludes: \u201cThere is reliable evidence that the threshold of grave or systematic violations of the rights of persons with disabilities has been met.\u201d\nThe inquiry was triggered after campaigners, including Dpac, made a formal complaint to the UN in 2012 about alleged violations of disabled people\u2019s rights. After two years of deliberations, the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities gave the green light to the inquiry in May 2014.\nThe inquiry report is based on an 11-day inquiry tour of the UK undertaken by two UN envoys in October 2015. The inquiry team met with more than 200 individuals, including officials and MPs as well as activists and academics.\nThe UK has been a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities since 2007. The convention includes the right to live independently, to work and to enjoy social protection without discrimination on the basis of disability.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "UN says measures aimed at reducing public spending since 2010 have affected disabled people disproportionately", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/07/uk-austerity-policies-amount-to-violations-of-disabled-peoples-rights", "title": "UK austerity policies 'amount to violations of disabled people's rights'"}, "143": {"text": "Speculation that the UK could avoid a hard Brexit from the European Union, and fears that Donald Trump might snatch a last-minute victory in the race for the White House, have helped sterling register its biggest weekly gain against the US dollar in seven years.\nThe pound\u2019s respite from its recent heavy falls on the foreign exchanges continued on Friday when it put on a cent against the US currency to trade at $1.2558 \u2013 its highest level for four weeks.\nSterling\u2019s rally came despite labour market data from the US, which strengthened Wall Street\u2019s belief that official borrowing costs in the world\u2019s biggest economy will be raised before Christmas.\nCurrency dealers paid less interest than usual to the 161,000 increase in non-farm employment last month and the 0.4% increase in hourly earnings, focusing instead on the knife-edge battle between Hillary Clinton and Trump for the presidency.\nThe pound has been rising since the start of the week after evidence of a narrowing of Clinton\u2019s opinion-poll lead and amid evidence from forward-looking business surveys that the UK economy was set to grow robustly in the fourth quarter of 2016.\nSterling then received a double-boost on Thursday when the high court ruled that the government could not trigger article 50 to leave the EU without the approval of parliament, and the Bank of England announced that it had abandoned plans for a second post-referendum stimulus.\n\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a bit of a relief rally now that the worst-case scenario of a unilateral hard Brexit has been deferred, and markets can start focusing on other factors (like) the US presidential election,\u201d said CMC analyst Michael Hewson.\nInvestors believe turbulent market conditions will continue, with a government appeal against the high court ruling scheduled for next month, and some analysts weighing up the chances that Theresa May will call an early election to push ahead with Brexit.\n\u201cJust as markets were looking forward to getting the US election out of the way, this week has seen speculation that another UK election could be right around the corner,\u201d said Paul Hollingsworth, chief UK economist at the consultancy Capital Economics.\nThe pound ended the week almost 3% higher against the dollar - its strongest performance since October 2009 \u2013 but remained 16% lower than it was before the Brexit referendum in late June.\nSterling\u2019s depreciation has been helpful for the City\u2019s main stock market yardstick \u2013 the FTSE 100 \u2013 since many of the companies included in the index have dollar earnings which are flattered by a drop in the pound.\nThis week\u2019s rise in sterling was accompanied by the biggest drop in the FTSE 100 since January. A fall of 97 points on Friday to 6,693 points brought the cumulative loss over the week to 301 points \u2013 a 4.3% decline. The FTSE 250, which includes more domestically focused companies, posted a smaller 1.8% weekly fall.\nThe last set of US labour market figures before Tuesday\u2019s election showed a slightly smaller increase in non-farm payrolls than the 175,000 rise Wall Street had been expecting.\nBut analysts said the improvement was solid enough to persuade the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, to raise interest rates at its next meeting in December. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised up jobs growth for August and September by a combined 44,000 and said annual wages growth had edged up from 2.7% to 2.8% \u2013 a seven-year high.\n\u201cIt seems that the only remaining obstacle to the Fed hiking in December would be a significant adverse financial market reaction to the US presidential election,\u201d said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at the consultancy IHS Markit.\nSquabbling between Saudi Arabia and Iran has sent the oil price down, as tension between the near neighbours threatened to derail talks aimed at cutting production by the Opec group of oil-producing countries.\nRiyadh is reportedly threatening to turn the screw on Tehran before this month\u2019s crucial Opec meeting by increasing its own output to push prices even lower.\nSaudi Arabia produces up to 10.7m barrels per day (bpd) at the moment, but Opec sources said it had threatened to open the taps much further.\n\u201cThe Saudis have threatened to raise their production to 11m bpd and even 12m bpd, bringing oil prices down, and to withdraw from the meeting,\u201d one Opec source told Reuters.\nThe cost of a barrel of Brent crude dropped to $45.02 before recovering to $45.42, down 2%, after Opec\u2019s secretary general, Mohammed Barkindo, denied Saudi Arabia had made any threats.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Political upheaval helps pound end week almost 3% higher against US dollar \u2013 its best performance since October 2009", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/04/sterling-pound-ftse-currencies-dolalr-donald-trump-brexit-hopes-eu-referendum", "title": "Sterling soars on Trump jitters and Brexit hopes"}, "144": {"text": "The UK\u2019s credit rating could be downgraded again if the government fails to retain access to the single market as part of its Brexit negotiations, a leading ratings agency has warned. \nMoody\u2019s said a loss of access could lead to lower growth in Britain over the medium-term and damage the public finances. \u201cWe would downgrade the UK\u2019s sovereign rating if the outcome of the negotiations with the EU was a loss of access to the single market as this would materially damage its medium-term growth prospects\u201d, said Kathrin Muehlbronner, a senior vice-president at Moody\u2019s.\n\u201cA second trigger for a downgrade would be if we were to conclude that the credibility of the UK\u2019s fiscal policy had been tarnished as a result of Brexit or other reasons.\u201d\nMoody\u2019s has given the UK an Aa1 rating, one notch below the top AAA rating. The ratings agency downgraded the outlook on the UK sovereign rating to negative from stable on 24 June, the day after the referendum. It stripped the country of its coveted triple A status in 2013, citing sluggish growth prospects and fiscal challenges.\nIn a report published on Wednesday, the agency said the UK\u2019s medium-term outlook was weaker than it would have been if Britain had voted to remain part of the EU, but the scale of the impact would depend on the type of trade agreement it manages to strike in Europe.\nMuehlbronner said: \u201cThe UK will have to handle multiple, complicated policy decisions in areas including global trade, immigration and regulation. Given the magnitude and complexity of these decisions, the risk is material that some might damage the UK\u2019s economic or fiscal strength.\u201d\nMoody\u2019s said its negative outlook for the UK banking system reflected \u201cBrexit-induced uncertainties\u201d, which had placed pressure on the revenues, asset quality and profitability of all UK banks. Loss of passporting rights for UK banks that operate across jurisdictions would be \u201ccredit negative but manageable\u201d, it said.\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Ratings agency says UK risks another downgrade if it does not retain single market access as part of Brexit deal", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/02/moodys-warns-uk-credit-rating-downgrade-brexit", "title": "Moody's warns of UK credit rating downgrade"}, "145": {"text": "Now that Halloween is cold in its grave, it\u2019s that time of year again. You know: spending the next month tutting whenever you hear Christmas music while becoming increasingly excited that Christmas is coming.\nThis year is particularly exciting as, for the first time, my partner and I are not spending it with either of our families but are instead staying at home. I haven\u2019t quite decided what to make for pudding yet, but I decided to get in the spirit by having a first attempt at Delia\u2019s Irish whiskey Christmas cakes.\nThis is a recipe that requires something of a run-up. In order to get the flavours right, it must be stored in the fridge for seven days, where the mixture of whiskey, Angostura bitters, raisins, currants and almonds has to be given time to mature along with your growing irritation at the large box now taking up space in your fridge to house this delicious cake.\nAt least, that\u2019s the theory. I ran into a few problems with this recipe \u2013 not least that the first time around the lag between making a hash of the recipe, and then discovering this, made it difficult to remember what, exactly, I had done wrong. I advise taking notes on the first couple of run-throughs.\nDelia\u2019s recipe uses nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. My advice is to buy the right amounts fresh to make this cake, unless you prefer the prospect of Stephen\u2019s Overwhelming Clove and Whiskey cake to Delia\u2019s mellower, authentic version.\nMy second difficulty came with the whiskey itself. I\u2019ve always wanted to persuade myself to like whiskey, as it always looks terribly sophisticated in movies, but I have yet to succeed \u2013 other than in cakes, where I like it a great deal.\nAs I didn\u2019t much fancy shelling out for a particularly high-quality bottle of the stuff, I went low-budget. (I\u2019m ashamed to admit that my preparation for this recipe consisted of googling \u201ccheap Irish whiskey\u201d and buying a bottle for a tenner.)\nI found that the resulting cake still tasted a little too strongly of whiskey \u2013 and cloves of course. It tasted like someone\u2019s mouth after an evening of cheap booze and mince pies \u2013 so if you\u2019ve ever had an ill-advised hookup at a Christmas party, and wanted to recreate the experience in cake form, I have an excellent recipe for you.\nMy advice is to slightly under-dose on the whiskey in Delia\u2019s recipe, who I imagine went for a rather better bottle than I did. That, or buy better whiskey.\nThe finished product is meant to look like an elegantly wrapped parcel, which \u2013 if you remove the word \u201celegantly\u201d \u2013 mine does.\nThe finished product a la Delia looks like the presents you buy that are gift-wrapped in-store. My finished product looks like a present wrapped by an enthusiastic child \u2013 very possibly a child who has been helping themselves to the whiskey.\nTo hold it all together, Delia uses marzipan as a joining agent. I am aware that marzipan is a divisive foodstuff \u2013 some people think it\u2019s disgusting \u2013 and I am happy to report that there are three ways around this.\nThe first is to make more of the apricot jam and whiskey mixture and use that to hold it together. The second is to use regular icing.\nThe third \u2013 and my preferred option \u2013 is to turn the page to Delia\u2019s recipe for Irish tea bread, which I made out of curiosity while waiting for the cake mixture to mature. It\u2019s simple, delicious \u2013 and to me, really tastes like Christmas.\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "The Delia project: It\u2019s time to think festive ... but do a few dry runs before making this boozy\u00a0bake for real", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/04/delia-smith-christmas-cake-recipe-stephen-bush-delia-project", "title": "Delia\u2019s Christmas cake recipe takes a little bit of practice | The Delia project"}, "146": {"text": "One in seven people around the world suffer from migraine. In the UK, migraine has a crippling economic effect, with approximately 25m days lost every year, costing the country \u00a32.3bn. But while the condition has been studied since the time of the ancient Greeks \u2013 who attempted to treat it with trepanning, by drilling a hole into the skull to release evil spirits \u2013 it remains poorly understood with few adequate treatments.\nMigraine is an inherited disorder characterised by episodes of throbbing head pain. Many patients also report nausea, sensory hyperactivity, with ordinary volumes of sound or light seeming intolerably loud or bright. Others experience aura or neurological abnormalities such as vertigo, temporary blindness and numbness. Some rare types, such as hemiplegic migraine, are single gene disorders, with a particular mutation predisposing individuals to neuronal hyperactivity, meaning that areas of the brain involved in interpreting sensory events can be easily activated. But most common forms are polygenic \u2013 in which a constellation of genes contribute. Various environmental triggers are also strongly associated with migraine, including stress, skipping meals and lack of adequate sleep.\nOur understanding of the neurological processes is still limited, but scientists are starting to put some of the pieces together. \u201cWe know that dilation of blood vessels may play a role and some of the newer treatments try to inhibit this,\u201d says Elizabeth Loder, professor of neurology at Harvard medical school.\nSerious research into migraine began only relatively recently, as for a long time many doctors believed that it was a psychosomatic condition produced by people being unable to deal with stress. \u201cIt was a disorder that most obviously affected women and so wasn\u2019t taken as seriously,\u201d Loder says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a pain disorder. Pain is subjective: we don\u2019t have any way of measuring it, which can make it very hard for people to believe it\u2019s real. Plus, on top of all of that, it\u2019s episodic, so between attacks, sufferers may look perfectly well.\u201d\nThe fact that migraine is researched at all owes a lot to the development of the medication methysergide in 1960, which was found to eliminate headaches in weeks. The drug is no longer commercially available as it was found to have serious side-effects, but its legacy remains. What had been perceived as a psychological condition clearly had a biological basis. \u201cThe market is, of course, very big,\u201d Loder says. \u201cIt\u2019s a common disorder, it lasts decades. So, that made pharmaceutical companies sit up and take notice; money poured into the field; it improved and professionalised research.\u201d\nHowever, migraine receives much less funding, compared with similarly debilitating conditions. Studies looking at money allocated by the US National Institute of Health, for example, have shown that migraine is considerably underfunded.\nMigraine is extremely common in both sexes but statistics suggest that it is more prevalent in women. Reports in the US estimate that, while 12% of the population has had an attack in the past year, this rises to 18% when women alone are considered.\nScientists suspect that cycling ovarian steroid hormones, in particular the drop in oestrogen that occurs during the menstrual cycle, are particularly provocative, especially for those genetically susceptible to the disorder. The dissipation of these hormones with age explains why some women find that migraine attacks become less common as they get older.\n\u201cI think women with the disorder are more likely than men to be accurately diagnosed with migraine,\u201d Loder says. \u201cWomen see doctors more and are less likely to be hesitant to complain about head pain than men are. Some research shows that men with the disorder tend to be investigated for other causes of headache, suggesting that doctors have a cognitive bias and they don\u2019t think of migraine as readily as they do with women.\u201d\nThe disorder is most active and troublesome during the middle years of life, when people would otherwise be at their most productive, and typically don\u2019t have as many competing causes of disability. But as you get older, the effects usually seem to diminish.\n\u201cClinically it\u2019s extremely unusual to see people in their 60s, 70s and older saying that their migraines are just as bad as they have always been,\u201d Loder says. \u201cIt does happen, but it\u2019s so uncommon that everybody sits up and takes note.\u201d\n It is thought that some of the processes that produce a severe migraine cannot happen as efficiently in older people. As we age, our arteries become stiffer and some of the vascular events that cause migraine can\u2019t happen as easily.\nA class of medications called triptans are typically prescribed. However, about 30-40% of migraine patients don\u2019t respond to the first triptan prescribed, and, for those who don\u2019t respond at all, there are few alternatives \u2013 no new migraine drugs have been developed since the early 90s. In addition, pain relief from triptans is relatively slow \u2013 they often take 45-90 minutes to take effect.\nFor chronic migraine sufferers \u2013 those who experience headaches on more than 15 days a month \u2013 the effectiveness of treatment is particularly poor, with many medications causing side-effects such as sedation, dizziness and mood change.\n\u201cThe problem is that a number of the drugs currently prescribed weren\u2019t originally developed for migraine,\u201d says Brendan Davies, consultant neurologist at University Hospitals of North Midlands and a trustee of the Migraine Trust. \u201cThey were initially developed for epilepsy or depression, before they were found to be potentially beneficial for migraine, and so they work on pathways in the brain which may not be migraine specific.\u201d\nTriptans are referred to as \u201cabortive medicines\u201d, as they treat an individual migraine attack, but drug companies are looking at injections that could prevent migraines from starting. Levels of one particular protein, CGRP, a very powerful vasodilating substance, have been found to shoot up during migraine attacks. Another protein, PACAP, is also thought to be a promising new drug target. So far, the companies have invested heavily in developing antibodies that can bind to CGRP molecules and block them. These are typically administered via monthly injections, rather than daily tablets. \u201cSo far, the results of all the published studies suggest that these treatments do work better than placebo,\u201d Loder says. \u201cThey don\u2019t completely eliminate headaches, but they reduce their frequency. In one recent study of a group who had, on average, 18 headache days a month, people who took the drug had an average reduction of 6.6 days compared with 4.2 days in those who took a placebo. The difference between drug and placebo is modest but there is an effect.\u201d\nHowever, so far only half of migraine sufferers appear to respond to CGRP antibodies, and there is no way of predicting who will benefit. In addition, little is known of the long-term consequences of blocking CGRP. \u201cI\u2019m cautiously optimistic,\u201d Loder says. \u201cFirst, these treatments are likely to be very costly, and second, CGRP is very widely distributed through the body, and there\u2019s some suggestion from animal studies that there could be long-term side-effects. They could turn out to be safe medications, but we\u2019re speculating. If you think about antibodies which have been developed for common neurologic illnesses such as MS, there have been long-term safety concerns.\u201d\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Are women more prone to them? Do they get less severe with age? And what drug treatments are on the horizon?", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/07/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-migraines-but-were-in-too-much-pain-to-ask", "title": "Everything you ever wanted to know about migraines (but were in too much pain to ask)"}, "147": {"text": "IUDs, implants, condoms and the ever-present pill: for years, contraceptive methods have remained run-of-the-mill while the search for a new alternative that could revolutionise the industry has come up short. Recent headlines have focused on the negative aspects of traditional hormonal birth control: the pill causes depression and gender mutation in freshwater fish, while a clinical trial for a male contraceptive jab was abandoned when the subjects began suffering side-effects already well-known to women.\nBut 50 years since it first became available, the pill remains the default option, and women still shoulder the responsibility for preventing pregnancies. Could software be the solution? Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, founder and chief technical officer of mobile fertility app Natural Cycles thinks so.\nUsing a sensitive thermometer and sophisticated mathematics, Natural Cycles is an old-fashioned period tracker, with extra features. The app, which launched in 2014, asks users to take their temperatures in the morning, preferably before getting out of bed, then input that into the app, which tells them where they are in their menstrual cycle. Days when a woman can get pregnant become red; \u201csafe\u201d days are green. So far, so low-tech. What makes Natural Cycles unique, though, is the algorithm developed by Berglund.\nThe 32-year-old from Malm\u00f6 in Sweden holds a PhD in particle physics and was a member of the team that discovered the Higgs boson at Cern, before developing her life-changing formula.\nThrough daily use, the algorithm learns not just how to map an individual\u2019s ovulation but to predict it, too. That allows the five days prior to ovulation to be identified in real time, alerting women to the fact that male sperm can linger for that long in their bodies, ready to pounce on an egg when it is released.\nThe app fills a gap in the market, spotted by Berglund when she felt fed up with the limited options on offer other than hormonal contraception. She devised the algorithm and started mapping her own cycle, as well as those of female colleagues at Cern. It proved so succesful that Berglund and her husband, fellow physicist and Natural Cycle\u2019s CEO Raoul Scherwitzl, decided to devote more time to the app.\nBerglund has hired a team of researchers that includes Kristina Gemzell Danielsson, a professor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Their most recently published clinical study showed that Natural Cycles, when used correctly, is as efficient in preventing pregnancies as the pill. Unlike the pill, though, it doesn\u2019t offer any cover for fertile days, which means that comparing the app to medical contraception can be tricky.\nAsking women to put faith in their phones to protect them from getting pregnant is a complicated business. In Sweden, the app was criticised for targeting young lifestyle bloggers and their impressionable readers. One example was Blondinbella, by Isabella L\u00f6wengrip, who is now a Natural Cycles investor. (L\u00f6wengrip says that the average age of her 1.3 million weekly readers is just over 30 \u2013 two years older than the typical Natural Cycles subscriber.) In December last year, the Swedish Medical Products Agency also banned the app from calling itself a preventivmedel \u2013 the Swedish word for \u201ccontraception\u201d, which is associated with purely medical birth control. As a result, it\u2019s now marketed as a \u201cfertility monitoring device\u201d that \u201ccan be used to avoid pregnancies\u201d. Berglund doesn\u2019t seem too worried, though.\n\u201cWhat we do is track fertility, right? And then women can use it how they want \u2013 it\u2019s a tool for them to use this information either to prevent or plan a pregnancy.\u201d Plus, she says, the company\u2019s research shows that younger women are more disciplined in using contraception on red days; their pregnancy rates were much lower than those of users above the age of 35.\nThe ideal app user, Berglund says, is a woman in a stable relationship who is planning to have children at some point, and who would like a break from hormonal contraception ahead of trying. Gemzell Danielsson points out that it\u2019s not a good option for women who absolutely want to avoid a pregnancy. Nor does she recommend it for anyone who has what she describes as \u201can irregular lifestyle\u201d, irregular menstrual cycles or lacks the motivation to stay on top of their cycles. The latter of these categories might account for the 45% drop-out rate that the app is currently experiencing; women who sign up but fail to keep to their thermometer schedule.\nThe most important thing about Natural Cycles, Berglund and Gemzell Danielsson argue, is that it adds an alternative method to the mix. \u201cI\u2019m still surprised that there hasn\u2019t been such a product before,\u201d Berglund says. \u201cI have been thinking about this since I was a teenager, because I didn\u2019t feel well from taking the pill.\u201d\nBerglund is critical of the conveyor-belt style in which young women are prescribed it, and the fact that birth control is still very one-sided within relationships. \u201cSweden is supposed to be the most gender-equal country, but I think when it comes to contraception \u2026 the burden is very much on the woman.\u201d Natural Cycles, she insists, is \u201cmore of a couple\u2019s thing \u2013 the woman measures her temperature and the man sometimes has to wear a condom.\u201d \u201d\nThe most important thing for the company, Berglund says, is to gain trust. \u201cThat\u2019s why we keep performing clinical studies and why we try to achieve a higher ISO class of medical device status.\u201d\nBut before Natural Cycles can become as trustworthy a contraceptive option as hormonal methods, larger-scale, independent studies will need to prove its efficacy. So while the app hasn\u2019t killed the pill just yet, it is a welcome addition.\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Cern scientist Elina Berglund developed an app to monitor her own fertility, with impressive results. Now thousands of women are using Natural Cycles to prevent \u2013 and plan \u2013 pregnancy", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/07/natural-cycles-fertility-app-algorithm-replace-pill-contraception", "title": "Could an algorithm replace the pill?"}, "148": {"text": "Devorah Baum is having a baby; her husband, Josh Appignanesi, is making a film about her having a baby. Or to be more precise, Josh\u2019s film is about what he feels about the pregnancy: because it\u2019s hard work, this pregnancy lark, for Josh. While Devorah is hoping against hope that, after three years of fertility treatment, the couple really are going to become parents, Josh is doing the really difficult bit of pregnancy: he\u2019s having a full-on, no-holds-barred existential crisis. On camera.\nHow is it for a man in the 21st century when his partner is pregnant? History has changed everything: Stone Age Josh would have gone out hunter-gathering, prepared a safe nest, fought off intruders and brought back food. Modern-day Josh is sitting in his kitchen while his wife and her girlfriends shriek with delight at news of the conception; and then the further bit of news, which is that there are in fact two heartbeats, not one. He is looking very, very scared. What does pregnancy mean for a man in the 21st century? Josh isn\u2019t the main earner. Devorah is the one with a job; Josh is the freelance, and right now he\u2019s the freelance with no work. These were, in fact, the circumstances that led to the project. \u201cJosh thought he was going to make a romcom in Italy,\u201d says Devorah, when we meet at their house in west London. \u201cAnd he said, if it falls through I\u2019ll just have to make a film about us. And suddenly it did fall through, and there he was making this film about us.\u201d\nThe result is The New Man \u2013 executive produced by David Baddiel whose 2010 film Infidel Josh directed \u2013 which opens in cinemas from 21 November. In the film, Devorah humours Josh, telling her friends she\u2019s agreed to be filmed because it\u2019s good for her husband, that making this film is giving him the space to explore his worries and anxieties about impending parenthood. Josh canvasses his male friends who are already fathers, naming those deep-seated concerns that all dads-to-be have, but few articulate (and certainly not on film). \u201cDid you feel you were being usurped? Or fear being usurped \u2026 that you were redundant, you didn\u2019t have a role? That\u2019s it: you gave the sperm, now Mummy has her little boy? Oedipal complex?\u201d\nHis friends are mumbling something that sounds like \u201cNo, no\u201d; but Josh has opened his floodgates, and the fears keep hurtling out. \u201cThere\u2019s not [going to be] enough time for me, there\u2019s not [going to be] enough love. I\u2019m someone who needs endless affection and attention and then suddenly there\u2019s this kid who needs it more than I do \u2026\u201d\nThrough most of the first half of the film, Josh looks like he\u2019s stumbled into the wrong movie. Unkempt, ramshackle, sitting around in his boxer shorts and socks, alternately pouring out his angst and ostentatiously internalising it, his grim distraction is a constant foil to the glowing Devorah\u2019s keeping-a-lid-on-it excitement as the weeks go by, and it seems more and more likely that the couple really are going to have two babies.\nAnd then, everything changes.\nIt\u2019s the 20-week scan, but true to his complex form, Josh has decided to absent himself and have a holiday in Spain with a friend. When he talked to Devorah initially she was fine with it; her mum has gone along to the hospital with her, and they\u2019re going to call him as soon as it\u2019s all over and they know the sexes of the babies, and that everything is OK. So we have Josh sitting beside an idyllic harbour in his shorts, and we have Devorah\u2019s mum phoning from the clinic with updates on how things are going. And even before the bad news, we have the sense that the increasingly agitated Josh has realised that this really isn\u2019t OK, that he should be with Devorah, that he\u2019s let her down by being away on holiday when she\u2019s negotiating such a big hurdle in the pregnancy on her own. \u201cFuck,\u201d he says, as the sun glistens on the water behind him. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful.\u201d\nAnd that is more or less the last moment in the film when it\u2019s all about Josh: because while he\u2019s on a Spanish balcony, Devorah is in a London hospital being told that one of their twin boys has a genetic abnormality and will not survive. Worse, she must carry his body through to delivery, so her womb will be a coffin as well as an incubator. And, even worse still, the dead twin may precipitate labour, in which case the unaffected twin may not make it, either.\nJosh doesn\u2019t say \u201cfuck\u201d so much after that, but now he\u2019d be entirely entitled to say that, and more often. The earth has shifted and his self-absorbed philosophical crisis has become a tragic, practical crisis in real time. And dreadful though it is, the appalling turn of events has given him his role: he must support Devorah, and he must reassure her, and keep on reassuring her, that all will be well. When a friend jokes, \u201cHow\u2019s your sex life?\u201d, Josh dismisses the question as no longer of real relevance. \u201cNo sex,\u201d he says quietly, and without any angst at all.\nAt this point, Josh explains when we meet, the film went from being an arty cri de coeur to being his prop as his world slowly crumbled around him. \u201cI wasn\u2019t coping,\u201d he admits. \u201cSometimes all I could do was turn the camera on.\u201d The movie kept him going, and he helped Devorah keep going. \u201cWe went from doing something that\u2019s so normal and ordinary \u2013 having a baby \u2013 to something that\u2019s really unusual and far less common, which is losing a baby \u2026\u201d And the circumstances of the loss were particularly confusing. \u201cThere was this clash of life narratives,\u201d says Josh. \u201cBirth is supposed to be this wonderful thing, a miracle, a time for celebration. But for us it was also about grief and loss. It was weird. We didn\u2019t know which way to go.\u201d\nThe Josh of today seems more grown up than the Josh of the film. He\u2019s still running his fingers through his curls, but the little-boy-lost look has gone. Because he\u2019s now a dad; a father of two. Manny, the twin who survived the pregnancy, is two and a half, and a surprise natural pregnancy followed quickly, so he has a seven-month-old brother, Isaiah. But it\u2019s not only the hurly-burly of family life that\u2019s changed Josh: something else altered him, something awful and deeply poignant, something we see at close quarters in his film. Because while Devorah and Manny were still in hospital, recovering from the birth, Josh had to take the tiny coffin containing Manny\u2019s twin, Ben, to a graveyard. He is seen beside the undertaker, heaping soil on to the small box, doing the most unnatural thing any of us is ever called to do on this earth: saying goodbye to a child who has predeceased us.\nAt screenings of the film they attend, Devorah and Josh always leave halfway through, before the section about the 20-week scan and loss of Ben. \u201cWhy would you put yourself through all that?\u201d asks Devorah. \u201cIt brings it all back \u2013 what\u2019s the point?\u201d Ben will always be in their hearts, but life with Manny and Isaiah is to the fore in their lives now.\nBut what about all Josh\u2019s fears? There are two new men in Devorah\u2019s life now, after all \u2013 so how is he coping? Well, he says, no question: he was right all along. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot less time for me. Fewer cuddles, less sex. All the things I worried about in the film are true. But what I couldn\u2019t have predicted was how it feels to have children. The love affair between me and my sons is overwhelming \u2013 and that\u2019s the part I couldn\u2019t have anticipated. That\u2019s the bit I couldn\u2019t have known.\u201d\n\u2022 The New Man is released on 21 November\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "About to become a father for the first time, film director Josh Appignanesi turned the camera on himself and his pregnant wife. But what started as a light-hearted project suddenly turned very serious", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/05/director-josh-appignanesi-new-man-film-wife-pregnancy-new-dad", "title": "New man becomes new dad \u2013 the very hard way"}, "149": {"text": "Picture a child entering the world, around the time that a new social networking venture known as thefacebook.com is making its own entrance to the world. It is 2004, and the child is easy to picture. Her parents have photographed their daughter\u2019s first breath, first smile, first spoonfuls and first steps. When she reaches school age, she is snapped in uniform, probably outside the front door, and one parent, probably her mother, shares the image with friends. The child learns to read, write her name. She wins certificates, excels at sport. When Twitter, Instagram and later Vine arrive, her public identities multiply. She starts secondary school.\nIn a few months, this child and her classmates will begin to turn 13 and, perhaps, create their own Facebook accounts. When they do, they will come face to face with their digital shadow. They may step into it easily, or try to sever themselves from it, but it won\u2019t let go, this pre-existent media identity, because it has logged their lives from the moment they left the womb. Some will recognise their digital shadow, but what of those whose online identity bears little relation to their sense of self, or to the public identity they want to share? For years, parents have fretted about their children\u2019s posting activities, while continuing to post as they wish about their offspring. Is it time they stopped \u2013 or at least asked for permission first?\nToday these questions are on the minds of the children at Kingsford community school in Beckton, east London, where the 13-, 14- and 15-year-old members of the Debate Mate after-school club are filing into a classroom on the first floor, slinging down school bags and glancing at the motion on the whiteboard. \u201cThis house would ban parents from posting about their children on social media,\u201d the debate leader writes.\n\u201cIt\u2019s kind of weird your parents are still posting pictures of you on social media,\u201d someone says. One boy, Malachi, bows his head and writes a single word on his notepad: reputation. \u201cThis is really about consent,\u201d his friend says. \u201cDo I want to be seen by a larger, broader range of people?\u201d There is a loud hum of agreement and one girl raises her voice: \u201cParents! We don\u2019t want them invading our privacy. Because some of us, the only privacy we get is through social media.\u201d\nThese pupils often discuss social networking sites, their attractions and perils, but this is the first time they have turned their scrutiny on their own parents. And yet parents are the object of an increasingly aggressive interrogation. This spring a mother from Shropshire called out her son\u2019s bullying on Facebook, only for the post to go viral; the criticism of her became so intense she removed it and changed her Facebook page and phone number. Next came the 20-year-old mother from Balloch, Scotland, whose photographs of her 11-month-old daughter in tiny high fashion outfits attracted an Instagram following that included Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian \u2013 until critics claimed the woman was sexualising her baby. She has since locked the account and gone to ground. After her came the Arizona father who nakedly cradled his naked, feverish baby in the shower, an image his wife snapped and shared, before Facebook removed it as offensive.\nExcessive sharing about your children has long incited disapproval, but recently the disapproval has begun to acquire a proto-legal tinge. In March, French police warned parents against posting photos of their children on social media; according to social media analyst Eric Delcroix, the children could soon be able to sue them for posting inappropriate pictures, under the country\u2019s privacy laws. The treasurer of the UK\u2019s Human Rights Lawyers Association, Leanne Targett-Parker, echoes the idea that it is only a matter of time before children mount legal challenges against oversharing parents. \u201cYou can\u2019t imagine it not being something that starts to develop within the next five to 10 years,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t see how there can\u2019t be attempts at suing people for putting up posts that they\u2019re unhappy with.\u201d\nSome parents may shrug off the shaming stories \u2013 and the professionalised sharing of family vloggers such as the Shaytards, the Brataleys, the Ballingers \u2013 as beyond the range of their own moderate social media activity. But listen to the children in the Kingsford classroom and it becomes clear how many degrees there are of shame. To these teenagers, even small instances of sharing can be divisive. When I ask if anyone has experienced being overshared themselves, hands shoot up, but the answers are a long way from the public shaming that normally grabs headlines. They are exactly the sort of infringements that many parents will commit without a second thought.\n\u201cI was eating a Subway. Chicken teriyaki. Eating that and my mum just took the picture and posted it on Facebook,\u201d one pupil says.\n\u201cWhen I was little my parents took a picture of me being potty-trained. Three weeks ago they posted it on Facebook. Me on the toilet. It was really embarrassing,\u201d another adds.\n\u201cI was with my aunt in the park. I was wearing my scarf but I didn\u2019t have a pin. It flew off and my hair was all raggedy, sticking up all over the place. My auntie put it on Facebook. I was so embarrassed I was crying. I asked her to take it down but she said, \u2018No, it looks cute.\u2019\u201d\n\u201cMy uncle posted when his daughter had diarrhoea: \u2018Pray for her.\u2019\u201d\nOne girl, 14, raises her hand. \u201cParents love to post things about you, personal information that you might not like,\u201d she says. \u201cWhich kind of affects your relationship with them. Now, when you want to speak to them about certain things, you\u2019re worried they might post it.\u201d\nHer classmate Erin stands up. Her team supports the motion on the whiteboard \u2013 that parents should be banned from posting \u2013 and they have an idea. \u201cWe want to pass a law that requires open forms of social media to put a consent button on their pages, so a child can report whether their parents have posted about them without consent,\u201d she declares. \u201cIf parents refuse to cooperate, they will be fined the amount of \u00a31,000.\u201d\nThese suggestions may sound excessive and unfeasible; in fact they lie squarely within the recommendations made by a number of adults campaigning in this field. Erin\u2019s idea of a penalty, for instance, echoes the attempts by a Democratic state representative in Illinois, La Shawn K Ford, to make the shaming of children on social networking sites an offence. Offending parents should face a penalty, he has argued, which, just like Erin\u2019s, would be a fine paid directly to the child. As for the apparently far-fetched idea of a \u201cconsent button\u201d, this sounds uncannily similar to the \u201cdelete button\u201d proposed by 5Rights, the campaign steered by the peer and film-maker Beeban Kidron to protect and empower children online.\nMore generally, the debaters\u2019 irritation chimes with research published in March by a team at the University of Michigan. After interviewing 249 parent-children pairings across 40 US states, the researchers found that children were more than twice as likely as parents to say that adults should not post information online about them without permission. Would the Kingsford children concur? Class E11 rings with shouts of, \u201cYes!\u201d\n\u201cIt ain\u2019t going to happen,\u201d their teacher, Miss Alimi, says.\n\u201cMiss!\u201d one of her students cries. \u201cThere\u2019s a thing called wishful thinking.\u201d\n***\nMiss Alimi is right: children are unlikely to gain control over their parents\u2019 posting habits. But there is still scope for a conversation about what constitutes fair sharing, and each family will draw its lines differently. Consider the case of Heather Whitten, the Arizona-based photographer and teaching assistant who took the photograph of her husband and son in the shower that Facebook didn\u2019t like. Whitten saw the moment, and the image, as the height of parental care. Their toddler, Fox, had had a temperature for hours. Her husband, Thomas, was trying to cool the child\u2019s fever. For two years, Whitten kept the image private, finally posting it in May after Facebook removed other pictures she had shared of her children. She wanted to take a stand, \u201cto show that it\u2019s just innocent pictures that people are twisting and getting offended by\u201d.\nShe was unprepared for the response \u2013 for the way in which Facebook removed images from her page every time it received sufficient complaints, for the level of disapproval the image provoked, including claims that it was \u201csexual\u201d or \u201cinappropriate\u201d. But Whitten\u2019s stand had one other unexpected consequence. As the interested and the outraged followed the link to her blog, some began to question the legality, as well as the sense, of showing children naked. \u201cI just thought you were free to post what you wanted on the internet,\u201d Whitten says now. But then she discovered that in the state of Arizona, \u201cyou can\u2019t show any naked images of children\u2019s pelvic area or butt, and I realised I was technically breaking a law.\u201d\nShe removed the blog \u2013 \u201ctook everything down\u201d \u2013 but \u201cin the bigger, moral sense, I don\u2019t feel I\u2019ve done anything wrong. I\u2019m not exploiting my children. I\u2019m not abusing my children. I\u2019m just sharing our lives exactly how they are.\u201d\nWhitten\u2019s experience shows just how nebulous and fraught the territory of sharing can be. Sure, her experience would never befall those for whom posting naked images of children is strictly out of bounds. But the case of Whitten is complicated. She and her partner are raising their children \u201cto not be ashamed or embarrassed of their bodies\u201d. They are living online within the offline boundaries they have set for themselves. \u201cPeople don\u2019t show nudity a lot of times because they think it will have a negative impact on their child. Your footprint is for ever on the internet,\u201d Whitten says. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s absurd. I just hope to combat that a little. Who knows how it will actually turn out, but I hope that my children won\u2019t ever look back and see pictures of themselves as children and feel embarrassed by other people seeing them as well. Because there is nothing to be embarrassed about.\u201d\nFox, the toddler in the shower, is still too young to veto or cherish the photograph that caused such controversy, but his older sister Lily, nine, \u201cloves it\u201d, according to her mother. \u201cShe couldn\u2019t really wrap her head around why people would think there was anything wrong with it.\u201d\nAnd yet, while Lily was comfortable with the image of her baby brother, she was deeply unhappy with other photographs her mother had uploaded \u2013 the apparently harmless kind that many parents post. One day at around the age of six, Lily began to scroll through her mother\u2019s Instagram. \u201cShe saw how many pictures there were of her and she didn\u2019t like it,\u201d Whitten says. For months, whenever Lily saw Whitten with the camera, she hid. \u201cThat really opened up a conversation about why I take pictures, why I share pictures, who I share pictures with.\u201d Now, Whitten says, \u201cany time you see Lily, it is with her permission\u201d.\nAlicia Blum-Ross, a researcher at the London School of Economics, believes we are entering a crucial moment. \u201cWe are starting to see kids who have grown up, whose parents have shared images, and who are beginning to say: \u2018Wait a minute. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m comfortable with that.\u2019\u201d What families need, she thinks, is a coming-of-age conversation. After all, it was Lily Whitten herself, at six, who instigated the dialogue with her mother that earned her the right to veto content. Does Lily have advice for other children? \u201cThey should say, \u2018Please don\u2019t take any pictures of me \u2013 it makes me uncomfortable,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd \u2018I might change my mind one day, but today I don\u2019t want to have to hide from your camera.\u2019\u201d Soon this \u201cdigital rulebook\u201d chat might become as standard as the one about the birds and the bees. Blum-Ross sees nothing to fear. Both parties, she points out, are united by being the first generation \u2013 of parents and children \u2013 to negotiate this path. \u201cIt can be a really shared experience,\u201d she says enthusiastically. \u201cThe dilemmas are shared dilemmas, the pleasures are shared pleasures. It\u2019s a moment of overlap.\u201d\nBlum-Ross, who has three-year-old twins, says she is \u201cnot a person who advises total protection. I certainly wouldn\u2019t say, \u2018Don\u2019t share things about your children online.\u2019 It\u2019s important that parents are able to claim their own space about that. It\u2019s OK to say, \u2018I need this community.\u2019\u201d Whitten, too, has always seen her sharing in those terms: \u201cI feel I share everything as my story \u2013 this is my perspective on my life as a mother with these children. I\u2019m not trying to put words in their mouth, or tell the story from their perspective.\u201d\nIt is one of the oldest questions of storytelling: who does the story belong to? Blum-Ross, Whitten and countless others believe they are telling their own stories, and sharing posts about their children where they fit that perspective. But it\u2019s complicated. \u201cI never had a filter before,\u201d says Whitten, sounding forlorn. \u201cI love the idea of having connections with other mothers and people. But I can\u2019t share the way I used to.\u201d After the Facebook furore, she is still fathoming whether to photograph differently or simply stop sharing.\nFor other parents, such as the author Amy Webb, who has written about her commitment to post nothing about her daughter online, the same process of consideration deters them from sharing altogether. They have the big conversation \u2013 with themselves, each other, sometimes their children \u2013 and decide the best answer is silence.\nWhen the Guardian asked readers about their experiences, Apricot, who is 30 and lives in the north of England, wrote: \u201cWhen I started to Facebook my own child\u2019s pictures, I began to feel intensely uncomfortable. How could I instil in her a principle of privacy when I had essentially devalued hers from the beginning?\u201d She stopped posting. \u201cWhat we post is facets of ourselves,\u201d said Tamasine Preece, a teacher in Bridgend, whose PhD includes a chapter on oversharing. \u201cI think there is a morality to using children to explore parts of ourselves. My children are not me. They are separate.\u201d\nKidron, who says she has never interacted with her children on social networking sites (they are now 19 and 21), thinks that her behaviour reflects the idea that \u201coversharing is inappropriate when the whole point of the journey to adulthood is to self-define \u2013 to work out who you are, what your values are, how you\u2019re going to fit in. I think we have not thought hard enough about what that process might be like, if so much is shared and so much is public.\n\u201cThere are three issues here,\u201d she says. \u201cOne is the right to a certain sort of privacy. The second is the need of young people to transgress and bump into their edges, and for that to be somewhat safe. The third is the need to break away from the model of your parents.\u201d\nMy own Facebook posts dried up as I researched this article. Of course, I can ask my children for consent, but I am not sure they are ready for a responsibility with permanent consequences. If an eight-year-old consents to a post, is it fair to act upon that consent, or should a parent second-guess how those feelings might evolve? After all, posts are eternal and a child cannot speak for his or her future self.\nIn any case, a child\u2019s consent can be capricious, even within one given day. My daughter, at eight, would prefer her photo not to appear on Facebook, but would be more than happy to see a video of herself playing Swingball on YouTube. My six-year-old, meanwhile, says he is sad that \u201cGoogle doesn\u2019t know me\u201d. Even the teenagers at Kingsford are conflicted. In the end, they vote against Erin\u2019s suggestion of a fine for parents who share without their children\u2019s consent, but they squirm in their seats, clawing the air for a turn to speak when I ask what rules they would lay down for their parents:\n\u201cDon\u2019t say embarrassing jokes \u2019cos that\u2019s too much.\u201d\n\u201cAs far as the world is concerned, we\u2019re not related.\u201d\n\u201cPost pictures of me when I look amazing.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t post baby pictures unless I\u2019m happy and fully clothed.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t ever comment on my pictures.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t stalk my profile waiting for me to load pictures.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t follow.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t add me. Or my friends.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t tell dad jokes.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t take pictures of me eating food, \u2019cos my friends take it out of context.\u201d\n\u201cDon\u2019t try and use internet slang on our wall. On your friends\u2019 profiles you can embarrass yourselves all you want, but when it\u2019s on our profiles it looks like we\u2019ve taught you to say that. And it makes us look really bad.\u201d\n\u201cStay behind the times.\u201d\n***\nOf course, every family is different. In a quiet cul-de-sac in Newton Abbot, Devon, with sunlight pouring into the lounge, Molly Povey and her 11-year-old son Roman are sitting on the sofa discussing their experience of going viral.\nIn April 2015, with Roman desperately unhappy at school, Molly posted a plea on her Facebook page for his classmates\u2019 parents to send her \u201cbeautiful son\u201d birthday cards. \u201cRoman doesn\u2019t have any friends and often cries himself to sleep,\u201d the post began. It was shared around the world. \u201cMaybe 40,000 times,\u201d Molly says. (Interestingly, her post breaks only the second of the Kingsford rules, by disclosing that Molly and Roman are related.)\nNeither Molly nor Roman, nor his two brothers, nor his dad Ian, who says he hates social media, were prepared for what happened next. Thousands of people left birthday greetings online. At the office of a friend \u2013 whose address was hastily borrowed to protect Roman\u2019s privacy \u2013 cards and gifts began to arrive. Molly formalised the chaos into a Cards For Roman Facebook page.\nFriendships were made, and some of them have lasted \u2013 to the extent that in April, a year after his mother\u2019s plea for help, Roman celebrated his 12th birthday with 150 friends, strangers and Facebook friends at a Nando\u2019s in Exeter and at a second party in London. They have even met up with well-wishers in Germany.\nWhile Molly tells this story, talking quickly because there is a lot to fit in, Roman scurries to and fro with his gifts: a Star Wars chess set from someone in the Netherlands, pictures from Brazilian schoolchildren (Molly says he is very big in Brazil), wicker baskets of cards.\nBut sometimes Molly worries. \u201cA bit. I think, what happens in years to come if he Googles himself and finds \u2018Lonely boy with no friends\u2019?\u201d Last year the local paper ran a front-page headline saying just that. \u201cI thought, oh my God, what have I done?\u201d Roman was with her, and comforted her. \u201cBut it is true,\u201d he said. \u201cI am really lonely.\u201d\nFor the Povey family, the benefits of Molly\u2019s post are visible each day. His tearfulness has declined. The whole household is happier. Molly herself has found, in the Facebook page, a community that makes her feel supported and which, in turn, needs her. \u201cAnd now you\u2019ve got a responsibility,\u201d Ian says. \u201cIt\u2019s a strange thing.\u201d He himself has never read the initial post, usually declines to appear in photographs, and thinks that when it comes to sharing, \u201cIt\u2019s best to err on the side of caution.\u201d Occasionally, Molly tells her community that Roman is having a bad day, or that she is: she doesn\u2019t want to pretend to people who know loneliness that loneliness doesn\u2019t happen. And yet, as Ian says, \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know sometimes what Roman really thinks about it.\u201d\nMolly leads the way up to Roman\u2019s bedroom, to show more of the gifts people sent. There is James Bond notepaper from the actor Andrew Scott, who played the baddie in Spectre, and a crew T-shirt from Star Wars: Episode III.\nI wonder if Roman minds thousands of strangers knowing he\u2019s sad. \u201cDo you mind?\u201d Molly asks him. \u201cDo you mind that people know you get really lonely?\u201d\n\u201cMaybe,\u201d Roman replies. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll go yes: I don\u2019t like it.\u201d\n\u201cYou don\u2019t like it?\u201d Molly repeats, incredulous.\n\u201cNo.\u201d\n\u201cWhat, that people around the world know you are lonely?\u201d\n\u201cYeah.\u201d\n\u201cYou don\u2019t like it now?\u201d she asks again.\n\u201cNo.\u201d\n\u201cOh,\u201d Molly says. She sounds deflated.\n\u201cIt just feels weird, it does,\u201d Roman tells her.\nAlthough Molly has publicly revealed aspects of her son\u2019s emotional life that other parents might hesitate to share, she is not incautious. For months she withheld Roman\u2019s full name and has only recently felt comfortable disclosing that he is autistic. Before her heartfelt post, she deleted baby pictures of Roman\u2019s older brother because he was about to start secondary school; surely the Kingsford debaters would approve.\nLike Alicia Blum-Ross and Heather Whitten, Molly has rules. \u201cThink about whether it\u2019s appropriate \u2013 if in a year or five years your child would be embarrassed by anything you\u2019ve done. And just why are you actually doing it? Is it a positive thing, or is it to give you a social boost as opposed to the children?\u201d Molly might appear to be at the opposite end of the spectrum from Tamasine Preece, who never posts, but the morals that underpin their behaviour are remarkably alike. And while Molly thinks \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t be posting pictures of kids in the bath\u201d, in some ways her posts are as exposing as Whitten\u2019s.\nLater that evening Molly emails to say that the conversation with Roman had troubled her. After I\u2019d left the house, she offered to take down the page, she says, but Roman said not to. \u201cTurns out he was confused in his room and was talking about not liking being lonely, and not his page.\u201d\nOr maybe Roman, in that moment, wished no one knew he was lonely. Then, later, when his mother checked, he minded less. Or maybe he understands that the community his mother has created has benefited him and his family. But these are only guesses. It is impossible to know. He is young, and the world changes many times a day. His parents have his best interests at heart, but like any who share news of their children, every time they post, they cross a line between privacy and publicity. Where each parent sees the line is an unsteady, unsettleable question. For Roman, and others like him, the truth may be something they are still working out, or simply prefer not to share.\nElaine Star, 47, a PA and poet, and her youngest daughter Sadie, 17, a student, live in Brighton \nElaine I\u2019ve had a Facebook account for about 10 years, so Sadie was probably seven when I first joined. I use it to keep in touch with different groups of people \u2013 old friends, my poetry group, the puppet show I work with. I\u2019m also friends with a lot of my kids\u2019 friends, because it\u2019s often the best way of locating where mine are. I don\u2019t think it bothers them. All their friends are happy to come to the house and sit around my kitchen table and chat, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s odd. I don\u2019t post on their friends\u2019 pages \u2013 maybe just a \u201cHappy birthday\u201d message. But I\u2019m really impressed by the sorts of things they share about science, politics \u2013 they\u2019re very funny and insightful.\nI have definitely made mistakes online. I\u2019ve gone on after a few glasses of wine and said things I shouldn\u2019t have. There have been some angry messages about the state my kids and their friends have left the house in. And they have all asked me to take down various photos. I get it: I\u2019m sensitive to the fact that they\u2019re trying to be cool or whatever.\nI think I\u2019m past the stage of worrying too much about embarrassing my kids. I write poems that are very personal, and I share them on Facebook. But that\u2019s how I express myself. The kids have occasionally said, \u201cStop living your life on Facebook\u201d but I\u2019m an open person.\nThey\u2019re all fairly streetwise. We have a very open dialogue in our house. They have occasionally posted things that I think are a bit questionable \u2013 showing off a bit about drinking with their friends, that sort of thing. I might have said, \u201cHmm, you might want to think about that\u201d but I\u2019ve never said, \u201cTake that down.\u201d I\u2019m glad Facebook wasn\u2019t around to record my teenage years, though. I\u2019d hate it.\nSadie My siblings and I all use Facebook in different ways. Stevie posts a lot of pictures; Maisie likes to talk about stuff. Me and Joe post a lot of news stories, and I like posting videos or songs. I don\u2019t like to put up personal pictures, or get too emotional on Facebook. My mum\u2019s posts can be really personal.\nAt the beginning, I didn\u2019t really want to be friends with her on Facebook. I didn\u2019t really want her seeing pictures of me that my friends had posted. They weren\u2019t anything bad; they just felt like a bit of my life that was separate from her. Now I don\u2019t mind as much \u2013 I\u2019m more open. She\u2019s also friends with a lot of my friends on there. That\u2019s not a problem, except that she\u2019s quite free with what she writes. Something would happen between us, and she\u2019d put it in a poem, and post it to Facebook, and I wondered whether my friends would see her in a different way. I think maybe I felt protective of her. But no one has ever said anything.\nShe has a lot of photos of us when we were little. When I was a bit younger, I hated seeing some of them online. I remember there was one where I was holding my pet hamster and I just thought I looked greasy and rough. And once my room was really messy and my mum said, \u201cI\u2019ll take pictures and put it on Facebook.\u201d I would have hated it if she\u2019d actually done it. Now I\u2019m a bit older, I\u2019ve learned to let go of it all a bit more. I think I\u2019m OK with what\u2019s out there about me.\nJuliet Redelsperger-Talbot, 43, a marketing and events manager, and Nell, 13, live in Eye, Suffolk, with Nell\u2019s father and her brother Lawrence, 10 \nNell I\u2019ve been cyberbullied before. One of my followers on Instagram, someone I knew, turned on me, then a couple of others who I\u2019d thought were friendly were making comments on my posts. It wasn\u2019t nice, and I wasn\u2019t sure how to handle it. In school they give you lessons about what to do if it happens to you, but when it comes to it, the reality is very different. But the school did deal with it.\nAfter that, I became a lot more careful about who I accept as friends, and what people can see. Now I have one account for my photography and a separate one for my closest friends.\nI have looked briefly at Mum\u2019s Facebook account, but I don\u2019t have a clue about how Facebook works. I don\u2019t think I mind that there are photos of me. If you know the people that can see those photos, then that\u2019s OK. If it\u2019s not private, I\u2019m not so sure about that. But I don\u2019t find it embarrassing. Maybe it\u2019s because I don\u2019t feel like the same person I was when I was little. It doesn\u2019t feel as if those pictures are of me.\nJuliet The cyberbullying was a harrowing time for Nell, but what was good was that some of her friends were supportive and took screenshots of the comments as proof of what was happening. Nell was worried I would be angry, so she didn\u2019t come to me until after it was over. It was awful, but in a way, I think it helped her understand what you\u2019re exposed to online.\nNell is a great photographer, and she sends me pictures, but I check that she is happy before I post anything on Facebook. Your children have every right to veto what you put online, although they have to be a certain age before they understand what it means. Neither of mine have ever had an issue with something I\u2019ve posted, but then they\u2019re the generation that are used to having photos of themselves everywhere. I think it meant something different for my generation. It took so long to get photos developed that seeing yourself was so much more important.\nThe children were very little when I first signed up. I don\u2019t remember thinking much about privacy then. It wasn\u2019t until I read in the paper how posts about your children might be seen by complete strangers that I changed my settings.\nAs time went by, I began to feel uncomfortable about posting. It felt like everything online was becoming more about \u201cLook how wonderful I am\u201d and it made me feel quite down. So I left for a while. Eventually I rejoined because it was hard to keep up with everything. So now I\u2019ve started again but in a very different way.\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "From first smiles to teenage experiments, a generation of children has had their every move posted by their parents. What can they do about it?", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/05/parents-posting-about-kids-share-too-much-online-facebook-paula-cocozza", "title": "\u2018I was so embarrassed I cried\u2019: do parents share too much online?"}, "150": {"text": "I have worked as a GP over the past decade in about a third of the around 140 prisons in England and Wales \u2013 all categories, male and female \u2013 and in all there has been a gradual increase in the prison population, leading to overcrowding.\nThis reflects the national situation. Ministry of Justice figures show that between June 1993 and June 2012 the prison population in England and Wales increased by 41,800 prisoners, to more than 86,000. Without urgent steps aimed at cutting the prison population this could exceed 100,000 by 2020. However, this has not been matched by a corresponding increase in the number of prison officers. On the contrary, their numbers have been cut.\nWhen our prisons are at crisis point, amid continuing controversy about incidents such as the recent killing at Pentonville, consider our direction of travel. Take HMP Berwyn, the so-called super prison expected to open in February 2017.\nBuilt at the cost of \u00a3212m and located at Wrexham in Wales, HMP Berwyn is expected to accommodate 2,100 category C prisoners \u2013 those who cannot be allowed to move freely but are considered unlikely to try to escape. Instead of taking steps to radically reduce the UK prison population the government keeps building more prisons to house even more prisoners.\nI have come across numerous cases over the years where a noncustodial sentence would have been more appropriate than imprisonment. I recall a heavily pregnant lady suffering from a life-threatening condition who was jailed for breaching a restraining order. What was to be expected of a pregnant sufferer confined for a good deal of the time in a small, poorly ventilated prison cell? During her time behind bars she was rushed to hospital several times. Whenever she was there, for sometimes up to a week and longer, she was guarded round the clock by prison officers.\nI recall another instance when the nurse, seeing the new arrivals on reception duty, sent me the following message, asking me to prescribe a short course of sleeping tablets for a recent arrival. She was in prison for failing to pay a bill. Her partner was supposed to be looking after their young children but, the message said: \u201cshe does not believe he is up to the task. She is in a very weepy state and unable to sleep. She has another four weeks to do \u2013 could you please help?\u201d\nThese women represent a not insignificant proportion of the prison population who are not a \u201cdanger to the public\u201d. So why is the state spending large sums to keep them behind bars?\nMinistry of Justice figures from 2013 revealed that 55% of prisoners connected their offences to drug-taking, with the need for money to buy drugs the most commonly cited factor. Eliminating the addiction factor could lead to the closure of about half the prisons in the UK and free resources for other matters.\nSending these people to jail in the hope of ridding society of the menace of drug abuse is a woefully inadequate approach to the complex problem of drugs. It is akin to a doctor treating the symptoms of a disease without concerning themselves with its cause or its future prevention. There should instead be a holistic approach to the problem of drug addiction, with treatment and rehabilitation forming the centrepiece.\nAnd then there are the inmates with mental health issues. Surely these are best handled in psychiatric institutions rather than prison. Instead of spending millions on \u201csuper prisons\u201d, the state would be better employed building additional psychiatric hospitals and homes to accommodate the hundreds, if not thousands, of them languishing in jail. Instead of helping them to overcome their mental impairment, society is punishing them for a condition they cannot help having. Labelling them criminals on a par with those who commit armed robbery, rape and murder is antiquated at best and nonsensical at worst. Samuel Butler lampooned this stance in his classic satire, Erewhon, describing a culture who imprisoned the sick for the crime of not being well. That was published in 1872, but what has changed since then?\nA report published last month by the RSA\u2019s Future Prison project says the prison and probation services in England and Wales are failing to protect the public because they do not rehabilitate offenders, and that they should be radically restructured. I welcome the rehabilitation aspect, but it still ignores the central issue of population.\nWe need urgently to address sentencing, because too many offenders are being sent to prison for short terms. A record-breaking case was that of a lady who was jailed one evening only to be released the next day. I believe any sentence below three months should be suspended, turned into fines or whatever other punishment society deems appropriate short of an actual prison sentence.\nAs for drug addicts, the power to sentence them to drug rehabilitation homes makes sense for everybody. Keeping the most dangerous criminals \u2013 sex offenders, murderers, terrorists, armed robbers, and so on \u2013 in jail, and finding alternative punishment for those committing petty crimes, would not only lead a radical reduction in the prison population, it would also allow for the proper supervision of extremely dangerous inmates.\nWhatever else is said this week, population reduction is where our focus is and it is quite achievable. What is really needed is the will.\n\u2022 Dr Gordon Cameron is a pseudonym. Memoirs of Her Majesty\u2019s Prison Doctor by Dr Cameron is available now. Visit hmpdoctorsmemoirs.com\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The riots at Bedford prison show the problems facing institutions. We need to stop locking up addicts and people who are mentally ill", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/07/prison-doctor-jails-inmates-addicts-sentences", "title": "As a prison doctor I\u2019ve seen the crisis in jails \u2013 half the inmates shouldn\u2019t be there | Gordon Cameron"}, "151": {"text": "The 2016 American presidential election has been an absurd, exhausting and bruising spectacle. Now imagine living through it all as a Muslim American. Somehow, this election has managed to cram all the Islamophobic sentiments of the last 15 years into the span of 15 months, and then morph them into one ugly thing.\nDonald Trump is largely to blame. He called for \u201ca total and complete shutdown of Muslims\u201d entering the country until it became clear that the proposal was embarrassingly ill-conceived, only to be replaced by the equally vague \u201cextreme vetting\u201d. He fought publicly with the Gold Star Khan family, suggesting Ghazala Khan was not \u201callowed to speak\u201d at the Democratic convention because of her Muslim faith. He accused Muslim Americans as a group of harboring terrorists. There\u2019s more, but we all know the story by now.\nTrump has insulted and defamed many different groups along the way, but what we may not realize is how it\u2019s different when it comes to Muslims. Over the course of the campaign, Trump has very publicly reached out to Latino, African American and LGBTQ voters to ask for their support. We can question his sincerity, but the gestures are there. He even briefly tempered his tone regarding Mexicans during a quickly arranged visit to President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto in Mexico City last August. \nHis daughter Ivanka and wife Melania have defended him for his unforgivable behavior toward women, and Ivanka also recorded an official campaign television advertisement openly courting women voters for her father. Trump denies the charge he mocked a disabled reporter, and despite a bevy of antisemitic incidents involving Trump and his supporters over the past months, he has also directly sought Jewish American support. Such is his style of leadership: he may insult you, but he still wants your vote. \nNot so with the Muslims. A tiny handful of Muslim Americans may, bizarrely, be Trump supporters, but that doesn\u2019t diminish the fact that, while attempting to engage every other constituency, Trump\u2019s campaign has made essentially zero public outreach to the Muslim electorate. It\u2019s as if Muslim citizens already don\u2019t exist in Trump\u2019s America.\nThe irony is that Trump\u2019s willful blindness to Muslim voters may lead to his defeat. Muslims may only account for a small part of the American population, but a concerted push by Muslim Americans during this season has meant that there are now over a million registered Muslim voters, more than double the number in 2012. And Muslims tend to live in key battleground states such as Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. \nBut Hillary Clinton may not be able to count on all of those votes either. Many Muslim Americans have long been uncomfortable with her hawkish foreign policy record and her superficially inclusive rhetoric. \u201cWe need American Muslims to be part of our eyes and ears on our frontlines,\u201d is a standard Clinton refrain, and with it we hear the suggestion that our communities live on some kind of \u201cfrontline\u201d of warfare. \nThis is so not true: the front line of Costco, maybe. Most Muslim Americans are boring, middle-class folk. Clinton also seems to see Muslim Americans as separate from her idea of \u201cwe\u201d (\u201cwe\u201d need \u201cthem\u201d to be part of \u201cus\u201d) and to believe that we, as a group, carry some insider knowledge about evildoers that we may \u2013 or may not! \u2013 be willing to trade in exchange for equal treatment in the United States. \nThis is offensive to our citizenship, and Muslim Americans must be afforded the same rights and protections as everyone else without precondition. But what this campaign has really shown is how contested and precarious the place is for Muslim Americans today. That won\u2019t change after 8 November, regardless of who wins. \nEven with a Clinton victory, Trump and his \u201cmovement\u201d, which is how he refers to his campaign, will not simply vanish. And the suggestion that Trump is merely using the election as a platform from which to start a new media empire is hardly comforting, as if there has never been a connection between mass media and far-right politics. So how prepared are we, as a nation, to deal with Trumpism after Tuesday?\nIf there\u2019s any good news to come out of this election, it\u2019s that the country now recognizes the potent political force that is Islamophobia. And Americans are beginning to understand that fighting anti-Muslim bigotry is not fundamentally about protecting Muslims, but about preserving the vision of a functioning, pluralistic and democratic society. Now we must be prepared to do the work necessary to hold our leaders to that standard every day, and not just once every four years.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The GOP candidate insulted many minority groups, but he also tried to win their votes. He didn\u2019t seem to want ours \u2013 and that could be a big mistake", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/08/donald-trump-america-muslim-citizens", "title": "Donald Trump has made it clear: in his America, Muslim citizens don\u2019t exist | Moustafa Bayoumi"}, "152": {"text": "The writer LP Hartley wrote: \u201cThe past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.\u201d Hartley was not wrong because, at 93, my foot rests more in that far-off land called history than today. But if I were to rely upon how television drama has interpreted the story of my generation, I would not be able to recognise it. Sadly, dramas about events that occurred in my youth deal almost exclusively with the pageant of nobility.\nIt concerns me that the history of my generation may be lost to my grandchildren because television producers would rather anaesthetise viewers from the unpleasantness of our past with idolatry for the aristocracy and the monarchy.\nIt\u2019s why I am angry that Netflix has spent $130m (\u00a3105m) on the 10-part series The Crown. This is a biopic concerning the marriage of Queen Elizabeth when she was still a princess in 1947, followed by her coronation in 1953. Unfortunately, The Crown views postwar Britain from the perspective of our sovereign and all who inhabited her world. This does an enormous disservice to the epoch, because it was a time when a socialist tide raised all boats. History was literally being made from the bottom up because, while Princess Elizabeth was being fitted for her wedding dress, ordinary Britons were dismantling a thousand years of feudal mentality through the creation of the welfare state.\nWe\u2019ve seen this approach before. Nothing better illustrates TV\u2019s lush treacle homage to the landed gentry than Downton Abbey, a drama that ran for six series as a parlour-room interpretation of historical moments that shaped Britain at the turn of the 20th century. But Downton has not been the exception to the rule, rather a template used by TV and movie producers to crush the truth from history and make the entitled the heroes of narratives about our nation\u2019s collective past.\nThe Crown, like Downton Abbey, Victoria or even Indian Summers, depicts moments in history as a pageant in which the wealthy, the entitled and the nobility oversee the lives of millions with benevolence, wisdom and grace. As I have been both a witness to and participant in history since 1923, I can tell you that was not the case. Millions lived lives of abject misery during the 1930s while the 1% of that time enjoyed an obscene opulence. Despite the vast wealth of 19th-century history a TV dramatist can draw upon, our nation\u2019s rich heritage too often becomes an infomercial for monarchy and empire.\nThe Crown is like an expensive painting in which the only subjects in focus are the rich and privileged. Everyone else, people like me or your grandparents if they came from the working class and even the middle class, are considered no more than background scenery. We are the undefined face in the crowd waving religiously at our so-called betters.\nTo my mind, The Crown is an insult to the struggles my generation overcame and the triumphs we earned from our sacrifices in both war and in peace. But what is most frightening is that the tableau of our past shown on Netflix and other TV networks will be most people\u2019s window on my generation\u2019s history. Too many in the 19th and early 20th century lived thwarted lives because of the exploitation they endured in the mines and mills. Yet no one tells the tale of these workers unionising, fighting for their rights or trying to find and maintain love in the harsh conditions of the slums they called home.\nToo many of my generation died young because they lacked the money to pay for a doctor, but in The Crown our sympathies are directed to a king dying of lung cancer rather than the thousands of miners who died painfully of black lung because that monarch and his society didn\u2019t believe the average citizen deserved medicine if they couldn\u2019t afford to pay for it.\nOur Queen, no matter how much we should respect her service to the state, doesn\u2019t deserve to be turned into a cinematic icon. In the great sweep of events our monarch is like a garden ornament sitting immutably on the field of history because she is not the author of our nation\u2019s destiny.\nBecause of austerity and Brexit, Britain has become a house divided. We need now more than ever our great film-makers and television producers to tell the stories from our collective past that reflect all its pathos and wonder. And they need to tell it from the perspective of those ordinary, brilliant and profound men and women who, a lifetime ago, helped shape the way we live today through their deeds.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Netflix\u2019s lavish portrayal of the Queen joins a long line of period dramas that ignore the lives of ordinary men and women", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/08/the-crown-portrayal-of-history-insult-to-my-generations-struggles", "title": "The Crown\u2019s portrayal of history is an insult to my generation\u2019s  struggles | Harry Leslie Smith"}, "153": {"text": "We all believe in freedom of speech. But freedom of speech must be exercised responsibly. Last Thursday\u2019s judgment from the high court on article 50 led to artificial hysteria in many quarters. There were headlines declaring that the judges who heard the case were \u201cEnemies of the people\u201d; references alluding to the sexuality of a judge briefly appeared on the Daily Mail\u2019s website; and a member of the cabinet, Sajid Javid, ominously stated that \u201cThis is an attempt to frustrate the will of the British people and it is unacceptable\u201d.\nMany have said that those headlines and comments \u201ccrossed the line\u201d. And in our constitution, when judicial independence is threatened, the lord chancellor has a legal duty to intervene. Liz Truss, however, failed to say anything for nearly 48 hours and when she did, she simply recited the principle of the independence of the judiciary and stated the government would be appealing against the judgment. She did not condemn the fact that our judges had been declared \u201cenemies of the people\u201d, nor that the sexuality of a judge had been introduced in to the debate.\nWhen Truss took office she swore an oath to uphold the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. In her speech that day she committed to doing so \u201cwith dedication\u201d. The headlines which appeared in a number of newspapers the day after the high court ruling in the article 50 case was the first test of her commitment. On any reasonable measure, she failed that test.\nThat\u2019s not just my view. The former lord chief justice, Lord Judge, was interviewed on Radio 4 on Sunday and said this: \u201cThe lord chancellor has a specific function and in this case her responsibility, where there has been vituperative criticism of judges, damaging to public confidence in the administration of justice by an independent judiciary, is to speak up for them and explain exactly what the principles are.\u201d\nHe went on to say about Truss\u2019s response to the attacks: \u201cI think it was a little too late and I think it\u2019s quite a lot too little. Because it doesn\u2019t actually address the damage to public confidence consequent on [these] kind of headlines.\u201d\nDuring my 10 years as a lawyer before being elected to parliament and then becoming shadow lord chancellor, there were occasions when I disagreed with \u2013 or was disappointed with \u2013 judges\u2019 decisions. When I lost a case, I was disappointed. When I won a case, the lawyer on the other side was disappointed. But we would never tolerate our judiciary being declared as \u201cagainst the people\u201d or a judge\u2019s sexuality being brought into the debate.\nAnyone is free to disagree with a judge\u2019s decision, their reasoning \u2013 or lack of it \u2013 or their interpretation of the law. But what is surely unacceptable is attacks on the independence of the judiciary by government ministers and powerful government-backing newspapers. The lord chancellor has a duty to act in these circumstances and she failed.\nIt took a bar council resolution demanding action to draw her into the open. And then she provided a statement carefully crafted to say as little as possible, which has only attracted further criticism. And since then she has remained out of sight. Conservative MPs mindful of the rule of law have criticised her publicly and, reportedly, privately, at a fractious meeting of Tory MPs at which she is supposed to have said that it is the job of the lord chief justice to defend the judiciary. Actually, it is Truss\u2019s statutory responsibility \u2013 and the lord chief justice is one of the judges who heard the case and is being maligned.\nI know Truss has a lot on, given the crisis of violence and underfunding that has developed in our prison service, but for many in the legal community, studied silence on this specific matter means a lord chancellor loses their trust and confidence. Her failure to speak out has consequences: only yesterday afternoon, during a debate on Brexit in the Commons, David Davis repeatedly failed to condemn the headlines when asked. Other MPs have spoken about the judiciary \u201cinterfering between parliament and the executive\u201d.\nWhether it\u2019s respecting the outcome of referendums (even when the result disappoints the Labour party) or defending the independence of the judiciary, Labour is the party of the rule of law. A mature democracy \u2013 and a mature government \u2013 doesn\u2019t stand by while the judiciary gets a roasting.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "It was the lord chancellor\u2019s duty to speak up for the judges pilloried by some newspapers after the article 50 ruling. But she let them down badly", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/08/liz-truss-defend-judges-article-50-stood-by", "title": "Liz Truss swore to defend the judiciary. But she stood by as they got a roasting | Richard Burgon"}, "154": {"text": "John Lewis is Debenhams for people with labradors, and they\u2019ll never get my pubes.\nHaving grown up in a city without one, I have often been struck by the cult-like way in which people talk about John Lewis. I have seen grown men brought almost to tears discussing its bedding selection and choice of lightbulbs. I\u2019ve sat through literally hours of office chat about its \u201cnever knowingly undersold\u201d commitment and geisha-like customer service. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s where people have their wedding lists.\nAll of which makes the fact that John Lewis is moving into the sticky-fingered business of bikini waxes all the more disquieting.\nNow, let us be clear \u2013 your hair is your hair and you have complete authority over what you do with it. You can thank the My Body, My Rules school of feminism for that. But, when it comes to the decision between haberdashery and hair removal, I\u2019m afraid I have to take issue with the latter.\nWhen the Sunday Times, after interviewing John Lewis\u2019s new managing director, Paula Nickolds (who in fact started her career in the sewing department of the organisation), says that the \u201ctraditional products, including hats and haberdashery, are being downgraded in favour of new services, including holidays, in-store prosecco bars and bikini waxes\u201d it makes me want to weave myself a row-boat out of leg hair and sail away to the horizon.\nJohn Lewis today reassured customers that they \u201chave no plans to close or downgrade our haberdashery departments. Haberdashery is woven into the fabric of our business and there are no plans to unstitch it.\u201d But such rumours are unnerving, not least because the better part of life lies in creating things, not ripping them out. As women \u2013 and let\u2019s be honest, women are more likely to be booking in for John Lewis bikini waxes than men \u2013 we should aspire to be making things, rather than removing them. To sew your own is an act of creative independence; hair removal and prosecco bars simply fuel the endemic belief that our bodies are flawed and we need \u201cprofessionals\u201d to fix them or drown our sorrows.\nThe idea that shopping and \u201cpampering\u201d are a \u201cleisure day out\u201d as Nickolds claims, is a bare-thighed lie. There is nothing leisurely about disliking your own legs. There is nothing relaxing, luxurious or indulgent about covering your nadgers with hot wax and ripping out the evidence of an adult, mammalian body. I\u2019ve had less painful rock-climbing accidents than the one time I tried to wax the back of my thighs. And at the risk of going full Trotsky on your nether regions, the removal of pubic hair is yet another way that capitalism plays on personal insecurities to make money from your body. And we don\u2019t have to go along with it if we don\u2019t want to.\nOn the other hand, taking on the active, creative, expressive role of maker is genuinely galvanising. In June I went to Berlin for the summer, armed with little more than my sewing machine. Over the next three months I created almost everything I wore with my own hands. There was a dress made from antique soviet linen bought on the corner of Boxhagener Platz, a pair of trousers made from Neuk\u00f6lln cotton, a bridesmaid dress made from a roll of silk found behind a box of potatoes at the T\u00fcrkischer Markt, numerous jumpsuits, shorts, shirts and vests \u2013 all made on my bedroom floor using a machine I inherited from my great-aunt Margaret. Those items weren\u2019t only cheap, didn\u2019t just fit me, didn\u2019t just keep me off the streets for an hour at a time, but will serve as a lifelong reminder of a wonderful trip and the fact that, despite what the fashion industry may tell us, we can all do it ourselves.\nMany of my friends would no doubt be thrilled to their very pudenda at the idea of a John Lewis wax. As leisure activities go, it at least gives money to one of our last employee-owned companies and might be more fun than pole-dancing classes or throwing up sambuca into a sticky bin outside Flares. But my generation needs materials, tools and the confidence to do it themselves, not \u201cme time\u201d, prosecco and plucked genitals.\nWhen tearing out your pubic hair and slapping on grease become genuinely uplifting acts of self-empowerment then sports societies will stop using them as hazing initiation rites. In the meantime, you\u2019ll find me, crouched over my sewing machine, making yet another outfit. For that is my own personal commitment: never knowingly underdressed.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "Empowerment lies in creating things, not in ripping out body hair. Please don\u2019t give us Brazilians in place of buttons and bows", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/08/john-lewis-haberdashery-wax-prosecco", "title": "Hands off our haberdashery, John Lewis. Waxing is no replacement | Nell Frizzell"}, "155": {"text": "Estonia\u2019s government has collapsed after the prime minister, Taavi R\u00f5ivas, lost a confidence vote in parliament following months of Cabinet squabbling, mainly over economic policies. \n Lawmakers in the 101-seat parliament on Wednesday ousted R\u00f5ivas in a 63-28 vote, with 10 members abstaining or absent. \nEstonian president, Kersti Kaljulaid, has summoned the heads of the six parliamentary parties on forming a new government. \nThe main opposition Centre party, which is tipped to lead the new government, has vowed to keep Estonia solidly rooted in the eurozone and Nato as the Baltic state of 1.3 million people gears up to assume the EU\u2019s rotating presidency in the second half of 2017.\nThe party chose a new leader, 38-year-old J\u00fcri Ratas, at the weekend, raising calls for him to take over as prime minister. \nCommanding 27 seats, the Centre party is popular among the sizeable ethnic Russian minority who account for a quarter of Estonia\u2019s population. \nA respected deputy speaker of parliament, Ratas replaced Edgar Savisaar, 66, whose perceived ties to Russia had scared off potential coalition partners amid heightened tensions with Moscow. \n\u201cJ\u00fcri Ratas has today said nothing will change in Estonia\u2019s stance vis-a-vis Nato, the EU,\u201d Estonian political analyst Ahto Lobjakas told AFP on Wednesday. \n\u201cHe would risk an immense public backlash were he to go back on these commitments. I have no reason to think him disingenuous,\u201d he added. \nR\u00f5ivas\u2019s government was formed in April 2015 after his Reform party won the parliamentary elections. But its work has been hampered by serious policy differences between the party and its coalition partners \u2013 the left-leaning Social Democrats and conservative IRL Party. \nConflicting views over taxation and improving the state of Estonia\u2019s economy, which the two junior coalition partners claim is stagnant, is the main cause for the breakup. \nBut political observers in the country say the other parties have also grown tired of the long reign and style of the centre-right Reform party, which has led governments since 2005 and was part of every coalition for the past 17 years. \nThe crisis escalated earlier this week as the Social Democrats and IRL urged R\u00f5ivas \u2013 at 37, one of Europe\u2019s youngest heads of government \u2013 to resign, saying they had lost trust in his leadership and Reform\u2019s economic policies. \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Taavi R\u00f5ivas loses parliament vote 63-28 as president urges heads of country\u2019s six parties to form new government", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/estonias-prime-minister-loses-confidence-vote", "title": "Estonia's government collapses as PM loses confidence vote"}, "156": {"text": "The EU is proposing to spend hundreds of millions of euros to help the budding ocean energy industry to provide a tenth of the bloc\u2019s power by 2050.\nThe boost would take the form of a \u20ac250m investment fund, with an additional \u20ac70m set aside for insurance, loans and guarantees, according to the roadmap for channelling the potential of wave and tidal energy.\nThe money would be supplied by the EU and its member states and should work as a buffer for companies that are attempting to cross the \u201cvalley of death\u201d between demonstration projects and the energy market.\n\u201cIt is a comprehensive, inclusive and ambitious plan for building up ocean energy in Europe \u2013 from the initial R&D all the way to the industrial roll-out,\u201d said the EU\u2019s environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella, at a launch meeting in Brussels.\nR\u00e9mi Gruet, the CEO of trade group Ocean Energy Europe, said: \u201cBridging the gap between risk-averse commercial lenders and public authorities with limited budgets requires rethinking project finance. The roadmap proposes just that, solutions fit for the purpose of reducing risk and unlocking capital: milestone-bound grant awards, guarantees and insurance.\u201d\nIn further good news for the sector, Carnegie Wave Energy in Cornwall announced that it had secured \u00a39.6m of EU funding that would enable it to connect England\u2019s first commercial-scale wave power project to the grid.\nA 15MW array at Cornwall\u2019s wave hub centre should now be commissioned in 2018, before commercial deployment in 2021.\nThe local MP and former environment minister George Eustice, who campaigned for Brexit, said that the news showed that Cornwall was \u201cwell positioned to play a significant role in securing the UK\u2019s continued reputation as a market leader in offshore renewables.\u201d\nAround half of the world\u2019s wave and tidal energy companies are today based in Europe, and officials believe that the industry could generate up to \u20ac653bn by mid-century, with an annual market of \u20ac53bn.\nFour projects currently in the pipeline are slated to provide 1.5GW of energy capacity and industry spokespeople say that 400,000 jobs could be created.\nLater this year, Atlantis Resources will complete the first phase of a 6MW MeyGen project in Scotland, which will be ramped up to 86MW before reaching a full generating capacity of 398MW in 2025. \nTim Cornelius, the company\u2019s CEO said: \u201cAtlantis has 640MW in our Scottish portfolio alone, the realisation of which represents nothing less than the creation of a new manufacturing sector for Europe based on predictable, reliable, renewable energy.\u201d\nIn Northern Ireland, DP Energy says it is in the advanced stages of developing a 10MW tidal farm in Fair Head as the first stage in a 100MW project. The firm\u2019s wider ocean energy portfolio adds up to 330MW. \nA separate EU ocean governance package on Thursday will launch several programmes to protect the world\u2019s water bodies, including a pilot project using satellite communications to track illegal fishing worldwide. \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Investment fund would help wave and tidal power to provide a tenth of the bloc\u2019s power by 2050", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/09/eu-plans-320m-funding-boost-for-budding-ocean-energy-industry", "title": "EU plans \u20ac320m funding boost for budding ocean energy industry"}, "157": {"text": "The EU has dropped plans to force toaster-makers to improve the energy efficiency of their products over fears of the political costs of being seen to be intruding in people\u2019s daily lives, it has emerged.\nBut while a new EU plan to cut emissions controversially omits several appliances, the manufacturers of electric kettles, refrigerators and hand driers will have to make their future products consume less energy.\nSolar panels and building automation systems are among the six product ranges set to benefit from the Ecodesign package, which should help Europe meet its obligations under the Paris climate agreement.\nBut hairdryers, hot drinks vending machines and toasters \u2013 the subject of a tabloid campaign during the Brexit referendum \u2013 will be excluded, the commission\u2019s first vice-president, Frans Timmermans, told a Brussels press conference.\n \u201cWe want to put the products on the list that have the highest energy yield,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why kettles are on the list, because they are very high in terms of energy yields, and toasters are not on the list.\u201d\nAn internal EU \u201clines to take\u201d document from last month, seen by the Guardian, shows that fears of hostile press coverage were central to the proposal\u2019s genesis.\nThe cabinet-level document notes that the EU has been \u201cregularly accused of regulatory over-reach and intrusiveness in people\u2019s daily lives and behavioural choices, when banning products from the market and limiting consumer choice.\n\u201cThe strong negative publicity about intrusiveness raises the question whether the estimated but hardly evaluated economic benefits are worth the political costs for the EU and the commission in particular.\u201d\nThe commission broke with a tradition of announcing the package after extensive studies and consultation due to an initiative by Jean-Claude Juncker to make all commissioners take \u201cpolitical ownership\u201d of it.\nA separate internal EU note seen by the Guardian shows that the six-product list was personally chosen by Juncker for \u201cexplicit validation\u201d by other commissioners.\nIn the document, lines are drawn through products such as toasters, hairdryers and signage displays, which \u201cJuncker recommends \u2026 above all not to be part of a possible package,\u201d the document says.\nAfter an 18-month legislative delay, green groups said they were uncomfortable about the EU\u2019s announcement.\n\u201cThe decision to remove five domestic and industrial products from the Ecodesign list will cost consumers \u20ac2bn annually from 2030 onwards,\u201d warned Chlo\u00e9 Fayole, a spokeswoman for the Coolproducts campaign. \u201cWe are also concerned about the fate of three IT products, including smartphones, which are not part of the list.\u201d \nSt\u00e9phane Arditi of the European Environmental Bureau said that smartphones were a \u201cglaring absence\u201d in the package, throwing doubt on how the EU would cut their emissions from manufacture, use and disposal, which are considerable.\nThe Ecodesign framework brings in an estimated \u20ac55bn in extra revenue for industry, creating as many as 800,000 jobs and saving Europe\u2019s householders an estimated \u20ac490 in energy bills each year, according to the EU.\nEcodesign is also responsible for half of the EU\u2019s 20% energy savings expected by 2020 \u2013 and a quarter of its emissions cuts. But energy efficiency can be a hard sell in consumer societies, and the EU\u2019s ecodesign plans have spurred newspapers such as the Daily Express to decry them as a threat to \u201cthe British way of life\u201d.\nSpeaking to journalists in Brussels, Timmermans acknowledged that the tabloids had been \u201cvery influential\u201d in drawing out the EU\u2019s ecodesign policy-making process. \n\u201cWe were very sensitive to what we\u2019ve seen the media whipping up in the last couple of years,\u201d he said. \u201cBut after careful analysis you have to make a choice \u2013 if you go along with this rhetoric or let the evidence speak for itself and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d\nThe Ecodesign package should still save as much primary energy as Sweden consumes annually, although its predecessors saved as much energy as was generated by Italy. \n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Proposal to cut emissions controversially omits several appliances on the grounds that economic benefits would not be worth the negative publicity", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/08/eu-drops-plans-to-make-toasters-more-energy-efficient-over-intrusion-fears", "title": "EU drops plans to make toasters more energy efficient over 'intrusion' fears"}, "158": {"text": "Italian rules that mean children of married couples are automatically given only their father\u2019s surname are unlawful, the country\u2019s constitutional court has ruled. The judgment was welcomed by campaigners as a milestone in a long legal and political battle to overturn regulations and practice that they say are based on outdated patriarchal ideas.\n\u201cThe court has declared the unlawfulness of rules providing for the automatic attribution of the paternal surname to legitimate children, when the parents wish otherwise,\u201d the court said in a statement.\nThe court made its judgment in a case referred to it by a Genoa appeal court in which an Italian-Brazilian couple wanted to give their son both their surnames, as is traditional in Spain and much of South America and increasingly common among younger couples in northern Europe and North America.\nThe couple\u2019s lawyers had argued that not allowing the son to have his mother\u2019s surname, as well as his father\u2019s, violated the principle of equality between the sexes.\nAs the court did not publish its reasoning immediately, there was still a question mark as to whether the case had opened the door to Italian parents being automatically able to give their kids double surnames, or whether the equality requirement could be met by offering only the right to choose between the mother and father\u2019s surname.\nCampaigners said the court\u2019s ruling showed the urgent need for clear legislation after decades of parliamentary stalling on reform.\nLegislation allowing children to be given their mothers\u2019 surnames was first proposed 40 years ago. A draft bill has since been approved by the chamber of deputies but has been blocked for years in the senate.\n\u201cThe constitutional court has taken a decision of great importance for our society,\u201d said Democratic party deputy Fabrizia Giuliani. \u201cThe senate no longer has any excuse for not abolishing this anachronism and giving women their right in this matter.\u201d\nIt remains to be seen how quickly things will change. The constitutional court ruled in 2006 that the automatic attribution of paternal surnames was not consistent with the principle of equality between the sexes.\nItaly\u2019s rules have also been condemned by the European court of human rights, which ruled in 2014 that they could be used to discriminate against women. Neither of those rulings led to reform of either the law or administrative practice.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Court judgment welcomed by campaigners as milestone in battle against outdated patriarchal views in Italy", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/08/italian-law-requiring-children-to-take-fathers-name-unlawful", "title": "Italian law requiring children to take father's name 'unlawful'"}, "159": {"text": "The UK\u2019s global diplomatic and security influence is at risk if it cuts itself off from the single market and continues to denigrate foreigners, a former civil servant has warned. \nSir Simon Fraser, who was permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office until last year, said Britain\u2019s position near or at the top diplomatic table was at stake after the vote to leave the European Union.\nHe said: \u201cThere is already evidence of potential self-harm in our behaviour to foreign people: the reported spike in hate crime, the insensitive comments of some British politicians, and the shocking press coverage of the legal judgment on article 50.\n\u201cI hope our political leaders will show more skill and wisdom in the next chapter of our European relationships than over the last decade, which was strewn with diplomatic errors and misjudgments.\u201d\nSpeaking on Monday night at King\u2019s College, London, Fraser said it was inevitable that Brexit would diminish UK influence overseas. \u201cNo matter how well we manage the process and however good the assets we have, structurally it is going to be much more difficult to exert global influence after Brexit,\u201d he said. \n\u201cLeaving the European Union will be the biggest shock to our method of international influencing and the biggest structural change to our place in the world since the end of world war two and the end of empire.\u201d\nThe Brexit vote in June has been blamed for a rise in race-hate crimes, with more than 2,300 offences in London recorded in the 38 days after the referendum, compared with 1,400 in the 38 days before the vote. \nA survey by the Guardian found that European embassies in Britain have logged dozens of incidents of suspected hate crime and abuse against their citizens since the referendum. The vast majority of incidents involved eastern Europeans, with more attacks against Poles than all other nationalities combined.\nFraser, who is a specialist in the Middle East and European trade, was the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary for William Hague and Philip Hammond between 2010 and 2015. \nHe is concerned that Theresa May\u2019s cabinet is insufficiently aware of the way in which European opinion is hardening against the UK, and fears that the chances of reaching a rational outcome with the EU on a future relationship are being damaged by UK rhetoric.\nFor Brexit Britain to remain a heavy hitter in international diplomacy, it would require new resources, more diplomats and a more active foreign policy. At present, he said, the UK spent more annually on the winter fuel allowance than on the Foreign Office, while the department\u2019s budget was only twice the UK aid budget to Ethiopia.\n\u201cMy concern is, whatever our ambition and intent, the process of our EU separation will suck our policy and political energy inwards, far more so if it leads to an existential crisis over Scotland or a deterioration of peace and and security in Northern Ireland,\u201d he said. \n\u201cOther countries that had the UK down as a stable and active player in world affairs are unsure at the moment where we are heading.\u201d\nAlthough he insisted Britain could yet retain global influence outside the EU, through other international institutions such as Nato and the UN, Fraser warned there was no point denying that the decision to leave affected how the UK conducted foreign policy.\nTo tackle the problem Fraser urged a revamp of Whitehall departments, saying May had fragmented the international effort, with six different government departments now leading on foreign and security policy.\nHe said the Foreign Office should be handed the same coordinating role over foreign affairs as the Treasury enjoys over economic policy. He suggested the Department of International Development and the Department of International Trade could be incorporated into the Foreign Office.\nHe disclosed Whitehall was facing \u201can uphill struggle\u201d to respond to Brexit and that since there had been no planning for the UK\u2019s withdrawal from the EU, Whitehall was still in the process of analysing options for a future relationship. The Foreign Office in particular was preparing an initiative setting out how the UK could retain close security and foreign policy relations with the EU, even though in future it will be excluded from its meetings and denied access to papers.\nFraser said continued diplomatic and security influence would come with continued economic success, and urged the government not to imagine it would be easy to build a new economic relationship away from the EU. \u201cThat is why a rational outcome on our future relationship with the EU single market is essential,\u201d he said\nFraser also urged the cabinet not to think Britain could build a reliable economic future by engaging only with non-European countries such as China and India. \u201cWe export more to Belgium at the moment than we do to India, Russia Brazil and South Africa combined,\u201d he said. Although UK trade with these countries was growing, the structure of UK trade was not going to shift rapidly. Geographical proximity remained a huge determinant of a country\u2019s trading relationships he said.\nBritain had to acknowledge that its most important international relations would remain those with the United States, Germany and France. \nAnd in pointed advice, possibly to the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, he said: \u201cA good start would be to listen to those around them that have experience and knowledge of how the EU works, the complex issues they will need to negotiate and what the people on the other side of the table will be thinking.\u201d\n\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Sir Simon Fraser, who headed the Foreign Office, says economic stability essential if Britain is to retain place in world diplomacy", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/08/uk-risks-losing-global-influence-quits-single-market-senior-civil-servant", "title": "UK risks losing global influence if it quits single market, says senior civil servant"}, "160": {"text": "US military scientists have used electrical brain stimulators to enhance mental skills of staff, in research that aims to boost the performance of air crews, drone operators and others in the armed forces\u2019 most demanding roles.\nThe successful tests of the devices pave the way for servicemen and women to be wired up at critical times of duty, so that electrical pulses can be beamed into their brains to improve their effectiveness in high pressure situations.\nThe brain stimulation kits use five electrodes to send weak electric currents through the skull and into specific parts of the cortex. Previous studies have found evidence that by helping neurons to fire, these minor brain zaps can boost cognitive ability.\nThe technology is seen as a safer alternative to prescription drugs, such as modafinil and ritalin, both of which have been used off-label as performance enhancing drugs in the armed forces. \nBut while electrical brain stimulation appears to have no harmful side effects, some experts say its long-term safety is unknown, and raise concerns about staff being forced to use the equipment if it is approved for military operations. \nOthers are worried about the broader implications of the science on the general workforce because of the advance of an unregulated technology.\nIn a new report, scientists at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio describe how the performance of military personnel can slump soon after they start work if the demands of the job become too intense. \n\u201cWithin the air force, various operations such as remotely piloted and manned aircraft operations require a human operator to monitor and respond to multiple events simultaneously over a long period of time,\u201d they write. \u201cWith the monotonous nature of these tasks, the operator\u2019s performance may decline shortly after their work shift commences.\u201d\nBut in a series of experiments at the air force base, the researchers found that electrical brain stimulation can improve people\u2019s multitasking skills and stave off the drop in performance that comes with information overload. Writing in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, they say that the technology, known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has a \u201cprofound effect\u201d.\nFor the study, the scientists had men and women at the base take a test developed by Nasa to assess multitasking skills. The test requires people to keep a crosshair inside a moving circle on a computer screen, while constantly monitoring and responding to three other tasks on the screen. \nTo investigate whether tDCS boosted people\u2019s scores, half of the volunteers had a constant two milliamp current beamed into the brain for the 36-minute-long test. The other half formed a control group and had only 30 seconds of stimulation at the start of the test.\nAccording to the report, the brain stimulation group started to perform better than the control group four minutes into the test. \u201cThe findings provide new evidence that tDCS has the ability to augment and enhance multitasking capability in a human operator,\u201d the researchers write. Larger studies must now look at whether the improvement in performance is real and, if so, how long it lasts.\nThe tests are not the first to claim beneficial effects from electrical brain stimulation. Last year, researchers at the same US facility found that tDCS seemed to work better than caffeine at keeping military target analysts vigilant after long hours at the desk. Brain stimulation has also been tested for its potential to help soldiers spot snipers more quickly in VR training programmes.\nNeil Levy, deputy director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, said that compared with prescription drugs, electrical brain stimulation could actually be a safer way to boost the performance of those in the armed forces. \u201cI have more serious worries about the extent to which participants can give informed consent, and whether they can opt out once it is approved for use,\u201d he said. \u201cEven for those jobs where attention is absolutely critical, you want to be very careful about making it compulsory, or there being a strong social pressure to use it, before we are really sure about its long-term safety.\u201d\nBut while the devices may be safe in the hands of experts, the technology is freely available, because the sale of brain stimulation kits is unregulated. They can be bought on the internet or assembled from simple components, which raises a greater concern, according to Levy. Young people whose brains are still developing may be tempted to experiment with the devices, and try higher currents than those used in laboratories, he says. \u201cIf you use high currents you can damage the brain,\u201d he says.\nIn 2014 another Oxford scientist, Roi Cohen Kadosh, warned that while brain stimulation could improve performance at some tasks, it made people worse at others. In light of the work, Kadosh urged people not to use brain stimulators at home.\nIf the technology is proved safe in the long run though, it could help those who need it most, said Levy. \u201cIt may have a levelling-up effect, because it is cheap and enhancers tend to benefit the people that perform less well,\u201d he said.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Study paves way for personnel such as drone operators to have electrical pulses sent into their brains to improve effectiveness in high pressure situations", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/07/us-military-successfully-tests-electrical-brain-stimulation-to-enhance-staff-skills", "title": "US military successfully tests electrical brain stimulation to enhance staff skills"}, "161": {"text": "Ecosystems in the southern hemisphere bounced back more than twice as quickly as those in the north after the devastating asteroid impact that annihilated the dinosaurs, research suggests.\nA mass extinction was triggered 66 million years ago when a huge extraterrestrial rock crashed into the Earth. It produced the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico as well as wiping out non-avian dinosaurs and a vast array of other species.\nWhile previous evidence had suggested that the effects of the impact might have been less severe in the southern hemisphere, possibly because it provided a sort of refuge for species, the new research hints at a different explanation. \nThe lesser severity apparently seen in the southern hemisphere could be down to ecosystems recovering more quickly, researchers have found.\n\u201cThis extinction event is very important \u2013 it is a one of the major extinctions in the history of the Earth,\u201d said Michael Donovan of Pennsylvania State University, a co-author of the research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. \n\u201cThe biodiversity patterns we see today, where things are living, may be related to what survived \u2013 so it is important to learn about what was happening around the world at this time,\u201d he added.\nTo unpick why life in the southern hemisphere appeared to have fared better in the aftermath of the impact than in the north, scientists looked at the effect of the asteroid strike on leaf-eating insects. \u201cWe can learn a lot about what was happening at the base of the ecosystems by looking at what is happening to the plants and insects,\u201d said Donovan.\nThe team, from the USA and Argentina, analysed 3,646 fossil leaves from Patagonia dating from around a million years before the impact to around four million years after the event. The analysis focused on comparing damage produced by the nibbling of insects to that previously seen in fossil leaves from the western interior of North America.\nThe North American leaves revealed that the diversity of damage, and therefore the variety of insects munching on the leaves, decreased dramatically at the time of the asteroid impact, with insects that fed on just a small selection of plants the worst hit. The data also showed that it took around nine million years for insect damage to recover to pre-impact levels. \nSimilar trends were seen in the fossil leaves from Patagonia. However, both before and after the asteroid impact the diversity of damage was higher, suggesting that Patagonia was rich in a huge variety of insects. What\u2019s more, the diversity of the leaf damage returned to pre-impact levels more quickly than in North America, taking just four million years.\nCareful analysis of details in the damage produced by insects that burrow between leaf layers - so-called leaf miners - offered further insights, revealing that even though the same type of insects existed in Patagonia before and after the impact, they were unlikely to be of the same species. \u201cIt makes it look like there is a lower extinction, but ... there\u2019s actually new insects that were making this damage,\u201d said Donovan.\nThe upshot, the authors conclude, is that the catastrophic impact that bumped off the dinosaurs had a huge and devastating effect on insect biodiversity in both hemispheres, but that ecosystems recovered more quickly in Patagonia than in the western interior of North America. Given the crucial role plant-eating insects in food chains it is feasible, Donovan adds, that \u201cquicker recovery may be a general trend\u201d across the southern hemisphere. \nWhile it is not clear why ecosystems recovered faster in Patagonia, Donovan believes one factor could be its greater distance from the site of the asteroid strike, although he adds that is unlikely to be the full story. \nJason Hilton, a palaeobotanist from the University of Birmingham who was not involved in the research, said the work convincingly showed that diversity in the southern hemisphere was as severely affected by the mass extinction 66 million years ago as it was in North America, overturning the idea that the southern hemisphere was a refuge for species. \n\u201cDifferent locations were devastated by the impact event triggering mass extinction but its effects lasted longer in some places than others,\u201d he said.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Analysis of insect damage to fossil leaves presents new theory as to why southern hemisphere recovered faster from asteroid that killed the dinosaurs", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/07/southern-hemisphere-fastest-to-recover-after-dinosaur-killer-asteroid-study-suggests", "title": "Southern hemisphere faster to recover after killer asteroid, study suggests"}, "162": {"text": "Even by world record standards, it sets a high bar for human performance. Next month in Las Vegas a chess player named Timur Gareyev plans to take on nearly 50 opponents at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded.\nThe 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes, a hairstyle that morphs from mane to mohican, and he gets his kicks from Base jumping. He has proved himself a contender, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013, Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King.\nBut Gareyev\u2019s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles called him in for memory tests and brain scans. They now have their first results.\n\u201cThe ability to play a game of chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,\u201d said Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. \u201cBut the thing that\u2019s so remarkable about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active at once. To me it is simply astonishing.\u201d\nGareyev learned to play chess in Tashkent when he was six years old. Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament aged eight and soon became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he was crowned Asia\u2019s youngest ever chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, where his obsession switched to poker, but as a student he still helped the University of Texas in Brownsville win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the third best chess player in the US.\nTo the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of the feat, also known as sans voir, go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe played out in 13th-century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45 simultaneous games in his mind. He won 39 times in the 24-hour session and was reportedly unable to sleep for three days afterwards. For the Blindfold King\u2019s crown to sit more comfortably, he must beat the record 46 games played at once by the German Marc Lang in 2011.\nAccomplished players can learn to play blind even without realising it. The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces make, the defences and attacks. \u201cYou recreate it in your mind,\u201d said Gareyev. \u2018A lot of players are capable of doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d\nThe real mental challenge comes from playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated with each player\u2019s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to the next board. Gareyev said that to remember each board, he must be focused and deliberate. \u201cIf I skip from one board to another too quickly, when I come back to it, it\u2019s not perfect and at times I\u2019ll mess up.\u201d First moves can be tough to remember because they are often so humdrum: a pawn in front of the king or queen advances two squares. But the end games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on only a fragmented memory of the pieces\u2019 positions.\nTo train for the record attempt, Gareyev has been on a chess tour that builds in a hefty schedule of exercise and yoga backed up with healthy eating. Next week, he will play ten games blindfolded at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. At the same conference, Rissman\u2019s team will unveil the latest results from their tests on the player.\nThe scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards, soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. \u201cHe was not exceptional on any of these standard tests,\u201d said Rissman. \u201cWe didn\u2019t find anything other than playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.\u201d\nBut next came the brain scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well connected the various regions of the chess player\u2019s brain were. Though tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average communication between parts of Gareyev\u2019s brain that make up what is called the frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only one or two scored more highly on the measure. \u201cYou use this network in almost any complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out whether you should be responding or not,\u201d said Rissman.\nIt was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev\u2019s brain. The scans also suggest that Gareyev\u2019s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts than usual. If confirmed in further work, the areas of his brain that process visual images - such as chess boards - may have stronger links to other brain regions, and so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may hold the first clues to Gareyev\u2019s extraordinary ability.\nFor the world record attempt, a blindfolded Gareyev hopes to play 47 games at once in about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. \u201cI don\u2019t worry too much about the winning percentage, that\u2019s never been an issue for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.\u201d\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Next month, Timur Gareyev will play nearly 50 opponents at once - blindfolded. Can neuroscientists reveal how he performs such incredible mental feats?", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/03/inside-the-brain-of-the-man-who-would-be-blindfold-king-of-chess-timur-gareyev", "title": "Inside the brain of the man who would be 'Blindfold King' of chess"}, "163": {"text": "The placebo effect remains one of the most baffling mysteries in medicine. The idea that a useless sugar pill or harmless saline injection could result in a measurable improvement in a patient\u2019s symptoms, sometimes as good as taking an active drug, has been so hard to explain that some have even doubted whether it can be real.\nHowever, there is now evidence showing some people, known as \u201cplacebo responders\u201d, do feel or get better after unwittingly, or even wittingly, taking a placebo \u2013 and it\u2019s not just psychosomatic. Several studies are pointing to a biological basis for the placebo effect, with the latest research focused on a region of the brain known as the mid-frontal gyrus, which runs along the frontal lobes just above the eyes.\nThe study, carried out by Marwan Baliki and Vania Apkarian at Northwestern University in Chicago, involved a small number of chronic-pain patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. It is a rare example of a placebo study based on real patients rather than healthy volunteers who are just exposed to pain-inducing experiments to see how they feel when given a placebo.\nBaliki used an MRI scanner to observe in real time how the brain of patients responded to a placebo \u2013 in this case a sugar pill instead of a painkiller. In short, he found that an area within the mid-frontal gyrus lit up or, in his own words, \u201cshowed a higher functional connectivity\u201d in patients who responded to the placebo, compared with non-responders.\nHe concluded that this brain region seemed to be quite separate from another region of the brain known to be involved in responding to the effects of real painkilling drugs. In other words, Baliki appeared to have found the \u201cseat\u201d of the placebo effect within the brain.\n\u201cIn simple terms, we pinpointed a brain region, a hotspot or seat, that can predict the propensity of a patient\u2019s response to a placebo within the wider patient population suffering from chronic pain,\u201d Baliki says. \u201cWe also examined the specificity of our results by testing whether this hotspot can predict pain analgesia to an active drug. We found that it does not, suggesting that this brain region is specific for placebo analgesia.\u201d\nThe findings suggest a biological basis for the placebo effect and raise the prospect of tests to see if individuals are going to be good placebo responders or not. For those who are responders, it could mean targeting them with placebo pain treatments that might work specifically for them. Or it could result in identifying placebo responders so that they don\u2019t get included in clinical trials, which have long been thought to be compromised by them.\nIt is not, however, the first time that scientists have identified a brain region involved in the placebo effect. In 2007 for instance Jon-Kar Zubieta, now at the University of Utah, suggested that the nucleus accumbens, which lies at the top of the brain stem, plays a role in moderating pain after injections of a placebo composed of harmless saline solution \u2013 at least in healthy volunteers.\nOther researchers, meanwhile, have focused on identifying the genetic basis of the placebo effect. This is based on the idea that certain signalling pathways in the brain, especially those involved in the \u201creward\u201d network, help to mediate the placebo effect. The idea is that these signalling pathways are under genetic control and that some people may be blessed with certain combinations of genes that make them more or less responsive to a placebo effect.\nCertainly, the more that scientists investigate the placebo, the weirder the effect seems to be. One study earlier this year found that taking a placebo for chronic lower back pain can work effectively for some people even when they are told that the treatment is just a \u201cpowerful placebo\u201d.\n\u201cOur data suggests that harnessing placebo effects without deception is possible in the context of a plausible rationale,\u201d explained Claudia Carvalho of the ISPA-Instituto Universitario in Lisbon. She found that this kind of \u201copen\u201d placebo reduced initial pain and disability by about 30%.\nAnother study in 2011 on asthma patients found that placebo inhalers had no effect on increasing lung function. But asthma patients nevertheless reported that they felt significantly better after using a \u201cuseless\u201d inhaler \u2013 a baffling result to say the least.\nBut if this is difficult to explain, then what about the \u201cnoncebo\u201d, the evil twin of the placebo, where a sugar pill actually makes people feel worse because they expect to suffer the side effects they have heard about? If the placebo effect has a genuine biological basis, with a seat in the brain and its own set of genes, then it\u2019s plausible the same is true for the noncebo. If that is found to be the case, things could get really interesting.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "A study of the sometimes positive effects of taking drug-free pills suggests a biological factor at work", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/06/placebo-effect-is-there-something-in-it", "title": "The placebo effect: is there something in it after all?"}, "164": {"text": "The devastating impact of cigarette smoke on the body\u2019s DNA has been laid bare by the first comprehensive study into the damage tobacco inflicts on human cells.\nPeople who smoke a pack of cigarettes each day for a year develop on average 150 extra mutations in every lung cell, and nearly 100 more mutations than usual in each cell of the voice box, researchers found. More still build up in the mouth, bladder, liver and other organs.\nWhile chemicals in tobacco smoke have long been known to raise the risk of at least 17 forms of cancer, the precise molecular mechanisms through which they mutate DNA and give rise to tumours in different tissues have never been clear.\n\u201cThis is about running down the root cause of cancers,\u201d said David Phillips, a professor of environmental carcinogenesis at King\u2019s College London and a co-author on the study. \u201cBy identifying the root causes, we gain the sort of knowledge we need to think more seriously about cancer prevention.\u201d\nMore than 70 of the 7,000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancer. Some damage DNA directly, but others ramp up mutations in more subtle ways, often by disrupting the way cells function. The more mutations a cell acquires, the more likely it is to turn cancerous.\nThe reason why some people can smoke for years without getting cancer, while others develop the disease, is down to the way mutations arise. When a person smokes, the chemicals they inhale create mutations at random points in the genome. Many of these changes will be harmless, but others not so benign. The more smoke a person is exposed to, the greater the chance that the accumulating mutations will hit specific spots in the DNA that turn cells cancerous.\n\u201cYou can really think of it as playing Russian roulette,\u201d said Ludmil Alexandrov, a theoretical biologist at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the first author of the study. \u201cYou can miss the right genes. But if you smoke you still play the game. It\u2019s a very strong message for people not to start smoking. If you smoke even a little bit you\u2019ll erode the genetic material of most of the cells in your body.\u201d Smoking is the most preventable cause of cancer in the world and accounts for more than 1 in 4 UK cancer deaths.\nWith researchers at the Wellcome Trust\u2019s Sanger Institute near Cambridge and others, Alexandrov analysed the DNA of more than 5,000 cancers. The team then turned to pattern recognition software to tease apart the various mutational signatures found in tumours from smokers versus non-smokers. To find the signatures - the patterns of mutations present in cancer cells - researchers performed the genetic equivalent of recording the chatter at a party and then extracting individual conversations from the hubbub.\nThe scientists spotted more than 20 mutational signatures in 13 types of cancer linked to tobacco smoking. But only five of these were more common in smokers\u2019 tumours. One pattern of mutations, dubbed signature four, was found to be a major driver for lung cancer. It is thought to be caused by benzopyrene, a chemical found in tobacco smoke.\nMore intriguing was how tobacco caused mutations in tissues that are not directly exposed to smoke, such as the bladder, kidneys and pancreas. The study found that chemicals from tobacco smoke found their way to different organs and tissues and then sped up the molecular clocks in the cells. This ramped up the natural rate at which mutations built up in the tissues.\n\u201cWe knew there was direct damage from smoking in the lungs. What we didn\u2019t expect was to see smoking speed up the molecular clocks inside cells,\u201d said Alexandrov, whose study appears in the journal Science. \u201cIn bladder cancer, the only thing that causes the extra mutations in smokers is the speeding up of the clock, and that will be very dependent on the intensity of smoking. For every pack of cigarettes you smoke per year, you accumulate 18 mutations in all of your bladder cells,\u201d he added.\nScientists hope that by understanding how the individual ingredients of tobacco smoke raise the risk of various cancers, they can develop new ways to prevent the disease. The same techniques used in the latest study will now be used to tease apart how alcohol, obesity and other factors also increase a person\u2019s cancer risk.\n\u201cThere is a message here for people who are occasional or social smokers who think it doesn\u2019t do anything,\u201d said Alexandrov. \u201cIf you smoke four to five packs of cigarettes in your lifetime it doesn\u2019t sound that much, but you still get several mutations in every cell in your lungs and these are permanent, they do not go away. There are a lot of things that do revert back when you stop smoking, and this shouldn\u2019t discourage people from giving up, but the specific mutations in the lung cells are like scars. If you stop smoking, they\u2019ll still be there.\u201d\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Major investigation into root causes of cancer reveals how tobacco smoke mutates DNA and gives rise to more than a dozen types of tumour", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/03/dna-study-lays-bare-devastating-damage-caused-by-smoking", "title": "DNA study lays bare devastating damage caused by smoking"}, "165": {"text": "A high court judgment in which the current England assistant manager, Sammy Lee, was found to have knowingly given false evidence has been upheld by the court of appeal. Lee, when manager of Bolton Wanderers for a short period in 2007 having taken over from Sam Allardyce, was found to have lied about his club\u2019s involvement in signing the midfield player Gavin McCann, who had been poached by the agents SEM.\nThe Football Association has never taken any action against anybody involved in the case, despite findings revealing that Bolton and SEM then backdated the contract for McCann, and that Lee and other witnesses gave false evidence. Following the upholding of the judgment\u2019s findings on appeal, the FA declined to comment.\nTony McGill, the agent who had an agreement with McCann to represent the player, succeeded in September 2014 with his accusation that SEM, whose then chief executive was the well-known agent Jerome Anderson, had poached McCann at the last minute with the Bolton deal already agreed. Bolton paid SEM a \u00a3300,000 fee for doing \u201clittle or nothing,\u201d the judgment stated. Lee and Frank McParland, Bolton\u2019s then general manager, were found to have lied about two meetings they claimed had taken place with McCann in a restaurant in Liverpool, designed to show that they had discussed McCann with SEM earlier than they did.\nHis honour Judge Waksman QC, in his 2014 judgment, said he did not accept that any such meetings took place and stated of Lee\u2019s, Bolton\u2019s and SEM\u2019s evidence: \u201cTheir accounts do not stack up and are riddled with inconsistencies and different versions over time.\u201d\nIn a later ruling on legal costs Waksman recorded that Lee\u2019s and McParland\u2019s evidence about the meetings was \u201cunreliable\u201d and \u201cfalse\u201d, saying: \u201cThe events attested to by the Bolton witnesses concerning these meetings simply did not happen. True, I did not use the word \u2018dishonesty\u2019 [in his first judgment] but plainly, if their evidence on the facts on this issue was false, they must have known it to be so.\u201d\nWaksman also found that Bolton, then chaired by the late Phil Gartside, an FA board member, backdated the contract signed by McCann, to make it look as if SEM had been involved earlier than they were. The judge found that Gartside\u2019s evidence was also unreliable and said he \u201cbecame visibly uncomfortable\u201d under questioning about the contract, before finally admitting that he signed it at a later date than the one written on the contract.\nBolton and SEM presented their commercial relationship as if SEM had acted for the club and not McCann, who was said to have resented paying tax when an agent\u2019s fee was paid on his behalf by a club. This practice, of stating that an agent was acting for a club and not a player, was known as \u201cswitching.\u201d Bolton, though, did record the \u00a3300,000 fee paid to SEM as a benefit for McCann anyway, the court was told, because Her Majesty\u2019s Revenue and Customs were conducting \u201can increasing number of investigations\u201d into football transfers.\nWaksman found that when McCann called McGill to tell him SEM were going to do the deal with Bolton, McGill had said: \u201cDon\u2019t do this, Gavin, we have an agreement, what about that?\u201d McCann had replied: \u201cI am sorry, I feel shit\u201d.\nMcGill complained first to the Football Association in 2007, even before McCann signed for Bolton, that SEM had poached McCann from him, in breach of an oral agreement they had made for McGill to represent the player, but the FA took no action and he began court proceedings. Despite Waksman\u2019s findings of poaching, false evidence given by several senior football figures including Sammy Lee and the backdating of the contract, the FA still took no action in 2014. Waksman ruled that despite his findings about the conduct of the Bolton and SEM defendants, McGill could not in fact receive any damages, because he did not have a written agreement with McCann so could not prove he definitely would have ultimately concluded the Bolton deal for him.\nMcGill appealed, and two court of appeal judges have now ruled that in fact he was the victim of an \u201cunlawful means conspiracy\u201d and should be entitled to damages for having lost the opportunity to conclude the deal for McCann to sign for Bolton. That issue, of how much damages McGill is entitled to from SEM, has been referred back to Waksman to be decided.\nThe appeal court judges, Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr Justice Henderson, upheld all the factual findings made by Waksman in his 2014 judgment, noting that although he did not grant McGill\u2019s claim for damages: \u201cThe judge was very critical, however, of much of the evidence given by the defendants and their witnesses, and he concluded that they had fabricated some key events in a misguided attempt to improve their position.\u201d\nMcGill, who has spent nine years fighting to prove his case, told the Guardian that he informed the FA in May 2007 just after McCann was poached away from him, and had always kept the governing body informed.\n\u201cThey now know Bolton submitted a false and backdated contract, that Sammy Lee and Frank McParland gave evidence in court the judge dismissed as untrue, but the FA have done nothing,\u201d he said.\nLee, the former Liverpool and England midfielder, left Bolton in October 2007, then worked in senior coaching roles at Liverpool, back at Bolton and Southampton, before the FA appointed him to rejoin Allardyce, as the England team\u2019s assistant manager, in July this year.\nAfter Allardyce, after taking charge of just one game, left by mutual consent following the undercover sting by the Daily Telegraph last month, Lee has been retained, and is currently working with the squad preparing for the forthcoming matches against Scotland and Spain.\nAsked if following the appeal the FA would now be taking action against Lee or any of the other defendants in the McGill case, a spokesperson said: \u201cWe understand there are still matters to be decided by the court and therefore it would not be appropriate to comment\u201d.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "A high court judgment in which the current England assistant manager, Sammy Lee, was found to have knowingly given false evidence has been upheld by the court of appeal", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/07/england-sammy-lee-bolton-transfer-deal-appeal-court", "title": "Appeal court finds Sammy Lee gave false evidence over Bolton transfer deal"}, "166": {"text": "Jon Jones, the UFC\u2019s interim light heavyweight champion, and one of the organization\u2019s biggest draws, has been given a one-year suspension by the US Anti-Doping Agency.\nThe 29 year-old had entered arbitration with Usada last month over an out of competition test in June. The test showed Jones had used the prohibited substances clomiphene and letrozole, which he claimed came from a pill he used to enhance sexual performance. Jones said he had not used them in order to give him an advantage in his fight career. The champion added that he believed he was taking a brand called Cialis, which did not contain banned substances, but had actually been given Tadalafil. Usada tested Tadalafil and confirmed it contained the banned substances. \u00a0\nWhile the arbitration panel said it believed Jones is not a cheat, it did say he had not done enough to confirm the substance he took was permitted. \u201cOn the evidence before the Panel, [Jones] is not a drug cheat,\u201d the panel said. \u201cHe did not know that the tablet he took contained prohibited substances or that those substances had the capacity to enhance sporting performance. However by his imprudent use of what he pungently referred to as a \u2018dick pill\u2019 he has not only lost a year of his career but an estimated $9m\u201d.\nThe UFC agreed that Jones was careless rather than a cheat. \u201cWhile the decision indicates no evidence of Jones\u2019 intentional use of banned substances, it does highlight the care and diligence that is required by athletes competing in the UFC to ensure that no prohibited substances enter their system,\u201d the promotion said in a statement.\u00a0\nAs the suspension is retroactive, Jones will be able to fight again in July 2017, a year after he was pulled from the card for UFC 200.\n\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Jon Jones, the UFC\u2019s interim light heavyweight champion has been given a one-year suspension by the US Anti-Doping Agency", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/nov/07/jon-jones-suspension-ufc-failed-drug-test", "title": "UFC's Jon Jones given one-year ban after taking pill to boost sexual performance"}, "167": {"text": "Australia paceman Peter Siddle has been ruled out of the second Test against South Africa in Hobart with a lower back injury.\nSiddle had scans after the 177-run loss in Perth on Monday and they showed \u201clow grade bone oedema\u201d around an old stress fracture, Cricket Australia said.\n\u201cWe are hopeful that this will resolve relatively quickly, but have withdrawn him from the squad for the second Test match in Hobart,\u201d team physiotherapist David Beakley said. \n\u201cWe will monitor his recovery and have a better idea of when he will return to play in the next week or so.\u201d \nSelectors had brought Tasmania fast bowler Jackson Bird into the squad as cover for the bowling attack, with uncapped Joe Mennie likely to debut in place of Siddle on Saturday. \nAustralia trail 1-0 in the three-match series, with the third Test to be played in Adelaide from 24 November.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Australia\u2019s fast bowling stocks have taken another hit with Peter Siddle ruled out of the second Test against South Africa in Hobart with a back injury", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/nov/08/injury-rules-peter-siddle-out-of-second-test-against-south-africa-in-hobart", "title": "Injury rules Peter Siddle out of second Test against South Africa in Hobart"}, "168": {"text": "And you thought England v Scotland was this week\u2019s big grudge match. The giants of South America meet in Belo Horizonte on Thursday night in a key World Cup qualifier with Barcelona team-mates Neymar and Lionel Messi carrying the weight of their respective nations. Brazil lead the 10-team table with 21 points after 10 games. The top four go through and fifth-place face a play-off. Worryingly for Argentina they currently sit sixth, but it is tightly packed with six games to go and a win over their old rivals could take them into third. Defeat, though, would be very problematic indeed.\nThe draw for the ATP World Tour Finals, the big-money season closer, at the O2 is made in London this week before the action kicks off next Sunday. New No1 seed Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic (if he is fit), Kei Nishikori, Gael Monfils, Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem have qualified to compete for a prize pot worth $7m (\u00a35.6m). The draw will form two groups of four, from which the top two will qualify for the semi-finals.\nExpect tributes to the broadcaster Dave Lanning, who passed away last week, as 32 of the world\u2019s best players gather in Wolverhampton for the 10th staging of the Grand Slam of Darts. Twenty-four of the PDC\u2019s arrow slingers will be joined by eight of the BDO\u2019s tungsten chuckers and it would be a surprise if any of those from the latter reached the final. Michael van Gerwen, the reigning champion, is the one to watch again but Phil Taylor will be there, too. He has won six of the previous nine outings.\nIn a similar vein, Coventry\u2019s Ricoh Arena plays host to snooker\u2019s Champion of Champions from Monday, where 16 players will battle it out for the \u00a3100,000 winner\u2019s pot. Neil Robertson is the reigning champion having overcome Mark Allen\u2019s challenge 12 months ago. The unmissable Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan withdrew then, but he has qualified this time as No3 seed, beginning with a tie against Finland\u2019s Robin Hull in a quickfire best of seven shootout.\nAnother round of Checkatrade Trophy awkwardness \u2013 the reformatted, rebranded Johnstone\u2019s Paint Trophy, now featuring the glamour and credibility of top-flight U23 sides, and widespread fan boycotts. Among the ties: Everton\u2019s U23s at home to Blackpool, Chelsea U23s v Oxford, and Wolves U23s v Accrington. Last month Accrington tweeted after their 4-1 win at Chesterfield: \u201cReports of an away following of 2 at Chesterfield last night are untrue. We counted at least 6.\u201d\nWe\u2019re on cricket this week? No, World Cup football \u2013 but it could feature a cricket score on Friday. As in a mauling, a thrashing, a romp, a trouncing. It\u2019s San Marino versus the world champions.\nCould be messy. It\u2019s a proper mismatch. Germany are the toughest opponents Europe\u2019s most-loved minnows have faced for a while and the two times they\u2019ve met before, a decade ago, ended 6-0 and 13-0. On the other hand, San Marino are on a high of their own after a landmark moment last month.\nThey won? No, but they scored an away goal in a qualifier against Norway. They still lost 4-1, but it was a special moment for the 201st-ranked side \u2013 Mattia Stefanelli equalised, sparking wild celebrations, and provoking an instant viral clip of the reaction in the Norwegian broadcaster\u2019s studio. It was San Marino\u2019s first away goal in World Cup qualifying in 15 years. The icing on the cake: Stefanelli won CNN\u2019s goal of the week competition.\nIsn\u2019t all this a bit patronising? Yes, but the team and the fans rise above it and they boast one of the most entertaining unofficial official Twitter feeds in international football. @Soccersanmarino reacted to their goal in Norway with: \u201cWE [EFFING] SCORED AN AWAY GOAL. STEFANELLI YOU [EFFING] LEGEND!\u201d \u2013 a message that retweeted more than 37,000 times. The writer later reflected: \u201cI have more retweets on this tweet than there are inhabitants in San Marino. Madness.\u201d\nBut even with all that positivity, Friday will be a cakewalk for the visitors? Surely. Then again, England thought the same when they went there in 1993, and they conceded after 8.3 seconds. It made for a classic piece of high-pitched breathless commentary from Jonathan Pearce, who was covering it for London\u2019s Capital Gold radio: \u201cWelcome to Bologna on Capital Gold Sport for England versus San Marino with Tennent\u2019s Pilsner brewed with Czechoslovakian yeast for that extra Pilsner taste and England are one down.\u201d\nGermany would never let that happen\u2026 Seems unlikely. They\u2019re at their slickest right now: top of Group C and lifted by having newly retired record-scorer Miroslav Klose on Joachim L\u00f6w\u2019s coaching team. L\u00f6w, meanwhile, plans to celebrate his recent contract extension by taking his squad to meet the pope before they play Italy on the 15th. \u201cIt does not matter which religious ideologies you have,\u201d L\u00f6w says. \u201cThis will be great day.\u201d\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Barcelona team-mates become international adversaries, the big names of men\u2019s tennis count down to the ATP World Tour Finals and the stars of darts and snooker will gather in the Midlands", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/nov/05/the-agenda-neymar-and-messi-head-to-head-world-cup-showdown", "title": "The Agenda: Neymar and Messi go head-to-head in World Cup showdown"}, "169": {"text": "Mark Selby, whose only success this season had been to win the minor Gdynia Open event in Poland, won a second trophy here evening \u2013 the Betfred World Championship 2016.\nIn beating Ding Junhui 18-14 \u2013 a repeat of his score against Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan in the final two years ago \u2013 he became only the sixth multiple world champion in Crucible history, joining Stephen Hendry (7), Steve Davis (6), O\u2019Sullivan (5), John Higgins (4) and Mark Williams (2).\nAnd of the players mentioned he most closely resembles Higgins, for the excellence of his match play and all-round skills, and the ability to win crucial matches with his B game.\nSelby, a Leicester City supporter who won his title only a few minutes after his football team had been confirmed as champions, has been on his B game throughout this championship and he was able to lift himself only occasionally in his largely tactical, safety-based victory. But it was still good enough to beat Ding, who ultimately had to be content with becoming the first Asian player to reach the final.\nSelby went into the second day of the final leading 10-7. Ding was the perkier, more confident player at the start and won the first two frames. But the opening session was shared 4-4.\nWhen Selby won the first two frames of the final session to go 16-11 up it looked all over. But then Ding won three in a row, the last with a break of 103, to make it 16-14. But that was to be Ding\u2019s last success. Selby won the scrappy next frame before taking the title with a break of 74.\nHe said: \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic. It was very special to win it two years ago but I felt under a lot more pressure now than I did then. I don\u2019t know which is the bigger shock, me winning this or Leicester City winning the Premier League. I\u2019m so proud of Claudio and the boys. We\u2019re only a small place.\n\u201cIt was a tough final and with the amount of pressure Ding is under, from China alone, but to play like that \u2013 I can\u2019t imagine how he could do that.\n\u201cIn the first to 18 a 6-0 lead is not a huge one, especially against someone like Ding. He played fantastically earlier today and I had to just hang on to him. I\u2019m just over the moon. I saved my best performance for the final and I only had two good sessions in the tournament. Luckily my \u2018B\u2019 game is pretty good.\u201d\nRob Walker, snooker\u2019s wonderfully energetic and comic MC, who appears to have walked straight off the pages of the Pickwick Papers, has nicknames for all the players.\nSome work well, others less so. But when Walker introduces Selby as \u201cThe Jester from Leicester\u201d it is as if his humour has taken a decidedly ironic turn. Steve Davis was closer to the mark when, referring to Selby\u2019s Sunday evening vigil, he described him as \u201cthe night porter from hell\u201d. Selby is also, according to his old mentor Willie Thorne, \u201cthe most dedicated snooker player I have ever seen\u201d.\nThere is a rare determination about him, which is hardy surprising in view of the fact his mother walked out of the family home when he was only eight. He and his brother were brought up unaided by their father, who died when Mark was 16.\nThe influence of Ding\u2019s father was hardly any less relevant. When he was eight years old he took \u201cLittle Ding\u201d with him to a local snooker hall and, when his father went to the toilet, he returned to find his baby-faced son had taken over his cue and won the match for him.\nWhile another memorable final was being played out, the World Snooker chairman, Barry Hearn, celebrated a \u201cboom time for the sport\u201d, announcing a two-year extension to the sport\u2019s contract with the BBC, which will run until 2019, while announcing the world championship will remain in Sheffield until 2027.\nHearn said: \u201cThe BBC have gone the extra mile for us. They have had their licence fee frozen by HM Government. It\u2019s cut their arms off, in terms of competing with the pay broadcasters, but compete they did.\n\u201cThe BBC are struggling financially. But they have really got behind snooker. We have had 20 extra hours of additional coverage this year. That\u2019s good because it shows that once they have bought something they really make the most of it, instead of hiding it in the schedules. Now I can\u2019t wait to see the numbers coming in from China.\u201d\nIt was another memorable final \u2013 particularly when the form of these players this season is considered. Ding, ranked 17, had to qualify for this championship.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Leicester\u2019s Mark Selby beat China\u2019s Ding Junhui 18-14 to win his second World Championship at The Crucible", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/02/mark-selby-world-championshp-ding-junhui", "title": "Mark Selby clinches second world title with 18-14 win over Ding Junhui"}, "170": {"text": "The internet of shopping is finally here: magic-like buttons that when pressed have goods delivered to your door, without any need to log on to a website or get out your credit card. The branded Dash buttons are Amazon\u2019s latest offering to make it easier to shop, so I bought a load of them to find out whether it\u2019s the retail revolution we didn\u2019t even know we were looking for.\nThere is no Dash button for ordering Dash buttons, so I looked though the 40 or so available and found eight for things I would normally buy. They\u2019re \u00a35 each, so I spent \u00a340 for this convenience, but with the promise \u00a35 would be taken off the first purchase made with each button making them free in the long run.\nA box of boxes turned up the next day. Each Dash button comes in a small cardboard box. Unpacking them and setting them up was straightforward if a little tedious. For each one you have to do a little song and dance with the Amazon app.\nSelect the option to set up a new Dash, tell it the password to your Wi-Fi network, select the product and quantity and then hit save. The delivery and payment information is pulled from your Amazon one-click order settings; there\u2019s no way to set per-item delivery locations.\nIt doesn\u2019t take too long to set one up, but doing eight in one go got old really fast. Once activated though, that\u2019s you done. In future all you have to do is hit the button \u2013 although that proved to be too easy.\nThankfully when you have pushed the button you get until evening that day to cancel the order. When you\u2019ve made an order a notification pops up from the Amazon app on the device you set up the Dash buttons with, but you can and probably should activate that notification on every device you own.\nThe first time the notification saved my bacon was when I installed the Dash buttons. They come with a sticky strip on the back and a small black hanging bracket that you can attach to a hook or similar. I chose to stick them in place out the way, next to where I\u2019d normally store whatever it was. In the bathroom cabinet for toothbrush heads and Listerine, under the sink for bin bags, cleaning fluid, that kind of thing.\nBy the time I\u2019d managed to stick them in place I\u2019d already ordered a set of new toothbrush heads by accident, and very nearly some toilet roll and washing tablets, none of which I needed. A couple of taps in the app and the order was cancelled.\nI felt good about the installation. They were stuck out the way, inconspicuous and convenient and everything was fine. That was, until they started ordering stuff on their own. It turns out that the adhesive on the back of the Dash buttons doesn\u2019t like sticking to unpainted MDF surfaces within cupboards.\nThe one I had stuck next to the stocks of shower gel, moisturiser and other bits fell off almost immediately within the cupboard, landing as it fell to the shelf surface below on an upstanding bottle of nail varnish ordering some foundation in the process. The first I knew of it was an order notification.\nPresuming it was my fault I simply stuck it back in place with a bit more gusto, which lasted for about an hour before another ping and another tube of foundation to be cancelled. This was starting to get tedious.\nThe Rimmel button was just the start of a trend. Over the next few days all but two of the buttons dropped off various metal, paint and wooden surfaces, some ordering products, others just making a nasty clang in the middle of the night and waking me up.\nIn the end I took the nuclear option and stripped the adhesive gel off the back of the Dash buttons, which doesn\u2019t take long if you pull hard enough, and replaced them with poster mounting strips, which did the trick.\nOnce finally, safely attached to the walls it was a couple of weeks before I actually pushed any of the buttons on purpose. Then the toilet roll and mouthwash began to run out, so it was finally time to put them into action.\nPressing the button was simple. Getting the delivery, however, was not. The trouble is that when setting up the toilet roll button the only option was for an order of 45 rolls. Normally I\u2019d buy eight at a time; our family doesn\u2019t go through toilet paper that quickly.\nIn order to receive a package the size of 45 rolls I had to order it the day before I knew I would be at home to receive it. So I got up on Friday morning, hit both the Andrex and Listerine buttons and gleefully waited for them arrive on Saturday, my very first internet of things purchases.\nThat\u2019s when the second round of trouble started. When I hit the button we were down to three rolls. But while the 1L of mouthwash arrived on Saturday as expected \u2013 in a big box, of course \u2013 the toilet roll did not. By Sunday morning with two toilet rolls left, the order was still \u201cpreparing for dispatch\u201d so I hit cancel, consoling myself that at least Tesco would provide.\nUnfortunately Amazon said I couldn\u2019t cancel because it was already on its way, but on Monday it was still \u201cdispatching\u201d, so I tried cancelling again, to no avail. By Monday evening we were already a good chunk into our last toilet roll, with visions of having to resort to kitchen roll or yesterday\u2019s Guardian. To make matters worse I was off on holiday on Wednesday and was starting to have visions of 45 toilet rolls stuck outside my front door like a giant advert to burglars.\nThankfully it arrived sometime on Tuesday. I came home to find it wedged behind a bin \u2013 luckily it didn\u2019t rain \u2013 meaning we\u2019ll be stocked until February at least. It was not the best first order experience. Subsequent orders for toothbrush heads, Dettol, dishwasher tablets were less painful, primarily because I got most of them delivered when one of the family was home for some other reason. But it certainly wasn\u2019t a case of simply hit it and forget it. \nYou can get deliveries sent to an Amazon locker if there are any within striking distance, but not everything can fit in one - there\u2019s no way the toilet rolls would have. And by the time you\u2019ve gone out to a locker to pick up some Listerine you might just as well have gone to the supermarket. \nWashing tablets, like toilet roll, presented a scale problem. While the tablets arrived on time, they arrived in serious quantity: 180 tabs across six boxes, which at a rate of about one or two a week, is going to last me at least 18 months and feels like I\u2019ve turned my house into a warehouse full of them. The Rimmel button, for a product that would fit through the letter box, has still never been intentionally pressed.\nAmazon pitched the Dash buttons as a way of avoiding the need to fill up your house with large stocks of the boring things in life, but when the order quantities are vast, the next day delivery fails or you simply don\u2019t have someone there everyday to receive deliveries, they\u2019re more trouble than they\u2019re worth.\nPerhaps if you\u2019re part of the metropolitan elite and your serviced apartment comes with a concierge, or you work from home or someone is always in, the brain-free push of the Dash button is a great idea. But the convenience of pushing a button is outweighed by the hassle for me.\nI\u2019ll be keeping some of them for smaller items - they are great for toothbrush heads and bin liners \u2013 and getting them delivered to work but the Andrex button and any others for heavy goods are going: it\u2019s just easier to go to a supermarket and pick them up, or order them in a big weekly online grocery shop.\nThe novelty of Amazon dash buttons wore off even faster than the adhesive backing. \n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Doing your shopping by pressing buttons in your home sounds like a great labour-saving life-hack \u2026 and then you get 45 toilet rolls arrive in one go", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/07/hopping-amazon-dash-buttons-", "title": "I tried to do my shopping with Amazon Dash buttons so you don't have to"}, "171": {"text": "When Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge sent his fiancee to the wrong side of London for dinner, he sent an apologetic text message. He received an emoji-less reply: \u201cIt\u2019s fine.\u201d\n\u201cWe all know that\u2019s not what it means at all. That means \u2018it\u2019s not fine\u2019,\u201d he said, pointing out that emoji have infiltrated language so deeply that their absence from that message carries a meaning that we all understand. Once considered a nerd topic, emoji have now become a mainstream medium, Burge says \u2013 and San Francisco\u2019s first Emojicon conference seems to agree.\nHundreds of adults (and surprisingly few children) turned up for sessions including Emoji Karaoke, where participants had to translate the lyrics of pop songs such as Call Me Maybe into strings of emoji; emoji spellcasting, which revealed how modern witches have embraced technology; and a specialist emoji balloon artist whose biggest request was the poop symbol. There was even a stall selling Emojibator, a vibrator in the shape of the aubergine/eggplant emoji. Something for everyone.\nEmoji users feel a significant ownership over these tiny digital symbols, as evidenced by the reaction when Apple swapped the gun emoji for a water pistol and changed the peach emoji to look less like a butt, or when a Saudi teen designed her own headscarf-wearing emoji.\nEmoji have also been recognized as art, with New York\u2019s Museum of Mordern Art (MoMA) acquiring the original 176 emoji designed by a Japanese phone company in 1999. Not everyone agrees with putting emoji on this lofty cultural pedestal, said Paul Galloway, MoMA\u2019s architecture and design collection specialist, but there was similar pushback when MoMA introduced photography, cubist artworks and video games to its collection. \n\u201cPeople think we should be sticking to beautiful oil paintings by dead European guys, but this is part of a broader range of creativity,\u201d he said.\nYet there are more serious cultural problems highlighted by the rise of emoji, particularly how to make them more inclusive to people of different races, genders and physical abilities. Until a range of skintones were introduced for emoji in 2015, there were no options for making emoji anything other than white (or cartoon yellow) \u2013 and even the new set of modifiers were only introduced after public outrage about lack of diversity.\nResearcher Kate Miltner has spent two years researching why emoji were developed with such a limited worldview. She concluded that there was no intention to actively exclude people, but that the icons did align with a belief that inadvertently marginalizes people \u2013 the belief that technology is neutral.\n\u201cEmoji may seem trivial, just silly little faces, but when you aren\u2019t represented by something that\u2019s so widely used, it\u2019s a problem. The values either intentionally \u2013 or unintentionally \u2013 baked into the systems we use on a daily basis can deeply impact people and how they navigate their world,\u201d said Miltner, a PhD student at USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, who conducted extensive interviews with, and analyzed hundreds of emails from, the Unicode Consortium, the official body which standardizes emoji.\nBoth Unicode and its partner, the International Organization for Standardization, approached their task as a technical process, Miltner said, to encode the characters originally created by Japanese telecoms firms and avoid \u201cthe messy politics of representation\u201d. Yet there is no such thing as a neutral or apolitical technological system.\n\u201cDesign and engineering choices are made by people \u2013 people who have belief systems, who work for organizations that have belief systems, and who direct their products to a market or a set of consumers who have certain belief systems,\u201d said Miltner. \u201cThis is not necessarily bad \u2013 it\u2019s just how things are.\u201d\n\u201cInvesting in the idea that technology is neutral ignores and even erases the influence of engineers, designers and the organizations they work for. When this happens, it often works out that marginalized groups \u2013 people of color, LGBTQIA folks, differently abled people \u2013 are not taken into consideration because they are not considered to be the default, or the norm.\u201d\nThe author Toni Morrison once said: \u201cIn this country, \u2018American\u2019 means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.\u201d Hosiery, clothing and bandages sold as \u201cskin tone\u201d are typically the colour of white skin, Miltner said, because whiteness is considered the default skin in the western world. The same happens with gender and sexual orientation; until 2015 the family emoji represented a heterosexual, white-skinned couple with two children. \u201cWhen people say default or standard that usually means western, white and usually male,\u201d she said.\nMiltner says we need to think beyond binary interpretations of gender and race, especially in technologies that \u2013 however \u201ccute\u201d or \u201csilly\u201d \u2013 are used by millions of people worldwide. \n\u201cIt behooves us all to acknowledge the power and politics that are involved in the formation of widely used technologies, especially if we are to move beyond the \u2018default\u2019 and towards more inclusivity.\u201d\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "As fans gather for San Francisco\u2019s first Emojicon, a researcher explains how your phone\u2019s keyboard reveals \u2018baked-in\u2019 values beyond poop and eggplants", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/07/emoji-diversity-texting-emojicon-san-francisco", "title": "Emoji diversity: how 'silly little faces' can make a big difference"}, "172": {"text": "Samsung has taken out a full-page advert in multiple US newspapers to apologise for the faulty Note 7 phone, which has now been subject to a worldwide recall.\nThe advert in Monday\u2019s Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post, is signed by Samsung\u2019s North America chief executive, Gregory Lee. It offers an apology for falling short on the company\u2019s ambition to \u201coffer best-in-class safety and quality.\n\u201cWe will re-examine every aspect of the device, including all hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure,\u201d Lee wrote. \u201cWe will move as quickly as possible, but will take the time needed to get the right answers.\u201d\nThe apology focuses on the Note 7, which was supposed to be Samsung\u2019s flagship extra-large phone until it was revealed that it had a dangerous tendency to overheat and catch fire.\nBut it also covers Samsung\u2019s other ongoing PR nightmare: the revelation that some of the company\u2019s top-loading washing machines are capable of vibrating themselves to pieces, in one case breaking a customer\u2019s jaw. The company has instituted a voluntary recall to address the issue and is offering free in-home repair and rebates for owners. \u201cOur service teams are visiting homes this week to help resolve concerns,\u201d Lee added.\nMeanwhile, in New Zealand, the Note 7\u2019s recall is almost complete, but some customers are refusing to give up their phones, hoping that the risk of fire is worth it to keep what is otherwise a well-respected phone. As a result, New Zealand\u2019s mobile networks are teaming up with Samsung to disconnect the device from their networks entirely.\nFrom 18 November, the Note 7 will no longer work on any mobile carrier in the country. \u201cNumerous attempts by all providers have been made to contact owners and ask them to bring the phones in for replacement or refund. This action should further aid the return of the remaining handsets,\u201d said Geoff Thorn, the head of the NZ Telecommunications Forum.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Electronics company says sorry in US print media for problems with its smartphones and washing machines", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/08/samsung-takes-out-full-page-ads-to-apologise-for-note-7-defects", "title": "Samsung takes out full-page ads to apologise for Note 7 defects"}, "173": {"text": "Google has been accused of hiding a competitor\u2019s webmail service from its search results in a \u201csuspicious\u201d manner for almost a year, costing the service hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost traffic.\nThe company, ProtonMail, provides encrypted email accounts for users, and has been one of the most popular services of that type since its launch in 2014, as reflected by its Google search ranking: the company says it was placed \u201con the first or second page of most [relevant] queries including \u2018encrypted email\u2019 and \u2018secure email\u2019\u201d.\nIn the autumn of 2015, however, ProtonMail\u2019s ranking plummeted, from the first page to the fifth, tenth, and, by the following spring, nowhere visible at all. \u201cAll throughout spring 2016, we worked in earnest to get in touch with Google,\u201d the company says. \u201cWe created two tickets on their web spam report form explaining the situation. We even contacted Google\u2019s president of EMEA strategic relationships, but received no response nor improvement.\u201d\nThe result of the collapse was ProtonMail\u2019s growth rate dropping by a quarter for the affected months, something the company estimates cost it \u201cseveral hundred thousand Swiss Francs\u201d. In the end, it tried going semi-public, sending tweets to Google directly accusing the company of \u201cintentionally hiding ProtonMail from search results\u201d.\nThat seemed to work, sparking a reply from Google\u2019s then-head of webspam, Matt Cutts.\n\u201cAfter a few days,\u201d ProtonMail writes, \u201cGoogle informed us that they had \u2018fixed something\u2019 without providing further details. The results could be immediately seen.\u201d The company\u2019s site returned to the first page of results, where it has stayed ever since.\nOne potential cause of the collapse in ranking could be ProtonMail\u2019s site moving domains, from protonmail.ch to protonmail.com. Such transfers can cause the collected authority attributed to the site to be lost, forcing site owners to start afresh. But regardless of the cause, ProtonMail argues that the event demonstrated the existence of \u201csearch risk\u201d.\n\u201cThe danger is that any service such as ProtonMail can easily be suppressed by either search companies, or the governments that control those search companies,\u201d it writes. \u201cThis can happen even across national borders. For example, even though Google is an American company, it controls over 90% of European search traffic.\u201d\n\u201cThis episode illustrates that search risk is serious, which is why we now agree with the European Commission that given Google\u2019s dominant position in search, more transparency and oversight is critical,\u201d it added.\nGoogle declined to comment, but confirmed to the Guardian that after ProtonMail\u2019s report it was able to find and fix something affecting the search results.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "ProtonMail says it was in effect removed from Google for almost a year, demonstrating the existence of \u2018search risk\u2019", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/07/google-burying-webmail-service-search-results-protonmail", "title": "Google accused of burying webmail service on search results"}, "174": {"text": "In the moments that Infinite Warfare has the courage of its convictions, when its various systems sync-up sufficiently, we get a tantalising taste of its true potential.\nThese moments usually come when the protagonist, Nick Reyes, leaves terra firma and zips about in zero-gravity, course-correcting with boosters and engaging enemy soldiers against the backdrop of gargantuan spaceships smashing into one another. In between precision shots from his Ghostbusters-like energy weapon, he grapples on to a grunt and pulls the pin on his grenade before kicking him towards two buddies, who look on helplessly as he greets them with an explosion. That taken care of, Reyes grapples to his waiting Jackal space fighter and boosts off to begin dogfighting with enemy craft. \nNeedless to say, Call of Duty\u2019s production values ensure such episodes look spectacular. They may not be perfect in execution \u2013 rotation can become disorientating and enemy AI remains erratic \u2013 but they at least attempt to jolt this long-running series off its sometimes derided rails. Disappointingly though, Infinity Ward\u2019s latest offering is mostly the familiar CoD routine of boots-on-the-ground combat in long corridors of choreographed action. It\u2019s just that here, those boots are rocket-boosted and wall-run-capable. Even this concept is a pale imitation of Titanfall at its finest, boasting similar fundamentals but not the conviction to make them integral. While traversing these familiar sci-fi environments \u2013 futuristic cityscape, ice planet, rock planet, space station \u2013 parkour is mostly unnecessary.\nThe old problem of this game\u2019s key narrative delivery technique remains: you have to follow computer-controlled characters who yell orders and exposition at you, but often they move too slow and it gets frustrating \u2013 like attempting to navigate Oxford Street on a particularly chaotic festive shopping day. The sheer number of times the game strips control away from you remains extraordinary \u2013 after a while, even the most impressive cinematic moments become a deadening intrusion. The first time you\u2019re blasted out of an airlock it\u2019s inarguably impressive and it even feels appropriate that you\u2019re helpless. The second time is simply irritating. The third time, you just want to drift away forever like Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey. \nBut even in space, you lack freedom. Attempts to flank the enemy are thwarted by a curt prompt to return to the \u201ccombat zone\u201d or be booted. The space craft combat sequences are a mess. The physics lack heft and movement feels erratic. Opposing fighters are simple to lock on to but the game then wrests control away to track them. Occasionally, when you kill an enemy, a playing card will pop up to tell you he was a big cheese (in an imitation of the American ploy towards rogue Ba\u2019athists in 2003), but since you only find this out after killing them it renders the whole scheme somewhat pointless. You shot them just the same as all the others; that\u2019s all you do in CoD.\nMuch is made of the fact you\u2019re a captain but you can\u2019t issue orders in the field and, despite a Mass Effect-like galaxy map to navigate on your ship\u2019s bridge, you cannot shape the campaign\u2019s outcome. You can select two types of side-mission \u2013 ship-infiltration or ship-to-ship combat \u2013 but the benefit of them is merely upgraded equipment. It\u2019s certainly no Mass Effect in this respect \u2013 and while that comparison is harsh, it\u2019s conditioned by the developer\u2019s flagrant desire for you to care about your mission and crew; the message about prioritising one over the other crowbarred into every conversation.\nThe setting at least allows the game to sidestep CoD\u2019s traditionally problematic politics, even if the opening sneak-attack on Geneva subtly nods towards Pearl Harbour and 9/11. Not being offensive shouldn\u2019t be praiseworthy, however, and the Martian secessionists led by Salen Kotch (a space-scenery-chewing Kit Harington) are so comically evil, and your means for defeating them so silly, they undermine any questions about military service the game attempts to tackle.\nThe defeat of the villain is woefully anticlimactic, whereas the finale has dramatic deaths for minor crew members you\u2019d barely noticed hitherto. While the credits roll you can listen to letters from the fallen, meant to sum up the series\u2019 earnest move away from \u201cpress x to show respects\u201d miss-steps. Instead, they bring to mind the deliberately ridiculous barbecue dream of BJ Blazkowicz in the last Wolfenstein. The characters here lack the script to justify you caring. The damning irony is only wisecracking robot Ethan sounds remotely human.\nFor all these flaws, CoD\u2019s core shooting mechanics, refined over countless iterations, still make for a fine corridor and multiplayer shooter. Every weapon comes with alternative fire modes and being creative in your kills is part of the appeal. Innovations such as anti-grav grenades and spider bots (which scuttle over to enemies before discharging) spice things up, not least when they\u2019re deployed against you. One of the most enjoyable new tactics in the campaign is the ability to take direct control of enemy bots by hacking them, unleashing rounds on their bewildered allies before detonating to take as many with you as you can.\nAfter completing the game, you can replay the whole thing in modes like Yolo, which offers a challenging permadeath mechanic that encourages a whole different approach (ie a lot of hiding).\nThe online multiplayer modes are the best thing. The campaign\u2019s traversal mechanics come out of hiding and the wealth of options become apparent. Whether you\u2019re angling for nuts and bolts deathmatch on a lunch break, or something more substantial, CoD remains a silly, slick and intuitive shooter that sucks you in and keeps you there. The ready-built combat rigs cater to different play styles so you can instantly pick the right loadout, whether you like to snipe or stab.\nFor the first time there\u2019s weapon crafting, too, and a conscious effort to reward players for attempting different match-types, not to mention a neat 1980s theme park reboot of zombie survival. Prototype weapons are the strongest in the game \u2013 graded common to epic \u2013 and you obtain them by earning salvage as you play or completing challenges with one of four mission teams. The holy grail is a gun that provides a nuclear blast if you can string together 25 kills.\nCrucially, such objectives are optional and there\u2019s no chance of the camera being yanked-away as you complete them. Infinite Warfare improves online because the game doesn\u2019t dictate your experiences precisely as the developers intended. In many ways the campaign feels like a wrestling match between your game and theirs, perhaps a mirroring of their attempt to innovate within the constraints of the CoD franchise behemoth. But this doesn\u2019t excuse a forgettable plot or inferior fighting to its triple-A peers. Infinite Warfare could have been much more than a passable single-player movie attached to a super fast, super confident multiplayer infrastructure. As such, and with those moments of tantalising potential in mind, it feels like a wasted opportunity.\nActivision; PC/PS4/Xbox One (version tested); \u00a350; Pegi rating: 18+\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "The latest instalment in the shooter series tries out some new ideas, including zero gravity combat, but it is held back by well-worn conventions", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/08/call-of-duty-infinite-warfare-review", "title": "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare review \u2013 fun, fast, but a wasted opportunity"}, "175": {"text": "The makers of Toblerone have widened the gaps between the chocolate bar\u2019s distinctive triangular chunks in an effort to avoid putting its prices up, in a move fans have described as \u201cstupid\u201d, \u201cridiculous\u201d and \u201cjust plain dumb\u201d.\nA statement on the brand\u2019s Facebook page said that higher costs for ingredients had meant it had decided to cut the weight of two bars from Toblerone\u2019s UK range. It has reduced 400g bars to 360g and 170g bars to 150g in order to maintain retail prices. \nThe change means that the gaps between chunks are now wider than the chunks themselves. One customer described the new bar as looking \u201clike a weird knock-off of itself\u201d.\nExplaining the change, the statement on Toblerone\u2019s Facebook page said: \u201cLike many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients. \n\u201cWe carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains \u2026 affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the UK, from the wider range of available Toblerone products.\u201d\nCustomers replying to the post have been scathing. Richard Cristiano Tamerighi wrote: \u201c[It\u2019s] just plain dumb changing the trademark shape of your flagship product. If you were really that concerned about Toblerone customers you would have consulted them.\u201d\nMicha\u0142 Tat wrote: \u201cThis must be up there with the dumbest corporate decisions of all time. You have a somewhat premium chocolate bar which is very well known for its distinctive shape, and to save money you change the shape? Now you have a premium-priced product that looks like a weird knock-off of itself.\u201d\nAlistair Calder wrote: \u201cUtterly ridiculous decision!! \u2026 I\u2019ll never buy one of these.\u201d\nAnd Lee Yarker said: \u201cFair enough reducing the weight of the bar, but why the big gap in between segments? Looks stupid imo [in my opinion], could have just made the bar shorter and kept the original design.\u201d\nFormer Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott suggested the change was related to the Brexit vote. He tweeted:\nA spokeswoman for Mondel\u0113z International, the US food and drink corporation that owns the Toblerone brand, said the price rise was not related to Brexit. However, it comes after a number of companies sought to raise prices to offset the effect of a plunging pound since the vote to leave the EU. \nOn Sunday, it emerged that Birds Eye fish fingers and Walkers crisps had joined Typhoo and Unilever, the owner of Marmite, and a number of smaller suppliers in an industry-wide battle over price increases caused by the 14.5% drop in the value of the pound against the euro and 18% against the dollar since the referendum.\nToblerone was created in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, a second-generation chocolatier from Bern, Switzerland, in collaboration with his cousin Emil Baumann. Its name is a portmanteau of the creator\u2019s surname and \u201ctorrone\u201d, the Italian word for honey and almond nougat. \nToblerone\u2019s own website proudly tells how the following year it became the first milk chocolate bar with almonds and honey to be protected by intellectual property laws after Tobler successfully applied for a patent to cover its manufacturing process. \nWhile many believe that the bar\u2019s shape is meant to evoke the Swiss Alps, a belief no doubt perpetuated by the image of the Matterhorn on its packaging, this is said to be a myth. Years later, Tobler\u2019s sons claimed that their father got his inspiration from the dancers of Paris\u2019s Folies Berg\u00e8res, who formed a pyramid at the climax of their show. \n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Chocolate lovers blast \u2018plain dumb\u2019 cost-saving move to widen spaces between bar\u2019s triangular chunks", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/toblerone-gets-more-gappy-but-its-fans-are-not-happy", "title": "Toblerone gets more gappy, but its fans are not happy"}, "176": {"text": "Royal Bank of Scotland has apologised to small business customers as it revealed a \u00a3400m bill to compensate them for poor treatment in the wake of the banking crisis.\nAfter at least three years of complaining of bad service from the bailed-out bank, small businesses will receive refunds of the fees they were charged and will be allowed to make fresh complaints about their treatment between 2008 and 2013 in a process that will be overseen by a retired high court judge.\nRoss McEwan, the chief executive of RBS, said: \u201cWe have acknowledged for some time that mistakes were made. Some of our customers went through what was a traumatic and painful experience as a result of the crisis. I am very sorry that we did not provide the level of service and understanding we should have done.\u201d\nA review is under way into whether bonuses should be withheld from former and current staff involved in the bank\u2019s now now-defunct global restructuring group (GRG), which is at the heart of the complaints.\nThe allegations first surfaced in 2013 when Lawrence Tomlinson, a businessman who was an adviser to the then business secretary, Sir Vince Cable, compiled a dossier alleging the bank deliberately wrecked small businesses to make profits.\nSome 12,000 small businesses were forced into GRG but only 4,000 will automatically receive a refund of \u201ccomplex\u201d fee. In total, some 8,000 were potentially viable when they entered GRG, while 4,000 were facing insolvency.\nConfirmation of the compensation plans \u2013 details of which began to emerge on Monday \u2013 immediately sparked concerns that the sum being aside by the 73% taxpayer-owned bank was inadequate. \n\u201cGiven the damage to the lives of RBS\u2019s customers, \u00a3400m is wholly inadequate and is a cynical attempt to evade accounting fully for the consequences of RBS GRG\u2019s action. We are disgusted by this proposal,\u201d said David Stewart, of the RBS GRG Business Action Group, which has more than 500 members demanding \u00a32bn in compensation. Another group, RGL Management, is pressing on with a legal claim of at least \u00a31bn.\n\u201cThe FCA report appears to be utter whitewash,\u201d said Stuart McCredie, who ran a business that entered GRG.\nGary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital, said the bill was \u201cnot as big as feared and may also take some heat out of the situation\u201d. The bank\u2019s shares were up 0.4% at 187.3p on Tuesday.\nThe RBS announcement was timed to coincide with an appearance by Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, at the Treasury select committee which has been pressuring the regulator to publish a much-delayed report into GRG.\nIn an update, the FCA said \u201cisolated examples of poor practice were identified\u201d, at RBS but dismissed the most damning allegations that the bank deliberately drove small business to the brink to make a profit. But it also concluded that there was evidence of systemically poor treatment of small business customers.\nBailey signalled that further delays to the report \u2013 commissioned from legal experts Promontory and Mazars \u2013 were likely as it would have to undergo Maxwellisation, where anyone facing criticism is allowed to comment, before publication. \nThe FCA also cautioned that the activities carried out by GRG were largely unregulated. \u201cTherefore, the FCA\u2019s powers are limited in this area,\u201d the FCA said. However, it does not necessarily indicate the bank will escape financial sanction as the regulator said it was \u201ccurrently assessing what further work may be needed given the findings in the report\u201d.\nMcEwan has repeatedly defended the bank against claims that it deliberately tried to profit from small business customers and RBS repeated on Tuesday that it had lost more than \u00a32bn in lending to small businesses.\nHe said the situation could not be tackled until now \u2013 even though a report commissioned from Clifford Chance in 2014 had highlighted the issues of poorly structured fees \u2013 because the FCA review had been continuing.\nPromontory examined 207 cases and covered a six-year period, analysing 323 gigabytes of data \u2013 approximately 1.5m pages and 270,000 emails.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Bank apologises for poor treatment during financial crisis and will automatically refund fees", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/rbs-facing-400m-bill-to-compensate-small-business-customers", "title": "RBS facing \u00a3400m bill to compensate small business customers"}, "177": {"text": "Sports Direct\u2019s board has said it did not know about or authorise an apparent attempt to secretly record a group of MPs who paid a surprise visit to its warehouse.\nSix MPs from the business select committee arrived at the site in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, on Monday after giving the company an hour\u2019s notice. They were accepting an invitation made by the founder and chief executive, Mike Ashley, when he appeared before the committee in June. \nAfter they were shown round, the MPs went to a meeting room where they claimed a small camera used to record the day\u2019s proceedings was placed under a tray of sandwiches.\nIn a statement to the stock exchange, Sports Direct\u2019s board said it had not been proved that the camera was to be used to record the MPs and complained that the episode had overshadowed good things that came from the visit.\nThe company added: \u201cThe board would like to make it clear that it did not authorise or have any knowledge of the possible recording device.\u201d\nSports Direct said it was delighted MPs had \u201cfinally accepted the company\u2019s invitation to visit the Sports Direct\u2019s warehouse on an unannounced basis\u201d but that the board was disappointed they chose a day when they knew Ashley would be away from Shirebrook. \nKaren Byers, global operations head and one of Ashley\u2019s closest associates, was understood to have shown the MPs round in Ashley\u2019s absence.\nAshley invited the MPs to Shirebrook after the Guardian\u2019s investigation exposed how Sports Direct workers were being paid less than the minimum wage. The business committee subsequently accused Ashley of running the business like a Victorian workhouse in a report published in July.\nThe board, led by embattled chairman Keith Hellawell, said it understood the MPs met many staff members who were positive about the company and that employees expressed unhappiness about how the company had been portrayed. \nAshley said: \u201cI stand firmly behind the people of Sports Direct, who through no fault of their own have been made a political football by MPs and unions.\u201d\nAnna Turley, one of the MPs who visited Shirebrook, said they were made to feel unwelcome and were taken on a \u201cwild goose chase\u201d around the vast site before being shown the warehouse at the centre of the row about working practices.\nTurley told the BBC\u2019s Today programme: \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect them to be overjoyed when we were there but would say: \u2018This is the same as any other day. We are proud of our warehouse, we are proud of our staff, come and meet them and say hello.\u2019\u201d\nTurley said conditions at Shirebrook were dark, dingy and chaotic but that the MPs had not expected things to be perfect because Ashley had admitted things needed to improve. She said the camera incident had left her and her colleagues uneasy about the treatment of employees.\n\u201cIf they do this to us as parliamentarians, what do they do to staff who aren\u2019t able to answer back, who aren\u2019t unionised and who fear for their jobs?\u201d\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Board says it didn\u2019t know about or authorise \u2018possible recording device\u2019 which allegedly filmed MPs on surprise visit to Shirebrook warehouse", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/sports-direct-denies-knowledge-of-secret-camera-filming-mps-shirebrook-warehouse", "title": "Sports Direct denies knowledge of 'secret camera filming MPs'"}, "178": {"text": "Marks & Spencer is shutting 30 UK stores and converting 45 more into food-only shops as part of a major business overhaul that will slash the amount of shopfloor space devoted to its ailing clothing ranges.\nThe retailer\u2019s new chief executive, Steve Rowe, said more than 100 UK stores were in the firing line as part of a wider shakeup designed to end a long-running slump in clothing sales and devote more space to its more successful food business. He outlined plans to open 200 new Simply Food outlets. \nM&S refused to identify which 30 \u201cfull-line\u201d stores \u2013 which sell clothing, homewares and food \u2013 are to close or identify the 45 outlets that will be converted into food stores. The chain has 304 full-line stores and the closures and conversions will take five years to complete.\nThe retailer is also looking to relocate underperforming stores. Overall, the changes will mean a reduction of 10% in the floorspace devoted to racks of skirts, jumpers and trousers, with the plan expected to cost \u00a3150m over three years.\nThe turnaround plan outlined by Rowe also includes the closure of 53 loss-making overseas stores in 10 countries. They include 10 stores in China, seven in France and others in Belgium and Hungary, resulting in 2,100 job losses. Only company-owned stores in Ireland, Hong Kong and the Czech Republic will be spared.\nThe embattled retailer intends to put clothing and food on an equal footing with same amount of selling space devoted to both sides of the business. Currently two-thirds of its floor space is given over to racks of clothing and homewares. \nRowe, who began his retail career aged 15 as a Saturday boy at M&S\u2019s Croydon store in south London and took over as chief executive six months ago, insisted the decision to close stores and reduce the space given over to clothing was not an admission of defeat.\n\u201cThis is not about cutting jobs, it\u2019s about making sure we\u2019ve got the right estate for future shopping habits,\u201d he said. \nEarlier this year, he announced 500 job cuts at the group\u2019s head office in London and a plan to shift another 400 jobs out of the capital.\nThe M&S veteran is seeking to revive the fortunes of the 132-year-old retailer which has seen profits go backwards in recent years. His biggest job is stopping the rot in its clothing business which has now in its fifth consecutive year of falling sales. M&S believes the growth of online fashion shopping means it can devote more store space to food without losing sales. About 17% of M&S\u2019s clothing sales are currently made online, a figure that is expected to grow.\nRowe is also axing the chain\u2019s Indigo, Collezione and North Coast labels to focus on brands that are \u201cmost relevant to our customers\u201d including Autograph, Per Una and Blue Harbour.\n\u201cThese are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multichannel and focused on delivering sustainable returns,\u201d said Rowe.\nThe plan was not well received by investors; shares finished the day as the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 \u2013 down more than 5% as analysts complained that Rowe\u2019s plan to revive M&S was not radical enough. \u201cBeing such a large company, it is going to take some time to turn M&S round even if all goes according to plan,\u201d said Haitong analyst Tony Shiret. \u201cWe think that it should have gone further in its UK clothing space closure.\u201d\nM&S\u2019s decision to retreat from the high street will be a blow for some towns, where it is a main destination store, especially following the demise of BHS. But as more purchases are made online, stores in smaller or less attractive town centres and shopping centres are finding life difficult.\n\u201cThe closure of the local M&S will have a psychological effect and feel like another nail in the coffin for that town\u2019s high street,\u201d said Local Data Company analyst Matthew Hopkinson. Hopkinson points to places such as Swindon and Stockton-on-Tees where shoppers have been drawn away from the high street by out-of-town retail parks.\nM&S has been battered by low-cost rivals such as H&M, Zara and Primark and shoppers are increasingly spending their spare cash on leisure activities, rather than buying new clothes. The turnaround plan was unveiled as the retailer reported a 19% fall in underlying profits to \u00a3231m in the six months to 1 October.\nTo win back shoppers, Rowe has already cut clothing prices and promised to pay more attention to its most loyal group of shoppers \u2013 fiftysomething women he has dubbed \u201cMrs M&S\u201d. He said changes he had already made in the clothing business were going down well. \u201cThe initial feedback we\u2019ve had from customers has been good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve improved the fit on many garments and, for the first time in a number of years, we\u2019ve grown full-price market share.\u201d\nRowe has promised a less slavish pursuit of catwalk trends after being criticised for failing to meet the needs of its middle-aged customer base. \nHis new strategy is an about turn from that of his predecessor Marc Bolland, who believed the retailer could be a global brand and reopened stores in France after a decade-long absence.\n\u201cWe have made mistakes in the past and we are taking action to correct some of these,\u201d said Rowe, who revealed M&S would continue to expand overseas using a franchise model. The mistakes are expensive ones \u2013 it will cost up to \u00a3200m to shut loss-making stores in European markets such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as outposts in China.\n\n\n\n\n", "tags": ["economy"], "abstract": "Boss says revamp affects 25% of UK floorspace with more emphasis on food, and will also shut 53 overseas shops", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/m-and-s-marks-spencer-close-80-stores-major-overhaul", "title": "M&S to close 30 UK stores and cut back on clothing"}, "179": {"text": "The cyber heist at Tesco Bank been described by the chief executive of the City regulator as an \u201cunprecedented\u201d incident in the UK.\nAndrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told MPs on the Treasury select committee that \u201cthere are elements of this that look unprecedented and it is serious, clearly\u201d.\nTesco Bank stopped all online transactions for 140,000 current account customers on Monday after it discovered 40,000 customers had been targeted by the online attack. Half of the customers had money taken from their accounts, which are operated through an app or online. Customers have reported that sums have been transferred to Spain and Brazil.\nThe National Crime Agency (NCA) is one of a number of organisations scrutinising what has taken place at the supermarket chain\u2019s banking arm, which has more than 7 million customers.\nA new division of the surveillance agency GCHQ \u2013 the National Cyber Security Centre \u2013 confirmed it was working with the NCA which has launched a criminal inquiry. The NCSC, created only last month as the UK\u2019s authority on cybersecurity, said it was \u201cproviding direct assistance to the company at their request, including on-site assistance\u201d.\n\u201cIn the case of cyber-related incidents, it can, on certain occasions, take a significant period of time to understand the incident given the technical complexities involved. So the story will emerge over time. During this period it is vital that nothing is said publicly that could interfere with the criminal investigation,\u201d the NCSC said.\n\u201cGiven the investigation thus far and the evidence at hand, the National Cyber Security Centre is unaware of any wider threat to the UK banking sector connected with this incident.\u201d\nBailey told the MPs that the FCA was in close contact with Tesco and that the bank had reassured the regulator that customers whose money had been stolen would be reimbursed by the end of Tuesday.\nHe said it was too early to know the exact cause but said it appeared to be related to debit cards and that computer hackers were looking for weaknesses and \u201cpoints of entry\u201d into banks.\n\u201cIt looks like its [in] on-line banking, clearly appears to be on debit card side of online banking as far as we can tell. But it requires further urgent analysis ,\u201d said Bailey.\nHe said he was confident that Tesco knew which customers were affected by the incident which began to unfold on Saturday night when the bank began texting customers about unusual activity from their accounts.\nBut Tesco provided no update on the status of its customers on Tuesday after suspending online banking transactions for current accounts in the wake of the incident.\nBailey indicated that Tesco would not be able turn those facilities back on until it was confident it knew the service was safe for customers.\nA number of theories have circulated about the cause of the problem, including that it was caused by an internal security breach. Conservative MP Chris Philp, a member of the Treasury select committee, has raised the idea it could have been the work of a foreign power. \u201cI think we can\u2019t rule out the possibility, at all, that this is state-sponsored,\u201d he told the BBC earlier this week.\nAs the crisis was unfolding, Benny Higgins, chief executive of Tesco Bank, had said the decision to suspend some banking activities was an attempt to protect customers from \u201conline criminal activity\u201d.\nHiggins, who has apologised to customers, has described the raid as \u201ca systematic, sophisticated attack\u201d.\nThe NCSC said its role was to provide support to the investigation, work with the company concerned to manage the incident, investigate the root causes and use any lessons learned to provide future guidance and policy on cyber security.\nThe Information Commissioner\u2019s Office is also scrutinising the situation. It fined telecom company TalkTalk a record \u00a3400,000 in October for failing to stop the personal data of 157,000 customers being hacked. \nAndrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the Treasury select committee, said after the hearing that \u201cthe attack on Tesco\u2019s retail accounts is deeply troubling. Banks have a long way to go to improve the resilience and security of their IT systems\u201d.\nAnother member of the committee, Steve Baker, said: \u201cthe vulnerability of Tesco Bank highlights the crucial importance of technical security to the financial system.\u201d\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "FCA chief tells MPs that \u2018serious\u2019 theft from 20,000 accounts may be linked via debit card flaw as customers report money transfered to Brazil and Spain", "site": "guardian", "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/08/tesco-bank-cyber-raid-unprecedented-financial-regulator-fca", "title": "Tesco Bank cyber raid 'unprecedented', says financial regulator"}, "180": {"text": "Jasmine Tookes will wear the Fantasy Bra at this year\u2019s Victoria\u2019s Secret Fashion Show, but she's not the only model that'll sparkle that night. One of Josephine Skriver's newly-revealed looks will feature 450,000 Swarovski crystals. Mic drop.\nAnd when the show is over, you may just see this leggy beauty walking around the City of Lights in her embellished outfit. \u201cI am just going to wear this 24/7 in Paris and sparkle like this every day,\u201d she said. Same, TBH.\nRelated: Victoria\u2019s Secret Released an Image of a Model\u2019s Stretch Marks\nMore from Teen Vogue:\nThe Top 10 Mistakes You\u2019re Probably Making When You Straighten Your Hair\n27 Must-See Celebrity Prom Throwback Photos\nMore Than Half of What You Eat Isn\u2019t Even Real Food, Study Finds\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "For Teen Vogue, by Avery Matera.  \n Jasmine Tookes will wear the Fantasy Bra at this year\u2019s Victoria\u2019s Secret Fashion Show, but she's not the only mod...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/victorias-secret-fashion-show-x-swarovski-outfit-see_us_58220451e4b0334571e0a1ea", "title": "You Have To See The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Outfit With 450,000 Crystals"}, "181": {"text": "Stilettos get a bad rap for throwing your body out of alignment, but don't think that just because your shoe is flat that it's better for you. One of the most walkable, flattest shoes around is just as bad as super-high heels: ballet flats. Unlike heels, which put all the pressure on the balls of your feet, flats add extra pressure to your heel, without any arch support, according to podiatrist Hillary Brenner, DPM. Additionally, \"a heel will lead to stress on the outside of the knee,\" says Miguel Cunha, DPM, at Gotham Footcare. \"A flat will lead to stress on the inside of the knee.\" \nStilettos, Higher Than 2 Inches Dr. Brenner: 9.75 Dr. Cunha: 9.5 \nNot all heels are created equal, obviously. There are plenty of factors to account for: stability, height, ankle support, etc. But if you're just looking at heel type and height, a stiletto with a heel higher than two inches is one of the worst shoes for your feet.  \nAny shoe higher than 4 inches got a 10 from Dr. Cunha, but even a 2.5-inch heel will severely disrupt your center of gravity. Extended wearing of these heels can cause pinched nerves and shortened tendons. Think about it: You're basically banging on the balls of your feet with every step. \nIf you do plan on wearing stilettos, both doctors recommend wearing them two to three hours max, and taking them off mid-day for a few exercises and stretches. \"You can draw the alphabet with your foot, or draw the number 8,\" Dr. Brenner recommends. \"Or you can take a tennis ball and roll your foot over that.\" Massage your arch to help your blood flow, which in turn helps prevent varicose veins or nerve irritation. Just remember: \"The higher the heel, the greater amount of pressure, and that will lead to issues in the bones,\" Dr. Cunha says.\nFlip-Flops Dr. Brenner: 10 Dr. Cunha: 9 \n\"Every time you take a step, your toes curl, and that leads to issues like hammertoes,\" Dr. Cunha says.\nBallet Flats Dr. Brenner: 9.75 Dr. Cunha: 8.5 \nFlats might feel like the comfiest shoes you've got, but \"[you] can be wearing comfy shoes, and they can be just as bad as heels,\" Dr. Brenner says. Without arch support or any sort of shock absorption for both the balls of your feet and the heels, people with flatter feet risk getting stress fractures and developing neuromas (enlargement of nerves between bones). For those with high arches? The shoes rank as a 7 for Dr. Cunha. But even then, the cut of a typical ballet flat could constrain your poor toes. \"When you're wearing pointy narrow shoes and not much support, the bones rub together,\" Dr. Brenner says. Not a fun \u2014 or comfortable \u2014 situation.\nBad Sneakers Dr. Brenner: 9 Dr. Cunha: 7 \nGranted, walking around in these all day is better than walking around in 5-inch heels; if you're just wearing them to brunch, Dr. Cunha rates them as a 4. But running, exercising, and doing anything more than walking in these? That's when the problems happen.\nMules Dr. Brenner: 8 Dr. Cunha: 6 \nMules are slightly deceiving: They look like a comfy, solid shoe, but the lack of ankle support makes them almost as bad as flip flops. \nThis goes for heeled mules, too. \"It's worse to have a heel that doesn't support the back of your feet,\" Dr. Cunha says. \" In addition to the extra weight on the front of your feet, you also have to curl your toes to make sure the shoe doesn't fall off to the side every time you plant your foot down.\" Heeled mules can leave you more susceptible to sprains, hammertoes, and bunions thanks to the constant flexing of your feet.\nGladiator Sandals Dr. Brenner: 7 Dr. Cunha: 6  \nThanks to the multiple ankle straps on gladiator sandals, these summer shoes are slightly better for your feet than mules and flip-flops \u2014 even when they're flat. Add a sturdy 1.5-inch heel, and you get a little more support with the style.  \nWhen buying heeled sandals, however, Dr. Brenner recommends taking a look at the arch support of the shoe. \"Yes, having a heel is great, but you still need that extra support below,\" Dr. Brenner says. \"If it has good arch support, then I would take it down to a 5 or a 6.\"\nStilettos, Lower Than 2 Inches Dr. Brenner: 7 Dr. Cunha: 5 \nAt less than 2 inches, the problem here isn't about the height: It's about the heel. \"In terms of stability, with a stiletto heel, you're more likely to develop an ankle sprain,\" Dr. Cunha says.  \nChunky Heel, Higher Than 2 Inches Dr. Brenner: 6 Dr. Cunha: 7.5 \nThese shoes get a slight pass thanks to their stable, squared-off heel. \"I'd say these are just two grades down from stilettos,\" Dr. Cunha says. \"You may not get an ankle sprain, but you're still putting all that pressure on the front of the foot.\"  \nJust remember: The higher a heel goes, the more pressure it puts on your feet \u2014 and the worse the shoes are. \"Anything above 4 inches, I would say, is an 8 or 9 here,\" Dr. Cunha says.\nChunky Heel, Lower Than 2 Inches Dr. Brenner: 4 Dr. Cunha: 4 \nAt two inches, chunky heels will still add extra stress to your knees and back. These will be better, however, than a 4-inch heel for everyday walking. \nTake the heel lower, however, to about 1 inch, and you may have found the perfect shoe. Booties with a 1-inch chunky heel received a rating of 2 from both doctors. Just like a 1-inch stiletto, the heel will provide extra arch support for those with flat feet. But unlike stilettos, the stable, square heel will help you avoid any rolled ankles \u2014 making those cobblestone streets just a bit safer.\nWedges  Dr. Brenner: 3 Dr. Cunha: 4 \nWedges might not be the most elegant of shoes, but the extra cushion of a good wedge makes these one of the best options for your feet \u2014 given that they're not too high. \"If I want to go for height, I almost always go for the wedge,\" Dr. Brenner says. \"With a wedge, you have a built-in arch support.\" Instead of wooden heels, however, Brenner recommends finding cork or rubber soles for extra shock absorption.\nGood Sneakers Dr. Brenner: 1 Dr. Cunha: 1 \nGood sneakers will provide ankle support and arch support. Both doctors recommended New Balance and Asics sneakers, with toe boxes that bend upward. \"You shouldn't be able to twist the shoe, and you want a good thick, wide arch with some cushion,\" Dr. Brenner says, noting that you want the shoe to support your feet fully from ankle to toe. \nOne good tip? \"Everyone should buy their shoes at the end of the day,\" Dr. Cunha says, \"because that's when your feet are the most swollen, after gravity brings all the fluid down.\"\nBy: Jessica Chou\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "Stilettos get a bad rap for throwing your body out of alignment, but don't think that just because your shoe is flat that it's better for you. One of the...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hands-down-these-are-the-worst-shoes-for-your-feet_us_581bad9ee4b01022624114ba", "title": "Hands Down, THESE Are The Worst Shoes For Your Feet"}, "182": {"text": "The 2016 Presidential Election certainly didn't go down the way we were expecting at the Outspeak office. With Hillary Clinton refusing to make a public concession speech and Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States, we're left reeling in disbelief. We figured he'd deliver a speech targeting those who didn't vote for him but instead he delivered a painfully rehearsed speech that felt manipulative and downright dangerous. At least he did attempt to appeal to those who did not vote for him with a promise of unifying the country.\nFirst Mike Pence took to the podium looking like a sun baked idiot squinting in the glare of the non-existent sun. He was positively overcome with excitement (we're kidding, he looked like a robot straight out of Westworld) about his new position of Vice President of the United States. He didn't really say much other than, \"Let's make America great again.\" \nThen, the orange incarnate, AKA the 45th President of the United States, shuffled his way to the podium like some sort of sloth-like sexual predator. At 11:50 PST Trump took the stage to thank the American people. He started out by calling the election \"complicated business.\" On that, we can agree.\nTrump said Clinton has congratulated \"us\" on a hard fought campaign over the phone. He spent some time vaguely talking about Hillary and her service to the country, repeating the same words several times. He then pledged to the American people, something that was important to him: to be a good President to even those who didn't support him. He spoke of unifying the American population, and wanting to help even those who did not vote for him. This was a small consolation in a night of sorrows.\nThe whole thing was rather hard to watch when you can see the stock marketing hitting record lows directly beside Trump's podium and the sad boy who lingers at the right side of the stage like his prisoner. He made more vague promises about rebuilding the country, taking care of veterans, and \"tremendous\" security. \nAs Trump went on, he made sure to let us know his plan is to make America as great as his companies. He said he wanted our nation to dream big once again, and to seek common ground. It all felt incredibly forced and phony, mostly because of how calm he remained throughout the speech. A calm Trump is a scary Trump. \nHe proceeded to thank his bizarre family, listing them each by name. To be fair, they must have a lot of patience to deal with a man like Trump on a regular basis. The thanks continued on for a while, and even the human skeleton with eyes (and known idiot), Rudy Giuliani, made the lengthy list. \nHe treated the tail end of the speech like a dude-bro getting his diploma by naming off all the \"great men\" he knows. Every name was greeted by cheers from the crowd and at a certain point it didn't seem like the bragging would end. It really did go on for a long time, believe me. It went on big league. \nTrump did admit that in order to be truly \"historic, you have to do a great job.\" And this is the absolute truth. We don't believe it, not in the slightest, but dear lords above and below, do we hope we are dead wrong. His resolution to begin working immediately is worrisome, and while the two years of campaigning are over, he made it clear that with four, possibly eight years, the nightmare has only just begun.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The 2016 Presidential Election certainly didn't go down the way we were expecting at the Outspeak office. With Hillary Clinton ", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zac-thompson/president-donald-trumps-acceptance-speech_b_12877042.html?utm_hp_ref=outspeak", "title": "President Donald Trump's Acceptance Speech Was Surprisingly Coherent"}, "183": {"text": "You have: Big, red cysts \u2014 and a lot of them.\nWhat\u2019s going on: Cystic acne is no joke. Usually, it\u2019s the work of a combination of hormonal changes and genetics, and it\u2019s far and away the most stubborn type of acne. Because it\u2019s so tough to treat, it requires a few different treatment methods. In addition to topical acne-fighting ingredients like salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide, you may want to consider oral antiobiotics to nix bacteria (which requires a trip to your doctor). A newer option worth trying? Probiotics. \u201cProbiotics have been shown to help cystic acne because they reduce inflammatory breakouts,\u201d says Kim Nichols, MD, a dermatologist in Greenwich, CT and consulting dermatologist for Avon.\nYou have: Small, red bumps that never come to a head.\nWhat\u2019s going on: Blame inflammation. A less-severe form of cystic acne, papular pustules are sensitive to the touch (from the inflammation) and also the work of hormones and genetics. On the bright side, this type of acne \u201crarely leads to permanent scarring like cystic acne can,\u201d says Nichols. She suggests using a mild exfoliant to keep the pores clean. One like BeautyRx Essential 8 percent Exfoliating Serum does the trick, but is still gentle enough to use every day.\nYou have: A pimple buried way beneath your skin.\nWhat\u2019s going on: Blind pimples are the worst, mostly because they can be incredibly painful. They\u2019re basically cystic acne that hasn\u2019t reached the surface of the skin. The good news, though, is that they often go away on their own \u2014 so you may feel the bump, but the chances of it actually emerging are pretty slim. (Don\u2019t even bother trying to squeeze it out. It\u2019ll only hurt like hell and could actually cause an infection beneath the skin.)\nYou have: A sprinkling of acne around your chin and jawline.\nWhat\u2019s going on: We\u2019re going to take a wild guess. Do those pimples usually appear around the same time every month? Breakouts around the lower half of the face are usually the work of fluctuating hormones. If you don\u2019t notice it lining up with your period, it could be a matter of hygiene. \u201cIt\u2019s rare, but the jawline and neck area are hard-to-reach areas and can be missed when you\u2019re cleansing,\u201d says Nichols. If you\u2019re double-cleanse on the daily, though, and know that it\u2019s not that, it\u2019s worth talking to your derm, since birth control can help level out those hormones. (Here\u2019s a guide to your options.)\nYou have: A regular whitehead.\nWhat\u2019s going on: Whiteheads (also known as comedones) are the classic zit case. They\u2019re essentially clogged pores caused by heavy oil production, which you\u2019re either born with or may be experiencing as a result of hormone fluctuations. The gunk that\u2019s clogged can trap bacteria into the pore, which leads to a mini-infection that brings about swelling, redness, and pain \u2014 AKA a pimple. \u201cA retinol cream, used a few nights per week, can minimize comedones,\u201d says Nichols, who recommends Avon Anew Clinical Line Eraser with Retinol Treatment.\nRelated: Dark Marks and Acne Scars: Your Complete Guide\nore from Teen Vogue:\nThe Top 10 Mistakes You\u2019re Probably Making When You Straighten Your Hair\n27 Must-See Celebrity Prom Throwback Photos\nMore Than Half of What You Eat Isn\u2019t Even Real Food, Study Finds\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "For Teen Vogue, by Deanna Pal.  \n  \n Acne might be the great equalizer, plaguing everyone regardless of their grades, gender, or their taste in music....", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-treat-every-type-of-acne_us_58220617e4b044f827a79387", "title": "How To Treat Every Type Of Acne"}, "184": {"text": "\nMost of us are not aware of what we're communicating most of the time...\nOften we get a hint of how we come across thru conversation with others. Or if we're fortunate enough to have a best friend who means well, she will let us know if something is amiss. And when we do find out through an outside source (usually to our disgust!) it seems far from the ideal vision we have for ourselves. \nAnd when it comes to dating men, it could be that you just can't seem to keep a very attractive man interested in you. Why do you think that is? It could be a number of things you're unaware of. The tone of voice which is seeking validation and coming across as needy perhaps, the fashion faux-pas you're making through your outfit combination, or some sort of insecurity that reveals itself through your mannerisms. \nA \"style coach\" can come in and pinpoint some of the factors that are contributing to what is causing you angst, and steer you in a direction that can fix them somewhat. But more often than not a 'style' coach would only be concerned with your outward appearance, your way of dressing, the clothes you wear and how you combine your outfits.  \nKnow that fashion is only one part of style. You need a coach who goes beyond just fixing your 'style'. A self-image consultant will go beyond that and help you with your self-expression to help you achieve elegance, which is deeper and comes from within. Because once unattractive flaws and mannerisms are identified, you will have the power to change them. \nAnd as you develop your own unique style, you can start infusing elegance so that the total combination of both transforms the way you dress, the way you talk, behave, move your body, or do anything for that matter. Simply put, your inner and outer expressions start to match. Very soon, your thoughts, emotions, interests and values start aligning with your outer appearance and everything on the outside becomes a mere reflection of what's on the inside. \nYou see, it's not enough to just follow fashion. Because being fashion-forward does not always contribute to elegance. And elegance is what you want. Do you have to be an unstoppable force of charisma who looks impeccable all the time? Of course not! Your style could be more about comfort than fashion, but you have adopted that innate capability now to be charismatic. You are now the type of woman that everyone loves and is drawn towards. You become instantly and effortlessly attractive. \nSuddenly you're building your own unique self-brand. You start exuding influence in just about any setting without even intending to do so. People start trusting you more and whatever words you say to them will carry more credibility because you are the living epitome of elegance. Your words, actions, mannerisms and confidence become apparent. \nElegance as we know it is very rare indeed in the world we live in today. It was rare before, and even more rare now. \nUltimately the message we get across to others has very little to do with the words we use in any conversation. Our body language; the tone, pitch and volume we use in our voice, the expression on our face when we communicate, these are all part of the non-verbal communication that reveals our true nature. We can come across as insensitive and domineering, or shy and insecure. However, once we become more aware of all these innuendos and deliberately strive to achieve that elegance that is the hallmark of classiness, a shift happens. \nYour lifestyle and your surroundings start to match your persona. Your values shift to encompass all that you represent and embody. Now no matter what you say, do or express, all is in harmony. Now there is no doubt in anyone's mind who you are and what you are about. \nThis, my friends, is what you want. \n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rani-st-pucchi/what-does-your-style-say-_b_12802718.html", "title": "What Does Your Style Say About You?"}, "185": {"text": "We asked a dermatologist why your beard is making you break out.\nYou\u2019ve decided to grow a beard this fall \u2014 good for you, buddy! But hold on a second, whether you\u2019re doing it for #movember, for better Tinder pics, or to keep your face warm this winter, you will definitely run into some snags as your new beard grows in. So don\u2019t be surprised if your face reacts badly to the change and you end up with some gnarly beard-related acne. This follicular side effect is gross, can be painful, and is unfortunately very common. But the good news is, there\u2019s a perfectly easy solution to your pimple problem. We asked Evan Rieder MD, FAAD, a general and cosmetic dermatologist and an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at NYU Medical Center, why guys break out when they grow a beard and how to avoid it in the future. Here\u2019s what he said:\n\u201cWe often see an increase in acne and ingrown hairs (which may look like acne bumps) when men grow a beard or move from a clean shave to an unshaven look. The reasons for this are multifactorial, but most relate to hygiene. Men tend to negate beard grooming, and beard hair can collect a lot of debris and bacteria that can predispose to the development of acne.\u201d\nTranslation: \nDuring the day, your facial hair collects dust, dirt, and bacteria that can cause pimples. If you don\u2019t wash your beard that pimple causing bacteria thrives.\nEverything You Need To Take Care Of Your Beard\n\u201cTo help prevent and treat facial hair related pimples, men should wash their beard twice daily with a facial cleanser, switch pillowcases every few days, and pay better attention to grooming. Particularly in people with curly hair, short beard hair can grow back into the skin and cause a foreign-body response, which can lead to the development of red and painful bumps that look like acne. The body actually reacts to its own hair as something foreign, and mounts an immune response to it. We see less of these foreign-body responses once the beard is longer, however acne can still be a problem if the hygiene is poor. If these methods don\u2019t work, then a dermatologist can prescribe antibiotic treatments that may help keep acne at bay. If these problems persist despite medical therapy, laser therapy is a good way to remove problematic areas of hair that repeatedly cause bumps.\u201d\nPlan of Attack:\nMore from GQ:\nWhy Your Beard Is Red, Even If Your Hair Isn\u2019t\nThe Best Celebrity Haircuts of 2016\nThe Best Haircuts for Men\nThe Best Facial Hair for Your Face Shape\n7 Grooming Moves to Steal From Your Favorite Rapper\n", "tags": ["lifestyle"], "abstract": "By Liza Corsillo for GQ.   \n We asked a dermatologist why your beard is making you break out.  \n  \n You\u2019ve decided to grow a beard this fall \u2014 good...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-to-get-rid-of-beard-related-pimples_us_5820e1e4e4b044f827a7917e", "title": "How To Get Rid Of Beard-Related Pimples"}, "186": {"text": "America is a country built by minorities and today we're running the risk of electing Donald Trump on a platform of segregation and xenophobia. That's all been very well documented, but the idea of Hillary Clinton's America, one that is \"Stronger together\" is worth revisiting on the last day of a long and arduous election.\nThe presidential election is bigger than the Super Bowl in America. Presidential election night has decidedly been made a huge event where people can see how their right to vote impacts their nation. \nWe've already seen that Trump voters are less educated and have almost no political voice. It's important to highlight because these people are almost always found in places with high levels of prejudice. By supporting Trump, they undercut the foundations of democracy. \nFilmmakers, Akram Shibly and Brenden Gregory have created a new film to prove that Trump and his supporters are wrong. In their short film, \"Our America\" they show how LGBT people and Muslims growing up in America have a lot to learn and share with one another. Through visiting an LGBT center and a mosque, each of the filmmakers learn something about the other and in turn learns how to work together.\n\n\nThis is an election of tremendous consequence and there is only one presidential candidate who will push forward the politics of a united America: Hillary Clinton. Make no mistake, America is already great, and electing the first female president of the United States will make it even greater.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "America is a country built by minorities and today we're running the risk of electing ", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zac-thompson/lgbt-and-muslim-people-ar_b_12867230.html", "title": "LGBT And Muslim People Are Stronger Together In Trump's America"}, "187": {"text": "The creepy clown craze of 2016 began back in August when there was a reported sighting of clowns in the woods by a young boy in Greenville, South Carolina. Since that fateful day, clown sightings have spread outside the USA in a wave of contagion, and have become far more frequent and threatening. Just two weeks ago a man in Sweden was stabbed twice by someone in a clown mask. \nWhile this is one of 2016's most frightening epidemics, creepy clowns are nothing new. Although the exact origins are tough to trace, clown phobias, or coulrophobia, stretch back to the 19th century when they started cropping up in fiction and plays. However, the modern iteration of the evil clown as we known it stems from Stephen King's 1986 novel, \"It\". It's probably not a coincidence that the book was released a few years after the arrest of the notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who performed as a clown at children's parties. \nSince \"It\" and Gacy, killer clowns have invaded the public consciousness with plenty of movies, TV shows, and books to fuel our nightmares. Now, the nightmare has spread into real life and it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.\nWe've got a rich history of scary-ass clowns, and Michael McCrudden breaks down in the video below. \n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The creepy clown craze of 2016 began back in August when there was a ", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/outspeak/everything-you-need-to-know-clowns_b_12740036.html", "title": "Everything You Need To Know About The Creepy Clown Craze"}, "188": {"text": "As election night results revealed a\u00a0frighteningly close race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, nervous Americans considering an exit strategy apparently crashed Canada\u2019s immigration website.\nThe site has been working intermittently throughout the night with high levels of traffic. The Huffington Post wasn\u2019t able to reach a representative from Citizenship and Immigration Canada\u00a0for comment.\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entertained the idea of welcoming Americans fleeing a Trump presidency in March, during a global town hall hosted by HuffPost Canada.\n\u201cCape Breton is lovely, all times of the year,\u201d he said with a smile, referring to a viral website that\u00a0has encouraged Americans to seek refuge\u00a0on the small island off Canada\u2019s Atlantic coast should Trump win the election.\nCanadians, however, are not keen on the idea. A poll released Tuesday shows the overwhelming majority of the nation is opposed to easing immigration policies in the event of a Trump victory. The poll, conducted by Mainstreet Research and Postmedia Network Inc., also reveals that most Canadians would support Clinton for U.S. president.\n\u201cThis election has been quite divisive south of the border and many Canadians are anxious about the outcome on Tuesday,\u201d said Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research.\nThe Globe and Mail, a major Canadian newspaper,\u00a0published a pleading editorial last week titled \u201cDear America: Please don\u2019t vote for Donald Trump.\u201d\n\u201cAt first, we thought the Trump thing was just a phase you were going through,\u201d it began. \u201cThis U.S. election, unlike any since the Second World War, is white knuckle time for the rest of the world. Foreign governments don\u2019t want to interfere in your democracy, so they can\u2019t say what they really think about Trump. But we can. We\u2019re terrified.\u201d\nWe feel you, Canada.\nLooking to ease your election anxiety? Check out these Canadian meditation exercises.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Cape Breton doesn't look so bad right now.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/canada-immigration-trump-president_us_58229b95e4b0e80b02cdcdad", "title": "The Canadian Immigration Site Actually Crashed On U.S. Election Night"}, "189": {"text": "The American election is in a downward spiral. American hero, Ken Bone's terrible fall from grace shows that Trump wasn't wrong: we've got a country filled with bad hombres. We're staring down the barrel of a potentially violent and unsettling election driven by a man who will accept the results of the election only if he wins. What the fuck, America?\nThat's why the Canada Party thinks our best option is electing Canada as POTUS. We might be biased but we think our neighbors to the North offer a pretty great alternative to the insanity that's currently being tossed around in American politics.\nElecting Canada for president is certainly an alluring fantasy but voting in this election is your obligation. Jokes aside, this election is the most divisive in modern American history. Hillary Clinton is by no means a demonic soul sucking vacuum, as suggested by the video, but Trump is one hundred percent a reality tv host and nothing more. It's no longer about the lesser of two evils. It's just one evil, and one person who is clearly prepared for the position.\nIt's time to consider where the country is headed and to make a smart vote on November 8th. Speak out and let others know that the election isn't rigged. Despite everything Donald Trump has said we can't let people give into violent impulses in the name of protecting democracy. The only way to do that now is to vote and encourage others to do the same.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "The American election is in a downward spiral. American hero, Ken Bone's ", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zac-thompson/american-politics-is-a-du_b_12576096.html", "title": "American Politics Is A Dumpster Fire - It's Time To Elect Canada For President"}, "190": {"text": "We've completely forsaken journalistic integrity today. We're tired of writing about Trump doing stupid things (sexist, racist, or otherwise), so here's some cats. \nHopefully these kitties will take your mind off of the sad dumpster fire that is American politics at the moment. Perhaps this post is a preview of what the internet will look like after November 8th. \n\nFor more from Cole & Marmalade, check out their YouTube channel.\n", "tags": ["opinion"], "abstract": "We've completely forsaken journalistic integrity today. We're tired of writing about ", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/outspeak/heres-some-creepy-cats-for_b_12737688.html", "title": "Here's Some Creepy Cats For Halloween"}, "191": {"text": "On Sunday, Kendall Jenner opened up about struggling with a sleep problem that is thought to affect nearly eight percent of the general population: sleep paralysis.\n\u201cI wake up in the middle of the night and I can\u2019t move,\u201d Jenner said in the latest episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. \u201cI\u2019m freaking out.\u201d\nIndeed, sleep paralysis is a phenomenon where you are awake and conscious, but your body is paralyzed (except for your eyes) and between 80 and 90 percent of the time you experience nightmares or disturbing hallucinations.\u00a0\n\u201cThey [can be] scary experiences,\u201d\u00a0Brian A.\u00a0Sharpless, associate professor at the American School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University and author of Sleep Paralysis,\u00a0told The Huffington Post.\nEpisodes happen during your lightest stage of sleep \u2015 rapid eye movement sleep (REM), during which you dream \u2015 and can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few (terrifying!) minutes.\nSharpless is not Jenner\u2019s doctor, but he noted that several struggles Jenner discussed in the show, such as anxiety and jet lag, can increase the risk of experiencing the scary episodes.\n\u201cEveryone says I\u2019m fine, but I don\u2019t feel fine,\u201d Jenner told her mother Kris Jenner on the show.\nThe episodes can be terrifying, Sharpless said. But for most people, sleep paralysis episodes are a one-time or occasional experience \u2015 and they\u2019re not necessarily a problem or dangerous.\u00a0\nHere are four other important facts about sleep paralysis:\nResearch has suggested sleep paralysis is way more common in people with mental health issues and young adults, affecting more than 28 percent of students, nearly 32 percent of psychiatric patients and nearly 35 percent of people with panic disorder.\nEstimates suggest that somewhere between 15 and 45 percent of people with sleep paralysis experience such episodes repeatedly, and not as a side effect of another sleep disorder or condition \u2015 which is known as recurrent isolated sleep paralysis. People with the recurrent condition also tend to have trouble with sleep because of the episodes, such as trouble falling asleep or avoiding sleep out of fear.\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have the disorder if it just happens once,\u201d Sharpless said. \u201cAnd it has to actually be affecting your behavior [to be recurrent isolated sleep paralysis].\u201d\u00a0\nPracticing good sleep behavior like skipping alcohol and caffeine before heading to bed and waking up and going to bed at the same time everyday can help anyone avoid sleep paralysis.\nAnother tip: sleep on your side, Sharpless said. Sleeping on your back or stomach make sleep paralysis way more likely, he explained.\nAnd for people with the recurrent condition, a sleep medicine specialist or psychologist may be able to prescribe medications that help suppress REM sleep (and therefore help people avoid sleep paralysis).\u00a0\nTaking the simple steps of getting on a regular sleep schedule, skipping alcohol and caffeine before bed and sleeping on her side, all might help Jenner\u2019s episodes go away, Sharpless said.\nAnd if those fixes don\u2019t help, he said Jenner (or anyone experiencing similar symptoms) should consider seeing a sleep medicine specialist or psychologist who could help determine if the episodes are something more serious.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "\"I'm freaking out.\"", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kendall-jenner-sleep-paralysis_us_580a2833e4b0cdea3d86e413", "title": "Kendall Jenner\u2019s Sleep Paralysis Is Actually Pretty Common"}, "192": {"text": "On Nov.\u00a014, skywatchers will be treated to a supermoon so big and bright that it\u2019s being billed as a \u201csuper-dupermoon\u201d or an \u201cextra-supermoon.\u201d\nSupermoons aren\u2019t especially uncommon, but this will be the nearest that a full moon has come to Earth since January 26, 1948. The full moon won\u2019t get this close again until November 25, 2034.\nThe term supermoon refers to a full moon that occurs when our planet\u2019s natural satellite is at its\u00a0closest point to Earth\u00a0in its elliptical orbit. Astronomers call that point perigee, and so \u201cperigee moon\u201d is another term for supermoon.\u00a0(The point at which the moon is most distant from Earth in its orbit is known as apogee.)\nA supermoon can appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than an apogee full moon, according to NASA. The effect is most pronounced when the moon is viewed near the horizon.\nThis supermoon is one of three to occur during the last three months of 2016. There was a supermoon on Oct. 16, and there will be another on Dec. 14.\u00a0But this one coming up will be the most special of the lot \u2015 so try not to miss it.\nWhat\u2019s the best way to see the supermoon?\n\u201cJust find a dark area clear of trees,\u201d Dr. Noah Petro, a scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told The Huffington Post in an email. \u201cAnytime after dark is good and once the moon is up. There is no prime time when people have to do it, but the moon has to have risen for people to see it! : )\u201d\nNuff said.\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Skywatchers are in for a big, bright treat in two weeks!", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supermoon-watch_us_581a04e6e4b0a76e174c3538", "title": "A Supermoon Like This One Won't Come Again Until 2034"}, "193": {"text": "Californians voted Tuesday to pass Proposition 63,\u00a0a sweeping gun control measure that will bolster the state\u2019s already substantial restrictions on firearms and ammunition.\u00a0\nThe ballot initiative, spearheaded by California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), will implement a slew of new gun regulations intended to help prevent mass shootings. The measure bans possession of large-capacity magazines, mandates background checks and permits for ammunition purchases, requires individuals and businesses to report lost or stolen firearms, and makes all firearm thefts felonies regardless of the value of the weapon. The measure will also set up a process for courts to remove guns from people convicted of certain crimes.\u00a0\nNewsom, who is running for governor in 2018, unveiled the ballot measure during a press conference in San Francisco last October. He argued the proposed regulations could help curb mass shootings by making it more difficult for people to purchase guns and ammunition.\n\u201cWe have the ability to do something about [mass shootings],\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the capacity to turn things around.\u201d\u00a0\nSome of the components of Proposition 63 were already put into place when California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed six gun bills into law this summer. However, Newsom argued\u00a0his proposed measure goes further than the laws signed by Brown and will close loopholes in existing state laws. For example, one law signed by Brown requires showing an ID and undergoing an instant background check in order to buy ammunition, while Newsom\u2019s proposal requires gun owners to obtain a four-year permit from California\u2019s Department of Justice before purchasing bullets.\u00a0\nThe initiative received support from many of the state\u2019s most prominent politicians, including Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Le\u00f3n, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and many other Democratic officials.\u00a0\nProposition 63 also faced fierce opposition from gun rights groups, which argued the rules would just make it harder for law-abiding people to buy guns while doing nothing to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. A website called StopNewsom.com, funded by the Firearms Policy Coalition, particularly took issue with the measure\u2019s restrictions on ammunition purchases, calling the proposed rules \u201cburdensome\u201d and a \u201cmassive infringement on your Constitutional rights.\u201d\u00a0\nHowever, the nation\u2019s most prominent gun lobby \u2015 the National Rifle Association \u2015 largely stayed out of the fray, spending just $95,000 to try to defeat the measure. (In contrast, the NRA has put up almost\u00a0$4 million to fight a background check measure in Nevada.) That disparity could be credited to California\u2019s demographics \u2015 the state is largely Democratic, and polls indicated the measure was likely to pass.\u00a0The laws signed by Brown earlier this year also may have discouraged the NRA from spending much on the campaign, as some of the components most objectionable to gun rights activists were already set to go into effect.\nDespite the group\u2019s relative absence from the campaign, Newsom has touted passing the ballot initiative as a victory over the NRA and other arms of the gun lobby. Earlier this month, Newsom challenged NRA executive Wayne LaPierre to a public debate on the measure:\u00a0\nProposition 63\u2019s components are set to go into effect next year.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "The state has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Voters just said they\u2019re not enough.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-gun-law_us_5818e50ae4b00f11fc5c22aa", "title": "California Just Got Even Tougher On Guns"}, "194": {"text": "WASHINGTON \u2015 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is projected to win his re-election bid, having fended off challenges presented both by his opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.\nEarly in the campaign, McCain looked to be in the fight of his political life, with some polls putting the centrist, pro-gun Kirkpatrick within a point or two of the veteran incumbent.\nThe ascendence of Trump complicated the senator\u2019s campaign, forcing a lawmaker long regarded as a maverick to toe the party line and embrace a toxic character who had insulted McCain\u2019s war service.\nMcCain never gave Trump a strong endorsement, but while facing tea party challengers in his primary, he insisted he\u2019d back his party\u2019s nominee.\nMcCain was forced to dodge questions about Trump all summer and fall, and skipped his party\u2019s nominating convention. He didn\u2019t abandon Trump until recordings emerged that revealed the GOP nominee had boasted about sexually assaulting women.\nStill, Kirkpatrick ran a lackluster campaign and never inspired much excitement, even in a state with a large Latino population and in a year when her party had nominated a woman for president. She polled significantly lower than Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign.\nMcCain\u2019s win sends him to his sixth term in the United States Senate, where he promised during his campaign to block any Supreme Court justices named by Clinton.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "The Arizonan had a complicated relationship with GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-mccain-arizona-senate_us_581b7476e4b07cfea321b70d", "title": "John McCain Survives To Win 6th Senate Term"}, "195": {"text": "MARRAKECH, Morocco \u2015 The five years from 2011 through 2015 were the warmest on record, a trend that\u2019s increasing the prevalence of extreme weather, including flooding and drought, a new report from the World Meteorological Organization has found.\nThe U.N. agency analyzed 79 instances of extreme weather reported in academic journals in the five-year period and found that climate change contributed to more than half. Some events, such as extreme heat, are up to 10 times more likely to occur due to global warming.\n\u201cOver time we\u2019ve been able to build up a picture of what\u2019s happening to the planet\u2019s vital signs,\u201d Maxx Dilley, director of the WMO\u2019s climate prediction and adaptation branch, said at a news conference.\nThose vital signs now come from a planet in flux. Last year, the warmest in recorded history, average temperatures rose 1 degree Celsius above pre-Industrial Age levels for the first time, the WMO said. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also hit 400 ppm for the first time in 4 million years.\nThe WMO released its in-depth survey at the 22nd Conference of the Parties in Marrakech, the year\u2019s largest conference centered on climate change.\nWorld leaders have pledged to do everything they can to keep the planet from warming beyond 2 degrees Celsius, the level scientists say we must stay beneath to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\nBut some of those effects have already begun.\nA drought in east Africa killed nearly 260,000 people\u00a0from 2010 to 2012, and superstorms like Hurricane Sandy in the U.S. in 2012 and Typhoon Haiyan in Southeast Asia in 2013 have caused billions of dollars in economic damage. The WMO also pointed to environmental changes including melting ice sheets and rising seas.\n\u201cWe\u2019re scientists, so we look at the facts: The rates of ice melting and the rates of greenhouse gas increases and the rates of temperature increases, they are very serious matters,\u201d Dilley said. Although hesitant to offer an opinion on the findings, he said, \u201cWhen you take off your scientist hat and you look at it, it\u2019s very concerning.\u201d\nHowever, the agency said the ongoing climate summit, the first since the landmark Paris climate agreement was ratified, still fosters an era of hope.\n\u201cThis year we are all very inspired by the Paris agreement,\u201d said Elena Manaenkova, deputy secretary general of the WMO. \u201cIt\u2019s a feeling of confidence that actions are being taken.\u201d\n\u00a0\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "The planet just saw the hottest five years on record.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/un-climate-change-report_us_582214dfe4b0d9ce6fbf0bcc", "title": "Climate Change Is Already Driving Extreme Weather, U.N. Agency Says"}, "196": {"text": "Pramila Jayapal was elected to Congress Tuesday night, meaning she will be the first Indian-American woman to hold a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. \nJayapal,\u00a0currently a Democratic state senator, defeated fellow Democrat Brady Walkinshaw with 57 percent of the vote to secure her spot in the House after both advanced from the \u201ctop two\u201d primary.\nWashington\u2019s 7th District \u2014 currently represented by retiring Rep. Jim McDermott (D) \u2014 encompasses most of Seattle and its neighboring communities, making it\u00a0the most progressive district in the Pacific Northwest and one of the most Democratic districts in the country.\nJayapal will also join Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the first Indian-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, in the 115th Congress.\nJayapal was born in India but immigrated to the United States when she was 16. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which spawned hate crimes and discrimination against Arab, Muslim and South Asian Americans, Jayapal founded an organization called Hate Free Zone, later rebranded as OneAmerica.\u00a0\nUnder her leadership, OneAmerica became a major advocacy organization for immigrants and refugees living in the U.S. She has also helped more than 20,000 new Americans register to vote, and in 2013, Jayapal was dubbed a White House \u201cChampion of Change.\u201d\nJayapal was elected to the Washington state Senate in 2014. After declaring her candidacy for the U.S. House earlier this year, Jayapal earned an early endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).\nJayapal had been endorsed by at least 20 other members of Congress, feminist Gloria Steinem, EMILY\u2019s List and Planned Parenthood, among many others.\nIn a fundraising email, Sanders praised Jayapal\u2019s track record as a public servant.\n\u201cPramila helped lead the fight for paid sick leave and a $15 minimum wage in Seattle,\u201d Sanders wrote. \u201cShe\u2019s not afraid to take on powerful special interests. She\u2019s fought for immigrant rights, opposed the war in Iraq, and worked to protect Social Security.\u201d\nJayapal said she plans to take up these issues \u2014 as well as LGBTQ rights, women\u2019s rights and environmental concerns \u00a0\u2014\u00a0when she begins her term in the U.S. House in January.\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "Pramila Jayapal was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pramila-jayapal-wins_us_5820ed1be4b0e80b02cc0193", "title": "An Indian-American Woman Was Just Elected To The U.S. House For The First Time"}, "197": {"text": "Many people feel that they \u201close control\u201d in the climax of a sexual encounter, and research shows this is a very apt description of what\u2019s going on in the brain.\nIn a paper in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology\u00a0last month, Northwestern University neuroscientist Adam Safron proposes that the rhythmic nature of sexual activity gives rise to a trance state involving total sensory absorption and a loss of self-awareness.\nHe compares the process to \u201cpushing someone on a swing,\u201d because the rhythmic nature of sexual stimulation can cause neurons in the brain to oscillate at the same frequency. This is known as \u201cneural entrainment.\u201d\u00a0If the stimulation is intense and sustained enough, then synchronized activity can spread throughout the brain.\nSuch synchronization can create a state of focused attention that silences normal self-awareness, allowing us to \u201close ourselves\u201d in the moment. We access a state of sensory absorption during a sexual trance, which can build up an intensity of experience that helps trigger climax.\u00a0\nFrom a neuroscientific perspective, sex may be an altered state of consciousness and perhaps even a form of meditative practice, according to Safron, who studies the neurological basis of sexual preference.\n\u201cThis way of viewing sexual experience is very different from, but consistent with, conceptualizing sex solely in terms of desire, pleasure, and arousal,\u201d he told The Huffington Post on Wednesday. \u201cI suspect that viewing sexuality as a kind of altered state of consciousness could help people to see sex as something extraordinary, potentially helping them to have a greater appreciation for their partners, and possibly even helping to prevent sex from losing its fascination.\u201d\nThis fits with what we know about orgasms. They usually result from rhythmic stimulation of body parts\u00a0that are high in sensory receptors. And\u00a0some studies of sexual climax have shown that brain regions involved in higher-order cognition and executive function deactivate, suggesting a temporary \u201closs of control.\u201d\u00a0\nIn this way,\u00a0sexual activity can be compared to music and dance \u2015 all involve the ability to lose oneself in a rhythm and to potentially access an altered state of consciousness. In several early cultures, anthropologists\u00a0have found evidence of rhythmic drumming,\u00a0singing, chanting and dancing being used to access trance states.\u00a0\nThe takeaway? Paying more attention to rhythm could be a powerful way to improve your sex life.\u00a0\n\u201cThe ability to maintain and adjust rhythms precisely, and with variety, helps to make someone both a good dancer and a good lover,\u201d Safron said.\u00a0\u201cFocusing on the rhythmic aspects of sexuality could both help people to enjoy sex more and to be more of the kinds of lovers that they want to be.\u201d\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "Rhythm holds the key to good sex, a study suggests.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sexual-pleasure-trance_us_581a0950e4b01f610e395c14", "title": "Sexual Pleasure Literally Puts You Into A Trance"}, "198": {"text": "Tired of the election? Want to watch an athlete at the top of his game instead?\nStay here a bit. Two-time MVP Stephen Curry broke an\u00a0NBA record, making 13 three-pointers Monday to lead the Golden State Warriors past the New Orleans Pelicans, 116-106.\nHe surpassed the single-game\u00a0record of 12 he had shared with Kobe Bryant and Donyell Marshall\u00a0after just 17 attempts, scoring 46 points overall. Check out all 13 long-range baskets in the video above.\nAnd to think that just days ago he didn\u2019t sink a single 3\u00a0for the first time after 157 games.\nYeah, he can still shoot.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Just wow.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-curry-record-breaking-3-pointers_us_5821b957e4b0e80b02cc752d", "title": "Elect To Watch All 13 Of Stephen Curry's Record-Breaking 3-Pointers"}, "199": {"text": "The 2016 World Series was one for the history books. In Game 7 on Wednesday,\u00a0the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7, becoming World Series champions for the first time in 108 years.\nRegardless of your team affiliation, it was one thrilling game,\u00a0with a leadoff homer by the Cubs, a game-tying home run by the Indians in the bottom of the 8th, and an extra-innings victory by one of baseball\u2019s long-running underdogs.\nEven though the Indians almost did it, some Cleveland fans are despairing. And rightfully so. The Indians are in a 68-year World Series championship drought \u2015 now the\u00a0longest of any MLB team, according to SportsCenter.\nBelow, see some of the best Twitter reactions to Cleveland\u2019s heartbreaking loss.\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "It's a sad day in Ohio.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cleveland-indians-world-series-loss-fans_us_581bbc16e4b0d9ce6fbaed20", "title": "Cleveland Indians Fans Are Not Reacting Well To World Series Loss"}, "200": {"text": "While he may have been attempting a tricky onside kick Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 Chris Boswell looked an awful lot like a certain sandlot player from \u201cPeanuts.\u201d\nThe visiting Steelers were down 21-14 to the Baltimore Ravens with 48 seconds left. Boswell tried a sleight-of-foot maneuver called a \u201crabona.\u201d It may have been the lamest onside kick attempt in history.\nNo we know Lucy wasn\u2019t pulling the ball away at the last moment and Boswell wasn\u2019t gaining a full head of steam to kick off and fall flat like Charlie Brown, but the result was pretty much the same.\nAnd Charlie Brown\u2019s yellow-and-black shirt has the Steelers\u2019 colors!\nThe Ravens took possession and secured the victory.\nWatch the whole sequence here:\u00a0\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "That's what you get for being too fancy.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-boswell-onside-kick_us_582075c7e4b0aac624856c2d", "title": "Chris Boswell Looks Like Charlie Brown In Worst Onside Kick Ever"}, "201": {"text": "Question: I need your help with a Dell Inspiron laptop that died from a failed motherboard after 14 months. While on the surface it would seem that since this is beyond the 12-month warranty period, I believe that we had a valid case for an exception because the laptop did not function correctly from day one, required three onsite visits by technicians who took the laptop apart and replaced numerous parts, as well as several very long technical troubleshooting sessions over the phone in which it was discovered that the laptop had the wrong or outdated software.\nThe laptop was finally repaired to the point of being usable three months after the purchase date, and I believe that it is only fair that the warranty should have started at that point. It is also my contention that the several service calls which took the laptop apart could have very well caused harm to the motherboard. I asked Dell to consider these facts and repair the laptop at their expense. They have refused.\nI am pushing this issue because I think that it is only right for a company to stand behind their product. When a product is sold that is totally defective, then that product should have been replaced, and the warranty restarted. Dell seems to think that they do not have to stand behind their product.\nHaving worked for Fortune 500 companies, I'm well aware that there is an exception process for warranties that would seem to apply when a product has shown itself to be grossly problematic, as ours was. When this was brought to a supervisor's attention, he agreed that Dell had an exception process, but could not articulate why our computer would not apply. He simply kept repeating that our computer was not under warranty, and there was nothing he could do.\nAnswer: Your Dell warranty lasted a year, no more, no less. (Technically, it's one year \"beginning on the date of invoice,\" according to the manufacturer.) The company can bend its own rules whenever it wants to, but it doesn't have to.\nWell, shoot, if I'd read this before buying a Dell, I would have had second thoughts about the warranty. Certainly, even if Dell would extend the warranty, who's to say it would mean it would replace your motherboard?\nYou followed all the steps to a resolution, including starting a paper trail and then appealing your case to four levels of Dell's executive customer service contacts. But nothing seemed to work.\nI contacted Dell on your behalf and was encouraged when I heard back from the company right away. A representative apologized for your problems and promised to send your repair request to Dell's \"escalations team\" for a resolution.\nBut that resolution never came. A Dell employee contacted you and said that despite all the problems with your Inspiron, Dell was not going to cover the cost of fixing it. I'm hesitant to write about a case that wasn't resolved, but you encouraged me to cover your problem in a column as a warning to others: When Dell says 12 months, that's exactly what it means.\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Leslie Woz' Dell laptop is a lemon, and now it's out of warranty. Should the company honor an implied warranty?  \n Question: I need your help with a D...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-dell-laptop-never-worked-how-about-a-refund_us_581f553ce4b0334571e09d7c", "title": "This Dell Laptop Never Worked. How About A Refund?"}, "202": {"text": "Election night brought several astonishing, wholly unforeseen results. But let\u2019s put the presidential campaign aside for a second and talk about weed.\u00a0\nMarijuana was on the ballot in nine states on Tuesday. Voters in eight of those states went to the polls and approved measures to roll back longstanding restrictions on the drug,\u00a0delivering a historic victory for marijuana police reformers.\nBy the end of the night, four states approved recreational marijuana, with California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine all rejecting prohibition and opting to tax and regulate the drug instead. The efforts doubled the number of states with legal weed, bringing the total to eight, which are home to nearly a quarter of the nation\u2019s population. Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota and Montana also voted on marijuana for medical use, bringing the total to 29 states and Washington, D.C. \nOnly Arizona, which was considering recreational marijuana legalization, voted down their measure on Tuesday.\nThe results, as well as the scale of the successes \u2015 which saw measures like Florida\u2019s passed by huge double-digit margins \u2015 will give a shot in the arm to the campaign for legalization and reform, said marijuana policy experts.\n\u201cThis is the most momentous Election Day in history for the movement to end marijuana prohibition,\u201d said Rob Kampia, executive director of Marijuana Policy Project. \u201cThese votes send a clear message to federal officials that it\u2019s time to stop arresting and incarcerating marijuana users. Congress must take action to ease the tension between state and federal marijuana laws.\u201d\nThe trend of state-level legalization reflects a broader cultural shift toward acceptance of marijuana, the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States. National support for the legalization of marijuana has risen dramatically in recent years, reaching historic highs in multiple polls just last month. States like Colorado have established regulated marijuana marketplaces, and successes there have debunked some lawmakers and law enforcers\u2019 predictions that such polices would result in disaster.\nStill, the federal government continues to ban cannabis, classifying it in Schedule I as one of the \u201cmost dangerous\u201d drugs, alongside heroin and LSD. States have been able to forge ahead on legalization despite the federal ban, helped in part by federal guidance that urged prosecutors to refrain from targeting marijuana operations that are legal under state law.\nPresident\u00a0Barack Obama\u00a0has suggested the government may soon need to reassess its position. In an interview with \u201cReal Time\u201d host Bill Maher\u00a0on his show that aired last week, Obama said successes in the legalization movement should lead to \u201ca more serious conversation about how we are treating marijuana and our drug laws generally.\u201d\n\u201cIf, in fact, [marijuana legalization] passed in all these states [on Tuesday], you now have about a fifth of the country that\u2019s operating under one set of laws, and four-fifths in another,\u201d Obama said. \u201cThe Justice Department, DEA, FBI \u2015 for them to try to straddle and figure out how they\u2019re supposed to enforce laws in some places and not in others \u2014 they\u2019re gonna guard against transporting these drugs across state lines, but you\u2019ve got the entire Pacific corridor where this is legal \u2014 that is not gonna be tenable.\u201d\nBut soon, federal marijuana policy will be in President-elect\u00a0Donald\u00a0Trump\u2019s court. Trump has said he would respect states\u2019 rights on the issue, but his potential incoming administration has some marijuana reformers worried.\nEthan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he was deeply concerned because Trump\u2019s most likely appointees to senior law enforcement positions \u2015 former New York City Mayor\u00a0Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey Gov.\u00a0Chris Christie\u00a0\u2015 and Vice President-elect Mike Pence \u201care no friends of marijuana reform.\u201d\n\u201cThe progress we\u2019ve made, and the values that underlie our struggle \u2015 freedom, compassion, reason and justice \u2015 will be very much at risk when Donald Trump enters the White House,\u201d he said.\nGiuliani has called legalizing marijuana in any form a \u201cmistake.\u201d\u00a0And Christie said if he were president, he would \u201ccrack down\u201d on legalization and \u201cenforce the federal laws.\u201d Both men have been rumored to be in line for cabinet positions in the Trump Administration, perhaps attorney general.\nTom Angell, chairman of drug policy reform group Marijuana Majority, said he expects Trump to hold true to his pledge not to interfere with existing state laws.\n\u201cTrump has clearly and repeatedly pledged to respect state marijuana laws, and we fully expect him to follow through on those promises, not only because it is the right thing to do but also because these reforms are broadly supported by a growing majority of voters,\u201d Angell said. \u201cReversing course and going against the tide of history would present huge political problems that the new administration does not need.\u201d\n", "tags": ["politics"], "abstract": "\u201cThis is the most momentous Election Day in history for the movement to end marijuana prohibition.\"", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/election-day-marijuana-votes_us_5822e05ae4b0aac6248854e6", "title": "Well, At Least Marijuana Won Big On Election Night"}, "203": {"text": "This 5-year-old\u2019s name is Rudy Toees, and he is very happy the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.\nThere is a lot of ugliness in the world right now, so I want to personally thank Rudy for reminding me that there is some goodness, too. Thank you, Rudy. You look great.\u00a0\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Euphoria, personified.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/happiness-personified_us_581cf1dfe4b0d9ce6fbc12a8", "title": "And Here We Have The Happiest Child In Human History"}, "204": {"text": "Facebook\u00a0shares tumbled more than 6 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company warned that revenue growth would slow this quarter, offsetting strong earnings that handily beat Wall Street estimates.\nIn a call with analysts, Facebook Chief Financial Officer David Wehner said ad growth would likely slow \u201cmeaningfully\u201d due to limits on \u201cad load,\u201d or the number of ads that Facebook can put in front of customers without alienating them.\nHe also said 2017 would be a year of aggressive investment that will see a substantial increase in expenses.\nFacebook shares were down 6.9 percent in after-hours trading, at $118.45.\nWhile the warning about the fourth quarter sent some investors running, by most metrics the company beat analysts\u2019 expectations on torrid mobile ad growth.\nMobile ads accounted for 84 percent of Facebook\u2019s total advertising revenue of $6.82 billion in the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, compared with 78 percent a year earlier.\nThe company is also reaping the benefits of a big push into video, both on Facebook itself and on the Instagram photo app.\nFacebook reported a 55.8 percent rise in quarterly revenue, to $7.01 billion, beating analysts\u2019 average estimate of $6.92 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.\nExcluding items, the company earned $1.09 per share. On that basis, analysts had expected 97 cents per share.\nFacebook said about 1.79 billion people were using its site monthly as of Sept. 30, up 16 percent from a year earlier.\nThe strong numbers come as Facebook has struggled in recent months to combat allegations that it unfairly removes certain content on its service, and news in September that the company had for years overestimated how it calculates the average time users spend watching video.\nBut investors appear optimistic Facebook will continue to grow revenue through its aggressive expansion of mobile and video advertising.\nMore than 90 percent of Facebook\u2019s users access the social network through mobile devices, and the company now boasts daily average mobile users of 1.09 billion, up 22 percent from last year.\n(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Bill Rigby)\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Nevertheless, investors remain bullish on the tech juggernaut", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-growth_us_581a69e0e4b0c43e6c1de937", "title": "Facebook Warns Growth To Slow, Stock Tumbles"}, "205": {"text": "A few\u00a0Chicago Cubs\u00a0temporarily abandoned the baseball field to join a barbershop quartet on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d\nPlayers Anthony Rizzo, David Ross and Dexter Fowler donned matching straw hats and Cubs sweaters with Hollywood actor and longtime Cubs fan\u00a0Bill Murray\u00a0for a rousing rendition of their team\u2019s anthem, \u201cGo Cubs Go.\u201d\nThe World Series champions\u00a0were also featured alongside \u201cSNL\u201d host Benedict Cumberbatch\u00a0in a somewhat bizarre skit in which they stripped for a grandmother at a bachelorette party that goes very, very wrong.\nCheck out the players singing above, and the stripper clip below:\n", "tags": ["sport"], "abstract": "Anthony Rizzo, David Ross and Dexter Fowler joined the actor for a rendition of \u201cGo Cubs Go.\"", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/snl-chicago-cubs-bill-murray_us_581ee15ce4b0aac62484faa7", "title": "Chicago Cubs Stars And Bill Murray Make A Real Song And Dance On 'SNL'"}, "206": {"text": "You probably wouldn\u2019t know\u00a0Elwood Edwards if you saw him, but you\u2019d recognize him the minute he started talking to you.\nBack when the world was simple and AOL was the hottest digital innovation (circa 1999), hearing \u201cYou\u2019ve got mail!\u201d after logging in to your account was easily the highlight of your day.\nEdwards was the person alerting you to check your inbox.\nHe was spotted over the weekend, offline and in the driver\u2019s seat of an Uber. Passenger Brandee Barker tweeted this glorious video of her serendipitous ride:\u00a0\nIsn\u2019t Edwards is such a gem?\nEdwards told Fast Company earlier this year that he got involved with AOL \u2015 which is now The Huffington Post\u2019s parent company \u2015 before it was even AOL. His wife, Karen, worked for a company called Quantum Computer Services. Quantum wanted to add a voice to the user interface of an online service called Q-Link. Edwards had spent a lot of time in radio and TV, so Karen\u00a0threw his name into the mix\u00a0for the project.\nEdwards recorded four phrases at the request of Quantum CEO Steve Case \u2015 and they went on to set the tone for a generation of internet users.\nSo, next time you get into an Uber and hear a particularly familiar-sounding welcome, check to see if you\u2019ve met Edwards.\u00a0\nH/T New York magazine\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "His \"You've got mail!\" brightened your day (unless you, um, didn't have any new mail).", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/aol-youve-got-mail-uber-driver-elwood-edwards_us_58209c4ce4b0e80b02cb3ecd", "title": "Uber Driver In Ohio Once Welcomed You To Your AOL Account"}, "207": {"text": "Walgreens filed a lawsuit against disgraced blood-testing startup Theranos on Tuesday. \nThe retail pharmacy giant once helped float Theranos to a $9 billion valuation, vaulting its founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, to tech industry stardom. But in October 2015, The Wall Street Journal exposed major problems with the company\u2019s marquee product, which claimed to be able to run 240 different tests on a single drop of blood.\nTheranos vehemently denied the report, but new revelations kept coming. Nine months later, Walgreens abandoned the scandal-struck company, vowing to no longer use its laboratories to test blood from patients at its walk-in clinics. Theranos\u2019 valuation plummeted, wiping out much of Holmes\u2019 $4.5 billion net worth \u2015 held largely in company stock \u2015 seemingly overnight. \nWalgreens is now accusing Theranos of violating some nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements that were part of its original partnership with the startup, according to court filings. \nWalgreens spokesman Jim Cohn confirmed to The Huffington Post that the suit had been filed Tuesday in Delaware. He declined to comment further.\nBut John Carreyrou, the star Wall Street Journal reporter who led the investigation against Theranos, said on Twitter that Walgreens is suing for $140 million.\u00a0\nA major hedge fund investor said last month that Theranos had used a \u201cseries of lies\u201d to convince it to invest $100 million, and sued the startup for fraud. That same week, Theranos announced plans to lay off 40 percent of its staff and get out of the blood-testing business.\nTheranos did not respond to a request for comment.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "It's been a rough 13 months for the one-time Silicon Valley darling.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/walgreens-sues-theranos_us_582249b6e4b0d9ce6fbf87e0", "title": "Walgreens Is Suing Disgraced Blood-Testing Startup Theranos"}, "208": {"text": "Just because you\u2019re a startup worth a couple billion dollars doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t be a little petty sometimes.\nSlack, a group chat software popular with digital companies \u2015 including The Huffington Post \u2015 published a less-than-gracious open letter in The New York Times on Wednesday with some words of advice for Microsoft, its newest competitor. \nSlack\u2019s semi-congratulatory note was published just hours before its tech giant rival officially launched Microsoft Teams, a new group messaging platform for its software suite, Office 365. \nHere\u2019s the full-page Times ad, shared below by\u00a0Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. (The letter was also published on Slack\u2019s site.)\nIn the letter, Slack welcomes Microsoft to \u201cthe revolution.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0\u201cvalidating\u201d and \u201ca little scary\u201d to have the competition, the letter acknowledges, while also making it clear that Slack was totally here first. \u00a0\n\u201cAll this is harder than it looks,\u201d the letter states. \u201cWe know that playing nice with others isn\u2019t exactly your MO, but if you can\u2019t offer people an open platform that brings everything together into one place and makes their lives dramatically simpler, it\u2019s just not going to work.\u201d\u00a0\nSlack\u2019s letter has some precedent. In 1981, Apple took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to congratulate IBM for developing a personal computer, Digg noted. \nA promotional\u00a0video introducing Microsoft Teams describes it as \u201ca chat-based workspace that gives people one place to connect and create in inherently human ways.\u201d\u00a0The app will include video chat and threaded comments, according to TechCrunch. \nSlack has 4 million daily active users, according to Fortune, and plenty of competitors \u2015 last month, Facebook announced its chat app, Facebook Workplace, which is already in use at 1,000 companies, Facebook said.\nTo be fair, Microsoft doesn\u2019t have much of a reputation for leading the way when it comes to advancements in tech. But Office 365 is widely used by businesses and has over 70 million active users each month, the company stated in a recent letter to shareholders.\u00a0\nSlack is banking on its attention to user experience to retain customers, Wednesday\u2019s letter explains. \u00a0\u00a0\n\u201cIf you want customers to switch to your product, you\u2019re going to have to match our commitment to their success and take the same amount of delight in their happiness,\u201d it says. \u201cOne final point: Slack is here to stay.\u201d\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "This isn't the high road, but it's definitely eye-catching.", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/slack-microsoft-open-letter_us_581a0e66e4b01f610e396815", "title": "Slack Trolls Microsoft In Full-Page New York Times Ad"}, "209": {"text": "Take a moment and think about your team. Which colleagues are the naysayers?\u00a0You know -- the\u00a0people\u00a0who you think of as \"The Mallet\" for their ability to smash promising ideas like a game of Whac-A-Mole.\nOf course, technology leaders should know how and when to say \"no\" to ideas that do not line up with the company's product plan. But if it feels like you are working in an arcade hall or your mental cheeks are a bit red from getting smacked around, something is terribly wrong.\nWhen \"no\" becomes the knee-jerk response to new ideas, it builds\u00a0a culture of fear that stifles innovation. And that is a real problem at companies large and small.\nLeading-edge companies recognize the danger in avoiding new things out of fear of the unfamiliar.\u00a0They embrace tireless iteration and changing course when better solutions arise. And they avoid that knee-jerk \"no.\"\nConsider\u00a0Toyota, which started as a loom-making company in the 1920s. Today they sell more cars globally than anyone else. Another good example is\u00a0General Electric. After significantly evolving over the last 124 years, GE is now\u00a0reinventing itself\u00a0as a digital powerhouse.\u00a0\nCompanies that act on new ideas lead the way to change -- outpacing the naysayers in the process. The ones left behind slowly sink under the weight of a thousand \"nos.\"\nIf you suspect your company is averse to new ideas, here are a few corrective\u00a0measures:\nShare the vision\nIs strategy shared with everyone -- or is it only for a privileged few? Forward-thinking leaders are transparent. It's not enough to\u00a0make goals visible\u00a0to the whole team. Each person needs to understand their unique value to the company and role in helping the company fulfill those goals. As a result, they're more likely to\u00a0ideate in ways that line up with the strategic vision. \u00a0\nSupport openness\nGood ideas can come from anywhere. Encourage a culture of openness and provide a forum for anyone to contribute new ideas or improve upon existing ones. At Aha! we built an\u00a0ideas portal\u00a0right into our roadmapping software so that anyone -- from customers to employees -- can submit enhancements and new solutions, as well as vote on the ones they'd most like to see implemented.\u00a0\nStay invested\nManagers with a \"no\" mindset are quick to poke holes without acknowledging merit. But hastily rejecting a fledgling idea helps no one -- least of all the\u00a0person trying to contribute\u00a0to the success of the organization. When you show that you are invested, your team will not deflate when an idea is not adopted. Before rejecting an idea,\u00a0ask thoughtful questions to make sure you fully understand what is being suggested and push the creator to fully vet the possibilities.\u00a0\nShow kindness\nYou can be a decisive leader and say \"no\" to a weak idea without crushing someone's spirit. Be honest and specific to help the person understand why their idea may be premature -- which may help lead to a better one. If there were elements of the idea that you did like, say so! If not, explain the value framework that you are using to dismiss it. Encourage them to keep on contributing.\u00a0\nNot every idea will make the cut. But innovative companies promote a culture where ideas stand a chance to thrive.\u00a0\nSmart leaders do not allow fear to rule the day. They are not afraid to imagine the possibilities and ask \"what if.\" They are open-minded about the future\u00a0and support an ongoing stream of ideas that will help the company compete and innovate.\nThese are the companies and the people\u00a0that I love to work with, and you likely do too. We should all put the mallet down before we smack what actually matters.\u00a0\nHow does your company avoid the culture of \"no\"?\n", "tags": ["tech"], "abstract": "Take a moment and think about your team. Which colleagues are the naysayers?\u00a0You know -- the\u00a0people\u00a0who you think of as \"...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-de-haaff/the-culture-behind-leadin_b_12776284.html", "title": "The Culture Behind Leading-Edge Technology Companies"}, "210": {"text": "Virtual reality is no longer associated with just gaming. The real estate industry is adopting this evolving technology to help you buy and sell your home in ways never before possible.\nSay you're moving to another state, or you're interested in buying new construction and your home hasn't been built. You can take a virtual tour of your future home without leaving the comfort of the one you live in now.\nOr maybe it's time to sell, and you want a leg up in a competitive market. Now you can entice potential buyers with a 3-D rendering of your home before they step inside for a showing.\nHow does it work?\n\"Real estate is probably the only asset class that is experiential and trades in emotion,\" says Steven Giles, a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York. \"I think virtual reality technology has greatly enhanced that experience.\" Giles says that in competitive markets, it's especially helpful for sellers to have access to the latest technology.\nSan Francisco-based Matterport is one of several media technology companies offering brokers, real estate agents and service providers 3-D cameras to capture a home's interior. Matterport stitches the images together to provide a walkthrough that uploads onto a cloud service. You can view the property as a 3-D model using your smartphone, tablet, computer or virtual reality headset.\nMatterport is now adding elements of augmented reality -- the superimposing of computer elements onto real settings -- to its walkthroughs, says CEO Bill Brown. \"In addition to being able to walk through the space, people can mark in objects within the space, and they can annotate those objects,\" he says. These notes can highlight features such as granite countertops or energy-efficient appliances.\nVirtual reality tours are a good way to reduce the number of physical home walkthroughs you have to make because they help you narrow down your search, Brown says. He's seen buyers arrive at the first open house ready to make an offer because they've already done a virtual walkthrough. \"It just builds momentum around the transaction much more quickly.\"\nReal estate media company Circle Visions, also based in San Francisco, is working on another use of the technology: creating properties that don't yet exist. People who are building their own home or remodeling their current one can use virtual reality headsets to get a sense of what the property will look like once it's completed.\n\"When you look at a blueprint, you don't really get a sense of how it feels to be in that property, whereas with virtual reality, you're right in it,\" says Bob Yuan, president of Circle Visions. \"You can open doors, you can turn on the lights; you get a feel for the scale or the sense of that room.\"\nHow much does it cost?\nAs a seller, you won't pay a real estate company specifically for your property to be viewed through virtual reality, but the service cost might be included in your agent's fees. If your real estate agent can create a 3-D model of your home, ask her how much she charges for this service. Homebuyers don't have to pay anything to view homes in virtual reality.\n\nWhat are the drawbacks?\nMoving from room to room in a virtual space might make some homebuyers feel a bit wobbly. Because VR is in its early stages, people are still figuring out the right techniques, Brown says. \"I liken it to website design way back when the internet was new,\" he says. \"You would see all kinds of weird things in terms of how people set up their websites. Eventually people kind of settled on a set of norms for navigation and layout.\"\nYou may also have some trouble finding a real estate agent or broker who uses the technology, especially if you don't live in a large metropolitan area. Most brokerage and real estate firms still use 2-D photography and video walkthroughs to market properties. And the companies that do use virtual reality are, for the most part, marketing higher-end properties.\nIf your broker or real estate agent doesn't use virtual reality, ask her whether she'd be willing to look into it, as it could benefit her business as well.\nWhere is the technology headed?\nBrown predicts that virtual reality will someday replace 2-D photography. \"To me, there's no reason to have a gallery of disjointed pictures without having that spatial tie, when just as easily you can create an immersive environment of that space,\" he says.\nGiles thinks virtual reality will become more common in the coming years and that it could replace traditional sales offices or model homes or apartments.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "By Michael Burge\n\nVirtual reality is no longer associated with just gaming. The real estate industry is adopting this evolving technology to hel...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nerdwallet/virtual-reality-how-tech_b_12870624.html", "title": "Virtual Reality: How Tech Is Changing The Way You Buy And Sell A Home"}, "211": {"text": "\nHarley Davidson - a well-known brand to any motorcycle enthusiast - is going through a rough patch. Many changes have taken place in the past few years, and not all of them were for the best.\nFacing stiff competition from European and Japanese manufacturers and the continual rise of Polaris and its motorcycle division, Harley is finding difficulty in reaching its revised target of 264,000-269,000 motorcycle shipments this year.\nAmerica's largest motorcycle manufacturer is losing shares to foreign competitors such as Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Honda. Not only are their shares dropping, but the company has also faced legal issues.\nAround October 2016, Harley Davidson had to pay a $12 million penalty to the federal government due to an accusation of selling around 340,000 motorcycles that polluted the air at a rate higher than the federal Clean Air Act allows. Many Americans prefer to buy a car as opposed to a motorcycle. \nWhat does it signal?\nThe trends are shifting, and people are more conscious regarding health, comfort and their overall status.\nIn Q3 2016, the net profit for Harley Davidson reduced by 19%, or $114.1 million, compared to $140.3 million at a similar time last year, according to the company. \nThe consolidated revenue amounted to $1.27 billion compared to last year's $1.32 billion during the same period. \nIn 2014, US market share rose to 55.5%, and by 2015, there was a significant drop to 51.9%. Since then, the shares have increased by only 1%. \n\"The deliveries of Harley Davison bikes to Europe have significantly declined over the last few years. The Milwaukee motorcycle producer is planning to reorganize its production in Q4. The plan is to reduce the number of staff, which will cost the company an estimated $20-25 million,\" says, David Collins, A1AutoTransport Inc. \nDucati has a high potential of overtaking Harley Davidson if the statistics continue as they're going.\nDucati's sales increased by 10% in 2015 in the United States, while Harley Davidson's sales decreased by 1.7%. Besides Ducati's growth, other companies are also giving tough competition to this heavyweight motorcycle.\nHonda has always been famous for its cars, and few people knew of the fact that the company manufacturers motorcycles as well.\nHowever, in 2015, motorcycles brought so much profit for Honda that it became its third largest business segment. You might wonder if the first one is cars and the third one is motorcycles, then what's the second one? \nThe answer is: \nFinancial services. This sector brings Honda just as much profit as motorcycles do. \nLooking at the total motorcycle market figures from January to March 2016, there were 24,994 sales made. Honda was a leading manufacturer by volume with 5,512 units sold.\nYamaha was in the second spot with 4,995 units. In the last places, with an average of 2400 units sold, were Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Harley Davidson, as stated in the order.\nHowever, this picture changes if you look at road motorcycles only. Even though Honda is still the leading manufacturer, Harley-Davidson took second place in the sales department in 2016.\nJust like cars, motorbikes have individual classes from sports to luxury and comfort. So, it is unfair to compare different categories of motorcycles only by the number of sales made.\nHarley Davidson is a brand known for its unique style and elegance. \nNowadays, younger generations are looking for speed, sporty style, and comfort in the vehicles they drive. They lead active lives and drive fast cars, so it only makes sense that they'd want fast motorcycles too.\nThis is where Harley-Davidson, unfortunately, can't compete. The top leaders of the fastest bikes are Suzuki with a top speed of 248mph, Kawasaki with 220mph and Ducati with 169mph.\nRay of Hope\nMatt Levatich, the CEO of motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, wants U.S. suppliers to be globally competitive by matching the costs of overseas rivals. \nHe also considers young adults as the most important segment. The investments on new engines, favoring a particular model, and other updates won't be decided by the core market of just older white men. \nThe bikes that appeal to younger adults, women, and minorities will be given more priority. Just like with anything in life, the new replaces the old, and if you don't catch up with what's in demand, your brand will get replaced as well.\nHarley Davidson still has many more years of success in the market, but if they continue in the way they are going now, the end will eventually come.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yatin-khulbe/the-startling-decline-of-_b_12796210.html", "title": "The Startling Decline of Harley Davidson"}, "212": {"text": "Operational simplicity has prevailed over customization. McDonald's said it has ended its \"Create Your Taste\" customization platform in the U.S. in favor of the simpler \"Signature Crafted Recipes\" platform that it began testing in San Diego in February. The story was first reported by Business Insider.\nThe \"Create Your Taste\" (CYT) platform uses kiosks where customers choose from a wide variety of options--from proteins to buns and toppings--to build a burger as they want it. With \"Signature Crafted Recipes\" customers choose one of four \"Flavors\" (topping combinations)  plus one of three bun options and a protein (beef, grilled chicken or Crispy buttermilk Chicken). The \"Signature\" platform was initially tested in 2015 under the name \"TasteCrafted.\"\n\n\"Signature Crafted Recipes'\" four \"Flavors\" offered in test are 'Pico Guacamole\" (pico de gallo, guacamole, buttermilk ranch, white Cheddar and leaf lettuce), \"Maple Bacon Dijon\" (maple-flavored bacon, Dijon mustard, caramelized onion, white Cheddar and lettuce), Deluxe (lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo) and \"Buffalo Bacon\" (blue cheese spread, buffalo sauce, applewood-smoked bacon, tomato and lettuce).\n\nIn San Diego and selected Pacific Northwest test markets, the \"Signature Crafted Recipes\" platform also has offered a \"Signature Sriracha\" combination (above) with sriracha-flavored Big Mac sauce, baby spinach, white Cheddar, baby Kale, crispy onions and choice of protein. BurgerBusiness.com reported the test in June. \nCYT originated in 2014 and was first widely implemented and refined in Australia. It arrived in China in 2015; Canada started rolling it out in September 2015 and it has been added across Europe we couldn't make it work, apparently.\nCYT was developed during the administration of former CEO Don Thompson. In a Jan. 23, 2015, Q4 earnings call with analysts very shortly before he was replaced by current CEO Steve Easterbrook, Thompson said McDonald's had \"plans to roll Create Your Taste across the majority of our restaurants by the end of this year.\" It didn't happen. \nThompson also said it \"has the potential to lift sales of core classics, by bringing more customers into our restaurants.\" Apparently that hasn't happened either.\nEasterbrook hosted a \"Turnaround Summit\" for franchisees in April 2015, presenting ideas that could help reverse the brand's sales slide in the U.S. CYT was among those concepts, but not all franchisees were impressed with its complexity or the cost to implement it. In a survey conducted by restaurant Mark Kalinowski, several voiced concerns. \"The ideas presented--such as Create Your Taste--do not fit our business model,\" said one.\nSaid anther operator, \"CYT will cost approximately $125,000 per restaurant. It sounds like, initially, sales with this new concept are very slow taking off.\" \nEasterbrook has touted CYT's success in Australia and elsewhere as examples of how the  \"Experience of the Future\" for McDonald's will evolve: more customization, more technology such as kiosk ordering and expanded table service. All that remains possible with \"Signature Crafted Recipes.\"\n\"Create Your Taste was a test, which we used as the name for customizable burgers in select U.S. cities.  McDonald's is now testing a customizable burger platform under the name 'Signature Crafted Recipes.'\n\"We continue to test a more modern restaurant experience in select markets in the U.S. featuring kiosks that allow customers to pick their bun, protein and ingredients under the Signature Crafted concept and also enjoy table service.  \n\n\"We are excited for our customers to experience the interactive and engaging features at these restaurants as well as the Signature Crafted concept, and we look forward to leveraging their feedback in our journey to bring a new level of convenience and excitement to the McDonald's restaurant experience.\"\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "Operational simplicity has prevailed over customization. McDonald's said it has ended its \"Create Your Taste\" customization platform in the U.S. in favor...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/burgerbusiness/mcdonalds-drops-create-yo_b_12802598.html", "title": "McDonald's Drops 'Create Your Taste'"}, "213": {"text": "A U.K. politician is fed up with needlessly gendered kids\u2019 products.\u00a0\nOn Tuesday, Labour Party councillor and father Joshua Peck tweeted a photo of a space-themed lunch box from retailer John Lewis. The item\u2019s tag indicated that it was a \u201cBoys Space Print Lunchbox.\u201d\n\u201dHey @johnlewisretail. What is it about this lunchbox which makes it unsuitable for my daughter? Too sciencey?\u201d he tweeted.\u00a0\nThe comment prompted a long Twitter discussion, in which parents shared photos of their science-loving daughters and called for retailers to just #LetToysBeToys.\u00a0Peck, who has a 4-year-old daughter, also shared a photo of a John Lewis \u201cBoys Pirate Ship\u201d product listing, which he tweeted in 2013 with a similar message.\u00a0\n\u201cAs the father of a young daughter, I\u2019m constantly shocked at the messages we send to children from the earliest age about who they should be and how they should behave according to their gender,\u201d Peck told The Huffington Post.\n\u201cChildren learn everything they know from watching what adults do and say, and when we call girls bossy, say boys shouldn\u2019t cry, or talk about boys\u2019 jobs and girls\u2019 jobs, we limit their potential hugely,\u201d he added.\nSpeaking from his personal perspective as a parent, Peck noted,\u00a0\u201cI want my daughter to feel able to do what she wants to do \u2015 be a mother, a fire fighter or a scientist \u2015 based on her talents and ambitions, not what society thinks is appropriate for her to do. It\u2019s really not that radical, and it\u2019s sad that it still needs saying.\u201d\nWhile Peck acknowledged that major retailers like John Lewis have made great progress on this issue in recent years, he said it\u2019s still important for people to call out products that promote harmful gender stereotypes\u00a0when they see them.\u00a0\u00a0\nJohn Lewis representatives have taken note of Peck\u2019s tweet and maintain that it was simply a matter of erroneous labeling.\u00a0A spokesperson for the company told HuffPost UK:\nWhether or not the label was an error, Peck is still pleased that the tweet provoked an important discussion. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to use words without thinking about what message they send to our kids, so its great to break that down, even if just by the tiniest bit,\u201d he told HuffPost. \u201cI also hope retailers will realize there are lots of people out there who really care about this stuff and keep working to improve.\u201d\n#LetToysBeToys\n", "tags": ["science"], "abstract": "\"What is it about this lunch box which makes it unsuitable for my daughter?\"", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dad-calls-out-needlessly-gendered-label-on-space-themed-lunch-box_us_581b569ae4b0c43e6c1e7ce9", "title": "Dad Calls Out Needlessly Gendered Label On Space-Themed Lunch Box"}, "214": {"text": "By Al Norman\nIt took a jury one minute to find 57-year-old Vicki Carll not guilty of shoplifting from Wal-Mart. The real crime was what Wal-Mart put her through by seeking prosecution when they knew she was innocent.\nAccording to court documents filed in Florida, Vicki Carll, a disabled mother, has retaliated for how Wal-Mart treated her by filing a lawsuit of her own against the retailer over the alleged shoplifting incident at a  Wal-Mart in Tampa two  years ago.  \nOn January 2, 2014, Carll went to Wal-Mart to buy dog food. After browsing the aisles, Carll went to the pet food aisle, put a large bag of dog food in her cart, and picked up a box of  flea medication to read the instructions. She noticed that this particular  box of flea medication had already been opened.  It appeared that the contents of the box were still inside and were undisturbed.\nCarll began walking on for a while with the flea medication in her hand, reading the instructions. She realized that this medication was for dogs much larger than hers, so she returned the box to a nearby shelf. Carll proceeded to the check-out stand to pay for her dog food. She was unaware that a Wal-Mart \"floor- walker\" had been following her from a distance. According to the lawsuit, the \"floor walker's job... is to look out for retail theft.\"  \nCarll's complaint says the Wal-Mart worker \"had an ulterior plan and motive for which Ms. Carll seemed to be the perfect victim.\" The complaint alleges that the Wal-Mart loss prevention worker had observed Carll \"pick up the box of flea and tick medication and watched from hiding as she returned it to the shelf.\"\nThe floor-walker \"secretly followed behind her and surreptitiously grabbed the box of flea and tick medication from the shelf where Ms. Carll had returned it.\" He then went to the main entrance/exit area of the store and positioned himself on a bench just inside the main doors and waited for Ms. Carll to approach, keeping the box of pet medication concealed from view.\nWhile Carll was standing in the check-out line, the floor-walker \"removed the individual doses from the medication box and laid them on the ground under the bench where he sat in wait for Ms. Carll.\" \"As would soon become clear,\" the worker's \"seemingly inexplicable behavior was actually part of an elaborate plan concocted...to frame an innocent shopper and allow him to make an arrest, or 'stop,' on his very first day on the job, thereby ingratiating himself  with his Wal-Mart employer.\" \n\nAs she passed by the bench, the floor-walker, \"leapt off his bench as soon as she passed and fell in directly behind her.\" He then \"physically accosted\" Carll on the sidewalk, and \"with his full force and strength, physically took hold of Ms. Carll and began dragging her by force back inside the store to a spot next to the bench.\"\nThe floor-walker was then joined by a second Wal-Mart employee who also \"physically lay hands\" on Vicki Carll, and dragged her back inside the store to the bench, and \"forcefully threw Ms. Carll to the ground.\" \"The force of being thrown to the ground caused Ms. Carll intense pain, as she had a pre-existing back injury from an automobile accident. The take-down...severely aggravated Ms. Carll's condition and caused her additional injuries.\"  \nThe floor-walker then \"reached under the bench and pretended to find the doses of pet medication scattered there beneath the bench. \"Feigning surprise,\" the floor-walker \"loudly - and falsely - proclaimed that Ms. Carll had attempted to steal the medicine by hiding it in her sleeve, and that she must have dropped it when she was forced to the ground.\" The Wal-Mart worker  \"falsely claimed that he had witnessed Ms. Carll take and conceal the pet medication while inside the store. He said that he had then 'sprung a trap' for her and had caught her in the act of trying to steal the pet medicine doses.\"\n \"Apparently unbeknownst\" to the floor-walker, however, \"Wal-Mart maintained security surveillance cameras in the area of the store entrance which recorded the events of that day.\"  The video footage shows the floor-walker himself removing the pet medication doses from its box as he sat on the bench waiting for Carll to check out. According to the lawsuit, the video shows the floor-walker placing the medication doses on the ground underneath the bench. \nWithin an hour after the \"forced takedown and false arrest scheme,\" Wal-Mart had available to it the video surveillance footage that \"conclusively demonstrated Ms. Carll's innocence and the attempted frame-up by its employee.\" The complaint charges that Wal-Mart knew \"without question\" that Carll was innocent, that their own employee \"had falsely accused her and planted false evidence to support the false accusations.\" \nYet Wal-Mart \"took the almost incomprehensible step of initiating criminal charges and  proceedings against Ms. Carll.\" The lawsuit says that Wal-Mart \"intentionally and recklessly forced Ms. Carll to undergo the fear and humiliation of having to face criminal charges and forced her to live for a substantial time with the fear of being wrongfully convicted of a charge on which she was innocent.\" Carll \"had to endure the humiliation of being processed into the criminal justice system all the way through a jury trial,\" \nBut soon the humiliation flipped. According to Channel 10 News/Tampa, a Hillsborough County jury \"found Carll not guilty in less than a minute.\" Carll's attorney told Channel 10, \"I've never seen a case I can think about where the bad guy -- in this case the Wal-Mart employee -- was actually caught on video planting the evidence.\"\nThe complaint notes that Wal-Mart \"allowed its employees to take the witness stand under oath and falsely accuse Ms. Carll of an act of theft which Wal-Mart knew she had not committed.\" The litigation says Wal-Mart \"apparently decided to carry the charade of criminal proceedings to their ultimate conclusion by jury trial just to try to protect itself from civil liability by not admitting the outrageous wrongdoing of its own employees.\"\nCarll's attorney says \"she has been placed on anti-anxiety medications which she never before had to take and suffers from a fear of being in public and in social situations...Ms. Carll no longer shops at public retail stores unless absolutely necessary and makes her purchases on line whenever possible.\" \nOn Halloween, Carll's attorney filed a petition in the Thirteenth Circuit for Hillsborough County, Florida, seeking a jury trial and damages against defendants Wal-Mart and its two employees. One of the jurors that sat on the panel during Wal-Mart's original prosecution  against Carll told Channel 10 News he \"couldn't believe the state wasted time and money with this case.\"\nAfter the jury acquitted Carll, Wal-Mart issued a statement which began: \"This was an unfortunate event in a number of ways.\" But the retailer expressed no remorse and accepted no blame for what happened to Vicki Carll.\nThis elaborate entrapment and prosecution was over a bottle of flea medication worth $29, proving once again that Wal-Mart knows the price of everything -- but  the value of nothing.\nAl Norman is the founder of Sprawl-Busters. His most recent book is Occupy Wal-Mart.\n", "tags": ["business"], "abstract": "By Al Norman\n\nIt took a jury one minute to find 57-year-old Vicki Carll not guilty of shoplifting from Wal-Mart. The real crime was what Wal-Mart put her...", "site": "huffington", "url": "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-norman/wal-marts-astounding-shop_b_12778376.html", "title": "Wal-Mart's Astounding Shoplifting Trap"}}}