Thousands of elderly people are missing out on free personal care because of delays to assessments and care arrangements, a charity has claimed.

Article: The charity said there was "not a clear need" to have a separate facility so close to its Eyemouth station.
It said it was confident the area could be safely covered by an extra boat provided at Eyemouth.
Campaigners opposing the closure are now looking at setting up an independently-run station.
The RNLI said the St Abbs lifeboat only launched about nine times a year, with a third of those being joint services with Eyemouth.
It said the new boat could reach St Abbs in "five to 10 minutes, depending on conditions".
Operations director George Rawlinson said: "Closing a lifeboat station is never an easy thing to do and this decision was made only after extensive research that considered the location of existing search and rescue assets and changing patterns of sea use.
"The review concluded that the area should be covered from one lifeboat station, rather than two stations so close together.
"St Abbs and Eyemouth are only two miles apart - and the coastline can be covered by placing an inshore lifeboat alongside the all-weather lifeboat already stationed at Eyemouth."
Mr Rawlinson said the charity was "very aware" of the impact of such change on local communities and did not take such decisions lightly.
However, he said it had to be mindful of its responsibility to make best possible use of donations.
"I know that this is a sad day for the community of St Abbs and the lifeboat station - the lifeboat station has served the RNLI proudly for over 100 years," he said.
"I'd like to take the opportunity to thank them for their support, service and commitment to saving lives at sea."
Opponents said the decision to close was "an error of judgement, based on flawed data".
They have argued lives will be put at risk due to the extra time needed to get from Eyemouth to St Abbs.
They also delivered a 13,000-signature petition against the move to the RNLI.
Earlier this week, campaigners announced plans to look at delivering an "entirely independent" lifeboat station in the village.
The RNLI said it would be happy to work...

Summary: The RNLI has closed its lifeboat station in St Abbs, bringing to an end a 104-year association with the Scottish Borders village.
###
Article: The industry saw 29,000 tonnes of fresh salmon worth £190m sold in the second period of this year alone.
That was a near 10-tonne increase on the 19,150 tonnes (£109m) exported in the corresponding period of 2016.
The United States remains the largest market, while China (£44m) is the most significant Asian buyer.
The HMRC figures are a welcome boost to the industry following revelations that it is facing major problems from sea lice.
It is believed Scottish producers are having to spend at least £30m a year on measures to respond to the issue.
However, consumer demand for the fish has continued to rise - pushing prices to record levels.
Scott Landsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO), hailed the latest export figures.
And he pointed to the development of the Far East marketplace as being a major factor.
Mr Landsburgh said: "The fact that annual Chinese exports are now worth around £90m from a standing start six or seven years ago indicates that this has been worth the effort.
"East Asian markets are becoming increasingly significant, with Taiwan and Vietnam in the top 10 importers.
"We continue to see the huge global opportunity for high-quality Scottish food and for salmon, in particular.
"Quality and provenance are highly prized in all markets and Scottish salmon fits the bill. Its traceability from source to plate is another respected attribute in the Far East."
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said the figures were good news for Scotland's aquaculture industry, "clearly demonstrating that demand is growing around the world for quality salmon".
He added: "It is proof that our industry is thriving and testament to the hard work going on between government, stakeholders and industry to support sustainable growth and access to new markets.
"Particularly pleasing is the success of our work to unlock more markets in the Far East, which have been key industry target areas.
"However, this success simply underlines the importance of ensuring Scotland's food and drink...

Summary: Scottish salmon exports reached a record value of £346m in the first half of 2017 - up 70% on the same period last year, government figures reveal.
###
Article: Badreddine's death near Damascus airport was announced on Friday and initially blamed on Israel, Hezbollah's chief enemy.
Badreddine was believed to have run all Hezbollah's military operations in Syria since 2011.
Thousands of Hezbollah troops are supporting President Bashar al-Assad.
This has pitted it against several groups of anti-Assad rebels - from so-called Islamic State (IS) to the al-Nusra Front.
Without naming any group, the Hezbollah statement said: "Investigations have showed that the explosion, which targeted one of our bases near Damascus International Airport, and which led to the martyrdom of commander Mustafa Badreddine, was the result of artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri groups in the area."
Takfiri is used to describe militants who believe Muslim society has reverted to a state of non-belief.
However, the BBC's Arab Affairs Editor Sebastian Usher says questions still remain over Badreddine's death.
A monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said there had been no recorded shelling or firing in the area for more than a week, although Hezbollah has not said when Badreddine died.
Many political assassinations involving Lebanese and Syrian political figures have remained unsolved, our correspondent says.
Obituary: Mustafa Badreddine
Profile: Lebanon's Hezbollah
Who stands accused of Hariri killing?
The Lebanese Shia Islamist movement has played a major role in helping Iran, its main military and financial backer, to prop up the government of President Assad since the uprising erupted in 2011.
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are assisting government forces on battlefields across Syria, particularly those near the Lebanese border, and hundreds are believed to have been killed.
The Hezbollah statement said Badreddine's death "will increase our determination... to continue the fight against these criminal gangs and defeat them".
Born in 1961, Badreddine is believed to have been a senior figure in Hezbollah's military wing. He was a cousin and brother-in-law of Imad...

Summary: Hezbollah's top military commander in Syria, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, was killed in artillery fire by jihadists, the Lebanese group says.
###
Article: The 24-hour weekend service on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines was due to start on 12 September.
Tube workers staged two 24-hour strikes in July and August in a dispute with London Underground (LU) over rotas and working conditions on the new service.
LU said it had deferred the introduction to "allow more time" for talks with the unions.
On Monday a further two 24-hour Tube strikes planned for this week were called off after discussions between LU managers and Unite union, the train drivers' union Aslef, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and the  Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT).
LU managing director Nick Brown said: "Further to the progress made in recent days with the trade unions and the suspension of strike action, we believe we are not far from an agreement that protects the work-life balance of our employees and is affordable, sustainable and fair.
"As such, we have decided to defer the introduction of Night Tube to allow more time for those talks to conclude.
"Our objective is to reach an agreement that ends this dispute and delivers the Night Tube for Londoners this autumn."
London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "As I've previously made clear, I'm not interested in a staring match over 12 September and I want to see night Tube introduced this autumn.
"Agreement on this is in everyone's interests - Londoners, businesses, visitors to our city and the hard-working London Underground staff who are central to making this happen."
He added further strike action "isn't going to benefit anyone".
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, welcomed the deferral of the launch.
He said: "It has to be done in a way that works for London Underground, for passengers, and also for the drivers who deliver this service every day.
"Had LU not acted in bad faith, by trying to introduce the Night Tube in London without consultation, and without negotiation, we wouldn't be where we are today and they would have been in a position to deliver."
However, the RMT...

Summary: The launch date of London's Night Tube is to be delayed.
###
Article: Welcome to Fast4 Tennis, an Australian innovation that made its world debut in January in Sydney and Melbourne, ahead of the Australian Open tennis grand slam tournament.
Three years in the making, Fast4 is an abridged version of the game created by Tennis Australia - the governing body of tennis in Australia - to increase participation and interest.
Having watched enviously as the shortened Twenty20 game brought kids and the wow factor back to cricket, Tennis Australia has launched a faster, shorter format that can be played in one hour.
To make it easier for the crowd and TV audience to catch-on, the four new rules were plastered on billboards positioned around the newly renovated Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open venue in Melbourne.
Nadal beat all Fast4 challengers at the arena, including Australian veteran Mark Philippoussis.
The new rules are: no lets, no advantage points, first to four games wins the set, and a tiebreaker at 3-3 - the first to five points. The rules were easily mastered by Nadal and also by Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt who played each other in the Fast4 world premiere in Sydney.
Tennis Australia's Director of Participation, Craig Morris, says it was easy to convince the big name players to pioneer Fast4.
"The top players take their role as guardians of the sport very seriously," he says. "They want to play a role in the evolution of the game... The opportunity for Roger and Lleyton and Rafa was something they were really open to and embraced.
"They know we don't want to replace five-set tennis at grand slam level. They also know they have a role to play to foster the future development and growth and that society wants this."
About three years ago, Tennis Australia began to consider a shortened version of the game in response to falling participation numbers.
The strategy was to create a format that could be played in an hour, so tennis could better compete with other sports such as football, soccer, basketball and netball that have defined start and finish times.
"Our...

Summary: Amid roaming spotlights, pumping music and a cloud of dry ice, Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal emerged in hot pink to entertain a hyped audience in Melbourne.
###
Article: Age Scotland says official figures suggest that each year about 8,640 people in Scotland wait longer than six weeks for a council care assessment.
The average "worst case" is between two weeks and five months, with the longest delay of 18 months recorded in 2014/15.
Cosla, the umbrella body for local councils, declined to comment.
Age Scotland's research, compiled using freedom of information requests, found significant variations across councils in the time taken to carry out assessments.
Under national guidelines, people should wait no longer than six weeks for care services to be provided after an assessment has taken place.
Age Scotland found that about 10% of people were not provided with services within the six-week limit over the past three years.
The charity said its research suggested that about 3,000 elderly people each year wait longer than six weeks for services to be put in place.
Most councils do not record the reasons why delays occur, but many cited instances where delays were caused by the person being admitted to hospital or waiting for a place in their chosen care home.
Staff shortages, financial constraints and delays in adapting homes were also cited.
Age Scotland received freedom of information responses from 25 out of 32 councils.
Chief executive Keith Robson said: "These are deeply concerning figures showing thousands of older people facing delays in the care provision they need being put in place.
"It also means payments for free personal care they are entitled to are not being received.
"This confirms the experiences of a number of older people and their families who have been in touch with Age Scotland's helpline to tell us their experiences of delays in the system.
"As we look to local authority elections next month, Age Scotland has contacted council candidates across Scotland to ask them to ensure providing high-quality health and social care services is made an urgent priority by new administrations."

Summary:


Fees for Church of England weddings are to increase by 40% and the cost of a funeral service by more than 50%.

Article: Police and crime commissioner Tony Hogg's decision came after the launch of consultation on Monday.
A spokesman said reaction on social media showed "probably two thirds" of people were against a rise.
"We got a very good idea of what people were thinking, so in a way social media has done the job for us."
Mr Hogg had been planning to hold a referendum next May on adding about Â£25 a year to the bill of the average band D property in Devon and Cornwall.
He said the rise in the police share of council tax could save 350 officers.
It came amid a projected budget cut of Â£39m next year, with the loss of up to 760 police officers and all 360 community support officers.
Reaction to a council tax rise on Facebook pages, including that of BBC Spotlight, included comments such as: "Why should we be asked to pay more for our policing? We are paying a fortune in council tax as it is this will just end up in the pockets of those at the top."
Other reactions included: "Council Tax is already too high" and "I'm against this proposal because it will let the Government off the hook".
In May, Bedfordshire council tax payers rejected a planned rise in council tax for the police.
Mr Hogg's decision came after the government admitted it had made a "statistical error" in a new formula which assesses population size and other data to calculate funding.
He is now waiting for an announcement from Chancellor George Osborne, expected later this month, on what funding the force will get.

Summary: Plans for a referendum on raising council tax for Devon and Cornwall Police have been dropped after a backlash on social media.
###
Article: But the #hairgate scandal that unravelled at the weekend in fact centres around a famous novelist, the Canadian prime minister and his well-groomed Liberal opponent.
It's one of several episodes in an eventful election campaign - with voting still two months away.
Writer Margaret Atwood thrust the upcoming Canadian parliamentary elections into the international media spotlight after a satirical article she wrote about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hair (yes, hair) appeared on the National Post website, then disappeared after several hours.
It reappeared again with several lines missing, prompting the novelist to ask, "Um, did I just get censored?"
The novelist tweeted about the mysterious disappearance of her article hours after it was first published on Friday, and soon #hairgate started to trend on Twitter.
People mocked the amount of coverage it was getting, likening it to the media attention Donald Trump has been awarded in recent weeks.
...even Margaret Atwood found time to joke about it...
A senior National Post vice-president later told The Star the article was taken down because fact-checking had not been completed and questions remained over whether it was "aligned with the values of the National Post and its readers".
How did the flowing locks of politicians become an election issue anyway?
It began in May - three months before the polls were even announced - when the Conservatives released a new video ad dubbed "The Interview" mocking the coiffure of Justin Trudeau, leader of Canada's Liberal Party.
Four people sit in a conference room mulling over CVs of candidates for a job interview (presumably the post of prime minister), "lets talk about Justin," one man says. "I see he's enclosed his picture," a woman on the panel responds.
They go on to question Mr Trudeau's credentials and attack his policies for being too lightweight, finally concluding he's "just not ready". The video ends with one panellist quipping, "nice hair though".
Mr Trudeau's hairstyles have long been a subject of interest in...

Summary: Mention the words hair, election and scandal to anyone and they might (wrongly) assume you were talking about business mogul Donald Trump and his US presidential bid.
###
Article: The man, who has not been named by the hospital, had refused to leave the James Paget University Hospital in Norfolk.
The hospital said he had been "fit for discharge" and had been offered appropriate accommodation.
It said the decision to go to court was a last resort and "not taken lightly".
The man, from Suffolk, had been at the hospital in Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth, since August 2014.
A patient who had been in the same ward said it had been an "open secret" at the hospital that he had been there for more than two years.
The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she was "disgusted".
"It's ridiculous, it's using a hospital as a hotel," she said.
"This person was there for two years being fed, watered, looked after, kept clean... and local people have been barred from that bed because he was there."
The hospital applied to the court for a possession order to claim back the bed occupied by the man.
It was granted on 1 December and the man was evicted on 10 January.
The Department for Health says the average daily cost of a hospital bed is about £400, meaning the man's stay at James Paget would have cost about £340,000 for the two years.
For more on this story visit BBC Local Live: Norfolk
Anna Hills, the hospital's director of governance, said: "The gentleman repeatedly refused all offers of appropriate accommodation organised by our local authority and social care partners, despite being fit for discharge.
"As a last resort, the trust had to apply to the court to allow us to remove the gentleman from the hospital.
"The decision to go to court (a court of possession) was not taken lightly but our priority has to be considering the needs of all our patients."
The hospital said the man had been placed in accommodation in the community.
This is a highly unusual case and to protect the identity of the patient few details have been released so it is difficult to unpick exactly what has happened here.
However, patients choosing to stay in hospital are perhaps more common than you think.
There are more...

Summary: A hospital applied for a court order to remove a patient who had occupied a bed "unnecessarily" for more than two years.
###
Article: Anthony Marsh, chief executive of the West Midlands Ambulance Service will take over the helm of the troubled service from Andrew Morgan.
It is understood Dr Marsh will retain his job in the West Midlands.
The union Unison said it "cautiously welcomed" Dr Marsh's appointment and hoped he would create "stability".
In a statement the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, would not confirm Dr Marsh's appointment, saying only that the trust had "been asked to pause the recruitment programme for a permanent chief executive so that further options can be explored and developed".
It said Andrew Morgan would continue as interim chief executive.
The West Midlands service said it was "not aware of any announcement by the East of England Ambulance Service".
But Ray Salmon, regional organiser of Unison in the West Midlands, said Dr Marsh had announced to the union in a meeting that he was taking on the East of England job but keeping his job in the West Midlands.
He said Dr Marsh had "delivered a lot of change" in the West Midlands, and the service was "completely different" to 2006 when he took over as chief executive.
Gary Aplin, Unison's branch secretary for the East of England service, said: "We would welcome a substantive chief executive officer without a shadow of a doubt, hopefully to take the trust forward and out of the mess it's currently in."
But he expressed concern that the new chief executive would be keeping his job in the West Midlands.
"We are in quite a situation where we need some strong leadership permanently... our concern is that he's doing two jobs and that's a little bit worrying," he said.
Dr Marsh was commissioned to write a report in to the East of England Ambulance Service Trust because of concerns over the trust's performance.
His highly-critical report in June said there was a lack of accountability throughout the organisation and made 24 specific recommendations, including cutting back on management to pay for more emergency crews.
Prior to becoming chief executive in the West Midlands,...

Summary: The new chief executive of the East of England Ambulance Service is to be the man who gave a damning report into its leadership, the BBC understands.
###
Article: The order came after activists challenged the government decision on grounds of cruelty to animals.
Tuesday's court order means there will be no Jallikattu festival this year.
The Jallikattu festival was scheduled to begin on 15 January across the state. No events were held last year.
At the annual festival held in January, thousands of men chase the bulls to grab prizes tied to their horns.
Read more: The state that loves bullfighting but isn't Spain
The Supreme Court banned the festival in 2014 after objections from animal rights activists.
In its order at the time, the Supreme Court had said that the use of bulls in the sport "severely harmed" the animals and was an offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Unlike in Spain, however, the bulls are not killed in the contests in Tamil Nadu.
However, last Friday the government issued an order lifting the ban.
Many believe local political parties had lobbied to have the ban lifted with an eye on this year's state elections.
Also, the Thevar community of Tamil Nadu is politically and economically influential in at least five districts where the sport is popular and no political party wants to antagonise them.
Correspondents say Tuesday's order is a setback for the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Delhi, which had lifted the top court's ban last week using an executive order.
"With this single act of thumbing its nose at the Supreme Court, the BJP - like the Congress before - has sent the unfortunate signal once again that court orders are binding only upon ordinary citizens, and governments are above the law; lifting the ban on Jallikattu by circumventing the order of the apex court has put the executive on a collision course with the judiciary," a commentator wrote in The Wire website last week.
Tuesday's order shows that India's top court has again reasserted the judiciary's position, many observers believe.
On Monday, the Animal Welfare Board of India, animal rights groups and activists had filed six petitions in the court, challenging the...

Summary: The Indian Supreme Court has put on hold a recent government order lifting a ban on Jallikattu, a form of bullfighting which has been popular for centuries in the state of Tamil Nadu.
###
Article: Church members have voted to raise the cost of a wedding from £296 to £415 and for a funeral service from £102 to £160 from January next year.
The fees include the costs of lighting and administration for the first time.
The moves come despite a warning from some members of the Church's governing body, the General Synod, that the rises could have an impact on poorer couples.
The Rev Canon Simon Killwick, a vicar in Moss Side, Manchester, said: "Such a fee increase seems to me hard to justify in times of financial austerity and even harder to justify in poor inner-city parishes.
"The Church of England ought not to be seen to be making a big increase at this time and ought not to be making it difficult for the poor to access these services at a time when a simple ceremony can be had at a register office for around £100."
Canon Killwick said the right to waive fees in cases of hardship put clergy in the "invidious position" of means testing parishioners.
"Waiving can cause real ill feeling," he said. "The poor don't want to be patronised by fees being waived, they want their church to be affordable to them.
"It would be a crying shame if poor people end up being married in register offices because the Church of England has priced them out of their parish church."
But the Rt Rev John Packer, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, said the changes reflected the "reality" of the costs, and  reduced confusion over different fees being charged by different parishes.
He told the General Synod that the fees raised about £35m a year for the Church, including £15m towards the pay of clergy.
"The reality of what it costs matters, and it seems to me that those who are being married within our churches do understand that," he said.
The increases were approved after a 4% rise in the number of Church of England weddings in 2010.
Last year the General Synod rejected plans to increase the price of both weddings and funerals by 50%.

Summary:

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Chloe Grace Moretz is not a fan of body shaming.

Article: The claim: Leaving the EU would make the UK economy grow more than staying in.
Reality Check verdict: This is not a mainstream view - but they are reputable economists. It is an optimistic vision of how the UK economy might fare outside the EU, although some of its assumptions are questionable.
They predict that, in 2020, the UK economy would grow 3.4% if the UK left the EU, while it would grow only 2.5% if the UK remained.
Their conclusions are outside the current economic mainstream on Europe, with most models assuming that free trade, free movement and open economies are automatically a good thing.
While we have previously warned about the uncertainties involved in economic modelling, that is why it is no surprise organisations such as the IMF, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Treasury and the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) have all predicted considerable losses to the economy following a Brexit.
This means the Economists for Brexit have had to demonstrate in their paper that the EU is restricting UK trade.
The basis of their assumptions is that after leaving the EU, the UK would trade under World Trade Organisation rules and immediately drop all tariffs on imports from everywhere in the world to reduce the prices of products for people in Britain.
One problem with this is that they also predict a fall in the value of the pound, which would be good news for exporters, but bad news for UK consumers buying imported goods.
The weaker pound might go some way to making up for the likelihood that EU countries would impose tariffs on UK exports, which is included in the model.
How does this compare with other models?
The analysis from the CEP, an influential group based at the London School of Economics, considered what would happen if the UK unilaterally removed all tariffs.
It still predicted a negative effect on the economy from leaving the EU, but said going tariff-free improved the outcome by 0.3 percentage points.
Another problem with the Economists for Brexit...

Summary: A group of eight well known economists have released a report under the banner of Economists for Brexit, explaining how they think leaving the EU would be good for the UK economy.
###
Article: The 42-year-old Grand Prix at Angouleme has long faced criticism for its failure to recognise women cartoonists.
This year, a pressure group is calling for a boycott, saying "it is no longer tolerable" that "renowned female creators" are left off the list of 30.
At least three male nominees have publicly backed the protest.
They have asked for their names to be removed from the list.
The Grand Prix is a highly prestigious prize, recognising the lifetime achievement of a cartoonist. It is handed out each year at the Angouleme International Comics Festival.
In its long history, only one woman, Florence Cestac, has ever won the prize.
A group called BD Egalite, or Women in Comics Collective Against Sexism, said the prize was significant, because as well as being honorary it could also boost an artist's career and book sales.
"What is the message sent to women cartoonists and those in the process of becoming such?" it asked on its website. "We are discouraged from having ambition, from continuing our efforts. How could we take it otherwise?
"It all comes back to the disastrous glass ceiling. We're tolerated, but never allowed top billing. Will we require women in comics to perpetually play second fiddle?"
A number of cartoonists on the long list have since asked for their names to be removed.
American Daniel Clowes called it a now "totally meaningless 'honor'."
"What a ridiculous, embarrassing debacle," he added.
Riad Sattouf on Facebook listed a number of female cartoonists he would "prefer to cede my place to", including Rumiko Takahashi, Julie Doucet, Anouk Ricard, Marjane Satrapi and Catherine Meurisse.
The Festival's Franck Bondoux was quoted in French media as saying that Franco-Belgian graphic novels, known as "bande desinee", had traditionally been dominated by men.
"The festival cannot distort this reality, although I concede that the list might contain one or two female names," he said.
But he rejected accusations that the festival ignored the contribution of women artists, giving examples of steps it...

Summary: A prestigious award for graphic novelists in France is facing calls for a boycott after its long list of nominees failed to include any women.
###
Article: A temporary closure notice for the production areas of South Eastern Burry Inlet cockle bed has been issued.
Swansea council's decision follows advice from the Food Standards Agency Wales and the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aqua Science.
The council said beaches remained open and waters were safe to bathe in.
Council food and safety officer Ann Rodway said: "We would all like to see the bed re-open as soon as possible. In the meantime, our priority must be to protect public health.
"There is no health risk to beach users, but they must not collect or eat cockles."

Summary: A Swansea cockle bed has been closed due to concerns about "higher than normal" levels of E. coli found in shellfish samples.
###
Article: Scottish Water said it spent about £6m a year unblocking pipes, with disposable wipes and cotton buds some of the biggest culprits.
Industry body Water UK has urged trading standards authorities to end the use of labels that suggest wipes can be flushed down toilets.
It wants manufacturers to add prominent "do not flush" warnings to products.
Scottish Water has joined nearly 250 companies in 18 countries in signing a joint statement on the flushability of moistened wipes, calling for consumers to be given clear and unambiguous information about appropriate disposal methods.
Water UK has written a letter to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) urging it to investigate the issue of labelling.
Peter Farrer, Scottish Water's chief operating officer, said: "The reality is that wet wipes can cause flooding misery for householders and real damage to Scotland's environment.
"On average, Scottish Water responds to 80 blockages each day which are a direct result of inappropriate items like wet wipes being flushed down toilets.
"Together with items such as cotton buds, nappies and oil or grease from cooking products, these combine to create a blockage of material that doesn't break down easily.
"This can lead to flooding of homes, gardens and businesses, as well as pollution of beaches or rivers. And it's also costly for a business which aims to keep customer charges as low as possible - we spend around £6m a year tackling this problem."
EDANA, an industry group that represents the wet wipe manufacturers, said it accepted that 90% of such wipes should be disposed of in bins but argued that "do no flush" advice would penalise some products that were flushable.
In a statement it said: "Denying people a flushable product altogether will only make the problem worse, as flushable products will be replaced with those not designed to be flushed.
"Rather, EDANA believes that education is essential to helping the consumer know how and where to best dispose of their wipes
"Flushable wipes have to pass a rigorous set...

Summary: Water firms have called for an end to moistened wipes being labelled as flushable.
###
Article: The seven-member Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption is mostly made up of academics.
Mr Buhari was elected in May, largely on a promise to tackle corruption.
He has said he believes government officials have stolen about $150bn (Â£96bn) from the public purse over the past decade.
"The committee's brief is to advise the present administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria's criminal justice system," said presidential spokesman Femi Adesina.
However, Mr Adesina was unable to say when the committee would report back to the president with its recommendations.
The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says corruption is a massive drain on Nigeria's public finances and President Buhari's anti-corruption stance was a key factor in his election victory.
The difficult part will be ending a crooked culture deeply engrained in many government departments, our correspondent adds.
In a meeting with US President Barack Obama last month, President Buhari appealed for help in finding and returning government money he said had been stolen and was being held in foreign bank accounts.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Buhari criticised the way large loans had been diverted from the government projects for which they were intended.

Summary: Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a committee to advise him on how best to tackle corruption and reform the legal system.
###
Article: Earlier this summer, the actress said she was "appalled and angry" about a billboard advert for her movie Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs, which suggested being overweight made you less beautiful.
And now, she's spoken for the first time about a time she was fat-shamed on set by one of her male co-stars.
She told Variety: "This guy that was my love interest was like, 'I'd never date you in real life,' and I was like, 'what?'. And he was like, 'yeah, you're too big for me' - as in my size.
"It was one of the only actors that ever made me cry on set."
Chloe didn't reveal who it was, but said the actor was in his mid 20s - while she was 15 at the time.
"I went bawling to my brother and he was like, 'what happened?'. And I was like, 'he told me I was too big'. My brother was so angry.
"I had to pick it up and go back on set and pretend he was a love interest, and it was really hard. It just makes you realise that there are some really bad people out there and for some reason, he felt the need to say that to me.
"You have to kind of forgive and not forget really, but it was just like wow. It was jarring. I look back on it and I was 15, which is really, really dark."
Chloe Grace Moretz isn't the first star to highlight the issue of body shaming.
From Kate Winslet and Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) to Meghan Trainor and Amy Schumer - more and more stars are refusing to feel guilty about their appearance.
"I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too," Lady Gaga said earlier this year.
Lena Dunham, meanwhile, has said: "I've accepted that my body is an ever changing organism, not a fixed entity - what goes up must come down and vice versa."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Summary:


Edinburgh Zoo has said it believes its panda Tian Tian is pregnant and may give birth at the end of the month.

Article: Republicans made historic gains in the mid-term elections and now control both legislative chambers.
Incoming Senate leader Mitch McConnell said he would make the ineffective Senate function and pass bills.
Mr Obama said he was "eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible".
The election campaign was characterised by widespread frustration expressed by voters about the inability of Congress to work together.
To the Americans who voted for change, the president said: "I hear you."
He told a White House news conference that both parties must address those concerns, but he admitted that as president he had a "unique responsibility to try to make this town work".
On Friday, he will host a meeting at the White House with Democratic and Republican leaders.
"We can surely find ways to work together," Mr Obama said. "It's time for us to take care of business."
But he warned he would act on his own to reduce deportations and improve border security - action he had delayed until after the election, to the fury of some Latino voters.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr McConnell pledged to make the Senate more productive.
"The Senate in the last few years basically doesn't do anything," he said. "We're going to go back to work and actually pass legislation."
He also vowed to "work together" with Mr Obama on issues where they can agree, such as trade agreements and tax reform.
Working within a two-party political system did not mean "we have to live in perpetual conflict", he added.
Also on Wednesday, the chairman of the Republican National Committee called resounding Republican mid-term victories a "direct rejection of the Obama agenda".
"[Americans] want nothing to do with the policies of Barack Obama," Reince Priebus told reporters.
Barack Obama's unpopularity in the run-up to these mid-term elections is hard to exaggerate. One of the things that is lost in the big picture of the night is some of the sidebar poll findings - the American people are fed up with all their politicians....

Summary: The US Senate's new Republican leader and President Barack Obama have both promised to end the political gridlock that has so frustrated American voters.
###
Article: The Home Office Minister, Lynne Featherstone, said that special protection for dogs cats and primates would be maintained.
Ms Featherstone also said that a centralised system for approving research licenses would continue.
The statement was welcomed by the research community and animal welfare organisations.
But the RSPCA's senior scientific officer, Barney Reed said that he was concerned the government was initially prepared to accept EU regulations which would have allowed smaller cage sizes, the use of less humane killing methods and the watering down of the powers of ethics committees which oversee animal research.
"It's been unfortunate that we've had to battle for 18 months to pretty much stand still and maintain the standards that we currently have," he told BBC News.
Professor Roger Lemon, a prominent medical researcher at University College London and spokesman for the campaign organisation Understanding Animal Research, said the UK had the highest welfare standards in the world for animal experimentation.
"We applaud the Home Office decision to hold on to those high standards," he said.
The EU has set minimum standards for the care and welfare of animals used in research in a directive which has to be implemented by the beginning of next year. The regulations are largely in line with UK directives which are policed and administered by the Home Office. But in a small number of areas, the standards are slightly lower.
The chief executive of one of the organisations that funds animal experiments, Prof Douglas Kell, said he welcomed legislation that he believes aims to improve welfare standards across Europe.
"Harmonising standards ensures that researchers collaborating across European borders are working together to achieve animal welfare with a common understanding," he said.
"This is increasingly important in areas like livestock diseases where researchers are working together to combat emerging threats".
Kailah Eglington, the chief executive of the Dr Hadwen Trust, which funds research into...

Summary: The UK says it will retain stricter animal testing standards than required by a new European Union Directive.
###
Article: The agreement is the result of "internal political discussions", but uncertainty remains regarding which devolution deal the borough may join.
Councillors are split over whether to join the Liverpool City Region or a new Cheshire devolution deal.
Council leader Terry O'Neill said he would "continue conversations" with neighbouring authorities.
Labour-controlled Warrington Borough Council submitted a joint devolution bid to the government with Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West & Chester Council in August 2015.
However, in June 2016 councillors on the ruling Labour group in Warrington voted to reject the deal, which would have seen an elected mayor for the county.
The BBC understands some wanted the council to consider joining the Liverpool City Region instead.
A cross-party group of councillors tasked with deciding a way forward is due to present recommendations in December.
One Labour member of the taskforce, Morgan Tarr, claimed "the majority" of the group believed that the "best option available" to was to continue negotiations with the Liverpool City Region.
Helen Jones, Labour MP for Warrington North, previously argued the Cheshire devolution plans were a Conservative "stitch-up", because a mayor in the county was "very likely" to be a Conservative.
Mr O'Neill said: "We are now in agreement that the model of devolved powers from Whitehall, together with an elected mayor, is the most appropriate arrangement for our borough.
"We will continue our conversations with other local authorities and government to ensure we have the best set of benefits to support the long term future of the borough and the best outcomes for our residents and businesses."

Summary: Warrington councillors have agreed to accept an elected mayor as part of a future devolution deal.
###
Article: But the number of homes that cannot get a service of 10 megabits per second (mbps) or higher has fallen by one million in the last year, it found.
The report looks at how the UK's mix of fixed and wireless communication networks are developing.
Ofcom said despite the fall, "much more" had to be done to improve the UK's communications infrastructure.
"Mobile and broadband coverage continued to grow this year, but too many people and businesses are still struggling for a good service," said Steve Unger, Ofcom's director of strategy, in a statement. "We think that is unacceptable."
Ofcom's report found a significant urban-rural divide on higher speed broadband. About 25% of properties in rural areas, more than 900,000 homes, are too far from telephone exchanges to get a 10mbps service. This speed is now necessary to meet the needs of typical households, it said.
Estimates by Ofcom suggest it would take Â£1.1bn to boost networks in remote areas so they run as fast as the "decent" 10mbps networks in towns and cities.
The report noted that one-third of UK homes, 9.1 million, have signed up for superfast services - designated as 30mbps or higher.
Ofcom said the UK's mobile networks also needed to tackle areas where coverage fell short. Its report estimates that only 40% of the UK's landmass can get 4G mobile signals from all four operators. This was an improvement on 2015, when only 8% enjoyed that "total" coverage, it said.
Ofcom is now talking to network operators about "radical and ambitious" ways to fill the "not-spots" and to boost speeds.
"The advent of 5G draws ever closer, which seems extraordinary when a third of the UK's geography can't even get a call signal from all four networks," said Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at USwitch, in a statement.
"It's a bitter irony for anyone living in a coverage blackspot, who'd gladly settle for a voice call let alone 5G," he added.
The Ofcom report is published soon after a separate report from the UK's National Infrastructure Commission called mobile coverage on trains...

Summary: More than 1.4 million homes in the UK cannot get decent broadband, a report from telecoms regulator Ofcom reveals.
###
Article: That includes workers who made a progression up a pay scale. Overall, 55% of NICS staff received an increase.
At senior civil service grades, 81% got an increase, compared to 40% at administrative assistant level.
The details are contained in a report from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
The figures also show that the typical basic salary of NICS staff is Â£24,728, which remains unchanged from 2014.
The report stated that lower-grade staff are better paid than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, although the reverse is true for those among the upper ranks.
Twenty-one staff - likely to include permanent secretaries of Stormont departments - earned more than Â£100,000 in 2015.

Summary: More than half of the employees in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) received a pay rise in 2014-15.
###
Article: She was artificially inseminated earlier this year after attempts to bring her together with male partner, Yang Guang, failed.
The zoo said new scientific tests had given a "strong indication" of pregnancy, but were "too new to be definitive".
Tian Tian also conceived last year, but the pregnancy failed.
Iain Valentine, director of Giant Pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "The latest scientific data suggests Tian Tian the giant panda is now pregnant and that implantation has taken place, therefore she may give birth at the end of the month.
"This is all very new and complex science and we still have a bit of time to go yet.
"As like last year, the late loss of a cub remains entirely possible."
The zoo said it had been able to confirm that Tian Tian did become pregnant last year.
However, it said it was most likely that she had reabsorbed the foetus late term.
The two pandas arrived in Scotland from China in 2011.
Tian Tian has had cubs in the past in China, before she came on loan to Edinburgh.
If she does have a successful delivery, it will be the first time a giant panda has been born in Britain.
The panda enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo is due to close to visitors from Saturday ahead of a possible birth.

Summary:


Lock Rory Thornton says he is "champing at the bit" ahead of winning his first Wales cap against Samoa in Apia on Friday, 23 June.

Article: Net income rose to a record 7.04tn won ($6.6bn; Â£4.2bn), up from 4.01tn won in the same period a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations.
The Korean firm said its mobile profits more than doubled over the same period.
Last year, Samsung became the world's biggest smartphone maker, overtaking Apple, its main rival in the sector.
"Overall its earnings momentum remains intact," said Lee Se-chul, from Meritz Securities in Seoul.
"Smartphone shipments will continue to grow, even in the traditionally weak first quarter, as Samsung's got a broader product line-up and Apple appears to be struggling in pushing iPhone volumes aggressively."
Samsung did not provide data on the number of smartphones it had shipped, but analysts estimate it sold 63 million smartphones in the quarter.
The strong sales numbers come after Apple shares tumbled 12% in the US on Thursday, over fears the company was losing its edge in key smartphone markets.
Apple had reported record quarterly revenues of $55bn, but there was disappointment over sales of the company's new iPhone 5.
Galactic sales
Samsung said its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets has been its top seller, driving profits.
The handsets division, which sells about a quarter of all mobile phones in the world according to analysts, saw an operating profit of 5.44tn won, up from 2.56tn won a year earlier.
Earnings were also helped by Samsung's displays unit, which made a profit, after losses a year earlier.
The unit enjoyed a sales boost from its organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) screen, used in the Galaxy smartphones.
The firm said its capital spending this year will be similar to 2012 levels, despite analyst expectations that it would be cut.
However, it did caution that increased competition in the smartphone sector could lead to a softening of demand in some regions.
"The furious growth spurt seen in the global smartphone market last year is expected to be pacified by intensifying price competition, compounded by a slew of new products," the company said in its...

Summary: Samsung Electronics said its profits surged 76% in the last three months of 2012, helped by sales of its Galaxy smartphones.
###
Article: The party says the new ministers would be accountable to the assembly and not to Westminster.
TUV leader Jim Allister set out his "Plan B" as he launched the party's manifesto on Wednesday for the assembly election next month.
The party is standing 15 candidates in 14 constituencies.
Mr Allister described the current structures at Stormont as "a shambles" and insisted voluntary coalition with an opposition was the only way to make government work.
"There must, there has to be surgical change, root and branch change, to the abysmal failure of the present arrangements," he said.
"We can't go on as we are, we need to abandon mandatory coalition and move to voluntary coalition with a real opposition."
But Mr Allister said if the parties could not agree on voluntary coalition, then his plan B would prevent the collapse of the Assembly.
"Executive functions would be exercised by British ministers under the scrutiny of the Assembly," he said.
"Then when our politicians grow up and agree to voluntary coalition, they could then replace the British ministers and in that way we build durable and workable devolution."
The TUV leader said his party had "shone the bright light" into the corners of Stormont and exposed squander and failure.
He also hit back at those who claim he is a one man party.
The TUV's 43 page manifesto called "Straight Talking, Principled Politics" set out how it would tackle problems in the health, education and housing sectors.
It also outlined how it would turn the economy around.

Summary: The TUV has proposed bringing back "British ministers" to replace the Stormont executive as part of its new plan for government.
###
Article: Lucy Haughey, winner of Channel 4's Come Dine With Me, bombarded the ex-girlfriend of her then partner with threatening for posts almost a year.
Haughey, 36, was due to be sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff but this was delayed after the court heard some messages were still online.
The sheriff said Haughey or her internet provider should remove them.
Haughey, who won Â£1,000 in an episode of the TV show broadcast in January, had previously admitted cyber stalking Sharon Low between June 2015 and May 2016.
The two women had never met but Haughey, from Crosshill, Glasgow, repeatedly sent messages to Ms Low.
Ms Low also received a text message which stated: "I know your secrets, all of them, leave us alone or it's all out there."
Haughey also admitted making a phone call to Ms Low's mother in which she "ranted" about her daughter, and calling Miss Low at her work.
Ms Low was left feeling "terrified and humiliated".
A defence lawyer told the earlier hearing Haughey was in an abusive relationship at the time and had been manipulated into making contact with Ms Low.
Haughey had been warned she may face jail at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday -  but the case was continued after Sheriff Linda Ruxton heard there were still abusive messages about the victim on social media.
She told Haughey: "I want all abusive posts to be removed in some way from social media to give the complainer more peace of mind."
The sheriff told the Crown to make inquiries about how this could be achieved by either Haughey or the internet provider.

Summary: A sheriff has ordered abusive online messages posted by a reality TV show winner to be removed from the internet.
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Article: Antimatter particles are the "mirror image" of normal matter, but with opposite electric charge.
How antimatter responds to gravity remains a mystery, however; it may "fall up" rather than down.
Now researchers reporting in Nature Communications have made strides toward finally resolving that notion.
Antimatter presents one of the biggest mysteries in physics, in that equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created at the Universe's beginning.
Yet when the two meet, they destroy each other in what is called annihilation, turning into pure light.
Why the Universe we see today is made overwhelmingly of matter, with only tiny amounts of antimatter, has prompted a number of studies to try to find some difference between the two.
Tests at Cern's LHCb experiment and elsewhere, for example, have been looking for evidence that exotic particles decay more often into matter than antimatter.
Last week, the LHCb team reported a slight difference in the decay of particles called Bs mesons - but still not nearly enough to explain the matter mystery.
One significant difference between the two may be the way they interact with gravity - antimatter may be repelled by matter, rather than attracted to it.
But it is a difference that no one has been able to test - until the advent of Cern's Alpha experiment.
Alpha is an acronym for Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus - an experiment designed to build and trap antimatter "atoms".
Just as hydrogen is made of a proton and an electron, antihydrogen is an atom made of their antimatter counterparts antiprotons and positrons.
The trick is not just in making it, but in making it hang around long enough to study it - before it bumps into any matter and annihilates.
In 2010 the Alpha team did just that, and in 2011 they showed they could keep antihydrogen atoms trapped for 1,000 seconds.
The team has now gone back to their existing data on 434 antihydrogen atoms, with the antigravity question in mind.
"In the course of all the experiments, we release (the antihydrogen...

Summary: Researchers at Cern in Switzerland have tested a novel way to find out if antimatter is the source of a force termed "antigravity".
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Article: A high-level tunnel used by Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling services shuts on Sunday for five months.
Customers will have to be escorted to the trains from marquees outside the station building.
Most journeys will be approximately 25 minutes longer as trains are diverted to a lower tunnel or Glasgow Central.
The Â£60m upgrade will allow faster, longer trains to operate from the station.
Tracks which are more than 40 years old will be replaced and power lines installed to allow electric trains to operate on the Edinburgh-Glasgow route from December 2016.
The work involves the removal of 10,000 tonnes of existing concrete slabs and the installation of 4,000m of new rails.
It forms part of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Improvement Project which, in the longer term, will see a major revamp of the station buildings.
On Friday, Transport Minister Derek Mackay inspected preparations for the tunnel closure.
He said: "They are absolutely necessary works, of course there's the inevitable disruption we are trying to minimise, this is why we have put so many contingency plans in place.
"It's the tracks that are being upgraded and repaired, upgraded not for a few years but for a generation.
"The next phase is the Glasgow and Edinburgh Improvement Project, that's massive investment in rolling stock and the trains, and then after that full refurbishment and redesign of Queen Street Station."
ScotRail senior customer manager John McBrinn said: "All the information that people need is available on our website.
"We will have extra staff in the stations to answer questions and help get you to the train."

Summary: Passengers using Glasgow's Queen Street Station are being urged to allow extra time for their journeys as work gets under way on a major tunnel renovation.
###
Article: The 22-year-old was an unused squad member during the 2017 Six Nations, as well as the 2016 autumn internationals.
"It's been building as I've been in a few camps now, but to finally get my name called out on that team sheet was an awesome feeling," he said.
"I've been champing at the bit these last few camps, training hard."
The Ospreys player comes in to replace Cory Hill, who was called up by the British and Irish Lions following Wales' 24-6 win over Tonga.
Coach Robin McBryde has made seven changes in all to the side that started that game at Eden Park last Friday
Another two uncapped players - scrum-half Tomos Williams and lock Adam Beard - are also on the bench.
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Thornton made 25 appearances for Ospreys in the 2016-17 campaign, but expects a big transition to international rugby.
"I've been playing a lot for the Ospreys this year and being involved in the Pro12 and the [European] Challenge Cup has given me quite a bit of experience," the former Wales Under-20s captain told BBC Wales Sport.
"But Test rugby is a completely different animal, so I'm really looking forward to the challenge on Friday against a strong Samoan team.
"Like every young Welsh boy I want to play for Wales, but when it actually comes round you get that sensation of pride."
Thornton is part of an inexperienced Wales side, with the forwards having won just 31 caps between them.
"Samoa have a big experienced pack and we have a couple of young guys here looking to blood themselves on the international stage, so I think it'll be a good challenge overall," Thornton added.
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Summary:


Canada Post will phase out home delivery in urban areas over the next five years as the postal service struggles to rein in persistent losses.

Article: The Corporation's committee of 125 elected members, who represent the Square Mile, do not normally adopt a political stance.
But its policy chairman said the City "cannot afford to remain quiet".
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU.
Mark Boleat, the policy chairman, said: "When City firms of all sizes and in different sectors, who we represent, are voicing their concerns about the risks of leaving the EU, we need to make sure the City of London Corporation remains relevant to our stakeholders.
"While we might be criticised for taking such a stance, we need to speak up and encourage others to follow suit.
"We have taken positions on controversial matters like a new Heathrow runway and immigration policy in the past and can no longer be a silent partner in the run up to the 23rd of June."
A number of City grandees, including the former chancellor Lord Lamont have criticised the Corporation's decision to hold the vote.
Alex Deane, one of the committee members, wrote in City A.M it was "strongly akin to adopting a party political stance".
"We steer clear of that; for we will need to be able to operate with people on both sides of this debate long after it is done.... Opinion in the City is divided, not united," he wrote.
The head of the British Chambers of Commerce has told a conference in London that referendum voters faced a "tough choice" between "the devil and the deep blue sea."

Summary: The City of London Corporation has voted "overwhelmingly" to support the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.
###
Article: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said the force had "fragile" staffing levels and needed to "implement improvement plans rapidly".
Inspectors visited the force after criticising its response to government spending cuts last year.
Police and Crime Commissioner Olly Martins said the report was "out of date".
In the HMIC's Policing in Austerity: Meeting the Challenge report last year, Bedfordshire Police was judged to be "requiring improvement".
Inspectors, who said the force would be "monitored closely", returned in October and found it was not performing well compared to similar forces.
It highlighted problems in the force control room, although said these should be improved by a recent increase in staff.
The report described staffing levels as "fragile but improving" and said although there had been recruitment, it was not clear what investment the force had made in preventive work to reduce demand.
"There is a concern that it may not be tackling longer-term issues," the report said.
Inspectors said it needed to implement its plans for improving policing in "an affordable way more quickly" while ensuring its service "remains effective".
However, they said the force was "moving in the right direction and the pace of change is increasing".
Mr Martins said: "All that publishing out-of-date snapshots of a force, such as today's report does, is potentially undermine police force morale and mislead the public.
"When HMIC have already made their subsequent inspection it frankly seems incompetent, to say the least, to still publish a report that's seven months out of date."
HMIC said it had made a further assessment in March and would be returning in May and July.

Summary: Concerns over the service provided by Bedfordshire Police have been raised by the constabulary watchdog.
###
Article: Brooker, a creator and main writer of the anthology series that explores anxiety and human relationships around technology, apologised in 2004 after writing a satirical article for The Guardian on George W Bush in which he wrote: "Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?". The line caused a public outcry.
"That experience definitely fed into that episode, which we call Hated in the Nation, as it deals with people getting trolled on Twitter," says Brooker.
"My own incident pre-dated Twitter, and my vilification was done by good old-fashioned email, but some of the characters in Hated in the Nation say things that I was experiencing at the time, and I also read a book for research that deals with people caught up in Twitter storms. The author hangs out with them and sees how devastated they are, often by the sheer volume of comments they receive. The whole thing is terrifying."
Compared to a modern Twilight Zone or Tales of the Unexpected, Black Mirror - using technology instead of the supernatural to unnerve - first aired on Channel 4 in 2011.
Brooker had previously worked on satirical comedy programmes, including Brass Eye and the 11 O' Clock Show.
Because Black Mirror usually deals with a futuristic scenario, Brooker and his producer Annabel Jones have been accused of uncannily predicting the future - notably in 2013's The Waldo Moment, which documents a fake politician's unexpected rise to power.
"It certainly wasn't based on him, but now a lot of people have come up to me and said, 'that episode predicted Donald Trump,'" Brooker explains.
"The idea actually pre-dates 2011 when I was working on satirical comedy shows. I wanted to do an MP based on a Gorillaz character, and we thought, 'What if you had an ironic MP who ran for office in London's Shoreditch?'.
"It was inspired by figures like Boris Johnson and Ali G, and it was exploring the 'what if' scenario with a figurehead who was artificial, so that was a plus for many of the electorate, but he was also crude and...

Summary: Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker says his own experience of a public backlash influenced one of the latest episodes of the acclaimed series which deals with hatred on social media.
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Article: Scientists will underline, with greater certainty than ever, the role of human activities in rising temperatures.
But many governments are demanding a clearer explanation of the slowdown in temperature increases since 1998.
One participant told BBC News that this pause will be a "central piece" of the summary.
Researchers from all over the world work with the IPCC to pore over thousands of peer-reviewed studies and produce a summary representing the current state of climate science.
Its previous report in 2007 was instrumental in helping the panel share the Nobel Peace Prize that year.
A new Summary for Policymakers on the physical sciences, the first of three parts that make up a report to be released over the next 12 months, will be published in Stockholm on Friday.
It will focus on the science underlying changes in temperature in the atmosphere, the oceans and at the poles.
New estimates will be given for the scale of global warming and its impact on sea levels, glaciers and ice sheets.
In its last report in 2007, the IPCC stated that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal" and that "most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th Century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations" - in other words, humans burning fossil fuels.
In the latest draft summary, seen by the BBC, the level of scientific certainty has increased.
The panel states that it is 95% certain that the "human influence on climate caused more than half the observed increase in global average surface temperatures from 1951-2010."
But since 2007, there has been a growing focus on the fact that global average temperatures haven't gone above the level recorded in 1998.
This slowdown, or hiatus as the IPCC refers to it, has been leapt upon by climate sceptics to argue that the scientific belief that emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere increases the temperature of the planet, is wrong.
Scientists have attempted to explain the pause in a number of ways,...

Summary: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is meeting in Sweden to thresh out a critical report on global warming.
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Article: In a video posted on YouTube, Yibram Saab read out a letter to his father in which he condemned "the brutal repression by the country's security forces" of opposition protests.
He posted the video after a student was killed at an anti-government march.
Almost 30 people have been killed in protest-related violence since 1 April.
Under the Venezuelan constitution, the ombudsman's office probes complaints against the government and is independent of the executive, legislative and judicial powers.
But opposition leaders have accused ombudsman Tarek William Saab of siding with the government of President Maduro.
The video in which his son openly condemns the security forces was widely picked up by opposition websites.
Speaking directly into the camera, Yibram Saab referred to the latest person to be killed in anti-government protests.
"Juan Pablo Pernalete, a 20-year-old university student, was killed through the terrible and inhumane use of teargas when he was hit [by a teargas canister] in the chest," he said.
"That could've been me!"
Yibram Saab said neither he nor his younger sister had been threatened and that he was speaking out "freely".
"I'm doing this motivated by the principles and values which my dad taught me, which I'm grateful for."
The president's son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, has criticised the video on Twitter.
He wrote that Yibram Saad, his childhood friend, was being manipulated by the opposition and reminded him that "the enemies of the nation" were still the same.
"Your three minutes of fame could have been something different," wrote Mr Maduro Guerra.
"You could have picked up the phone and spoken to your father, conveying with love your apprehension and listening to him."
The latest wave of anti-government protest was triggered when the Supreme Court announced on 29 March that it was taking over the powers of the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
While the Supreme Court reversed it just three days later, government critics argued the original ruling had undermined the country's...

Summary: The son of Venezuela's rights ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, has called on his father to "stop the injustice which has sunk Venezuela".
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Article: Under a five-year plan released on Wednesday, the cost of stamps will also rise and as many as 8,000 jobs will be eliminated.
But the agency says it will also open more retail locations across Canada.
The service faces a projected 1bn Canadian dollar ($943m; Â£576m) loss by 2020 without "fundamental changes".
Canada Post lost C$73m in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, CBC News reported.
"Canadians expect Canada Post to continue to remain financially self-sufficient and not look to their hard-earned tax dollars for funding," the postal service said.
At the same time, "the rise in digital communications has dramatically changed the postal needs of Canadians".
Direct to the home delivery will be replaced by community post boxes installed throughout residential areas, Canada Post said in its plan.
The agency said two-thirds of Canadians, mostly in newer suburban neighbourhoods and rural areas, already receive their mail through this method.
The cost of postage stamps purchased in bulk will rise to $0.85 per stamp, up from $0.63 today, among other price rises.
In all, the plan will return the agency to financial sustainability by 2019, Canada Post said in a report, citing annual savings of up to C$900m.
Between 6,000 and 8,000 jobs will be eliminated as part of the plan - 12% of Canada Post's employees, although it says its workforce is ageing and it expects almost 15,000 workers will retire or leave the company in the next five years.
Canada Post delivers close to 10 billion letters and parcels each year but has seen a 24% drop in letters delivered since 2008.

Summary:


British Lionhearts were beaten 9-1 by Cuba Domadores in the final of the World Series of Boxing in Uzbekistan.

Article: In modern times, the international credit markets could be seen as the confused multitude.
On Tuesday, attempts by Spanish Economy Minister Luis De Guindos to rally German, French and Italian counterparts to openly back a plan to speed up the implementation of plans agreed at the last EU summit to reduce Spain's borrowing costs ended in farce as France and Italy first denied all knowledge of the plan and then, a day later, pledged their support albeit with no concrete timetable.
Confusion.
So, it was no surprise that the "great beast" drove Spain's implied cost of borrowing over 10 years to a euro-era high of nearly 7.6% on Thursday in response.
Greece, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland all had to seek international bailouts when their own borrowing costs reached similar exorbitant levels.
But, on Thursday, everything seemed to change. A short sentence from Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank seemed to succeed where every single eurozone finance minister had failed: "The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro."
The yield on ten-year Spanish bonds plunged to 6.55% in a couple of days.
Mr Draghi appears to be the only voice capable of commanding the international markets.
For that reason, the leader of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker and other eurozone leaders speaking over the weekend, have put the ECB at the heart of plan to drive down Spanish and Italian borrowing costs.
The ECB's SMP bond-buying programme, discontinued in January, had temporarily managed to bring down the implied cost of borrowing for governments as determined by the trade between banks and other institutions of government bonds on the secondary market.
However, governments' actual cost of borrowing is determined at auctions where they sell bonds direct to banks - the primary market - such as Monday's sale by Italy.
So, to have any lasting effect on government borrowing costs, the ECB would need to bring down costs in the primary market.
But the ECB's constitution prevents it from lending money...

Summary: The great enemy of virtue - that is how 17th century philosopher Sir Thomas Browne described the multitude, or "one great beast", when confused.
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Article: Now he is mere leader of the opposition, the chance comes less frequently - but Monday night offered up a humdinger.
In full flow with France Television's star interviewer David Pujadas, Sarko delivered this pearl: "Just because I get the salad, doesn't mean I pass the rhubarb."
The context was the aftermath of the regional first-round elections on Sunday, which by giving the far right such a huge score poses the problem for the two main parties of how best to react.
Should Sarko's Republicans and President Francois Hollande's Socialists stand and fight in each of the 13 regions?
More from Hugh: Far right taps into voters' disquiet
French press sees parties in meltdown
Marion Marechal-Le Pen and the far-right charm offensive
The risk is that by doing so they would split the anti-FN vote, and thus increase the National Front's chances of victory.
Or, should one of them withdraw in each region - thus allowing all anti-FNers to concentrate the vote?
This is what the Socialists have agreed to do in the two regions where the FN is best-placed (and they - the Socialists - came a rotten third).
The withdrawal poses a serious challenge to Marine Le Pen's hopes of becoming regional president in the north, as well as to Marion Marechal-Le Pen in the south, because now Socialists can vote for the centre-right candidate.
But Mr Sarkozy is refusing to make any such arrangement.
His argument is that by stitching up the regions with the Socialists (you stand here, we stand there),  the two parties would be playing straight into the FN's hands.
They would be displaying exactly the kind of chumminess at the top that the far right constantly denounces.
As Nicolas Sarkozy said, political parties cannot go round giving each other mutual favours.
Or put another way: "Just because I get the salad, doesn't mean I pass the rhubarb."
Except he got it wrong.
The real French expression is: Pass me the rhubarb, and I'll pass you the senna.
Why senna? Well like rhubarb, senna is a natural laxative. The proverb means, I'll do you a...

Summary: In the olden days of Nicolas Sarkozy's French presidency, much fun was to be had irreverently pointing out his tics and verbal idiosyncracies.
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Article: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said gross mortgage lending totalled Â£21.4bn in March, in line with the monthly average over the past year.
But it was much less than the Â£26.3bn lent in March last year, when there was a surge in buy-to-let borrowing.
Then, landlords rushed to buy homes ahead of a rise in stamp duty.
A 3% stamp duty surcharge was introduced in April 2016 on the purchase of any properties that are second homes.
Since that surcharge came in, the buy-to-let market has become more subdued, as has the market for home movers.
However the CML said this fall had been cancelled out by a pick-up in lending to first-time buyers.
"There has been a shift towards first-time buyer and remortgage customers, away from home movers and buy-to-let landlords," said the CML's senior economist Mohammad Jamei.
The number of first-time buyers has increased steadily since early 2013, the CML said.
In the 12 months to March this year, there were 342,000 first-time buyers, the highest figure for any 12-month period in the past nine years.
"For so long landlords have held all the cards but, with the various tax changes applied to buy-to-let, first-time buyers are firmly in the driving seat and are putting the pedal to the floor," said Mark Dyason, director of mortgage broker Edinburgh Mortgage Advice.
The uncertainty created by a general election has traditionally put a dampener on the housing market, but the CML said that might not be the case this time around.
Mr Jamei said: "We do not anticipate that the prime minister's decision to call a snap election will have a large impact on the housing market."
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Markit, said: "We expect house price gains over 2017 will be limited to no more than 2.5% - and it could very well be lower than that."
Where can I afford to live?

Summary: The UK's housing market is in "neutral gear" and the general election will do little to change that, the mortgage lenders' trade body has said.
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Article: Work to install a new linkspan at Ullapool ferry terminal has been pushed back from February to April because of delays in upgrading Stornoway harbour.
The improvements are needed before a new Â£42m ferry can be introduced.
Mr Mackay said he shared local communities' frustration with delays in making the improvements.
The new MV Loch Seaforth had been expected to take over the route from the MV Isle of Lewis last year.
The taskforce will involve Transport Scotland, port authorities, Caledonian Maritime Assets, Caledonian MacBrayne and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
Mr Mackay said: "I have called for the formation of this taskforce so we can put the delays behind us and bring the focus back to delivering a project that promises to be a significant upgrade for ferry users.
"The first priority will be to get the harbour works at Stornoway completed at the earliest opportunity."
Calmac is planning a revised sailing schedule to work around disruption caused by the installation of the new linkspan at Ullapool.
The schedule involves:
Calmac said provisional timetables have been drafted and it would be talking to interested parties over the coming weeks about how to "optimise sailing times".
Mr Mackay added: "We must not lose sight of the end goal here - improved harbour facilities in Stornoway and Ullapool and a new state-of-the-art ferry for both communities.
"I look forward to seeing the MV Loch Seaforth operating on this route and bringing an improved service to ferry users."
Ullapool's 42 year old linkspan is to be replaced with a new two-lane structure which would allow vehicles to move on and off ferries quicker.
Delaying the work until April pushes the work into a busier period for ferry sailings.
Martin Dorchester, Calmac's managing director, said: "The introduction of the new vessel Loch Seaforth to the route, and the Ullapool linkspan replacement is completely dependent on the completion of the Stornoway improvements.
"However, to allow passengers to plan their movements as much as possible, the closure is now...

Summary: A taskforce led by Transport Minister Derek Mackay will seek to resolve issues with improvements to the Stornoway to Ullapool ferry route.
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Article: Yes, Hillary Clinton's lead in pledged delegates and total votes, as well as her vast advantage among the "superdelegate" party officials and officeholders, means she likely will accrue the necessary support on Tuesday to be the nominee even before polls close in California.
But the Sanders campaign is asserting that a win on the west coast, where surveys show the race is close, will fuel his efforts over the coming weeks, setting the stage for a showdown with Mrs Clinton on the floor of the Democratic convention in July.
At a press conference in Los Angeles on Saturday morning Mr Sanders emphasised this point, urging the reporters in attendance to refrain from calling Mrs Clinton the presumptive nominee.
"I have heard reports that Secretary Clinton has said it's all going to be over on Tuesday night," Sanders said. "I have heard reports that the media, after the New Jersey results come in, are going to declare that it is all over. That simply is not accurate."
The Vermont senator's pitch is that, unencumbered by Mrs Clinton's low approval ratings and controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while at the State Department, he's the better candidate to run against Republican Donald Trump in the autumn general election.
His team points to numerous opinion polls showing that he performs better in hypothetical presidential matchups than Mrs Clinton. (Clinton's team counters that his numbers are inflated because he's largely stayed above the fray on the campaign trail.)
After Tuesday, when all but the District of Columbia will have held their nomination contests, Mr Sanders will no longer be able to make that case to most American voters.
His goal, then, will be to convince enough superdelegates - who are not officially committed to a candidate until they cast their ballots at the Democratic convention - to switch their support to him. A win in California, the nation's most populous state, would feature prominently in his closing arguments.
"At the end of the nominating process no candidate will...

Summary: For Bernie Sanders and his die-hard supporters, California - the Golden State - is his golden ticket.
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Article: The Lionhearts were outclassed by their Cuban opponents, who claimed the first six bouts to seal a second WSB title in three years.
It was heading for a clean-sweep for Cuba but British super heavyweight Frazer Clarke beat Leinier Pero in the final bout to earn a consolation point.
This was the Lionhearts first appearance in the WSB final.
Johanys Argilagos (Cub) beat Galal Yafai (GB) 48:47/49:46/49:46
Robeisy Ramirez (Cub) beat Peter McGrail (GB) by round three KO
Yasniel Toledo (Cub) beat Dalton Smith (GB) 49:46/49:46/49:46
Arlen Lopez (Cub) beat Troy Williamson (GB) by round three KO
Erislandy Savon (Cub) beat Lawrence Okolie (GB) by round one KO
Yosvany Veitia (Cub) beat Muhammad Ali (GB) 48:47/49:46/47:48
Lazaro Alvarez (Cub) beat Luke McCormack (GB) 50:45/50:45/50:45
Roniel Iglesias (Cub) beat Ekow Essuman (GB) by round two KO
Julio Cesar La Cruz (Cub) beat Thomas Whittaker (GB) 50:41/50:41/50:41
Frazer Clarke (GB) beat Leinier Pero (Cub) by round four KO

Summary:


Matthew Perry "will not" attend the Friends reunion show due to rehearsals for his West End play.

Article: The body of Kevin Turnbull, 52, was discovered with a head injury at a property in Samuel Street Walk, Bury St Edmunds, at 12:15 BST on Wednesday.
A 51-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman, both from the town, were arrested on Friday evening.
They were taken in for questioning but have been released on police bail to return on 15 November.
Suffolk Police said inquiries into the death of Mr Turnbull, who was from Great Whelnetham, are continuing.

Summary: Two people arrested on suspicion of murdering a man found dead in Suffolk have been released on police bail.
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Article: The claim: Leaving the European Union would create a year-long recession.
Reality Check verdict: The Treasury analysis gives two scenarios, described as "shock" and "severe shock". Both point to a recession in the short term, but in the case of the lesser "shock" scenario, while there would be an impact on the economy, the predicted recession would be very mild and well within the bounds of forecasting uncertainty.
And it's not pretty - the Treasury predicts that economic growth would decline, wages would be lower than if we'd stayed in and house prices would fall.
If you're prepared to be influenced by economic modelling (read our Reality Check on the subject here) then there is a simple message, which is that in the first two years, a vote to leave the EU would be a considerably bad thing for the economy.
If you want to go a bit further into the figures, there is more to say.
The Treasury no longer does economic forecasts - that job has now been given to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
What the Treasury is doing is what it calls scenario analysis, which is taking what would happen if we stayed in the EU as a base-line and then considering what the impact would be were we to leave.
So all the figures you see today are not how much worse things would be than they are today. They are how much worse things will be in two years if we leave the EU, than they would have been if we stayed in.
The Treasury has modelled two scenarios, the "shock" and the "severe shock" scenarios.
The shock scenario is what it reckons would happen if the country decided to negotiate a bilateral agreement to cover its relationship with the EU. The severe shock scenario is what would happen if we decided to trade as just another World Trade Organisation member, with no special relationship with the EU.
The Chancellor said in his speech: "Within two years the size of our economy - our GDP - would be at least 3% smaller as a result of leaving the EU - and it could be as much as 6% smaller."
"We'd have a year of...

Summary: The Treasury has released its analysis of the short-term effects of a vote to leave the European Union - that's what would happen in the two years after 23 June.
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Article: Odeon & UCI is currently owned by private equity firm Terra Firma, and has 242 theatres with 2,236 screens.
Dalian Wanda, the world's biggest movie theatre operator, is led by China's richest man Wang Jianlin.
Odeon & UCI will continue to be based in London and will operate as a subsidiary of AMC.
Adam Aron, AMC's chief executive and president said in a statement: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire Europe's leading cinema chain and create the world's biggest and best theatre operator."
He said there were uncertainties created by Brexit, but added "we are encouraged that current currency rates are highly favourable to AMC with the pound falling to a three decade low versus the dollar".
The addition of Odeon & UCI will mean AMC has 627 theatres and more than 7,600 screens in eight countries.
The sale is still subject to competition clearance from the European Commission.
David Hancock, head of film and cinema at IHS Technology, said: "AMC is part of the Wanda group, which includes screens in China, AMC in the US, Hoyts in Australia and now Odeon UCI in Europe: all major exhibitors in their part of the world and making Wanda the largest global cinema exhibition group.
"In addition, Wanda has built the world's largest film production studio in China and acquired Legendary Entertainment, a US producer of blockbuster features, as well as assets in big data, entertainment marketing and gaming distribution."
Wang Jianlin was born in 1954 and spent 16 years in the People's Liberation Army before moving into property.
He founded Wanda in 1988 and built it up to become China's biggest commercial real estate firm.
Wanda's expanding entertainment and tourism sector spans movie cinemas, theme parks and film production.
The company owns a share in a US film studio, Legendary Entertainment, the maker of blockbuster hits such as Jurassic World and the Dark Knight Batman trilogy.
As well as AMC, the Chinese giant has picked up a slew of other foreign companies - with a focus on investing in hotels and big...

Summary: Odeon & UCI Cinema Group has been bought by AMC Entertainment, a US chain owned by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, in a deal worth £921m ($1.21bn).
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Article: The 8cm space rock is said to be chemically distinct from any of the 50,000 other such objects held in collections.
Called Österplana 65, it was found in a limestone quarry in Thorsberg, Sweden, that produces floor tiles.
Dating suggests the meteorite's parent body was involved in a huge collision in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter some 470 million years ago.
This would have been the same smash-up that produced a large class of other rocks known as L chondrites, Birger Schmitz and colleagues tell the journal Nature Communications.
The L chondrites are picked up in significant quantities in the Thorsberg sediments of Ordovician age - a period in Earth history when the Northern Hemisphere was largely under water and marine lifeforms such as the trilobites were flourishing.
Dr Schmitz' team has recovered more than a hundred of these "fossil" objects in the quarry. But the new meteorite stands out because geochemically its oxygen and chromium signatures are distinct.
"We've been hunting these Ordovician meteorites for 25 years. We found 50, then 60, then 70 - and it was getting boring," he told BBC News.
"Then in 2011, we found one meteorite that was entirely different. For a long time we called it 'the mysterious object' because it didn't resemble anything. For five years, we have done all types of analysis and now we're certain of what it is."
The hypothesis is that Öst 65 comes from the "second asteroid" in the collision.
The scientists can make this claim because of the results of so-called cosmogenic dating.
This is a technique that will reveal how long the fresh surface of a broken object has been exposed to space radiation.
Impacts from high energy particles generate particular types, or isotopes, of atoms in the rock - in this case, it is forms of helium and neon.
The more of these isotopes that are present, the greater the time since the fragmentation event.
When this dating is done for the L chondrites and Öst 65, the exposure times line up.
"We show that Öst 65 was liberated from its parent...

Summary: Scientists have identified a completely new type of meteorite.
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Article: Healthcare Improvement Scotland said it was pleased with changes at Stranraer's Galloway Community Hospital.
It found proper screening taking place and good communication between staff.
Last year NHS Dumfries and Galloway apologised for being "unable to demonstrate best standards of care" at the hospital.
The latest inspection visit took place in August this year and was a follow-up to a visit in January which also found improvement.
Claire Sweeney, interim director of quality assurance for HIS, said: "Overall, we were pleased with the progress that had been made.
"We found that screening for delirium was taking place and there was evidence of good communication between staff through daily hospital-wide huddles.
"To bring about further improvements, NHS Dumfries and Galloway must ensure all older people are assessed within the national recommended timescales and have person-centred care plans in place."
She said they would follow up on these issues at future inspections.

Summary: Inspectors have found progress being made at a hospital where a health board has previously had to apologise for the quality of the care.
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Article: According to his spokeswoman, "Matthew may tape something" for the tribute to the show's creator James Burrows.
"In other words, this is not the reunion people have been hoping for," Lisa Kasteler told Us Weekly.
His former co-stars, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc are all expected to take part in the special.
It is set to be aired on NBC on 21 February.
Friends ended in 2004 after 10 series. As well as Friends, Burrows worked behind the camera on sitcoms including Cheers and Frasier.
Perry has written and will star in the play The End of Longing... which is set to run in London's West End from 2 February until 14 May. It will be directed by Lindsay Posner.
The dark comedy follows four disparate people approaching middle age, who meet in a bar one night.
It marks Perry's first return to the West End since 2003, when he starred in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

Summary: