Friday, November 11, 2016

Factory blaze kills at least 13 Indian garment workers as they slept

By Nita Bhalla-Fri Nov 11, 2016

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - At least 13 garment workers were killed after a fire broke out in a factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital, police and witnesses said on Friday.

The blaze, which started in the early hours of Friday as the workers slept inside the leather factory workshop in Uttar Pradesh state, also critically injured eight more people.

Police investigating the cause of the fire in Ghaziabad district said preliminary findings suggested it may have been sparked by an electrical short circuit.

"We are reason to believe that it may be linked to an electrical short circuit, but we are still looking into it," Deepak Kumar, Ghaziabad's Senior Superintendent of Police, told reporters.

"Everyone worked together to rescue the people inside the building. These included local residents, police, fire and ambulance services."

Police said they were also investigating the possibility the factory, was illegal and did not have a license to operate in the congested residential area.

Television pictures showed large crowds outside the gutted three-storey building, located in a narrowed-laned area lined cheek-by-jowl with similar structures in Sahibabad.

The fire, which started at around 4 a.m. local time, spread from the ground floor housing the stitching unit to the upper two storeys, where the laborers were sleeping, said witnesses.

Fire engines were rushed to area and managed to rescue 16 workers, said witnesses, many of whom were taken to a nearby hospital suffering from burns and respiratory problems.

Activists say the incident is one in a series illustrating the neglect of workplace safety in South Asia's industrial sector, even in the wake of Bangladesh's 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, in which more than 1,100 garment workers were killed.

The Rana Plaza tragedy, where an eight-storey building housing several garment factories supplying global brands collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, was one of the world's most deadly industrial accidents.

In India, as well as Bangladesh, such accidents are common.

Eight people were killed in October in an explosion at a firework factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, while in May 2014, 15 others were killed in a similar accident in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Campaigners advocating for better living and working conditions in the textile and garment sector said the incident showed the plight of workers were still being ignored.

"Despite the many disasters we have seen before, and the great amount of attention to the dangerous working conditions in the South Asian garment industry, factories there largely remain unsafe. These workers were killed because they were sleeping in the factory," said Carin Leffler of the Clean Clothes Campaign.

"The deep tragedy that took 13 peoples' lives in Sahibabad this morning shows that there is still a long way to go before workers can feel safe."

(Reporting by Nita Bhalla, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

The Public Loves Myanmar’s New War on Muslims

BY POPPY MCPHERSON-NOVEMBER 10, 2016

On a cool night last November, a euphoric crowd surged around the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in Yangon. Supporters danced and waved flags as result after result was announced from a digital billboard. It was a landslide. Amid the cheers, a man named Than Htay told me he how he had waited decades to vote freely.

The Public Loves Myanmar.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

VIDEO: Syrian reporter Hadi Abdullah wins 'Journalist of the Year'

Syrian reporter Hadi Abdullah wins Reporters without Borders 2016 'Journalist of the Year' award

(Twitter @HadiAlabdallah)

Islam Zitout, Producer-Friday 11 November 2016

When this 24-year-old nurse from Homs left his job he never expected to become the eyes of the world in Syria.

An independent reporter in the ‘most dangerous place on earth,' Hadi Abdullah has highlighted the horrors, and hopes, of the almost six year long Syrian civil war.

Now 29, Abdullah has had many close brushes with death, including a bomb attack on his home, wounding him and killing his friend and cameraman, Khaled al-Essa.

In recognition of his work, Reporters without Borders awarded Hadi Abdullah with the 2016 'Journalist of the Year' award.

Following the award however, some analysts criticised Abdullah's journalistic credibility as a neutral reporter, citing an incident where Abdullah allegedly taunted pro-government forces trapped under rubble.

Serbia deports Russians suspected of plotting Montenegro coup]

Plotters were allegedly going to storm Podgorica parliament, shoot Milo Ðjukanović and install a pro-Moscow party

The Montenegrin prime minister, Milo Đjukanović. Photograph: Savo Prelevic/AFP/Getty Images

Julian Borger in Washington, Andrew MacDowall in Belgrade and Shaun Walkerin Moscow-Friday 11 November 2016

Serbia has deported a group of Russians suspected of involvement in a coup plot in neighbouring Montenegro, the Guardian has learned, in the latest twist in a murky sequence of events that apparently threatened the lives of two European prime ministers.

The plotters were allegedly going to dress in police uniforms to storm the Montenegrin parliament in Podgorica, shoot the prime minister, Milo Ðjukanović, and install a pro-Moscow party.

The Russian fingerprints on the October plot have heightened intrigue about Moscow’s ambitions in a part of Europe hitherto thought to be gravitating towards the EU’s orbit.

A group of 20 Serbians and Montenegrins, some of whom had fought with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, were arrested in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. In Serbia, meanwhile, several Russian nationals suspected of coordinating the plot were caught with €120,000 and special forces uniforms.

According to the Belgrade daily, Danas, the Russians also had encryption equipment and were able to keep track of Đjukanović’s whereabouts.

Diplomatic sources told the Guardian the Belgrade government quietly deported the Russians after the intervention of the head of the Russian security council, Nikolai Patrushev, who flew to Belgrade on 26 October in an apparent effort to contain the scandal. The country’s interior minister, Nebojša Stefanović denied the government carried out any deportations connected to the plot.

A source close to the Belgrade government said Patrushev, a former FSB (federal security service) chief, apologised for what he characterised as a rogue operation that did not have the Kremlin’s sanction. In Moscow, a Security Council official told Tass that Patrushev “didn’t apologise to anyone, because there is nothing to apologise for”.

The Serbian government was further rattled three days after Patrushev’s visit when a cache of arms was found near the home of the prime minister, Aleksandar Vučić. The weapons were discovered at a junction where Vučić’s car would normally slow down on his way to the house.

Stefanović said there were “strong suspicions” that an organised crime gang had been hired to kill Vučić for €10m, but he would not specify who was behind the alleged plot, saying further investigation would show whether people “outside the region” were involved.

Aleksandar Vučić addresses the media in Belgrade, in October. Photograph: Andrej Cukic/EPA

“You know the people who don’t like a strong Vučić or a strong government of Serbia and who could contribute some money, €10m or so, to see this kind of thing done,” Stefanović told the Guardian.

“We know that the people who were potentially hired to do this kind of thing were from the region, but not from Serbia, and that there were crime groups that are operating in the region that were involved. But these were just the trigger persons,” the minister added.

“We believe that criminal gangs are just being used to do the job, but the motives are not linked to the gangs. The assassination of the prime minister is not something that even they would do lightly, we believe they are being used.”

Since the discovery of the weapons, Vučić has announced plans to shake up the intelligence service, saying the security situation was “even more serious than we expected”.

“There will be changes in the secret service,” he told the public broadcaster, RTS. “I believed in the skills of people who didn’t show that they have these capacities, but I’ll take responsibility for this.”

It is unclear whether there is a connection between the alleged assassination plots against Vučić and Đjukanović. But the intrigue of the past month comes against a backdrop of fierce east-west competition.

Đjukanović has been instrumental in pulling his country to the verge of Nato membership – an accession protocol was signed in May – which has dashed Russian hopes of securing a naval foothold on the Adriatic. According to the Montenegrin press, Moscow lobbied hard in recent years for transit and maintenance facilities at the ports of Bar and Kotor.

The importance of such facilities was demonstrated late last month when the Russian carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov and its battle group was denied refuellingin European ports along their way to support the Russian military effort in Syria.

In Serbia, Vučić has been seeking a delicate balance between Nato and Russia, and the country’s armed forces have conducted military exercises with both, although far more frequently in recent years with Nato. Vučić has also refused to grant diplomatic status to Russian officials staffing a Serbian-Russian humanitarian centre established in the city of Niš in 2012, infuriating Moscow.

Western officials suspect the centre of being a Trojan horse, which could expanded as a hub for intelligence and paramilitary operations in the region. Diplomatic status, they point out, would have allowed equipment to be brought in without oversight by Serbian customs.

Some analysts have suggested the operation could have been mounted as a “semi-freelance” one, giving enough distance from Moscow to be plausibly deniable if was uncovered.

“Both sides have an interest in playing this as a freelance, vigilante-type thing, it allows them both to save face. Whether that’s actually true is unclear. There’s simply not enough evidence either to support or disprove it,” said Vladimir Frolov, a Moscow-based analyst.

“Judging from the amount of logistical and financial support they got, it looks likely they acted with at least a tacit understanding that this was sanctioned.”

A few days after the would-be coup, a former intelligence officer, Leonid Reshetnikov, who ran a hawkish research institute in Moscow, was relieved of his duties by Putin. The Russian Institute for Strategic Studies has a branch office in Belgrade, and Reshetnikov had given strong backing to the anti-Nato opposition party in Montenegro.

A security analyst from the region, who did not want to be named, said his understanding from intelligence sources was that the incidents in the Balkans were probably linked to Russian attempts to gain influence and leverage in the Balkans in the run-up to an anticipated Hillary Clinton US presidency, which was expected to take a harder line on Russian activity in the region.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry took a dim view of this Guardian report on the Balkan events.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry wrote on Facebook: “The publication in the Guardian with a link to ‘sources’ saying that Patrushev apologised for ‘Russian nationalists’ who had planned to kill the prime minister of Montenegro is a classic provocation aimed at spreading knowingly false information.”

“I declare you “liars of the day”. You can sew your own hat.”

Bernie Sanders shows he is the politician who isn’t afraid to challenge Donald Trump in statement acknowledging win

'To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him,' warns senator

Heather Saul-@heatheranne9 -Thursday 10 November 2016

Donald Trump’s election victory as seen a number of key political figures climb down from their scathingly critical positions to extend conciliatory messages pledging to work with the incoming President.

Barack Obama said everyone in the White House is “rooting for his success” while Speaker of the House Paul Ryan claimed Mr Trump’s win “marks a repudiation of the status quo of failed liberal progressive policies”.

Those rushing to move to Canada after Mr Trump’s victory may also want to hold their horses - Justin Trudeau is also looking forward to working with Mr Trump and has chatted to him on the phone about the relationship between their two countries he hopes his presidency will foster.

But one man is unafraid to challenge him: the man who ran for the Democratic nomination with antithetical policies to Mr Trump’s, Bernie Sanders. The socialist senator and former mayor, 74, released a careful statement responding to Mr Trump’s new position as President-elect.

He also demonstrated an understanding of why Mr Trump’s presidency attracted such support.

“Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. People are tired of working longer hours for lower wages, of seeing decent paying jobs go to China and other low-wage countries, of billionaires not paying any federal income taxes and of not being able to afford a college education for their kids - all while the very rich become much richer.

“ To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him."

But his message added an important caveat.

“To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”

Mr Sanders’ statement will only bolster steadily growing calls for him to run in the 2020 election. His policies had a clear focus on closing the stark gap between the wealthy and those living in poverty across the US, creating access to free health care and education, creating a living wage, tackling racial inequality and introducing a “fair and humane” immigration policy.

In contrast, Mr Trump has confirmed plans to repeal Obamacare, potentially leaving 22 million Americans without healthcare insurance, and begin the deportation of undocumented immigrants living in the US.

Meanwhile, his statement announcing a pledge to ban all Muslims from entering the US has disappeared from his website.

Hypocrisy Of Public Outcry Over A Burst Of Profanity

By ANI Ekanayaka –November 10, 2016

Professor A.N.I. Ekanayaka

Looking back on the US presidential election campaign one recalls the avalanche of shock, feigned moral outrage, and sense of injured innocence that greeted the widely circulated tape recording of Donald Trump uttering some vulgar profanities about women during a raucous conversation inside a luxury coach way back in 2005. No doubt millions of people all over the world heard this conversation over and over again on TV and the internet as it was played up by a malicious mainstream media hostile to Trump . There is no question that the crude and sexist comments by Trump were un

becoming of anybody, let alone a presidential candidate. One can understand ordinary people being appalled that Trump should have spoken such obscenities which are the stuff of raunchy uncouth banter that one associates with schoolboy locker rooms, men only clubs, bars and bachelor parties. That being said there was something deeply hypocritical and contradictory about the sanctimonious self righteous indignation of American society ( especially the mainstream media like CNN and the Democratic party ) over Trump’s remarks. Judging by the extent to which people were shocked and offended by this revelation one would imagine that Americans are a nation of coy innocent puritanical nuns easily embarrassed by a short burst of macho profanity !

The reality is very different. Americans are no angels when it comes to sexual immorality. For a start a survey of swear words on Facebook has found that over a 3 day period the commonest swear word was shit with 10.5 million US Facebook interactions, closely followed by “f **** ” the ubiquitous four letter profanity in the West with 9.5 million interactions ! America today ( not to mention much of Europe ) is a country that is wallowing in sexual immorality and sensuality to a point that is comparable with the moral decadence and debauchery of ancient Rome before the collapse of that civilisation. According to research by the Centre for Disease Control(CDC) in 2012 two-thirds of teenagers and young adults in the USA have had oral sex — about as many as have had vaginal intercourse. 44% of 15-17 year old boys and 39% of girls of the same age engage in some sort of sex with a partner of the opposite gender. CDC Surveys of High School students in 2015 have shown that 41% have had sexual intercourse, 30% during the past 3 months 21% of whom had taken drugs or alcohol before intimacy. Not surprisingly it is estimated that there are 750,000 teenage pregnancies in the USA every year the vast majority unintended. That is the level of sexual permissiveness in a society that is now highly embarrassed by 5 minutes of sexually explicit banter by a presidential contender.

No wonder marriage has become increasingly unfashionable in that country. According to the US Census Bureau as of 2012 47% of the adult population representing some 112 million people were unmarried, and in 2010 unmarried households were 45% of all US households. And marriage when it occurs is a very fragile institution with 53% of marriages in America ending in divorce. No wonder that in 41% of marriages one or both spouses admit to infidelity either physical or emotional with 36% of men and women admitting to infidelity while on business trips and 36% to having an affair with a co-worker. By some estimates roughly 30% to 60% of all married individuals (in the United States) will engage in infidelity at some point during their marriage. Indeed 74% of married American men are reported to have said that they would have an affair if only they knew they would not get caught ! That is the state of adultery in a country whose official motto is “ In God we trust”. Fine words indeed. But sadly nowadays a lot of Americans appear to have forgotten the inalienable 8th Biblical commandment of the God in whom they hypocritically claim to trust ie “ Thou shall not commit adultery”

Trump’s lawyers seek to delay fraud case — until after he is sworn into office

Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump went to court on Nov. 10 and requested that a civil fraud suit against Trump be delayed until after the presidential transition. (Video: Reuters / Photo: AP)

By Roxana Popescu and Rosalind S. Helderman November 10 at 10:03 PM

SAN DIEGO — Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump went to court Thursday to ask that a civil fraud suit against Trump scheduled to begin in less than three weeks be delayed, a reminder of the unusual complications facing Trump as he shifts from businessman to commander in chief.

Trump’s attorneys said he will be too busy with the presidential transition to participate in the Nov. 28 trial involving his defunct real estate seminar program, Trump University. They asked that the trial be postponed until February or March, after he has taken office.

They made their request before Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the jurist Trump harshly criticized during the campaign as biased because of his Mexican heritage.

Curiel expressed concern about the wisdom of a delay given that Trump will assume the presidency Jan. 20. Curiel said he will probably issue a ruling by Monday.

The hearing came just two days after Trump’s victory, reflecting the continuing legal challenges facing an incoming president whose businesses are the subject of multiple pending civil suits.

"My job was to sell, sell sell," says former Trump University instructor James Harris, who explains the inner workings of the company, detailing high pressure sales tactics and the battle for profit. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

“We’re in uncharted territory,” Trump attorney Daniel Petrocelli told Curiel, noting that never before has a U.S. president or president-elect come to court under similar circumstances.

Later, Petrocelli told reporters that holding a trial during Trump’s presidency would be better than during the intensive transition period. He called the case a “very difficult circumstance for a sitting president — more so, I would say, for a president-elect, because he’s turning, right now as we speak, to a mountain of challenges in front of him, to get himself up to speed.”

The California Trump University case is one of two class-action fraud suits filed by former customers of the real estate seminar program. The former customers say they were misled by advertisements promising that Trump had hand-picked instructors for the program and that they would learn Trump’s personal tricks for real estate success.

[Donald Trump said ‘university’ was all about education. Actually, its goal was: ‘Sell, sell, sell!’]

Trump has said in depositions that he did not choose the instructors, many of whose names and faces he could not recall.

Vigils and protests flared up across the country as opponents of President-elect Donald Trump expressed dismay with the election results, underscoring the difficult task he faces in uniting a fractured country.

Trump has said most customers were satisfied with the experience, citing positive customer surveys submitted by seminar attendees. His attorneys have predicted that he will prevail in court.

Trump University became an issue in the campaign when Trump’s rivals in the Republican primary and later Democrat Hillary Clinton cited it in attacking Trump as a scam artist.

Trump vehemently defended the business during campaign rallies. His attack on Curiel became a symbol of his tendency to lash out at people, and it drew sharp criticism, including from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who termed the allegation the “textbook definition of a racist comment.”

Trump also said during the campaign that he looked forward to the trial.

“They ought to look into Judge Curiel, because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace,” Trump had told supporters at a rally in San Diego in May. “Okay? But we will come back in November. Wouldn’t that be wild if I am president and come back and do a civil case?”

[Trump’s personal, racially tinged attacks on federal judge alarm legal experts]

From the bench Thursday, Curiel appeared unruffled by the unusual nature of the hearing, patiently engaging with both sides and referring to Trump respectfully as “the president-elect.”

Curiel proposed potentially having Trump testify by video to make the trial easier on him, but also urged that he settle with former students suing over the real estate seminars.

Though Trump has boasted that he never settles lawsuits, Petrocelli, an attorney for Trump, expressed interest: “I can tell you right now: I am all ears, your honor,” he said.

Petrocelli told reporters later that a trial risked further inflaming post-election tensions in the country.

“This has been a gut-wrenching campaign, as everybody knows, and the nation is just beginning the long healing process,” he said. “And I think the last thing we need right now is to have a trial about events that occurred six years ago or seven years ago, in which Mr. Trump — President-elect Trump — is a personal defendant in matters completely unrelated to the momentous obligations that he now needs to deal with.”

Also Thursday, Curiel rejected a request by Trump’s attorneys to prohibit the jury from hearing about Trump’s campaign-trail comments, including his attacks on the judge. Curiel called the request vague but said he might bar specific testimony at trial.

Trump’s attorneys argued that his campaign speeches, tweets and other public statements were “irrelevant” and “highly prejudicial.” They also asked Curiel to exclude discussion of other negative topics that came out during the campaign — including allegations about his “personal conduct,” and information about how Trump ran his personal charity, the Trump Foundation.

A president is not shielded from civil litigation for actions taken before he took office or unrelated to his presidential duties, a precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit filed against then-

President Bill Clinton. Clinton was required to sit for a deposition in the matter but he settled with Jones before the case reached trial.

But the court also said a trial judge, in scheduling, may show some deference to a president’s demanding schedule and the burdens of the office, said Duquesne University President Ken Gormley, who wrote a book on the Clinton case.

Gormley said there were few historical parallels for Trump’s legal entanglements because no president has been so immersed in the world of business before his election.

“You just have to start from the proposition that he’s like any other citizen for this purpose,” Gormley said. “People have claims against him, and those preexist him being in office. There seems to be no question they can proceed.”

Among other suits, Trump faces litigation in connection to celebrity chef José Andrés, who halted plans to open a restaurant at Trump’s new hotel in Washington over the Republican’s claim that many Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists.

Trump University also faces a separate action in New York filed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. A court of appeals in New York ruled in March that the case could proceed, but Trump’s attorneys have appealed the ruling.

Trump has said he will win in court and then restart the program, which has not been in operation since 2010.

Singapore: Ex-banker jailed 18 weeks in probe on Malaysian 1MDB state fund scandal

11th November 2016

A SINGAPORE court has sentenced former private banker Yak Yew Chee to 18 weeks jail on charges of forgery and failing to report suspicious transactions amounting to tens of millions of dollars involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

According to Channel News Asia, the 57-year-old Yak, who handled the accounts of 1MDB-linked Malaysian tycoon Jho Low at BSI Bank, was also slapped with a S$24,000 ($17,000) by the court. Yak was among four people implicated in Singapore’s probe on 1MDB.

The court handed down the sentence after Yak pleaded guilty to four out of seven charges against him.

Among the charges, Yak was accused of forging reference letters supporting Low’s family and ignoring funds allegedly received from criminal activities that was channelled through BSI Bank in Singapore.

Singaporean monetary authorities have named Low as a person of interest in the investigation which alleged that billions had been embezzled from 1MDB.

The court heard that Yak, of the Swiss bank BSI in Singapore, had sent a forged letter to the head of yacht and shipping finance service at BNP Paribas in Switzerland in February 14. The letted vouched that Low’s family was worth US$1.63 billion (S$2.3 billion).

SEE ALSO: Singapore: Former banker first to stand trial in international 1MDB probe

Yak also admitted to forging another letter to Swiss wealth management firm Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) CEO, Stefan Liniger, to deceive Liniger in believing that the letter was signed by BSI bank, CNA reported.

In the letter to Liniger, Yak said Low’s family had a good standing at the BSI Bank in Singapore and Switzerland. Yak also told Liniger that Low, had received US$150 million from his father Low Hock Peng. Of the total amount of funds, a firm owned by Low called Selune had US$110 million wired to the Swiss account.

Yak had also reportedly admitted to turning a blind eye to suspicious transactions by his millionaire clients in addition to the forgery charges.

The court was told that on Nov 2, 2012 some US$153 million was transferred from the younger Low’s firm called Good Star to the BSI bank account of Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corporation via a Coutts Zurich account. The funds were deposited back into Low Hock Peng’s account three days later.

Another account held by Low at BSI bank had US$150 million deposited on Nov 7, of which US$110 million was later landed in Selune’s Swiss bank account.

1MDB is currently the subject of numerous multi-agency probes across the world, as well as a civil lawsuit filed recently by the United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ).

According to U.S. prosecutors, fund officials have diverted more than US$3.5 billion through a web of shell companies and bank accounts abroad.

Despite the allegations, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chairs the fund, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the handling of 1MDB, from which hundreds of millions dollars were found deposited in his personal bank accounts.

Monday’s supermoon is biggest in almost 70 years

Liam Dutton-

11 NOV 2016

All eyes will be on the skies on Monday, as the biggest full supermoon in almost 70 years takes place.

Described by Nasa as an extra-supermoon, it’ll be the closest full moon to earth since 1948. If you miss this one, you’ll have to wait until 25 November 2034 to see another one as close.

And, as ever, the key to being able to see it will be whether or not the weather delivers some clear skies to give a good view.

Why do supermoons happen?

The moon’s orbit of the earth is elliptical, meaning that one side of the orbit (perigee) is around 30,000 miles closer than the other.

The opposite of the perigee, when the moon is further away during its orbit, is called the apogee.

apogee_orbit_nasa_hd — The Moon’s elliptical orbit: NASA

Supermoons occur when the earth, moon and sun line up (known as syzygy) and when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth to the sun.

How much bigger and brighter is a full supermoon?

A full supermoon can have quite a different appearance to an apogee full moon, when the moon is 30,000 miles further away.

The moon can appear as much as 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than normal and can really dominate the night sky.

Weather permitting, it will offer the opportunity to take some great pictures.

Supermoon brightness — Brightness and size of supermoon: NASA

Will the weather be good for seeing it?

Having recently had high pressure and clear, cold nights, the weather is turning more unsettled through the weekend and into next week.

Unfortunately, at the moment, it looks like there may be quite a lot of cloud across the UK on Monday night.

The best chance of having some clearer spells will be across eastern parts of Scotland and England.

Don’t forget, you can get the latest five-day forecast for your location on the Channel 4 Weather website. I’ll also be posting updates on Twitterand Facebook.

'First flu' affects lifetime risk

There are 18 different types of influenza A

By Caroline Parkinson-11 November 2016

A person's chances of falling ill from a new strain of flu are at least partly determined by the first strain they ever encountered, a study suggests.

Research in Science journal looked at the 18 strains of influenza A and the hemagglutinin protein on its surface.

They say there are only two types of this protein and people are protected from the one their body meets first, but at risk from the other one.

A UK expert said that could explain different patterns in flu pandemics.

'Lollipop flavours'

The researchers, from University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest their findings could explain why some flu outbreaks cause more deaths and serious illnesses in younger people.

The first time a person's immune system encounters a flu virus, it makes antibodies targeting hemagglutinin - a receptor protein that sticks out of the surface of the virus - like a lollipop.

Even though there are 18 types of influenza A, there are only two versions - or "flavours" of hemagglutinin.

The researchers, led by Dr Michael Worobey, classed them as "blue" and "orange" lollipops.

They said people born before the late 1960s were exposed to "blue lollipop" flu viruses - H1 or H2 - as children.

In later life they rarely fell ill from another "blue lollipop" flu - H5N1 bird flu, but they died from "orange" H7N9.

Those born in the late 1960s and exposed to "orange lollipop" flu - H3 - have the opposite pattern.

His team looked at cases of H5N1 and H7N1 - two avian (bird) flus which have affected hundreds of people, but have not developed into pandemics.

The researchers found a 75% protection rate against severe disease and 80% protection rate against death if patients had been exposed to a virus with the same protein motif when they were children.

'Compelling'

Dr Worobey said the finding could explain the unusual effect of the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic, which was more deadly among young adults.

"Those young adults were killed by an H1 virus and from blood analysed many decades later there is a pretty strong indication that those individuals had been exposed to a mismatched H3 as children and were therefore not protected against H1.

"The fact that we are seeing exactly the same pattern with current H5N1 and H7N9 cases suggests that the same fundamental processes may govern both the historic 1918 pandemic and today's contenders for the next big flu pandemic."

Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at University of Nottingham, said: "This is a really neat piece of work and provides a reason why human populations have been susceptible to different strains of bird influenza over the past 100 years or so.

"The findings are based on analysis of patient records and they certainly need validating in the laboratory, but nonetheless the results are pretty compelling."