A Baseball Mystery The Home Run Is Back And No One Knows
HR%2.172.84+30.90 Thanks to that late-season surge, league-wide regular-season scoring rose from 4.07 runs per game in 2014 to 4.25 runs per game in 2015, the largest single-season spike since 2005 to 2006 and only the second year-to-year increase of any size in that span. Not only did the extended decline in baseball’s scoring stop, but offense bounced back to where it had been four years before. And over the final third of the regular season, teams produced runs at a rate higher than they had in any full season since 2009, the year before the strike zone started expanding and scoring dipped so suddenly that some observers dubbed 2010 “the year of the pitcher.”We can’t credit last year’s increase in offense to a reversal in strike-zone size: The zone actually grew again in 2015, albeit very slightly. Similarly, strikeout and walk rates barely budged. But home runs rebounded by enough to produce most of the extra scoring. The graph below shows monthly home-run rates as a percentage of contact (HR/Contact), where “contact” is defined as at-bats minus strikeouts. Once again, playoff rates aren’t pictured, but in 72 games last postseason, HR/Contact leaped to 5.1 percent, which would literally be off the chart. The HR/Contact rate last August was higher than it had been in any month since August 2009, and the rate last September/October was higher than it had been in any month since August 2004. On the whole, the percentage increase in second-half HR/Contact, relative to first-half HR/Contact, was higher for the 2015 regular season than for any previous season since at least 1950.Perhaps not surprisingly, the speed of the ball off the bat, as measured by MLB Advanced Media’s tracking system Statcast, also increased late last season. Average exit velocity in September/October was about a mile per hour higher than it had been at its low point in June. On his first day in office, in January 2015, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced his interest in “inject[ing] additional offense into the game.” Over the previous several seasons, scoring in baseball had dropped to levels not seen since the mid-1970s, as an expanded strike zone, an increase in average pitch velocity, the rise of defensive shifts, and detailed data on batter tendencies had combined to keep runs scarce. Manfred mentioned banning the shift as a possible solution to the scoring decline, and he considered shrinking the strike zone and adding the designated hitter to the National League. But he decided to see whether the trend persisted before taking action.After the 2015 season, Manfred congratulated himself on his earlier restraint. “What I said at the beginning of the year was that, before we made a judgment and started to talk about changes, that we needed at least another year of data,” Manfred said. “Every once in awhile, even I get to be right.”He was right: Just as it began to seem certain that only a deus ex Manfred could rescue the sport from soccer-esque scores, baseball’s offense came back from the brink. The only problem is that no one knows why, or whether it will last. To unravel the mystery, we examined the most likely suspects — warmer weather, better rookie bats and bouncier baseballs — completing our investigation by shipping a bushel of balls to a laboratory for testing.A sudden increase in offenseManfred’s tune changed because of what he called “a really interesting uptick in offense late in the year … a statistically significant increase in scoring.” Below is a graph of runs scored per nine innings in each regular-season month from 2000 to 2015. It shows a steep climb last August and September/October, and although it doesn’t display postseason scoring — which is typically lower than the regular-season rate — teams averaged 4.36 runs per game during the 2015 postseason, more than they had scored in any month from April through July of that year. More: Apple Podcasts | ESPN App | RSS | Embed Although this increase in exit velocity helps explain the home runs, it’s still just a symptom of the root reason for the offensive uptick; we’ve substituted one enigma for another. HITf/x data provided by former Mariners special assistant Tony Blengino reveals that no such late-season trend toward higher exit velocities existed in 2013 or 2014, so the 2015 pattern is puzzling.1HITf/x, a camera-based system, reports lower exit velocities, on average, than Statcast, which tracks batted balls via Doppler radar. Embed Code Source: FanGraphs Ben Lindbergh joins the Hot Takedown podcast to preview the 2016 MLB season. BB%7.137.72+8.30 The clubhouse theoriesAfter the World Series, we surveyed members of almost every front office to find out how baseball executives accounted for the offensive renaissance in the second half of last season. Three theories predominated: unusually warm weather, which decreases air density and helps batted balls carry; an unprecedented influx of powerful rookie hitters; and a decline in pitching quality stemming from good pitchers being shut down as pennant races resolved themselves early.Although existing baseball data makes it difficult to analyze the effects of wind and humidity, temperature alone isn’t a satisfactory answer. In-game temperatures were higher during the last two months of the regular season than they were earlier in the season, but Hardball Times writer Jon Roegele found that those extra degrees explained only a small percentage of the rise in scoring. According to physics of baseball researcher Alan Nathan, a 1-degree climb in average temperature would increase home-run rate by only 0.6 percent, so dog-days heat likely had only a modest effect.The other theories are more persuasive. Last season was an outlier in terms of rookie production, featuring the most productive rookie position players of any year on record. Although many top prospects made productive debuts early in the year, rookie hitters upped their games even further in the second half, when studs such as Miguel Sano, Corey Seager, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa did damage immediately. Rookie hitters totaled 155 home runs in August, an all-time record for rookie homers in a single month. And, anecdotally, a number of teams that were out of contention did phone it in on the mound after trades, injuries or innings limits thinned their rotations. The Reds, for one, set a record for consecutive starts by rookie pitchers, with uneven results.We tried to account for fluctuating talent in two ways. First, we built a model to estimate the exit velocity of each batted ball based on the batter, the pitcher, the temperature, the count, the pitch velocity and the pitch’s called-strike probability. The model assigns a coefficient to each player, derived from actual results; for instance, Zack Greinke reduces estimated exit velocity by 1.5 mph, on average, while Kris Bryant increases it by 3 mph.Although the model does predict higher exit velocities late in the season, the predicted differences are small, on the order of 0.2 to 0.3 mph. The actual exit velocities exceeded the model’s predictions by 0.13 mph in August, 0.46 mph in September and 0.86 mph in October. And those differences persist even if we limit our sample to full-season hitters and pitchers, which excludes prospects promoted late in the year and replacement-level pitchers who got garbage-time innings for eliminated teams.As a second check, we compared actual strikeout, walk and home-run rates (per plate appearance) in the second half to the strikeout, walk and home-run rates we would have expected at the All-Star break had we known exactly which batter-pitcher matchups we would see over the rest of the season. To do that, we obtained rest-of-season Steamer projections for every player, generated at the All-Star break, and applied them to the second-half matchups that actually took place (using the odds ratio method). The table below displays the differences between the predicted and actual results. In the second-half matchups, we saw roughly 8 percent more walks and 7 percent fewer strikeouts than Steamer would have expected — modest deviations, perhaps attributable to a league-wide increase in aggressiveness early in the count. Here too, though, the home-run rate stands out: There were 31 percent more home runs hit after the All-Star break than Steamer would have projected, even if it had predicted playing time perfectly. That’s an enormous number, with an astronomically small probability of occurring at random. Even if Steamer had been systematically underrating rookie hitters, it wouldn’t explain these results: In “Return of the Run,” an essay in the latest “Hardball Times Baseball Annual,” Jeff Sullivan calculated that rookies produced only a third of 2015’s increase in home runs, with the rest coming from carryover players.So: What about the ball?There’s one factor that we haven’t discussed that a few of the front-office respondents brought up: the baseball. According to an anonymously sourced report by Ken Rosenthal, the league listed “wrapping the ball tighter to make it fly farther” as part of a package of offense-inflating ideas it sent to the MLB Players Association last winter. Although changes in baseball construction have often been advanced as a possible cause of scoring changes over the past few decades, the smoking ball has proved elusive: MLB testing prompted by a rise in home-run rate in the first half of 2000 found negligible differences from 1999 and 1998 balls, and Nathan found no difference in average liveliness between balls from 2004 and the mid-1970s. However, a change in the ball would neatly account for the outcome we’ve observed: a significant increase in exit velocity and home runs, independent of talent and temperature, without a dramatic change in control of the strike zone. According to Nathan, exit speed is most sensitive to ball construction on hard contact, which jibes with our finding that the greatest increase in exit velocity came on line drives. Even more suggestively, the observed exit velocity began to exceed expectations right after the All-Star break: Some teams order enough balls at the beginning of the year to get them through the first half and then replenish their supplies at the break. If the ball had changed between opening day and midseason, we would expect to see results resembling the line in the chart. The history of clandestine big league baseball-adjusting goes back more than a century, and there is recent precedent for an unannounced ball change in a high-profile league: Japan’s baseball commissioner resigned in 2013 after news broke that NPB had secretly started using a livelier ball. Of course, there could be an innocent explanation for a change in the ball, since even a minor alteration in materials or manufacturing could produce a significant difference in the ball’s bounciness, or coefficient of restitution (COR).Major League Baseball’s vice president of communications, Michael Teevan, told us that MLB’s testing has uncovered no evidence of a meaningful change in the baseball. “As a quality control effort, we routinely do testing of baseballs in conjunction with our consultants at UMass-Lowell to ensure that they meet our specifications,” Teevan said. “To this point, we have not uncovered anything suggesting that the balls are related to the increased amount of home runs in the second half.” MLB’s analysis also failed to find a conclusive link between weather and last season’s increase in scoring.FiveThirtyEight attempted to replicate MLB’s reported results by conducting its own testing using another facility. We purchased a dozen official 2015 postseason baseballs directly from Rawlings and a dozen unopened major league balls manufactured in 2014 from eBay. We sent both sets to the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington State University, where they were stored in an environmental chamber for two weeks to ensure consistent conditions, and then fired from a cannon to strike a fixed cylinder at 95 mph so that their impacts could be measured. The COR of the 2015 balls was only 0.003 higher, on average, which Nathan dismissed as “barely at the accuracy limit of the measurements.” After studying the results, Nathan concluded: “My very definite takeaway from the measurements is that there is no compelling evidence that the balls perform differently.” It’s possible that the newer baseballs have lower seams, which would help them fly farther; the NCAA successfully counteracted a power outage of its own by lowering its regulation ball’s seam height last season. It’s also possible that the balls we tested were in some way not representative of the ones that were used in actual games.2In addition, there is about a 1 in 10 chance that even if there had been a change in COR large enough to explain the increase in exit velocity, a particular batch of a dozen baseballs would show only a 0.003 increase. However, based on both our testing and (according to Teevan) MLB’s, there’s no obvious sign of a disconnect between balls that say “Rob Manfred” and balls that said “Bud Selig.”The takeaway: Balls were hit harder and cleared fences more often than expected in the second half of last season, even after our best attempts to account for talent and temperature. Because we can’t pinpoint a cause, we can’t say for certain whether 2015’s late-season offense was a misleading blip or a preview of 2016 scoring. This month’s spring-training scores3Which are strongly correlated with regular-season scores. suggest we should lean toward the latter: Both home-run rates and overall scoring have returned to their highest spring levels since 2013. Unfortunately, the only way to resolve the uncertainty is to study a larger sample, which means waiting for regular-season baseball to come back — as if we needed another reason to anticipate next week’s opening day.Thanks to David Appelman and Alan Nathan, who contributed research. 2015 second-half home runs exceeded expectations STATPREDICTEDACTUALDIFFERENCE By Rob Arthur and Ben Lindbergh K%22.06%20.43%-7.40%
In it she writes: “They were the mainstay of the Agricultural Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain, and in all corners of the Globe to which they were exported. They were sent as far afield as Pakistan, South Africa, North America and Australia.“Today they are used for all driven work, ploughing and forestry, and as ridden horses are calm and biddable. Help is urgently needed to save them from oblivion. The world cannot afford to lose this uniquely beautiful and remarkable horse.”The breed can trace its ancestry back to the great warhorses of the Middle Ages, although its modern variant traces back to a stallion foaled near Woodbridge in 1768, owned by Thomas Crisp of Ufford and simply known as ‘Crisp’s horse’.While its numbers have recovered in recent years, both the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in the UK and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy consider the status of the Suffolk Punch to be critical and it is considered the rarest horse breed in Britain, with just 30 to 40 pure bred foals born each year. If we lost the Suffolk Punch we couldn’t really say we are a nation of animal lovers.Clare, Countess of Euston The Countess of Euston, whose estate in Suffolk was once worked by Suffolk Punch horses, said Britain should feel ashamed of itself if it stood by and did nothing to save the breed.“If we lost the Suffolk Punch I think it would mean we couldn’t really say we are a nation of animal lovers. They are the most magnificent and beautiful of the breeds,” she said.There are now just 300 Suffolk Punch horses left in the UK, threatening the health and viability of the breed which once formed the backbone of rural life.Standing sixteen hands high and weighing over a tonne, yet graceful at full gallop, the Suffolk Punch has been described as having “the face of an angel and the backside of a farmer’s daughter”.Thousands died during World War One, when they were used to haul heavy artillery to the front lines.Their numbers recovered during the 1920s and 1930s, when they were once again used as farm horse, but the introduction of tractors saw they numbers decline dramatically. Clare, Countess of Euston, said the Suffolk Punch should hold a special place in the British public’s affections.“It’s the oldest of our native heavy horses. They were bred for farming but we have to find a new role for them in modern life,” she said. “We get hopelessly romantic about tigers and other critically endangered species, but sometimes we need to look closer to home.”She has called for a proper breeding programme to save the Suffolk Punch to be funded by scientific bodies and conservation groups.“I’d like to see a national summit held to come up with a proper plan of action. And where there’s a plan funding will follow,” said Lady Euston.As part of her campaign the Countess, who was appointed Suffolk’s first-ever female Lord Lieutenant in 2014,has written an essay on the plight of the breed to accompany a new book of photographs of horses by Derry Moore. 
For centuries they ploughed the fields of England, shaping much of the landscape of East Anglia, before being harnessed for battle during the First World War.Yet the Suffolk Punch horse – Britain’s oldest native breed – is now critically endangered, its numbers in sharp decline a victim of the rapid mechanisation of agriculture.The plight of the breed – deemed to be rarer than the giant panda or even the Siberian tiger – has moved one landowner to appeal for an organised campaign to save them from oblivion.
The Suffolk Punch is critically endangeredCredit:Alamy Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings. Clare, Countess of Euston with her Suffolk Punch stallion, Euston MalachiteCredit:Jason Bye
The makers of Toblerone face a mountain of fury after making a controversial change to its distinctive triangular chocolate chunks.Mondelez International has increased the gap between the peaks as a UK-only cost-saving measure to reduce the weight of its bars.The company, which also owns Cadbury, said the move was down to the rise in the cost of ingredients, and denied it was a result of Brexit. The move has resulted in the weight of the 400g bars being reduced to 360g and the 170g bars to 150g, while the size of the packaging has remained the same.Lee Yarker said: “Fair enough reducing the weight of the bar, but why the big gap in between segments? Looks stupid imo [in my opinion], could have just made the bar shorter and kept the original design.” 
Mondelez has faced a wave of criticism for “messing” with much-loved Cadbury’s products. Consumers have complained about Daily Milk bars being given rounded edges, bars shrinking, the axing of Cadbury chocolate coins, Bournville chocolate disappearing from the Heroes tub, sultanas in Fruit & Nut bars and axing the company’s traditional Christmas chocolate gift to pensioners.Perhaps the biggest controversy surrounded the 2015 decision to replace Dairy Milk in its recipe for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs with cheaper chocolate. Other food manufacturers have previously announced rises in their product prices, blaming the falling value of the pound following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.A spokeswoman for Mondelez acknowledged that the foreign exchange rate was currently “not favourable”, but added: “This change wasn’t done as a result of Brexit.” “We chose to change the shape to keep the product affordable for our customers, and it enables us to keep offering a great value product. it had to make a decision between changing the look of the bars or raising their price.”Toblerone fan Dan Rickwood said: “Hi Toblerone, I am one of your biggest fans and love your chocolate, but I bought a 150g toblerone earlier only to be left upset disappointed and a little distressed! 
The Toblerone barCredit:Alamy Seriously. Has anyone tried turning 2016 off and on again? Wtf next? #Toblerone— Sonia 🍁 (@5_oClockWhistle) November 8, 2016 But some consumers have described the move as “the wrong decision” and said the bigger spaces looked “stupid”.In a statement on the Toblerone Facebook page, the company said: “We had to make a decision between changing the shape of the bar, and raising the price. “In fact I felt cheated on a tad in the way that they are now spaced out so much loosing out on toblerone goodness, I’m upset toblerone I’m sorry but I really am.”Stephen Mason said: “Toblerone is all about the triangle. Why couldn’t you just lose a triangle at the end or make the triangles smaller?”I’m afraid that this is going the way of Cadbury Creme Egg and off my seasonal treat list as I will forever be disappointed.” Philip Joseph wrote: “It was the wrong decision. It looks like a really underhanded thing to do.”You buy a bar expecting a normal bar and it looks like you are getting half the chocolate.”Cathy White added: “It looks dreadful. Think you should’ve reduced the length and kept the chunky triangles.” US company Mondelez said that “like many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients”.It added: “We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the UK, from the wider range of available Toblerone products.” Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings. It looks dreadful. Think you should’ve reduced the length and kept the chunky trianglesCathy White The new #Toblerone.Wrong on so many levels. It now looks like a bicycle stand.#WeWantOurTobleroneBack. pic.twitter.com/C71KeNUWF1— James Melville (@JamesMelville) November 8, 2016 How it was – the Toblerone barCredit:Toblerone
Elderly people have reported they have been left unwashed or unfed by staff 
Local Government Ombudsman Michael King also said there was a growing problem over standards of home care.The vast majority of the allegations related to care of elderly people in their homes, with more than 9,700 involving people aged over 80.The investigation revealed how some elderly people were left for days without proper medication or attention to personal hygiene.Only half the councils contacted in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland provided data, suggesting the true number of allegations could be far higher.Although File On 4 said it was not possible to find out whether all these reports were valid and fully investigated, however officially, complaints to the ombudsman about home care rose by 25 per cent last year to 372 and 65 per cent of them were upheld.A recent report by the Good Care Guide found that people who needed care in their own homes also complained of rushed or cancelled visits, rude staff and poor timekeeping. A daughter of a woman with Alzheimer’s said that her mother had been left without food for nine hours after care workers failed to turn up.Caroline Abrahams, director of AgeUK said there had be warnings that social care was approaching a ‘tipping point’ but she feared that it had now been reached. The Department of Health told the programme it had “introduced tougher inspections of care services, given councils access to up to £7.6bn of dedicated funding for social care and will continue to challenge local authorities that do not fulfil their duties under the Care Act”.File On 4 is on Radio 4 on Tuesday at 8pm. More than 23,000 allegations of abuse by home care workers against elderly and vulnerable people were made in the last three years, yet just 15 people were prosecuted as a result, new figures show. Around 500,000 people in Britain need home help services but the new figures suggest that one in 25 people may be suffering at the hands of their carers.The BBC Radio 4 File on 4 programme asked every council in England, Scotland and Wales with responsibility for social care, for the numbers of allegations of abuse and neglect made against home carers who were contracted by local authorities to provide home care.They discovered 23,428 accusations of mistreatment, including 12,000 allegations concerning neglect, 2,400 cases of psychological abuse, more than 3,400 allegations of physical abuse, and 400 claims of sexual abuse.Yet just 700 of the allegations resulted in police action, and there were just 15 prosecutions. Bridget Warr, chief executive of the UK Home Care Association, which represents care companies in the UK, described the findings as “horrifying” and blamed cuts to local Government budgets. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.
Scott Marsden, 14, died on Monday after his fight was called off “I’ve had the pleasure of helping Scotty raise money in the past to help send him off to fight overseas in the WKU world open championship, where he won Gold -50kg division, something I was so incredibly proud of him for doing.”So thought it fitting I do it for him again now, even though it’s breaking my heart.”Everything Scotty did, he did with passion and a confidence that was a pleasure to behold, he was the most wonderful, talented boy and the loss of him will leave a hole in so many people’s lives.”Scott was not only a kick boxer though, he is a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin and a friend.”No amount of money can take away the pain his family are feeling today and always, but no family should ever have to cater for coping with the loss of a 14 year old boy, with his whole life ahead of him.”Please give what you can to help support his beautiful family.” On it, they write: “Yesterday we were all struck with the devastating blow none of us ever thought possible.”Our lovely Scotty, who suffered an injury on Saturday 11/3/17 whilst doing the thing he loved, Kickboxing, sadly never recovered and took his final bow surrounded by his family and people who love him in the early hours of this morning. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings. 
A spokesperson from Leeds Martial Arts College said: “Our deepest condolences & sympathy go to our friends the Marsdens at this terrible time.”Scotty will always be in our hearts & our thoughts & we miss you dearly.”A true champion in every way who’s energy & positivity affected everyone he met. Rest now Scotty lad.”The Leeds Martial Arts College is now closed until further notice. A justgiving page has been set up to raise funds for Scott Marsden’s familyCredit:justgiving.com Jackie said: “Darren is getting some sleep because we’ve been through a hellish weekend.”In earlier posts on their Facebook page they had said there was no indication during the fight to suggest something was wrong.It read: “Unfortunately, Saturday night’s English title fight had to be stopped due to Scotty needing immediate medical attention.”There was no way to foresee the fight ending in such a way as at no point were either ever in any overwhelming danger from each other”Everyone is still in shock as there were simply no signs to suggest the fight needed to be stopped.”The referee stepped in to protect Scott as soon as he could, which meant Scott did not hit the canvas and was laid down and straight into recovery position.”Scott was then taken to hospital.” A teenager who was taken ill during a top national kickboxing match has died.Scott Marsden, 14, known as Scotty, was competing for an English title at Leeds Martial Arts college, West Yorkshire, on Sunday when he was rushed to hospital.The title fight had been close with just one point separating two of the country’s best young fighters and there was nothing to suggest the contest needed to be stopped up to that point.However, Marsden is believed to have received a serious injury towards the end of the bout, leading to it being called off so that he could receive medical attention. His club, Marsden’s All Styles (MAS) Kickboxing – which was set up by his father, Simon Marsden, and his uncle Darren Marsden eight years ago – have set up a fundraising page to help raise money for his devastated family. 
Scott had only just returned to the sport after breaking his tibia and fibia in a fight in late October last year, just two days before he was due to fly to Italy with his teammates for the World Championships. Scott Marsden was taking part in a fight at Alexandra Mill, Morley, on SaturdayCredit:Google Never take time spent with someone for granted, Goodnight champ, there’s only one Scott Marsden😪🥊❤️xox— ellie trower (@ellietrower13) March 13, 2017 Scott marsden has passed away after a kickboxing bout on sat he was 14 thoughts and prayers go to his family 🙏 every fighter takes risks— Enzo Maccarinelli (@theRealEnzoMac) March 14, 2017 
Marsden was a highly-rated young kickboxer from Sheffield, and the club had previously raised money through crowdfunding to ensure he could represent his country at the World Kickboxing and Karate Union (WKU) World Championships in Spain.The crowdfunding page told how Scott, then aged 13, had in the space of three months swept to victory in the WKA Yorkshire Open Championships, the WKKC National Open Championships and the WTKA European Open Championships.West Yorkshire Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.A spokesman said: “At 1.20pm on Sunday, police were contacted by medical staff at Leeds General Infirmary reporting a 14-year-old boy who was in a critical condition after collapsing during an organised kickboxing contest at Alexandra Mill, Morley, on Saturday night.”Inquiries are being carried out into the circumstances.” The breaks put him out of action for three months.A spokesman for the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) England said it had been a tragic incident but was not known at this stage what had caused Scott’s condition to suddenly deteriorate.The spokesman said: “We’re communicating with Scott’s family and making sure they have all the support they need.”We’re also giving them the time and space they required.” Scott’s aunt, Jackie Marsden, 46, said on Tuesday that the family had been through a “hellish weekend.”Her husband, goldsmith Darren, 47, was unable to speak about the loss of his nephew as he was in bed.
One of the concerns of Jeremy Corbyn’s team is that – should Corbyn step down – it would be too difficult to attract enough support among MPs to get another Corbynista on the ballot paper for the ensuing leadership race. There’s an irony about the current woes of Labour’s polling: the fewer MPs the party wins in the General Election, the fewer MPs a potential Jeremy Corbyn successor would need to support their leadership bid. Labour’s rules state that anyone who wishes to challenge the sitting leader needs the backing of 20 per cent of Labour MPs and MEPs. If there is no sitting leader, they would need just 15 per cent of MPs and MEPs.
They have sought to address this by proposing to lower the…
Crufts has clamped down on flat-faced dogs after warning its judges not to award prizes to animals that are unable to breathe. Ahead of this year’s event, which commences tomorrow, organisers The Kennel Club have issued judges of all brachycephalic breeds a written reminder about over exaggerated features. In previous years Crufts has come under heavy criticism for awarding prizes to dogs with artificially bred features.In 2016, a “best in breed” prize was awarded to a German shepherd with an abnormally sloped back and a painful-looking out-of -step gait. Backlash of the award has forced The Kennel Club to rethink its policy on breeding. Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, said: “Dogs with exaggerated features do remain a concern and we want to put a stop to this and change how people breed their dogs. 
Last year a “best in breed” prize was awarded to a German shepherd with an abnormally sloped backCredit:Sandra Whyte The club stated that the letter emphasised how important it is that the judges only select dogs that meet strict breeding standards criteria.They added that it was part of their “commitment to ensuring that all dogs at Crufts are fit to compete and are not suffering in any way and that no dogs that have exaggerated physical features are awarded at the show.”In 2008 the BBC announced it would not broadcast Crufts due to a dispute over the inclusion of certain breeds of pedigree dog in the competition. Ms Hens added that the RSPCA still had “serious concerns” about the main showing and judging at Crufts due to the way in which many breeds of dogs have been bred over the years to have exaggerated physical features in order to appeal to judges and best meet breed standards in the show ring.
In the same year the RSPCA also announced it was pulling out of Crufts over concerns relating to disability, deformity and disease among pedigree breeds.RSPCA dog welfare expert Lisa Hens said: “Some elements of Crufts are a positive celebration of man’s best friend and we enjoy seeing the dogs and their owners coming together to enjoy activities such as agility, flyball and heelwork to music. “We welcome steps that have been taken to improve the health of certain breeds – such as the formation of the multi-organisation Brachycephalic Working Group, which includes the Kennel Club – but believe there is still a lot of work to be done around Crufts and the show world generally to ensure that dogs are celebrated and awarded with their health, happiness and welfare given priority over their appearance.” “Over the last few years we have introduced a number of new rules and this year we have extended our veterinary final checks to cover all dogs which will enter the main arena for a physical examination.“All judges involved in the judging of brachycephalic breeds, those with flat-faces, were sent a letter reminding them of the breeding standards and that all dogs should have open nostrils.“We remain dedicated to ensuring that breeds which have harmful exaggerated features are not rewarded.” The “Best in Show” will be announced on Sunday evening The letter emphasised how important it is that the judges only select dogs that meet strict breeding standards criteriaCredit:Tim Flach/Getty “Shows like Crufts are fundamentally still beauty pageant-type shows and the way that dogs are bred in order to win these shows is still having a huge impact on their health and welfare,” she said.Director of PETA UK also accused the event of being a “Frankensteinian show that glorifies pedigree fetishists’ obsession with the ‘perfectly’ designed dog to the detriment of the animals themselves.”However Ms Kisko said audiences were not watching Crufts to see “freak dogs” and that hundreds of thousands of viewers tune in because they love animals. Crufts commences tomorrow and will conclude on Sunday with the announcement of ‘Best in Show’.
Baker was described as the “face of news for millions” by the BBC’s director general Tony Hall While Simon McCoy, a current newsreader for the BBC, said Baker was a “huge” influence on him and was “the” newsreader of his generation. Adam Cumiskey, the chief programmer of Newsnight, said he was such a fan of Baker’s as a child he would kiss the television set whenever he was on screen. And Alastair Stewart, of ITV News, wrote: “He was a terrific sport and possessed of a great sense of humour.” Writer Louis Barfe described Baker’s last news bulletin on the BBC as “sober, authoritative, but with a distinct twinkle”. Baker pictutred with his wife Margaret and two children Andrew (six) and James (four)Credit:Owen Barnes/Rex Features 
Richard Baker at home in Oxfordshire in 2014Credit:David Rose for the Telegraph 
He said: “Comedy programmes got him in to do things because they knew that under the strait-laced exterior, mischief lurked.” And war correspondent Jeremy Bowen simply wrote: “Richard Baker was a legend.”Baker was born in Willesden, north London in 1925. He attended Kilburn Grammar School before going on to read history and modern languages at Peterhouse College in Cambridge. Shortly into his degree, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves where he was deployed to Russia. At the end of the Second World War, he returned and completed his studies. His calm yet authoritative voice caught the attention of the news department and he was enlisted to introduce the broadcaster’s first televised news bulletin in July 1954. Newsreaders were not allowed to appear onscreen originally. Reflecting on this in 2016, Baker told The Telegraph: “We couldn’t appear on screen for months because it was feared we might sully the stream of truth with inappropriate facial expressions. Instead the viewers saw pictures making the news.”Baker read the news for a further 28 years, until his retirement on New Year’s Eve in 1982.In recent years Baker moved to a retirement community and delighted fellow residents by reading out the news headlines to them at six o’clock over supper. Baker leaves behind two sons Andrew, a deputy editor at The Daily Telegraph and James, a television executive at Red Arrow Studios. Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.
The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion has been rearrested just hours after being released from custody, after attempting to fly drones near Heathrow airport.Roger Hallam, ringleader of the ‘Heathrow Pause’ movement, was the second person arrested today in connection with the disruption, bringing the total number of people taken into custody to 20 in three days.Despite their attempts to have the airport shut down by flying drones within a three mile exclusion zone, Heathrow’s services remained unaffected.‘Heathrow Pause’, a splinter group from Extinction Rebellion, claim that Mr Hallam’s bail conditions stipulated that he not to go within five miles of any airport and must not have any drone related equipment in his possession.He was apprehended in Stanwell, just off the airport’s Southern perimeter road. The group of environmental protesters has continued their attack on Heathrow for a second day with “multiple flights” within exclusion zone.Activist Anthony Whitehouse posted footage this morning of a short drone flight and then handed himself in to officers at Terminal 4.On Friday, a former Paralympic athlete who won a bronze medal at London 2012 was also arrested.James Brown, from Northern Ireland said that he feared going to prison but it is a price worth paying to raise awareness for the climate crisis. Roger Hallam attempted to fly this drone within a restricted zoneCredit:Peter Manning/LNP Want the best of The Telegraph direct to your email and WhatsApp? Sign up to our free twice-daily Front Page newsletter and new audio briefings.
Rio Tinto has reached agreement on the first sale under its planned programme to divest at least $15 billion of assets. The Group has signed an agreement to sell Kennecott Greens Creek Mining Co and Kennecott Juneau Mining Co, the subsidiaries holding its interests in the Greens Creek mine in Alaska, to an affiliate of Hecla Mining. Greens Creek is a silver, gold, zinc and lead underground mine and concentrator facility on Admiralty Island near Juneau. It is currently a joint venture between a Rio Tinto Kennecott subsidiary (70.3%) and a Hecla subsidiary (29.7%). The sale price is $750 million. The price comprises a cash component of $700 million and the balance in Hecla common stock. Closing is subject to customary conditions, including expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. “The sale of our interests in Greens Creek is a very positive first step towards our target of realising asset sales of $10 billion in 2008,” said Guy Elliott, Chief Financial Officer of Rio Tinto.Bret Clayton, Rio Tinto’s Copper Product Group Chief Executive said, “Hecla Mining has for a long time been our joint venture partner and already has a solid understanding of the mine, the employees, the community and the State. Hecla is well placed to assume operation of the mine.”In November 2007, Rio Tinto announced the results of its overall strategic review of its asset portfolio following its acquisition of Alcan. Options are also being explored to divest Rio Tinto Energy America (coal), Rio Tinto Minerals’ talc business, Rio Tinto Alcan Packaging, Rio Tinto Alcan Engineered Products, Rio Tinto’s interest in the Cortez gold mine in Nevada, Rio Tinto’s Northparkes copper mine in Australia and Rio Tinto’s Sweetwater (USA) and Kintyre (Australia) uranium assets.