hello. it's thursday. it's ten o'clock. i'm chloe tilley. today we reveal that thousands of women are posting allegations about abusive behaviour in a series of facebook pages known as prick advisor. the main group has more than 100,000 members. it's like a little army of women looking out for each other all across the country. some other woman out there that could be at risk could be warned. they say they want to protect others but experts say they risk their own safety and that the sites are encouraging false allegations. another small rise in the numbers awarded top grades at gcse. i got a seven in english language, which i wasn't expecting. also i got a seven and six for my

combined science double award. we'll bejoining some students as they find out what they got in their exams. is carbon offsetting plane journeys worth it? eltonjohn said he did it after arranging for prince harry and meghan markle to fly on his private jet. we'll speak to a scientist who says it's a complete joke. and a row breaks out as president trump's former press secretary sean spicer is given a place on the us equivalent of strictly, dancing with the stars. the presenter says the show should be free of politics. is he right? hello. welcome to the programme. we're live until ”am this morning. have you named and shamed an ex in an online chat group? if so why? and did you consider privacy or legal concerns before you did it?

also we'll bring you the latest on the ryanair pilot strike which is affecting flights today. let us know if you're heading off on holiday and facing a delay. do get in touch on all the stories we're talking about. use the hashtag victorialive. if you're emailing and are happy for us to contact you and maybe want to take part in the programme please include your phone number in your message. if you text, you'll be charged at the standard network rate. first carole walker has the news. good morning. borisjohnson will meet emmanuel macron in paris later, hours after the french president seemed to downplay hopes of solving the irish backstop problem. yesterday the german chancellor angela merkel suggested a solution might be achievable within 30 days, but late last night mr macron insisted reopening negotiations on the issue was not an option. the eu has repeatedly said the withdrawal deal struck by theresa may, which includes the backstop, cannot be renegotiated.

it's gcse results day, and there's been a slight increase in the pass rate and the percentage of papers getting top grades, despite concerns about the difficulty of the exams. the pass rate has edged up to 67.3% in england, wales and northern ireland, up 0.4 percentage points on last year. the rise comes as headteachers in england warned tougher gcses were demoralising some candidates. we'll be live at schools around the country as students open their results. stay with us for that. thousands of rya nair passengers face disruption as a two—day strike by uk pilots gets under way. the airline lost a legal challenge in the high court yesterday to block the strike, which is part of a dispute over pay and conditions. ryanair says it will be able to run its full schedule of flights but couldn't rule out some delays. eu citizens migrating to the uk is at its lowest level since 2013, according to figures

released this morning. the office for national statistics also says non—eu immigration has stabilised over the past year. the figures for the year ending march 2019 are the first since the announcement that these statistics were being downgraded to experimental. small pieces of plastic debris found in drinking water do not appear to pose a health risk at current levels. that's according to the world health organization's first ever report into microplastics, which have been found in rivers, lakes, drinking water supplies, and bottled water. the organisation says the findings are based on limited information and called for greater research on the issue. from how the flu virus infects us, to how our blood clots, researchers have developed a new type of microscope which takes videos with unprecedented levels of detail. researchers say this new view

inside the body is likely to accelerate the development of more effective drugs for dementia and infection. scientists involved in developing the microscope say it's sparking a biology revolution. and take a look at these jaw—dropping pictures from a wildlife park in florida. this is bomber, the american alligator, crushing a whole watermelon with a single bite. it was filmed as part of the park's crocweek and has been viewed tens of thousands of times. thank goodness it was only a watermelon! that is the latest bulletin for now. thank you. in facebook groups across the country, thousands of women are naming and shaming the men they say have abused them. the pages are called prick advisor. the intention was that they would be a force for good, a social media group where women can warn other women about all sorts of negative behaviour by men from cheating through to violence,

rape and even child abuse. women can share the men's names, pictures and location with the group. women's aid tells us the government needs to learn lessons and listen to the women in this group ahead of their new domestic violence bill. but there has also been a backlash with some men saying they've been falsely accused with fears that privacy and libel laws are being breached. amber haque has been to find out more. i have been pushed and dragged around and thrown on the floor. she was three years old when she just came up to me and said, "mummy, daddy hurt me." we feel like women are being failed by the system. the women across britain taking their alleged abuse into their own hands. it's like a little army of women looking out for each other all across the country. posting in a facebook group where women name and shame

the partners they claim have abused them. some other woman out there that could be at risk could be warned. but in the murky world of social media, when does naming and shaming go wrong? there was pictures of me. she was calling me "controlling", she was calling me "abusive to her". it's like a public hanging of men. so, i've been following the prick advisor pages for a few months now. the main national page has got 100,000 members, and then there's loads of smaller regional pages that have anything between a few hundred to 40,000 women in there. now, most of the women say that it's a force for good,

but i want to know if the groups are a symptom of women that have been let down by local authorities that have been cut, or is it a sign of where we're at with social media? and on this quiet cul de sac in bradford, we've come to meet sam wright as she's sifting through posts from 8000 women across west yorkshire. she's a regional administrator of one of many prick advisor groups across the country. women come to us to post up about a guy that they may be potentially dating, to somebody that they think may have had a violent past, to somebody that they are concerned that they're still sort of dating somebody else, or they're beating me up. 0r he's passed me on a sexually transmitted disease. it could be anything. women in the group say they want to warn others because of the hurt and the abuse they have faced at the hands of violent men. women like claire, who experienced

an incident of abuse at the hands of a partner. during the relationship, i'd been pushed and dragged around and thrown on the floor. i was quite isolated. ifelt, like, unhappy and sad most days. claire's partner was charged with battery. she eventually left the relationship and moved away to protect her children. her partner now has no contact with his family. i've had depression. i've had days where i don't open the curtains or want to go out of the house. any counselling or anything that i've had, any therapies i've had, i've had to seek myself. i've had to really go and shout about it. there wouldn't be that many members in these groups if they weren't... if the women weren't feeling like they needed that support. statistics show that an estimated 1.3 million women experience some form of domestic abuse last year.

0nly18% of the women who were abused by their partners in that year reported the abuse to the police. police forces already have something in place for a woman to access information that might protect her from abuse. it's called clare‘s law, but that information is only accessible when a man has had a conviction for domestic violence. i don't think that it's publicised enough. whereas with the group, you've got something that's straight there to hand where you can just type in somebody‘s name and just see straightaway if they're on there. clearly in the comments, there's quite a few people that know him. yeah. used to work with him... how do you actually make sure the allegations that women are posting about men are true? because obviously if they're not true, it's really got the potential to ruin someone‘s life and their reputation. it's a lot of responsibility on us to sort of look at both sides and think,

"right, well, which? who's telling the truth?" sometimes it's just easier to take the post down. because, obviously, without police involvement, it is just word, one person's word against... yeah. do you ever worry about getting caught in between a situation where maybe a man is being accused of something that isn't true? i've had threats. like, "i'm going to come to your house." "you've had it." we've had a lot of snitching, where they will screenshot and you can guarantee within sometimes i'd say less than five minutes of a post going up, it can be fed back to the person that it's been posted about. it's, like, 100,000 followers on there, and my name, my picture... ‘bleep from bleep is an absolutely narcissistic vile human being." and when the posts do get screenshotted and leaked, what happens if it isn't true? what happens to the men who become falsely accused? there it was in black and white. she plastered it all over facebook.

she was calling me a bustard, she was calling me controlling, she was calling me abusive to her. i mean, it's something that i can't prove cos how can i go on there and prove my innocence? i live in quite a small town. it had that effect on my business. people stopped coming to me for things. could you imagine if it was men talking about women, talking about their bodies, talking about their sex lives? i mean, a lot of people would just say this is your word against hers. in my case, it's just a crazy ex that's gone on there that wants to call me all the names under the sun and ruin my reputation. and it's worked. it's happened. of all the stories we've seen shared on the prick advisor page, probably one of the most shocking is that of marie's.

it is not her real name. we're going to protect her identity. but i first saw her story shared by one of her friends. she posted the name, the location and a picture of one of marie's ex partners that she said sexually abused marie's daughter at three years old. marie says her daughter started having night terrors, stopped talking and became incontinent in the months following her meeting her ex partner. she was three years old when she just came up to me and said, "mummy, daddy hurt my bum." i said, "was he cleaning you?" and she said, "no. this daddy hurt my bum with his front bum." as soon as she said it, i knew. all the signs that i'd missed came flying back into my head.

to have my daughter, my own child, tell me something like that at the age of three, itjust made me crumble. marie reported it to the police, and even though there was physical evidence of penetration, the cps didn't feel that the case was strong enough to take it to trial. your ex pa rtner‘s name, his picture, where he was from, as well as the accusations of him abusing your three—year—old daughter were put into the group. do you think you realised the legal implications of that information being put in what is essentially a public group? yeah. i'm not bothered about his identity being shown. i'm not bothered about the danger that goes to him. people need to know what he is.

and for the future, if your daughter does want to maybe one day take it to trial, would you feel worried about any of that information having gone out there already? no. they can't turn round and say, "well, no, someone your mum knows decides to post about it in prick advisor, so we can't charge him for it." the page that marie posted on was later suspended by facebook and her post is no longer up on the site. a similar suspension happened to sam's regional page, but she says it wasn't clear what content violated facebook‘s rules. we literally got the group handed back to us. there was nothing saying why it had been removed in the first place, other than the fact that we'd broken community standards. and how would you feel off the back of this piece if facebook did try to take it down? it's really difficult because obviously it's like going back to square one again and building it up with the members.

i think i would definitely open up another one because otherwise it's sort of like being bullied by facebook, you know, into not giving these women the chance to open up and speak out. in a statement, facebook told us: "we have strict rules on what is and isn't allowed amber haque with that report. talking to us now are lucy hadley, public affairs manager for women's aid and mark williams—thomas, a former detective and now an investigative journalist. thank you for coming in. the difficult watch that, at times. i

know, lucy, that you feel very strongly that the new domestic violence bill, which the government is currently debating, you believe that they should listen to women within this group and see how many of them are crying out for help from the authorities. absolutely. the domestic abuse crime is committed every single minute in england and wales. we need to listen to these women's experiences and the lack of support and protection they are currently getting. we need to make sure that women can access specialist support for abuse. and that there are spaces online and off—line where they can discuss their experiences and support each other. it is really important that the online spaces are safe for them to do so. and this is where it gets problematic with these groups. we have seen an uprising vigilantes. people who have set up groups to target online offenders. this raises a difficult thing, sharing information about people. the problem is that very often it is untested and it is coming from

people who in the heat of the moment might post something that they think oi'i might post something that they think on reflection it's not very balanced. and it is very one—sided. you get the opinion of an individual and these are very damaging comments. i totally understand where some of these people are sitting. men have a lot to answer for in their behaviour and as a result of that females feel let down by society and the authorities, by not taking the allegations and dealing with them properly. we saw that case where a woman had made a very serious sexual abuse allegation, gone to the cps and they didn't prosecute. that will leave the individual feeling totally let down. what can they do to try and make other people aware of where the potential danger exists? let's talk a little bit about clare's law. just explain what it is. it is a process whereby the police can share information about an individual who you might be in a relationship with. you have got to be in a relationship with the person and then police will

share the information. they go through a process of whether it is appropriate to share it and what information is known. it is a good process and a good act that is in existence, but the problem is it is not always information that gets shared. the police take very great ca re shared. the police take very great care as to whether they can share it and sometimes information is not known. there may be a concern that has happened within an environment and it has never been reported to the police and they might not have that information and then they can't share it. it is called clare's law, after 36—year—old claire wood, killed by a man with a history of violence in salford in greater manchester. clearly these women feel that clare's law is not working for them. do they not even know about it, the people who are using these groups? that is a massive issue, awareness of clare's law throughout the country is not as strong as it should be. and the consistency with which police forces raise awareness about the scheme, ensure that people in their communities are aware that

they can make this right, for information about their partner, or family and friends and their partners, it is not where it needs to be at the moment and we need to raise more awareness about the scheme. 0nly raise more awareness about the scheme. only one in five victims report to the police. there is a huge number of abusers who will never be known to the police and they will never be available, the information will never be available through clare's law to share. we are getting lots of messages from viewers. mother on twitter cola men who cheat, not women, need to be exposed like this. also: men suffer domestic violence as well as women and safeguarding for this would be impossible. and what if they have lied about what has happened to them? are you surprised by the response from facebook? and i had the statement at the end of her report, saying people need the right

to freedom of speech. are you surprised by that? facebook themselves have a clear process about what they will and will not ta ke about what they will and will not take down and they have algorithms to deal with that. they have individuals who will take individual cases. 0ver individuals who will take individual cases. over the years they have tried to be more of a platform that enables people to have freedom of speech. rather than taking things down. but an algorithm doesn't know about the legal ramifications. that is right. that is why these things stay up and when they are looked at by an individual person, they sometimes come down. it is a difficult ground that facebook try to take. it is an american company and they try to have that element of freedom of speech, but there are problems because there are individuals hiding behind anonymity. it is notjust facebook. we have seen it on all platforms where individuals hide and post all kinds of things about all kinds of people. the libel aspect exists and once something is posted, that stays in perpetuity. another comment: clearly

well—intentioned but legally and ethically so problematic. as journalists you know the risks of reporting about crime around children but normal people will not. we need to educate the public. she goes on to say that there are privacy, libel, safeguarding and ethical issues. at the same time i appreciate this happens because women feel powerless, failed by the authorities who should be protecting them from abusive men. is that what you are hearing from these women that they feel powerless and let down? i think so and we need to think about the safety of these online spaces in general for the women, notjust online spaces in general for the women, not just the online spaces in general for the women, notjust the risks of libel and allegations being false. also the risk that they are sharing huge amounts of identifiable information when they are potentially still at high risk from the perpetrator. there they can be tracked down. there they can be tracked down. there is triggering an emotionally difficult content on these groups

that survivors might really struggle with and they need links to proper specialist support. they need to be safe spaces and at the moment that is where i was concern would be. thank you both were coming in. we appreciate your time. if you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this discussion, help and support is available on the bbc action line website. go to bbc.co.uk/actionline. still to come: we'll be live at stansted to hear about the disruption ryanair passengers are facing, as pilots begin a two day strike. there's been another small rise in the number of pupils getting the top grades at gcses. good thing or a bad thing? we'll discuss it. borisjohnson will meet the french president, emmanuel macron, in paris at lunchtime to talk brexit. yesterday angela merkel,

the german chancellor, suggested that he could come up with an alternative to the so—called irish backstop contained in the brexit deal. she said he could use the next 30 days to suggest a plan to prevent the reintroduction of border checks on the island of ireland. mrjohnson has said the backstop is undemocratic. mr macron, however, has insisted that reopening negotiations on the issue is not an option. 0ur political correspondent iain watson is at westminster. the mood music from angela merkel yesterday did seem very positive. if you look at any of the front pages of the newspaper today, it has been lea pt of the newspaper today, it has been leapt upon. emmanuel macron is pouring cold water on that. he certainly is. the mood music was upbeat but the question is whether angela merkel has really changed her tune. from downing street's point of view, don't forget boris johnson during the conservative leadership contest was accused of spreading optimism. using optimism as an escape from reality almost. downing street were pretty downbeat when i

spoke to them this morning about the angela merkel meeting. they felt that even if they come up with alternatives to the northern irish backstop, whether it is in the next 30 days or before the real deadline of mid october when there is a european summit, if they come up with these ideas, what will the eu do next? what you didn't say what she would reopen the to agreement, the huge agreement. —— what she didn't say was that she would reopen their withdrawal agreement. she said we could tweak the non—legally binding document, the political declaration, but that would not be good enough for him or his supporters. we have not got away from the prospect of no—deal even with angela merkel and today in paris i think an even more blunt message from emmanuel macron. no, we will not reopen their withdrawal agreement. it is take it or leave it. what is interesting and where

this could be helpfulfor it. what is interesting and where this could be helpful for boris johnson is here. next week mps are discussing tactics to try to prevent no—deal but the one area where i think borisjohnson no—deal but the one area where i think boris johnson and no—deal but the one area where i think borisjohnson and emanuel macron get on its agreement over the fa ct macron get on its agreement over the fact that britain has got to leave by the 31st of october. it might be able to say to some of the potential rebels in his own ranks this week that you may want to delay brexited and take control of legislation in parliament, forced me to go back to europe and ask for an extension, but i tell you this, emmanuel macron would veto it in any case. his argument is that no—deal cannot be avoided unless the backstop is removed, unless there is a backstopectomy, which is a typical borisjohnson phrase. backstopectomy, which is a typical boris johnson phrase. thank you. ryanair pilots are going on strike today in a dispute over pay

and conditions, and flights are expected to be disrupted. the budget airline lost its high court bid to block the strike which will go on until tomorrow night. mike cowan is at stansted airport for us this morning. are there many delays for travellers? there are not. it is remarkably calm here. even in the middle of the summer holidays are be calmer than normal here at stansted, which is surprising because 180 pilots have gone on strike over pay. ryanair pilots have gone on strike over pay. rya na ir lost pilots have gone on strike over pay. ryanair lost at pilots have gone on strike over pay. rya na ir lost at sta nsted, pilots have gone on strike over pay. ryanair lost at stansted, which is surprising because 180 pilots have gone on strike over pay. ryanair lost a gone on strike over pay. ryanair losta high gone on strike over pay. ryanair lost a high court battle in the uk but they didn't lose it in ireland, though flights are running as per normal in ireland. but here, ryanair and michael 0'leary made a promise yesterday that flights out of the uk would operate two schedules. so far that appears to be the case. how has he done it? ryanair operate over a50 boeing 737 aircraft, all the same planes, meaning that every pilot on their roster can fly that plane. they have flown in pilots from bases

across europe to staff the positions of the 180 pilots in the uk striking today. so far that timetable is running to schedule. in fact there is even a suggestion, not confirmed at the moment, that ryanair is operating better than normal! that isa hint operating better than normal! that is a hint of irony. the administration of ryanair took the union to court, and they wanted to promise passengers that all flights would run to schedule and that does appear to be the case today. this was all about pay. ryanair hit back at the pilot saying you earn £180,000 a year, you do that, so why are you smoking? michael 0'leary, one of the most colourful characters, has said that those flights are running to timetable which is a huge win for ryanair. 180

pilots have worked out. thank you. kate grice is on holiday in portugal with her four—year—old son. she is due to travel home to sheffield tomorrow. ryanair has changed her flight from 9am to 3:50pm. we can speak to her now. it looks like you are still enjoying your summer holiday but i guess it is stressful worrying about how to get home. it is a bit stressful. we were told of the day we arrived here that ourflight had told of the day we arrived here that our flight had been changed. that is 0k our flight had been changed. that is ok but it is a seven hour delay, which is a long time to be on your own with a little boy in an airport. we hope there will be no further disruption. does it put you off using ryanair in the future?” disruption. does it put you off using ryanair in the future? i think it probably does. you use ryanair for a reason, obviously the flights are cheaper, so you get what you pay for, but the stress does put you off a bit. if you are due to fly at nine o'clock in the morning, does it mean

you can stay in your accommodation longer or do you have to camp out at the airport? we can stay at the hotel, who have been very good, and they have said we can stay there during the day and store our luggage. the problem will be if we get to the airport and find out the flight get to the airport and find out the flight is further delayed. at that time of night it will be difficult with a child. what has the communication belike from ryanair? didn't hear anything about strikes, all i got was the e—mail saying the flight had been changed, to seven hours later. they have not kept us informed of anything else. if you go on the website it just anything else. if you go on the website itjust says that anything else. if you go on the website it just says that services are running as normal so we have got to trust them on that, at the moment. best of luck, kate. hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday and get home easily. that was kate talking to us. she's got to get back to sheffield tomorrow with her four—year—old son. lots of you getting in touch about that story.

we have been talking about the facebook page prickadvisor were some men say that they been wrongly accused. i, the people in that area need to know that a paedophile has been brought into the area. i agree that if they are convicted it should be on display, to protect people. 0liver on e—mail says we seem to be forgetting that in this country the law assumes a person is innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. if these people have the guts to post this information on social media they should be brave enough to go to the police about it and let the law do itsjob. police about it and let the law do its job. alleged crimes police about it and let the law do itsjob. alleged crimes of police about it and let the law do its job. alleged crimes of this police about it and let the law do itsjob. alleged crimes of this kind are obviously appalling, but as such must be investigated and with properly. you will know from that report earlier, marie said she did go to the police with allegations that one partner had abused her child, and they said there was not sufficient evidence to go to court.

another twitter comment saying, i understand this facebook account but what about the false accusers? they can ruin lives. do they ensure that this is not being done? no, they don't. please get in touch, you can use the hashtag #victorialive. it's gcse results day and the proportion of gcses awarded top grades has risen slightly for the second year in a row. more than one in five — 20.8% — gcse entries scored one of the three top grades this year, up from 20.5% last summer. for students across england, wales and northern ireland, two years of hard work will come down to the results on a piece of paper. it's the third year of a new gcse grading system — which works by giving students numbers instead of letters. in a moment we're going to be speaking to pupils at caterham high school in ilford to see how they did, but first, we asked some of the students at lakeland's academy in shropshire to help us explain how the new system works in england. this year is the third year

in england that students like us will get our gcses marked 1—9. that is a‘, to g, in old money. the new system is designed to make exams more rigorous. very few students are expected to get a grade nine. the top grades, seven, eight and nine, are the equivalent of the old a and a*s. this is designed to distinguish between the top students' grades, with nine, the very top grade, being slightly harder than a*. grades four, five and six are equivalent to b — c grades. four is a standard pass, and five is a strong pass, which the government defines as a good pass. school league tables look at how many pupils achieved a grade five or higher in english and maths, so, now, schools will be pushing students to get those grades or above. so that's the system in england. pupils in wales are still using the a*—to—g grading system. in northern ireland, pupils are receiving their results in a mix of letters and numbers, depending on which exam board they took their tests with. we're going to speak to some students from caterham high school in ilford.

zainab abari, talhah sheikh, samantha green and tareq are with us. couldn't imagine today could be more stressful tha n couldn't imagine today could be more stressful than be asked to come on tv and talk about your results. tell me how you got on, first of all, tahal. i'm very happy with my results. i got two as six bs and two cs.| results. i got two as six bs and two cs. i like to let you have used the letters rather than the numbers, is that how it works in your head? it is easierfor all of us! that how it works in your head? it is easier for all of us! samantha, how did you get on? i got the grades i wanted so i'm happy.

two 9s, two 8s three sevens and foure sixes. we did not expect many people to get nine, it is supposed to be ona people to get nine, it is supposed to be on a table —— unattainable. that is incredible. thank you. how did you get on, i got four nines, six eight and 17. i did enough to get into my first options. i got... we broke up, you got how many sevens? four sevens and one or two sixes. you're all happy and feeling positive? yes, we are. samantha, last night must have been stressful. i was really nervous. i didn't know what to expect. i was really nervous! did any of you need specific grades to get into your sixth form? we have heard many state

schools now say you have to have certain grades to getting. tariq, you got your grades?” certain grades to getting. tariq, you got your grades? i needed at least an eight in each subject and ina grade least an eight in each subject and in a grade average of seven, which thankfully, i have met all of them so thankfully, i have met all of them solam thankfully, i have met all of them so i am going to go on to there. that is very academic, so that is pretty impressive. i am doing the international baccalaureate, i got all the grades i needed, just enough to do it. so i am pretty happy, as well. how does it add to the pressure, knowing you've got to get certain grades to get into your sixth form please? that is your first option and if you don't get it obviously you would be upset about not getting it. so i am happy that i did get in. how will you celebrate, when you are off the telly and you

can go and chill? i will be meeting my family members and i'm glad that they are going to give me some money! great work. i plan on going toa money! great work. i plan on going to a restaurant with some friends, just a small celebration.” to a restaurant with some friends, just a small celebration. ijust showed my grades to my family and abs and friends, and show them that lam very abs and friends, and show them that i am very proud of myself and my averages, as well. you should all be showing off for a long time to come. it isa showing off for a long time to come. it is a lot of hard work. i still now have stress dreams of our gcses. you have all done incredibly well. thank you for speaking to us. let's speak tojonathan dando — he is the director at the charity teach first who carried out the research. you have been doing research into stu d e nts you have been doing research into students in poorer areas and those in wealthier areas. great stories there from those young people, and

great work that them and their teachers have done but there is a stark reality behind the headlines. if you are growing up and you went to school and a poor area, you are much less likely to do well and get the passes you really need in gcses, and if your friends or peers who went to kind of a school in a wealthy area, as an example, in maths, we are finding that you are twice as likely, to fail, or to fail to get a pass in maths if you are from a poorer area than from a rich area. and we know that the postcode should not determine how well a child does at school. is that down to poor teaching in schools, not getting enough support at home? to poor teaching in schools, not getting enough support at home7m isa getting enough support at home7m is a mixture of things that come together. what we are trying to say today is, behind every one of those envelopes, there is pupils who have been supported by wonderful parents,

but also, so often, we all remember that a brilliant teacher who helped, inspired and supported you, and we need to make sure that we are getting the best teachers and giving them the best support, in the communities that are serving the most disadvantaged areas, so the prime minister has recently spoken about investing in education, and thatis about investing in education, and that is fantastic. we need to see that is fantastic. we need to see that investment focused most on the schools serving disadvantaged communities. would you go as far as to say that the teachers who are the best teachers should be not force, but should a person a direction of these kind of schools where children need more help? i wouldn't want to say there is best teachers are less good teachers... we all know, don't we, that some teachers are the teachers that inspire, that really help. those are the people that you wa nt to help. those are the people that you want to go into the people that you wa nt to want to go into the people that you want to go into the people that you want to go into the people that you want to go into these schools. there is two things about that, most teachers working in these schools have got bigger roles to climb, bigger barriers for pupils to so we

need to make sure that they are more support. what we do at teacher first is train people and recruit them to work in the schools, so eager after really talented people. people can become a teacher specifically to work in these schools and give them extra support so they can tackle these big challenges that these schools face and are working hard to address. i want to ask me about a story that has come out today. it is a survey of the association of school and college leaders who say that increasingly, students who are not usually academic but are doing their best are being demoralised by their best are being demoralised by the current gcse system, because it is pushing people, to read a couple of quotes, "an increasing number one teacher said of students refusing to attempt mock or actual exams, which has never happened before". another head teacher saying, it can be nothing going —— nothing more dispiriting than going through

school thinking i cannot do that, and that is the reality for many students. the new gcses are coming and they aren't rigorous, but do we wa nt and they aren't rigorous, but do we want our young people to learn the best and be pushed to excel and achieve? absolutely, we should. we need to make sure that is the same whether you are from a disadvantaged or wealthy ground and there shouldn't be a disparity between the two, but that has to come hand—in—hand with support to make that happen, so schools and teachers working particularly with disadvantaged young people have the extra support to make that happen, and that is what the prime minister has an amazing option to do. he spoken about investing and giving extra funding to education. if that is focused on two things, one on those schools who are serving the most disadvantaged, that would help address some of those concerns, and two, if we can make teaching an exciting profession with a good starting salary, we will get really great people wanting to come in and be teachers to transform and help pupils like we have just heard, to get amazing grace. —— amazing

grades. there's lots of info on the bbc news website about gcses — including advice on what to do if you didnt get the results you were hoping for. abc's hit show dancing with the stars — the us equivalent of strictly come dancing — is about to get a lot spicier. president trump's former white house press secretary sean spicer is joining the cast for its upcoming season let's see the moment the us found out that sean spicer was to become a reality tv star, on abc's good morning america. straight from the briefing room, it's sean spicer! applause and cheering

0ur reporter anna collinson can tell us more. who is sean spicer and why is it so controversial he's on this? he was a former white house press secretary for president trump. six months was a length of his role. during that time he made several false and misleading statements. the most notable and memorable as the one where he claimed president trump's inauguration was bigger than his predecessor, president 0bama, despite photos clearly suggesting otherwise. since then, he said he regretted making that claim and admitted that he lied. as you heard on that announcement on dancing with the stars yesterday, the reaction has been furious. there is anger that a man who has deceived the american people is being paid to dance on tv. and if you last beyond a few weeks, you could earn up to $300,000. that is around £250,000. some staff at abc news are set to be

up some staff at abc news are set to be up in arms about it and have called ita up in arms about it and have called it a slap in the face. sean spicer says i look forward to having fun. i was kicked out of a band in the six grade, and... it is interesting, because the host has tweeted how unhappy he is which i can't imagine in the uk, you get that. we are used to seeing politicians on strictly come dancing. and widdecombe is a divisive character, but nowhere near that we get any reaction to what is happening in the us. things are different there. so much so that the present has spoken out. he's written a lengthy post on twitter. his name is tom berger. he hoped this show would be a joyful respite from exhausting political climate and free of inevitably divisive booking from any party affiliations. he said he thought the producers had agreed with him about the choice of dancer,

and subsequently a decision was made as we often see in hollywood, go in as we often see in hollywood, go in a different direction. we can agree to disagree as we do now, but ultimately it is their call. who else is on? it's a great line—up, first, one of the stars for queer eye for a straight guy. and a former nba star. the model christie binkley. some things they do differently, but the second round are similar. she said that her role as roxie hart in chicago on broadway doesn't give her an advantage, and i a lwa ys doesn't give her an advantage, and i always enjoy that. sean spicer might disagree. and the actual dawson of dawson creek is appearing. thank you so much, anna collinson.

a leading scientist on greenhouse gasses has told this programme that carbon offsetting is a "complete joke" and there is no such thing as a "conscience—free" flight. it's after prince harry and meghan markle were branded hypocrites after they took four private jets in 11 days despite regularly promoting green issues. singer elton john — who provided a jet to allow them to visit him in france — defended the royal couple, and said he'd made an "appropriate contribution" to a carbon footprint fund. this is known as carbon offsetting — where you compensate for the carbon pollution you have made by contributing to a scheme which reduces greenhouse gases. while some experts argue the scheme is better than doing nothing, others say it's "no solution" to aviation emissions and simply helps frequent flyers to not feel guilty. well here to discuss offsetting carbon is dr michal nachmnany. she's a policy fellow at grantham research institute on climate change and environment at the lse. professor mike berners lee is a researcher and writer on greenhouse gases. he also runs a business called

small world consulting which helps companies work towards zero carbon targets. dalia gebral is a campaigner who is working on a phd in human geography. and vaughan lindsay is ceo of the environmental company climate care. thank you all so much for coming in. first of all, carbon offsetting, doctor michal, can you describe what it is and how much would it cost if i took a flight somewhere, what would i pay in carbon offsetting? carbon offsetting is the idea that if you omit by tonnes of carbon whilst flying you would do something that would reduce the amount of carbon elsewhere. that could be in the format of renewable energy projects, planting trees, so on and so forth. so obviously how much

carbon you emit depends on the length of the flight and if you took a private jet which length of the flight and if you took a privatejet which i'm sure length of the flight and if you took a private jet which i'm sure all of your viewers do on a regular basis! but what we need to think about is two things. first of all, offsetting is better than nothing. but it is very, very remote from where we need to be. we need to be planting trees anyway. we need to be investing in renewable energy anyway. these things are not a replacement for the systemic changes that the airline industry needs to be doing right now. i can see you nodding away. it isa now. i can see you nodding away. it is a good thing, but it is by no means a solution. we need a variety of actions across a variety of areas. we need to reduce and avoid what we can. in terms of air flights, people should always think twice about whether they need to ta ke twice about whether they need to take that flight when there are alternatives. and where you cannot do that and it is unavoidable carbon

offsetting when you are using high quality products can reduce the impact. the broader issue is about, how do we get the choice away from the individual and introduce a carbon price, so that it becomes embedded to the price of the things that we buy? so that it is not the individual cosmic choice, it is mandated. professor mike berners—lee, does carbon offsetting work? i agree with much of what has been said. carbon offsetting at the very best is an absolute last resort. it is not a substitute for not emitting carbon in the first place. i also agree that we need a carbon price. just to be very clear, that price needs to be high enough that price needs to be high enough that it provides a disincentive, a serious one, for flying and other high carbon activities. sorry to interrupt, my understanding is that if you go on a flight from london to spain, carbon offsetting will be about £a.

spain, carbon offsetting will be about £4. is that right? it is ridiculous. that kind of money is an absolute joke. the idea that you could somehow undo the damage with a small piece of money like that, you know, it doesn't stack up. if you look at the detail of offsetting and ask yourself really seriously about these projects, can you prove the additionality? can you prove you are doing something that didn't need to happen if you hadn't taking that additional flight, and wouldn't have happened otherwise? it is fiendishly difficult to show. the reality is that, we are in a real climate emergency. that is not an exaggerated term. we need to do all of these things. cut flying and stop deforestation and plant a lot more trees and we need to do some other things as well. i wanted to get

vaughan lindsay's view on that, for pounds is ridiculous, just to alleviate guilt when we fly. the real price for carbon should be nearer to 35— £50. that is what we need to do to change behaviour. nearer to 35— £50. that is what we need to do to change behaviour]! it dangerous that people are sitting at home thinking i'm going on holiday, i will just at home thinking i'm going on holiday, i willjust chuck a few quid to the side and i can relieve myself of any guilt and it will make it all right. we have two ways in which carbon offsetting does not address the problem. the first is the scientific, which has been outlined by other guests. there is no number of trees that can be planted to compensate for the level of fossil fuel extraction and burning that is happening in the current system. there's also the justice perspective. essentially carbon offsetting to me is nothing more than a pr exercise for big polluters, to continue their business as usual whilst maintaining some kind of green reputation,

because fundamentally, what happens is that the system of mass extraction of fossil fuels, which needs to stop yesterday an order for us to actually combat irreversible climate change, still continues under a programme of carbon offsetting. is this not an issue for people who go on one holiday a year with theirfamily people who go on one holiday a year with their family on a flight? is this more about frequent flyers flying to new york business class all the time? this is about asking ourselves what our future is going to look like, i'll be looking at one or we don't go on holiday, don't travel for business, don't visit our pa rents travel for business, don't visit our parents in other countries? it is not going to happen and for that exact reason, we need to change the way that the airline industry is operating. if you think about that flight operating. if you think about that flight from london to spain, there is no reason why that flight should not be an electric flight, which would be produced by renewable energy. to do that we need policies and we need to try that forward. it

is happening in a slow pace right now and we need to try to make sure that we can do that for the long haulflights, we that we can do that for the long haul flights, we need that we can do that for the long haulflights, we need to think that we can do that for the long haul flights, we need to think about alternative fuels, that do not rely on extracting fossil fuels that are extremely damaging to our climate. so we need to think about those. it's a combination of systemic changes and those are really at the co re changes and those are really at the core of this change, with some behavioural changes. guilt is absolutely not something that we should be encouraging everyone to feel every time they are doing their normal activities. we should encourage them instead to think about the meaning of their actions, and to think about how we can promote systemic changes. professor mike berners—lee, you said it should be much more expensive payment. instead of £a, what do you think is the right amount? it has got to be up the right amount? it has got to be up in the hundreds, absolutely, several hundreds. per tonne of

carbon. that means that for flights it'll be in the hundreds as well. any time that any of us does anything that has a carbon footprint, whether in our home or business lives, it is down to our conscience, and we all need to ask ourselves, do we justify it? we need to ask that question increasingly seriously. in terms of business flights, you have to ask yourself, what i'm doing in my business, is this contributing to a better world for people and planet, in which case 0k, for people and planet, in which case ok, but if you can seriously answer that question, hand on heart, that it is making a positive contribution and it is worth it, then there is a case for it sometimes. is and it is worth it, then there is a case for it sometimesm all of us are conflicted by the society we are in at the moment. everything about it is so unsustainable. everything we do, we have to ask, can we justify at? and we have to bring the

carbon footprint down and down and down. we are probably all in agreement. the scale and urgency of the challenge of climate change means we need to do all of these things. too often it is presented as either all. we need to reduce where we can and change behaviours. we need to push hard for affirmative government action. we expect governments to step in and carbon pricing is a way of doing that, but those things take time and in the time it takes we should still be encouraging voluntary actions. we should still do something rather than nothing. the worst thing you can do is take a flight and do nothing about it. it depends. if £4 makes you feel better about it and more likely to take the flight then it is doing more harm than good. £4 isa tiny it is doing more harm than good. £4 is a tiny amount. i want to kind of intervene in the conversation. there's a problem and how we talk

about climate change. there's this narrative of we are all in this together. we are, but some of us are actually more at stake and some of us have contributed more to the problem. we need to kind of move away, whilst individual lifestyle and behaviour is important, we need to move away from this and focus on that systemic change, and how we can invest into different kinds of infrastructure, how can we rewire society so that it doesn't rely on people... to get an electric plane from london to spain... it is actually happening. the last aerospace convention has shown prototypes. they are about to come into europe in the next decade. they can come in quicker and be more efficient. we can carry more passengers longer distances. and that, when it comes to the problem of inequity and the fact that people in the global south are dying first on climate change and yet have

contributed the least, there are so many systemic changes we can do, today, like a global transfer of wealth to the global south as mitigation, the open sourcing of technology, and all of these different things that we can be doing rather than continuing to have conversations about modifying the airwe conversations about modifying the air we breathe and people paying extra, people will be watching this and shouting at the tv saying, china is the biggest polluter, what is the point of me doing a bit of recycling and getting on an electric plane to spain? it is absolutely right that we need systemic change. each of us needs to ask what can i do to help create the conditions under which we can have systemic change? part of thatis can have systemic change? part of that is about our personal behaviours. the other part is about all of the other ways we can have influence, including, people are legit —— legitimately asking should i take to the streets, and that is absolutely right to do that. on the electric lights... quickly, we are running out of time. the world needs to use less energy not more. so we

are already afoot to the floor trying to replace today's energy supply with renewables. there is no scope whatever for growing our energy supply. we need to cut down on our energy needs. we could carry on our energy needs. we could carry on talking about this for hours. thank you for such a passionate debate. bbc newsroom live is coming up next. thank you for your company today. have a good day. we will be back at the same time tomorrow. good morning. we have some rain in the forecast. generally over the next few days it is going to become drier and brighter and much warmer, particularly over the weekend. for today some rain in the north. the driest and brightest weather further

south. lots of sunshine at the moment across southern england. some patchy rain in northern england and northern ireland. the rainbow turn heavy during the rest of —— in the west of scotland during this afternoon with temperatures here in the high teens. further south and east in the sunshine, a bit warmer than yesterday. highs of 23—25. the rain across scotland will edge us way further north. quite a lot of rain in the west and north—west of scotla nd rain in the west and north—west of scotland overnight. elsewhere, some clear spells. quite a warm night. temperatures falling to about 12—14, 15. on friday, that rain across northern parts were clear to the north. for most of us a dry day with sunshine, and turning even warmer. goodbye for now.

you're watching bbc newsroom live. it's11am and these are the main stories this morning: ahead of talks in paris, the french president, emmanuel macron, warns boris johnson that reopening the brexit deal is not an option. the prime minister has told european leaders they have to ditch the irish backstop. we do need that backstop removed. but if we can do that, then i'm absolutely certain that we can move forward together. gcse students celebrate a slight increase in the pass rate, and the percentage of papers getting top grades, despite concerns about the exam getting harder. and i'm at a school in shropshire