13/06/2015
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
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If we understand evolution 'we can live longer lives'
Duration: 04:13
Today's running order
0710
A mother who ran away with her three year son has handed herself in to the police. Rebecca Minnock fled with her son Ethan following a court ruling that the boy should live with his father. Steve Knibbs reports.
0715
A British woman has been sentenced to three days in prison in Malaysia, for posing topless on a mountain. Eleanor Hawkins, who's 23 and from Derby, is expected to fly home tomorrow, because she's already spent three days in custody. She and three others were also fined. Jennifer Pak reports.
0720
Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, of the New England Complex Systems Institute and MIT, has argued that if we want to live longer lives, all we need do is understand evolution. He says the problem is that we've been genetically conditioned to live shorter lives. He claims if we concentrated scientific research more on evolution, rather than on curing illnesses, we could easily live three or four times as long, he says.
0725
State primary schools are continuing to face a surge in demand for places. Figures out this week show there are almost 94,000 more children in England's primaries than there were a year ago, a 2.1% increase. Councillor David Symonds is chairman of the LGA's Children and Young People Board.
0735
Following the SNP's near-landslide victory in Scotland at the General Election, the outgoing Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy will formally submit his resignation today. He will also publish a report with an assessment of what went wrong for Scottish Labour and recommendations going forward. Neil Findlay is a Labour MSP. Tom Harris is a former Labour MP, who lost his seat to SNP in May.
0745
Today would have been the 150th birthday of Irish poet WB Yeats. William Butler Yeats was was born on 13 June 1865 in Sandymount, which is on the shores of Dublin Bay, but it is Sligo that is known as 'Yeats Country.' Today across the world events are being held to mark today’s anniversary which is being called Yeats Day. Daniel Mulhall is ambassador of Ireland to Great Britain.
0750
The Queen’s Birthday Honours have been announced. Van Morrison joins the rank of rock knights, Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne and record breaking England fast bowler James Anderson receive OBEs, and Anne Glover, a Scottish biologist and former chief scientific advisor to the president of the European Commission is amongst those made a Dame. Ashley Hutchings MBE is a folk musician, songwriter and bandleader, who was the driving force behind bands including Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and the Albion Band.
0810
A mother who ran away with her three year son has handed herself in to the police. Rebecca Minnock fled with her son Ethan following a court ruling that the boy should live with his father. Nicholas Cusworth QC is a barrister practising family lawyer.
0815
A new exhibition opens on Friday at the Museum of London. It’s called ‘Soldiers and Suffragettes’ and features pictures by Christina Broom, the UK’s first female professional photographer. Broom was 40 when she taught herself photography, and with her daughter Winifred ran a family business in London in the early 1900s. Through her pictures she documented the impact that WWI had on the city and, most notably, the history of the Suffragette movement. Anna Sparham is curator of the exhibition. Professor June Purvis is professor of women and gender history at the University of Portsmouth.
0820
Hillary Clinton begins her US presidential campaign with an election rally later today, the Republican Jeb Bush is expected to declare on Monday that he is running. Both are big beasts with name recognition and big money behind them. North America editor Jon Sopel reports.
0830
The Greek government says it will present new proposals to its eurozone creditors over the weekend in an attempt to restart stalled bailout discussions. Greece needs to agree a deal to secure fresh bailout funding from the eurozone and the IMF before the end of June or it risks defaulting on its loans. Yanis Varoufakis is Greece’s finance minister.
0840
State primary schools are continuing to face a surge in demand for places. Figures out this week show there are almost 94,000 more children in England's primaries than there were a year ago, a 2.1% increase. Jonathan Lewis is Service Director Education at Peterborough Borough Council. Graham Stuart, Conservative MP, is chair of the Education Select Committee until 2015.
0850
When the Film 'Freaks' was released in 1932 it courted controversy as many criticised what was thought to be a mocking tone to the many disabled actors that featured in the film that it was banned until the early 1960s. But since, it's been described as a macabre masterpiece. It's re-released in the UK this weekend. Virginie Selavy is a film critic and editor of Electric Sheep Magazine.
0855
A civil rights activist in the United States is being investigated for claiming she's black, while her parents insist she's white. Rachel Dolezal, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Spokane, Washington State, has refused to comment. Maureen Dolan is a journalist who has followed the story and known Rachel Dolezal since 2007. James Wilburn is former president of NAACP Spokane Branch, Dolezal’s predecessor.
All subject to change.
Broadcast
- Sat 13 Jun 2015 07:00Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4