Joe Rigby obituary

My father, Joe Rigby, who has died aged 87, was a working-class Catholic boy from Birmingham. He left school at 15, but rose to be a television executive at Granada Television in Manchester.For 20 years from 1973, he was Granada’s head of programme planning, where he hired, inspired and nurtured the team of scriptwriters who wrote the on-air promotions for programmes. Many of them, including Andy Harries, David Liddiment and Dearbhla Walsh, went on to great success as television producers and directors.Joe was born in Erdington, north of the city centre, to Theresa (nee Byrne) and Charles Rigby, who worked in the family engineering company and as a barman

Merchants’ ‘victory’ over credit card fees will just complicate things more for them

Want to buy a new shirt from your friendly neighborhood small business? In some cases, be prepared to pay out 2.5% more as a “financing” fee because you’re using a credit card. Enjoying that meal at the local diner? Better have cash or you could be subject to the same fee. Grabbing a bag of chips and a soda at the local convenience store? Oops … Unless you’re prepared to spend a minimum of 10 bucks you can’t use your credit card, sorry.I’ve always been irritated by these practices

How Google’s DeepMind tool is ‘more quickly’ forecasting hurricane behavior

When then Tropical Storm Melissa was churning south of Haiti, Philippe Papin, a National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist, had confidence it was about to grow into a monster hurricane.As the lead forecaster on duty, he predicted that in just 24 hours the storm would become a category 4 hurricane and begin a turn towards the coast of Jamaica. No NHC forecaster had ever issued such a bold forecast for rapid strengthening.But Papin had an ace up his sleeve: artificial intelligence in the form of Google’s new DeepMind hurricane model – released for the first time in June. And, as predicted, Melissa did become a storm of astonishing strength that tore through Jamaica

Father of teen whose death was linked to social media has ‘lost faith’ in Ofcom

The father of Molly Russell, a British teenager who killed herself after viewing harmful online content, has called for a change in leadership at the UK’s communications watchdog after losing faith in its ability to make the internet safer for children.Ian Russell, whose 14 year-old daughter took her own life in 2017, said Ofcom had “repeatedly” demonstrated that it does not grasp the urgency of keeping under-18s safe online and was failing to implement new digital laws forcefully.“I’ve lost confidence in the current leadership at Ofcom,” he told the Guardian. “They have repeatedly demonstrated that they don’t grasp the urgency of this task and they have shown that they don’t seem to be willing to use their powers to the extent that is required.”Russell’s comments came in the same week the technology secretary, Liz Kendall, wrote to Ofcom saying she was “deeply concerned” about delays in rolling out parts of the Online Safety Act (OSA), a landmark piece of legislation laying down safety rules for social media, search and video platforms

Chiefs v Broncos, Rams v Seahawks; Packers, Steelers and Bills win: week 11 updates

Kansas City take the lead! The classic combination of Mahomes and Kelce works a treat. The tight end scores with a 21-yard grab.TOUCHDOWN! Cardinals 16-41 49ers 4:44, 4th quarterA reader rightly points out it has been a while since an update from Arizona. As if by magic Christian McCaffrey handily runs a touchdown in from four yards. Absolute thrashing from the 49ers

Final Demand’s flawless debut over fences bolsters Mullins’ squad for Cheltenham

There was another winner for Dan Skelton on the final day of the November meeting at Cheltenham on Sunday but a reminder too, at Navan, that his trainers’ title rival, Willie Mullins’s immensely powerful team, is scarcely out of first gear. Final Demand, one of the best novice hurdlers last season, made a flawless debut over fences and suddenly Mullins’s squad for the Grade Ones at the festival back here in March is beginning to take shape.The style and strength of his 13-length defeat of Wingmen – also a useful novice hurdler last year – was such that he is now just 6-4 for the Brown Advisory Novice Chase at the festival.“He was just so natural, wasn’t he?” Mullins said afterwards. “Jumping down the back, taking fences in his stride