:00:00. > :00:10.of the German flag in tribute to those who lost their lives
:00:11. > :00:15.A judge has agreed that a seriously injured Merseyside police officer
:00:16. > :00:20.PC Paul Briggs suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a motorcycle crash
:00:21. > :00:24.last year that left him unable to speak or move.
:00:25. > :00:27.His wife argued that her husband would not wish to live in this way
:00:28. > :00:29.and wants life support treatment to end.
:00:30. > :00:33.Our Chief Reporter, Dave Guest, was in court.
:00:34. > :00:35.Paul Briggs was a respected police officer and much-loved
:00:36. > :00:44.family man and husband, but his wife made the most painful
:00:45. > :00:47.decision of her life when she begged the judge to let him die.
:00:48. > :00:50.PC Briggs suffered serious brain injuries when he was involved
:00:51. > :00:53.in a crash while travelling to work on his motorcycle in July, 2015.
:00:54. > :00:56.He is currently if is in what is known as 'minimally
:00:57. > :01:00.He can't speak or move and is being kept alive by food
:01:01. > :01:04.His wife, Lindsey, told the court in Manchester that her husband had
:01:05. > :01:07.always been clear that he would not want to remain alive in such
:01:08. > :01:11.She asked a judge to order the doctors to stop administering
:01:12. > :01:14.nutrition and hydration, but doctors from The Walton Centre,
:01:15. > :01:17.where he is being cared for, objected, as did
:01:18. > :01:19.the Official Solicitor - a Government funded lawyer
:01:20. > :01:23.who speaks on behalf of those who can't speak for themselves.
:01:24. > :01:26.They argued Paul's condition might improve at some future date,
:01:27. > :01:28.but they accepted he would always be severely disabled.
:01:29. > :01:33.Today, here in London, Mr Justice Charles
:01:34. > :01:38.It ran to 48 pages, but the nub of it was
:01:39. > :01:43.If Paul Briggs could speak for himself, he would say he did not
:01:44. > :01:45.want the doctors to carry on feeding him.
:01:46. > :01:49.He ordered that they should stop and should make arrangements for him
:01:50. > :01:51.to be transferred to a hospice where he could be
:01:52. > :01:55.Mrs Briggs wasn't in court today, but her solicitor
:01:56. > :02:00.We are grateful that Mr Justice Charles has shown
:02:01. > :02:03.compassion towards Paul and respected his wishes and values
:02:04. > :02:07.and has understood what Paul would have has wanted.
:02:08. > :02:09.But this may not be the end of the matter.
:02:10. > :02:11.The Official Solicitor has indicated he may well
:02:12. > :02:17.If that happens, all agree it should happen quickly
:02:18. > :02:20.because until the outcome of any appeal is known, today's
:02:21. > :02:32.Sir Mark Hedley was a judge at the Court of Protection.
:02:33. > :02:35.He is now retired, but earlier I asked him how judges make
:02:36. > :02:41.Well, the law is actually quite simple because it requires
:02:42. > :02:43.you to make a decision in the person's best interests.
:02:44. > :02:48.Then what amounts to someone's best interests is a hugely wide subject
:02:49. > :02:54.which varies dramatically from case to case.
:02:55. > :02:58.The idea really is that you try to get to know the person
:02:59. > :03:02.about whom you are making a decision, you try to understand
:03:03. > :03:05.the decision that they would have made had they been able to do
:03:06. > :03:09.so and, provided you think that's in their best interests,
:03:10. > :03:13.One would imagine that when you are making a decision
:03:14. > :03:18.like this, that is the hardest job that you can ever do.
:03:19. > :03:21.I mean, intellectually of course, it's not all that difficult
:03:22. > :03:25.because the law is not all that difficult, but there is such a huge
:03:26. > :03:30.amount at stake and that people have vast emotional investment in these
:03:31. > :03:34.cases for entirely good reason, they are very pressurised
:03:35. > :03:40.Have there ever been occasions where that you have
:03:41. > :03:43.laid in bed and thought, "Have I made the right decision?",
:03:44. > :03:49.I agonise about these cases until I've made the decision.
:03:50. > :03:54.I have then rather learned to switch off after that.
:03:55. > :03:57.I mean, I can still think about the case, but it
:03:58. > :04:00.won't trouble me provided I feel I have given my best shot to it.
:04:01. > :04:07.If people make lasting powers of attorney, then they can't give
:04:08. > :04:09.these decision-making powers to their families,
:04:10. > :04:12.but very few people do and, at the end of the day,
:04:13. > :04:15.the views of the family and the carers are one of the things
:04:16. > :04:17.that the judge has to take into account, albeit
:04:18. > :04:29.A company which employed stuntmen for public displays has been fined
:04:30. > :04:34.?100,000 after a man died performing as a human cannonball.
:04:35. > :04:36.Matthew Cranch, originally from the Isle of Man,
:04:37. > :04:39.suffered fatal injuries in front of hundreds of spectators.
:04:40. > :04:45.These pictures were recorded moments before Matthew Cranch was fired
:04:46. > :04:48.from the mouth of a cannon at the Kent County
:04:49. > :04:53.The safety net that should have broken his fall gave way,
:04:54. > :04:59.He died from his injuries in hospital.
:05:00. > :05:04.Today his boss, Scott May of Stunts UK, was sentenced in Maidstone
:05:05. > :05:07.after admitting breaches of health and safety.
:05:08. > :05:10.The court heard that a mechanism that triggered the release
:05:11. > :05:12.of the safety net hadn't been set properly.
:05:13. > :05:15.The company's health and safety was, according
:05:16. > :05:21.Mr Cranch had performed the stunt only five times previously and had
:05:22. > :05:25.joined the team only a month before his death.
:05:26. > :05:28.Matthew's parents were in court as a Victim Impact Statement
:05:29. > :05:33.was read, describing Matthew as an intelligent, happy young man.
:05:34. > :05:37.Today's sentencing is about bringing justice for Matthew.
:05:38. > :05:41.We will always be grateful and thankful for his love and the time
:05:42. > :05:49.His company was still in business, but the human cannonball stunt
:05:50. > :05:54.I think what we can learn from a case like this
:05:55. > :05:57.is that the health and safety laws apply not just to companies
:05:58. > :06:00.and to individuals, but also to directors of companies
:06:01. > :06:03.and if those directors are found to have fallen short of the mark,
:06:04. > :06:07.then they can expect to be prosecuted, as well as the company.
:06:08. > :06:11.Scott May was sentened to 150 hours of unpaid work as part
:06:12. > :06:24.Police patrols at Manchester's Christmas markets are being
:06:25. > :06:27.increased in response to last night's terror attack in Berlin.
:06:28. > :06:31.The force say there's no intelligence about a threat,
:06:32. > :06:35.but are mounting a bigger visible police presence.
:06:36. > :06:37.A planned strike by airport baggage handlers later this week
:06:38. > :06:42.More than 300 members of the Unite union working for Swissport
:06:43. > :06:46.at Manchester Airport were due to walk out on Friday
:06:47. > :06:49.and Christmas Eve in a dispute over pay and conditions.
:06:50. > :06:51.The strike has been called off following talks
:06:52. > :06:57.Credit card firm MBNA, which has its European
:06:58. > :07:00.headquarters in Chester, has been bought by Lloyds
:07:01. > :07:06.Lloyds has said MBNA would retain its own branding.
:07:07. > :07:09.Chester's MP says he hopes the deal won't lead to job losses,
:07:10. > :07:14.as Lloyds needs to make savings of ?100 million.
:07:15. > :07:17.School dinners have long been a topic of conversation,
:07:18. > :07:21.something we all have memories of, but today's Christmas lunch
:07:22. > :07:24.at a school in Stockport was literally rubbish!
:07:25. > :07:26.All the ingredients were unsold supermarket food,
:07:27. > :07:31.Instead, they were turned into a festive meal for students.
:07:32. > :07:42.This is not just any succulent chicken Christmas dinner.
:07:43. > :07:46.Crispy roast potatoes and fine green beans.
:07:47. > :07:50.This is all waste supermarket food - failed deliveries collected last
:07:51. > :07:53.night and brought here early this morning for pupils to prepare.
:07:54. > :07:55.This food is in date, there is absolutely nothing wrong
:07:56. > :08:02.Cate Bauer and Nikki Pope are passionate about reusing food.
:08:03. > :08:04.This was their wedding in Manchester in June.
:08:05. > :08:07.They served waste food up to their guests, who loved it.
:08:08. > :08:10.Helped by the Real Junk Food Project, they're now doing the same
:08:11. > :08:14.The kids have been involved throughout the whole day,
:08:15. > :08:19.and also their eyes are being opened to what is wrong with
:08:20. > :08:21.these vegetables - and what is wrong with it?
:08:22. > :08:25.It's quite sad because there was nothing wrong with
:08:26. > :08:30.It looks nice and there are people who are really hungry out there.
:08:31. > :08:33.After hours of preparation, it's time to serve the food up
:08:34. > :08:39.It's obviously something that's very important to us at Ramillies.
:08:40. > :08:42.It's the kind of thing we teach our children
:08:43. > :08:44.to care for one another, care for the environment,
:08:45. > :08:47.so taking up this project was an ideal opportunity,
:08:48. > :08:52.The big question - how does it taste?
:08:53. > :08:54.In tastes really good and, like, so delicious.
:08:55. > :09:00.It tasted like you would have got it fresh out of the supermarket.
:09:01. > :09:03.This is the first time that waste food has been served in a North-West
:09:04. > :09:08.The hope is it has been so successful today,
:09:09. > :09:11.that lots of other schools will follow suit.
:09:12. > :09:13.The proof here is in the clean plates.
:09:14. > :09:17.This may be waste food, but the students aren't
:09:18. > :09:25.Now Quidditch, the game born on the pages of JK
:09:26. > :09:30.Rowling's Harry Potter novels where two teams fly around
:09:31. > :09:33.on broomsticks to try and score goals through hoops,
:09:34. > :09:36.has now been developed into a terra firma version.
:09:37. > :09:39.It's officially been recognised as a sport and is being played
:09:40. > :10:01.Storm Barbara is on its way. Good evening to you. We saw some sunshine
:10:02. > :10:05.around today. It is the calm before the storm because on the anniversary
:10:06. > :10:10.of Storm Desmond, storm Barbara is on the way. It is not about the
:10:11. > :10:15.rain. Last year, December was very wet, this year it has been dried. It
:10:16. > :10:20.is the strength of wind that Barbara will bring, gusting up to 70 miles
:10:21. > :10:25.an hour. What we have now is a line of rain creeping across us over the
:10:26. > :10:30.last few hours. Over the next couple of hours the rain will continue. The
:10:31. > :10:39.radar is not reading as much as is a chilly around -- as his really
:10:40. > :10:45.around. Temperatures will ball away. It might get down to 2 degrees for a
:10:46. > :10:50.short while. It will be 5 degrees to start the day. This line array will
:10:51. > :10:54.work its way through in the morning, clearing into the afternoon,
:10:55. > :10:58.followed by brighter skies. The top temperature will be seven or 8
:10:59. > :11:01.degrees. Some sunshine tomorrow afternoon. Just a reminder, Friday
:11:02. > :11:08.country it's worth knowing the national forecast. Over now to
:11:09. > :11:13.Tomasz. So, the weather's going to blow a
:11:14. > :11:19.few cobwebs away in the coming days and maybe a few other things, as
:11:20. > :11:20.well. How stormy is it going to get? For most of us probably not too