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Police will have to check someones medical history before giving them a firearms licence and should also scour their social media history, under new rules issued by government after the Plymouth gun attack.

Jake Davison shot dead five people before killing himself after the attack in August.

He discussed his mental health online and his social media showed misogynistic views. He also described himself as an involuntary celibate, or incel.

The new statutory guidance will mean doctors agreeing to pass on health concerns to police before a licence is issued, when it is renewed five years later, and to flag any concerns that emerge in between that may represent a threat to public safety.

Those applying for a licence will have to agree to their confidential information being shared as a condition of getting permission to hold a firearm.

The statutory guidance comes from the Home Office, and police will be expected to follow it. They will also be asked to check any history of domestic violence and financial worries.

There has been a longstanding reluctance by doctors to hand over confidential medical information about patients for fear it would deter them from seeking help. Talks after the massacre have led to an agreement between the government, doctors and police.

Davison, 22, shot dead his mother, a three-year-old girl and three other people on 12 August. He used a gun he had held a licence for since 2017. It was taken away after he got into a fight in September 2020, only to be returned by police weeks before the killings.

It emerged that he had engaged with extremist ideology including the incel movement. The renewed focus on gun laws unearthed concerns about the checks police carried out and inconsistencies between forces.

Some forces would check social media histories of applicants while others would not.

A Home Office spokesperson said that members of the public could also trigger a review of someone who had a firearms licence if they had concerns.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, said: The UK has some of the toughest firearms laws in world, but we must never become complacent about these high standards.

This new guidance prioritises public safety above all else and we have taken considerable care to ensure it is comprehensive and enforceable, having worked closely with the medical, policing and shooting sectors.

Dr Mark Sanford-Wood, of the British Medical Association, said: Firearms must be in the hands of only those who are deemed safe and responsible.

This guidance states that doctors are responsible for providing medical evidence, with the police force making the final judgment on the issuing of the firearms licence. Our close collaborative working with the National Police Chiefs Council has resulted in unilateral agreement on this point.

Existing checks will ontinue to be carried out, including on criminal convictions, domestic turmoil, dishonesty or out-of-control debt.

The Home Office on Wednesday also announced new police powers against unauthorised encampments, which is being widely seen as a crackdown on Traveller communities.

Those committing intentional trespass and occupying land that, for instance, stops local residents using school sports fields, parks and car parks, will commit a criminal offence if they refuse to move when ordered to do so. An offence, says new guidance, is committed if the environment is damaged, including excessive littering, fly tipping, excessive noise and smells from waste or smoke due to bonfires.

The guidance says: The unauthorised encampments provisions do not seek to lead to action against rough sleepers, nor to those looking to access the countryside for leisure, such as ramblers and other groups, providing they do not meet the conditions for the offence.

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Police to check medical and social media history before issuing gun licences - The Guardian

Could Alexa kill the radio star? The government is considering introducing legislation to ensure that Amazon and other tech companies do not abuse their growing power over UK airwaves.

Millions of Britons have bought voice-controlled devices in recent years, principally Amazons Echo and Googles Assistant. Most are used for listening to audio, with many households using them as replacements for traditional standalone radio sets in kitchens and bedrooms.

British radio broadcasters including the BBC and the main commercial radio groups now fear they have inadvertently handed control over their output to large technology companies who make smart speakers. They fear the US-based technology companies will hoard data on users listening habits, could be tempted to slip their own adverts into radio broadcasts, and may ultimately make it harder to find UK-produced content.

The BBC is particularly concerned by research suggesting that when BBC material is consumed through a smart speaker or other third party device, audiences are substantially less likely to mentally associate it with the BBC. This has potentially enormous implications for the future of the licence fee and convincing audiences to pay for the BBC in the future.

The government-commissioned digital radio and audio review, which asked industry voices for their views on the future of radio, has now asked the government to propose legislation to force Amazon and other companies to carry UK radio services on a free-to-air basis. A similar lobbying battle is currently being fought by UK television channels to secure so-called prominence on the home screens of modern television sets.

Radio stations also want a law to prohibit technology companies from inserting their own advertisements without the radio broadcasters consent, as well as legislation requiring car manufacturers to continue to prominently display radio stations on car dashboards.

The newly appointed media minister, Julia Lopez, said the government would reflect on the findings and consider new rules to protect the future of the British radio industry as part of forthcoming broadcasting regulation.

The radio report also concluded that FM radio services should be maintained in the UK until 2030, 15 years later than originally planned. The analogue signal serves some rural areas that are not reached by digital broadcasts and is still popular with older people and for local and community stations.

However, the writing is on the wall for medium-wave broadcasting, even though 6.5million adults still use AM signals to listen to stations such as BBC 5Live, talkSport, and Absolute Radio every week. The report concluded that the gradual turning-off of medium-wave broadcasts should accelerate in the next few years.

The British radio industry is facing a demographic timebomb. In the new report, it has renewed calls to scrap regulations that limit the ability to rebrand stations and change formats, as well as asking for continued government financial support for the Audio Content Fund to produce material for under-served audiences.

Though overall radio listenership remains high, it is much lower among younger listeners and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, many of whom feel they are not represented by existing stations and are instead switching to podcasts and streaming music services.

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Radio industry calls for government protection from smart assistants - The Guardian

FORT WORTH, Texas A scared kitten is now safe, thanks to a few Texas police and animal control officers.

>> Read more trending news

According to KTVT, Fort Worth police took to Facebook on Friday to share a video of authorities saving a small, tabby-and-white cat from a grate next to Interstate 20.

This little kitten was rescued from the shoulder of eastbound Interstate 20, near the Trail Lake Drive exit, the department captioned the post. Officers and Animal Control brought the little kitten to safety, and he is now in good hands at the Chuck Silcox Animal Care & Control Center. What do you think we should name him?

>> Watch the video here

This little kitten was rescued from the shoulder of eastbound Interstate 20, near the Trail Lake Drive exit. Officers and Animal Control brought the little kitten to safety and he is now in good hands at the Chuck Silcox Animal Care & Control Center.What do you think we should name him?

The video quickly went viral, racking up more than 52,000 views and 1,500 reactions by Tuesday morning.

Its so heartwarming to see one of our animal control officers and FWPD working together to save this tiny kitten! Fort Worth Animal Care & Control wrote in its own Facebook post. So much kindness.

Read more here or here.

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WATCH: Officers rescue kitten from Texas freeway in heartwarming video - ActionNewsJax.com

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The Ethiopian government carried out a second air strike within hours on the Tigray region on Wednesday, significantly escalating a campaign to weaken rebellious Tigrayan forces in an almost one-year-old war.

The second strike was in Agbe in the Temben region some 80 km (50 miles) west of the regional capital Mekelle, targeting a military training centre and heavy artillery depot, government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said.

That came after a morning air strike in Mekelle, the third this week. Tigrai Television said the attack targeted the centre of the city whilethe Addis Ababa government said it targeted buildings where Tigrayan forces were repairing armaments.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has "been adept at hiding munitions and heavy artillery in places of worship and using ordinary Tigrayans as a human shield", Legesse said.

Two witnesses and a humanitarian source in Mekelle told Reuters that the morning strike appeared to have targeted Mesfin Industrial Engineering PLC, a factory complex which the government believes supports the TPLF.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, referring to government forces, said: "They are desperate on the war front. My interpretation is they are bombing us because they are losing on the ground and its their reprisal. The fact that they are bombing shows they dont care about Tigrayan civilians."

Speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location, Gebremichael said the strike did not hit the engineering complex, rather another private company compound, but he had no further details.

Nine civilians, including a five-year-old child, were being treated at Ayder Referral Hospital for injuries sustained in the strike, according to TPLF-run Tigrai Television.

The blast shattered the windows of Mekelle General Hospital, about one kilometre away from Mesfin Industrial, and damaged nearby homes, said a doctor at the hospital. It had received five wounded people, he said.

"Four of them were factory employees and the fifth one is a lady whose lives near the factory. Her house was destroyed by the air strike," the doctor said.

Tigrai Television posted photographs of what appeared to be plumes of billowing smoke. Reuters geolocated the images to Mekelle.

Captive Ethiopian army soldiers get their water ration in a prison in the outskirts of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia, July 7, 2021. REUTERS/Giulia Paravicini/File Photo

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The two sides have been fighting for almost a year in a conflict that has killed thousands of people and displaced more than two million amid a power struggle between the TPLF, which controls the northern region, and the central government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa.

The TPLF dominated the Horn of Africa country's ruling party for decades before Abiy, who is not a Tigrayan, took office in 2018.

CONTROL OF THE SKIES

Mesfin Industrial Engineering is an equipment manufacturer and car and truck assembly plant that was part of EFFORT, a TPLF-owned conglomerate.

After war broke out last November, the government froze the company's bank accounts, saying there was evidence that it was supporting the TPLF. The company could not be reached for comment. Most communications in Mekelle are down.

Mekelle was also hit by two air strikeson Monday. The TPLF accused the government of launching the attacks. A government official initially denied the accusation but state media later reported the air force had conducted a strike.

The attacks follow intensified fighting in two other northern regions where the military is trying to recover territory taken by the TPLF, which recaptured Mekelle and most of the rest of Tigray several months ago.

In July, the TPLF pushed into the two other regions, Amhara and Afar, and several hundred thousand more people fled their homes, according to the United Nations.

Last week, after the TPLF said the military had started an offensive in Amhara, the military said that the TPLF had "opened war on all fronts", and thatgovernment forces were inflicting heavy casualties.

"The federal air strikes on Mekelle appear to be part of efforts to weaken Tigrays armed resistance, which has recently made further gains in eastern Amhara region, with fighting ongoing in some areas," said Will Davison, a senior analyst on Ethiopia at the International Crisis Group think-tank.

"Along with superior manpower, control of the skies is one of the few remaining areas of military advantage for the federal government," Davison said.

Reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom with additional reporting by George Sargent in London and Nairobi newsroom; writing by Maggie Fick; editing by Nick Macfie, Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Ethiopia conducts two air strikes on Tigray within hours, war escalates - Reuters

Media top headlines October 18

In media news today, NBC fact-checks Anthony Fauci's COVID superspreader comments, Jon Stewart says the media is making a 'mistake' casting Trump as a 'supervillain,' and CNN's Brian Stelter frets that Katie Couric's editing scandal further damages the media's reputation

NBC News political director Chuck Todd railed against President Biden and White House amid the Democrat infighting over the two trillion-dollar spending bills being debated on Capitol Hill.

On "Sunday Today," host Willie Geist listed President Biden's stalled agenda in Congress from the failure to pass a voting bill and police reform along with the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the giant social spending bill being pushed by progressive lawmakers, asking Todd "when does this get done?"

"President Biden has to get more involved," Todd responded. "The only one that's made any progress is the bipartisan infrastructure deal. Why did that make progress? Well, the White House ran the negotiations here."

NBC'S CHUCK TODD SUGGESTS TRUMP IS TO BLAME FOR THE MEDIA NOT PUTTING A SPOTLIGHT ON DEM PROBLEMS

The "Meet the Press" moderator recalled seeing a report about the White House "getting frustrated with Congress" and how "I'm sitting here going, Well, you guys can do something about it!'"

"At the end of the day, the power of the presidency is you're the leader of the party and you're also a convening entity. Get Manchin, Sanders in a room!" Todd exclaimed, referring to the West Virginia and Vermont senators.

The MSNBC anchor then referred to the dustup between Sanders and Manchin after the progressive lawmaker penned an op-ed in a prominent West Virginia newspaper pressuring his more moderate colleague over his stance on cutting the price tag of the $3.5 trillion spending bill, telling Geist "we should be much further past this" notion that such a proposal being pushed by Sanders is no longer possible.

FILE PHOTO: Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) flanked by reporters while leaving the Capitol building as negotiations on the bipartisan infrastructure bill continue between U.S. Senators, Representatives and White House negotiators at the U.S. Capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo

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"So the fact that we're still in this place where we're having this public back and forth about something that's not reality- at the end of the day, I think the burden's on the White House," Todd said. "They've got to take control of this. They've got to sort of get reality- the political eyes got bigger than their stomach in Congress and I think that it's up to the White House to pull them back and they haven't. They let Congress work its will and right now, its will is stalemate."

"Yeah," Geist agreed. "And all we're seeing is internal fighting between high-profile senators at this point."

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NBC's Chuck Todd says 'burden' is on Biden, WH to resolve Dem infighting on spending: 'Take control of this!' - Fox News