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Japan cuts growth forecast to 0.9% as economy falters

Japan's government has cut its growth forecast sharply amid speculation it may soon unveil a new stimulus package to support the ailing economy

Gross domestic product is expected to grow by 0.9% this fiscal year, down from a January estimate of 1.7%

The inflation forecast was also downgraded to a rise of 0.4%, versus an earlier projection for 1.2%

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is said to be preparing a new stimulus package that could be as large as 20tn yen ($192bn)

He could co-ordinate a move with the country's central bank, which is scheduled to hold its monetary policy meeting later this month

In January, the Bank of Japan introduced negative interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the economy

Mr Abe, whose economic policies have been dubbed Abenomics, announced last month that he would delay an increase to the country's sales tax to 10% from the current 8%

Consumer spending in Japan accounts for about 60% of economic growth

The three arrows: explaining Abenomics

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy, which quickly became known as "Abenomics" is based on three arrows:

The monetary arrow: expansion of the money supply to combat deflation

The fiscal arrow: increased government spending to stimulate demand in the economy

The structural arrow: structural reforms to make the economy more productive and competitive

Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman to quit show

ARTS

Strictly Come Dancing head judge Len Goodman is to leave the show after the next series, the BBC has announced

The 72-year-old has led the judging panel since the programme started 12 years ago

"This adventure began when I was 60 and now that I've reached my 70s, I've decided after this year it's time to hand the role of head judge to someone else," he said

"I'm looking forward to my last series very much and to whatever comes next."

Goodman will be joined by fellow judges Darcey Bussell, Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood for his final series, which begins in the autumn

Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will continue to present the BBC One series

Speaking about his time on the programme, Goodman said: "In 2004, I was asked to take part in a brand new BBC Saturday night show and who would have thought me, old Len Goodman, would still be part of this amazing series more than 10 years on."

"It is an honour being part of the wonderful Strictly Come Dancing."

Charlotte Moore, director of content at the BBC, said: "I know we are all going to miss him tremendously, but I also know Len's final series is going to be full of unmissable moments and I hope audiences will give him the special send-off he so deserves."

It is not yet known whether he will continue to work on the US version of the show - Dancing With The Stars - which runs for two seasons per year

Last August, he announced he would be leaving the US show, and was absent for the winter 2015 season

But three months later, he appeared to reverse his decision, and returned to the programme for its spring run, which finished in May

Analysis - Lizo Mzimba, entertainment correspondent

Strictly Come Dancing rapidly became one of the BBC's biggest hits after its launch in 2004 - and its original head judge, Len Goodman, has been a stalwart on the show ever since

He became a household name soon after the programme's debut, providing some much-needed balance between the comparatively grumpy Craig Revel Horwood and the excitable Bruno Tonioli

Goodman's lovable demeanor helped him remain a constant on the show while other dancers, judges and presenters such as Bruce Forsyth, Alesha Dixon and Arlene Philips departed

A feature called Len's Lens - where he would shine a spotlight on the detail of contestants' dances - also became a public favourite

He will be remembered for his warm encouragement of even the most hopeless contestants, and, of course, the way he yelled "Se-VEN!" when awarding dancers seven points

Strictly's head judge will no doubt be given a warm send-off from the new series when it concludes in December. His replacement will likely not be announced until next year

Hidden red hair gene a skin cancer risk

HEALTH

People can carry a "silent" red hair gene that raises their risk of sun-related skin cancer, experts warn

The Sanger Institute team estimate one in every four UK people is a carrier

The gene's effect is comparable to two decades of sun exposure in terms of cancerous changes, they say

While people with two copies of the gene will have ginger hair, freckles and pale skin and probably know to take extra care in the sun, those with one copy may not realise they are at risk

Around 25% of UK adults have one version of the gene called MC1R which increases their risk of malignant melanoma

These carriers may not always look like "easy burners", say the researchers - but they are

Although not true redheads, they will have pale skin and some freckles and are prone to sun damage. Their natural hair colour can range from brown through to blond, sometimes with a hint of red

The researchers looked at more than 400 tumour samples from patients who had been diagnosed with melanoma

They found that the patients who had at least one copy of a genetic variant of MC1R had 42% more sun-associated mutations in their cancers than individuals without these variations - equivalent to the toll of an additional 21 years in the sun

The findings, in Nature Communications, suggest that people with the red hair gene are naturally less able to protect themselves from the sun's damaging UV rays

MC1R provides instructions for cells that produce a pigment called melanin, which is what makes skin go brown to protect it from UV damage

The red hair gene version of MC1R does not offer much tanning or sun protection

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Skin type and risk

Type 1 - Often burns, rarely tans. Tends to have freckles, red or fair hair, blue or green eyes

Type 2 - Usually burns, sometimes tans. Tends to have light hair, blue or brown eyes

Type 3 - Sometimes burns, usually tans. Tends to have brown hair and eyes

Type 4 - Rarely burns, often tans. Tends to have dark brown eyes and hair

Type 5 - Naturally brown skin. Often has dark brown eyes and hair

Type 6 - Naturally black-brown skin. Usually has black-brown eyes and hair

Find out if your skin tone is at risk of sun damage

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Lead researcher Dr David Adams, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said the findings reinforced the message that people need to be sun aware

"All people, not just pale redheads, should be careful in the sun

"It has been known for a while that a person with red hair has an increased likelihood of developing skin cancer, but this is the first time that the gene has been proven to be associated with skin cancers with more mutations.

"Unexpectedly, we also showed that people with only a single copy of the gene variant still have a much higher number of tumour mutations than the rest of the population."

Dr Julie Sharp of Cancer Research UK said: "For all of us the best way to protect skin when the sun is strong is to spend time in the shade between 11am and 3pm and to cover up with a T-shirt, hat and sunglasses

"Sunscreen helps protect the parts you can't cover - use one with at least SPF15 and four or more stars, put on plenty and reapply regularly."

Juno probe returns first in-orbit Jupiter photo

SCIENCE

The American space agency's new Juno mission to Jupiter has returned its first imagery since going into orbit around the gas giant last week

The picture shows a sunlit portion of the planet, together with three of its big moons - Io, Europa and Ganymede

The fourth major satellite - Callisto - is out of view

Juno is currently moving away from Jupiter on a large arc, but will sweep back in during August, enabling its "JunoCam" to take even better images

At the moment, scientists are just relieved to know that the equipment is in good health after its encounter with Jupiter's harsh radiation environment during the spacecraft's orbit insertion manoeuvre on 5 July (GMT)

The mission team is now turning on all the probe's instruments to check their status

A period of calibration lies ahead before the serious business of studying Jupiter begins in October

It should be mid-way through that month that a further engine burn puts the spacecraft in a tight, 14-day orbit around the planet

There will then follow a good 30-plus revolutions of the massive world, with many passes getting under 5,000km from its cloud tops

The image on this page was acquired on Sunday, when Juno was some 4.3 million km from Jupiter

Evident in the picture are the gas giant's coloured atmospheric bands. Unmistakable, also, is the famous Great Red Spot - the colossal storm that has raged on the planet for hundreds of years

Juno's goal over the next 18 months will be to try to understand what makes Jupiter tick

Scientists plan to use the spacecraft's instruments to sense the planet's deep interior. They think the structure and the chemistry of its insides hold the essential clues to how this giant world formed some four-and-a-half-billion years ago

Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive

It takes 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun; a 'day' is 10 hours long

In composition it resembles a star; it's mostly hydrogen and helium

Under pressure, the hydrogen becomes an electrically conducting fluid

This 'metallic hydrogen' is likely the source of the magnetic field

Most of the visible cloudtops contain ammonia and hydrogen sulphide

Jupiter's 'stripes' are created by strong east-west winds

The Great Red Spot is a giant storm vortex twice as wide as Earth

Tesla says autopilot involved in second car crash

TECH

Tesla has admitted that its autopilot feature was activated when one of its cars crashed on Sunday

However, the electric carmaker has suggested that the function was not being used correctly at the time

The motorist survived the accident, but another Tesla owner died in an earlier crash blamed on the driver-assist function failing to detect another vehicle in its path

Chief executive Elon Musk said Tesla had no plans to disable autopilot

However, he told the Wall Street Journal that his company would publish a blog highlighting how drivers should make use of the technology

He also tweeted that it was right that Tesla should be "taking the heat for customer safety"

The California-based carmaker has previously blogged that "customers using autopilot are statistically safer than those not using it at all"

Tesla's deployment of the technology is being investigated by the US road safety watchdog

'Ignored alerts'

The latest crash, near Cardwell, Montana, saw a Model X car swerve to hit wooden rails next to a two-lane road

"This vehicle was being driven along an undivided mountain road shortly after midnight with autosteer enabled," a spokeswoman told the BBC, referring to autopilot's steering function

"The data suggests that the driver's hands were not on the steering wheel, as no force was detected on the steering wheel for over two minutes after autosteer was engaged - even a very small amount of force, such as one hand resting on the wheel, will be detected

"This is contrary to the terms of use that are agreed to when enabling the feature and the notification presented in the instrument cluster each time it is activated

"As road conditions became increasingly uncertain, the vehicle again alerted the driver to put his hands on the wheel

"He did not do so, and shortly thereafter the vehicle collided with a post on the edge of the roadway

"Autosteer... is best suited for highways with a centre divider.

"We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads."

CNN reported that the car had lost one of its wheels in the crash, but neither the driver nor his passenger had been injured

The man - who identified himself only as Pang - said that the alerts given by the car had been in English, while he spoke Mandarin

Multiple probes

Tesla released details of the incident more quickly than it had done for the earlier crash in Florida

The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that it was investigating why the company took until 30 June to publicly disclose the fatality - 54 days after it happened and nine days after it first informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Tesla had raised funds from investors in the interim

"I didn't know there had been an autopilot incident at the time of the fundraising," Mr Musk has said. "What we told NHTSA was just that somebody died - it wasn't that there was an autopilot incident."

On Tuesday, the traffic safety body released a letter it had sent to Telsa detailing its own investigation into the accident.

It has asked for details about all updates made to autopilot since it was enabled last year, as well as information about forthcoming changes

The watchdog is also considering whether autopilot was in use during a third collision involving a Tesla car that occurred on 1 July

ProPilot unveiled

Although Tesla says motorists should remain "engaged and aware" while using autopilot, critics have suggested that it was "inevitable" that users would become distracted

Nevertheless, other car makers are pursuing a similar strategy

Nissan has unveiled ProPilot - lane-detecting technology that allows a car to follow the vehicle ahead, braking and accelerating as necessary without human direction

Japan will be first market to get the innovation when it is included in a minivan released next month and Nissan planned to offer ProPilot in European models next year

As a safety measure, the company has designed the facility to turn itself off if the driver removed his or her hands from the wheel for more than a brief period

In another related development, Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to test more than 100 self-driving research vehicles on roads near Coventry, England before the end of 2020

Japan cuts growth forecast to 0.9% as economy falters

BUSINESS