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At the heart of the relationship between Corbyn and Britain's biggest rail unions is Tosh McDonald (pictured, left), the ultra-Left president of Aslef, who has his own name tattooed on his hand (left). McDonald introduced Corbyn to the stage at the union's raucous Christmas party on Friday, a demonstration of the intimate relationship between Corbyn and Britain's biggest rail unions. The union's general secretary, Mick Whelan, is also a long-standing ally of Corbyn. As well as the close ties, Whelan also shows the staggering hypocrisy of the unions. The union has led staff into strikes that caused travel chaos for millions over the last year (pictured, bottom right). Yet Whelan, who has seen huge pay rises over the last two years, personally signed off on the passenger-operated doors for another franchise in 2011 that Aslef now claim are dangerous - an issue at the heart of the dispute.

Budget-conscious shoppers have long turned to supermarkets' own-label products to get more for their money. But now it seems increasing numbers are upgrading to retailers' premium food brands, with figures showing they are spending 13 per cent more on them than they did last year. Analysts predict a record festive season for ranges such as Tesco's Finest, Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, Morrisons' The Best and Asda's Extra Special.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: A ceasefire deal has been struck between the pro-Syrian government forces and the rebels effectively ending the battle for Aleppo that has raged for many years. It comes as the once proud Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, also known as the 'Great Mosque' now lies in ruins in the middle of Aleppo following intense fighting. Several of the walls surrounding the UNESCO-listed building have been destroyed and pro-government fighters have been inspected looking on at the ruins. And images emerging of Aleppo's citadel and the old city also show how it has been destroyed by the bloody conflict that has left over 30,000 people dead.

She's the leading lady in the hotly-anticipated Stars Wars spin-off, Rogue One. So Felicity Jones ensured she was dressed to impress as she slipped into a flowing grey gown for a fan screening in London on Tuesday. Turning heads as she walked the red carpet, the Oscar-nominated actress, 33, oozed glamour in the Grecian style garment. 

Jill Williamson (left and inset), from South Croydon, has been 'potty-training' Ryker since birth and swears she knows, from his movements and demeanour, exactly when he needs to 'go' and usually - usually - gets him to the toilet on time. A study published in the scientific journal Urology in 2012 indicated some children develop a habit of 'chronic holding', in which they resist the urge to go to the toilet, leading to constipation, bladder problems and urinary tract infections. And those most prone to the condition are those who were potty trained early - especially before the age of two. According to Feilim Murphy, consultant paediatric urologist at the Portland Hospital in London, the early training interferes with the natural maturing process of the body and brain. Becca Heorton (right), a 33-year-old midwife and mother from Peckham, South London, is not convinced by the warnings, however.

Many workers are effectively earning less than the minimum wage and are threatened with being sacked if they sit down during long shifts. The practices are taking place despite public uproar about working conditions at warehouses operated by other large retailers, including their rivals Sports Direct, as well as Amazon and Asos. The investigation involves the Kingsway Business Park facility in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, which supplies all of JD Sports' stores in the UK and abroad, as well as its thriving online business.

Rapper Kanye and the president-elect had an extraordinary meeting at Trump Tower on Tuesday morning with West bringing a book of nudes and wanting to talk about violence in Chicago. The trio posed in the next president's personal office (left) before descending to the foyer of Trump Tower where the Republican election winner embraced the rapper (top right). The Secret Service had assessed West as posing no threat to Trump's safety after his time on a psychiatric hold. He was released from hospital in Los Angeles last week. Kanye, who arrived with his mother in-law Kris Jenner's boyfriend Corey Gamble, 35 (bottom left) then tweeted about the meeting - with the final tweet hinting at his own run: '#2024'.

Horrifying footage showing the moment an ISIS suicide bomber killed 25 Christians at a Cairo church has been released by the Egyptian government. Abu Abdallah al-Masri detonated a 12kg bomb targeting Cairo 's main Coptic Christian community killing six children and 19 adults, mostly women. A further 49 were wounded in the savage attack on Sunday.

The story of a band of siblings setting off in search of a bear has enchanted children and parents for more than 25 years. Now Michael Rosen's book, We're Going On A Bear Hunt, is set to win new fans after being turned into a charming animated film that will be the star of the Christmas TV schedule (it's on Christmas Eve and repeated on Christmas Day). But how did Channel 4 transform the short story into a half-hour adventure? Tanith Carey reveals the secrets behind the film...

Britain's first female prime minister (left) was an obvious choice for the top spot, while second place went to Helen Brook, who set up Brook Advisory Centres in 1964, offering contraceptive advice to unmarried women. They were followed by Labour MP Barbara Castle, who was behind the Equal Pay Act. Feminist writer Germaine Greer and Jayaben Desai, who campaigned for better working conditions for women, were also chosen. The list was completed by Bridget Jones (centre) and Beyonce (right) - apparently leaving no room for influential women such as current Prime Minister Theresa May, American civil rights activist Rosa Parks, or Catholic missionary Mother Teresa.

This is the horrifying moment a petrolhead smashed his £260,000 Lamborghini Aventador into two other cars after racing another supercar in the streets of London. Shocking footage taken from a passenger in the other racing car shows the black Lamborghini whiz down a street. It overtakes its competitor but is unable to stop in time for traffic lights ahead. 

This collection of images is taken from Agence France Presse, or AFP's 'Pictures of the Year 2016' - a selection of the press agency's most important and powerful photographs from the past year. Every year AFP, which has photographers around the globe, chooses a selection of their most powerful, moving, shocking or fascinating images, offering a look back at the highlights - and lowlights - of the last 12 months. Pictured, left, a woman is sprayed by police during a public sector protest against austerity measures in Brazil. Top right, A biker shows off his 12-year-old cat named Chiquinho, which always rides with him on his motorbike, also in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bottom right, people watch the Euro 2016 final match between Portugal and France on a giant screen near the Eiffel Tower, while Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo is evacuated on a stretcher after being injured

Queen Letizia of Spain (left) stole the show in a striped and sparkly Nina Ricci dress that is not even on sale yet as she accompanied her husband to a journalism awards ceremony in Madrid. The 44-year-old, a former television news anchor herself, stood out from the crowd (right) in the midi-dress, which featured sheer panels alongside multi-coloured stripes. The Royals enjoyed a gala dinner at the event, organised by the ABC newspaper - the third largest in Spain, and backed by Spanish bank Abanca.

Britain's balmy winter has seen a record-breaking crop at England's only tea plantation. Crops at Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall have been boosted by exceptionally mild conditions. The region has been even warmer than Darjeeling in India, which is known as the Champagne of Teas, and as such the estate has been able to harvest much later into the season than its illustrious counterpart.

New Zealand nail artist Jessie Mills has created edible nails made out of chocolate - the latest beauty nail craze to sweep the web. A video of her creating them has been viewed on Instagram 57,000 times. But not everyone is a fan, with some saying the nails are 'unhygienic.'

Since its release in 2003, Love Actually has become a bona fide Christmas classic. The singing schoolgirl Joanna (top left), played by Olivia Olson (below left), is now 24, and still singing and acting in LA, while her secret admirer Sam (above, second from left), played by Thomas Brodie Sangster (below, second from left), has appeared in Game of Thrones and the Maze Runner. Martine McCutcheon, who played Downing Street staffer Natalie (above, third from left), was recently announced as a Loose Women panellist (below, third from left), while shy Karl (above, third from right), played by the hunky Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro, now stars in the HBO hit Westworld (below, third from right). Hugh Grant, who starred as Prime Minister David 13 years ago (above, second from right), just picked up a Best Actor award for his performance in Florence Foster Jenkins alongside Meryl Streep (below, second from right), and Peter (above, right), picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his role in 12 Years a Slave (below, right).

Wilfried W and his ex-wife Angelika are on trial in Germany accused of murdering two women and torturing at least five more. Dubbed Germany's Fred and Rose West, the pair allegedly lured young women to their 'House of Horrors' by taking out lonely hearts adverts in German newspapers, it is claimed. One victim One victim Christel P answered an advert that said: 'Farmer is looking for a wife. I am kind, nice, gentle....' A short time later she was chained her to a pigsty with handcuffs, stood barefoot in manure wearing underpants. Another victim was held in couple's 'cat room' and chained to the radiator because she made too much noise. One of their victims was dismembered and stuffed into the freezer when she died. Eventually she was thawed through and cremated on a log burner. Her ashes were thrown from a car window on a drive through the country.

They're designed for stressed parents who want to save their ears from their baby's screams. But dummies can also be used on dogs, so it seems.  A video of a German Shepard sucking on a human nipple replica has emerged online. The pooch appears very relaxed as it lazes on the sofa with the dummy in its mouth. Its owner even scratches its head and ruffles its fur as it reclines on the couch.

Romanian border patrol officers stationed in the town of Curtici entered the luggage compartment of the train which was travelling to the Austrian capital having become suspicious of the bags. After deciding to open them, they found two women inside (pictured top right), who were trying to reach Austria illegally. The women told police they wanted to get into the Schengen area and had resorted to using suitcases (left and bottom right) because they did not have a valid visa.

Tyrone Williams, from Bromley, shared a video that captured the moment when the woman was forced out of her seat despite the fact she had an infant in a sling. The mother sat down in the first class section of a Southern Rail train to Brighton. However, fellow passengers argued that she shouldn't be allowed to sit there because she doesn't have a first class ticket but the mother points out it is a priority seat. Southern Rail say that priority seats in first class are available to ticket holders only unless it has been declassified due to disruption.

Keziah Flux-Edmonds (pictured left) was killed by her father Darren (right with his daughter and wife Nikki), 44, who drowned her in the bathtub of the family home in East Cowes, Isle of Wight before laying her body in the master bedroom. The father-of-one also killed the family's two terrier dogs. Keziah's lifeless body was found with her arms wrapped around her beloved pets Arnie and Maximus. Both the dogs were soaking wet and it is believed Flux-Edmonds drowned them too. Flux-Edmonds, who suffered from depression, was looking after Keziah while her mother Nikki Flux-Edmonds was at work for an hour. He sent her a chilling text 25 minutes after she left the house. The inquest heard the long message began with 'Congratulations' and ended with: 'You have left me with nothing, I'll leave you with only memories.' Keziah's grandmother June Lillian Flux is pictured inset leaving the inquest today.

Clare Potts, 28, inset top, a blogger from Manchester, shared pictures of her inventive hack, which involves pouring the wine into the water cooling section of her fridge, left and right, and Twitter users praised her. Twitter user Andrew Yee said: 'You should have got Time Person of the Year with this idea', inset left. However, not everyone was convinced by the idea and some suggested it would ruin the taste of the wine. Maneki Neko said: 'I'm horrified. An open wine in the fridge is quickly altered by the other food stored', bottom right.

This is the painful moment an artist crashed to the floor after her ladder slipped from underneath her. Zoia Skoropadenko was putting up paintings ahead of her Brussels exhibition entitled Torso. She was climbing a ladder holding on to one of her pictures, tentatively taking each step at a time. But suddenly the ladder slipped out from underneath her and she crashed to the floor.

Clearing the drive of snow after a heavy dump is normally an arduous task. But one genius boy has found a way to speed up the painstaking process. The youngster created a makeshift snowplow with his hoverboard at his home in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The boy rapidly rolled up and down his drive while shovelling snow at either side.

April Horscraft, 9, (pictured) has wowed with her Christmas gift wrapping skills after winning a competition run by retailer WHSmith. She showed the best ways to wrap tricky presents like a teddy bear (right) on ITV's This Morning. Viewers were amazed as she neatly wrapped the toy and then judged Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield's (inset) own efforts.

Emma Tapping, 28, from the Isle of Man, inset, will be making sure they each get 96 gifts - even though they still haven't used many of the items they were given last festive season. She was accused of 'abusing' and spoiling her children by lavishing them with the gifts that cost £1,500 in 2015, left. But the mother-of-three said the criticism hasn't put her off spending lavishly again this Christmas and this year she started her present-buying in July when she armed herself with a suitcase to carry everything home - and shared a snap of this year's tree on Facebook, right.

Hannah Cubin collapsed suddenly after going to a sleepover at a friend's house. Her mother Dawn got an 11pm call from Hannah's friend saying something was wrong and she and Mr Cubin rushed to their daughter's side. While Mrs Cubin performed CPR, her husband gave mouth to mouth before paramedics arrived at the house in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. They spent an hour trying to save the youngster but to no avail and she was pronounced dead from a suspected heart attack.