Neelam Krishnamoorthy: The film tickets that destroyed a family

Summary: Neelam Krishnamoorthy's children loved watching films - but one afternoon a routine cinema trip ended in a moment of tragedy, and left Neelam fighting a decades-long battle for justice.

By Aparna AlluriBBC News, Delhi The moment On the morning of 13 June 1997, Neelam Krishnamoorthy rang a popular cinema in Delhi - Uphaar - and bought two tickets for Border, a star-studded Bollywood film about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. It had hit the screens that day. It was the summer holidays and her children, Unnati, 17, and Ujjwal, 13, wanted to watch it. "She [Unnati] was a big movie buff," says Neelam. "She wanted to see this movie first day. So I promised her I'd book the tickets for her." The whole family ate lunch together - Neelam remembers the chicken curry her husband, Shekhar, had cooked. And she remembers the kiss Unnati planted on her cheek before she and Ujjwal left for the film. It was the last time she saw her children alive. At 4.55pm, a fire broke out in the cinema's parking lot. The smoke spread up the stairs and entered the cinema hall. Witnesses said people poured out of the ground floor of the building, while some of those on higher floors smashed windows and jumped out to escape. But many were trapped inside as emergency vehicles laboured through evening traffic to reach the spot in the south Delhi neighbourhood of Green Park. It was several hours before the Krishnamoorthys knew what had happened to their children. Neelam doesn't remember what time it was when she walked into a room full of stretchers in AIIMS hospital, and recognised Unnati's body. Ujjwal was on another stretcher, a few feet away. "That's the day our world came to our end," she says. "Everything… just finished." Fifty-nine people died, among them 23 children, the youngest one month old. More than a hundred were injured. It remains one of India's most tragic fires. Soon, Neelam would learn that her children's deaths had been far from inevitable. And that discovery would drive her into a long, gruelling fight against powerful property developers, sluggish courts and, at times, her own unspeakable grief. Before The Krishnamoorthys' living room has birthday cards and photographs of Unnati and Ujjwal over the years - in one of them, she has her arm around him and they are both grinning. Neelam picks up a thick photo album from the coffee table and starts turning the pages. "This is on Ujjwal's 11th birthday..." she says wistfully, pointing at a photo of him cutting a cake. Neelam is also in the photograph - she's in bed with a fractured leg. Ujjwal insisted on cutting the cake in her bedroom, even though he had friends over. Neelam says they were a close-knit, fun-loving family. They enjoyed eating out, they travelled a lot and they celebrated every birthday and anniversary. She describes her children as kind, outgoing and friendly. In the summer of 1997, Unnati had finished school and was excited about college. Ujjwal was in the school choir, which he loved. The Krishnamoorthys have moved into a new home since then but Neelam has recreated the children's room like it was on that day. She doesn't allow outsiders into the room but she says she has kept every little thing that belonged to them - Ujjwal's cap is still on the bed where he left it. She says she still goes into their room every morning and every night. "The time when I am very upset I go and sit in their room and I spend a lot of time there." She has also held on to the most tangible reminder of that day: two pink, flimsy movie tickets. She gingerly pulls them out of a black, leather wallet. It was a gift from her to Ujjwal. The tickets are torn at the edges but you can see the timing of the show - Friday, 3.15pm - and the name of the cinema is printed across the middle. "I call them tickets to death. As a mother I feel very guilty because I booked the tickets." She also has Unnati's purse, which she was carrying that day. The tickets, the wallet, the purse - they were all undamaged because Unnati and Ujjwal did not suffer any burns. After It was only days later that Neelam began to wonder what happened at Uphaar. "I kept wondering why is it that only people in the balcony have died?" Unnati, Ujjwal and all the other victims had been sitting in the balcony above the main hall. "It was when I read the papers, I realised that the fire had started a long time back, the movie kept running, they were not informed, the doors were closed, the gatekeeper had run away. I mean, I realised they didn't have to die." An inquiry into the fire found that this had indeed been the case. The owners had added 52 extra seats in the balcony over the years, blocking a crucial exit and narrowing paths to the other exits. There were also no emergency lights or footlights. Survivors from the balcony told the court that they stumbled towards the exits in pitch darkness. Some managed to pry open a locked door and squeeze through only to faint in the smoke-filled lobby. But those inside choked to death on carbon monoxide fumes. This is the crux of Neelam's 22-year-long fight: the deaths were a man-made disaster, the result of broken rules and lax enforcement. The inquiry also found that the transformer in the basement that had caused the fire had not been installed correctly, increasing the risk of fire. It had caused another fire earlier that day, which had been quickly put out, but shoddy repairs resulted in the second and fatal fire. The more Neelam learnt, the angrier she got. And the more convinced she became that she had to fight for her children. "I told Shekhar I want to get the people responsible for this tragedy. I want to send them behind bars." India has a dismal record in public safety and tragedies like these are alarmingly common. But what is rare is for victims' families to hold someone accountable. So Neelam and Shekhar's decision to do that unnerved family and friends. Some suggested that they have another child to move on - but this was never an option for the couple. "You do everything for your children [while] they are alive," says Neelam. "So why would I stop doing something for them when they are no more?" The state accused 16 men of causing the deaths in Uphaar - they included staff at the cinema, and safety inspectors who overlooked glaring violations throughout the building. The most high-profile accused were Sushil and Gopal Ansal, two brothers who owned the cinema. Neelam and Shekhar formed an association with families of the other victims to support the prosecution. And Neelam started to educate herself about everything, from safety rules for cinema halls to criminal law. But nothing prepared her for India's overburdened and understaffed courts. It was a decade later - in 2007 - that the court finally found all 16 men guilty, by which time four of them had died. The sentences ranged from seven months to seven years - some were found guilty of negligence, while others were found guilty of more serious charges. The Ansal brothers were given two years in jail, the maximum sentence for their charge. "It came as a shock to me that they gave just a two-year sentence for someone responsible for killing 59 lives," says Neelam. She had been fighting for them to be charged with a graver offence, on the grounds that decisions they took, as the cinema's owners, had proved fatal. But when she challenged the sentence in the Delhi high court, rather than being increased, it was halved. "The reason given was that they are educated, they have a good social status," says Neelam. "I found those reasons pretty pathetic. Because if you are educated, you should have been more prudent and followed all the rules." So she appealed to the Supreme Court, which delivered its ruling in 2015. And this time the Ansal brothers' custodial sentences were waived altogether. Instead, each was fined $4m. "I just threw all the documents I had in the court," she says, recalling that day. "I walked out of the court and I burst into tears. That was the first time I cried publicly." She says that day, she and Shekhar couldn't visit the children's room - they spent the whole night in the drawing room, wondering what they could have done differently. It was a ruling, she says, that shook her faith in the judiciary. But she eventually went back to the Supreme Court for another appeal. This time, the court ordered Gopal Ansal to serve one year in jail. Sushil Ansal, then 77, was released on account of old age. That was in 2017. Neelam has one more challenge pending. She has petitioned the Supreme Court again, asking for the Ansals to serve the full two years of their original sentence, since neither of them has completed two years in jail. She doesn't know when the court will begin its hearings. Over the years, she has committed the case to memory - every order, appeal, verdict and document that is spilling out of the boxes and shelves in her home office. "I have read every single document," she says. "There are almost 50,000 pages to be read in the main case alone." She says she has lost count of how many hearings Shekhar and she have attended - they still spend hours in courtrooms every other day. And she takes copious notes so she is always in the loop, and can question or prod the prosecutor if necessary. What keeps them going, Neelam says, is the promise they made to their children to get justice for them - although at times, she feels like she has failed them and despair takes over. "If I had to do it all over again, I would just pick up a gun and shoot the guys who were responsible for my children's death. I would not like to go through this trauma. After killing them, I can kill myself so I don't suffer. As simple as that." Uphaar cinema is still standing - grimy and dilapidated, it bears the marks of the tragedy 22 years ago. It can't be torn down until judges have ruled on Neelam's final challenge. "I try not to even look at this building when I come here," says Neelam, standing with her back to it. "I had my bank right here. I didn't visit it for almost 12 years." Across from Uphaar is a small park with a round black granite fountain - a memorial to the victims of the fire. It has their names with their date of birth. Neelam visits the park three times a year - on her children's birthdays and on the anniversary of the fire. She goes straight to the memorial, touches the spot where Unnati's and Ujjwal's names are inscribed, folds her hands and closes her eyes. "I just pray because I think... this is where they died and I very strongly feel that they are still not at peace." You may also be interested in: Imagine your life being changed by a single dramatic moment. This is what happened to a top scientist in the Indian space programme, when one day, 25 years ago, police officers knocked at his door. The fake spy scandal that blew up a rocket scientist's career

नीलम कृष्णमूर्ति के बच्चों को फिल्में देखना पसंद था-लेकिन एक दोपहर एक नियमित सिनेमा यात्रा त्रासदी के क्षण में समाप्त हो गई, और नीलम न्याय के लिए दशकों की लंबी लड़ाई लड़ रही थी।


How Trump offered Kim a ride on Air Force One

Summary: President Trump's meetings with Kim Jong-un were among the most eye-catching moments of his presidency. In the third and final episode of a new BBC series Trump Takes On the World, directed by Tim Stirzaker, we discover new details about how these summits came about, and speak to those who were in the room when the two men met. What they saw stunned even the most seasoned diplomats - not least when Trump offered the North Korean dictator a lift home on Air Force One.

Trump's second summit with Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi, Vietnam, did not go to plan. As negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme broke down, Trump left abruptly, saying to the press: "Sometimes you just have to walk." But before he departed, the then US president did make one astonishing offer to Kim. Matthew Pottinger, the top Asia expert on Trump's National Security Council told us: "President Trump offered Kim a lift home on Air Force One. The president knew that Kim had arrived on a multi-day train ride through China into Hanoi and the president said: 'I can get you home in two hours if you want.' Kim declined." An 'unforced error' The offer of a ride home was one of many surprises in an unlikely bromance between the two men that started in Singapore when, as former National Security Adviser John Bolton told us: "Trump thought he had a new best friend." Here, Trump made another gesture that shocked his own team, when he agreed to Kim's request to cancel joint military exercises between the US and South Korea. Bolton told the BBC: "Kim Jong-un, as he had many times in the past, complained about the big joint exercises between South Korea and American forces, which had been going on on the Korean peninsula for about 60 years plus. "Trump, out of nowhere, said, 'I'm going to cancel the war games [as he called them]. There's no need for them, they're expensive and it will make you happy.' I couldn't believe it. "[Secretary of State] Pompeo, [Chief of Staff] Kelly and I were sitting there in the room with Trump and we weren't consulted. It came simply from Trump's own mind. It was an unforced error; it was a concession for which we got nothing in return." Find out more: Trump's secret message to Kim The fact that the meeting happened at all was a surprise to many. Only months earlier, Trump had been calling Kim "Rocket Man" and threatening North Korea with "fire and fury". Top UN official Jeff Feltman describes how, at the height of the crisis, he delivered a secret message from Trump to Kim that offered a meeting. UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Feltman had been invited to Pyongyang by the North Koreans - but the US State Department had told him that they didn't think it was a good idea for him to go. However, a few weeks later, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the White House. Feltman told us: "They were comparing notes on what was happening, what might be possible, how dangerous was it, how likely would a military response be, all that sort of thing. And Secretary General Guterres said to President Trump: 'Jeff Feltman has this strange invitation to go to Pyongyang and lead a policy dialogue with the North Koreans.' "And Trump leaned over toward him and said: 'Jeff Feltman should go to Pyongyang and Jeff Feltman should tell the North Koreans I'm willing to sit down with Kim Jong-Un.'" Feltman rebuffed in Pyongyang When Feltman went to Pyongyang, he stressed to the North Koreans the gravity of the situation. He told us: "The major message that I tried to get across, and this was in response to their arguments about the need for deterrence, is that what they see as deterrence can provoke the very war that they believe they are deterring." The UN official asked for a meeting with the North Korean foreign minister in private to pass on the secret message from Trump. He recalls: "There was a bit of silence before the foreign minister said, 'I don't believe you, why should I believe you.' And I said: 'Look, I'm not asking you to believe me. What I'm telling you is that the UN was entrusted with a message from President Trump; I am the carrier of that message.'" He told us: "I went to Pyongyang deeply, deeply concerned given this feeling that war was imminent. I left Pyongyang terrified that what we really risked was an accidental war." Trump leaves South Korea's ambassador stunned Kim didn't respond directly to Trump's message - but months later he told the South Koreans that he was ready to meet the US president. South Korea's national security adviser rushed to the White House to deliver the news. The then US National Security Adviser, HR McMaster, describes the moment Trump said "yes" to a meeting: "Ambassador Chung just about fell out of his chair because he thought it was going to be kind of a hard sell." Like many in the White House, McMaster had serious reservations about meeting Kim but, as with so much of Trump's foreign policy, the president was going to do it his way. As McMaster says: "I felt that it would be better to let Kim Jong-un feel the pressure a little bit longer. But, of course the president wouldn't resist the opportunity."

राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प की किम जोंग-उन के साथ बैठकें उनके राष्ट्रपति पद के सबसे आकर्षक क्षणों में से एक थीं। टिम स्टर्ज़ाकर द्वारा निर्देशित एक नई बीबीसी श्रृंखला ट्रम्प टेक्स ऑन द वर्ल्ड के तीसरे और अंतिम एपिसोड में, हम इस बारे में नए विवरण की खोज करते हैं कि ये शिखर सम्मेलन कैसे हुए, और उन लोगों से बात करते हैं जो कमरे में थे जब दोनों लोग मिले थे। उन्होंने जो देखा उसने सबसे अनुभवी राजनयिकों को भी चौंका दिया-कम से कम जब ट्रम्प ने उत्तर कोरियाई तानाशाह को एयर फोर्स वन पर घर ले जाने की पेशकश की।


German election: AfD leader Frauke Petry faces perjury fight

Summary: A parliamentary committee in eastern Germany has called for Frauke Petry, one of the leaders of Germany's right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), to lose her immunity from prosecution over allegations of perjury.

The decision comes little over a month before Germans head to the polls. The AfD hopes to enter the parliament in Berlin for the first time. Prosecutors asked the Saxony state parliament to lift Ms Petry's immunity after a campaign financing inquiry. She is suspected of making false statements under oath before a parliamentary committee in November 2015. Ms Petry is a co-leader of the the nationalist AfD and its lead candidate in Saxony for the 24 September federal election. Prosecutors will be able to press ahead with the case if, as expected, no objections are raised by other members of the state parliament. She has said in the past that she is relaxed about the case. AfD is currently polling at around 8% in German opinion polls and already has delegates in 13 of Germany's 16 state parliaments. Among its policies are a call to declare Islam incompatible with German culture and a plan to strip immigrants convicted of serious crimes of their German passports. The party's fortunes have declined in the past year, partly because of internal wrangling but also because immigration has become less of an issue in German politics. Parties need to reach a 5% threshold of the vote to enter the Bundestag. What does the AfD want? Ms Petry was instrumental in moving the AfD to the right after it was founded as an anti-euro movement. In 2016, amid the influx of migrants and refugees into Germany, she suggested that police should, "if necessary", shoot at migrants seeking to enter the country illegally. In April she stepped back from the party leadership to have her fifth baby after losing an internal fight to steer the AfD towards a more moderate course. Controversially, she was then pictured with her baby in July in an AfD campaign poster.

पूर्वी जर्मनी में एक संसदीय समिति ने जर्मनी के दक्षिणपंथी अल्टरनेटिव फॉर जर्मनी (ए. एफ. डी.) के नेताओं में से एक फ्रॉक पेट्री से झूठी गवाही के आरोपों पर अभियोजन से अपनी प्रतिरक्षा खोने का आह्वान किया है।


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

The organisers of the Grand Depart have certainly done a first-rate job of telling the people of Yorkshire that a big bike race is coming their way - 94% of people in the region have Le Tour on their radar - but what of t'other lot over the hills? At around 13:00 on Sunday, 6 July, the Tour will dip into historic Lancashire for the first time in its 111-year history. But it will leave Lancashire at about 13:01, as the riders speed away from Rochdale's Blackstone Edge reservoir and swing east towards Ripponden. These roads are well-known to members of the Trans Pennine Cycling Club, who sound like an ecumenical bunch, and they can often be spotted tackling the long and winding road that is the "Alp d'Cragg". Full story: Manchester Evening News Can you really have too much of a good thing? Well, the people of Harrogate and farmers from across the region might think so given the close proximity in the calendar of Le Tour and the Great Yorkshire Show, which starts on Tuesday, two days after the bike race has passed through the spa town for the second time. Publicly, the organisers of the huge agricultural shindig have been at pains to paint this as a win-win for the area and their event, but there is no doubt that Le Tour's road closures and general traffic present serious logistical concerns for them. Take the issue of car parking, for example. The Great Yorkshire Showground is meant to take up to 15,000 cars for the day stage one finishes in Harrogate, but the venue's owners have said that could be cut to just 2,000 if there is any risk of cars and bad weather cutting up those fields for the Great Yorkshire Show. Full story: The Yorkshire Post CYCLING ROUND-UP Thursday's stage at the Criterium du Dauphine did not look that exciting on paper - an up-and-down but not mountainous day - particularly with two huge days looming on Saturday and Sunday. But it actually ended up being quite good. Alberto Contador attacked on a descent - shades of the 2013 Tour de France, there - and for a moment had a lead of nearly a minute over Chris Froome with 15 miles or so to go on the stage. But the overnight leader did not panic, and his Team Sky buddies closed the gap, with new Spanish signing Mikel Nieve to the fore. Slovenia's Simon Spilak broke clear on the last climb to bag a solo win, his team Katusha's second in a row, and Froome maintained his 12-second overall lead. Kudos to Wilco Kelderman though, who jumped clear of the leaders to claim second place and enough time to draw level with Contador behind Froome, and to Bury's Adam Yates, who finished third to continue his fine season. Elsewhere, Mark Cavendish confirmed he will be taking almost his first-choice Omega Pharma - Quick-Step sprint chain with him to the nine-day Tour of Switzerland on Saturday. He should get two chances to use it in an otherwise bumpy race. And an update on Carlos Betancur's whereabouts: on Thursday I mentioned that he had failed to return from Colombia in time to get his visa for the Tour de France, but it now seems he has a virus and will be staying at home for the rest of the 2014 campaign. TWEET OF THE DAY "Explaining to @TheDPate why Bale and Ramsey can't play for England…#worldcup #hardwork" Welsh star @GeraintThomas86 on the difficulties his American Team Sky colleague Danny Pate is having with the United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements. TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA It would not be that difficult to do a daily item of Eddy Merckx trivia, such was the Belgian's hold over cycling from the mid-1960s to his retirement in 1978, but this is the first time I have mentioned him in this section, which is almost scandalous. One of only five men to win the Tour five times, he also won the Giro five times, three World Road Race titles, each of the sport's other five big one-day races, at least twice, and the Vuelta once. But my favourite "Cannibal" stat is that he is the only man to win the overall, points and mountains competitions in the same Tour. That happened in 1969, when he also won the combined classification and the combativity award that goes to the most aggressive rider. It was his Tour debut. THE COUNTDOWN - 22 DAYS TO GO There are 22 teams of nine in this year's race to make a total of 198 riders, the same number as the last four Tours. It was originally intended the riders would compete as individuals, but teams of sponsored riders started to dominate, until the organisers banned them in 1930 and opted for national teams. This continued until 1961 when "trade teams" came back, only for national teams to contest the 1967 and 1968 Tours. But since 1969 it has been the human billboards of the trade teams.

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


Israeli soldier condemned for putting knee on Palestinian protester's neck

Summary: Israel's military says it is looking into an incident in which a soldier was filmed with his knee on the neck of a Palestinian man being handcuffed at a protest in the occupied West Bank.

The footage shows Khairi Hanoon, a well-known activist in his 60s, being pushed to the ground by the soldier. The soldier then places his knee on Mr Hanoon's neck and head for 50 seconds. The incident prompted Palestinian condemnation, but the Israeli military said its troops acted with restraint. It said the footage was "only partial, slanted, and does not reflect the rioting and violence toward the army forces that preceded the arrest". It was filmed during a protest against Israeli settlement construction in the village of Shufa, near Nablus, on Tuesday. The settlements are seen as illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. "A few elderly people marched, thinking that soldiers wouldn't attack us, but we were mistaken. They attacked us like thugs," Mr Hanoon was quoted as saying by Israel's Haaretz newspaper. "I'm 60, what can I do to an armed soldier? But for the officer on the scene, I'm a threat, and within minutes he began to brutally attack me." He compared the incident to the one in which George Floyd was killed by US police. On 25 May, an officer in Minneapolis knelt on Floyd's neck for several minutes even after he said he could not breathe, sparking a protest movement. "That's how I felt, and I felt he was choking me," Mr Hanoon said. Mr Hanoon was later released and he returned home. The images were circulated widely by Palestinian media, with one official calling the incident "savage". The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said some 200 people took part in a "violent riot" in Shufa, during which stones were thrown and its troops were attacked. "At one point, a Palestinian, who is known as a central agitator and participates in many riots in the [West Bank], shoved the force's commander a number of times and tried to create a provocation," it added. "The commander showed restraint, but after a number of attacks on him, the force was required to arrest the suspect because he kept attacking the force and rioting. "The suspect also resisted his arrest, and the force was forced to handcuff him. After his arrest, the suspect was given medical treatment at the scene."

इजरायल की सेना का कहना है कि वह एक ऐसी घटना की जांच कर रही है जिसमें एक सैनिक को कब्जे वाले वेस्ट बैंक में एक विरोध प्रदर्शन में एक फिलिस्तीनी व्यक्ति की गर्दन पर घुटने के साथ हथकड़ी लगाते हुए फिल्माया गया था।


Condor Ferries charters second freight vessel

Summary: The chartering of a second vessel to replace the damaged Commodore Clipper should see freight supplies return to normal, Condor Ferries has said.

The Clipper has been out of action since it hit the seabed off Guernsey on 14 July, but the company expects it to return to service on 26 August. Its loss has meant disruption to food supplies in the Channel Islands. The MV Arrow is due to start work this weekend alongside the MN Toucan, which made its first delivery on Tuesday. Passengers due to sail on the Clipper have been offered places on other sailings, with the company scheduling three extra fast ferry services. Captain Fran Collins, ports and guests services director, said the second vessel meant freight supplies would be "back to normal within a matter of days".

कोंडोर फेरीज ने कहा है कि क्षतिग्रस्त कमोडोर क्लिपर को बदलने के लिए दूसरे जहाज के किराए पर लेने से माल की आपूर्ति सामान्य हो जाएगी।


Body is found in the River Severn at Shrewsbury

Summary: A man's body has been found in the River Severn.

The discovery came as police searched for 27-year-old Mark Hodnett who disappeared after leaving a local night club in the early hours of Saturday, 13 August. The body was spotted by a member of the public near Kingsland Bridge at around midday on Thursday. It was recovered by police, and firecrews and confirmed dead at the scene by ambulance staff. The body has not yet been identified. Related Internet Links Shropshire Fire and Rescue West Mercia Police West Midlands Ambulance Service

सेवर्न नदी में एक व्यक्ति का शव मिला है।


Tunisia Jews: A tiny community hanging on - and cooking

Summary: Tunisia has a long Jewish history - Jews were present in North Africa before the arrival of Islam or Christianity. In good times they prospered and in hard times they bore the brunt of discrimination, but now they are at risk of extinction. Of 100,000 before the creation of Israel in 1948, only about 1,500 are left.

By Magdi AbdelhadiBBC World Service, Tunis After the revolution that ousted President Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali last year, there have been ominous signs. More than once, hardline Salafists have staged demonstrations shouting "Death to the Jews". This has alarmed many in Tunis's tiny Jewish community. "In around 15 years, we start to speak about the Jewish community in the past tense," says Jacob Lellouche, the only Jew who tried to win a seat on the assembly drafting Tunisia's new constitution. (He didn't succeed.) But while he is gloomy about the future he is also a dreamer, and the centrepiece of his dream is a small villa in the seaside suburb of La Goulette. The white two-storey colonial era house has a blue metal gate that carries a big sign - Mamie Lily Restaurant. Lily is his 85-year-old mother and the master chef. "She is the heart and the memory of Jewish cooking in Tunisia," says the chain-smoking Lellouche. He left Tunisia in 1978 to study marketing and economics in France but decided to return to his roots in 1996, to live with his mother and to found "the last kosher restaurant in Tunisia". "I want to invite my clients to a cultural trip… to an old Jewish house with a Jewish mamie in the kitchen," he says. "When she speaks to the clients it's like a Jewish mother speaking to her kids. 'Don't put salt on this, it's not good… No, it's enough, you don't have to eat this or that,'" he adds, letting out a croaky laugh. Lellouche says there are traces of Jewish culture everywhere in Tunisia, in music, handicraft, literature and names. He hopes that all Tunisians will one day become aware of their common culture and history regardless of their religion. In the kitchen, Lily sits on a low stool. In front of her is a big bowl of okra - the dish of the day. She has sparkling brown eyes, a deep voice and an unmistakable air of authority. Like most Tunisians she mixes Arabic with French freely. How is life in Tunisia today, I ask? "On etait mieux avec Ben Ali," she says. ("Things were better under Ben Ali.") Why was it better before? "On a peur de Salafis," is her short answer. ("We are afraid of the Salafists.") The emergence of the hardline Salafists - a brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia which adopts a literalist interpretation of the Koran and preaches strict separation of the sexes, and rejection of Western lifestyles - has taken everyone by surprise. By all accounts they are a tiny minority, but they are vocal, active and prone to violence. Lellouche foresees the end of Jewish life in Tunis - though he thinks it will survive on the island of Djerba in the south. A few blocks away from Mamie's restaurant is Beit Mordechai, a small modern synagogue that is difficult to distinguish from the other residential houses on the narrow street. When I arrive during the evening prayer the atmosphere is warm and informal. The grown-ups are praying, the kids are running around. It's a small congregation and someone has prepared a cake to share after the prayer. Ellie Attoun, a 39-year-old businessman, is originally from the south, but during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 there were demonstrations against the Jews there and his family relocated to the capital. He says he was optimistic when the revolution broke out last year, the first episode of the Arab Spring. "At the beginning we wanted to see Tunisia open, modern with all what we see in Western Europe. We wanted to look like the modern world. But unfortunately, a few weeks and months after there's a small part of Tunisian people [who] are against the modernism that the big majority of Tunisian people want." One of his concerns now is that "we don't see a real will from the government to act against those people". I put those concerns to the leader of the Nahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, the mainstream Islamist party that leads the current coalition government. Ghannouchi says Tunisian law prohibits incitement to violence against any group, and that he has reassured representatives of the Jewish community that those responsible will be tried. No-one has been tried yet, he concedes, but it took America 10 years to hunt down Bin Laden, he points out. Nahda's attitude is regarded by some Tunisians as a form of double-speak. They accuse it of paying lip service to democratic values - freedom of expression, equal rights to all citizens, rule of law - while in reality having much in common with the ultra-conservative Salafists. On Djerba, the heartland of Judaism in Tunisia and home to one of oldest synagogues in the world, El-Ghriba, the Salafists do not seem to have a presence, but the news of their threats has reached the small Jewish community. A Jewish man, a 53-year-old father of six, says he has seen "Death to the Jews" scrawled on the wall. He writes over it "Death to those who want death to the Jews," he tells me. He lived in the West for nine years, but he came back, he says, because he loves his traditional lifestyle. I ask him what he feels about the future. He say it is all in the hands of the government - if it creates safety and stability then the Jews have nothing to fear. None of those I asked said they wanted to leave Tunisia or have made such plans. But none of the 800,000 or so Jews who used to live in Arab societies before 1948 had wanted to leave. In most cases theirs was a forced departure. The majority went to Israel, while some 200,000 fled to the West. Now, it is thought there are less than 20,000 left. At the synagogue in La Goulette, Attoun tells me he has studied in France but, unlike other members of his family, he returned through love of his homeland. Part of his extended family live in Israel, but personally he has no plans to go anywhere. "We are only Tunisians, me and my children. For us Tunisia is our country. We don't want to imagine the catastrophic scenario." Magdi Abdelhadi's documentary, Arab Jews: A Forgotten Exodus, was broadcast on BBC World Service. Listen to the programme via i-player radio or download a podcast.

ट्यूनीशिया का एक लंबा यहूदी इतिहास है-इस्लाम या ईसाई धर्म के आगमन से पहले उत्तरी अफ्रीका में यहूदी मौजूद थे। अच्छे समय में वे समृद्ध हुए और कठिन समय में उन्हें भेदभाव का खामियाजा भुगतना पड़ा, लेकिन अब वे विलुप्त होने के खतरे में हैं। 1948 में इज़राइल के निर्माण से पहले 100,000 में से केवल 1,500 ही बचे हैं।


Police tax rate changes approved by Dyfed-Powys and Gwent forces

Summary: Householders in the Dyfed Powys police area will see a 5% drop in the amount they pay for policing, as rates in the Gwent force area rise.

The proportion of council tax paid to Gwent Police will increase 3.99% for the next financial year. It means residents in a Band D property will see an £8 increase on their bill. People in a Band D property in the Dyfed Powys force area will save £10 a year. Earlier this week, North Wales Police and Crime Panel agreed a 3.44% increase - or £7.83 extra for a Band D property - which Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick said was "not unreasonable". South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner's office is expected to reveal its proposals over the next few days.

डायफेड पॉव्स पुलिस क्षेत्र में मकान मालिकों को पुलिसिंग के लिए भुगतान की जाने वाली राशि में 5 प्रतिशत की गिरावट दिखाई देगी, क्योंकि ग्वेंट बल क्षेत्र में दरें बढ़ेंगी।


100 Women: I divorced my husband because he couldn't satisfy me

Summary: It was my wedding night; the first time I would be intimate with a man. My head was a blur of images, of dreams and desires from the many conversations with my close friends and the pornographic videos I had watched.

I entered the room, holding a customary glass of milk, keeping my face down. It was all very traditional, just as I had imagined. But little did I know that a rude shock was awaiting me. Or rather, a huge disappointment. In my fantasy, I entered our room and my husband embraced me tightly, smothered me with kisses and passionately made love all night. In reality, he had fallen asleep before I came in. I was 35 and I was a virgin. This felt like a painful rejection. #HerChoice is a series of true life-stories of 12 Indian women. These accounts challenge and broaden the idea of the "modern Indian woman" - her life choices, aspirations, priorities and desires. During my college days and at my workplace, I saw many girls and boys striking deep friendships. They'd rest their head on their partner's shoulder, walk past holding hands and I'd feel jealous of them. Shouldn't I desire such a companion in my life too? I had a big family of four brothers, one sister and older parents, yet I felt alone all the time. All my siblings were married and had their own families. Sometimes I wondered if they even cared that I was getting old and remained single. My heart ached for love and desire, but was surrounded by loneliness. At times it felt that all of this was just because I am fat. Do men hate fat women? Is my weight the reason for my family not being able to find me a match for marriage? Would I remain single forever? Would I ever lose my virginity? The questions jostled in my mind all the time. Finally, when I turned 35, a man in his early 40s came forward to marry me. During our engagement, I shared all my feelings with him but he didn't pay attention nor respond. He seemed to be nervous and would sit quietly, eyes facing the ground and merely shake his head. I thought it was because men are more shy than women these days and that my fiance was no exception. But my wedding night confused me and I didn't know why he behaved that way. When I asked next morning, he said he wasn't well. Nothing changed. Our second, third and numerous more nights were just the same. I told my mother-in-law and she defended him: "He is a shy person who has always hesitated talking to girls, he studied in a boy's school and has no sister or even friends of the opposite gender," she said. Though this explanation gave me a sense of temporary relief, I couldn't stop thinking about it. All my expectations, dreams and desires were getting broken day by day. It wasn't only sex I was uneasy about; he hardly spoke to me, he never touched me, nor held my hand. If a woman even slightly adjusts her dress men ogle at her but when I'd undress at night my husband would avoid even glancing at me. Was my weight the reason? Was he pressured into marrying me? I didn't know who to talk to and my family were under the illusion that I was happy with my new life. I needed to find a solution. I went into his room and locked the door and he almost jumped from his bed. "Don't you like me?" I asked him. "We haven't been intimate once and you have never expressed your feelings in words either, what is your problem?" "I don't have any problem," he said. I became bold and went closer to touch his penis. I had imagined that my stimulation would increase the size but I was hugely disappointed when I found it to be too small. I was very confused whether this was the real size of a penis? Was what I had seen in pornographic videos enhanced with graphics? I didn't know who to ask and I felt very shy. Just like a woman's beauty is judged by men, why couldn't I judge my husband's physical attributes? Why was it wrong for me to have some expectations of him? I began to understand that he was impotent and that doctors had told him this before we got married but he and his parents had kept me in the dark. Now that I knew the truth, he felt ashamed, but he didn't apologise. Society always amplifies every small mistake that a woman makes but if the man is at fault, even then the woman is the one who is blamed. "Sex alone is not important for life, why don't you opt for adoption?" my relatives asked me. My husband's family begged, "If people find out, it will shame all of us." My family reminded me: "This is your fate." But it was my husband whose words hurt the most. "You can do whatever you like, sleep with whomsoever you wish, I won't bother you or reveal this to anybody," he said. "If you have a child by someone else, I'm ready to give him my name". No woman should ever hear such horrible, heartless ideas from her husband. He was a cheater and he was asking me to do this to save his and his family's honour. He fell to my feet and cried, "Please don't tell anyone and don't divorce me either." I couldn't imagine doing what he had suggested, which only left me with the option of either leaving him or giving up my sexual desires, and settling for companionship. Finally, my feelings won. I left my so-called husband's house. My parents didn't accept me but with the help of my friends, I joined a ladies' hostel and found a job. I started getting my life back on track, and filed for divorce. My husband's family was shameless and they accused me of adultery to hide the real reason behind our marriage breaking down. I fought back and arranged for medical examination. It took three years but finally I was able to get a divorce from him. It felt like being born again. Now, I'm in my early 40s and I'm still a virgin. In the past few years, I've been approached by many men. They assume that I left my husband only because I was not satisfied sexually and so sex is all they want from me. This is such a wrong and narrow view of me and I stay away from these men. I have desires, dreams and feelings but I want to express them only to the man who loves me, cares for me, understands my feelings and will be with me for life. I'm still waiting for that man. Until then I satisfy myself by having private conversations with my friends about their sexual life. Whenever I think about sex, websites are my best friends. There is no dearth of people who judge me for what I have done. I hope they'd understand that women are not lifeless objects; even they have many feelings. This is a true life-story of a woman who lives in southern India as told to BBC reporter Aishwarya Ravishankar. The woman's identity has been kept anonymous on request. Have you been affected by this story and would like to find out more information on the causes and treatments available for impotency? There is more information about erectile dysfunction here. What is 100 women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year and shares their stories. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women Other stories you might like: The female protesters against giving women the vote 'Why I invented the glass ceiling phrase' 100 Women Challenge highlights

यह मेरी शादी की रात थी; पहली बार मैं किसी पुरुष के साथ अंतरंग होने वाला था। मेरा सिर मेरे करीबी दोस्तों के साथ कई बातचीत और मैंने देखे गए अश्लील वीडियो से छवियों, सपनों और इच्छाओं से धुंधला था।


Attack on Nice: Who was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel?

Summary: The man who killed 86 people in Nice by driving a lorry through a crowd has been named as a Tunisian delivery man, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel - not a known jihadist.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the killer had apparently been radicalised very quickly. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, was identified by his fingerprints after his driver's licence, mobile phone and credit card were found inside the vehicle by police who had shot him dead. He had reconnoitred the area in the lorry on the two days before the 14 July Bastille Day attack, when he smashed into the crowd on Nice's famous beachfront, the Promenade des Anglais. So-called Islamic State (IS) says he acted in response to its calls to target civilians in countries that are part of the coalition ranged against the group. 'Far from religion' Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was from the north Tunisian town of Msaken, about 10km (6 miles) outside the coastal city of Sousse. It has emerged that he had a history of violence and mental instability. Neighbours in Nice described him as a violent loner who liked to drink, lift weights and go salsa dancing. He lived a life "far from religion", eating pork, taking drugs and indulging in a "wild" sex life, French prosecutor Francois Molins said. But he had a "clear and recent interest" in radical Islamist movements, Mr Molins said. From 1 July, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel made more or less daily internet searches for verses of the Koran and "nasheeds" - jihadist propaganda chants. He also researched the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Investigators found photos of dead bodies and images linked to radical Islamism on his computer, including the flag of so-called Islamic State, the cover of an issue of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo - attacked by gunmen in January 2015 - and photos of Osama bin Laden and Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. In the eight days leading up to the attack, he grew a beard and told friends this was for "religious reasons". He also told them he did not understand why IS could not hold territory and showed them a video of a beheading on his mobile phone. In response to their shock, he said he was "used to it". However, there was no evidence that he had pledged allegiance to any radical groups or had contact with known Islamists. 'Premeditated and deliberate' Examinations of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's browsing history also showed he had carried out research for his attack. On 1 July he searched for details of the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice as well as videos showing "terrible" fatal traffic accidents. He had also read about recent attacks in Orlando, where a man proclaiming allegiance to IS shot 49 people in a gay nightclub, Dallas, where a black army veteran shot five police officers, and Magnanville near Paris, where a French jihadist stabbed two police officials to death. In the days before the attack, he twice drove to the Promenade des Anglais in his rented lorry, sold his van and attempted to withdraw money, Mr Molins said. This showed that his act was "premeditated and deliberate", he said. He reserved the 19-tonne refrigeration lorry on 4 July and collected it on 11 July in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, just west of Nice. During his reconnaissance trips, he sent a selfie photo from the driver's cabin. Just minutes before launching his attack, he sent text messages asking accomplices to give him more weapons and boasting about having obtained a pistol. He fired that pistol at police during his rampage, before police shot him dead. "Bring more weapons, bring five to C," one of the messages said. Police are trying to identify who the message was sent to. Four men who knew Lahouaiej-Bouhlel are being questioned by police, as are an Albanian couple suspected of having given him logistical help. 'Quiet loner' Police say Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was married with three children, although he no longer lived with his wife. She was detained for questioning by police on 15 July but has since been released. A woman who knows the family told the BBC Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been thrown out of their home in the Le Ray area of Nice more than a year ago after allegedly beating his wife. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel last visited Tunisia four years ago, people in his hometown Msaken told the BBC's Rana Jawad. They said many people knew his family and were shocked by his actions. "We remember him as a normal person from a wealthy family," a town resident told her. While many who knew him described Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as being secular, other witnesses pointed out that more recently he had displayed outward signs of becoming more religious. A psychiatrist, Chamseddine Hamouda, carried out a mental assessment of the killer a few years ago after his father became concerned about his "troubling behaviour of a psychotic nature". "He was a stranger to himself," Mr Hamouda said. "I advised his parents that he needed treatment. "At the time he exhibited violent behaviour towards his family... I'm sure that in the past 12 years something else happened that perhaps influenced how he thought." He was "quiet", a "loner" who did not respond to greetings, according to several neighbours in the four-storey block of flats in the Abattoirs area of Nice where he lived. He had a van parked nearby and would often be seen climbing the stairs to his first-floor flat, carrying his bike. Anan, who lived on the ground floor, said she had been suspicious of him because he was "a good-looking man who kept giving my two daughters the eye". One woman recalled that he had been nice to her and had helped her all the time. But, she added, his behaviour had sometimes been "strange". Suspended sentence Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been in trouble with police between 2010 and 2016 for threatening behaviour, violence and petty theft. In March, a court in Nice convicted him of assaulting a motorist with an improvised weapon - a wooden pallet - during an altercation. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to contact police once a week, which he did. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was "never flagged for signs of radicalisation", officials say, and he was not on France's "Fiche S" high-security watch list. The majority of attacks carried out in the country since January 2015 have been staged by men designated "Fiche S", and also linked to IS. In 2014, IS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani told supporters in an audio message: "If you can't detonate a bomb or fire a shot, manage by yourself... run them over with your car." Many of France's jihadist killers, starting with Mohammed Merah in Toulouse in 2012, also began their journey towards militant Islam as petty criminals.

नीस में भीड़ के बीच से एक लॉरी चलाकर 86 लोगों की हत्या करने वाले व्यक्ति का नाम ट्यूनीशियाई डिलीवरी मैन, मोहम्मद लाहौएज-बोहलेल के रूप में रखा गया है-एक ज्ञात जिहादी नहीं।


Alliance donations law amendment defeated

Summary: An Alliance Party amendment to the law on the secrecy of political donations has been defeated at Westminster.

East Belfast MP Naomi Long had wanted to end the secretary of state's power of veto over publishing the identity of donors in Northern Ireland. Currently, donations over £7,500 from a single source to a political party are made public in the rest of the UK. Mrs Long's amendment was defeated by 294 votes to 60 in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

राजनीतिक दान की गोपनीयता पर कानून में एलायंस पार्टी का एक संशोधन वेस्टमिंस्टर में पराजित हो गया है।


4G: The results are in

Summary: The prize was, in theory, extremely valuable - the spectrum needed to bring fast new mobile phone services to customers across the UK. But at the end of a complex bidding process, the 4G auction has raised £2.34bn - about a 10th of the price paid at the 3G sale 13 years ago at the height of the dotcom bubble. It's also more than £1bn short of what the chancellor estimated in his autumn statement.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter Ofcom is, however, congratulating itself on a smooth auction process, with no leaks during the secret bidding rounds over the past month. The regulator says it was not its job to extract the maximum price for the Treasury, but to secure the best possible outcome for consumers. So Ed Richards is pleased that along with the four existing operators - Vodafone, O2, EE and Three - the winners include a new player, Niche. You may not have heard of this company, but you'll know its owner BT. Britain's biggest telecoms provider got out of mobile phones a decade ago when it sold off Cellnet, which became O2. Now it is back with a healthy chunk of the 2.6Mhz spectrum which is best suited to handling high data traffic in cities. BT is stressing that it is not planning to operate a national mobile network, but will be using its spectrum to boost its fixed and wi-fi networks for businesses and consumers. Why was the bidding so low? Perhaps because the bidders had watched the experience of EE, which was allowed to launch its 4G network early. Despite a very high profile advertising campaign, results yesterday appeared to show that its customers had only a limited appetite for the new service. (I speed-tested the 4G network last October.) Even if the Treasury is disappointed, the auction may be good news for the 4G rollout. We can now expect plenty of competition to offer fast new mobile services across the UK. But those people in 3G "notspots" will be hoping that this time they will not be left out of the faster future.

यह पुरस्कार, सिद्धांत रूप में, अत्यंत मूल्यवान था-पूरे ब्रिटेन में ग्राहकों के लिए तेजी से नई मोबाइल फोन सेवाओं को लाने के लिए स्पेक्ट्रम की आवश्यकता थी। लेकिन एक जटिल बोली प्रक्रिया के अंत में, 4जी नीलामी ने £ 2.34bn जुटाया है-13 साल पहले 3जी बिक्री में भुगतान की गई कीमत का लगभग 10वां हिस्सा जब डॉटकॉम बुलबुला चरम पर था। यह कुलाधिपति द्वारा अपने शरद ऋतु के बयान में किए गए अनुमान से £1 बिलियन से भी कम है।


Murder charge after woman's body found in Hull

Summary: A man has been charged with the murder of a woman who was found dead in a house in Hull.

Vera Hudson was found in the property in Constable Street at about 07:30 BST on Thursday. Mark Jewitt, 25, of Constable Street, appeared before city magistrates earlier and was remanded in custody to appear at the crown court on Monday. Police thanked people who had come forward and appealed for anyone else with information to get in touch.

हल में एक आदमी पर एक महिला की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है जो एक घर में मृत पाई गई थी।


Sarah Everard: How a woman's death sparked a nation's soul-searching

Summary: "Missing: Please Help Our dear friend Sarah Everard," read the posters that went up on south London streets and local social media forums in the days after the 33-year-old disappeared on her walk home in early March.

It was concerning but such appeals are not exactly a rare sight, and the hope was that she would soon turn up safe and sound. But in the days that followed, as police put out a CCTV image of Sarah and gave details of her last known movements, concern grew to alarm, then dread, then fear, shock and sadness. Sarah Everard's journey from Clapham Common to Brixton had taken her through some of the capital's most populated, brightly-lit, and well-walked parts. Hundreds of people - many of them young women - tread those pavements every day and consider the streets in and around them home. As the police investigation ramped up, local women were warned to be careful about venturing out alone. When a police officer was arrested - and subsequently charged with Sarah's murder - the head of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick acknowledged that women in London and beyond "will be worried and may well be feeling scared", although she said for a woman to be abducted off the street was an "incredibly rare" event. But the case had touched a nerve, particularly as walking is one of the few activities to have been allowed during Britain's coronavirus lockdown. Women across the country took to social media to discuss their own experiences of walking the streets and the lengths they went to to feel safe. Out poured stories of being followed, harassed, catcalled, assaulted and exposed to. Helena Wadia was one of those. She told BBC Radio 5 Live she wanted to highlight how common it was for women to feel unsafe. "The first time I was catcalled I think I was about 12 years old," she said. "I have been self-policing since then. We moderate everything - our clothing, our drinking. We get taxis where maybe we can't afford it. We hold keys between our fingers. We don't wear headphones when we're jogging. We stick to well-lit areas. It's exhausting." One tweet asking women if they have ever faked phone calls, changed route, or even run in fear after feeling threatened by men in public spaces was liked more than 120,000 times. People even began sharing tips on what apps were out there to help women stay safe. Anna Birley is one of many people in recent days to have underlined that the narrative around women's safety must change. "What's so upsetting is it shouldn't be our problem," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "It's not our fault. Women aren't the reason women get attacked." A vigil she helped plan at Clapham Common - one of several around the country - as a way of "reclaiming our public spaces and coming together to feel a level of solidarity" in itself became controversial when it resulted in clashes with police and women were seen being physically restrained. Several hundred people had turned up despite being told it had to be cancelled because it breached lockdown restrictions. The organisers had criticised the police for failing to "constructively engage" with them on efforts to make the event Covid-safe, instead of urging mourners to hold candle-lit vigils at home. The Metropolitan Police defended their actions at the Clapham vigil. They said they "were placed in this position because of the overriding need to protect people's safety", but have faced intense criticism from across the political spectrum. 'I'm aware how my silhouette looks in darkness' On International Women's Day every year, British MP Jess Phillips reads out the names of all the women and girls killed over the previous 12 months, where a man has been convicted or charged as the main perpetrator. This year it fell on the day remains were found in the hunt for Sarah Everard, and she read out 118 names. "Dead women is a thing we've all just accepted as part of our daily lives," Ms Phillips told Parliament. "Killed women are not vanishingly rare. Killed women are common." In a separate debate in the Lords, Parliament's upper chamber, Baroness Jenny Jones of Moulescoomb called for an 18:00 curfew for men on the streets. She later told Sky News that while she hadn't been "entirely serious", she wanted to make the point that "when the police victim-blame by asking women to stay home, we don't react. We just think it's normal." So what has been the response of men? As women took to social media to tell their stories, Stuart Edwards, who lives five minutes away from where Sarah went missing, tweeted: "Aside from giving as much space as possible on quieter streets and keeping face visible, is there anything else men can reasonably do to reduce the anxiety/spook factor?" The tweet received 27,000 likes and more than 3,000 retweets. Among those who joined the conversation was food critic Jay Rayner, who also lives in south London. "If I find myself walking behind a single woman on a quiet street I always cross the road to the other side and ideally accelerate away as quickly as possible. I am a big man and absolutely aware what my silhouette looks like in the darkness," he tweeted. Some however have been keen to point out that it's a tiny minority of men who are attackers - using the hashtag #NotAllMen. But the issue of violence against women is not one for the UK alone. The World Health Organization this week published a report saying one in three women globally, around 736 million, had been subjected to physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said violence against women was "endemic in every country and culture", and had been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. "Unlike Covid-19, violence against women cannot be stopped with a vaccine," he said, as the WHO called for more investment in services to help vulnerable women.

मार्च की शुरुआत में 33 वर्षीय महिला के लापता होने के बाद दक्षिण लंदन की सड़कों और स्थानीय सोशल मीडिया मंचों पर लगे पोस्टरों में लिखा था, "लापताः कृपया हमारी प्यारी दोस्त सारा एवरार्ड की मदद करें"।


Seven suspected migrants found hidden in lorry at Dover

Summary: Seven suspected migrants have been found hidden in a lorry at Dover docks.

The men were discovered during a search of the vehicle which had arrived from Calais at about 14:50 GMT. Three of the men said they were Iranian nationals and four said they were Iraqis, according to the Home Office. One man has been taken to hospital. The others have been referred to immigration officers and will be dealt with according to immigration rules, the Home Office said.

सात संदिग्ध प्रवासी डोवर बंदरगाह पर एक लॉरी में छिपे हुए पाए गए हैं।


Foreign workers in Guernsey may face more restrictions

Summary: There could be tougher restrictions on companies looking to bring staff into Guernsey in the future, the housing minister has said.

Deputy Dave Jones' comments follow criticism the current housing licence system is preventing business growth. Deputy Jones said it was being reviewed, but it did not mean the rules would be relaxed. He said the average islander thought the laws were "not strict enough", but business wanted "unfettered growth".

आवास मंत्री ने कहा है कि भविष्य में ग्वेर्नसे में कर्मचारियों को लाने की इच्छुक कंपनियों पर सख्त प्रतिबंध हो सकते हैं।


Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

Summary: More than three quarters of 18 to 34-year-olds living in Britain say they feel lonely. So could co-living be the answer? The BBC stayed in two different communes to find out if a living space shared is a social problem solved.

By Winnie AgbonlahorBBC News, London Communal living in the 21st Century is a far cry from the hippie movement of the 1960s counterculture: there is no singing of protest songs around the campfire, vegetarianism is optional and group nudity would raise a few eyebrows. Co-living is a bit like inhabiting well-appointed student halls for working people. For prices ranging from about £1,000 to nearly £3,000 a month, residents get an en-suite room and access to communal facilities such as a gym, TV room and kitchen. Most co-living options in the UK are currently in London. To gain an idea of what it's like to live this way, I spent a total of six days at the Collective in North Acton and Roam in Chelsea. In terms of private living space, there's no denying the Collective is cramped. For Lucilia Wuillaume, a translator and interpreter from Brazil, the main drawback to living here is the size of the rooms. She has a point: at just over eight square metres, my bedroom didn't even provide enough space for my osteopath-prescribed back stretches. Two residents I meet during my three-day stay say this is the reason they are moving out, while Markaiu Mason, who left the Collective in 2017, says: "At the end of the day, you're stuck between a cupboard and a door." The vibe here can perhaps best be described as like a high-end youth hostel. The development houses up to 550 residents, with prices starting at £240 a week. Its communal facilities are extensive: six kitchens, three themed dining rooms, a terrace, cinema room, games room, large industrial-style co-working area and a gym and spa, all spread over 10 floors in a modern building block that was in fact originally meant to be student accommodation. As I walk down the long dark corridors, I notice various food smells emanating from the private rooms - curry, garlic, fried onions, and pizza. Someone is baking a cake and there's also the aromatic scent of basmati rice. But it is on the other side of these doors that the Collective offers the opportunity for the social interaction that can help fend off feelings of loneliness. One resident, Matty Pepprell, even credits living here with saving him. The 33-year-old IT consultant from Torquay is finally on the mend after undergoing four organ transplants over 10 years. He says his self-esteem took a hit after years of feeling tired, ill and isolated. A rare kidney disorder left him feeling "like a dead man walking", but living at the Collective has made him more confident. "In a way, living here brought me back to life," he says. Being around people who "ask me how I am all the time" has helped him with his mental recovery after a long illness, and he says he's made lots of friends. Lucilia, 58, who moved to London from France with her family, says she's made more friends in three months at the Collective than she did in Paris "over three whole years", while Abel Tedros, a 21-year-old entrepreneur from Ealing, says he loves meeting new people at the organised events here. However, there are drawbacks to this style of living: finding basic utensils in the kitchen on my floor was not easy, with many dirty or broken. Dotted around the building are signs urging people to clean up after themselves. (The development's planning and design manager Ollie Spragley says the Collective stopped providing items in shared spaces at the end of 2017 but offers residents the option of buying "kitchen packs".) At a "town hall meeting", general manager Roberto Russo tells residents that anyone breaking house rules, such as keeping communal spaces tidy, faces fines of up to £250. And it's not the case that everyone at the Collective sees the social upside to living here, with a handful of residents saying the majority of people aren't interested in meeting anyone. "It's always the same 50 to 60 people you see and the community feel is missing," 28-year-old Jérémie Mora says. One resident who asked to stay anonymous, goes as far as saying he was mis-sold what the Collective would be like. Because he believes its "unique selling point" - a sense of community - is missing, he says the building is "not much more than a glorified student dorm". The Collective says it is "constantly working to understand how we can help improve the growth of community - not something one can turn up and buy". Co-living in the UK The Collective became the UK's first large-scale co-living space when it opened in 2016. Since then, developers have submitted plans for 700 co-living units in Canary Wharf, 220 in Stratford, 320 in Ilford and 170 in London Bridge. And for the first time, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has acknowledged co-living as a form of accommodation in its draft London Plan - an overarching policy document providing guidance to London councils. This was necessary because these schemes "haven't historically come forward", according to London's deputy mayor for housing and residential development James Murray. PLP, the architects behind the Collective, say they have been asked to advise on and design a number of co-living projects "not only in London or elsewhere in the UK but all over the world". But it's a complex picture, with many of those responsible for housing in the capital remaining to be convinced of the social benefits of such developments. There's a different atmosphere at my next home, Roam, in upmarket Chelsea, which is more boutique hotel than youth hostel. The feel is intimate, with just 34 rooms, all en-suite and most of which boast a kitchenette. There's also access to a communal kitchen, a TV area, and a co-working space that feels like the living room of a tastefully decorated townhouse. At a somewhat eye-watering £2,800 a month, Roam is "not the cheapest option, but worth it", says Laura Meier, who moved here from Germany. She had only planned to stay for three months but ended up here for a year because she "really enjoyed being part of the community, having a house full of life and the opportunity to work from home and talk to other people". Moving to a new country without knowing anyone can be hard, she says, describing Roam as the "perfect place to make friends". Roam's community manager Michelle Sims says its customers "pay for ease, convenience, flexibility and the opportunity to stay at our unique spaces all over the world, which have everything they need to feel at home the moment they arrive", including an "integrated community and community manager". Compared to the price of a local boutique hotel or a comparable one-bed apartment, she says "you can easily see the value in our pricing". An online search for furnished one-bedroom flats on a short let in Chelsea shows properties available from about £2,000 a month - although this sum covers none of the amenities associated with co-living. And as Kristina Barger, a 37-year-old psychologist from New York City, explains, if people are used to rents in San Francisco, New York or Seoul, as a lot of these globetrotters are, £2,800 a month "seems reasonable". Loneliness, depression and anxiety are a growing problem globally, Kristina says, with people travelling more and feeling "disconnected". Roam has four branches around the world and is planning to open more - thus building a "community without borders" and offering what she sees as a solution to loneliness and isolation. Web designer Todd Steinhilber tells me that life in his line of work indeed can be lonely. But thanks to Roam, he says he has access to an instant community of "like-minded people with a similar worldview" in London and Roam's other locations around the world. He says that while it's possible to make friends in bars or by playing sports, nothing comes close to the relaxed and natural way of striking up conversations with the people "you live with". But as I go up the creaky steps of this 1930s building, I can't help but think that it's a little less luxurious than I expect at almost three grand a month. There is no gym, no separate TV or living room and the kitchen isn't big enough for more than three people to cook in. In terms of communal activities, most seem to involve going out and spending yet more money, although Michelle tells me there are usually events for "diverse budgets", including book and running clubs and free "pop-up mini couch concerts". The rooms also vary. Some boast lots of natural light and lovely views of London. But mine is in the basement and quite dark as a result. The bed and kitchen unit are part of the same square living space, and there's no wardrobe. My bathroom, just big enough to hold a small sink and shower cubicle, has a leak in the ceiling. The leak isn't a safety risk, I'm assured, and repairs won't be carried out since Roam is soon moving to a new and more spacious location. The lack of space and operational issues are the reasons Roam decided to leave the Chelsea building, which "did not match the quality" of its properties around the world, Michelle says. So while it's clear this way of living suits some people very well, it's uncertain what the future holds. A development like the Collective would "never" get planning permission now, according to Alex Springer, who is working on a co-living project in Ilford. He says he was told by the GLA that the size of the Collective's rooms would rule out backing from planners. And while the GLA's James Murray concedes that co-living might provide "suitable accommodation for a very specific group of people with a very specific need", he believes it is "not the answer across the board in any way". An application for 170 co-living units is currently being considered by Southwark Council, which says it remains "to be convinced" of the concept, as people should not be "forced through economic necessity to live in very small flats". As Mark Williams, the council's cabinet member for regeneration and new homes, says: "Why can't developers deliver standard housing?" But with the housing crisis in the capital showing no sign of abating, it seems likely further co-living developments will spring up. So would I be prepared to spend more than three days in one? In a different city or country - perhaps. In a different phase of my life - definitely. If I were single or lonely (I'm aware there's a difference), I could envisage enjoying the co-living experience. But as I'm ready to settle down, living like this would feel like a step backwards - as though I were returning to a phase of my life I've left behind.

ब्रिटेन में रहने वाले 18 से 34 साल के तीन चौथाई से अधिक लोगों का कहना है कि वे अकेला महसूस करते हैं। तो सह-जीवन इसका जवाब हो सकता है? बीबीसी यह पता लगाने के लिए दो अलग-अलग कम्यूनों में रहा कि क्या साझा रहने की जगह एक सामाजिक समस्या है।


George Floyd: Three generations of an African-American family on what needs to change

Summary: The death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in police custody, has sparked over a thousand protests across the US. Here's what one African-American family has to say about movements past - and moving forward.

By Insaf AbbasBBC News Video showing Floyd struggling to breathe as a white police officer knelt on his neck swiftly led to nationwide outrage and in the weeks since, there have been demonstrations in all 50 US states. These protests form part of a long history of uprisings against racial injustice in America. But what needs to be done differently now? That was the question posed to 16-year-old Raymon Curry during a protest in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a video that went viral this month. In the clip, activist Curtis Hayes Jr, 31, pulls Raymon from the crowd and tells him that they need to "find a better way" to express their pain over the killings of African-Americans. We asked Raymon, along with his mother, 33-year-old Jasmaine, and his grandmother, Sherondia, aged 58, to share what they believe the country needs to change in order to move forward. 'We need action' Sherondia was born in New York City in the early 1960s. While she's enraged by what's happening, she says she's proud of the diversity of people turning out to protest compared to when she was younger. "I've seen not only black people but white people, different races of people protesting. And what really encouraged me was when I saw protests going on all over the world. "I was very young when the civil rights movement began back in the 60s. My mother told me stories and I saw pictures. When I look back at the movement I say, 'How did they survive when water hoses were thrown at them, dogs sent on them?'" The protests over the death of George Floyd have seen the tearing down of Confederate statues and monuments connected to slavery and colonialism. But Sherondia thinks this isn't enough. "Today we need more than just Confederate statues coming down. We need open dialogue, we need people coming together and breaking down barriers and socioeconomic injustices going on in this country. We don't just need a word, we need action." She says what's kept her going through the years has been her faith. "Racism has always existed. It's something that I think black people have learned to live with. But even though it's uncomfortable, we have found the strength. The strength of the church, the strength of believing that there is absolutely a God. So our strength came from that faith." 'We gave so many chances for this to be corrected' Sherondia's daughter, Jasmaine, was born in 1987. She says one of her most vivid memories is of watching the Million Man March, a gathering of African-American men in Washington DC in 1995. "I remember black men coming together, and they were interrupted by officials. I was young and learning about Rodney King, things of that nature. I remember looking at Ebony Magazine and reading so early - when I was in first grade [aged six or seven] - about Emmett Till and seeing his picture. "So the problem goes back to my time and even to my mom's time. My grandmother told me stories about going to black-only bathrooms. In my era, in the 80s, I didn't sit and watch Martin Luther King like my grandmother but I heard that same message. That message has now moved to a new generation. "I'm fed up. Even if I'm peaceful and speak the truth, someone else is going to tell me, 'You weren't enslaved'. But my ancestors were. So actions speak louder than words, and if it takes burning down something, it's unfortunate but we gave so many chances for this to be corrected." On the day that Raymon was filmed in the now-viral exchange, he didn't tell his mother that he was going out to protest. "I gave him permission to go and play with his friend," Jasmaine recalls. "So to find out the next day that he went to the protest, my main concern as a mother was for his safety. There was one point we were telling our kids to stay away from strangers, gangs, violent people, but it's reverted to me telling him to stay away from the police." 'Peace by any means necessary' Raymon, one of two boys, has grown up listening to his mother and grandmother tell him about racial injustice, and remembers watching news of the deaths of black Americans. "I see [previous protest movements] as something we've got to learn from," he says. "We want to be equal, to all be heard and to have a voice. I know what my mom and grandma saw growing up and it's still continuing. Now it's my turn to be the leader of my generation." So how does he think protests should change from previous generations? "By this time, peace shouldn't be an option. We should get our voices heard and get this peace by any means necessary. How many times do we have to be peaceful before we get our justice? I'm trying every day to think of ways. It's something I shouldn't have to deal with at this age." "I'm not a violent or hateful person, but tearing down statues is what's getting attention. Now we're finally having our voices heard. We were part of the slavery system and the statues represent that." More on the George Floyd protests

पुलिस हिरासत में एक निहत्थे अश्वेत व्यक्ति जॉर्ज फ्लॉयड की मौत ने पूरे अमेरिका में एक हजार से अधिक विरोध प्रदर्शनों को जन्म दिया है। यहाँ एक अफ्रीकी-अमेरिकी परिवार का अतीत के आंदोलनों के बारे में क्या कहना है-और आगे बढ़ रहा है।


Syria air strikes: Can Obama's Arab coalition hold?

Summary: President Barack Obama has touted the involvement of Arab nations - many of them Sunni-majority - in US air strikes against Islamic State militants. But will this coalition hold up to the scrutiny of their own internal politics?

By PJ CrowleyFormer US Assistant Secretary of State What a difference a year makes. President Barack Obama limped to New York last year for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, unable to generate sufficient domestic or international support for a military response to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons within the deepening Syrian civil war. He settled for a compromise that eliminated Syria's chemical weapon stocks, useful strategically but damaging to American credibility within the Middle East. This week, Mr Obama provided a dramatic backdrop to the gathering of global leaders by launching military strikes against Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda's Khorasan network in Syria, both of which are stronger and more threatening than they were a year ago. The air strikes can certainly help to "degrade" extremist capabilities in Iraq and Syria, but by themselves will not be enough to "destroy" them, one of the stated objectives of the emerging campaign. It remains to be seen how durable the international coalition is. It now numbers more than 50 countries, but whether they can sustain military action over weeks and months is unclear. And since IS fields an insurgent force and not a formal army, finding meaningful targets to hit from the air will be a challenge. Limiting the IS's ability to attract new recruits and access to financial resources are also pivotal. That will depend significantly on Turkey, which has not yet fully clarified what it will contribute to the effort. Turkey's role was constrained by a large number of hostages that were recently freed, perhaps in exchange for the release of IS fighters. In a sense, Mr Obama is putting together his Syria strategy one step at a time, addressing what he can even as he searches for a more comprehensive approach that may emerge over time, but is not available at the moment. Islamic State's advance deep into Iraq in recent months, which threatened the future viability of both Iraq and Syria, forced a number of key players to reassess their priorities and policy options, beginning with Mr Obama himself. Not long ago, the president declared there was no military solution to Syria that relies predominantly on the use of American hard power. But he is now willing to deploy military force to chip away at a dangerous byproduct of the Syrian civil war. As the president said in anticipation of the strikes in Syria, "This isn't America versus Isil. This is the people of that region versus Isil. It's the world against Isil." (The White House uses another acronym for the group). Everyone seems to be on board with the American approach, dealing with IS now and leaving questions about Bashar al-Assad for another day. Interestingly, that seems to include Assad himself. Prior to taking military action, Syria was warned not to interfere and the Assad government seems to have followed that advice. Assad certainly welcomes the advent of "allies" willing to help him battle "terrorists" within his borders. The significant involvement of Arab nations in the strikes will complicate the responses of Russia and China. China reflexively opposes any outside intervention in the affairs of a sovereign state. Russia is all for eliminating violent Islamist extremists, and sees the Syrian regime as a necessary means of accomplishing that objective. The fact that several major Sunni-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, took a prominent role in the strikes should enhance their perceived political legitimacy and will factor in both the international and regional response. A year ago, Saudi Arabia declined a UN Security Council seat to protest major power paralysis regarding Syria. Riyadh has some significant energy cards that it can play against both Russia and China if they are overly critical. Russia will likely encourage international action to remain focused on IS, but be fairly muted in its reaction. How Middle East publics react will say a great deal about the viability of the emerging American strategy. Since the struggle against IS is at its heart a civil war within Islam, if IS is to be destroyed as a viable political and religious entity, the most decisive front involves regional publics. The fact that Iraq's Sunni population viewed Islamic State as the lesser of two evils when compared with the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad created the opening for IS's rapid advance across western and northern Iraq. Until that calculation changes, there is little chance of defeating the Islamic State. The defeat or destruction of IS remains a long-term challenge. That will depend on more effective action by Iraqi security forces and the Free Syrian Army, taking back territory from Islamic State on both sides of the border. The former will take months, the latter years. In the meantime, the air strikes should make IS's day-to-day existence more complicated. It has enjoyed a significant run of success in recent months while remaining mostly on the offensive. Now it will have to defend itself on multiple fronts, a stern test for an actual state much less a virtual one. PJ Crowley is a former Assistant Secretary of State and now a distinguished fellow at The George Washington University Institute of Public Diplomacy & Global Communication.

राष्ट्रपति बराक ओबामा ने इस्लामिक स्टेट के आतंकवादियों के खिलाफ अमेरिकी हवाई हमलों में अरब देशों की भागीदारी पर जोर दिया है-जिनमें से कई सुन्नी बहुल हैं। लेकिन क्या यह गठबंधन अपनी आंतरिक राजनीति की जांच को बनाए रखेगा?


Dorset motorists rescued by firefighters

Summary: Several motorists were rescued by firefighters in an inflatable boat after their vehicles became stuck in flood water in Dorset.

One man rescued by fire crews near Christchurch on Friday night had been stuck in his car for five hours. A woman and a child were also rescued from a car on the West Stafford bypass near Dorchester. Dorset Fire and Rescue Service said motorists were ignoring closed road signs and driving into the flood water. Station manager Neil Rickett said: "It's up to waist and sometimes chest deep. "We're searching ditches just in case people have got out of these abandoned cars, we've having to put a lot of resources into cars just stuck in water."

डोरसेट में बाढ़ के पानी में उनके वाहन फंस जाने के बाद अग्निशामकों ने एक हवा वाली नाव में कई मोटर चालकों को बचाया।


Afghanistan war: What could peace look like?

Summary: For the first time in 18 years, the US government seems serious about withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan and winding up the longest war in its history.

By Dawood AzamiBBC World Service Since October, US officials and representatives of the Taliban have held seven rounds of direct talks - aimed at ensuring a safe exit for the US in return for the insurgents guaranteeing that Afghan territory is not used by foreign militants and won't pose a security threat to the rest of the world. A US-led military coalition drove the Taliban from power in 2001 for sheltering al-Qaeda, the militant group behind the 9/11 attacks. A rare consensus about resolving the conflict peacefully, both inside and outside Afghanistan, means peace has never been so close. During a visit to Afghanistan in late June, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration was aiming for "a peace deal before September 1st". But the US-Taliban talks in Qatar's capital, Doha - as well as intra-Afghan dialogue involving the insurgents and some Afghan officials - are only the first phase of a complicated process with an uncertain outcome - and there are many hurdles to overcome. Does there need to be a ceasefire? While the US has reversed its refusal to talk directly to the Taliban, intense fighting and unprecedented numbers of airstrikes by the US and Afghan militaries are still going on all over the country. And while the Taliban negotiate they now control and influence more territory than at any point since 2001. The war in Afghanistan is now the deadliest conflict in the world, causing more casualties than the fighting in Syria, Libya or Yemen. Patterns of violence have changed dramatically in recent years. The vast majority of those being killed and injured now are Afghans - civilians, police and soldiers, and Taliban fighters. In January, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said more than 45,000 members of the country's security forces had been killed since he became leader in late 2014. Over the same period "the number of international casualties is less than 72", he said. In February, the UN said civilian deaths reached a record high in 2018. It said more than 32,000 civilians had in total been killed in the past decade. Taliban fighters are also regularly killed in large numbers in airstrikes, night raids and ground fighting. Given the continued stalemate with the insurgents, US President Donald Trump is keen to end the war, which, according to US officials, costs about $45bn (£34bn) annually. His indication to withdraw most or all of his 14,000 forces in the near future caught everyone by surprise, including the Taliban. There are also nearly 1,000 British troops in Afghanistan as part of Nato's mission to train and assist the Afghan security forces. But even if the US and the Taliban resolve their major issues, the Afghans themselves will need to sort out a number of key internal issues - including a ceasefire, dialogue between the Taliban and the government, and most importantly, the formation of a new government and political system. Ideally, a ceasefire would precede presidential elections later this year and the Taliban would take part - but the latter seems unlikely. Without a full or even partial ceasefire, there are fears that poll irregularities and a possible protracted political turmoil over the results could undermine any peace process and may increase political instability. Can power be shared, and if so how? There are a number of options and scenarios. First of all, a decision will need to be taken by all major players on whether presidential elections, already postponed to late September, take place as planned. If they do, a new government in Kabul could negotiate terms with the Taliban, unless a peace deal had been reached before the vote. Whether that government served a full term or held power on an interim basis while intra-Afghan power-sharing options were discussed is unclear. But elections could also be further delayed or suspended - and the current government's term extended - while a mutually agreed mechanism to establish a new government, acceptable to all sides including the Taliban, is sought. Will the Taliban end up back in government? Creating a temporary neutral government or a governing coalition, that could even include the Taliban, is another option being looked at in this scenario. A loya jirga - or grand assembly - of Afghans could also be called to choose an interim government which would hold elections once US troops have left and the Taliban has been reintegrated. An international conference similar to the one in Bonn, Germany, in 2001 is another suggestion to help chart a future course for the country. It would include Afghan players, major powers and neighbouring states - but this time also with the participation of the Taliban. Several Taliban leaders have told me they need time to enter mainstream Afghan society and prepare for elections. Would former enemies be able to work together? There will be very difficult issues to surmount after a conflict that has left hundreds of thousands of casualties on all sides, including government forces, insurgents and civilians. For example, the Taliban do not accept the current constitution and see the Afghan government as "a US-imposed puppet regime". So far President Ghani's administration has not been involved in direct talks with the insurgents who refuse to talk to a government they don't recognise. Therefore, given the internal rivalries and diverse agendas of various local actors, the intra-Afghan phase of the peace process might prove more difficult than the US-Taliban talks. However, there are positive signs. Two rounds of intra-Afghan dialogue took place in Moscow earlier this year when Afghan politicians including ex-president Hamid Karzai, former commanders and civil society members, including women, met Taliban representatives to discuss ending the war. A third such meeting took place in Doha in July, in which several officials currently serving in the Afghan government also participated, albeit in a "personal capacity". It is hoped that such meetings will eventually pave the way for formal peace talks between the Taliban and other Afghans, including the government. A number of Afghans fear that sharing power with the Taliban could see a return to the group's obscurantist interpretation of Islamic justice. They are concerned that various freedoms, notably certain women's rights, could be lost. The Taliban banned women from public life when they were in power in the 1990s, and their punishments included public stoning and amputations. What if talks don't lead to peace? Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, there has been a long list of unfulfilled agreements and failed attempts aimed at ending the war in the country. Several scenarios from the past could be repeated this time round. A US pullout, with or without a peace deal, might not automatically result in the sudden collapse of the government in Kabul. The war could continue and the government's survival would largely depend on financial and military assistance from foreign allies, especially the US, and the unity and commitment of the country's political elite. When Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, the Moscow-backed government in Kabul lasted for three years. But its collapse in 1992 ushered in a bloody civil war, involving various Afghan factions supported by different regional powers. If issues are not handled with care now, there is a risk of a re-run of these two scenarios. The Taliban, who emerged out of the chaos of the civil war, captured Kabul in 1996 and ruled most of Afghanistan until the US-led invasion removed them from power in 2001. They could try to capture the state again if a deal is not reached this time round, or one fails. What would chaos look like? The current peace efforts could see the Taliban participating in a new set-up in Afghanistan. This would mean the end of fighting and the formation of an inclusive Afghan government - a win-win for Afghans, the US and regional players. But the alternative is dire - a probable intensification of conflict and instability in a country strategically located in a region with a cluster of major powers including China, Russia, India, Iran and Pakistan. Another round of chaos could well result in the emergence of new violent extremist groups. Afghans and the rest of the world would have to deal with a possible security vacuum in which militant groups such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State found fertile ground. Increased production of drugs and the overflow of refugees would pose serious challenges not only to Afghanistan but also to the whole region and the rest of the world. How could it be avoided? History shows that starting negotiations and signing deals does not guarantee that conflicts will be peacefully resolved. These steps are only the beginning of a complicated and challenging process - implementation of what's on paper is even more important. The biggest challenge for Afghanistan would be the creation of verifiable enforcement mechanisms in any post-deal scenario. Given the history of conflict in the country, the current opportunity could be easily squandered if the process is taken in the wrong direction by one or more of the local or foreign actors. Therefore, international guarantors and a framework involving the region and the key international players are needed to co-ordinate efforts for peace and deter and prevent spoilers from sabotaging the process. There's a rare opportunity to resolve four decades of war - handle it with care, or risk facing the consequences. Who is representing the Taliban? The 14-member Taliban negotiating team also features the "Guantanamo Five" - former high-ranking officials captured after the fall of the regime and held for nearly 13 years in the controversial US detention camp. They were sent to Qatar in a 2014 prisoner exchange involving Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier captured by insurgents in 2009. They are (clockwise from top left in photo above): Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a senior Taliban political figure and former head of its political office in Qatar, is leading the group's negotiating team. In an interview with the BBC in February, he said a ceasefire would not be agreed until all foreign forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan. Also present in Qatar is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's deputy head for political affairs and one of the group's co-founders, who was released from prison in Pakistan last October after spending nearly nine years in captivity.

18 वर्षों में पहली बार, अमेरिकी सरकार अफगानिस्तान से अपनी सेनाओं को वापस लेने और अपने इतिहास के सबसे लंबे युद्ध को समाप्त करने के बारे में गंभीर प्रतीत होती है।


Why our ageing social networks may need TikTok

Summary: It was billed as a discussion about TikTok but Web Summit's night-time talk soon turned into a whirlwind brainstorm about the social media industry in general, featuring fast-talking US entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and TikTok vice president Blake Chandlee, a former exec at Facebook.

By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter It's easy to imagine all of these big platforms fiercely competing against each other but actually their real rivals and threats lie further afield. Mr Chandlee refused to say much about Tiktok's current fight for survival in the US. The firm is having "daily dialogues" with the current administration - which is still under the leadership of Donald Trump - he said. It was President Trump who issued a stark ultimatum to TikTok's parent company ByteDance earlier this year: allow TikTok to be bought by a US company or face a ban. The deadline has been extended and is now extremely imminent - 4 December. But even if the politics goes their way, other, more familiar sharks are circling TikTok. Facebook's Instagram Reels, which launched in August, is unapologetically chasing TikTok's winning formula of quirky short-form video, just like its Stories feature targeted Snapchat's. However members of social networks are seemingly more loyal than you or even they may think - the older platforms have all survived their own scandals and lived to tell the tale. "Instagram is old," said Gary Vaynerchuk. (it has just had its 10th birthday). "Snapchat (2011) has not disappeared. LinkedIn (2003) spent a decade as a utility and then converted to a social network. I would argue there has not been movement." This sparked some consternation in the comments section alongside this virtual panel, as some of the 2,000 attendees among us debated whether Snapchat had indeed disappeared from our own respective circles - but nonetheless, by comparison TikTok (2016) ) is very much the new kid on the block. Will we still be talking about it in 10 years time? The message was clear, it will have to evolve to survive. "You will get disrupted if you don't disrupt," said Blake Chandlee. "We're constantly trying to figure out how to disrupt ourselves." Disrupt, by the way, is Silicon Valley speak for re-invent (it can also mean exploding onto the scene of an already established industry, see for example ride-sharing apps and taxis). 'Potential competitor' Mr Chandlee politely described Instagram Reels as "a potential competitor" but also referenced Google Plus, which was Google's attempt to muscle in on Facebook back in 2011. It failed, and shut down in 2019. Facebook, after all, has stopped short of launching a stand-alone app to rival Tiktok - which Gary Vaynerchuk declared would be "a monster" for the young firm. Perhaps one reason it hasn't is because ultimately it's not about whether Reels will kill Tiktok, or TikTok will kill Snapchat, or even historically how Twitter killed Vine. In fact it's a mistake to think of all the social networks as being in competition with each other at all, said Gary Vaynerchuk. "They're competing against the Playstation 5, Netflix, The New York Times..." he said - everything else that vies for people's attention. "We enjoy the battle of the game but if you take a step back, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat (and co) still have more landgrab to go around other platforms." And with the looming shadow of tougher regulation for the sector in both in the US and in Europe, these brands might find themselves forced stick even more closely together.

इसे टिकटॉक के बारे में एक चर्चा के रूप में पेश किया गया था, लेकिन वेब शिखर सम्मेलन की रात के समय की बात जल्द ही सामान्य रूप से सोशल मीडिया उद्योग के बारे में एक बवंडर दिमाग में बदल गई, जिसमें तेजी से बात करने वाले अमेरिकी उद्यमी गैरी वायनरचुक और टिकटॉक के उपाध्यक्ष ब्लेक चांडली, जो फेसबुक पर एक पूर्व कार्यकारी थे।