Covid-19: Why Luton is self-imposing stricter tier 2 rules

Summary: Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed Luton as the "way forward for the entire country" just a few weeks ago, as Covid-19 cases there fell and local restrictions were lifted. After infection rates surged, the council is now urging residents to voluntarily follow tighter restrictions. How are they reacting?

By Laurence CawleyBBC News "The reason I think for the success of Luton is that local people pulled together to depress the virus," Mr Johnson told the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions at the end of September. The town's 214,000 residents are now being asked to pull together once again after the rate of infection rose from 87 to 138 per 100,000 people in the past week. At present the town remains in tier one of the government's new three-tier system. Council leaders want to keep it that way. The council has urged everybody in Luton to voluntarily place themselves under tighter restrictions than demanded by the government. This includes urging people not to meet with those from other households whether inside or outside the home. Council leader Hazel Simmons said she knew the request would be a bitter pill to swallow for many, especially as it came just before school half term, but it was a "health crisis". "Covid-19 cases are rising dramatically - so much so that the town now has the highest number in the whole of the Eastern region, she said. "Admissions to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital are increasing and tragically we have experienced Covid-19 related deaths for the first time in a number of weeks. "It is a stark reminder of the deadly nature of the virus and the danger we are all facing. "There can be little doubt that while we are currently on the medium alert level, if our cases continue to grow we would expect to move up to the next tier unless we can act together to slow the disease's spread." The move has been welcomed by Usman Ayub, who works at his family butchers, Luton Halal. "The council takes a lot of flack from businesses and people in general, but it is good to see they are doing a lot of positive work for the community and I think the message is sinking in," he said. "Luton is ethnically diverse and, as a British Asian, I think we tend to be set in our ways, especially our elders, when it comes to things like social distancing and wearing masks. "Nobody wants to be told what to do but if we don't all work together it will only get worse. "My own father is now wearing a mask and gloves which I could not have imagined him doing at the start of the outbreak. It just goes to show that the message is really getting through. That's important, especially as we head into the winter months." Fellow Luton resident Gill Bottoms knows more than most about the impact of restrictions. Mrs Bottoms, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), has been shielding since the pandemic first rose its head in the UK back in March. She has not been inside a shop and the only visits she has had have been from close family and a handful of friends, who have usually conversed with her from the end of her garden. "It has never been more than six at a time - we have not been able to meet up as a family. It is very hard and not to have a hug has been terrible. I've told my grandchildren that when this is over they owe me thousands of hugs." She said she supported the council's move urging people to go above and beyond the restrictions laid down under the town's current tier rating. "I don't think everybody is following the rules," she said. "I've seen children in large groups out and about not wearing masks. You would think they would have a little bit more sense. It is not just about protecting yourself, it is about protecting and caring about the people around you." Gerry Taylor, Luton's director of public health, said unless cases started coming down, it was "quite likely" the town would be put in tier two by central government. "What we are seeing are cases rising across the whole of the town rather than in specific parts of Luton so we are at a real tipping point where we do need to work together and we really need community support to make sure we can halt the increase." Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

प्रधानमंत्री बोरिस जॉनसन ने कुछ हफ्ते पहले ल्यूटन की "पूरे देश के लिए आगे बढ़ने का रास्ता" के रूप में सराहना की, क्योंकि वहां कोविड-19 के मामले कम हो गए थे और स्थानीय प्रतिबंध हटा दिए गए थे। संक्रमण दर बढ़ने के बाद, परिषद अब निवासियों से स्वेच्छा से सख्त प्रतिबंधों का पालन करने का आग्रह कर रही है। वे कैसे प्रतिक्रिया दे रहे हैं?


Man arrested after body found in Glasgow flat

Summary: A 19-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found in a Glasgow flat.

The body of the 45-year-old was found in the building on Carrbridge Drive, Maryhill, at about 19:55 on Monday. Forensic examiners were at the scene on Tuesday. Police Scotland said a post-mortem would take place to establish the exact cause of the man's death and their inquiries were continuing.

ग्लासगो के एक फ्लैट में जिस व्यक्ति का शव मिला था, उसकी मौत के मामले में एक 19 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


UK-EU deal: Focus now on substance of David Cameron's agreement

Summary: The ink is hardly dry on the UK's EU deal, but immediately the focus has switched to the substance of what David Cameron has achieved and - possibly an awkward question - how many of his colleagues will argue against him.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter The focus will move to whether the prime minister can keep his party politely together during a period of public disagreement. The ability to restrict benefits to migrants is an important victory for Mr Cameron - ammunition for his argument that he has achieved changes to help reduce the number of EU migrants coming to live and work in the UK. The proposals are complicated and do not exactly match the promises he made in the Conservative Party manifesto. But with it - and the other commitments - it becomes harder for his critics to make the case that the agreement is flimsy and will change nothing. Critic to supporter Mr Cameron is now set for a referendum campaign when he will turn from one of the EU's critics to an enthusiastic supporter of an institution that he will argue is changing for the better. But he will face, repeatedly, a different question. If the deal is so good - truly transformative - why do many of his senior colleagues not see its merits? The loss of his close colleague and personal friend Michael Gove to the other side of the debate is a disappointment to Downing Street - even if it is not surprising. Others will follow. Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, possibly as many as six cabinet ministers, and perhaps Boris Johnson - a politician able to cut through Westminster's machinations and speak directly to the public. But this will be an intense and hard-fought battle between politicians of all stripes - a campaign that crosses party boundaries. Ultimately, it will be a choice for all of us, the like of which British voters have not had for decades.

ब्रिटेन के यूरोपीय संघ सौदे पर स्याही शायद ही सूखी है, लेकिन तुरंत ध्यान इस बात पर केंद्रित हो गया है कि डेविड कैमरन ने क्या हासिल किया है और-संभवतः एक अजीब सवाल-उनके कितने सहयोगी उनके खिलाफ बहस करेंगे।


The Brexit debate: facts and figures versus hearts and minds

Summary: So, is Northern Ireland better off inside or outside the European Union?

Mark DevenportPolitical editor, Northern Ireland@markdevenporton Twitter The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood, who visited Brussels this week, is in no doubt. He described the prospect of the UK's withdrawal from Europe as "the biggest immediate threat to the economy of Northern Ireland and to the island as a whole". He insisted a Brexit - the inelegant shorthand for Britain leaving Europe - "would undermine and destabilise the fabric of successive Anglo-Irish agreements". It would "undermine and destabilise our north-south institutions", he added, and would "resurrect borders and resurrect barriers for business". Bureaucracies In Northern Ireland Questions in the House of Commons, the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) Sammy Wilson took the opposite view. He maintained a vote to leave the EU would "help the Northern Ireland economy insofar as it would release £18bn every year for expenditure on public services". He also said it would "enable us to enter a trade agreement with growing parts of the world and release us from the stifling bureaucracies of Europe". Finance Minister Mervyn Storey, Mr Wilson's DUP colleague, attended an event this week to welcome the allocation of more than £400m in EU peace and cross-border funding for Northern Ireland. Earlier this month, Emma Pengelly, another DUP minister, described the peace money and the European Task Force on Northern Ireland as "essential to making Northern Ireland work and building that better future we want to see". Calculating At the same time, DUP politicians tell you it is only right that Northern Ireland should get its share, pointing out that the UK puts £1.50 into the European pot for every £1 it gets back. In the Commons, the SDLP, the Scottish National Party and the Labour Party appeared to be intent on exposing the difference between what they termed the "mixed messages" emanating from the Eurosceptic Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and Ben Wallace, her Europhile junior minister. When it came to calculating the amount Britain puts into Europe, Mr Wilson set the bar high at £18bn. Both the DUP's deputy leader Nigel Dodds and First Minister Arlene Foster recently quoted far more conservative estimates of about £9bn. That, coincidentally, is about the same amount as Northern Ireland's fiscal deficit with Westminster, according to the latest Stormont budget. This BBC backgrounder opts for a UK EU contribution figure of £11.3bn. Barrenness Mr Dodds told the BBC's Question Time that Northern Ireland and the UK could survive quite well outside the EU. Both he and Mrs Foster are sticking to the official DUP line that they will not make their minds up definitively until Prime Minister David Cameron has completed his negotiations for EU reform. But given Mr Wilson's belief that Mr Cameron's renegotiation is doomed to fail, and the DUP MEP Diane Dodds' previous criticism of the prime minister's "barrenness of ambition", it appears almost certain that the DUP will end up campaigning for EU withdrawal, together with the Tradional Unionist Voice and the UK Independence Party. The SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party will be in the pro EU camp. The Ulster Unionists are still in wait-and-see mode. Clarity If Mr Cameron does opt for a summer referendum, voters in Northern Ireland will barely have time to recover from May's assembly election before they are asked to go to the polls again. The campaign will no doubt feature plenty of financial arguments, not just about the UK's membership fees but also regarding the impact of any withdrawal on future trade between the UK and the rest of the EU. Mrs Foster told me she would like more clarity about Westminster's plans for Northern Ireland's financial subvention in the event of the UK leaving the EU and the consequent loss of peace and cross-border cash. Whether she gets such clarity is doubtful, given that the prime minister may be reluctant to contemplate such a possibility. Scaremongering Away from the numbers game, with the Irish government watching on with concern and nationalists and unionists likely to be polarised, expect plenty of good old-fashioned traditional politics. Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson has said a Brexit "could see the re-emergence of passport checkpoints and customs controls" along the Irish border that would hinder "free movement and disrupt the lives of nearly a million people living in the border region". Mrs Foster said that is "scaremongering" and appears convinced that "practical solutions" will mean cross-border trade and the free movement of people would continue unaffected. Just like the Scottish independence referendum, the EU campaign in Northern Ireland may ultimately be more about hearts and minds than it is about facts and figures.

तो, क्या उत्तरी आयरलैंड यूरोपीय संघ के अंदर या बाहर बेहतर है?


From boom to bust in Switzerland's border towns

Summary: The Swiss border town of Kreuzlingen is a lovely, peaceful place. It lies between one of Europe's most beautiful stretches of water, Lake Constance, and the rolling hills of the canton of Thurgau, with the Alps rising majestically in the distance.

By Imogen FoulkesBBC News, Geneva But recently, Kreuzlingen has become too peaceful, eerily quiet in fact. Its main street, optimistically redesigned and renamed the Kreuzlingen Boulevard just four years ago, is empty. There are plenty of shops, but some are closed, and those that are open have few customers. It's a strange feeling for me to return here; I went to school just across the border in the German town of Konstanz, and almost every week my parents used to come to Kreuzlingen to shop. Petrol, beer, wine, most foods (and most importantly from my point of view, chocolate) were all cheaper on the Swiss side. "That's right," says Silvia Cornel of Kreuzlingen's chamber of commerce. "We used to do well selling butter, pasta, petrol, but not any more." Mighty Swiss franc She admits that the economic downturn is a big issue for her town. "We are talking about it almost every day. The retailers are really suffering from the current situation. Things are much more expensive, I must be honest. And yes, on our main street there are many shops [which have] closed." The problem for Kreuzlingen's traders is the mighty Swiss franc. Throughout the eurozone crisis, it has been regarded as a safe haven, pushing its value ever higher. For more than three years, from September 2011 to January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) pegged the currency at 1.20 Swiss francs to the euro, hoping to protect exports - and places like Kreuzlingen. Many business leaders were disappointed, arguing that 1.30 Swiss francs to the euro was a more realistic level, but worse was to come. Last January, after spending billions buying euros, the national bank bailed out of its policy and the Swiss franc soared. For the past six months it has traded at virtually one to one with the euro. The consequences for border towns like Kreuzlingen were immediate. While Swiss prices have been somewhat higher than those in Germany for some years, with the franc now so high many products cost twice as much or more in Switzerland. So why shop in Kreuzlingen when 10 minutes' walk away the bustling German town of Konstanz awaits? Cars with Swiss number plates line Konstanz's streets. In the very crowded shops the voices are Swiss not German. "Lots of Swiss are here," one woman tells me. "Everything is substantially cheaper." "There's a huge difference," says another lady. "I bought these," she adds, holding up a pair of shoes. "And then another pair for a friend, and a dressing gown as well." A quick price comparison says it all: Nivea shower cream, 1 euro 25 in Konstanz, 2 francs 70 in Kreuzlingen. Twice the price. A pair of Birkenstock sandals, 39 euros in Konstanz, 60 francs in Kreuzlingen. Again, significantly higher. No wonder Kreuzlingen's shops are empty. Double whammy But if empty shops in its border towns were the only consequence of the strong Swiss currency, Switzerland's business leaders might not be too worried. Unfortunately the high franc has been a double blow for Switzerland: Swiss consumers are spending across the border and Swiss exports, over half of which are sold in the eurozone, are being priced out of the market. When the euro peg was abandoned, Swiss exports became 15-20% more expensive overnight, and already the effects are being felt. Exports overall fell 2.6 % in the first half of this year, big companies such as Roche and Swatch are reporting reduced profits, and a survey carried out this month (by Deloitte) showed that half of all Swiss companies have made or will make job cuts this year. Others have put their workforce on shorter hours and reduced salaries or are asking staff to work longer hours for the same pay. At the same time, Switzerland's tourism sector, an important part of the economy, is finding it increasingly difficult to compete when alpine resorts in neighbouring Austria or France have much cheaper offers. You could argue that it's high time for high-price, high-salary Switzerland to face reality and start cutting costs, but it's not as easy as that. Cheese woes The cost of living for Swiss workers is higher than for their eurozone counterparts: health insurance alone leaves a big hole in everyone's salary each month. And for the majority who don't live near the border, shopping in Swiss stores is the only option. So big salary cuts would not be easy to introduce. Switzerland's dairy farmers are a good example. For years, as agricultural subsidies slowly eroded under international trade regulations, the milk price has fallen. Now, with the sharp rise of the Swiss franc, the market for Swiss cheese is shrinking. "It's happening like this" explains Markus Hausammann, whose dairy farm lies just outside Kreuzlingen, "The cheese maker, who I sell my milk to, comes to me and says: 'the market is bad, I'm not selling my cheese'." That means cheesemakers will buy less milk from the farmers, or offer an even lower price for it. And since the euro peg was abandoned, the situation has got worse. "In May our foreign sales figures, especially for traditional cheeses, really slumped," says Mr Hausammann. "We had a 14% reduction over the same month last year." Swiss solutions? So what can Switzerland do? In Kreuzlingen, Silvia Cornel remains optimistic. Her own business, a small travel agency, is doing well. She offers personal attention, bespoke holidays and significantly she can sell her products in euros as well as in Swiss francs. But she also believes Switzerland needs to capitalise on its long tradition of excellence and innovation. "We have to come up with new solutions, new ideas, just creative thinking actually," she enthuses. "I mean we've been through hard times in the past and we still made it. We have a high quality, we can do it, we have the knowledge, we have the innovative products here." But Swiss cheese is the kind of high-quality, unique product that Switzerland should be able to count on even in hard times. Swiss dairy farmers have restructured and repriced several times already to cope with the strong franc, and profits are still falling. So Markus Hausammann doesn't necessarily share Silvia's optimism. He worries for the future. "Hard times are coming, really hard times," he predicts. "My son has just started agricultural college, and I really hope there is a future for him here on the farm. But what happens in the next 10 years in farming - well, it's written in the stars."

स्विस सीमावर्ती शहर क्रेज़लिंगेन एक प्यारा, शांतिपूर्ण स्थान है। यह यूरोप के सबसे खूबसूरत जल क्षेत्रों में से एक, कॉन्स्टेंस झील और थुरगाऊ कैन्टन की लुढ़कती पहाड़ियों के बीच स्थित है, जिसमें आल्प्स दूरी में भव्य रूप से बढ़ रहा है।


Merthyr band Pretty Vicious sign to Virgin EMI Records

Summary: A band from Merthyr Tydfil has signed a record deal with Virgin EMI Records despite only playing two gigs.

Pretty Vicious, who are all in their teens with one of them still in school, has been the subject of a record company bidding war this month. Despite only releasing one song online they are already being touted as the next Oasis in the music press. The band has recorded a session for BBC Wales, which will be broadcast on the Bethan Elfyn show on Saturday. A spokeswoman from Virgin EMI Records confirmed they had signed the band this week.

मेरथिर टायडफिल के एक बैंड ने केवल दो गिग्स खेलने के बावजूद वर्जिन ई. एम. आई. रिकॉर्ड्स के साथ एक रिकॉर्ड सौदे पर हस्ताक्षर किए हैं।


Dolgarrog remembers lives lost in 'terrible' dam disaster

Summary: It was a night which changed the landscape of a small north Wales village forever. Now, 90 years on, the church bell that tolled on the night 16 residents lost their lives, will ring out again in their memory.

By Rosanna Pound-WoodsBBC News On 2 November 1925, Dolgarrog was devastated when two dams burst, sending a torrent of water and boulders crashing down towards the village below. The flood killed 10 adults and six children in the Conwy Valley community. Many more watching a film in the village theatre survived. Had the building not been on higher ground, the death toll could have been far greater. "It was a terrible, terrible disaster, which affected the whole community and changed the lives of the families here," said Dafydd Williams, chairman of Dolgarrog community council. The flooding was triggered by a failure of the Eigiau Dam, owned by the Aluminium Corporation, which was breached following two weeks of heavy rain. At about 20:45 GMT, the water from the reservoir flooded downstream, overtopping the Coedty dam. This then failed, releasing up to 70bn gallons (350bn litres) of water and debris into Dolgarrog. Within 20 minutes, the water had flooded across the main road, swept away houses on Machno Terrace, the church, church house, sweet shop, butcher's and water mains. The church bell is said to have rung out three times just minutes earlier. Today, the only building left standing of the old village is the now-empty Porth Lwyd Hotel. "The flow of water from the dams did not cease until mid-morning the following day," said Gwilym Wyn Roberts, whose mother survived the disaster. He has since carried out extensive research into what happened that night. "Cows were seen hanging from the trees and the aluminium works were submerged under 5ft (1.5m) of mud," he added. Mr Roberts, who was born and brought up in the village, used to play as a child on the "massive numerous boulders", some of which weighed more than 200 tonnes. "These massive stones had been carried down with the torrent," he said. What caused the flood? The jury at an inquest into the lives lost at Dolgarrog returned a verdict of "accidental death", after hearing technical evidence from Ralph Freeman. He claimed the flood had been "caused by the bursting of the dam under the wall in consequence of the wall lacking a proper foundation" and that this foundation "had not been sufficiently deep". Parliamentary records suggest "the damage was done in the construction originally". The investigation led to improved construction requirements for dams in the UK, as part of the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act in 1930. The act introduced laws on the safety of reservoirs and was more recently updated as the Reservoirs Act 1975. A memorial service is being held at St Mary's Church at 20:15 GMT, on Monday - exactly 90 years after the disaster took place. Council chairman, Mr Williams said: "The church bell is one of the few remaining items that we have from the original church that was washed away in the disaster. "It will be very moving when that bell is rung at the service in memory of each of the victims. "We will be hearing something which those people once heard and which was rung on the night of the disaster." Jamie Hack, from Wrexham, is a direct descendant of four of the victims claimed by the flood: Susannah Evans and three of her children, Ceridwen, Bessie and Gwen. Unable to attend the memorial service in Dolgarrog, he and his family will be remembering the occasion with "special prayers at bedtime". "I will also be relating the incident as a story to my children," he said. Susannah Mewis, the granddaughter of Susannah Evans, will be travelling from Staffordshire to the service. "We grew up knowing of the disaster and my father (now deceased) used to talk a lot about his life in north Wales," she said. She has since researched the deaths of her grandmother and aunties. 'Enormity' "I read about the ways in which their bodies were found and burst into tears," she said. "The enormity of what happened will surely stay with all descendants for ever." Fred Brown was the last remaining survivor of the flood but passed away several years ago. He was 14 when the waters came crashing down, claiming the lives of his mother and younger sister. Mr Brown previously told BBC Wales about that tragic night: "I heard that my mother had drowned, as well as my four-year-old sister. "My father and my elder sister were washed down with the flood and they rescued themselves by crawling over coke wagons." The village now faces the task of preserving the memories of that terrible night, with nobody left who directly experienced it. To do this, they are maintaining a special memorial walk, which has been built in memory of those who lost their lives. The £60,000 trail was opened in 2004, explaining the tragic story to walkers visiting the area. It follows the route the water took down towards the village, past the boulders brought down from the damaged dam. There is also a small display in the village of photographs and newspaper clippings from the disaster, with plans to set up a permanent museum in the community centre. "We also mark the big anniversaries", said Mr Williams, "we don't mark it every year, but the last one was the 75th anniversary and after this the next one will probably be the 100th."

यह एक ऐसी रात थी जिसने नॉर्थ वेल्स के एक छोटे से गांव के परिदृश्य को हमेशा के लिए बदल दिया। अब, 90 साल बाद, उस रात जो चर्च की घंटी बजती थी जिसमें 16 निवासियों ने अपनी जान गंवाई थी, उनकी यादों में फिर से बजती रहेगी।


South Tees NHS staff get paid three days late

Summary: Thousands of hospital staff at an NHS trust have received their pay three days late after an error caused delays.

Salaries of about 8,500 workers at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were not paid on Friday due to "human error". Chief executive Tricia Hart said she could only "personally apologise" to every member of staff. The trust runs James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and the Friarage in Northallerton. The trust previously said it would honour any bank charges caused by the delay.

एनएचएस ट्रस्ट के हजारों अस्पताल कर्मचारियों को एक त्रुटि के कारण देरी के बाद तीन दिन देर से उनका वेतन मिला है।


Motorcyclist killed in three-vehicle TT course crash

Summary: A 48-year-old motorcyclist has died after a crash which involved a car and a van on the Isle of Man TT course.

The man died at the scene of the three-vehicle collision between Ballaugh Bridge and Quarry Bends at 19:25 BST on Thursday. The A3 between Ballaugh Bridge and Sulby crossroads has reopened. Det Insp Darren Richards thanked members of the public who stopped to assist the emergency services and asked any witnesses to contact police. The man is the the third motorcyclist to be killed in as many weeks on the Isle of Man after two men were killed on the Mountain Road in separate incidents.

आइल ऑफ मैन टी. टी. मार्ग पर एक कार और एक वैन के बीच हुई दुर्घटना में एक 48 वर्षीय मोटरसाइकिल सवार की मौत हो गई है।


Review: Beyonce and Jay-Z's video at the Louvre ★★★★☆

Summary: More than 8 million people visited the Louvre in 2017. The vast majority of them would have rubbed shoulders with the same famous artworks that appeared this week in The Carters' (that's Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z) music video for the launch track from their new album, Everything is Love.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter I doubt many gyrated in leggings and a bra in front of Jacques-Louis David's monumental canvas The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon (1806-7) as Beyoncé does in the video, but I imagine people will now. Blame Napoleon for encouraging such behaviour. When he was presented with the canvas having insisted on several alterations, like reducing the size of Notre-Dame cathedral to make him look bigger, the delighted Emperor said: "This is not a painting; one walks in this picture." The Carters get up to all sorts in this personalised take on Night at the Museum, the title of which made use of asterisks when it was uploaded to YouTube last weekend given its bad language. In one scene they appear dressed in white, like marble statues, standing regally at the top of the Winged Victory of Samothrace staircase as the magnificent winged goddess Nike rises from behind their heads while their loyal subjects lie down before them. In another, they hang out with the ancient Great Sphinx of Tanis, which came from the Temple of Amun Tanis, once the pharaohs' seat of power in the dim and distant 21st and 22nd Dynasties. Jay-Z stands aside, while Beyoncé dances frenetically. Like most museum visitors, they take regular breaks - chilling out on the Louvre's plush sofa-seats; Jay-Z man-spreading as Beyoncé uses his shoulder as a chair back. They appear to be having a great time. Although, the longer the video goes on the more you realise there is something slightly odd about their visit. I'm pretty sure that just about every single one of the Louvre's 8 million-plus visitors takes the opportunity to have a good look at the masterpieces on show. The Carters do not. At least, not until the dying seconds of their six-minute promo, when they face each other before slowly turning towards Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. This isn't an oversight; it is a point - maybe, the point - being made. They are not in the Louvre to look reverentially at great works of European art; they are there to make their own great work of art. The museum and its contents are not the star of this show; they are there to play a part. Pop's power-couple, along with director Ricky Saiz, have produced a series of vignettes, all of which play with the same dramatic device: inserting a contemporary black artistic voice into a white, Western, male-dominated, establishment narrative. I don't know if they specifically chose The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon to dance in front of because it was the colonising French general who repealed anti-slavery laws in 1802, but I imagine the fact hadn't escaped their notice. There is no ambiguity with the elegantly-composed image they curate in front of David's painting Portrait of Madame Récamier (1800), which is heavily laden with symbolism. Two black women are sitting on the floor wearing light brown tights and body-hugging beige vests. They are in profile, facing away from each other, and positioned at either side of David's painting of the famous 19th Century French socialite. Linking the two women together is a flowing piece of white material, each end of which they wear on their heads like a turban. Above them, Madame Récamier reclines on her antique sofa, dressed in a simple sleeveless white dress, her head turned towards the viewer. The design of the sofa is similar to that of a sleigh-bed, with rising wooden ends. It is these bed ends that the women on the floor echo, the variance in the darkness of their skin matching the different tones of the wood in the painting. The cloth that links them represents the dress worn by the painting's subject. The message is clear: It was on the backs of subjugated black people from the French colonies that Madame Récamie was able to enjoy her life of leisure and pleasure. The Carters' Louvre takeover isn't just about protest; it is about power too. We meet them in the museum's Salle des Etats gallery, which was originally built for Napoleon III to preside over major legislative sessions in the late 1850s. Today it houses the Louvre's Venetian Renaissance paintings as well as the picture for which it is thought 80% of visitors come to see, the Mona Lisa. And that's where we find our besuited pop stars: Beyoncé dressed in pink, Jay-Z in mint green. They look at us with deadpan expressions mimicking the Mona Lisa's, whose portrait hangs between them. We get what they are saying, we are not looking at one iconic face: we're looking at three. The Carters are not just giving themselves the same status as Da Vinci's masterpiece; they are transforming the world's most famous painting from a single image into a triptych. The song for which the promo has been made sets the tone. Its profane title, Apeshit, repeated in every chorus: "Have you ever seen a crowd goin' apeshit?" "I can't believe we made it," they duet as they take ownership of Paris's temple of cultural icons, which until their residency, had barely a black face in it. "We livin' lavish, lavish," Beyoncé sings draped in white silk. "I got expensive fabrics, I got expensive habits." These are not words of apology for being overtly materialistic. She's boasting. Here she is, a successful black woman, talking about her opulent tastes while enjoying being the inheritor of Napoleon's. And in his back yard, too. The video is a smart piece of work, albeit a little rushed at times. Not every shot works, not every idea lands. But the overall point is powerfully put. The game is up for those institutions - be it Hollywood, Broadway or the Louvre - which have ignored black artists, refused them a voice, or a seat at the top table.

2017 में 80 लाख से अधिक लोगों ने लौवर का दौरा किया। उनमें से अधिकांश ने उन्हीं प्रसिद्ध कलाकृतियों के साथ कंधे से कंधा मिलाया होगा जो इस सप्ताह द कार्टर्स (जो कि बेयॉन्से और उनके पति जे-जेड हैं) संगीत वीडियो में उनके नए एल्बम, एवरीथिंग इज लव के लॉन्च ट्रैक के लिए दिखाई दिए थे।


Denyse Sweeney Goa death: Was our 'baby sister' a murder victim?

Summary: In the early hours of 16 April 2010, a British woman was discovered "in a distressed state" outside a bar in Goa. A short time later, she was declared dead in hospital. Her family believe Denyse Sweeney was murdered. Six years later, her death is being re-examined in India, after the first investigation was found to be flawed. But will the truth ever be revealed?

By Jennifer HarbyBBC News The years since Denyse's death have been a trauma "every single day" for her two sisters, Maureen and Marion. The toll the years have taken seem the very antithesis of the life of Denyse - a fun-loving "hippie soul" who had skipped off to the Anjuna district Goa from her Derby home in 2009. "She loved the people, she loved the culture, she just loved the place," said Maureen. "I think she would have moved out there eventually. "She was free-spirited and that's why she ended up in Goa - because it's a bit of a hippie paradise." Denyse started life in paradise as a volunteer with an animal sanctuary, quickly making friends and enjoying the bars and beaches of the Indian beauty spot. "She had a bit of a crazy personality. We knew her as Dennis the Menace," said Maureen. Word of Denyse's death came to the sisters via Facebook one weekend. Denyse, 34, had two children in Derby who had to be told the news. "The family almost collapsed in on itself," said Maureen. "You could see the pain in my mother's face. Denyse was the youngest in our family - our baby sister. "It completely devastated us." But worse was to come for the family, as the Goan police concluded Denyse had died of a drugs overdose. That conclusion sounded unconvincing to the family from the start. "From the offset we thought something was wrong," said Marion. "Denyse may have taken drugs in her younger years but to say she died of a drug overdose is unthinkable." A toxicology report presented to an inquest held in Derby in 2012 revealed there were no drugs in her system. A Home Office pathologist ruled the cause of death was probably a wound to the back of her head. At the time of her death, Denyse's body bore about 20 injuries. So why were all these clues seemingly overlooked by the Goan police? On the morning she died, Denyse had been at a bar called the Primrose Bar with a couple of friends. For most of the evening, she had apparently been, "her usual self - jumping around and happy", according to a witness who was there that night, Sean Carpenter. Sean had met Denyse a month before. He came across her in a bar with a moustache drawn on her face. When they got talking, she drew a moustache on his face as well and they became friends. "She was good fun to be with and we got on well," he said. On the night of 15 April, he and his friend Bob Stuttard ran into Denyse at another bar. He remembers she was carrying a bag and wearing a cropped black vest top that showed off a Henna tattoo on her stomach. The friends arrived at the Primrose Bar in the early hours. Sean said he and Bob went upstairs to play pool, leaving Denyse downstairs talking to the bar staff, whom she knew well. "Bob and I stayed up there playing pool for quite a while - maybe an hour or so - before we came down the stairs to get some drinks," he said. "It was at this time I realised I hadn't seen Denyse for a while and I decided to go and look for her." Sean searched the main bar area before eventually finding Denyse in an outside toilet area at the back of the bar. He said she was standing up, but was in a very distressed state. "She had her arms outstretched in front of her body," he told the police. "She made eye contact with me and tried to move towards me. She was speaking but it sounded like a foreign language and I didn't understand anything she was saying. "She looked scared. Her face was full of fear. Her eyes were open wide. I didn't notice any blood or anything on her. "When her eyes caught mine, she appeared to look relieved. Then she collapsed into my arms." Only one other person was standing nearby, Sean said, and he remembers him distinctly. "He was an Indian guy. I didn't know him and hadn't seen him before. "He had a hat on, what I would call an Oasis-type hat, made of soft, floppy material. "I think he had shorts on to his knees. He was quite thin, about 5ft 9 or 5ft 10." The man disappeared, supposedly to get help. Sean said he stayed with Denyse but could feel her arms and legs starting to stiffen. "By this time, it was daylight and the sun was up," he said. "About an hour and a half later, the doctor turned up with a car and Denyse was carried out to the car. I was talking to her all the way to hospital. And I held her." Sean, who now lives in Manchester, has never returned to Goa. "It is a tropical paradise, but it does have a dirty underbelly to it," he said. "I don't think I would feel safe there again after what I have seen." He still does not know the identity of the man he saw with Denyse that night. "The key to all this is that guy," he said. He must know what happened to her. "There were several CCTV cameras in the bar, so they must have captured people's movements before and after Denyse was taken ill." No CCTV from the bar has ever been made available to police in England. Denyse is not the first Briton to have suffered a mysterious death in Goa. According to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, between 2010 and 2014, 58 British nationals died in the region in what it calls "unknown" circumstances. One of the most infamous cases was that of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling, from Bideford, Devon. in 2008. Goan police initially said her death was the result of an accidental drowning before two men went on trial for assaulting and killing her. After the British inquest into Denyse's death returned an open verdict, Derbyshire Police set up Operation Ross to investigate the case but Det Ch Insp Paul Tatlow said they were given "little to no" information by the Indian authorities. "The coroner in the UK had very limited papers," he said. "We eventually got sent copies of original statements but they didn't give us a lot of information about the circumstances leading up to Denyse's death. "The statements were not taken to the same standard as they would have been in Derbyshire. "It appears the decision was made quite early on it was a drugs death. "I think [the Goan police] have perhaps tied themselves to that." Det Ch Insp Tatlow said Derbyshire Police had made requests to their Goan equivalents about "several" investigative strands but only received a partial response. The Goan police have yet to respond to a BBC request for a comment. "It's clear there's an injury to the back of Denyse's head," Det Ch Insp Tatlow said. "A subsequent post-mortem review we conducted suggested that injury was enough to kill her. But there is not enough information in the statements we have got to suggest how she got that injury. "It could have been a fall, it could have been malicious, but without filling in some of these gaps, it's very difficult to say. "It's very frustrating. The reason we became involved was to see if we could help the family. Unfortunately, at this stage, we are not able to give them a definitive answer." However, there may be some light on the horizon. In January it emerged India's Central Bureau of Investigation had begun a fresh inquiry into Denyse's death and will also look at the handling of the original case. Editor of the Goan Chronicle Savio Rodrigues, who has studied the case, said he believed the bureau would do a "better job" than the police. "It's going to be an arduous task to prove anything but if they go back to the CCTV footage, they might be able to find out what's happened," he said. Denyse's family remain convinced she was murdered. "It's awful knowing that man could still be out there," said Marion. "The difficulty is trying to prove anything years down the line when all the evidence has gone. "But no British person is safe in Goa because there are people like him walking free." For more on this subject, watch Inside Out on BBC One East Midlands at 19:30 on Monday 1 February and nationwide for 30 days thereafter on the iPlayer.

16 अप्रैल 2010 के शुरुआती घंटों में, एक ब्रिटिश महिला गोवा में एक बार के बाहर "व्यथित अवस्था में" पाई गई। कुछ समय बाद, उसे अस्पताल में मृत घोषित कर दिया गया। उसके परिवार का मानना है कि डेनिस स्वीनी की हत्या कर दी गई थी। छह साल बाद, पहली जांच में त्रुटिपूर्ण पाए जाने के बाद, भारत में उसकी मृत्यु की फिर से जांच की जा रही है। लेकिन क्या सच कभी सामने आएगा?


Coronavirus in South Africa: Eight lessons for the rest of the continent

Summary: South Africa leads this continent in many ways. Right now, it is poised to lead Africa into the next, most dangerous phase of the pandemic, as the country braces itself for a dramatic rise in infections that will almost certainly overwhelm its relatively well-resourced healthcare system.

By Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent, BBC News Here are eight things it can teach the rest of Africa: 1) Keep the tea rooms clean No, it is not a joke. Governments, and medical teams, still need to focus a lot more on hygiene. Instead of wasting time and money - as many experts now see it - on acquiring expensive but relatively ineffective ventilators, the evidence from South African hospitals already grappling with the virus points to the need for vastly improved hygiene protocols. Several major hospitals have already been forced to shut after becoming hot spots for the virus. Doctors are warning that medical staff continue to congregate in tea rooms, removing their masks, passing mobile phones to each other, and undermining all the work they do on the wards. "The most dangerous place in a clinic is undoubtedly the tea room. We're trying to get that message out," said Doctor Tom Boyles, an infectious disease specialist in Johannesburg. 2) Fast tests - or no tests After a promising start, South Africa is now struggling, woefully, with its testing. It has built up a huge backlog - "tens of thousands" according to several sources - at its laboratories, which is now undermining the validity of the entire testing process. "How do we prioritise limited resources?" asked Prof Shabir Madhi, a prominent vaccine expert, who said South Africa's likely testing limit - because of financial and logistical constraints - would stay at about 20,000 per day. An impressive number, perhaps, but of no real use, doctors insist, unless the results of those tests can reliably be produced within, ideally, 24 hours. Much longer than that and an infected person will either have spread the virus to too many others to trace properly, or they will already be in hospital, or they will have passed the point of serious risk for infecting others. "Currently the turnaround time for Covid tests is around 14 days in most places, so that basically means it's a complete waste of time," said Dr Boyles. The same concerns apply to South Africa's much-hailed community screening and testing programme which, experts say, has outlived its usefulness, since the virus has now spread far beyond the capacity of the country's large team of community health workers to track with any effectiveness. "The timeline renders it meaningless and compromises the care that should be occurring in hospitals," according to Prof Madhi, who said it was vital that the testing system be aimed, as efficiently as possible, at hospitals, medical staff and those at most risk. But there are signs of a political battle delaying these changes, with officials reportedly resisting calls for older tests to be simply thrown away. 3) It is not old age, it is obesity Much has been made of the fact that Africa has an unusually young population, and, indeed, that may yet help to mitigate the impact of the virus here. But the evidence from several South African hospitals already suggests that alarmingly high levels of obesity - along with hypertension and diabetes - in younger Covid-19 patients are linked to many fatalities. It is believed that as many South Africans suffer from hypertension and diabetes as from HIV - some seven million people. That is one in eight of the population. Some of them are undiagnosed. Two-thirds of coronavirus deaths in South Africa so far are among people aged under 65, according to Prof Madhi. "Obesity is a big issue, along with hypertension and diabetes," he said. Although demographic differences make it hard to make direct comparisons between countries, over half of younger South Africans who are dying from Covid-19 have some other illness - roughly twice the rate seen in Europe. 4) Exposure isn't always exposure A busy antenatal clinic in Johannesburg recently closed down following reports that one member of staff had been exposed to a coronavirus patient. Twelve nurses were sent home and told to self-isolate. The move has been quietly condemned by many doctors who see it as evidence of a wider climate of unnecessary fear and over-caution among medical staff which is in danger of crippling the country's health system and undermining its fight against the virus. "There needs to be clear guidance on what sort exposure is significant. We have not adequately demystified this virus," said Prof Madhi, who stressed that a person needed to spend 15 minutes or more in close proximity to a confirmed case to be considered at serious risk of infection. Unions have been understandably robust in seeking to protect their members and to raise concerns where personal protection equipment (PPE) has been lacking. But several medical workers told me that tougher discipline was needed to enforce hygiene protocols among staff - along with better education and training about managing risk. "Fear is the predominant factor. Morale is definitely low," said one hospital doctor, on condition of anonymity. "But you also find people who are looking to get quarantined, who are very happy to take a two-week paid holiday" in self-isolation. 5) The devil is in the detail This week South Africa announced that religious groups could resume worship in gatherings of no more than 50 people. The move was clearly a political concession by a government under pressure to ease lockdown restrictions and that understands that to retain public trust over the longer-term it must show signs of give and take. But the decision carries significant risks. Religious gatherings - often attracting older people - are known globally to be hot spots for spreading the virus. By choosing to ignore that fact, the government may be undercutting its own messaging. "It undermines any pretence that the regulations are rules are science-based," said political scientist and commentator Richard Calland. One option for the government might have been to bar anyone over 65 from attending a religious service. Instead it has told religious leaders to implement strict social-distancing and hygiene policies in their churches and mosques. Will they comply? All non-authoritarian governments eventually have to rely on the public's willingness to obey, not just the broad spirit of any regulations, but - as the tea room troubles indicate - the granular detail of clean prayer mats, no-contact services and no more than one person for every 2.5 sq m (about 26 sq ft) of church hall. 6) Winning the peace South Africa's official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has been struggling to make itself heard during the lockdown. A crisis of this magnitude inevitably pushes opposition parties to the sidelines and, one could argue, they would do well to stay there. Coronavirus in Africa: When the DA has sought to attract attention to itself, it has shown signs of flip-flopping on policy. "They should be playing a much longer game, looking to win the peace, not the war," said Mr Calland, citing the example of Clement Atlee, who swept to power in the UK, defeating Winston Churchill in the immediate aftermath of World War Two. The much smaller, populist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has already indicated how it plans to win political capital from the crisis, by opposing any easing of the lockdown (its racialised antipathy to foreign investment and to big business freeing it from serious concern about the economic impact). It will presumably seek to blame President Cyril Ramaphosa for the inevitable rise in infections and deaths. Mr Ramaphosa's own enemies within the governing African National Congress (ANC) - currently silenced - may well make common cause with the EFF on that issue. The blame game will be a brutal one across the continent. Will the power of incumbency - such an important factor in African politics and beyond - prove to be a strength or a weakness with Covid-19? 7) Bring the public with you When South Africa banned the sale of alcohol during the lockdown, many people accepted it as a harsh, but perhaps necessary step to limit domestic abuse, prevent violence, and thus keep hospital beds free for coronavirus patients. But over time, frustration - with the ban, and with the brutal and haphazard enforcement of it - has grown and the clampdown is now set to be partly lifted. So far so good. But in tandem with the alcohol ban, South Africa put a stop to all cigarettes sales too. And that will remain in force indefinitely. The government insists its decision is based on scientific evidence, but few people seem to believe that is what is really guiding ministers. Instead many suspect that officials are using the lockdown as cover to introduce their own pet projects. The ban is playing into the hands of powerful criminal syndicates controlling contraband cigarettes, and is costing the government a fortune in lost tax revenues. But perhaps more importantly, it is undermining the credibility of the lockdown regulations themselves - making compliance, as the country moves to ease some restrictions on movement, less likely. 8) Keeping it simple For weeks, it seemed, everyone was talking about finding and building ventilators. But the experience of frontline doctors in Cape Town has already shown that simpler, cheaper and less-intrusive devices can play a far more important role. Countries need to plan according to their limited resources. "The investment in ventilators was a huge waste," said Prof Madhi, who, like colleagues in Cape Town, stressed the importance of high-flow nasal oxygen machines that work more efficiently than more traditional oxygen masks. He said he had been "raising the alarm" about the need to improve South Africa's supply of oxygen "for about six weeks". Hospitals in Cape Town are also following the international example of "proning" - lying patients face down in order to improve oxygen supply to their lungs. The principal of looking for simpler solutions applies to staffing too, with many doctors urging the health authorities to focus on bringing final-year medical students, and perhaps retired staff, into an overstretched system, rather than importing expensive foreign doctors from places like Cuba.

दक्षिण अफ्रीका कई मायनों में इस महाद्वीप का नेतृत्व करता है। अभी, यह अफ्रीका को महामारी के अगले, सबसे खतरनाक चरण में ले जाने के लिए तैयार है, क्योंकि देश संक्रमण में नाटकीय वृद्धि के लिए खुद को तैयार कर रहा है जो लगभग निश्चित रूप से इसकी अपेक्षाकृत अच्छी तरह से संसाधन वाली स्वास्थ्य सेवा प्रणाली को अभिभूत कर देगा।


Gay rights in Kenya: 'Why our fight isn't over'

Summary: Kenya's High Court has ruled against campaigners seeking to overturn a law banning gay sex. But there is much to be proud of in the fight for equality despite this setback, writes Kevin Mwachiro.

Thirteen years ago, I would never have thought that Kenya could get to this point - that our LGBTQ community would go to court and fight for our rights. We have come a long way. This generation is a much braver group of individuals trying to ensure other Kenyans learn to love, live and accept themselves for who they are. Our community is also trying to help other Kenyans understand our lives. Thirteen years ago, I told myself that I would not live a life that panders to societal approval. I was not going to put myself in a sham, straight relationship or marriage so as to keep my relatives happy. I wanted to be happy for myself, the way I am. More on this story: What has it been like to be gay in Kenya? Some of my friends say that I'm brave to be publicly out. It took me a long time to understand what they meant, because I was just being myself, there was no bravery. I am lucky that I live in a part of town where people really don't bother you about your life. 'Stares and whispers' I've worked with organisations that respect sexual orientation. I have not experienced any form of violence or overt discrimination. I have not been denied access to a home, work or services because of my orientation. Maybe a few stares and whispers here and there, but that's as far it has gone. I am lucky. But there many individuals from the community who have experienced physical and verbal violence and various forms of discrimination. I recognise that there is the potential for violence. That threat is real to me too. But as members of the community, we've learnt to create or manoeuvre into and around spaces that let us be ourselves. Here our love is proud yet guarded. Almost free, but cautious. I was a teenager when I started grappling with my own same-sex feelings and I thought I was alone. There was no one I could turn to in order to help me understand what I felt. It was a lonely place. Today, there are communities of gay, lesbian, trans men and women, and non-binary individuals across the country who support, encourage and love one another. It was in 2016 that campaigners filed a case in Kenya's High Court calling for the decriminalisation of gay sex. Back then, it felt like a dream when I sat inside the court listening to both sides argue Petition 150 and Petition 234, now popularly known as Repeal 162. The movement was challenging a law that had long passed its time. 'The gay genie is out the bottle' The Kenyan gay genie was out of the bottle and out of the closet. On Friday, just as in February earlier this year when we learnt the ruling would be delayed, we packed the courtrooms. We jostled with journalists for space, hugged one another, and shared smiles of encouragement. We had done this. We wanted a ruling. We wanted to win so badly, and we had a great constitution to back us. But we also knew that we could lose. Seated in a stairwell, other friends and I listened to the ruling being read out. Thank God for technology! Then the blow came, as the arguments were dismissed. The pain of the loss stung. I didn't think it could hurt that bad, but it did. People started streaming out of the court room, glassy-eyed with rainbow flags draped over their drooping shoulders. It was time to lick our wounds. But there was still fight within us. Maybe not today, but the fact we took on a system that is slow and scared to change is a victory in itself. Thirteen years ago, I never would have thought I'd be in the corridors of justice advocating for LGBTQ rights. Not many within the movement would. But we have been. There will still be plenty of social and religious stigma to face, and there will still be the potential for violence. There will still be various forms of discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. But there will also be a movement championing the rights of our community, and demanding a more inclusive Kenya. I know the sting will lessen over the next few days. I feel a lot of pride towards fellow activists who showed up and stood up for themselves and our community. To my 16-year-old self who thought he was all alone in his feelings: I want to tell him that the battle for self and for same love, is far from over. Just look at how far we've come in 13 years.

केन्या के उच्च न्यायालय ने समलैंगिक यौन संबंध पर प्रतिबंध लगाने वाले कानून को पलटने की मांग करने वाले प्रचारकों के खिलाफ फैसला सुनाया है। लेकिन इस झटके के बावजूद समानता की लड़ाई में गर्व करने के लिए बहुत कुछ है, केविन म्वाचिरो लिखते हैं।


American Vogue's first black cover girl

Summary: Model agents told her she'd never make it, hairdressers refused to touch her hair and Kodak didn't even make film that could cope with her skin tone, but somehow 40 years ago Beverly Johnson became the first black woman on the cover of American Vogue.

By Claire BowesBBC World Service "You mean there's never been a woman of colour on the cover of Vogue magazine? Are you kidding me? We're in the 1970s." When Beverly Johnson found out that she'd made the August 1974 cover of the fashion bible she was ecstatic - but also outraged to discover she was breaking a racial taboo for the first time. At 21, she'd only been modelling for a couple of years and didn't know that her goal - to be on Vogue's front cover - would put her in the history books. When the picture hit the newsstands - with Johnson, her hair swept back, wearing an unseasonably warm angora cardigan and Bulgari diamond loop earrings - she started getting calls from newspapers and magazines from all over the world. "That's when I knew it was a big deal, when people told me it was a big deal," she says. "I was interviewed by people from Africa and from Europe. They were saying, 'It's about time that America woke up!' It was just life-changing." Johnson grew up in an all-white neighbourhood in Buffalo, upstate New York, largely unaware of the racial tensions elsewhere. Her mother, an African American from Louisiana, and her father, a Native American, never spoke about race. "We just learned that all people were good and alike and didn't really know about those kind of biases that exist in the world," she says. Her first experience of racism came as a young girl when she and a friend rode their bicycles through a different neighbourhood on the border with Canada. "They started calling us the N-word and throwing bottles at us. We were just stunned," she remembers. That was the early 1960s. A decade of protests by African Americans had led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 outlawing discrimination on grounds of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin. Johnson's family worried that Martin Luther King was "stirring up trouble", but Johnson - who entered her teens in 1965 - remembers being mesmerised when she saw him on television herself. She planned to become a lawyer and went to Northeastern University in Boston to study political science. While there, her friends persuaded her to take up modelling to pay for her studies. She began to get freelance photo-shoots for Glamour, a magazine bought mainly by young white women, but she still found it difficult to get an agent. "Everyone turned me down. The Eileen Ford model agency said I was too heavy. Then three days later, they called me back and said, 'Oh you lost so much weight!' but I hadn't lost a pound." Johnson says this was her first lesson in how the modelling business works - "A lot of BS." Eileen Ford took her on after realising that she was getting lots of assignments for Glamour magazine, but warned her: "You're never going to be on the cover of Vogue. You're doing all this other work for Glamour and you should count your lucky stars." This did not put her off - she just dumped Eileen Ford. Another first "To be on the cover of Vogue magazine is where every model wants to be. That's our touchdown, that's our Super Bowl. So I went to another agency," she says. Meanwhile the editor of Glamour, Ruth Whitney, put her on the cover numerous times. The magazine regularly sent out questionnaires to its readers for feedback and the response to Johnson was unprecedented. "They asked, 'Would you like to look like this model?' and 'Would you like to be her friend?' And with the other black models they tried to use in the magazine the readers were outraged - and with me they said they would like to actually be me." Ruth Whitney was amazed. "What do you do to get this reaction?" she asked. But while Johnson was capturing the readers' hearts, professionals in her industry still needed some persuasion. "A lot of photographers just didn't see your beauty. Many didn't know how to light you. Kodak had to add darker colours to their spectrum so that the colour came out true," Johnson says. "The hairdressers were just confused, they had probably never touched a black woman's hair." Black models were getting work in the 1970s but would generally appear in magazines aimed at an African-American readership, such as Ebony or Essence. But Johnson saw no reason why beauty should remain segregated. Then in August 1974 Vogue photographer Francesco Scavullo, photographed Johnson. She didn't know it at the time but it was a cover shoot. In those days, as a model, you didn't know you were going to be on the cover until the magazine went on sale. "Back then in New York the covers would be the banner all around the newsstand… I saw it and I just stopped in my tracks… Then I made a collect call to my mother on a payphone and told her, and I remember us just screaming and crying." A year later the editor of American Vogue, Grace Mirabella, was quoted in the New York Times magazine saying, "We don't think about it as a milestone, but we're very proud to have had her there." Johnson says she can understand why Vogue didn't acknowledge the significance of the picture. "It was almost an embarrassment to them in 1974 because Europe really took a stand against them saying 'It's about time you did that,'" she says. But she thinks the magazine still hasn't grasped the magnitude of what it did to change perceptions about race. "I don't think they understand the impact they had on a nation of women, that they could finally look at someone and say, 'She's me and she's in the magazine and she's beautiful and we're finally accepted in mainstream America.'" This point is regularly driven home to her even now, 40 years later. "Every day some woman comes up to me and says how I changed their life… how important it was to see themselves in me." Johnson admits that at 21, she also had a lot to learn. "I went on a journey of self-discovery of who I am, what this whole thing about being African-American is… slavery, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. "Because I really didn't know… and I just started to get this sense of pride and responsibility." What happened next Johnson had a successful modelling career for many years. Most recently she appeared in a reality television show, Beverly's Full House. The eight-part series documented Beverly's home life as she invited her daughter, son-in-law and baby granddaughter to live with her in Palm Springs. Beverly Johnson spoke to Witness on the BBC World Service Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

मॉडल एजेंटों ने उसे बताया कि वह इसे कभी नहीं बना पाएगी, हेयरड्रेसरों ने उसके बालों को छूने से इनकार कर दिया और कोडक ने ऐसी फिल्म भी नहीं बनाई जो उसकी त्वचा के रंग का सामना कर सके, लेकिन किसी तरह 40 साल पहले बेवर्ली जॉनसन अमेरिकी वोग के कवर पर पहली अश्वेत महिला बन गई।


Masquerade: How a real-life treasure hunt obsessed a nation

Summary: A series of events is being staged to mark the 40th anniversary of the publishing sensation that was Masquerade, a picture book that promised hidden treasure to the person who could solve the clues hidden within its pages.

By Mark ShieldsBBC News It's a familiar tale: treasure-hunters racing to decipher clues from a mysterious book that will lead them to buried gold. But this particular hunt, and its waiting treasure, was no work of fiction - even if the creation that inspired it was. In 1979, artist Kit Williams published Masquerade - a storybook decorated with paintings whose intricacies held clues that would lead the successful sleuth to an 18-carat golden hare. A phenomenon at the time, the book sold more than a million copies and sparked a worldwide hunt for the gold. Forty years on, Masquerade retains an army of fans who have handed down their passion for the book, and their memories of the frenzy that gripped the country. Readers were addicted, with treasure-hunters driven as much by being the first to solve the riddle as the value of the jewel-encrusted hare. Countless lawns were dug up, and fed-up landowners put up signs warning off fortune-seekers. The book was even cited in divorce proceedings. But when the golden hare was finally unearthed, three years later in a park in Bedfordshire, the story was far from over. The scandal behind its discovery shocked fans around the world, and turned Williams into a recluse. Ironically, it was a story that could have come out of a work of fiction. The hunt begins Masquerade follows the journey of Jack Hare, who loses a jewel he has been entrusted to deliver from the moon to the sun. And the real-life treasure was fit for a fairy-tale, having been hand-beaten by Williams himself. It was valued at £5,000 - although it would eventually prove to be worth much more - and inset with ruby, mother-of-pearl and moonstones. This golden hare caught the imagination of millions, yet for nearly three years its hiding place was known to only two men. Setting off one night in August 1979, Williams was accompanied by a single witness chosen by his publisher Tom Maschler - the television host Bamber Gascoigne. At a precise spot on the common, Williams and his famous witness buried the hare, which was sealed in wax and placed in a ceramic case to evade metal detectors. Upon it was the engraving: "I am the keeper of the jewel of the Masquerade, which lies waiting safe inside me for you... or eternity." Having witnessed the burial, Gascoigne was to provide the final flourish, emptying over the hare a fresh cowpat from a Tupperware box. The perceptive reader would be led to this location - selected by Williams years before while on a picnic with his then-girlfriend - by unearthing the complex clues in the paintings. But the paintings' detail allowed for almost as many interpretations and theories as there were fans. The book was an instant success, as readers from across the world raced to solve the mystery. An airline even sold transatlantic Masquerade tickets, which came with a free spade on arrival. "The first edition sold out within two days or something like that," Williams recalled in a BBC Four documentary, The Man Behind the Masquerade. "They were reprinting so fast. It became a sensation in a way, that it moved so fast." Williams, until then a little-known artist, was thrust into the spotlight. He embarked on a publicity tour of the United States, appeared on talk shows in the UK, and was inundated with requests from fans desperate for help. Soon, more than 200 letters were arriving at his house daily and Williams had to read every one. "I was unprepared," he said. "It really got out of hand really quickly." Among the guesses posted through the artist's letterbox were more unsettling submissions, among them severed rubber hands. Rallying round, Williams' neighbours in his Gloucestershire village began to deny any knowledge of him to inquisitive fans. The solution Among the golden hares and red herrings, only one theory led to the correct solution - and the golden prize. To complete it, the puzzler had to draw a line from the eye of each of the animals in the 15 paintings through hand or paw to a letter in the border. This revealed a word or phrase which, put together, formed the crucial clue. It read: "Catherine's / Long finger / Over / Shadows / Earth / Buried / Yellow / Amulet / Midday / Points / The / Hour / In / Light of equinox / Look you." When arranged in verse, the acrostic of the first letters spelled out "Close by Ampthill". It gave Masqueraders their final, essential pointer towards the Bedfordshire town, near which Williams had lived years before. The burial spot was where Williams knew the shadow of Catherine of Aragon's cross fell on the spring and autumn equinox - meaning it would point to the right place on the right day. It took nearly three years for the code to be cracked, by physics teachers Mike Barker and John Rousseau - but the treasure was ultimately to elude them. Discovery By early 1982, Barker and Rousseau had arrived at what Gascoigne later called "the most perfect solution" to the puzzle. They had made their breakthrough with the help of an additional clue published in the Sunday Times in 1981. That hinted to them that fingers and toes might hold the key to the puzzle. Remembering the introduction to the book - "To solve the hidden riddle, you must use your eyes" - they realised that a straight line drawn from each animal's eye, through its paw, pointed to a letter in the border. Put together, these letters spelled out a word. It was the book's eighth painting, which revealed the word "Amulet", that convinced Barker and Rousseau they had done it. From there, they reached "Close by Ampthill", found the park and identified the monument. In January 1982, Barker visited the park to dig for their treasure but, without the precise instruments to calculate its resting place, was to return empty-handed. But as the two men resolved to wait for March's equinox to point them to their prize, the golden hare squirmed from their grasp. Scandal They were beaten to the find by a reclusive puzzler called Ken Thomas, who shunned the publicity that came with solving a mystery that had captivated the world. He was filmed with Williams as he freed the hare from the wax case, but later insisted on covering his face with a scarf and would only be interviewed from behind a screen. He refused to exhibit his treasure. Unable to share in the joy of his discovery, Masquerade fans grew suspicious of Thomas and, later, Williams, with some even suggesting he had conspired to cheat them. After years of searching for hidden clues, they saw another in an anagram of Kit Williams: "I will mask it". The artist, however, shared their doubts over Thomas, realising he had not solved the full puzzle but uncovered the gold's location by other means. It was not until 1988 that a newspaper finally uncovered the link between Thomas - revealed to be a pseudonym - and Williams' ex-girlfriend, who had remembered their visit to Ampthill years before. When Thomas's company Haresoft collapsed he was forced to sell the hare at auction to raise money. That led reporter Frank Branston to look into the company, the director of which was named Dugald Thompson - not Ken Thomas. Thompson had previously been in business with a man named John Guard who was, at the time of the discovery, living with Williams' ex-girlfriend. Williams, speaking later to the Sunday Times, said he felt "conned" and knew from the start that Thomas had not truly solved the puzzle. The hare, having fetched £31,900 at auction, passed into private ownership and disappeared from public view for more than 20 years. Williams, the man whose imagination had spawned the phenomenon, did the same. He had grown disillusioned at his artistic reputation being reduced to that of a puzzle-maker, and having seen his creation corrupted. "At the beginning he was quite grateful to me for having fostered this creature," his publisher Tom Maschler told BBC Four. "But later he was quite resentful at times because I had destroyed his peaceful life. And he's right - I did." Williams never stopped painting but put on only private shows to which select buyers were invited. It was not until 2009, as his most famous work neared its 30th anniversary, that he returned to public life with an exhibition of some of his 300 intervening works. Reunification After retreating from the limelight for many years, Williams agreed to take part in a Radio 4 programme to mark Masquerade's milestone. The broadcast was heard by the owner of the golden hare, by this time resident in the Middle East, who offered to display it at Williams' exhibition. The artist's reunification with his creation was filmed by the BBC in The Man Behind the Masquerade. Williams confessed he was overwhelmed to see his youthful creation again, and remained proud of what he called "an apprentice piece". "I made it because I was almost no-one, going nowhere," he said. "I made it thinking 'this is something rather special', and it turned out that way." Legacy Its mystery has been solved and its treasure found, but the fascination of Masquerade lives on. For its fans, Ampthill has become a place of pilgrimage, and there remains a keen interest in the book in the town. Masquerade40, a series of events launched on the equinox, will run through the year to mark the anniversary, and includes walks and craft events at the burial spot. You might also like: A painting by local artist Karen Mangold, Close by Katherine's Cross, will be unveiled and Mark Jeoffroy has written the short story Jack's Parade, a continuation of the book. Stephen Hartley, of Masquerade40, said Williams' book had been woven into the town's history. "It lives on, and has become part of local folklore. The Ampthill library has its weather vane as a hare, and there is public art incorporating hares," he said. "Younger people in the town know about the hare, but I think it has sidestepped them to a certain extent. "Masquerade40 will bring it to a new generation."

प्रकाशन सनसनी मास्करेड की 40वीं वर्षगांठ को चिह्नित करने के लिए कार्यक्रमों की एक श्रृंखला का मंचन किया जा रहा है, एक चित्र पुस्तक जिसमें उस व्यक्ति को छिपा हुआ खजाना देने का वादा किया गया था जो इसके पृष्ठों के भीतर छिपे सुरागों को हल कर सकता था।


Railway worker killed by train in Lincolnshire named

Summary: A railway worker who died when he was hit by a train in Lincolnshire has been named by police.

Scott Dobson, 26, from Stainforth, in Doncaster, was killed on Tuesday when he was working on a track at Sykes Lane, about half a mile from Saxilby station at about 13:55 GMT. A spokeswoman from Network Rail said the man was a contractor. British Transport Police said the Rail Accident Investigation Branch are carrying out an inquiry.

लिंकनशायर में ट्रेन की चपेट में आने से मरने वाले एक रेलवे कर्मचारी का नाम पुलिस ने लिया है।


Global fallout: Did Fukushima scupper nuclear power?

Summary: In the tense days nearly a year ago when smoke rose around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power station as if from a battlefield, when hydrogen explosions tore the reactor buildings apart and workers fought for their lives and Japan's future, it seemed as though we might be watching the death throes of the nuclear dream.

By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News In the wake of what is officially classified as one of the two worst nuclear accidents in history, ranking at Category Seven on the International Event Scale (INES), the "electricity too cheap to meter" vision of the 1950s appeared to be turning into a technology too costly to contemplate in terms of the human and financial balance-sheets. Within weeks, Germany announced it would close all its nuclear reactors, and Switzerland followed suit. Even China, busiest of the new builders, delayed approval for new power stations. And around the world, opinion poll after opinion poll showed nuclear power losing its lustre. "Fukushima impacted significantly, firstly on public opinion, and secondly by creating the need to analyse what happened from a technical point of view, to learn lessons and apply them," says Luis Echavarri, director-general of the ONuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). "I see a clear impact on plans for the future in the sense that there is a certain delay in taking decisions on new power plants - I think that's going to last for three to four years." Fissioned view The vast majority of the reactors operating before Fukushima are still operating; even Germany stopped short of shutting them all down. The glaring exception is in Japan itself, where only two out of 54 reactors are currently in operation. Some are shut for good; with others, local authorities have yet to decide whether to permit a restart. But outside Japan, how does the future look a year on? Will Fukushima mark a full stop or just a comma in the nuclear story? As always with this issue, the same set of facts produces very different interpretations. John Ritch, director-general of the industry-backed World Nuclear Association (WNA), believes it has created a small pause - nothing more. "Fukushima was a setback in terms of public perception and increased timidity on the part of policymakers," he says. "But we're quite confident that the underlying facts remain the same; and that's what's caused dozens of governments to review their policies for the 21st Century and decide to make nuclear energy a central part." Central to those "underlying facts" is the need for rapid decarbonisation of global energy to avert dangerous climate change. Germany, he asserts, will come to rue its decision to pursue that goal through renewables alone. Tom Burke, founding director of the sustainable development thinktank E3G and a long-time opponent of the nuclear industry, has a very different take. "What I think will be even more significant [than German-style closures] in the long term is the economic impact," he says. "The economics of nuclear have always been bad; and because countries such as Japan and Germany in particular are going to drive even harder into renewables, costs are going to come down even faster than they have, making nuclear even less cost-effective." He also cites blockages in the supply chain, skills shortages and escalating concerns over Iran's possible military intentions as factors set to take nuclear out of the equation. Asian century One thing is clear: even before Fukushima, the real centre of nuclear power was shifting from its traditional heavy users such as France and the US to Asia. South Korea has emerged as a major user of nuclear electricity and an exporter of technology; but China is the really big player. Of about 60 reactors under construction around the world, 26 are in China, with many more set to follow. There are observers who quietly applaud China for its apparent capacity to build reactors on time and on budget, while European projects at Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto in Finland flounder in a miasma of escalating costs and stretched deadlines. Tom Burke is not among them. He points to the low building standards that contributed to the heavy death toll from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the recent health scare over melamine in milk products as evidence that China struggles with quality control - a key issue in building reliable nuclear reactors. "How China is possibly going to create quality control mechanisms of a standard that exceed the Finns or the French is beyond me," he says. "So what you're basically doing if you're in a country such as the UK is you're putting your future carbon policy in the hands of Chinese quality control inspectors, because if China drops another Category Seven incident, nobody's going to be able to run reactors." Clunkers, not cash The UK and many other countries are - at least on paper - pushing ahead with plans to build new reactors as part of a package aimed at curbing global warming and increasing their energy security. However, a new trend has emerged in the last six months or so, with France - the biggest nuclear nation in Europe - announcing plans to extend the lives of existing reactors rather than build a big fleet of new ones. In the US, licences for two new reactors were granted in February, the first since 1978 - underwritten by a vast $8bn (£5.1bn) in loan guarantees from the public purse. But the new build number is dwarfed by the 60-odd old ones that have been granted 20-year stays of execution. This is bound to have an impact on other countries' programmes. If fewer reactors are being built, there is much less experience from which to learn; less learning makes it harder to build them quickly and cheaply. With France, for example, constraining its building programme, will that increase costs for the UK? You can also argue that on safety grounds, this is the wrong strategy: if new designs are safer than old ones, as their publicity would have us believe they are, would not the safest thing be to replace old with new - a kind of nuclear "cash for clunkers"? Here, the industry gives conflicting messages. During the WNA's news briefing for reporters prior to the Fukushima anniversary, one official listed the increasing safety features of new reactor designs, while another described them as partly "marketing spin". For John Ritch, the supposedly enhanced safety features of the so-called Generation 3+ reactors coming on to the market, such as the Westinghouse AP-1000 or Areva's EPR, are not really relevant to Fukushima. "What Fukushima really represented was a failure of imagination," he says. "You didn't need to tear the station down and build it again with AP-1000s - what you needed to do was spend a few million dollars on sea defences. "If you live in Japan, you have to anticipate a tsunami, and they didn't do a good job of thinking through the threat - a major requirement is to have backup cooling and they didn't do that; they failed to capture it for years and years." WNA says that regulators and operators have learned the lessons of Fukushima by putting their reactor fleets through safety reviews and "stress tests". The processes ask whether there are risks that have not been imagined possible that now have to be considered - both natural risks, like floods, or of human agency. It asks whether an electricity supply can be maintained in the event of a complex sequence of failures, and whether staff are sufficiently trained to deal with an event of Fukushima-like magnitude. US stress tests have thrown up issues that are being addressed by spending about $100m across the country - roughly $1m for each reactor. On the new vs old argument, Mr Ritch uses a car analogy: new cars might be safer than old, but still your old one might be safe enough, and economics might dictate that you do not change it. Whether the analogy works for people living around the controversial Fessenheim station on the Franco-German border, built on a geological fault line, or near the Vermont Yankee station in the eastern US where maintenance standards were low enough to allow a cooling tower to collapse in 2007, I am not so sure. Nevertheless, the new designs are beginning to be built, in China as well as France and Finland, and maybe the UK. WNA believes other developing countries are set to join the nuclear club, with Vietnam likely to open its first reactor by 2018 and Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia not far behind. All have experienced tsunamis in recent years, and how the public would react to the laying of the foundations is unknown. Long future The Fukushima accident can be traced back to a number of very different factors, depending on how you do your analysis. Among them is the type of reactor used, a boiling water reactor. Steam pressure generated by excess heat and a reliance on pumps for cooling were among the facets of the design that created the sequence of events we saw. So has Fukushima accelerated development of the so-called Generation 4 designs, some radically different from anything on the market now and potentially much safer? The OECD's NEA funds part of the Generation 4 initiative, but Luis Echavarri does not see deployment any time soon. "My view is that Generation 4 reactors need to be based on recovering credibility with public opinion first, so Gen 3 and 3+ have to be successful first," he says. "Gen 4 do have the objective of being safer, but there are other criteria too: more economic, less waste, reduced proliferation risk - that's the combination that will make them attractive, but they need 20-30 years to be in the marketplace. "And if they are to be in the marketplace in 20-30 years' time, then we first need to recover the credibility damaged by Fukushima." The implication is clear: if the credibility damaged by Fukushima is not recovered, neither will the nuclear industry. Some of the key things likely to determine whether credibility is restored include building new reactors on time and to budget, effectively cleaning up the Fukushima site and ideally allowing many of the displaced to return home, and developing robust long-term storage for waste. And above all - no more accidents. Follow Richard on Twitter

लगभग एक साल पहले के तनावपूर्ण दिनों में जब फुकुशिमा दाइची पावर स्टेशन के चारों ओर धुआं उठ रहा था, जैसे कि युद्ध के मैदान से, जब हाइड्रोजन विस्फोटों ने रिएक्टर इमारतों को अलग कर दिया और श्रमिकों ने अपने जीवन और जापान के भविष्य के लिए लड़ाई लड़ी, तो ऐसा लग रहा था जैसे हम परमाणु सपने की मौत को देख रहे हों।


Critics say Selma gets MLK and LBJ wrong

Summary: While the film Selma may be about the 1965 voting rights marches in Alabama led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr, its portrayal of then-President Lyndon Baines Johnson as an obstacle to the civil rights movement has spawned controversy.

By Echo ChambersOpinion and analysis from around the world A presidential legacy, it seems, is a very touchy subject - at least, for former aides and interested historians. Some have said the film negatively casts the president, who died 41 years ago, as reluctantly standing by while activists marched and Congress passed the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. "What's wrong with Hollywood?" laments Joseph A Califano Jr, who served as Johnson's top aide for domestic affairs. Drawing particular fire are factual inaccuracies such as a scene where Johnson asks the director of the FBI at the time, J Edgar Hoover, to discredit King. The president also is shown green lighting a decision to send King a tape recording of the civil rights leader engaging in an extramarital affair. Later, the movie implies that MLK missed the first Selma march because he was busy trying to repair his marriage after his wife had listened to the tape. While the FBI did monitor King at the time - and did send a threatening letter to his house that hints at an audiotape - the film takes artistic license with both the timeline and LBJ's involvement. "In fact, Selma was LBJ's idea, he considered the Voting Rights Act his greatest legislative achievement, he viewed King as an essential partner in getting it enacted - and he didn't use the FBI to disparage him," Califano writes in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. He says the movie is so far off the mark that it should be "ruled out this Christmas and during the ensuring awards season". Mark K Updegrove, an author, historian and the director of the LBJ Presidential Library, agrees. Writing for Politico, Updegrove says films based on true events often massage the truth in order to create a better narrative, but historians should step in when that narrative doesn't represent the spirit of what actually happened. When it comes to Selma, he thinks the filmmakers misrepresented the relationship between King and LBJ. "In truth, the partnership between LBJ and MLK on civil rights is one of the most productive and consequential in American history," he writes. Updegrove cites a 1965 taped phone conversation between the pair, where Johnson encourages King to publicise the worst example of voter suppression as a way to prompt a national discussion and boost legislation being considered by Congress. "If you just take that one illustration and get it on radio, get it on television, get in the pulpits, get it in the meetings, get it every place you can; pretty soon, the fellow that didn't do anything but drive a tractor will say: 'That's not right, that's not fair.' And then, that'll help us in what we're going to shove through in the end," Johnson says. But Breitbart's Roger Stone and Phillip Nelson charge that Updegrove is sanitising the relationship between the two men. Instead, Stone and Nelson say, Johnson was a life-long segregationist who worked against the civil rights movement for years. It was only when the president found himself in the Oval Office that he saw the benefit of supporting the civil rights agenda. "Johnson's embrace of civil rights is apparently not based on a moral principle; even when LBJ does the right thing, he does it for self-interest, as part of his plan to create a grand legacy for himself," they write. Outside of the actual historical debate, Vox's Matthew Yglesias writes that the criticism of Johnson's portrayal goes beyond the scrutiny that biopics like Selma normally receive. Instead, he says, it seems that the criticism comes from the fact that the film doesn't make LBJ, a white man, the hero of the Voting Rights Act. He disagrees with the idea that Johnson is negatively portrayed in the film. Instead, he says, King and his associates are the key actors, while the president is on the sideline. "The idea that a film should be ruled out for having the temerity to focus on black people's agency in securing their own liberation is completely absurd," he writes. "We've had too few such films in American history, and everyone could stand to watch some more." But while most critics see Johnson as the victim in Selma's version of the story, Josh Zeitz writes for Politico that Selma is equally damaging to King. Even Yglesias misses the mark, he says. "The controversy over Selma should not be reduced to a debate about whether black activists exercised political agency," he writes. "Of course they did. The deeper problem is that the movie doesn't always get its portrayal of black activists right." Zeitz says that the film is "oddly patronising" in the way it deals with black student activists. Often, he says, they are seen as well-meaning hotheads often working against the movement. Instead, the reality is that King co-operated with student groups because they were unconventional, not in spite of that. While it's often easier to understand historical events as a struggle between good and evil, the truth tends to be more complex. (By Kierran Petersen)

हालांकि फिल्म सेल्मा डॉ. मार्टिन लूथर किंग जूनियर के नेतृत्व में अलबामा में 1965 के मतदान अधिकार मार्च के बारे में हो सकती है, लेकिन इसमें तत्कालीन राष्ट्रपति लिंडन बैन्स जॉनसन को नागरिक अधिकार आंदोलन के लिए एक बाधा के रूप में चित्रित किया गया है, जिसने विवाद को जन्म दिया है।


Coronavirus: Fake news crackdown by UK government

Summary: The government is cracking down on misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.

A rapid response unit within the Cabinet Office is working with social media firms to remove fake news and harmful content. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said action was needed "to stem the spread of falsehoods and rumours, which could cost lives". The specialist unit is dealing with as many as 10 incidents each day. It will try to tackle a range of issues online, such as fake "experts" issuing false medical information and criminals running phishing scams. Last Tuesday, for example, hours after the government started sending texts urging people to stay at home, several fake versions of the message began circulating on social media. One of them told people they had been fined for breaking the rules. Mr Dowden added: "We need people to follow expert medical advice and stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. "It is vital that this message hits home and that misinformation and disinformation which undermines it is knocked down quickly." The government is also re-launching a campaign called "Don't Feed the Beast", urging the public to think carefully about what they share online. It comes as the former chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee called for knowingly sharing misinformation about Covid-19 to be made an offence. Conservative MP Damian Collins said: "The information contagion around Covid-19 is so dangerous, because there is so much that people don't know and so much happening all the time, that it is very easy for false rumours to take hold and spread." Mr Collins is also launching an online service where members of the public can post screenshots of coronavirus-related information they have been sent. Social media companies have also announced measures to try to fight the spread of misinformation about the virus. Twitter has said it will remove content that promotes unverified claims. Last week, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Reddit also said they would work with governments on the issue and to help those in self-isolation.

सरकार कोरोना वायरस महामारी के बारे में गलत सूचना पर नकेल कस रही है।


Francis Betteridge identified as South Bank blaze victim

Summary: The "heartbroken family" of a man who police said was murdered in a bungalow fire on Teesside, have described him as "well-loved and popular".

Francis Betteridge, 62, was found inside the property in Stephens Road, South Bank, near Middlesbrough, at about 19:55 GMT on Friday. Anthony Hart, 38, from Stockton, is due to appear at Teesside Crown Court on Thursday charged with murder and fraud. Mr Betteridge's family said his death had left them "shocked and saddened". In a statement they said: "Frankie was a well-loved and popular member of the South Bank community and will be missed by us all. "We are deeply shocked and saddened by what has happened." Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

टीसाइड पर एक बंगले में लगी आग में जिस व्यक्ति की पुलिस ने हत्या कर दी थी, उसके "दुखी परिवार" ने उसे "बहुत प्रिय और लोकप्रिय" बताया है।