Why have so many prime ministers gone to Oxford University?

Summary: What has Theresa May in common with Clement Attlee, Edward Heath and Tony Blair? Yes, they've all been prime minister, but they also all went to Oxford University. Actually, make that almost every general election-winning leader since World War Two.

By Joe NimmoBBC News Since Robert Walpole, who is generally regarded as the UK's first prime minister, there have been 54 heads of government and 27 were educated at Oxford, compared with Cambridge, the runner-up with 14. With a new crop of Oxford undergraduates arriving for freshers' week it seems a prime minister of the future is likely to be among them. So what is it about the university? And how has it shaped the nation's politics? Part of the reason is the world-renowned Oxford Union debating society. "People learn that if you come to Oxford and perform well in the Union, you make the contacts, and you will get into politics," says Prof Geoffrey Evans, of Oxford's Nuffield College. "So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy." Harrison Edmonds, the current president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, says the Union's debating style is "focused very much on the House of Commons". "I think there's an explicit link with the idea that the Oxford Union is the place where these parliamentarians of the future cut their teeth and learn how to debate," he says. "That's where the kind of showbiz side of things is done and that's where people with real ambition gravitate towards." Writing in the days after the Brexit vote, Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper, who was at the university at the same time as David Cameron and Boris Johnson, said the politics of the Union were reflected in the EU referendum debate. He said it was "a kind of children's parliament" and added: "The traditional climax of a Union election was one Etonian backstabbing another for the presidency." Lord Heseltine, the Conservative party grandee and famed almost-prime minster, studied at Pembroke College and joined the Oxford Union and the Oxford Conservative Party Association on his first day there. As a schoolboy, he had mapped out his future on an envelope - a millionaire in his 20s; MP in his 30s; Tory front bench in his 40s and Downing Street in his 50s. At Oxford, Lord Heseltine rose to become president of the debating society, and said his time at Oxford made "a very significant contribution" to his success as a politician. "Oxford presents every opportunity for political exchange and competition; the political parties are very active in their student equivalents," he said. "Just the experience of being able to spend so much time in a world where you met other politicians, not just as students but also as speakers." He remembers future politicians Jeremy Thorpe and Bryan Magee being eloquent during debates and was also impressed by Labour's Aneurin Bevan when he visited as a guest speaker. "There are hugely impressive opportunities for undergraduates to meet people at the top of their tree, and that includes household names in the world of politics." It is not just Oxford University that stands out for having educated a disproportionate number of future prime ministers. Out of the UK's 54 heads of government, 27 went to Oxford, 19 went to Eton, 13 went to both, and of those, nine ended up in Christ Church College, which historically has strong ties with the public school. "One effect of going to Eton and going to an Oxford college is that the impetus to go on and do something big is very high. You will know that people have gone on to achieve great things," says Oxford University professor of social geography Danny Dorling. "Whereas if you went to a normal school you are unlikely to even become an MP, let alone prime minister - it's harder to imagine." But despite the widespread belief that a degree in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) is essential to a career in politics, meeting the right people is far more important, says Prof Evans. "Very few prime ministers have done PPE at Oxford, but you do need to be in this environment and develop networks, that seems to really help." He added: "Oxford just represents the very pinnacle of an education system designed to exclude people who don't have the right connections, schools, background, training. "The process of social exclusion starts early in life and continues through the entire education system, so the students that Oxford selects from reflect disparities in attainment that accumulate from an early age." Prof Dorling said: "The UK is a very, very socially divided country, and it has been for a long time. We draw our leaders from a very small group of people. "There is also a kind of cosying effect later on, where those at the top are likely to have these backgrounds." In a statement, an Oxford University spokesman said: "Oxford is absolutely committed to selecting undergraduates on the basis of academic ability and potential - regardless of background or access to resources. "Our latest intake figures show more than 59% of UK offers went to students from state schools - the highest in at least four decades." And Lord Heseltine says he is not worried about so many political leaders coming from Oxford, as long as they are "up to the job". "There's nothing to say that you are going to succeed and persuade a significant political party to vote for you, just because you came from Oxford."

क्लेमेंट एटली, एडवर्ड हीथ और टोनी ब्लेयर में थेरेसा मे की क्या समानता है? हां, वे सभी प्रधानमंत्री रहे हैं, लेकिन वे सभी ऑक्सफोर्ड विश्वविद्यालय भी गए हैं। वास्तव में, दूसरे विश्व युद्ध के बाद से लगभग हर आम चुनाव जीतने वाले नेता ऐसा करते हैं।


Diamond Jubilee: Royal tours in the UK and overseas

Summary: The Queen and Prince Philip are visiting towns and cities all over the United Kingdom to mark the Diamond Jubilee. Other members of the Royal Family will be representing The Queen overseas, visiting Commonwealth countries, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories throughout the year.

8 March, Leicester 23 March, Manchester 29 March, North London 26/27 April, Wales 1/2 May, South West England 15 May, South London 16/17 May, North West England 13/14 June, East Midlands 25 June, South East England 26/27 June, Northern Ireland 2/6 July, Scotland (Holyrood Week) 11/12 July, West Midlands 18/19 July, North East England 25 July, South East England 2/6 July, Scotland (Holyrood Week) 18/19 July, North East England 16/17 May, North West England 23 March, Manchester 8 March, Leicester 11/12 July, West Midlands 13/14 June, East Midlands 26/27 April, Wales 25 June, South East England 15 May, South London 29 March, North London 1/2 May, South West England 25 July, South East England 26/27 June, Northern Ireland 26/27 June, Northern Ireland Belize, 3 March: Prince Harry names road after Queen Jamaica, 6 March: Prince Harry 'races' Ussain Bolt The Bahamas, 5 March: Prince Harry's boat breaks down South Africa, 15-18 April: Princess Royal's visit Mozambique, 19-21 April: Princess Royal marks Olympics Canada, 21-25 May: Prince Charles and Camilla The Isle of Man, 26 April: Prince Charles and Camilla The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Singapore The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Solomon Islands India, 30 April-6 May: Prince Andrew's seven-day tour Gibraltar, 11-13 June: The Earl and Countess of Wessex Australia, 5 November: Prince Charles and Camilla Dates for individual royal overseas trips will be published nearer the time. Explore our Diamond Jubilee interactives

महारानी और राजकुमार फिलिप हीरक जयंती को चिह्नित करने के लिए पूरे यूनाइटेड किंगडम के कस्बों और शहरों का दौरा कर रहे हैं। शाही परिवार के अन्य सदस्य विदेशों में महारानी का प्रतिनिधित्व करेंगे, पूरे वर्ष राष्ट्रमंडल देशों, क्राउन डिपेंडेंसी और ब्रिटिश विदेशी क्षेत्रों का दौरा करेंगे।


Girl, 15, victim of upskirting at Manchester Piccadilly

Summary: A 15-year-old girl was a victim of upskirting after a man took photos under her school skirt, police have said.

The man allegedly followed her into Sainsbury's at Manchester Piccadilly station at 16:30 BST on 1 April. British Transport Police (BTP) said he made "multiple attempts" to place his phone under her skirt and succeeded as she queued at a till. The force has issued CCTV images of a man they want to speak to. He is urged to come forward and is appealing for anyone who recognises him to contact them. Upskirting became a criminal offence earlier this month with offenders facing up to two years in prison for taking a photo under somebody's clothing.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि एक व्यक्ति द्वारा स्कूल की स्कर्ट के नीचे तस्वीरें लेने के बाद एक 15 वर्षीय लड़की अपस्कर्टिंग का शिकार हुई थी।


South Carolina primary: Is this Joe Biden’s big comeback?

Summary: Joe Biden was once the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. A few weeks ago, after a string of defeats, his campaign teetered on the edge of an electoral abyss. Now the former vice-president is scrambling his way back into contention.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter While the campaign is reluctant to admit it, the South Carolina primary on Saturday is make or break for Biden. "If you send me out of South Carolina with a victory," Biden said, "there will be no stopping us." Win, and his campaign lives on. Lose, and it's just about time to lower the curtain on his half-century career in American politics. A last-minute lifeline Through much of 2019, Biden and his campaign referred to South Carolina as his "firewall" - the state where his support was so strong even early setbacks could not dent his standing. Now, the Biden team is referring to the first southern state to vote as a "launching pad", the place that will, at last, allow his presidential bid to take flight. After a series of mid-February surveys showed Biden tied or only slightly ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders in the state, several recent surveys have the former vice-president up by double digits. Polls weren't the only good news Biden received this week, either - he also received the backing of James Clyburn, the most important Democrat in the state of South Carolina. It's difficult to overstate how important Clyburn's support could be for the former vice-president, who was visibly moved by Clyburn's endorsement. It was the first thing Biden mentioned at a campaign appearance in Georgetown, an old industrial port town about 60 miles north of Charleston, later that day. After Biden's event, Mack Smith - an African American who is retired - said he was torn between Biden and Tom Steyer, the California hedge-fund billionaire who has invested considerably time and money in courting the black vote in the state, but that Clyburn's testimonial "carries as a lot of weight". "The vice-president, he's been there before," Smith said. "You know what it's all about, and I think he can do the job." Clyburn, the third-ranking member of the Democratic House leadership team and the former leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, has the most powerful on-the-ground political organisation in South Carolina. On Friday, Pete Buttigieg cancelled a campaign event with some black small-town mayors, reportedly because the participants backed out rather than be seen working against Clyburn's chosen candidate. With Clyburn's help, Biden now appears poised to win the South Carolina primary, perhaps by a comfortable margin. From there, his campaign hopes a few days of "Biden comeback" stories will give him a boost going into the 14 states that hold primaries on the 3 March - so-called "Super Tuesday". Rock bottom Biden was considered the national front-runner for most of 2019, despite concerns about campaign stumbles and fumbles. Political prognosticators and analysts began wondering if Biden had a Donald Trump-like gift of political resilience. Then the bottom dropped out - and quickly. There was a shocking fourth in Iowa then a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire. His national poll numbers plummeted. In hindsight, the signs of trouble may have been there for some time. His campaign team was not in touch with what Iowa is or what Iowa takes, says former congressman and Iowa Democratic Party chair Dave Nagle. Nagle said Biden could have - should have - finished second in Iowa, given his name recognition, goodwill with voters and skill as retail politician. But a poor campaign organisation was compounded by a backward-looking message that failed to resonate. "The economy, healthcare and climate change is where it's at this time," Nagle said. "But Biden was talking about civility, which people don't care about, and international relations, which people care about but they're not going to vote on." Read more on Joe Biden He was boasting about his past accomplishments and electability, without offering a concrete vision of where he wanted to take the country. Polls have suggested Democratic voters are torn on whether they want a candidate who has the best chance to beat Trump or one who espouses a clear, bold political vision. Many of those in the latter have proven to be durable supporters of Bernie Sanders. Biden's previous strength of "electability" seemed suddenly ephemeral. Democrats in Iowa, and across the US, began to wonder if he was the winning ticket after all. By New Hampshire, the campaign was taking on water fast. At a rally in a high school gymnasium in Hudson, Biden appeared exhausted and dispirited. In a meandering speech, he took 15 minutes to deliver an applause line, as he recounted stories about medical tragedies, home foreclosures and lost jobs in a tired monotone. By primary day, Biden had already left for South Carolina, symbolically giving up before the final dismal results were announced. In Nevada, Sanders ended up winning the state's caucuses by a decisive margin. But Biden placed second, giving his campaign enough life to soldier on. A second lease on life While the Nevada votes were still being counted on Sunday, Biden was on his way back to South Carolina, to start a frenzied final week of campaigning. On Monday night in Charleston, the contrast with his sometimes lacklustre events in New Hampshire was stark. The event in a College of Charleston gymnasium had not one but two bands, as the crowd was urged to chant "ready for Joe!" The candidate himself seemed to have a new sense of energy and urgency, and a new rhetorical strategy - he focused on his plans for healthcare, gun control, addressing climate change and tackling student debt. He drew sharp distinctions with Sanders, saying his proposed programmes would be too expensive and disruptive for many Americans. Unlike his New Hampshire appearances, Biden led with easy applause lines about defeating Trump, instead of drawn-out stories. "I personally think that he is the only one that could beat Trump," said Robert Davis, a retiree who lives in nearby Seabrook Island. "Electability, that's the number-one issue." Robert's wife, Cynthia, added that she thought Biden's struggles were more a reflection of the primary system, not the candidate. Fortunes, she said, were turning for their man. "Where we start the election process is not where a candidate like Joe is going to be strong," she said. "And so by the time you get into real America, he's already fallen behind, so it puts him at a real disadvantage." Words of warning If South Carolina offered rays of hope for the previously beleaguered Biden campaign, his week of South Carolina events - in Charleston and elsewhere - still offered their share of warning signs, too. The former vice-president continues to struggle to attract younger voters. Even among those who showed up at Biden's College of Charleston rally on Monday, there were concerns. Jonathan Powell, who is backing Biden, said all his friends are for Sanders and that they regularly try to convince him to switch. "I mean they've got valid points because I'm more progressive," the 24-year-old from Sommerville said. "I probably agree with Bernie more, but I'm not sure he can get things done." A College of Charleston junior, WJ Queen, said he grew up in the conservative town of Gaffney but doesn't like Trump and would keep an open mind about Biden. He says most of his fellow students, however, think Biden is a nice enough man, but they're more inspired by candidates like Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders. "They're looking for a more diverse perspective, and Joe Biden does come off sometimes as the old white man in the room," he said. "Or they want somebody who is really out there trying to help the working class, and Bernie Sanders does have that genuineness to him." If the young are Biden's weakness, the bulwark of Biden's support in the state remains black voters, who traditionally make up more than 60% of Democratic primary participants. Even here, however, the age divisions are apparent. "In South Carolina, you have a lot of older black people that are really riding with Joe Biden because they feel like, policy aside, they're just looking at it as which white dude will other white dudes vote for, and they don't want to waste their vote," said KJ Kearney, a 36-year-old writer and activist from Charleston. "People who are younger, my age, we can be a little bit more idealistic and vote for people who have the policies that we want because we feel like we have a little bit more time to make the change that we want to see in the world." Recent surveys suggest Sanders - as well as Steyer - have been making headway with black voters as a whole, but the man who spent eight years as vice-president to Barack Obama still has considerably goodwill in the state's black community. Read more on Bernie Sanders "I feel that he'll do a good job," says Penny Henderson of Taylor, who attended the Reverend Al Sharpton's candidate forum on Wednesday morning. "Because of his experience and because of being with Obama, who was to me an excellent president." Henderson, who is not yet fully sold on Biden, says her top concern is finding someone who can beat Trump - a common theme among South Carolina Democrats of all backgrounds. At Biden's Georgetown event, Mary DeVey, a retired nurse, said she made up her mind to go with Biden over Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar just a day earlier. After watching Biden struggle in earlier debates, she had her doubts - but seeing him in person made her more confident in his abilities. "I thought he might have lost a step or two, but it really re-enforced that he didn't," she said. "He's really sharp and stands up for what I stand for." Mary Pat Donnellon, a software company worker from Charleston, says she settled on Biden after his second-place finish in Nevada because he seems to be the moderate candidate best positioned to stop Sanders, who she thinks is unelectable, and because he's a "good and decent human being". The path ahead A path to the Democratic nomination that seemed clear in the days after Biden entered the race last May is now beset with complications. His early weakness in last year's debates, as well has his poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, have prevented him from knocking out other candidates appealing to the same moderate voters. It has also opened the door for the late arriving Bloomberg to use his multibillion-dollar personal fortune to elbow into the presidential conversation. Meanwhile, Sanders has consolidated much of the support of the progressive left. Perhaps the only thing that's clear is that Biden, who is making his third bid for the Democratic nomination, won't let go of his White House dreams easily. "You don't have to do this, Joe, you really don't," Obama reportedly told Biden last year as the former vice-president was considering a presidential bid. The former president reportedly predicted a rough campaign ahead and had concerns that Biden's team was too old and too out of touch - worries that it is safe to say have at least partially come to fruition. Biden, per the New York Times, told Obama he wished he had run in 2016 and could never forgive himself if he didn't take a shot at unseating Donald Trump If he ends up getting that chance at this point, South Carolina Democrats - and what they do on Saturday - will be a big reason why. Additional reporting by Haley Thomas

जो बाइडन कभी डेमोक्रेटिक राष्ट्रपति पद के नामांकन के लिए स्पष्ट रूप से सबसे आगे थे। कुछ हफ्ते पहले, हार की एक कड़ी के बाद, उनका अभियान चुनावी रसातल के किनारे पर था। अब पूर्व उपराष्ट्रपति विवाद में वापस आने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं।


How Antarctic bases went from wooden huts to sci-fi chic

Summary: How do you build in the most isolated place on Earth? For decades Antarctica - the only continent with no indigenous population - hosted only the simplest huts as human shelters. But, as Matthew Teller finds out, architecture in the coldest, driest, windiest reaches of our planet is getting snazzier.

It's an eye-popping, futuristic design - a dark, sleek building, low and long, that is destined to be a temporary waterfront home for up to 65 people at a time. The price tag is a hefty $100m (£80m). And while a Chinese company is building it, it's not in China, and almost no-one will ever see it. Welcome to Brazil's Comandante Ferraz Antarctic research station. After the original burned down in 2012, the Brazilian navy launched an architectural competition for a replacement design - won by a local firm - and then awarded the building tender to a Chinese defence and engineering contractor, CEIEC. It's due to be completed in 2018. Located on a small island just off the coast of Antarctica, it lies almost 1,000km (600 miles) south of the tip of South America. No scheduled air routes come close and it's way off any shipping lanes. And even if you could reach it yourself, like all Antarctic research stations Comandante Ferraz will be closed to the public. Virtually nobody other than the crews posted there will ever see it in the flesh. So why, you may ask, spend so much on architectural style? Wouldn't a dull but functional building do just as well? Brazil is not alone in paying for eye-catching design, though. In 2013, India unveiled its Bharati station, with a similar modernist design. It was made from 134 prefabricated shipping containers, for ease of transport and construction, but you would never guess it from the outside. And the following year, South Korea opened its Jang Bogo station - a grand, triple-winged module lifted on steel-reinforced blocks, capable of supporting a crew of 60. What is the explanation for this architectural flamboyance? "Antarctic stations have become the equivalent of embassies on the ice," says Prof Anne-Marie Brady, editor-in-chief of the Polar Journal and author of China as a Polar Great Power. "They are showcases for a nation's interests in Antarctica - status symbols." Those interests could be purely scientific. But a moratorium on mineral prospecting becomes easier to review in just over 40 years' time, and every Antarctic player also wants to be ready to take advantage, should anything change. Planting a dramatic building on the ice has become the modern equivalent of explorers of old planting a flag. It wasn't always like this. In March 1903, the 33 men of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition landed on the outlying South Orkney Islands and built a dry-stone shack. Expedition leader William Bruce grandly named it Omond House, after the Edinburgh meteorologist, Robert Traill Omond. It was Antarctica's first permanent building, and is maintained today by the Argentine government as part of its Orcadas base. For years afterwards, throughout the heroic age of polar exploration headed by Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton and Mawson, nothing much fancier than wooden huts went up on the white continent. Then came a - relative - building boom, spurred by the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58, a global project for co-operation in science. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which resulted from the IGY, suspended all territorial claims, but that led many countries to set about consolidating their presence in other ways, such as construction. The treaty's clause giving countries conducting "substantial research activity" in Antarctica a vote in meetings to determine the continent's future was another incentive to maintain a physical presence. The US's sprawling McMurdo research station dates from this period. Powered from 1962 to 1972 by a nuclear reactor, it is the biggest settlement on the continent, housing a summer population of about 1,200. For years, though, what with the huge technical and logistical difficulties in building anything in Antarctica, architectural glamour stayed off the list of priorities. The UK's Halley station was just "a few wooden huts inside giant steel tubes" when meteorologist Peter Gibbs arrived in 1980. It lay buried beneath 15m (50ft) of snow. "It was like living in a submarine, clambering up and down ladders to get in and out," Gibbs remembers. Antarctica as a whole has so little precipitation it is classified as a desert, but snow does fall near the coasts, and in the interior low temperatures mean fallen snow accumulates faster than it can melt. Polar winds blow this snow around the continent, so that any object standing proud of the flat surface quickly gains a downwind "tail" of blown snow. Snow accumulation can swamp and crush buildings with ease. The first Halley station, built in 1956, was abandoned 12 years later, when it too had become "like a submarine", as Gibbs puts it. The version he worked in, Halley III, was built in 1973 and lasted only 10 years. Until Halley VI arrived in 2013, all were defeated by snow accumulation, and by the moving ice shelf on which they stood. At Halley's location the ice slides around 1.5m (5ft) a day towards the sea, but to maintain accuracy the station's scientific measurements have to be made at the same place year by year. Halley VI, however, is Antarctica's first relocatable research station. Its eight connected pods - like giant, colourful train carriages, which can be isolated to limit the spread of fire - sit on hydraulic legs mounted on huge, 8m-long skis. This means that the pods can be detached from each other, dragged by bulldozers to a new location, and the whole station reassembled. That design is being put to good use, as Halley is currently being moved to avoid a chasm that is opening up in the ice nearby. And Halley VI is both glamorous and comfortable. Its bijou bedrooms feel like a classy budget hotel. Interiors are fitted in vivid reds, blues and greens to compensate for the lack of colour outside. Halley's pool table and sofas sit beneath the only double-height internal space in Antarctica, stylishly lit - outside the months of winter darkness, anyway - by tall, semi-opaque windows. Beside the drinks bar climbs a spiral staircase, clad in aromatic Lebanese cedar veneer, chosen to stimulate an often-overlooked sense in the almost completely smell-free Antarctic environment. "All the newest bases look good as well as do the science - it's a reflection of the priorities of our era," says Anne-Marie Brady. South Africa was one of the first countries to solve the problem of snow accumulation with its SANAE IV base, which opened in 1997. It was designed with stilt-like legs, which let snow blow under the building. Germany applied the same concept to its Neumayer III base, which opened in 2009, with an extra refinement. Sixteen hydraulic pillars allow the entire two-storey structure to be raised every year by around a metre. The foot of each pillar is then lifted and replaced on a new firm base of packed snow. Another element of Antarctic architecture that has become critical is energy efficiency. Most stations run on polar diesel, which is expensive, polluting and difficult to transport. Belgium's Princess Elisabeth station, an aerodynamic pod raised on steel legs, is the first with zero emissions. Since its inauguration in 2009 it has run entirely on solar and wind energy, and - even here - has no heating. The station's layered design means interior temperatures are maintained from waste heat generated by electrical systems and human activity, and dense wall insulation reduces heat loss to almost zero. If the Princess Elisabeth station looks like something out of a Bond movie, China's latest Antarctic station Taishan - its fourth - has been likened to a flying saucer. It was rush-built in 45 days in 2013-14, and is intended to last only a few years. "China will probably start building a fifth station this year," says Anne-Marie Brady. Like all the rest, few people will ever see it. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

आप पृथ्वी पर सबसे अलग-थलग जगह पर कैसे निर्माण करते हैं? दशकों से अंटार्कटिका-एकमात्र महाद्वीप जिसमें कोई स्वदेशी आबादी नहीं है-मानव आश्रय के रूप में केवल सबसे सरल झोपड़ियों की मेजबानी करता है। लेकिन, जैसा कि मैथ्यू टेलर को पता चलता है, हमारे ग्रह के सबसे ठंडे, सबसे सूखे, हवा वाले इलाकों में वास्तुकला कम होती जा रही है।


China and the Church: The 'outlaw' do-it-yourself bishop

Summary: Dong Guanhua is a thorn in the side of both the Vatican and the Chinese state. Without the Pope's permission, or Beijing's, this 58-year-old labourer from a village in northern China calls himself a bishop.

Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter China and the Vatican are believed to be close to a historic agreement governing the selection of bishops for 10 million Chinese Roman Catholics. Such an agreement would be the first sign of rapprochement between a mighty state and a proud Church since the Communist Revolution of 1949. The last thing either side wants at this delicate moment is a do-it-yourself bishop like Dong Guanhua getting in the way. There are about 100 Catholic bishops in China. It's a muddled and troubled picture with some approved by Beijing, some approved by the Vatican and, informally, many now approved by both. Outlaw After seven decades of conflict, both Church and state would like to bring order to this fractured patchwork. But China's Roman Catholics are not privy to the details of the deal under negotiation and Dong Guanhua fears it will only make divisions worse. "I respect the Pope but I don't support this. The Church will be harmed because this hardline government will not bend. It actually wants to create chaos in the true Church. The more chaos the better in the government's mind." Dong Guanhua has long been an outlaw in Beijing's eyes. The lifelong Catholic from Zhengding County in Hebei Province has refused to register with the state's Patriotic Catholic Association, because it does not acknowledge the authority of the Pope and, in turn, is not recognised by the Vatican. Instead he cleaves to the so-called "underground church" - the community which recognises only the spiritual legitimacy of Rome. But as the Vatican draws closer to Beijing, it too has now denounced Dong Guanhua's decision to call himself a bishop as a "grave crime". In other words, Dong Guanhua has become an outlaw twice over. He says he'll answer to his conscience and shrugs off critics from both powerful camps who say his behaviour is crazy. "There are people who say Jesus was crazy too. Sometimes the government gives rewards to people who yield. I don't covet those rewards. I'm not afraid of anything because my conscience is clear." Dong Guanhua has no church. Instead he preaches at home, with farming families in quilted jackets huddled in his front yard. Under an open sky they chant the responses of the Mass, a pale sun filtering through toxic haze and tangled power lines to illuminate their faces. Despite the freezing temperatures and the fear of police harassment, there are far more worshippers here than in the big local government church across the road: Dong Guanhua's congregation unwilling to let the state get between themselves and their God. "If there was religious freedom, we would go to the state church. We don't want to be out in the cold," he says. Above ground Some 200 miles (320km) away, a very different Sunday service in being held. Beijing's magnificent South Cathedral is not a church for outlaws but part of the state-approved Catholic faith. There every pew and every aisle is full, old and young gazing through clouds of incense towards a statue of Christ flanked by vases of green bamboo stems. Generation to generation, these "above-ground" Catholics too have held onto their faith, while accepting state supervision. Asked how they feel about the prospect of an agreement between their government and the Pope, many are unwilling to comment. But some are cautiously optimistic and one woman declares defiantly that if the Church in China could be led by the Pope without government involvement, it would "make the faith more pure". Pope Francis clearly yearns for the opportunity to heal this long-divided Church and to be recognised as spiritual shepherd of the above-ground flock as well as the underground flock. An agreement with Beijing which allowed this, and which achieved a compromise on the selection of bishops, would also be a first step to re-establishing diplomatic relations between the Vatican and China. For Beijing, the prize is also great. Agreement with the Vatican might help impose order on a troublesome and conflicted community, leaving outlaws like Dong Guanhua marginalised. Globally, it would also enhance China's prestige. At last, the world's rising superpower engaging with the world's super soft power. Treading carefully Many are hopeful. Father Jeroom Heyndrickx is a Belgian priest who has spent 60 years trying to help China's Catholics and says that despite doubters and obstacles on both sides, this is the best opportunity in his lifetime. "For 2000 years in China, the emperor was emperor and pope at the same time and this also applied to communist China. But China has changed and the Church has changed and this is what constitutes a new opportunity for this dialogue to succeed. "China knows that globalisation is happening. Now it openly professes itself to be a country ready to have a dialogue with all different kinds of ideology." Pope Francis is doing his utmost to make dialogue succeed. He has been careful to avoid criticising China on religious freedoms or human rights. He has met groups from the state-backed Chinese church on their visits to Rome. As a result, some underground Catholics complain that he risks betraying the memory of those who suffered and died for their loyalty to Rome, and abandoning today's true believers to the control of a communist state. They also point to tightening control in many areas of Chinese public life and worry that a deal between Beijing and the Vatican may result in less religious freedom not more. 'No compromise' One leading sceptic is Joseph Zen, the retired cardinal of Hong Kong. In a recent interview he told the BBC: "A bad agreement makes the situation worse. Without an agreement, we have to tolerate many things but that's OK. Our faith tells us that we have to suffer from persecution. The communist regime never changes its policies. They don't need to compromise. They want a complete surrender." China's religious authorities declined all requests for interview. Back in the yard of the outlaw bishop, with the open-air service over and the congregation departed, Dong Guanhua draws a red curtain around his altar to protect it from the elements. The last dry leaves whisper from winter branches and a couple of chickens look on from a corrugated iron roof. Asked what message he has for Pope Francis on the threshold of a historic agreement, he replies: "I would tell him to be careful. If the deal goes well, God will be pleased, but if it doesn't, the Pope will be punished. Compromise is a bad thing. It breaks the integrity of our faith. Ninety percent of believers here share my opinion." The first flakes of winter snow swirl down and Dong Guanhua goes inside to pray. The yard is empty and night is falling fast. The silence seems to hold a thought - that deals between a mighty faith and a mighty state are only one recurring theme in Christian history, and that individual conscience is another.

डोंग गुआनहुआ वेटिकन और चीनी राज्य दोनों के किनारे एक कांटा है। पोप या बीजिंग की अनुमति के बिना, उत्तरी चीन के एक गाँव का यह 58 वर्षीय मजदूर खुद को बिशप कहता है।


Manipur explosion injures two policemen

Summary: Two paramilitary policemen have been injured in a blast in Imphal, the capital of India's troubled north-eastern Manipur state.

The Assam Rifles personnel were on a patrol in Keishampet locality when explosives placed in a two-wheeler scooter went off, police said. Reports said the condition of one of the injured policemen was serious. The state of Manipur borders Burma and has many separatist groups fighting for independence from India. But, it was not known which of the groups was behind the explosion. Keishampet is known to be a stronghold of the separatist group Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur and is known to be close to India's Maoist rebels.

भारत के अशांत उत्तर-पूर्वी मणिपुर राज्य की राजधानी इम्फाल में एक विस्फोट में अर्धसैनिक बल के दो पुलिसकर्मी घायल हो गए हैं।


Scotland Yard gun amnesty: Nearly 70 guns and ammunition handed in

Summary: Nearly 70 firearms and 1,000 rounds of ammunition have been handed in to police during the first five days of a gun amnesty in London.

Scotland Yard launched the drive on Monday, enabling people to hand in weapons without fear of prosecution. The amnesty, which runs until 23 November, means firearms and ammunition can be surrendered anonymously at police stations. Each weapon will be examined for criminal evidence. The force said it was particularly looking to stop antique guns falling into the hands of gangs. Rules for buying working antique guns were tightened in July, preventing convicts from buying or owning them, and soon dealers will be required to keep computerised records for at least 20 years. The Met has released a map of police stations where weapons can be handed in.

लंदन में बंदूक माफी के पहले पांच दिनों के दौरान लगभग 70 आग्नेयास्त्र और 1,000 राउंड गोला-बारूद पुलिस को सौंप दिए गए हैं।


Tweets from Tunis: #BardoAttack aftermath

Summary: The city of Tunis has been in mourning on the day after a deadly gun attack on tourists visiting a famous museum left 23 people dead.

BBC journalist Aidan Lewis is now tweeting from the Tunisian capital, where he encountered a city trying to retain a sense of normality, even as it made a defiant stand against violence. Follow Aidan on Twitter for more tweets from Tunis. Watch Aidan's video from outside the Bardo Museum here.

एक प्रसिद्ध संग्रहालय में जाने वाले पर्यटकों पर घातक बंदूक हमले में 23 लोगों के मारे जाने के बाद ट्यूनिस शहर शोक में डूबा हुआ है।


Friends speak over Majorca attack

Summary: A teenager is still in a coma after he was attacked during a night out in Majorca. 16-year-old Alex Hughes from Cardiff was hit over the head with a bottle as he left a nightclub 10 days ago. He was on holiday with a couple of his friends. They've all stayed on the island, visiting him every day in the hope he'll wake up. Reporter Debbie Randle went to the resort of Port d'Andratx to meet them.

By Debbie RandleNewsbeat reporter They describe it as the worst 10 days of their lives. Sitting outside a bar, in the sunshine, looking out to sea is probably what some of them were looking forward to. But now they don't even notice it. They're stuck in limbo, waiting patiently for their friend to wake up from his coma and come to join them so they can all start to enjoy their holiday. Josh is feeling the worst of it. He's Alex's friend and the pair were sharing an apartment. He was also there the night Alex was attacked. He describes what happened. He said: "The first nights were the best of my life. Then that happened to Al... it just changed it all." On that night Alex, Josh and their other friend Harry had been at the same bar we're all sitting at now. They'd met a few girls and decided to go with them to the nightclub up the road. Josh said: "It was really crowded in there and as we were accidentally bumping into these kids they were like pushing us off and shoving us." Vigil When it all started to get a bit nasty, they all decided to leave. But once they got outside, Josh says the teenagers from the club confronted them. "Four of them came running up to us, two went over to Alex and two went over to me. "As Al turned around to one of them, the other one hit him over the head with a bottle." To start with it looked like Alex was OK. But as the local lads started to follow them they panicked and tried to jump over a fence into the car park of their apartments. Josh says it was then clear there was something wrong. He said: "He was lying over the fence, just like hanging off it. "So I walked over and brought him off the fence and as I put him on the floor he was like, 'I'm losing blood, I'm concussed, I think I'm dying'. Then he went to sleep." Alex hasn't woken up since. He'd suffered a brain haemorrhage and was rushed to hospital. He's been in a coma. His condition is decribed as critical but stable. They may all still be in Majorca, but since that night their holiday has been over. Alex's parents have flown over and been at his bedside. Josh has been visiting Alex up to twice a day, speaking to him and trying to get him to wake up. Three Spanish teenagers have been questioned over the attack and are now in their parents' custody at home while a judge decides what to do next.

मेजरका में एक रात के दौरान हमला होने के बाद एक किशोर अभी भी कोमा में है। कार्डिफ के 16 वर्षीय एलेक्स ह्यूज को 10 दिन पहले एक नाइट क्लब से निकलते समय एक बोतल से सिर पर मारा गया था। वह अपने कुछ दोस्तों के साथ छुट्टी पर था। वे सभी द्वीप पर रहे हैं, हर दिन उससे मिलने आते हैं इस उम्मीद में कि वह जाग जाएगा। रिपोर्टर डेबी रैंडल उनसे मिलने के लिए पोर्ट डी एंड्रैक्स के रिसॉर्ट में गया था।


How The Danish Girl captured the zeitgeist

Summary: Few movies capture the popular zeitgeist quite like King's Speech director Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl. It tells the story of the 1930s Danish artist Einar Wegener, played by Eddie Redmayne, who became one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery, having decided to live life as a woman called Lili Elbe. The film also features Wegener's wife Gerda, played by Alicia Vikander.

By Holly Rubenstein Entertainment reporter The Danish Girl comes in a year that has put transgender issues firmly into the spotlight. From the transition of Bruce to Caitlyn Jenner, to the Emmy-winning success of Amazon's series Transparent, even the White House chose to screen The Danish Girl as part of a celebration of LGBT artists. Ironic, then, that Hooper has said the script was passed around for about 12 years struggling to secure backing because of what was seen as the story's limited appeal. "I hope it provides a message of hope," says the Oscar-winning Hooper, who has previously worked with Redmayne on Elizabeth I and Les Miserables. "It's a message that transgender history matters. These were two extraordinary pioneers of the transgender movement who I think history had marginalised." Facing criticism Before locking the final cut of the film, he decided to screen the movie to one of Les Miserables' musical directors, who was in the process of transitioning while making the film. "The lights came up and she had tears on her face, and she said the amazing words, 'How did you know?' She said it was in many respects very true to her own experience and that was for me the most exciting." Despite this sensitivity to the subject matter, Hooper has faced criticism for not choosing to cast a transgender woman in the title role. He defended the decision, telling Variety that access to trans actors is limited, and that he had always had Redmayne in mind. "There was something in Eddie that was drawn to the feminine," he says. "He played the girls' parts in school plays. I was a bit like Gerda in the film because Gerda becomes fascinated by the femininity in her husband and starts to paint it. I was fascinated by the femininity in Eddie and wanted to explore it." The film is as much about Gerda, and her demonstration of unconditional love and acceptance through an experience which is as much a transition for her as for her husband. "I looked up to her," says Vikander. "I questioned, would I be able to do what she did. It was an extraordinary experience trying to find that strength because she's never passive. Lili needs to be who she is but Gerda makes the decision to stand by her side. I'm a romantic at heart." In fact, it is Gerda who suggests her husband dresses as a woman. She asks Wegener to first pose for a painting, but more significantly then suggests he attends a ball dressed as Lili, and she goes on to paint portraits of her husband as a woman. "You helped bring Lili to life but she was always there," Lili later tells Gerda. So did Gerda always know that her husband wanted to be a woman? "She was able to see the inner self of the person she loved… When you know somebody really well, it's not a big surprise when something comes up to the surface," says Vikander. Award nominations Vikander's scene-stealing performance, which has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award, gives the film "tremendous heart", says Hooper. "It's phenomenal. In her hands Gerda never feels like a victim, which I think is really interesting." It has been an extraordinary year for the Swede who came to the public's attention with roles in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Testament of Youth, Burnt and Ex Machina, for which she has been nominated for another Golden Globe. Her star is set to rise further when she acts alongside Matt Damon in the fifth Jason Bourne movie. Redmayne is attracting an equal amount of attention, following his Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe best actor nominations for his role. The 33-year-old won the best actor award at this year's Oscars for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, another transformative role. With the screenplay originating from 2004, The Danish Girl has been 11 years in the making, its subject matter proving it a difficult film for Hollywood's financiers to get behind. But the critical recognition being given to Hooper, Vikander and Redmayne shows they are together a winning combination - and suggesting The Danish Girl was worth the wait. The Danish Girl is due for release in UK cinemas on 1 January.

किंग्स स्पीच के निर्देशक टॉम हूपर की द डेनिश गर्ल की तरह कुछ फिल्में लोकप्रिय युगवादी को पकड़ती हैं। यह 1930 के दशक के डेनिश कलाकार एनार वेजनर की कहानी बताती है, जिसकी भूमिका एडी रेडमायने ने निभाई थी, जो लिली एल्बे नामक महिला के रूप में जीवन जीने का फैसला करने के बाद लिंग पुनर्निर्धारण सर्जरी से गुजरने वाले पहले लोगों में से एक बन गई थी। फिल्म में वेजनर की पत्नी गेर्डा को भी दिखाया गया है, जिसकी भूमिका एलिसिया विकेंडर ने निभाई है।


Man 'loses arm' in platform train fall at Droitwich

Summary: A rail passenger has lost an arm after falling between a platform and a train as it was pulling out of a station.

The 18:48 BST train from Hereford to Birmingham New Street was delayed for more than an hour at Droitwich while emergency crews attended the scene. The man was airlifted to hospital. It is not clear if he had been getting off the train at the time. Rail operator London Midland said there would be a full investigation into what happened.

एक रेल यात्री एक प्लेटफॉर्म और एक ट्रेन के बीच गिरने के बाद एक हाथ खो देता है क्योंकि वह एक स्टेशन से बाहर निकल रहा था।


Afghan conflict: What will Taliban do after signing US deal?

Summary: US, Afghan and Taliban officials have all been careful to avoid calling Saturday's agreement in Doha "a peace deal." But in Afghanistan, a sense of cautious optimism has been rising ever since a week long "reduction in violence" or partial truce leading to the signing came into effect.

By Secunder KermaniBBC News, Kabul How did we get here? And why did it take so long? The Afghan war has been a bloody stalemate for years now, with the Taliban increasingly controlling or contesting more territory, yet unable to capture and hold major urban centres. There seems to have been a growing realisation, both amongst the group's leadership and in the US that neither side is capable of an outright military victory. President Trump, meanwhile, has been clear about his desire to withdraw American troops from the country. One key concession by the US, which allowed negotiations to take place, was the decision in 2018 to change its longstanding policy that the Taliban should talk first of all to the Afghan government, who the insurgents dismiss as illegitimate. Instead the US sat down directly with the Taliban to address their chief public demand - the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan. Those negotiations led to Saturday's accord, with the Taliban agreeing in exchange to address the core reason for the US invasion in 2001, the group's links to al-Qaeda. This deal now opens the door to separate, wider talks between the militants and other Afghan political leaders - including government figures. Those discussions will be much more challenging. Somehow there will have to be a reconciliation between the Taliban's vision of an "Islamic Emirate" and the democratic modern Afghanistan that has been created since 2001. Where does that leave women's rights? What is the Taliban's stance on democracy? These are questions that will only be answered when the "intra-Afghan talks" begin. Up until now, the Taliban have been, perhaps deliberately, vague. There are possible obstacles even before those talks begin. The Taliban want 5,000 of their prisoners released before they start. The Afghan government wants to use those detainees as a bargaining chip in the talks to persuade the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire. Then there's the ongoing political dispute over the results of the presidential election - with Ashraf Ghani's rival Abdullah Abdullah alleging fraud. A backdrop of political instability could make it harder to establish the "inclusive" negotiating team international observers want to see sitting across the table from the Taliban. One Afghan official admitted to me that even when they start, the "intra-Afghan" negotiations could take years. But the US has signalled its intent to withdraw all its forces within 14 months if the Taliban fulfil their side of the agreement. It is not immediately clear if that means the US will stay on beyond that time, if no settlement has been reached. Afghan officials have emphasised the pullout is "conditional", but one diplomat told me withdrawal was only contingent on the "intra-Afghan talks" starting, not concluding. He expressed concern that if the US were to pull forces out and the Taliban decided to up the ante on the battlefield, Afghan forces would be left extremely vulnerable. Other analysts have warned that the Taliban doesn't appear to be in the mood for concessions, presenting the agreement today to their supporters as a "victory". The Taliban do however appear to want international legitimacy and recognition. The fanfare around the ceremony in Doha has given them that, and they may feel negotiations offer the best chance of achieving their aims. The priority for many ordinary Afghans, at least in the short term, is a substantive reduction in violence. We'll find out in the coming weeks, when the warmer spring weather generally heralds the start of "fighting season", if that will happen.

अमेरिका, अफगान और तालिबान के अधिकारी सभी दोहा में शनिवार के समझौते को "एक शांति समझौता" कहने से बचने के लिए सावधान रहे हैं। लेकिन अफगानिस्तान में, एक सप्ताह लंबे समय से "हिंसा में कमी" या आंशिक युद्धविराम के बाद से सतर्क आशावाद की भावना बढ़ रही है जिससे हस्ताक्षर किए गए।


Sea eagles to be scared off sheep farms in new trials

Summary: New methods to deter white-tailed sea eagles from preying on lambs are being trialled in Argyll and on Skye.

Crofters and farmers in the Highlands and Islands have for a number of years complained of the large birds of prey taking the young livestock. In the past there was a scheme compensating sheep producers for lambs lost to the eagles. The new techniques being trialled include audio or light-based bird scaring devices. Trees where the birds nest close to areas with sheep near Oban are also being felled. Scottish Natural Heritage is working with other organisations, including Forest Enterprise Scotland, on the trials. Sea eagles are the UK's largest bird of prey and one of its most protected species.

सफेद पूंछ वाले समुद्री चील को भेड़ के बच्चे का शिकार करने से रोकने के लिए आर्गिल और स्काई में नए तरीकों का परीक्षण किया जा रहा है।


Britney comes back from the brink

Summary: Britney Spears was the all-American pop princess who shot to superstardom in her teens before a very public breakdown. Now, her appointment as a judge on the US X Factor represents a full return to the media spotlight.

The most stark illustration of how far Britney Spears had fallen came on 16 February 2007 when, after she spent just 24 hours in a rehabilitation clinic, the paparazzi tracked her down to a Los Angeles tattoo parlour - and discovered she was completely bald. The act of shaving her head was a clear rejection of her former persona and of her life as a pop starlet in the public gaze. Her meltdown came after eight years as the archetypal modern pop starlet - "Miss American Dream since I was 17," as she put it in her 2007 single Piece of Me. She found sudden fame as the blonde girl with pigtails and a school uniform in the video of her debut single ...Baby One More Time, a massive global hit. Her first taste of the spotlight had come as one of the young cast of Disney's TV show All New Mickey Mouse Club alongside Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake in 1994. After her solo breakthrough, she became a fixture in the charts and in the gossip columns, but carefully cultivated a squeaky-clean image. She had a three-year relationship with fellow Mouseketeer and pop star Justin Timberlake, but they split in 2002, with Timberlake's single Cry Me A River apparently an angry kiss-off to his former partner. Spears focused on her career, ditching her songwriting team to work with stars such as R Kelly and Moby on her fourth album In The Zone in 2003. She also courted the tabloids at the 2003 MTV Awards, where she locked lips with Madonna during a risque performance of Like A Virgin. But perhaps more controversial was her union with childhood friend Jason Alexander, who she wed in a Las Vegas wedding chapel in January 2004. The marriage was annulled after 55 hours, with Spears later explaining: "I really wanted to see what it was like to be married." In July the same year she got engaged to her backing dancer Kevin Federline, just three months after meeting him. The couple tied the knot in September 2004 and the couple had two children. But they divorced in 2006 and many fans, who had barely concealed their contempt for Federline, thought the split would mark a re-birth for Spears - whose recording career had been on hold since the marriage. It was not to be. Spears' behaviour became more erratic and she embarked on a prolonged period of partying with other young celebrities, including heiress Paris Hilton. Shortly before her divorce, Spears gave a rambling television interview, in which she tearfully proclaimed her marriage "awesome" and blamed the media for making her an "emotional wreck". The shaved head shocked her fans and Spears went back into rehab, this time staying for a month. When she attempted a live comeback, performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007, she stumbled through a lip-synced performance and was universally panned. As Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong put it at the time, it was like "watching a public execution". Her personal life was in chaos. After a 10-month custody battle, Federline won sole custody of the couple's children Sean Preston and Jayden James. Spears' parenting skills were called into question when a judge in Los Angeles ordered her to undergo drug and alcohol tests twice a week. A former bodyguard claimed the singer was a danger to her children. She was charged with hit-and-run after an incident in an LA car park, and was dropped by her management company. Her parents blamed manager Sam Lutfi, whom they accused of controlling their daughter's life by drugging her and taking control of her finances. He has denied the claims. Despite the MTV incident, she continued to win musical plaudits. Her fifth album Blackout, largely created by a crack team of pop producers, was sonically adventurous and a hit with fans. The turning point in her personal life is regarded as coming the following year, when her father Jamie took control over decisions regarding her personal life, including food, clothing and medical care and finances. Restraining orders were obtained against Lutfi and Spears' ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and her former manager Larry Rudolph was reinstated. Her next album, Circus, included the track Womanizer, which became her first US number one single since ...Baby One More Time and an accompanying world tour earned $131m (£82m). Despite a private and public rehabilitation, at the end of 2010, her lawyers failed to overturn the ruling that gave her father full control over her affairs. But this April, her fiance and former agent Jason Trawick became her joint guardian - with her father's blessing. Now 30, the X Factor deal should provide an opportunity for the star to show that she has put her troubled past behind her.

ब्रिटनी स्पीयर्स सर्व-अमेरिकी पॉप राजकुमारी थीं जिन्होंने बहुत ही सार्वजनिक टूटने से पहले अपनी किशोरावस्था में सुपरस्टारडम हासिल किया था। अब, यूएस एक्स फैक्टर पर एक न्यायाधीश के रूप में उनकी नियुक्ति मीडिया सुर्खियों में पूरी तरह से वापसी का प्रतिनिधित्व करती है।


Scarborough Hospital's A&E 'in day-to-day mayhem'

Summary: In recent weeks a number of hospitals across the UK have declared a major incident caused by an influx of patients, few available beds and staffing problems. Scarborough Hospital was one of those sites, where one emergency medicine consultant said that despite extra staff being called in they face "mayhem" on a daily basis.

BBC Yorkshire's Inside Out spent a shift at Scarborough's A&E unit to see how accident and emergency staff coped. In one day, 114 people came through the doors of the accident and emergency department looking for help. The medical team did its best to cope with the stream of patients, but in the words of A&E consultant doctor Ed Smith, it was "not an A&E crisis, it's an NHS system crisis." The College of Emergency Medicine recommends the A&E department should have 10 doctors at consultant level, but it has just three. One casualty patient, aged 97, had to wait for 15 hours before a bed was found for her. Mr Smith said the sight of patients on hospital trolleys waiting in corridors for a bed space on a ward was becoming commonplace. "I'm afraid it's an absolutely daily sight and despite our major incident which did improve the situation for 48 hours it's business as usual and I think you'll probably find this is the experience of most departments around the country at the moment," he said. The major incident was declared at the resort hospital on 5 January because the wards were full but space was required for 18 more patients who needed to be admitted. Lead nurse Simon Etches said the influx of patients and the shortage of available beds was the worst he had seen in nearly three decades in the profession. He said: "I've been doing this job about 28 years in various A&E departments and I've never seen pressures like this. "I've never seen staff working so hard, I've never seen A&E departments in this sort of situation." Mr Etches said he was glad not to be at the beginning of his career. "I don't know how long I'd be able to keep working under this amount of pressure," he said. Whatever the difficulties in A&E, the problem of finding a bed on a ward for his patient is one consultant Ed Smith regularly faces. He said: "There are beds coming up, but it's slow. "There are beds becoming available, the expectation is there will be a certain number of discharges through the day. "What we don't know is exactly what time we'll have all the beds available for the patients we've got in the department." Despite the consultant's best efforts patients continue to arrive all day either by ambulance, those sent by the GP or "walk ins". "We anticipate that will happen over the next few hours, but obviously there's this backlog at the moment where patients are waiting to come in. "The ambulances have off-loaded onto our trolleys simply because it enables the ambulances to go out and help other people. "But the patients are on trolleys in the corridor and we haven't got any physical space to put them into at the moment." Managers at the hospital have even been used as porters to move patients around the hospital. Mr Smith said: "What we're trying to do is manage a system which is overwhelmed. "We're really close to the limit of our ability to continue to manage this mayhem that we live in day-to-day." Deputy chief executive of the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Mike Proctor said the major incident situation was "the worst I'd seen, I've been involved as a director of operations for 17 years on and off in this patch." Asked whether he accepted any blame for the situation, Mr Proctor said: "We have to take some, and it's a question I ask myself. "With hindsight one could always do some different things. "Should I have gone to Spain to recruit more nurses last summer? Maybe that would have made the situation better." But, he stressed the problem was not unique to Scarborough. "There are many other hospitals in the country in exactly the same position as us," he said. "That isn't my fault, and I don't think its fair to put blame on any particular party or anything else. "I think we need longer term solutions to come into force - there is some light at the end of the tunnel." BBC Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire is on BBC One in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Monday, 19 January at 19:30 GMT and nationwide on the iPlayer for 28 days thereafter.

हाल के हफ्तों में ब्रिटेन के कई अस्पतालों ने रोगियों की आमद, कम उपलब्ध बिस्तरों और कर्मचारियों की समस्याओं के कारण एक बड़ी घटना घोषित की है। स्कारबोरो अस्पताल उन स्थलों में से एक था, जहां एक आपातकालीन चिकित्सा सलाहकार ने कहा कि अतिरिक्त कर्मचारियों को बुलाए जाने के बावजूद उन्हें दैनिक आधार पर "हाथापाई" का सामना करना पड़ता है।


'Stephen Colbert' now belongs to the ages

Summary: "Folks, if this is your first time tuning in to the Colbert Report, I have some terrible news," Stephen Colbert announced on episode 1,447 of his Comedy Central cable show last night. "This, in fact, is your last time tuning in to the Colbert Report."

By Anthony ZurcherEditor, Echo Chambers And so began Mr Colbert's soliloquy on the historical import of his Comedy Central show, whose last episode aired Thursday night. He's moving on to replace David Letterman on CBS's Late Show next year, and he's retiring the character of "Stephen Colbert" - a right-wing blowhard pundit used to skewer right-wing blowhard pundits - that he has essentially lived in for the past decade. "In the annals of history, or whatever orifice they stuff it in, let no one say what we did together was not important or influential or importulential," he said. "You see from the beginning of my show, it was my goal to live up to the name of this network, Influence Central. And if all we achieved over the last nine years was to come into your home each night and help you make a difficult day a little better … man, what a waste." While Mr Colbert joked about the show's influence, other writers have noted that the programme has had a significant impact on US culture. "What we were seeing was the perfect indictment of the world of political punditry, yes, but also a send-up of our inflexibility when it came to opinions, reason and the truth," writes the Washington Post's Hank Stuever. The Daily Beast's Noel Murray observes that Mr Colbert's show was about more than spoofing right-wing talk show hosts like Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, which explains why it was able to stay fresh and engaging for so many years. "Colbert kept building out his character's backstory, turning a single-panel cartoon into something more like a long-running comic strip, with a myriad of subplots." He continues: "All the looks back at this Colbert character have been a clever way of pointing out that some of the most trusted names in politics today are little more than escapees from some local radio station's Morning Zoo." The "Colbert Nation", Mr Colbert's millions-strong band of viewers, is perhaps the best demonstration of the show's reach. At Mr Colbert's urging, they raised millions for charity, altered Wikipedia entries and swamped countless internet polls around the world. (At one point the Hungarian ambassador to the US appeared on the programme to apologise that that his country would not name a bridge after the host, despite "Stephen Colbert" having received the most votes.) The show's decade long-run was a remarkable bit of performance theatre unlike anything on US television - one so convincing that some polls showed some conservative viewers didn't understand that the show was satire. "It's hard to wake up every day and try to change the world," writes Salon's Sonia Saraiya. "Stephen Colbert has a set of talents that he could deploy with devastating effect, and he decided to use them for making the world funnier and saner." As Mr Colbert's final show wound to a close, he accidentally became immortal by killing death and engaged in a rousing rendition of We'll Meet Again with George Lucas, Henry Kissinger, Willie Nelson, Tom Brokaw and dozens of other celebrities, journalists and politicians. "The all-star send-off is a staple of talk-show finales, but this one seemed to say something here about the vast world that Colbert created with the Report," says Time magazine's James Poniewozik. "The show itself was not the sum total of the production that Colbert has put since 2005. It was just the flagship product of a larger performance that extended to the internet, to public rallies, to political campaigns and even to space." In the final scene, Mr Colbert stood atop his studio's building holding a Captain America shield, where he was met by Santa Claus, an e-cigarette smoking Abraham Lincoln unicorn and game-show host Alex Trebec. He climbed aboard Santa's sleigh, and they flew off into the night. "From eternity," he said as he signed off, "I'm Stephen Colbert." Like Lincoln, it seems, "Stephen Colbert" now belongs to the ages.

स्टीफन कोलबर्ट ने कल रात अपने कॉमेडी सेंट्रल केबल शो के एपिसोड 1,447 में घोषणा की, "दोस्तों, अगर यह पहली बार है जब आप कोलबर्ट रिपोर्ट देख रहे हैं, तो मेरे पास कुछ भयानक खबर है।" वास्तव में, यह आखिरी बार है जब आप कोलबर्ट रिपोर्ट देख रहे हैं।


Kit Harington: Focused on stage despite 'emotional' Thrones goodbye

Summary: Kit Harington spent much of his 20s in the sprawling fantasy world of the international TV hit Game of Thrones. But now it's just him and his (pretend) brother slugging it out for dominance in a kitchen in California in the modern stage classic True West.

By Vincent DowdArts reporter, BBC News Director Matthew Dunster says it didn't take long to work out that Harington and Johnny Flynn would be perfect casting for the big roles in True West. But the thing he loved first was the title. "As a writer, Sam Shepard had a gift for the poetry of a great title - there's Buried Child and Fool for Love and True West and Far North. Each of them is so evocative." Shepard died last year aged 73 - Dunster regrets that he never met him. "It's the first London production of a Shepard play since then so it's our tribute to the talent that made him a major American playwright for 40 years." True West is the intense story of two brothers. Austin - played by Harington - is an aspiring Hollywood writer who hopes to sell a screenplay to a producer. His brother Lee initially appears hopelessly shambolic but the balance of power between them shifts. Harington says the two men can be seen as two halves of the same person. "By the time Sam Shepard wrote it he'd had a lot of experience in Hollywood and definitely one of the things he's writing about is creative integrity. Shepard is a very American playwright but also he's telling a story about fraternal rivalry which is universal." The actor's last appearance on stage in London was in 2016 in Doctor Faustus. "I got a lot from playing that role but often I felt very alone doing it and at times I knew I'd leapt into something where I was a little out of my depth. But in True West I share the stage with Johnny and I knew at once it would be fun to do." Flynn says he and Harington are building a sense of trust and companionship off stage. "It's a four-character play but inevitably it's the Austin-Lee dynamic which dictates the action. I know that on stage there's already an energy passing between us and that will only get more profound as the run progresses." That energy manifests itself in a prolonged fight between the brothers. Dunster has brought in fight arrangers Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown to choreograph. "Actually the difficult part has been persuading Kit he can't always be the winner," he says. "At one point in rehearsal Johnny put a cable around Kit's neck for maybe five seconds and Kit freaked - he wasn't happy at all." Harington insists the biggest problem has been carpet-burn. On screen Harington has had his fair share of action scenes playing Jon Snow in Game of Thrones since 2011. Shooting for the eighth and final season ended in June. Harington has been in the series throughout (despite having been bloodily killed off in season five). He's used to fending off journalists' questions about episodes to come. Asked to describe the final story, which he filmed this summer, he volunteers that "there's a really big dance number" - which doesn't feel hugely reliable. "It was emotional to leave the job definitely," he says. "But I wouldn't say I was sad: if like me you go all the way back to the pilot of Game of Thrones that's almost 10 years of your life - that's really unusual in an actor's career. It was a huge emotional upheaval leaving that family. But would I want to go back and do more? Not on your life." HBO is currently at work on a prequel, reportedly set centuries before Game of Thrones. What if he were asked to film a single scene, maybe as an ancestor of Jon Snow? His answer remains an unequivocal no - he's enjoying stage-work too much. Flynn has a second career as a musician. He's composed several pieces for the play, at Dunster's request. "But Matthew was insistent we avoid what could have been the musical clichés a British person might expect - probably slide guitar and cod blues. "Partly the play is about the appropriation of narrative so I got thinking about the original people who might have lived in this landscape before Austin and Lee. I listened to a lot of music of the Hopi people and also Navajo and Mojave music - basically using a lot of drums and flute music. It has a medicine ceremony aspect to it which might involve ancestral spirits. It's been a great thing to explore." Shepard's 'epic' writing There's only a tiny list of plays from the last 50 years which have had multiple revivals both in London and in New York. True West is on that list - and a different revival is to open on Broadway at the end of December, starring Paul Dano and Ethan Hawke. Dunster says he's happy to be opening first. He thinks the play's continued popularity has two explanations. "Partly it's commercial and practical: True West only needs four actors, which is great for producers watching the money. It's not a particularly long play and it doesn't call for a massive set. "Yet somehow Sam's writing makes it feel epic - it's the way he handles the tensions on stage. Oddly, you could even compare it to the huge canvas of Game of Thrones: a lot of what kept us addicted there was division within families and between brothers. "Family tensions are one of the most universal themes in all story-telling. We've all known those tensions but it takes a Sam Shepard to turn them into great drama." True West is playing at the Vaudeville theatre in London. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

किट हैरिंगटन ने अपने 20 के दशक का अधिकांश समय अंतर्राष्ट्रीय टीवी हिट गेम ऑफ थ्रोन्स की विशाल काल्पनिक दुनिया में बिताया। लेकिन अब यह सिर्फ वह और उसका (दिखावा) भाई आधुनिक मंच क्लासिक ट्रू वेस्ट में कैलिफोर्निया में एक रसोई में प्रभुत्व के लिए प्रयास कर रहे हैं।


Red Dead Redemption hoping for 'emotional response'

Summary: If you believe the hype, one of the biggest video games out this year is hitting shelves across the UK this weekend.

By Dan WhitworthNewsbeat technology reporter Red Dead Redemption is the latest release from video game pioneers Rockstar, the people behind the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series. This new open world game has already topped pre-order charts and follows an ex-outlaw making his way through the American Wild West. We put some of your questions (as well as some of our own) to Lazlow, one of the game's developers and the radio DJ featured in the GTA games. Here's what he had to say. ___________________________________________________________

यदि आप प्रचार पर विश्वास करते हैं, तो इस साल के सबसे बड़े वीडियो गेम में से एक इस सप्ताह के अंत में पूरे ब्रिटेन में चल रहा है।


Classic TT racer Chris Swallow 'lost control' before death crash

Summary: A rider suffered an "unsurvivable head fracture" after he "lost control" of his motorbike during the Isle of Man's Classic TT, an inquest has been told.

Douglas Courthouse heard New Zealand teacher Chris Swallow crashed at Ballaugh Village during the Senior Classic TT race on 24 August. Coroner Jayne Hughes said the 37-year-old had sustained "multiple injuries". Adjourning the inquest, she passed her condolences to his family, who were not in attendance at the courthouse. Swallow, who was an experienced competitor, was born in Huddersfield and emigrated to Wellington in 2010.

एक पूछताछ में बताया गया है कि आइल ऑफ मैन के क्लासिक टी. टी. के दौरान अपनी मोटरबाइक पर "नियंत्रण खोने" के बाद एक सवार को "अप्राप्य सिर फ्रैक्चर" का सामना करना पड़ा।


Sidmouth cliffs shore-up shingle washed away

Summary: Efforts to protect a section of coastline in east Devon from sea erosion have been hampered by recent stormy weather, a council said.

Cliffs at Pennington Point, near Sidmouth, were to be shored up with shingle dredged from the River Sid. The material to be used was left on a beach near the river before it was due to be moved to the cliffs. But the shingle has been washed away by recent high tides and bad weather, East Devon District Council said. The shingle was to provide short-term protection from tidal erosion. The district council said it was working with Devon County Council and the Environment Agency to try to find a long-term solution. Several landslips have occurred around Pennington Point area over recent weeks, closing sections of the coastal footpath.

एक परिषद ने कहा कि पूर्वी डेवोन में समुद्र तट के एक हिस्से को समुद्री कटाव से बचाने के प्रयास हाल के तूफानी मौसम से बाधित हुए हैं।


Covid-19: Is the pandemic a showstopper for am-dram?

Summary: From musicals to whodunnits, pantomimes to farces, amateur drama companies have long been a source of entertainment in their communities. In 2020, though, staging plays in small theatres and village halls under social-distancing rules is far from straightforward.

By Stephen StaffordBBC South The latest government regulations state that amateur arts activities can only take place if there is no mingling between groups of six, and the guidance for working in the arts sector is followed. There are warnings that with many am-dram groups inactive, audiences' and members' interest could decline and important seedbeds for stage talent could fade away. So what steps are being taken to try to keep amateur dramatics alive? "It's a real worry how we will survive financially," said Lewis Carlisle, chairman of Southend Operatic and Dramatic Society. The 70-strong company was due to be celebrating its 130th anniversary this year but had to cancel its production of the musical Company and is struggling to rehearse for Anything Goes next year. "It's not just the ticket revenues we're losing - we can't do any publicity, it's hard to charge members, we've no social events or fundraisers. There's no income and no support," Mr Carlisle said. "We risk losing tens of thousands of pounds if we put a show on and no-one comes. "So many professional shows are closing - and they have finances behind them. We're just a small group trying our best. I really, really do hope we make it through." Seasoned amateur theatre watcher Jane Dickerson said she was "heartbroken" at removing cancelled show listings from her amdram.co.uk website that she has run for more than 20 years. She would usually post information about up to 50 shows a week around the country. "For older or single people it's their social life - even if it's working backstage or helping out with the teas. That's gone and it's going to take years to recover," she said. "It's frustrating - the government doesn't seem interested and doesn't realise what effect it's having on communities." Jack Edwards, chairman of the Portsmouth Players, admitted things were "really tough" for amateur groups. A large-scale production by the group can cost up to £60,000 for venue hire, set, costumes and performance rights. "My advice is for companies to mothball, probably until there is a vaccine. Sit on the money they've got rather than try to do anything. "You've got to engage your members. There is the support there, but eventually people will feel they're not getting anything for their subscription money. "I'm worried a lot of companies won't survive." Those who insist the show must go on have turned to technology. In St Albans, the Abbey Theatre's Company of Ten group has live-streamed a sketch show, Radio Fun, and is selling tickets for online performances of Building the Wall. Chairman Martin Goodman said the theatre had had to "adapt and change". "It's been a revolution in how we deliver our product to different audiences - and that has been a wonderful thing. Whether it's commercially viable remains to be seen." The theatre is planning socially distanced plays, with a potential audience of about 50, rather than its capacity of 240. It is also looking at the idea of staging a youth production with "parallel casts" - having two sets of actors separately rehearse and perform a show to maximise the number of youngsters involved. "The theatre is run by fanatics who are very focused on carrying on and contributing to our community, so we will find new ways of doing things," Mr Goodman insisted. Tess Townsend and Marie-José Zuurbier, from West Molesey in Surrey, used online rehearsals as the inspiration for a comedy play when their own group's production was halted. More than 50 groups have downloaded their scripts of Zoom, A Play for Lockdown to perform using the ubiquitous video-conferencing platform. "We've always clocked funny things people have done and said in amateur drama groups. Lockdown gave us oodles of time to start writing," Ms Townsend said. "The saddest thing is that people are missing the communal feel of the am-dram experience - it's a great buzz and we're getting a bit of that feeling from our play." Birmingham Youth Theatre chairman Linda Hamilton said her 30-strong cast of Shrek was "devastated" when their production was cancelled in April. The company of nine to 19-year-olds is now hoping to perform it in December at the city's Crescent Theatre. During the summer they managed socially distanced outdoor rehearsals at Cannon Hill Park as well as regular Zoom rehearsals and quizzes. "They're a very close-knit family so it was important to maintain the contact," Ms Hamilton said. "The lockdown has affected them - some are more anxious, but this gives them something different away from the other pressures in life." Staging a full show in the open air is one way to stay within social-distancing guidelines. The Questors Theatre in Ealing, west London, took its chances with the British weather to stage The Bard in the Yard, a series of truncated Shakespeare extracts. For the 30-strong audience it meant putting their names on a contact-tracing list, sanitising hands on entry and using socially distanced outdoor seating. Artistic director Alex Marker said writers and performers needed to "take the constraints and limitations and turn them into an asset". "If you set up the ground rules and framework of the world you are in at the outset of the play, the audience will suspend their disbelief and will embrace the event," he said. It meant moments like the kiss in Romeo and Juliet being represented by the star-crossed lovers removing their face masks, touching them together - with no hand contact - and disposing of them as they exited. Whether such productions can help amateur groups survive ultimately depends on how long social-distancing restrictions remain in place, according to the Little Theatre Guild which represents 115 groups which own or run theatre buildings. Having volunteers rather than paid staff has kept costs down and many qualified for the government retail, hospitality and leisure grant of up to £10,000, said its chairman Mike Smith. Nevertheless, he said the latest coronavirus restrictions had "knocked people's confidence". "They may dissuade people from coming to watch theatre in confined spaces and there are doubts about whether actors are prepared to act," Mr Smith said. "Many theatres have small stages, which makes putting on socially distanced shows very difficult. "In the summer we were beginning to think that we could see ourselves reopening, but that's been put back - many of us won't get going until the new year at the earliest. "The challenge is keeping people involved and interested. "Theatre is so strong in Britain - we've got some great companies and we have to be careful not to lose them."

संगीत से लेकर वेश्याओं तक, पेंटोमाइम से लेकर प्रहसन तक, शौकिया नाटक कंपनियां लंबे समय से अपने समुदायों में मनोरंजन का स्रोत रही हैं। हालाँकि, 2020 में, सामाजिक-दूरी के नियमों के तहत छोटे थिएटरों और गाँव के हॉल में नाटकों का मंचन करना सीधा नहीं है।


Niche Sheffield: Club to remain closed until February

Summary: A nightclub is to remain closed for a month after five men were injured during a violent disturbance in the run up to Christmas.

A brawl outside Niche on Walker Street, Sheffield, saw five men hurt in the early hours of 23 December. At Sheffield Magistrates' Court, South Yorkshire Police was granted an order to keep the club shut until 6 February. Two men, aged 19 and 28, have been charged with violent disorder in connection with the incident. More on this story and others in South Yorkshire Supt Paul McCurry said: "Closure orders give us another tool to help keep communities safe and prevent further disorder. "As our inquiries into this incident are ongoing, we continue to liaise with the nightclub owner, our partners at the council and colleagues in legal and licensing teams."

क्रिसमस तक एक हिंसक अशांति के दौरान पांच लोगों के घायल होने के बाद एक नाइट क्लब को एक महीने के लिए बंद रखा जाना है।


Prince Charles to visit Republic of Ireland

Summary: The Prince of Wales is to visit the Republic of Ireland next month.

Accompanied by his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, he will also go to Northern Ireland as part of a four-day visit from 19 to 23 May. Reports suggest he will visit Mullaghmore in County Sligo, where his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in 1979. Prince Charles first visited the Republic of Ireland in 1995. His visit was hailed as a success, and seen as a step on the way towards the eventual visit by the Queen in 2011. The prince also visited the Republic of Ireland in 2002, but this will be his first official joint visit with the Duchess of Cornwall. Clarence House said the trip was being held at the request of the British government, and planning was still in progress. While their itinerary has not been finalised, reports in Dublin suggest that the royal couple could visit Drumcliffe Church, where the poet WB Yeats is buried, and Lissadell House. 'Warm and friendly' The visit was welcomed by Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan. "Following the reciprocal state visits of recent years, this visit to Ireland will represent a further expression of the warm and friendly relations which now exist between us," he said. "We look forward to their arrival next month, and to a visit programme which reflects the quality of these relations." The royal couple welcomed Irish President Michael D Higgins to the UK during his state visit in April 2014. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall most recently visited Northern Ireland together on official visits in April 2014 and in June 2013.

वेल्स के राजकुमार अगले महीने आयरलैंड गणराज्य की यात्रा पर आने वाले हैं।


SARS: Nigeria 'rogue' police unit banned from stop and search

Summary: Nigeria's inspector general of police has banned a notorious unit from carrying out stop and search duties and setting up roadblocks amid growing anger at routine harassment and atrocities allegedly committed by its officers.

Mohammed Adamu also said members of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) must always wear uniforms. Videos shared recently on social media appear to show officers extorting money and even shooting people. Nigerians want SARS disbanded. The hashtag #EndSARS is trending on Twitter, triggered by the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the unit in the city of Lagos on Saturday. Many people are also using the hashtag to share stories of brutality attributed to the police unit. Lagos Governor Sanwo-Olu tweeted on Sunday: "Appropriate actions will be taken, and speedily too". SARS and other tactical police units have been banned from "invasion of privacy of citizens particularly through indiscriminate and unauthorised search of mobiles, laptops and smart devices," Mr Adamu said in a statement on Sunday. They should, he said, focus on cases of armed robberies, kidnapping and other violent crimes. He also said that police commissioners and commanders would be held liable for misconduct of officers in the areas they were in charge of. Three years ago Nigeria's police chief ordered an immediate re-organisation of the SARS after public outcry, but little, if any, changed according to an Amnesty International investigation published in June. The rights group accused SARS officers of using "torture and other ill-treatment to execute, punish and extract information from suspects". It documented 82 cases between January 2017 and May 2020. Amnesty found the group allegedly targeted men between the ages of 17 and 30. "Young men with dreadlocks, ripped jeans, tattoos, flashy cars or expensive gadgets are frequently targeted by SARS," the organisation said. "The Nigerian authorities must go beyond lip service and ensure there is real reform, " Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said about the findings.

नाइजीरिया के पुलिस महानिरीक्षक ने अपने अधिकारियों द्वारा कथित रूप से किए गए नियमित उत्पीड़न और अत्याचारों पर बढ़ते गुस्से के बीच एक कुख्यात इकाई को रुकने और तलाशी कर्तव्यों को पूरा करने और बाधाओं को स्थापित करने पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया है।


Guernsey Airport runway plan decision due by July

Summary: A decision about whether plans for the redevelopment of Guernsey Airport's runway complies with environmental laws is expected by July.

The Environment Department said planning officers would look at the details of the possible impact of the works on the surrounding environment. Due to the size of the proposed £81m development, an Environmental Impact Assessment has to be carried out. If agreed, then the plans will be put out to public consultation. The plans have been put on display for the public to view at the department's offices at Sir Charles Frossard House between 0900-1700 BST on Monday to Friday. However, the department advised people to wait until the application had past its environmental assessment to make sure they viewed the final product and not a draft.

ग्वेर्नसे हवाई अड्डे के रनवे के पुनर्विकास की योजना पर्यावरण कानूनों का पालन करती है या नहीं, इस बारे में निर्णय जुलाई तक होने की उम्मीद है।


Lobotomy: The brain op described as ‘easier than curing a toothache’

Summary: There was a time when people with severe mental illness might be given an operation to sever connections in the brain. Lobotomy became one of the most notorious surgical procedures of the 20th Century, writes Claire Prentice, but retired neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh, who once carried out a modified version of the operation, tells her it's wrong to divide doctors into heroes and villains.

It seems incredible today, but lobotomy was once hailed as a miracle cure, portrayed by doctors and the media as "easier than curing a toothache". More than 20,000 lobotomies were performed in the UK between the early 1940s and the late '70s. They were typically carried out on patients with schizophrenia, severe depression or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - but also, in some cases, on people with learning difficulties or problems controlling aggression. While a minority of people saw an improvement in their symptoms after lobotomy, some were left stupefied, unable to communicate, walk or feed themselves. But it took years for the medical profession to realise that the negative effects outweighed the benefits - and to see that drugs developed in the 1950s were effective and much safer. Writers and film directors have not been kind to the doctors who carried out lobotomies. From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Netflix spin-off series, Ratched, to Suddenly Last Summer, they portray sadistic surgeons preying on the vulnerable and leaving dead-eyed patients in their wake. The truth is more complex. Lobotomists were often progressive reformers, driven by a desire to improve the lives of their patients. In the 1940s, there were no effective treatments for the severely mentally ill. Doctors had experimented with insulin shock therapy and Electro-Convulsive Therapy with limited success and asylums were filled with patients, including shell-shocked soldiers, who had no hope of a cure, or of going home. It was against this background that Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz developed the lobotomy - or leucotomy as he called it - in 1935. His procedure involved drilling a pair of holes into the skull and pushing a sharp instrument into the brain tissue. He then swept it from side to side to sever the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain. "It was based on this terribly crude, simplistic view of the brain, that the brain was a simple mechanism, and you could just sort of stick things into it. The idea was that you had these thoughts running round and round and by interrupting the circuit you would stop these distressing, obsessional thoughts," says the neurosurgeon and writer, Henry Marsh. "In reality the brain is utterly complicated and we don't even begin to understand how it all interconnects." Moniz claimed that his first 20 patients had experienced a dramatic improvement - and a young American neurologist, Walter Freeman, was greatly impressed. With his operating partner, James Watts, he carried out the first lobotomy in the US in 1936; the following year, the New York Times referred to the operation as "the new 'surgery of the soul'". But to begin with it was complicated and time-consuming. While working at St Elizabeths Hospital in Washington DC, the largest mental hospital in the country, Freeman had been horrified by "the waste of manpower and woman power" he witnessed there. He was keen to help patients get out of hospital, and set himself the goal of making lobotomy quicker and cheaper. In 1946 he devised the "transorbital lobotomy" in which steel instruments resembling ice picks were hammered into the brain through the fragile bones at the back of the eye sockets. The operating time was drastically reduced, and patients did not need an anaesthetic - they were knocked out before the operation using a portable "Electro-Shock" machine. Freeman would drive across America during the long summer holidays to conduct his "ice-pick lobotomies" - sometimes taking his children along. Initially described as a surgery of last resort for psychiatric patients for whom all other treatments had failed, Freeman began to promote lobotomy as a cure for everything from serious mental illness to post-natal depression, severe headaches, chronic pain, nervous indigestion, insomnia and behavioural difficulties. Many patients and their families were grateful to Freeman, who kept boxes filled with the letters of thanks and Christmas cards they sent him. But in other cases the results were disastrous. Freeman's patients included Rosemary Kennedy, sister of the future US president John F Kennedy. She was left incontinent and unable to speak clearly after a lobotomy at the age of 23. Over the course of his career, Freeman conducted lobotomies on 3,500 patients, including 19 children, the youngest just four years old. Freeman's counterpart in the UK was the neurosurgeon, Sir Wylie McKissock, who carried out his own variation of the lobotomy on about 3,000 patients. "This is not a time-consuming operation. A competent team in a well-organised mental hospital can do four such operations in two to two-and-a-half hours," he boasted. "The actual bilateral prefrontal leucotomy can be done by a properly trained neurosurgeon in six minutes and seldom takes more than 10 minutes." Thanks in large part to McKissock, more lobotomies were carried out in the UK, per head of population, than in the US. As a medical student in the 1970s, Henry Marsh took a job as a psychiatric nursing auxiliary in a mental hospital, on what he describes as "the end-stage ward where the burnt-out cases went to die". There he saw first-hand the devastating effects of lobotomy. "It was painfully apparent to me that there was no proper follow up of these patients at all," he says. "The patients who were the worst, most apathetic, sort of ruined patients were the ones who had been lobectomised." They had all been operated on by McKissock and his assistants. Later, after Marsh had qualified as a neurosurgeon, a modification of the procedure, known as a limbic leucotomy, was still in use. Marsh describes it as "a sort of microscopic version, much more refined, of the sort of lobectomies people had been carrying out many years earlier". He himself performed this operation on a dozen patients with severe OCD until as recently as 1990. "They were all suicidal, they had failed all other treatments, so you know I didn't feel particularly anguished about it, but I preferred not to do it," he says. "I didn't see the patients afterwards, I was purely a technician. I was assured by the psychiatrists involved that the operations were a success." I ask him how he feels about these operations now. "I didn't like doing them, and I was rather glad to give up the practice fairly shortly after I became a consultant." In the early 1960s, about 500 lobotomies were carried out each year in the UK, down from 1,500 at its peak. By the mid-1970s this number had dropped to around 100-150 a year, nearly always involving smaller cuts and more precise targeting. The introduction of the 1983 Mental Health Act introduced tighter controls and more oversight. Today psychosurgical operations are rarely carried out. Howard Dully, who was given a lobotomy by Walter Freeman at the age of 12, says he tries to avoid thinking about how different his life might have been if he hadn't had it, for fear that anger would overwhelm him. "I've tried to piece my life together. It took a long time," he says. "I got into a lot of trouble as a young adult — drugs, and alcohol and criminal activity, trying to steal and make money and make a living. It's very hard to do." Dully feels that the operation, carried out because he had been clashing with his stepmother, cast a shadow over every aspect of his life. "You don't walk up to people and say, 'Hi, I had a lobotomy,' because if you do they ain't going to be around you long," he says. Sixty years on, he can remember the operation in vivid detail. "They lifted up the eye and went into the corner and tapped it through and wiggled it around with this egg beater thing," he says. "To me it's insane. I mean you're talking about a brain. Shouldn't there be some precision involved? Lobotomy had had its critics from the outset, and the chorus of opposition grew louder as the poor results became apparent. Walter Freeman, who initially claimed to have a success rate of 85%, was discovered to have a fatality rate of 15%. And when doctors investigated long-term outcomes for his patients they found that just one-third could be regarded as experiencing some improvement, while another third were significantly worse off. One former advocate for lobotomy in America stated: "Lobotomy was really no more subtle than a gunshot to the head." Fifteen years ago, a group of doctors and lobotomy victims and their families campaigned to have Egas Moniz stripped of the Nobel Prize for Medicine he won in 1949 for devising lobotomy. But the Nobel Foundation, whose charter states that its awards may not be withdrawn, refused to comply. Looking back, how should we view the people who carried out this most controversial medical procedure? "This business of dividing doctors into heroes and villains is wrong. We are all a mix of both, we are a product of our time, of our culture, of our training," says Henry Marsh. "The generation of surgeons who trained me had, I wouldn't say god-like powers, but they had enormous authority, nobody questioned them or queried them and I can think of some of the people who trained me who were essentially decent people who had been corrupted by this power and became a little bit monstrous as a result." Follow Claire Prentice on Twitter You may also be interested in: For years doctors in the US made little attempt to save the lives of premature babies, but there was one place distressed parents could turn for help - a sideshow on Coney Island. Here one man saved thousands of lives, writes Claire Prentice, and eventually changed the course of American medical science. How one man saved a generation of premature babies

एक समय था जब गंभीर मानसिक बीमारी वाले लोगों को मस्तिष्क में संबंध तोड़ने के लिए एक ऑपरेशन दिया जा सकता था। क्लेयर प्रेंटिस लिखती हैं कि लोबोटॉमी 20वीं शताब्दी की सबसे कुख्यात सर्जिकल प्रक्रियाओं में से एक बन गई, लेकिन सेवानिवृत्त न्यूरोसर्जन, हेनरी मार्श, जिन्होंने एक बार ऑपरेशन का एक संशोधित संस्करण किया था, उन्हें बताता है कि डॉक्टरों को नायक और खलनायक में विभाजित करना गलत है।