Portugal fire survivor: 'I should have died'

Summary: A wildfire in central Portugal, apparently started by a lightning strike in dry conditions, has claimed dozens of lives. One of those lucky to survive was Gareth Roberts, 36, who is originally from Colne in Lancashire but who has lived in central Portugal for the past four years. He told the BBC his story.

We were driving back from holiday in Cadiz in Spain and were about 50 minutes from home - we'd known about the fire for a few hours, we could see the plume of smoke. We'd driven through a thunderstorm and when that cleared, you could see the smoke. I thought it looked quite bad, but I had no idea until we got nearer. We found ourselves stranded in a village called Mó Grande, just off of the IC8 motorway; ourselves and others were directed there by an officer from the IC8. As we drove up the mountain road you could see the flames jumping across from one side of the valley to the other. The accompanying wind threw branches at the car but you couldn't stop, you could feel the heat. Eventually we reached the small village at a crossroads surrounded by fire. Locals and ourselves were crying, overwhelmed by the heat and speed of the fire. It was dark, so dark, among the flames. A man shouted for us to come and take refuge in his home, along with his mother. Several of us did. His mum had an annex flat downstairs, where it was cooler and out of the way of the fire. During the time there, more people were arriving, knocking on the door, people just congregated where there were signs of life. The guy's mum poured us wine, and it would have been pleasant if it wasn't for the circumstances. When I had got to the village I messaged my parents to tell them: "I am in a village, fire is all around, this is the end." But when I got to the house, there was no network, so I thought: "The last thing I told my parents was that I was dying." In pictures: Portugal forest fire As the power went off, the flames hit hard, a fiery red tornado passed the windows. We crouched on the floor for a good hour, trying to breathe, praying, crying. I am not ashamed to say it: I was praying, we were all praying. I am not religious, but at that time, you couldn't do anything else. I said: "It can't end like this." I just started crying and got emotional - I was no use to anyone for 20 minutes. Eventually the fire passed and we emerged to see the smouldering remains of the village. Miraculously, our house and the one next door did not burn. The devastation was indescribable. People, bewildered, remains of homes burning uncontrollably, concrete posts exploding over roads. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. After the fire passed, it should still have been bright, but it was dark. There was a strange film over everyone's eyes. You could hear gas canisters exploding, see blue flashes going off. There was just a strange silence. There was a lull, a strange feeling. It then turned to relief, there was crying. Three days of mourning in Portugal At this point, there hadn't been help from anyone with the authorities. All the help was from the locals, without phone calls being made and without internet, just the way it had always been done. If those people hadn't shown their generosity, we would not be here today. There have been so many examples of the most amazing acts of humanity. I said thank you to them for saving my life. But a small 'thank you' is nowhere near enough. We could have died. We should have died. A random act of kindness last night saved our lives and now all we can do is pray for Portugal. After the fire, Gareth travelled to the town of Tomar, where he remains in a hotel. The fire has prevented him from travelling home, but he hopes to return in the coming days. He also hopes to return to Mo Grande to thank the family that saved his life. Gareth Roberts was speaking to the BBC's Roland Hughes

मध्य पुर्तगाल में एक जंगल की आग, जो स्पष्ट रूप से शुष्क परिस्थितियों में बिजली गिरने से शुरू हुई थी, ने दर्जनों लोगों की जान ले ली है। जीवित रहने वाले भाग्यशाली लोगों में से एक 36 वर्षीय गैरेथ रॉबर्ट्स थे, जो मूल रूप से लंकाशायर के कोलने के रहने वाले हैं, लेकिन जो पिछले चार वर्षों से मध्य पुर्तगाल में रह रहे हैं। उन्होंने बीबीसी को अपनी कहानी सुनाई।


Cardiff crash: Arrest after man seriously injured by car

Summary: A 20-year-old pedestrian has been left seriously injured after being hit by a car.

The man was struck by a black Ford Fiesta on Mundy Place in the Cathays area of Cardiff at about 21:45 GMT on Thursday. A 23-year-old man, from Adamsdown in the city, has been arrested on suspicion of causing injury by dangerous driving. Police have appealed for any witnesses to come forward. The area around the crash was closed to traffic while investigations were carried out, but has now reopened.

कार की चपेट में आने से एक 20 वर्षीय पैदल यात्री गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गया है।


Does a baby's name affect its chances in life?

Summary: When parents spend hours poring over baby name books they may imagine that their choice will have a major impact on their child's life. But do names make a difference? Two recent books put this idea under the microscope.

By William KremerBBC World Service Choosing a name for a child is complicated. Not only should it sound right with the family name but future nicknames - good and bad - need to be taken into consideration. A name might honour a favourite grandparent, but it will also have a forgotten meaning to be unearthed in books, and dubious modern associations to be checked on Google. Dalton Conley and his wife, Natalie Jeremijenko, were halfway through this pleasant but painstaking process when their baby girl was born, two months premature. "We had narrowed down the selections to a bunch of E- names, but we couldn't ultimately decide," says Conley, who lives in New York. "Then we came up with the idea of, 'Let's just constrain the first degree of freedom. Let's just give her the first letter and then she can decide when she's old enough what it stands for.'" And so, E was born. Now 16, she hasn't yet felt the need to extend her first name. "I think once you're given a name, you get used to it - it's part of you," she says. E's little brother, meanwhile, Yo Xing Heyno Augustus Eisner Alexander Weiser Knuckles, did take up his parents' offer to change his name. He added the Heyno and Knuckles when he was four, and his parents made the changes official. "I have been called a child abuser online," says Dalton Conley, the author of Parentology: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Science of Raising Children but Were Too Exhausted to Ask. "I don't think I've saddled them with some horrible burden. They like the fact that they have unique names now." Over the last 70 years, researchers have tried to gauge the effect on an individual of having an unusual name. It is thought that our identity is partly shaped by the way we are treated by other people - a concept psychologists call the "looking-glass self" - and our name has the potential to colour our interactions with society. Early studies found that men with uncommon first names were more likely to drop out of school and be lonely later in life. One study found that psychiatric patients with more unusual names tended to be more disturbed. But more recent work has presented a mixed picture. Richard Zweigenhaft, a psychologist at Guilford College in the US, pointed out that wealthy, oddly-named Americans are more likely to find themselves in Who's Who. He found no consistent bad effects of having a strange name, but noted that both common and unusual names are sometimes deemed desirable. Conley, who is a sociologist at New York University, says that children with unusual names may learn impulse control because they may be teased or get used to people asking about their names. "They actually benefit from that experience by learning to control their emotions or their impulses, which is of course a great skill for success." But for the main part, he says, the effect of a name on its bearer rarely amounts to more than the effect of being raised by parents who would choose such a name. A similar conclusion is reached by Gregory Clark, the economist behind the book The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility. Although the main focus of his research is family names, Clark has looked at first names too - specifically, the names of 14,449 freshmen students attending the elite University of Oxford between 2008-2013. By contrasting the incidence of first names in the Oxford sample with their incidence among the general population (of the same age), he calculated the probability, relative to average, that a person given a particular name would go to Oxford. (For the purposes of his research he excluded students with non-English or Welsh surnames.) He notes that there are more than three times as many Eleanors at Oxford than we might expect, given the frequency of that first name among girls in the general population, and Peters, Simons and Annas are not far behind. Conversely, there is less than a 30th of the expected number of Jades and an even smaller proportion of Paiges and Shannons. An Eleanor is 100 times more likely to go to Oxford than a Jade. However, there is no evidence that it's the names causing such a marked discrepancy, rather than other factors they represent, Clark says. Different names are popular among different social classes, and these groups have different opportunities and goals. "That's something that's emerged in modern England that didn't exist around 1800," he says. When he re-ran his study, but this time looking at students attending Oxford and Cambridge in the early 19th Century, he found the correlation between names and university attendance far less marked. First names simply weren't the social signifiers they are now. What's happened since then is a move towards unusual, even unique, names. Before 1800, Clark says, four first names referred to half of all English men. In 2012, according to the Office for National Statistics, the top four names (Harry, Oliver, Jack, Charlie) accounted for just 7% of English baby boys (and the picture was much the same in Wales). Similarly in the US, in 1950, 5% of US parents chose a name for their child that wasn't in the top 1,000 names. In 2012, that figure was up to 27%. As late as the 18th Century, it wasn't uncommon for parents to call multiple children the same name - two Johns for different grandfathers, for example. Now parents increasingly look for unique names or spellings of names. As Jean Twenge points out in her book the Narcissism Epidemic, Jasmine now rubs shoulders in naming lists with Jazmine, Jazmyne, Jazzmin, Jazzmine, Jasmina, Jazmyn, Jasmin, and Jasmyn. As baby names become a matter of choice rather than tradition, they reveal more about the people doing the choosing. An example of this is the growing ease with which one can guess whether a person in the US is black or white. Roland Fryer and Steven Levitt point out that in California in the years running up to 2003, around 40% of black girls were given names that weren't bestowed on a single white girl in the state. The implications of this clearer signalling of class and race are striking. In a study from 2003, called Are Emily And Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan sent nearly 5,000 CVs in response to job advertisements in Chicago and Boston newspapers. The CVs were the same, but half were given fake names that sounded like they belonged to white people, like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker, and the other half were given names that sounded African American, like Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones. The call-back rate from employers was 50% higher on the "white" names then the "black" names. The effects were noted even for federal contractors with "affirmative action" policies, and companies boasting they were "equal opportunities" employers. The researchers inferred that employers were using first names to discriminate unfairly against black candidates, perhaps at an unconscious level. Those same prejudices might also come into play at the interviewing stage, but a black applicant called Greg Baker, who receives an invitation to an interview, has at least got his foot in the door. There is also striking evidence of names triggering different outcomes for schoolchildren. David Figlio, now at Northwestern University, analysed the scores of some 55,000 children in a school district of Florida. Instead of just distinguishing between "white" and "black" names, he codified what aspects of names meant that they were more likely to belong to black children and children from low-income families. This allowed him to create a sliding scale, which went, for example, from Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da'Quan. Figlio found that the further along this scale he went, the worse the school test scores and the less likely the student was to be recommended for the schools' programme for "gifted" students. Strikingly, this held true for brothers within a family, and even - although the sample size was small - for twins. Figlio believes that the fault lies with the expectations of schoolteachers and administrators - at schools with more black teachers, the effects were less marked. In separate research, Figlio used the Florida school data to show that black boys who are given names more common among girls are more likely to develop behavioural problems when they reach puberty. The problems increase significantly when there are girls in the same year group with the same name. If names do affect their bearers' chance of success, it may not always be because of the reactions they cause in other people (the "looking-glass self"). Psychologists talk about "implicit egotism", the positive feelings we each have about ourselves. Brett Pelham cites the concept in explaining his finding that individuals called Virginia, Mildred, Jack and Philip proliferate in Virginia, Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Philadelphia - he believes they are drawn to live there. Another intriguing 2007 paper, entitled Moniker Maladies, found that people's fondness for the initials of their names could get in the way of success. Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons analysed almost a century of baseball strikeouts and found that hitters with the initial K had a higher strike-out rate ("K" denotes a strike-out in baseball). They also found that graduate students with the initials C and D had a slightly lower grade point average than A and B students, and A and B applicants to law school were more likely to go to better colleges. E Conley certainly has a fondness for her own initial - which in her case is her name. "It's just cool that people, especially my friends, will never look at the letter E in the same way again," she says. But she doesn't seem to think her unusual name has had a profound influence on her life so far. "It's just an interesting experience - I'm really no different than an Elizabeth." Her father reflects that although his children haven't been teased - as some bearers of unusual names are - part of the reason might be the open-minded character of their school and neighbourhood. "I wouldn't say that names don't matter at all," he says. "But how they matter depends on the context." The Why Factor is broadcast on the BBC World Service. Listen to the programme about given names or the programme about surnames. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

जब माता-पिता घंटों बच्चों के नाम की किताबें पढ़ने में बिताते हैं तो वे सोच सकते हैं कि उनकी पसंद का उनके बच्चे के जीवन पर बड़ा प्रभाव पड़ेगा। लेकिन क्या नामों से कोई फर्क पड़ता है? हाल की दो किताबें इस विचार को सूक्ष्मदर्शी के नीचे रखती हैं।


Paris attacks: Could they happen in the UK?

Summary: While the UK has sustained far, far fewer casualties from jihadist violence than France, all of the available evidence indicates that the terrible events inflicted upon Paris could happen here - and security chiefs have long planned for that possibility.

Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter The statistical chances of being caught up in a terrorist incident are pretty low - but the official government position is that there is a "severe" threat from international terrorism. That means security chiefs think an attack is highly likely - just one notch down from "critical", the level reached in the extreme situation of an attack being imminent. How do security chiefs reach this conclusion? Cold, hard analysis of the intelligence picture at home and abroad - events that we see in public, such as arrests that lead to criminal convictions, and intelligence operations in the shadows that we never hear about. How serious is the terrorism threat in the UK? Every event is considered for whether it can provide a clue to the threat faced by the UK. The deaths in France, the downing of the Russian jet over Sinai, the tourism attacks in Tunisia and the dozens killed in suicide bombings in Beirut on the same day as the Paris atrocities, are fed into this analysis which is conducted by Whitehall's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre. British security planners have progressively widened their focus as the threat landscape has changed. Al-Qaeda style mass-casualty bomb attacks - once the primary international threat - are hard to organise because they take manpower, technical know-how and a long time to prepare. The harder something is to organise, the more opportunities there will be for security services to spot it. A marauding attack on the streets is, in contrast, far more random and, at its worst, completely unpredictable if the individuals never featured on a security radar. What will concern many security planners greatly about the Paris attacks is that the assailants combined an element of substantial planning - large public targets, substantial weaponry and a suicidal endgame - with the unpredictability of a marauding assault. At the same time, many security chiefs will not be surprised at all because the signs have long been apparent that this kind of attack was possible. The self-styled Islamic State is now the leading jihadist group thanks to its unparalleled territorial gains, resources, manpower, funding and, critically, multi-lingual online media operation. It projects a vision that it is "winning" (despite severe setbacks like the loss of entire towns ) that have augmented its "brand power" among would-be recruits. Most importantly, in September 2014, its leading public ideologue called on followers overseas to launch attacks without waiting for permission or specific direction. This call to action - IS styles it a "fatwa", or religious ruling, so they can convince followers of their divine righteousness - had a profound and immediate effect. It can be directly linked to a series of attacks in Canada, Belgium, Australia, Denmark and, of course, France. So, it's now clear that gun attacks - marauding or focused - in Europe are an enduring security challenge rather than just a random one-off event. UK reaction to Paris attacks: Live coverage Paris attacks: Latest updates Who were the victims? So here's the question - how prepared is the UK? Earlier this year, parts of London were sealed off for a major Metropolitan Police exercise called Operation Strong Tower. The two-day role-play event involved counter-terrorism officers, MI5, the military and emergency services hunting down a jihadist cell shooting and bombing its way across the capital. In short - it was an attempt to "stress-test" how they would all respond to exactly what has happened in Paris. Fairly obviously, the results are secret - but that kind of live training has been complemented with physical and organisational changes to the city. Many of London's buildings are surrounded by bollards designed to withstand lorry bombs. CCTV and number plate cameras are everywhere. Specialist armed police - trained to a military standard - carry out daily patrols designed to strategically cover as much of the capital as possible. One major difference with continental Europe is guns. The availability of firearms in the UK is very low compared with other countries because of the country's strict gun-control laws. It is hard to smuggle them in - although not impossible - and operations to disrupt organised criminals from doing so rely on both the UK's border controls and secret intelligence techniques. Only two weeks ago, on the publication of the government's proposed plan to expand investigatory powers, did we learn that MI5 and GCHQ have been running "bulk" sifts of communications flowing across the internet as they search for potential threats. Were Paris-style attacks to happen in the UK, the police and security agencies would immediately want to launch a major analysis of communications data to identify the network around the perpetrators. So supporters of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill will urge its opponents to think about Paris. How would a city like London respond? In theory, better than in the wake of 7/7. During the inquests into the 2005 bombings, there was evidence that the emergency services were both overwhelmed and, at times, incapable of communicating properly. All of that has now supposedly changed - underground stations and tunnels, for instance, are now all categorised and numbered with agreed meeting points for first-responders. Across the rest of the UK there are specialist response teams involving all of the emergency services. And dotted across the capital in secure locations are special emergency trauma kits - which mean that police who rush to a scene of an attack may have a greater chance of saving lives. Would they save lives? The evidence suggests they would - but then the devastation of Paris shows how difficult that job ultimately would be.

जबकि ब्रिटेन ने फ्रांस की तुलना में जिहादी हिंसा से बहुत कम हताहतों को बनाए रखा है, सभी उपलब्ध साक्ष्य इंगित करते हैं कि पेरिस पर की गई भयानक घटनाएं यहां हो सकती हैं-और सुरक्षा प्रमुखों ने उस संभावना के लिए लंबे समय से योजना बनाई है।


My Money: 'The alcohol bill has increased, but he's earned it!'

Summary: My Money is a series looking at how people spend their money - and the sometimes tough decisions they have to make. Here, Claire Millington, an auditor for PwC, from West Yorkshire in the UK, takes us through a week in her life, as the country goes through the coronavirus pandemic.

Claire (35) is mother to Alexander (4) and married to Luke. She lives halfway between Todmorden (pronounced Tod-m-dun not Tod-mor-den!) and Hebden Bridge. Over to Claire... I'm working full time from home now whereas my normal pattern would be two days at home and two days in the office. So, because of that and the fact that the munchkin is watching more TV than normal because he is not at preschool, we are spending a bit more on gas and electricity. Childcare - we use the Government's Tax-Free Childcare system so whatever we pay in, the Treasury tops up by 20%. Our preschool charges a month's fees in advance so today I make the payment for 80% of the c£400 cost into my online Tax-Free Childcare account. It's a bit galling as the preschool is closed now, even to key worker children (we qualify due to the hubby's career) but I do understand that they will need the cash to tide them over until the Government's 80% furlough cash comes in. Fortunately, we can afford to pay this as I am still working as normal, just from home, and the hubby is still on full employment, though he is currently stood down from his normal duties and is at home with us. While I'm pleased the staff are going to get paid, I know this is really difficult for some of the other parents who are really going to struggle this month. Hopefully there will be some sort of compromise/refund agreement once this is all over. Total spend: £320 Isolation saving (£17) £12 train fare plus £5 lunch as when I am in the office I frequently forget to make lunch, or if I do I have a bad habit of rushing out the door to get munchkin to preschool and leaving it in the fridge! Hooray for payday! Another quiet day, me working from home with the odd break to relieve daddy daycare. In order to do some baking with the munchkin later on in the week, we made a socially-distant visit to our neighbours to buy some eggs. They have a fabulous small holding of goats, sheep and chickens and I think we are their best customers. Especially when the hubby is at home, we go through eggs like nobody's business! Phone bill paid via direct debit. I eventually needed a new handset a couple of months ago so upped my contract to £23 per month from the £13 tariff I was on as I'd worked out that over the duration of the contract (24 months) I'd only be paying roughly the same as buying a new handset separately. Total spend: £26 Isolation savings: £0 The hubby has been taking the opportunity to finally build the compost heap (it's only been waiting for months…) so we needed a delivery from our local builder's merchants costing around £42. It's a big one today as the mortgage payment of around £1400 comes out on the first of each month. It never fails to make me gulp but it's worth it. We love our house and are doing what our mortgage adviser recommended - pay off as much as you can as quickly as you can and if you can afford it, overpay when you can. This means we save massive amounts of interest over the life of the mortgage and should (fingers crossed) be mortgage-free by the time we are 50. Total spend: £1,442 Isolation saving: £17 £12 train fare and £5 lunch. My Money More blogs from the BBC's My Money Series: I do try to make sure that the majority of my bills are paid via direct debit (It's a condition of my current account and makes sure I don't miss a payment) and that they come out at the start of each month. That way I know that except for childcare and my phone bill, the rest of the cash is ours to do with as we please. So today is a bill day of nearly £300 covering council tax, electricity, gas and water. As we have a septic tank our water costs are minimal each month as we don't pay for sewerage but we do save up a little each month to cover the cost of emptying the septic tank should it need it. Total spend: £300 Isolation saving: £0 Friday is normally the day for planning the meals for the week ahead, doing the food shopping, doing housework and generally sorting my life out while the munchkin is at preschool (I'm contracted to do four days a week and do try to be strict with myself and not do anything other than check the work phone for emergency emails from my team on a Friday). Fortunately we had done our monthly big Costco shop for stuff such as toilet roll, kitchen roll, tinned food etc. before the lockdown started. This week it has been fresh food, meat and some treats as well as additional baking supplies as I have really enjoyed the cake-making with the munchkin. We are also trying to support our local small businesses, so where possible we are buying from the local butcher and grocer. This is slightly more expensive but as the butcher has award-winning produce (his Italian sausages are to die for) it's worth it. There has also been a bit of an increase in the alcohol bill this week but looking at the hubby's face after a week of full-time entertaining our very active and demanding four-year-old I think he's earned it! Normally the hubby lives and works away during the week so while my weekly food shopping bill has gone up, this is probably just offset by what he is not spending on food when he is away. I'll call that a net draw - no pain but no gain either. Total spend: £150 Isolation saving: £0 We are really lucky where we live that we have an acre of paddock (no horses though - my budget isn't quite up to that kind of hit!) so there is plenty of space in the garden and the paddock for the munchkin to run around and drive his toy JCB dump truck. We also look out onto Stoodley Pike (pronounced Studley) so it's really easy for us to get out and about in the fresh air for free. Normally on a weekend we'd have taken a day trip out somewhere when the weather is nice but we are following the rules #stayhome. We did treat ourselves to a takeaway given we'd done such a long walk and got back a little later than planned. Sadly our favourite local Indian has closed to protect their staff and customers but a member of our local community has stepped up to help bring local information together in one place by creating a community website so we were able to find one that was still open. Total spend: £30 Isolation saving: Hard to judge as our day trips out can vary in cost. When we do go out I always pack a lunch and drinks but we often end up paying for parking and then a coffee and cake. I've gone with an average of £25. I took the weekly readings from the smart meter which came out at £34.50 for gas and £20.39 for electricity. While this is slightly more than normal, probably not helped by all the additional cups of coffee I am making while working from home the additional two days, it doesn't seem massively different. Thankfully the weather has been reasonably good with only a couple of cooler days this week. Had this been in the depths of winter it would have been a different story. Today was also the day I checked the digital banking to make sure all the direct debits for the bills had been paid. I was pleased to see that my gym has done what they promised and suspended all membership fees until they can reopen. So that's a £26 per month isolation saving, though I am having to make a special effort to do some of the free home workouts which is not as easy as people make out - I lack all enthusiasm when trying to do this in my living room! I also make sure that the standing order I have into my son's account is made. This is £100 as a rule each month but then, towards the end of the month when I assess what money we can transfer to our savings, I may top this up with more if we can manage it. I want to make sure that he has funds for when he is older, either for university or for a house or even as funds to start a business. It may not be much but it does all add up over the years. As he has a higher interest children's saving account, assuming the rate of interest stayed the same at its current 3%, £100 per month for the next 14 years (until he is 18) could be worth around £20,000. Total spend: £154.89 Isolation saving: £6.50. As the gym membership is per month I've divided this by four to get an average weekly saving. Total spent this week: £2,447.78 Total weekly isolation savings: £65.50 How does Claire feel about her week? While this week's spend might look horrific, it's worth noting that this is practically all our monthly spending in one week. With the exception of our weekly food shop, my phone bill and the cost of childcare, all our bills are paid in the few days after the start of the month. We then know that whatever money we have left is ours to do with as we wish - spend it or save it. That really helps give clarity and means we don't spend beyond our means. With having to stay closer to home we have made some savings, and not commuting to Manchester two days a week has made a difference to travel costs this week. The additional costs for electricity, gas and food are noticeable but not actually as much as I thought they would be. I am just so thankful that where we are we have fabulous outdoor space where we can keep the munchkin busy, ourselves exercised and make sure we can stop ourselves from going stir crazy! Here's to hoping that this all ends soon and that people can stay safe and well. We're looking for more people to share what they spend their money on. If you're interested, please email my.money@bbc.co.uk or get in touch via our My Money (World) Facebook group, or if you live in the UK, please join our My Money (UK) Facebook group and we'll aim to contact you.

माई मनी एक श्रृंखला है जिसमें देखा जाता है कि लोग अपना पैसा कैसे खर्च करते हैं-और कभी-कभी उन्हें कठिन निर्णय लेने पड़ते हैं। यहाँ, ब्रिटेन के वेस्ट यॉर्कशायर से पीडब्ल्यूसी की एक लेखा परीक्षक क्लेयर मिलिंगटन हमें अपने जीवन में एक सप्ताह के माध्यम से ले जाती है, क्योंकि देश कोरोनावायरस महामारी से गुजर रहा है।


Kenley death: Murder investigation after Paul McCarroll stabbed

Summary: A murder investigation has been launched in Croydon, south London, after a 45-year-old man was found with fatal stab injuries on Friday evening.

Paul McCarroll was found inside a home in Oaks Road, Kenley, and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met said. A 34-year-old man was arrested nearby on suspicion of murder and taken to a south London hospital for treatment to a minor injury. He has since been taken into custody. Met detectives said both men knew each other. Mr McCarroll's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specially-trained officers, the Met said. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

दक्षिण लंदन के क्रॉयडन में शुक्रवार शाम को एक 45 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को चाकू के घातक घावों के साथ पाए जाने के बाद हत्या की जांच शुरू की गई है।


Christmas traffic: Where to avoid on the roads and rail

Summary: The Christmas getaway means congested roads and cancelled trains. Drivers have been warned of possible delays of nearly two hours as millions of cars take to the motorways. But where should you avoid and at what times will traffic be busiest?

Traffic experts expect Friday afternoon to be busy as shoppers, commuters and people trying to go away for Christmas all use the same roads. Most roadworks on motorways in England were lifted or finished by 06:00 GMT on Friday but some have had to stay in place for safety reasons. Meanwhile, strike action by South Western Railway and Northern rail workers on Saturday will come ahead of hundreds of engineering works over the Christmas period that will affect major stations including London Victoria and Paddington. The roads to avoid Inrix, which provides traffic information, said the section from the end of the M42 to Junction 8A of the M40 south, near Aylesbury, was likely to be very congested on Friday afternoon, with the typical 47-minute journey predicted to take almost two hours longer. The predictions are based on analysis of traffic flows during previous Christmas getaways. The route also includes 40 miles of roadworks. The RAC estimates about 2.8m journeys will be made by car on Friday. Based on a survey of its members, it predicts about 6.8m journeys on Boxing Day as drivers travel to see family and friends. Longest sets of roadworks over Christmas Highways England said 97% of roadworks on motorways and major routes were cleared by 06:00 on Friday and would not resume until 2 January. There are about 40 sets that will stay in place because it would not be safe to remove them. Traffic Scotland said most of its roadworks would also be clear but advised drivers to check its website. When to avoid the trains More than 330 sets of rail engineering works will take place between Sunday 23 December and Tuesday 1 January. Network Rail said it would do most of the works when no trains are scheduled to run, including Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Timetable changes affecting journeys on other days include: Workers on South Western Railway (SWR) will go on strike on Saturday 22 December in a long-running dispute over guards. SWR operates services from London Waterloo to Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire. The strike will begin at 00:01 and end at 23:59 GMT. More walkouts are planned for 27 and 31 December. Northern rail workers represented by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will also strike on 22 and 29 December as part of a series of walkouts on Saturdays in December. Very few trains are expected to run after 17:00 GMT on those days. Details of all engineering works are available from National Rail Inquiries.

क्रिसमस की छुट्टी का मतलब है भीड़भाड़ वाली सड़कें और रद्द की गई ट्रेनें। चालकों को लगभग दो घंटे की संभावित देरी के बारे में चेतावनी दी गई है क्योंकि लाखों कारें मोटरवे पर ले जाती हैं। लेकिन आपको कहाँ से बचना चाहिए और किस समय यातायात सबसे व्यस्त होगा?


Mackenzie Crook unearths metal detector sitcom

Summary: Mackenzie Crook is best known for his roles in The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean and Game of Thrones. He has now written and directed a BBC Four sitcom about metal detector enthusiasts, which was screened in Edinburgh on Monday.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter When Mackenzie Crook was filming Almost Human in Vancouver last year, he found he had too much time on his hands. Required only one day in seven, life was a becoming unbearably boring for a bright man cooped up all alone in a trailer. It is the sort of situation that can see depression inveigle its way into an artistic soul like rising damp. To stave off the blues, he started to write up an idea for a sitcom that had been swirling around his head for the past couple of years, triggered by an episode he had seen of Channel 4's Time Team programme. He set about writing his comic story about a couple of middle-aged men with a passion for metal detecting. He found that writing the scripts was a quicker and easier process than writing his two children's novels, The Windvale Sprites (2011) and The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth (2014). 'Very nervous' He hooked-up with TV comedy producer Adam Tandy, who worked on The Thick of It and Inside No 9, and started to send him drafts. Tandy liked his style. The more Crook wrote, the more he wanted control over the piece: an authorship that went beyond being its writer and lead actor and into the realm of auteur. Although he had never directed before, he backed his lifelong interest in art and drawing to have imbued him with a visual sensibility that, when supported by an experienced lighting cameraman (Jamie Cairney), would see him through. He made a ten-minute taster-tape and showed it to the BBC, who promptly commissioned six episodes. He says he found directing made him "very nervous", until he "relaxed into it". But having had the experience, he now has the bug. "I'd like to have a go at directing when I'm not in front of the camera… that's the way I want my career to go," he says. All of this has happened in the last few months. Last night, in the BBC's Edinburgh Festival Potterrow tent, a nervous Crook sat back for the first time and watched episode one of his creation in front of members of the public. "There were bits that I had forgotten were funny that people laughed at, and bits I thought were hilarious that nobody laughed at," he said in the Q&A afterwards. For a man who tracks his success back to the moment Bob Mortimer spotted his stand-up routine at the Edinburgh Festival well over a decade ago, he appears ill at ease in front of an audience. His innate charm and humour warm the room, but it is clear that the one character he loathes to play in public is Mackenzie Crook. (When he asked Tandy for notes on his acting performance in the sitcom, the actor/writer/director was repeatedly told: "Don't forget to smile.") In The Detectorists, he is one of two amateur metal detector-wielding men who hope to happen upon an Anglo-Saxon treasure trove in the rolling hills of the West Country. They make for a comedic odd-couple: Crook tall and skinny with academic pretensions, and Toby Jones: short and dumpy and as down-to-earth as the ploughed fields they scan. It is an unusual sitcom for the Twitter age. Its slow pace and bucolic nature make it feel more of a companion piece to classic 20th Century comedies like Last of the Summer Wine and Dad's Army, rather than the British answer to the snappy, smart-arse worlds portrayed in contemporary American funnies such as in 30 Rock or Curb Your Enthusiasm. 'Love letter' Crook describes the look and feel of the piece as a "love letter to the British countryside". There is nothing cynical or spiteful about the show's humour. Crook is not sending-up metal detectorists. In fact, he has become one himself - and quite the enthusiast. When asked about his most exciting find (a musket ball), he spoke with the sort of wide-eyed passion that is typical of the slightly obsessed male hobbyist. Or, put another way, exactly the type of person he was aiming to portray in The Detectorists. There is a more than a hint of Gareth from The Office in the air: the west-country accents, the amateur enthusiasts, and the over-simplified simplifications. That is, of course, the role that made Mackenzie Crook a star. And one, he says, he only narrowly got. Office job "It came down to two of us, me and Tim Plester, who has since become a friend," he explains. "One of them [Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant the show's creators] preferred him, the other preferred me, and for whatever reason I got the gig." Now, the making of his latest project echoes the actor/writer/director approach taken by Gervais in The Office. There is also a hint of Ricky Gervais in Crook's creative approach of building a project around an ensemble of like-minded mates. These are comparisons at which Mackenzie Crook will probably grimace. But not for long, if the whole thing comes full circle and it is his show picking up the Baftas and Emmys over the next year or two. The Detectorists will be on BBC Four in October.

मैकेंजी क्रूक द ऑफिस, पाइरेट्स ऑफ द कैरेबियन और गेम ऑफ थ्रोन्स में अपनी भूमिकाओं के लिए जाने जाते हैं। उन्होंने अब मेटल डिटेक्टर के प्रति उत्साही लोगों के बारे में एक बीबीसी फोर सिटकॉम लिखा और निर्देशित किया है, जिसे सोमवार को एडिनबर्ग में प्रदर्शित किया गया था।


Man arrested after bomb squad called to Bridlington house

Summary: A man has been arrested after a suspicious package prompted a bomb squad to swoop on a house.

Police sealed off the home in West Street, Bridlington, on Wednesday after being called by contractors working on the empty building. An Army bomb squad attended the home, where "suspected weapons" were also reported, but no explosive material was found, police said. Humberside Police said the man remained in custody. Some surrounding houses were evacuated while the bomb squad were at the scene. Related Internet Links Humberside Police

एक संदिग्ध पैकेज ने बम दस्ते को एक घर पर हमला करने के लिए प्रेरित किया, जिसके बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Two swans beheaded in 'horrific' Exeter attack

Summary: Two swans have been found beheaded in Exeter.

The first decapitated swan was found at The Quay on Saturday. The second was found in the same area on Wednesday. The RSPB charity said it "beggars belief" that anyone could harm the "beautiful and much loved" birds. Killing swans, which are a protected species, is a crime under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. People who do so could face a £5,000 fine per offence or up to six months in prison. More on the swan attacks, plus more Devon and Cornwall news Thomas Prideaux found one of the birds while on his way to work. He said: "It had a what looked like a pellet hole in its side and its head was clean cut off. There were feathers everywhere, but the head wasn't to be seen anywhere." Exeter City Council confirmed the "first decapitated swan was brought to the canal office last Saturday". It was reported to Defra on Monday. Devon and Cornwall Police said they believed the death of the second bird "appeared to have been a deliberate act". An RSPCA spokesperson said: "It is very distressing to think that someone has carried out such horrific acts towards these defenceless swans. "We would appeal to people's consciences to report any information they have about the deaths to the police." The force has closed its investigation due to lack of witnesses or CCTV evidence.

एक्सेटर में दो हंसों के सिर काटे हुए पाए गए हैं।


Smartphone app helps track red squirrels in north Wales

Summary: A new app is helping to monitor red squirrels in north Wales by keeping track of their location.

The Squirrel Location Map allows people to pinpoint the area where they have spotted the native rodent. The smartphone app was designed by Llandudno-based company Livetech in conjunction with Red Squirrels Trust Wales. It follows the success of a project which boosted the red squirrel population on Anglesey. Livetech managing director Paul Levy said the app would allow people to "engage with Red Squirrels Trust Wales" and to share and access information.

एक नया ऐप उत्तरी वेल्स में लाल गिलहरियों के स्थान पर नज़र रखते हुए उनकी निगरानी करने में मदद कर रहा है।


Winsford murder arrests: Three 16-year-old boys held

Summary: Three boys have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man who died following a "disturbance" in the street, police have said.

Keagan Crimes, 27, died after he and two other men were hurt in Cheviot Square, Winsford, at about 22:30 BST on Sunday, Cheshire Police said. The other men, aged 26 and 36, were also seriously injured in the incident. A police spokesman said the three arrested 16-year-olds were still in custody being questioned. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

पुलिस ने कहा है कि सड़क पर "अशांति" के बाद मारे गए एक व्यक्ति की हत्या के संदेह में तीन लड़कों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


£5bn for full fibre - do the numbers add up?

Summary: Three months ago, Boris Johnson set a hugely ambitious target - giving every home in the UK full-fibre broadband by 2025. Now, at the Conservative Party conference, the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has promised the funds to make that happen.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter Or has he? In the press release previewing a speech promising as much as £50bn in new infrastructure spending, there is this section about broadband. "We are setting out plans to invest £5bn to support the rollout of full-fibre, 5G and other gigabit-capable networks to the hardest-to-reach 20% of the country," it says. "This doubles the previous commitment to support rollout to the hardest 10%." Last year's Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, commissioned by Theresa May's government, set an "ambitious target" of full fibre - a pure fibre-optic cable running directly into the building rather than to a roadside cabinet - reaching 15 million premises by 2025. The whole country - including about 30 million homes as well as millions more businesses and public buildings - would be covered by 2033, it added. And a government statement at the time said this would "require require additional funding of around £3bn to £5bn to support commercial investment in the final 10% of areas". Fresh target But in June, as he stood for the leadership of the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson described that strategy as "laughably unambitious". Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said: "We should commit now to delivering full fibre to every home in the land not in the mid-2030s - but in five years at the outside." That 2025 target was reaffirmed - albeit somewhat less explicitly - in speeches after Mr Johnson won the Conservative leadership contest and as he entered No 10. There was talk of "fantastic full-fibre broadband sprouting in every household". Now, the chancellor is promising £5bn to make that sprouting happen - but fulfilling that pledge to move the target eight years earlier should mean the cost goes up. After all, this is a massive building project. Scarce workers will have to be recruited and trained and materials bought. Tell your builder your extension has to be built by Christmas, not next summer and you'll find the bill spirals. And it's not just about having a tighter deadline. The 2033 target envisaged the government providing funds to cover the 10% of the country that would not be reached by private-sector investment. Moving the goal forward means it now expects 20% of the UK won't have been covered by the commercial sector in time. So, the chancellor appears to be expecting to get a lot out of the £5bn, assuming he really is sticking to the promise of full-fibre for all - a much faster more extensive programme to bring the best possible broadband to everyone, without dipping deeper into public funds. I was given a glimpse of some of the issues last month, when I visited the remote island community on Grimsay, in the Hebrides, which had recently been given full-fibre broadband. It had proved pretty expensive, something like £4,000 to hook up each household, with much of the funding coming from the Scottish government. And while the inhabitants were naturally enthusiastic about the project, their neighbours on other islands had immediately begun asking: "What about us?" Watering down? There is one more puzzling thing about the chancellor's speech - does it contain a watering down of the prime minister's full-fibre pledge? It talks of investment not just in fibre but in "5G and other gigabit-capable networks". Now, some in the telecoms industry have suggested laying a fibre connection up every remote farm track or mountainside may not be sensible when other technologies such as 5G or even low earth-orbit satellites could supply similar speeds. But fibre purists - and that seems to include the prime minister - insist it is the only reliable option if we are not to have a two-speed country with rural areas left in the slow lane. And Mr Javid's team is not providing much more clarity, except to say "gigabit-capable" broadband networks will be provided to everyone and further details will be set out later this year in the National Infrastructure Strategy.

तीन महीने पहले, बोरिस जॉनसन ने एक बेहद महत्वाकांक्षी लक्ष्य निर्धारित किया-2025 तक यूके में हर घर को पूर्ण-फाइबर ब्रॉडबैंड देना। अब, कंजर्वेटिव पार्टी सम्मेलन में, चांसलर, साजिद जाविद ने ऐसा करने के लिए धन का वादा किया है।


Indyref2: What does 'once in a generation' mean?

Summary: Boris Johnson has rejected Nicola Sturgeon's call for a new independence referendum by insisting the 2014 vote was a "once in a generation" event. Why do people keep using this phrase, and what does it mean?

By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter Why is this coming up now? The debate about a second independence referendum has echoed much of the debate about the first one, because both sides see it as setting a useful precedent. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants the UK government to agree a transfer of powers to hold a vote, because that was the "gold standard" process used in 2014. Boris Johnson doesn't want another referendum, and is using some of Ms Sturgeon's own words from the original campaign as justification for saying no. The prime minister's letter rejecting Ms Sturgeon's request told her "you and your predecessor made a personal promise that the 2014 independence referendum was a 'once in a generation' vote. The people of Scotland voted decisively on that promise to keep our United Kingdom together." He has echoed this line whenever questioned about the matter, but the SNP insists times have changed and the party has an "unarguable" mandate for a new referendum. Who said what? In Alex Salmond's foreword to Scotland's Future, the white paper on independence ahead of the 2014 referendum, the then first minister said the vote would be a "rare and precious moment in the history of Scotland - a once in a generation opportunity to chart a better way". The document itself went on to state there was "no arrangement in place for another referendum on independence", and that "only a majority vote for Yes would give certainty that Scotland will be independent". Mr Salmond and his team used the phrase several times in interviews, including one with Andrew Marr where he said that "in my view this is a once in a generation, perhaps even a once in a lifetime opportunity". His deputy Ms Sturgeon, used that "lifetime" phrase during the final Holyrood debate before the referendum - as did three other SNP MSPs, before passing a motion which also called the ballot the "opportunity of a lifetime". Independence supporters contend Mr Salmond was stating his own view - he told Mr Marr that "it is just my opinion" - and that the position of his government cannot bind that of its successors. The SNP also points to the Smith Commission report on extra powers for Holyrood, published two months after the referendum, which stated that "nothing in this report prevents Scotland becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose". How long is a generation anyway? If you're an aphid of the rhopalosiphum prunifolia family, a generation is apparently 4.7 days. For humans, an essay for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy seems to have narrowed the length of the average generation down to somewhere in the range of 29 to 34 years. But how long is a political generation? This becomes a bit like speculating on the length of a piece of string. Scotland Office minister Douglas Ross took the scattergun approach of saying it should be "30, 40, or 50 years" in an interview with the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday. His boss Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, had earlier suggested a vote shouldn't take place during Ms Sturgeon's lifetime - which based on the average life expectancy for women of her age would be at least another couple of decades yet. Are there any historical examples which might help? There were 18 years between the two referendums on Scottish devolution, in 1979 and 1997. Mr Salmond cited this gap in that Andrew Marr interview, saying "that's what I mean by a political generation". Meanwhile there were 41 years between the referendums on EU membership in 1975 and 2016, a stretch pointed to by interim Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw. But shifting to another constitutional setting, the Good Friday Agreement stipulates that there should be seven years between border polls on Irish reunification. That figure is actually set out in legislation. Obviously the context of political history in Northern Ireland is quite different to that of Scotland, but the deal containing that seven-year provision was endorsed both by MPs and, obviously, in a referendum. Is it just a turn of phrase? The SNP contend that it was never their intention to shut the door on future votes - why would they? - and that the phrase was more a way of expressing how crucially important they thought the 2014 referendum was. They say it wasn't a "personal promise", as the prime minister claims, but the sort of rhetoric that politicians employ every day. Context can be key. For example, Mr Johnson said December's general election was a "critical, once in a generation" vote - but nobody really expected it to be the last Westminster poll for decades. The Tories say expectation levels are different for referenda - they are designed to settle binary questions, and happen far less frequently. The last thing we want, they say, is a "neverendum". Although on that latter point, there has been no shortage of referendums since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 - on the electoral system, on Scottish independence, on increased powers for the Welsh Assembly, and on Brexit. Do things change with time? The chief argument employed by the SNP for a new referendum is that things have changed substantially since 2014. The party says the UK that was talked about at the time, which Scots voted to remain part of, no longer exists. The Brexit vote is the key driver of this, given the 62% backing for Remain in Scotland - and it was the No campaign who insisted in 2014 that "Scotland enjoys membership of the EU because of our membership of the UK". The Conservative rebuttal to this would be that the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU - this was a change mandated by the people, and thus does not itself justify another change. Of course there have also been a slew of other votes since the referendum. In another interview in 2014 Mr Salmond said "the only circumstances in which you could have another referendum would be if you got an extra mandate at a subsequent general election". The SNP have come out on top in every election north of the border since then, most recently taking 45% of the Scottish vote in the general election - a bigger share than Mr Johnson's triumphant Conservatives got UK-wide. If that kind of form keeps up - particularly at the Holyrood election in 2021 - the prime minister may need to find a new catchphrase.

बोरिस जॉनसन ने एक नए स्वतंत्रता जनमत संग्रह के लिए निकोला स्टर्जन के आह्वान को खारिज कर दिया है और जोर देकर कहा है कि 2014 का मतदान "एक पीढ़ी में एक बार" की घटना थी। लोग इस वाक्यांश का उपयोग क्यों करते रहते हैं, और इसका क्या अर्थ है?


Exams go from control freakery to freewheeling

Summary: What's so remarkable and potentially risky about this replacement system for exam results in England is that it is so freewheeling, with teachers having huge flexibility over how to decide A-level and GCSE grades for their own pupils.

Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent Depending on your perspective, it's either a liberating outbreak of total trust in teachers - or a roadmap likely to be marked with headlines about "Exam Chaos 2" and some screeching U-turns over the months ahead. It's certainly an extreme change from the control freakery of the exam machine that operated before the pandemic, in which grades were relentlessly refined to stay in step with previous years, and where microscopic annual changes were measured by fractions of a percentage point. Now it's the free jazz of exam systems. Teachers can make their decisions using the evidence they choose, with no set limits on share of grades or any requirement to be pegged down by a school's previous results. No more exam nerves There will be training and guidance about grading and some random sample checks, and teachers will already have a detailed knowledge of the levels to which students should be working for different grades and have experience of carrying out their own moderation. But the biggest external element will be the test papers that exam boards will send out for each subject in the next few weeks. Even these will be optional for schools to use and will be marked by teachers They will "inform" rather than decide the final result, and the test papers will not be taken in exam conditions or have any fixed time limits on how long they have to be completed. The only exam nerves will be among publishers who used to sell revision guides. Not all teachers agree that these tests should be optional. The second-biggest teachers' union, the NASUWT, said a "golden opportunity" had been missed in not making tests mandatory and externally marked. Lack of alternatives But most teachers' and head teachers' unions have warmly welcomed a system that relies so heavily on teachers' professionalism and fair judgement. There is also the persuasive argument about a lack of other alternatives, particularly when Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is still bruised by last year's fiasco. For summer 2020 there was an attempt to build a complicated, algorithm-driven external system for calculating grades, but that fell apart spectacularly before, during and after the results were published. And after multiple U-turns, the results eventually reverted to teachers' predicted grades as the last plausible system standing. Even then - and there are still families angrily complaining about last year's results - the switch to teachers' grades left questions about fairness that are bound to recur again this year. Level playing field How do you know that one school will not be more generous in awarding grades than another school down the road, or in another part of the country? If one school is completely scrupulous and tough in its internal marking, how would that be fair against another school that takes a more optimistic approach? How do you factor in the different amounts of time that pupils have lost in school, and the potential levels that they otherwise might have reached? Last year there were persistent rumours about exam centres, not necessarily schools, which had given students remarkably high grades across the board - but the centre-level results were not published to show whether that was the case. Exam results can make a big difference to the life chances of young people and the Education Policy Institute think-tank has warned about "inconsistencies" likely to appear in grades this year. Teachers' leaders and ministers say the skill and professionalism of staff has to be trusted, and they know the abilities of their own students better than anyone. Borderline decisions and bias But there's going to be pressure on teachers too. Imagine teaching an A-level class and knowing the grades a student needs to get into university - and then you had to decide whether to give your student those grades or make them miss out. Would the benefit of the doubt be given if it was a close call? Or how about a student on the borderline for a good GCSE that would give them a chance to get a better job? While the exam boards might spot any obvious attempts to manipulate the system, hundreds of thousands of individual upward nudges will be much harder to identify. The appeal system could also push up results. And it could create some awkward decisions over matters of opinion rather than exam papers. What happens if a student feels that their teacher doesn't like them or was biased against them, for whatever reason? Grade inflation would seem to be a distinct possibility. Robert Halfon, chairman of the House of Commons Education Select Committee, tweeted that the Department for Education had to "ensure they do not bake a rock cake of exam-grade inflation". Universities have already been getting quietly nervous about the number of places they've already offered if everyone gets better grades than expected. But the exam system for 2021 has been launched. Turn over your paper now. Or not if you don't want to.

इंग्लैंड में परीक्षा परिणामों के लिए इस प्रतिस्थापन प्रणाली के बारे में जो बात इतनी उल्लेखनीय और संभावित रूप से जोखिम भरी है, वह यह है कि यह इतनी स्वतंत्र है, जिसमें शिक्षकों के पास अपने स्वयं के छात्रों के लिए ए-स्तर और जी. सी. एस. ई. ग्रेड तय करने के बारे में बहुत अधिक लचीलापन है।


Will Mike Pompeo run for Senate? Kansas waits and wonders

Summary: For many in Kansas, the home state of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the question is not if he will run for Senate but when he will announce his bid. Republicans see him as their greatest hope, a man who can unite their party. For Democrats in the state, he embodies their biggest fear.

By Tara McKelveyBBC News Mr Pompeo was in the state's largest city, Wichita, on Thursday with Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, and spoke with students about technology. It was his fourth trip to Kansas this year. People say he has come back frequently not to enjoy the weather - the state is known for bone-chilling winters and blistering summers - but because he hopes to run for the US Senate. Republicans in Wichita, his hometown, say they have been speaking with him privately about a campaign and have described those conversations with enthusiasm. But they and other Kansas Republicans, a group that includes evangelicals, Trump loyalists and moderates, are also planning for the time when President Trump leaves office. They see Mr Pompeo as the president's heir apparent. Republicans and Democrats alike say Mr Pompeo is a rare creature in the president's cabinet: even after several years, he remains scandal-free. "Pompeo played his cards well," says Friends University Prof Russell Arben Fox in Wichita. Mr Pompeo could run for the US Senate: the primary deadline is 1 June. Rep Roger Marshall and Kris Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, among others, are competing in the primary. They are vying for a seat that US Senator Pat Roberts, a Republican who will retire, has held for years. Mr Pompeo, 55, has said he is not planning to run for Senate and will remain secretary of state as long so as the president will have him. "I'm going to be there until he tweets me out of office," he said in Kansas in March. During his visit to Kansas this week, he said there was "no change" in his plans, according to the Washington Post. But those who know him are not convinced. His friends at the Pachyderm Club, an organisation for Republicans in Wichita, believe he is planning to run for Senate and have pinned their hopes on his future. "When Donald is not running any longer, he'd make an excellent Republican candidate," says John Stevens, a former president of the Pachyderm Club. Another club member, Paul Soutar, agrees: "The sky's the limit for Mike." They believe that Mr Pompeo, a devout Christian, has the right mix of religious faith and conservative beliefs in low taxes and small government. He has served in the US House of Representatives and as CIA director, roles that have helped him win the confidence of moderate Republicans. Walter Berry, the head of a Wichita company that sells construction equipment, thinks Mr Pompeo is the right kind of leader for the party. He does not "have all of the rough edges that Trump has", says Mr Berry, yet "has the right principles". Mr Pompeo is likely to win a Senate seat - either in the upcoming campaign or in the 2022 Senate election. Describing Mr Pompeo's "aura of congeniality", Devany Elliot, a university student in Wichita, says he would easily win the seat and could someday end up in the White House. "I know a lot of people in my life who would love to vote for somebody like that," she says. "It's something I find quite terrifying." For conservatives, Mr Pompeo represents positive change. Liberals see the situation in starkly different terms. But for now, he is keeping them waiting and wondering.

विदेश मंत्री माइक पोम्पिओ के गृह राज्य कंसास में कई लोगों के लिए सवाल यह नहीं है कि वह सीनेट के लिए चुनाव लड़ेंगे या नहीं, बल्कि यह है कि वह अपनी दावेदारी की घोषणा कब करेंगे। रिपब्लिकन उन्हें अपनी सबसे बड़ी उम्मीद के रूप में देखते हैं, एक ऐसा व्यक्ति जो अपनी पार्टी को एकजुट कर सकता है। राज्य में डेमोक्रेट के लिए, वह उनके सबसे बड़े डर का प्रतीक है।


Coronavirus: What global travel may look like ahead of a vaccine

Summary: Sun loungers separated by plexiglass. Blood tests and sanitiser spray-downs before flights. These might sound extreme, but they are real measures some in the travel industry are looking at to keep holidaymakers feeling safe and comfortable in a post-lockdown world.

By Mal SiretBBC News It's too early to say when international travel might restart again - Argentina, for example, has extended flight bans until September and a UK minister has said he won't be booking a summer holiday anytime soon. But what will overseas trips look like when they're able to be taken again? Here's what you might expect. The airport Many airports, including in London, have already introduced measures to cater for essential travellers based on government guidelines - so they might sound familiar. These include between one and two-metre distancing at all times (excluding people who live together), hand sanitisers distributed throughout the airport and efforts to spread passengers more evenly across terminals. In the US, the Transport Security Administration (TSA) says travellers should wash their hands for 20 seconds - in accordance with official guidelines - before and after the security screening process. But, at Hong Kong International Airport, testing is under way on a full-body disinfectant device. This, the airport says, can sanitise users within 40 seconds, using sprays that kill bacteria and viruses on skin and clothing. The airport is also trialling autonomous cleaning robots that move around killing microbes by zapping them with ultraviolet light. Similar robots have been tested in makeshift hospital rooms. Airports that have electronic check-in kiosks are encouraging passengers to use them where possible to avoid unnecessary interaction. Most will display posters that explain guidance measures and instructions throughout their buildings. James Thornton, chief executive of Intrepid travel group, says the process of passing through airports is likely to take longer because of stricter checks. "Just as taking out liquids and devices before going through machines has become the norm, so too will new social distancing guidelines," he says, adding: "It's possible we'll see the introduction of an immunity passport." Earlier this year, several airports announced they were introducing "thermal detection screening" in efforts to prevent the further spread of the virus overseas. However, the procedure divided experts on its effectiveness, as some people are said to be asymptomatic, and many airports will not be introducing it. Some have gone further, though, with Emirates offering passengers rapid Covid-19 blood tests prior to boarding at Dubai airport terminals. Emirates says the tests produce results within 10 minutes. On the plane As you take your seat, you'll have to picture the usual smiles from the flight attendants, who will most likely be wearing masks. You might choose to smile back, but you'll probably be wearing one, too - as more and more countries recommend their use. Your mind, meanwhile, should be at ease in the knowledge that most major airlines will have stepped up their cleaning and sanitation procedures, leaving your tray table, seat rest and safety belt suitably disinfected. If you've booked your flight with Korean Air, don't be alarmed if people appear in the aisle wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), as the airline says it plans to issue cabin crew with gowns, gloves and eye masks. This might be as good a time as any to appreciate that you won't be sharing either of your armrests, as most airlines have said that flights will not be fully booked and middle seats will be kept empty (at least to begin with). An airline pilot for Tui, who asked to be named only as Christian, said that while spreading passengers on a plane made sense in respect of distancing guidelines, it could prove "hugely prohibitive" and costly. "Losing a third of seats means either that airlines fly at a loss, or we go back to the good old days when a Paris to Nice return ticket used to cost £1,000 (€1,145; $1,245) in today's money." Christian says countries that rely heavily on tourism are already contacting operators. "I believe that we will see a small restart of flights to selected destinations towards the end of the season." At your destination How does an Italian beach holiday sound? Well, you could find yourself weaving between tall sheets of plexiglass used to separate sun loungers as you look for a shady spot in the sand. "I've seen drawings," says Ulf Sonntag of the Institute for Tourism Research in Northern Europe, "they are seriously considering this as an idea in Italy." Mr Sonntag says European destinations are also looking at ways to manage guests at hotels, including only permitting every other hotel to open, or every other room within a building to be occupied. "If the central aim is social distancing, then they have to work with that. It's not looking like pools can open at Mediterranean resorts," he adds. While restaurants are looking at spreading tables more sparsely, one Portuguese hotel chain, Vila Gale, said it had been "stocking up on hand sanitisers" and "drawing up a la carte menus to replace buffets". Nikolaos Sipsas, a professor of medicine in Athens, agrees that buffet meals are a big risk, along with pools, bars and beaches. "I see Greek beaches being sparsely populated, in other words there will be bathers, but they won't be close to each other. We will not see the phenomenon of organised beaches with towels right next to each other," he says. Other European countries have been discussing "tourist corridors" to connect areas and member states least affected by Covid-19. Croatia, for example, has already said that it may provide tourists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia with special access to its beaches this summer. Will this change the future of travel for good? You might not have enjoyed the sound of that hypothetical overseas holiday. And you're probably not alone. The fact is, more holidays in future are likely to be taken at home. "People are likely to be travelling less internationally, what used to be called a staycation will change, and could become the norm," Andy Rutherford, founder of UK-based tour operator Fresh Eyes, says. In the wake of the global pandemic, ship cruises, ski holidays and long-haul flights could lose their appeal, especially as the focus returns to green technology and ways to tackle the climate crisis, Mr Rutherford says. "Our commitment to travel must be based on mutual respect, solidarity and responsibility." Mr Sonntag agrees the pandemic may result in a change of habits: "Domestic travel might make people realise that you don't always need to travel so far." A recent survey by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) found that 60% of people questioned would wait for two months before booking flights after the coronavirus is contained - 40% said they would wait for at least six months. Boeing, which has cut 10% of its global workforce in response to Covid-19, has said it does not expect air travel to return to 2019 levels until at least 2023. IAG, the parent company of British Airways, said it could take "several years".

प्लेक्सिग्लास द्वारा अलग किए गए सन लाउंजर। उड़ानों से पहले रक्त परीक्षण और सैनिटाइज़र स्प्रे-डाउन। ये अत्यधिक लग सकते हैं, लेकिन ये वास्तविक उपाय हैं जो यात्रा उद्योग में कुछ लोग छुट्टियों पर जाने वालों को लॉकडाउन के बाद की दुनिया में सुरक्षित और सहज महसूस कराने के लिए देख रहे हैं।


Halabja: A 'lost daughter' finds her way home

Summary: In 1988 Saddam Hussein dropped chemical weapons on his own people - the Kurdish residents of the town of Halabja. Thousands died and in the chaos that followed many families were scattered. One woman, a baby at the time of the attack, was brought up in Iran but recently returned to find out whether any relatives had survived.

By Jiyar Gol and Kathryn WestcottBBC News "Tonight your destiny will be clear. Everyone in the crowd wants to know who your family is." Bizarrely, the climax of Maryam Barootchian's search for her parents and siblings is taking place on live television, in front of an audience of millions. Gathered in the auditorium where the announcement is to be made are four families eager to claim her. For Maryam's story is bound up with their own - all lost a baby on that day in March 1988 when Saddam Hussein's jets swooped down and dropped a mixture of mustard gas and nerve agents on the rebellious Kurdish community. Maryam, who is now in her 20s, was a baby at the time. She was evacuated with her family by Iranian troops and taken to Tehran by helicopter, though it would be many years before she found this out. In the process, she was somehow separated from her mother, whose sight had been damaged by the chemicals. She was then adopted and brought up in the Iranian town of Sari, close to the Caspian Sea, by a family whose 14-year-old daughter had recently died from leukaemia. Find out more Jiyar Gol's Our World report The Lost Daughter of Halabja can be seen on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News (click for transmission times). Readers in the UK can watch it after 04:30 GMT on Saturday on the BBC iPlayer. "One day they called from welfare, they said children are arriving from the war zone. Come and get one," remembers Maryam's adoptive mother, Fatemeh. It was she who chose the name Maryam, the name of her dead daughter. "I needed this name, I wanted to bring back her memory," says Fatemeh. The first night the baby slept in her arms, she felt "Maryam was back and alive again". But as she grew up, Maryam often felt things were not right. "One day I was playing with the other children in my relatives' garden. They told me, 'You cannot play with us,'" she says. "I asked, 'Why?' They said, 'Because you are adopted.' I did not understand what 'being adopted' meant. "They said, 'It means you are not the child of your parents. If you look at your family album, you will find that you do not look like them.' I went home and looked at my photos. They were right." Maryam's relationship with her adopted mother hasn't always been easy, but she was extremely close to her father, Hushang. At some point after she turned 18, he confirmed that she had been adopted. He explained that she was Kurdish, although he wasn't sure what region she came from. Shortly afterwards he died, and again Maryam felt the stigma of not belonging. "The day my father died, no-one consoled me. I was crying over my father's grave, and they said, 'Why are you crying? You are not his child,'" says Maryam. "Then I understood that my problems were only beginning. That my misery had just started. I felt so alone that, after two years, I asked my mother to help me find my family." She travelled to Iranian towns and cities with a large Kurdish population to search for clues, and luckily ran into two Kurdish social workers at Tehran airport. They had connections with the Halabja Chemical Victims Society, which has helped reunite seven "lost children" with their families by matching their DNA. "I knew I had been born around the same time as the chemical attack on Halabja," says Maryam. "And I thought I might be one of the children from Halabja whose family were killed or displaced." Luqman Qadir, the head of group, took up Maryam's case. "When this catastrophe occurred in Halabja, we were there, we saw what happened - so understanding Maryam's story is easy for us. We saw tens, and even hundreds of children who lost their parents, and were scattered in Iran," he says. No-one knows the exact number of children who are still missing. Maryam is one of a trickle of "lost children" who are now returning to Halabja, searching for their roots. "Losing your parents is a disaster for anyone, but it is particularly hard for women, because when they want to get married they will be asked about their background. That is why she was desperate to find out who she is," says Qadir. Maryam says that back in Iran a possible marriage had been floated but the family put it off when they discovered she had been adopted. "Repeatedly, as a child, I was told, 'No-one knows who your parents are, you might be illegitimate, you might have been the result of a temporary marriage, or you might have been found in a garbage bin or toilet.' But now I know I am from here I can hold my head high," says Maryam. When she arrived in Halabja in May to begin the DNA-matching in earnest, she found bereaved families desperate to claim her. Maryam didn't know how old she would have been at the time of the Halabja attack but each of those families had lost lost a baby at the time. Dr Farhad Bazarnji a specialist in genetic diseases in the nearby Iraqi town of Sulaymaniyah volunteered his services to help Maryam. She appeared on Kurdish TV and appealed for people to come forward for DNA testing. Dr Bazarnji tested 58 families before narrowing it down to just a handful. Maryam spent time with the families whose DNA appeared to be close enough to hers to indicate they might be related. One mother, Meliheh Qurban a women in her 70s, recalled fainting during the chemical attack with her seven-month-old daughter locked in her arms. "I woke up in Kangavar hospital in Iran. I was so confused I didn't even know if I'd had a child or not," she said. After such a long time, she found it hard to remember her baby's face. Asked if she believed Maryam was her lost daughter, she replied: "I hope so. God willing she is mine. I hope my dream comes true." For Maryam, the encounter was emotional. She lay in the woman's arms softly crying. "Having a mother is a great feeling, if she is your real mother," she said. "When I hugged her I wished she was my real mother." Next she met three sisters whose mother and father died during the attack. Their baby sister was last seen in their mother's arms. This time Maryam had no doubt. "They speak like me - very loudly. They laugh exactly like me," she said. "Many of their personal characteristics are like me and now I really believe that they are my family." The feeling was mutual. "I feel her heart is close to us and I love her," declared Leyla Nasraldin. "Not just that - her appearance, he eyes, her body shape, it's all the same." In August, the sisters join the assembled guests at the Halabja Peace Monument for the televised climax of Maryam's search. Dr Farhad now has a definite answer. "Everyone has been waiting for this moment for many months," he says. Silence. "Maryam, unfortunately your father is dead, he was one of the victims of the Halabja attack." Tears stream down Maryam's face. "But, fortunately I can tell you tonight - Maryam, you have a brother, Maryam, you have a mother, and you will be happy tonight because you are going to meet them. Until today you were known as Maryam, but today I can tell you your name is Hawnaz, and you are the daughter of Mrs Gilas Eskander." The agonising wait is over. Cheers, screaming and applause erupt from the crowd. An elderly woman wearing dark glasses gets to her feet and is led to Maryam. Gilas repeats her child's birth name, "Hawnaz" and, as she clutches her daughter, she is overcome by emotion, screaming and sobbing. Gilas Eskander was the last person to come forward for DNA testing in July, and she is a definite match. "I am so happy. I feel as if I am reborn, as if I am seeing the world through new eyes," she says. For the other families, it is a bitter disappointment. "After three months of psychological turmoil, I am torn apart," one of the sisters declares. "I thought my sister had come back to life. But tonight they have killed her. I really feel I have lost my sister Hannah tonight." Maryam's birth mother thought her daughter had died in the attack. She remarried and divides her time between Halabja and the Iranian town of Paveh, where she is still receiving treatment for her damaged eyesight. Maryam has been getting to know her older brother, who has flown over from the Netherlands to meet her, and a half-brother and half-sister. A younger brother has been missing since the 1988 attack. She has spent the months since Dr Bazarnji's revelation getting to know her extended family in Sulaymaniyah and Irbil. She grew up speaking Farsi, the language of Iran, and is learning Kurdish. She hopes to study in Halabja. The welcome Maryam has received from so many people will be matched by financial support from the Kurdish regional government, which has vowed to help all the lost children who find their way home. Jiyar Gol's Our World report The Lost Daughter of Halabja can be seen on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News (click for transmission times). Readers in the UK can watch it after 04:30 GMT on Saturday on the BBC iPlayer. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

1988 में सद्दाम हुसैन ने अपने ही लोगों पर रासायनिक हथियार गिराए-हलाब्जा शहर के कुर्दिश निवासी। हजारों लोग मारे गए और उसके बाद हुई अराजकता में कई परिवार बिखरे हुए थे। हमले के समय एक महिला, एक बच्चा, ईरान में पली-बढ़ी थी, लेकिन हाल ही में यह पता लगाने के लिए लौटी कि क्या कोई रिश्तेदार बच गया था।


Lewis Capaldi: From Bathgate to Brits success

Summary: Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi has scooped two gongs at the 2020 Brit awards, picking up best new artist and best song for Someone You Loved, which spent seven weeks at No 1 in spring 2019.

By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland News His breakthrough song also topped the US charts and earned him a Grammy nomination. In typical gallus style, the 23-year-old from Bathgate got up on stage clutching a bottle of Buckfast and delivered a speech like no other. He told the audience at the O2 that the ballad was not a song about his ex-girlfriend Paige Turley, who is taking part in the ITV 2's Love Island programme. "But it's actually about my grandmother who sadly passed away a few years ago," he said. "I hope to God ITV don't contact her to be on a reality dating show." He went on to thank his mother and father "for making love" before adding: "And thanks to my grandma... er, I guess, for dying." His speech was typically off-the-cuff, humorous and self-deprecating. Capaldi's debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent was released in May 2019. Last week, he appeared on the BBC's Graham Norton programme and was congratulated by the host on having the best-selling album of the year. "Last year, yeah, but this year things are going to go downhill," Capaldi responded. However, his career shows no sign of slowing down, with a sold-out stadium tour about to get under way. It is a rapid rise for the young star from West Lothian. Ross Coutts, who set up some of Capaldi's first shows in his home town, says he knew Lewis was talented but did not expect this level of success. Coutts knew Capaldi's elder brother Warren and promoted some of his shows. This led to the 11-year-old Lewis being added to the bill for an all-day festival in Edinburgh. "We ended up putting him on again at the end because we were that impressed with how he was sounding," Coutts says. According to Coutts, Capaldi played gigs around West Lothian to crowds of a handful of people but he was just honing his craft. "He would always be an acoustic act so he'd be on quite early and a lot of the time he'd play in front of two or three people," he says. "But he would always put his heart into the music." Following the Brit awards triumph, Capaldi's former teacher, Kirsty Moore, voiced her pride in the "cheeky chappy" pupil she taught at St Kentigern's Academy in Blackburn. She said: "His talent didn't come to the forefront until our school talent contest. At that time he was really small, he was only in first year, his stature was small, and this massive voice came out of that little boy - it was amazing at the time - and I thought, well he is going places." 'Who's this Capaldi fella?' In a social media video released last summer, Capaldi went back to Bathgate for a tour of his old haunts, including his local takeaway and a place called The Grange where he started out in music. "No matter what, the owners always supported us, so I owe a lot to them," he says. By the age of 17, Capaldi's homemade sound had attracted interest from music management and he released his first single in March 2017, attracting millions of Spotify streams and a record deal. He supported Rag'n'Bone Man, Niall Horan and Sam Smith as his profile rose but it was the release of Someone You Loved at the end of 2018 that changed everything. The video for the hit featured Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi, who is a distant cousin of the singer, and the song spent seven weeks at number one. Despite this, Oasis star Noel Gallagher still witheringly asked "Who's this Capaldi fella?", branding the Scottish singer an "idiot". Lewis reacted in typically playful style, claiming he had "peaked". 'Be more like Lewis' He posted a video on Snapchat saying: "What a day. It's Father's Day and I'm getting slagged off by a man who's old enough to be my da'." "I've never been more happy. Happy Father's Day, Noel." Gallagher carried on the spat by saying Capaldi looked like Chewbacca, prompting Lewis to swiftly change his social media name and profile picture to reflect Noel's comment. He also wore a mask of the Star Wars character when he appeared at Trnsmt in Glasgow in July. His humour on social media has been another way in which Capaldi has set himself apart from other stars, who often take themselves very seriously. Old friend Ross Coutts said Capaldi's management had encouraged him to bring out his real personality. "It has completely changed the way that the music scene is seen across social media," he says. "I believe that record labels are saying to their artists 'you need to be more like Lewis Capaldi'." Despite his massive success as the self-styled "Scottish Beyonce", there are still people who don't know who he is. He told Graham Norton that when he was at the Grammy's one of the people employed to fill the seats when the stars nip out of the ceremony for a break mistook him for another seat-filler and wanted to replace him. Capaldi told them: "I know I didn't win the Grammy but I thought I'd be able to stay until the end."

स्कॉटिश गायक-गीतकार लुईस कैपाल्डी ने 2020 के ब्रिट पुरस्कारों में दो गीत गाए हैं, जिसमें सर्वश्रेष्ठ नए कलाकार और समवन यू लव्ड के लिए सर्वश्रेष्ठ गीत चुना गया है, जिसने 2019 के वसंत में नंबर 1 पर सात सप्ताह बिताए थे।


Israel and the Palestinians: A conflict viewed through olives

Summary: For Israelis and Palestinians everything is politicised, even the olive harvest.

By Jeremy BowenBBC Middle East editor, West Bank The first time I realised how delicious olive oil from the West Bank can be was more than ten years ago when a Palestinian farmer offered me breakfast as I stood watching a broad strip of his land being destroyed. He was unlucky enough to live close to Ariel, one of the biggest Jewish settlements Israel has inserted into the land Palestinians want for a state. In the first few years of this century Israel was in the early stages of building its separation barrier, the complex of walls and high tech fences that it says are necessary to protect its people from attacks by Palestinians. The barrier would be less controversial if it followed the old 1949 ceasefire line. It was the boundary between the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Israel, until the Israeli army captured the area in the 1967 war. But instead the barrier takes big bites out of land Palestinians consider to be theirs. That morning it was the turn of the farmer to see the dark earth of his olive groves torn up. He had tried to move as many trees as possible, but his land was still going to be divided by a fence. He was going to have to get permits to tend his trees on the other side of the wire. Most farmers, if they are lucky get a day to plough and a day to harvest, assuming the Israeli army is there to let them through gates in the barrier. Powerful symbol He invited me back to his house, and served glasses of sweet tea, traditional taboon flatbread, cheese made from the milk of his sheep, and a great bowl of olive oil from his own trees. I could taste the fruit in the oil, and then a pungent, peppery mouthful. It was impossible to imagine the hills of the West Bank producing anything bland. Olive oil from the West Bank is perhaps the most political food in the world. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has politicised every part of life, from the birth rate to some burials. The annual olive harvest is about much more than oil. According to the UN office for humanitarian affairs, attacks by Jewish settlers in the last five years on Palestinians and their property have destroyed around 50,000 fruit trees, mainly olives. Palestinian farmers get a quarter of their incomes from olives, but it's about more than money. The trees are the most powerful symbol of Palestinian attachment to the land. A Palestinian farmer called Salah touched one of the branches of the most remarkable olive tree I saw during my trip through the West Bank. The central core was steel-hard caldera, ancient, gnarled, almost hollow and huge. I could not get my arms around even a quarter of the main truck, which makes the diameter something approaching 20 feet (more than six metres). Over centuries new shoots became branches and big trunks in their own right. It is more like a thicket of olives than a single tree, and it would be Salah's prize possession, except he talks about the tree as if it owns him. "Only God knows how old it is. But it might be around 4,000 years or more. I am honoured to be this tree's servant. The connection goes back to my father and grandfather. I feel so connected to this tree, it's as if it's part of my body and soul," he says. Salah Abu Ali says: "This is life, like water, honestly I love this tree. I have a relationship with this tree. I know what it needs, what pains it. When I'm around it, I feel safe, I would give it my sweat. This tree stands as a symbol to the Palestinian people, a history, and a civilisation. "How many generations have passed by it and are now gone, yet the tree is still here today and bearing fruit." Annual battleground Mr Abu Ali's land is in Wallejah, a village close to Jerusalem, not far from Bethlehem. The route of the separation barrier runs very close to the massive, ancient tree. Mr Abu Ali smiled at me as if I couldn't understand when I told him that the tree, however massive, was just a tree. For him it was a symbol of his life, the lives of his children and ancestors and their place in the land of Palestine. It was also economically important. The oil was sought-after, and expensive. I found feelings like that everywhere I went. The harvest is about much more than olives and oil. It is an annual battleground in the struggle for possession and control of land. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is enforced by violence and breeds violence. Jewish settlers and Palestinians attack each other. Some Jewish extremists believe the land is theirs alone, and the trees are legitimate targets. Increasingly too, olives have their place in the growing religious war between Muslims and Jews. In a valley not far below the Jewish settlement of Tapuach, I met Avraham Herzlich. He is a sharp, charismatic, and a religious Jew who emigrated to Israel from Brooklyn in New York more than 50 years ago. Mr Herzlich is a guru to the young men in his settlement. His daughter Talia was killed in a Palestinian gun attack in 2000, along with her husband, a rabbi who was the son of the notorious Jewish militant, Meir Kahane. He herds goats. Mr Herzlich says they give him a connection to the land he believes God gave to the Jews, a link to the soil and the vegetation that is unobtainable for Israelis living in Tel Aviv and the other towns on the Mediterranean coast, which can seem a long way from the conflict. He pastures his goats in olive groves that belong to Palestinians from a nearby village. His rangy, wiry animals stand on their long hind legs to pull and chew on the olive branches and the mature fruit. Under his arm, Mr Herzlich carries the Torah. He has an answer for Palestinians who are angry about the damage his goats do to crops. "Well, I tell them very simply this is our land. When I see an Arab with a tree I say this is Israel - this is the land of Israel. Are they are your trees? Then take them to your village. This is our land. It's not their land," says Mr Herzlich. 'This is our land' He brandished his holy book: "Torah tells us this land was given to the people of Israel, to the seat of Abraham, to the seat of and Isaac and Jacob, not to Ishmael. This is our land." And then Mr Herzlich produced what he said was not a threat, but a statement of fact: "I speak to the Arabs, I tell them I don't want to see them dying. "They have to leave. Because if they don't leave they're going to die here, they're going to die here. There's going to be another war, and the next war they're not going to be leaving. It's going to be a very difficult war. "You see there are many who speak about peace with the Arabs but a person that suffered so directly, the Arabs killed my daughter, and made my grandchildren orphans, you cannot measure the pain. The epitome of brutality are these people. They can explode themselves." Settlers like Mr Herzlich are leaders in their communities, but many mainstream Israelis, including some settlers who moved to the occupied territories for cheap housing and fresh air rather than to be closer to God, consider them at best an expensive nuisance and at worst a threat to the future of Israel and its democracy. But Mr Herzlich and other ideological settlers are important, because settlers dominate Israeli right wing politics and the debate over the future settlements is one of the key issues that would need to be discussed if ever there was to be another peace process. In the valley below Tapuach is a Palestinian village called Yasuf, where Bassem Rashed and his wife Naja were harvesting their olives. A few days earlier they had heard settlers had used chainsaws to cut down some of their trees, including some that were more than a century old. Mrs Rashed was close to tears and full of anger: "It feels like bringing up a child, and then losing him. Those trees are our base and roots. 'Everlasting war' "We felt we were burying a family member. Every week the settlers try to come down to our land. Our men try to stop them and fight them. "Those settlers say we should be the ones to leave? We prefer to die in our land, let them cut the trees, destroy the land, demolish the homes and attack the children, we will still remain in our land. We won't ever leave, and if they don't, this will continue to be an everlasting war." The problem is economic as well as emotional. Mrs Rashed says: "We have a lot less to harvest. We can't get to that land to get the oil and the olives. Almost a third of our harvest is up there, and we've lost all of it. "We used to take the kids and the old people out with us to the harvest, but we don't anymore. We worry about the settlers coming and attacking us. "We fear trouble, or getting beaten up, because even if we try to defend ourselves, it becomes our fault, and we're taken to jail or harassed, and we lose our travelling permits." In a valley not far from Ramallah, where Palestinians living close to a settlement were harvesting olives, two young Israeli officers, Or Maliki and Yam Matir, insisted the army did all it could to stop trouble between Palestinians and settlers. Public order, they said, was the priority and they did not automatically favour Israelis. The local Palestinian landowner, Abdullah Nassan, welcomed the soldiers and offered them tea from a blackened pot that was sitting on a bonfire of olive trimmings. Mr Nassan, who owns 7,000 olive trees, did not see things the same way. He pointed to an olive grove he said the settlers had claimed, which he and his men were not allowed to touch: "When there is a conflict they push us back and they let the settlers do whatever they want. "But the nice thing about them, when they're here the settlers don't come around. When they're not here they come around, they push us around with guns." He pointed to a settlement on a neighbouring hill. "Every time I come here they follow me from that settlement right there. It's very dangerous here to come alone. People are scared because the settlers are very violent and they will come down from that hill and they will harm them," he says. One day, says Mr Nassan, olives will be a vital part of constructing an independent Palestinian state. "It's a symbolic issue. This is the only thing that we have left to be honest. What else can we grip on, we have to hold on to the trees. Our goal is to protect our land," he says. Listen to Jeremy Bowen's report on Olive Wars, broadcast on Radio 4 on Sunday 7 December at 13:30 GMT.

इजरायलियों और फिलिस्तीनियों के लिए हर चीज का राजनीतिकरण किया जाता है, यहां तक कि ज़ैतून की फसल भी।