Will Gompertz reviews Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro ★★★★☆

Summary: In a world currently in a state of flux there are, at least, some constants. Kim Kardashian is still busy on Instagram, Piers Morgan is still busy on Twitter, and theatre producers across the globe are still busy putting on Shakespeare's plays.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter The Bard has been dead for more than 400 years but his work lives on and on and on and on, with productions perpetually running across the planet. Whether he wrote them on his own, or with a little help from his friends, matters not. The point is, the 37 plays for which he is credited continue to resonate around the world four centuries after their creation. And that is extraordinary. Most art dates and disappears. Some art sticks around only to become an interesting artefact or a slavishly worshipped icon. Not so with Shakespeare. His Elizabethan entertainments are not stuck in the fetid mud of the late Tudor court. They have moved with the times. Not simply because their themes and ideas remain contemporary, but more for the depth in which he explored incest, murder, racism, sexism, madness, betrayal and war. His genius was the precision of his writing and characterisation, but his longevity could be down to his ambiguity. William Shakespeare wrote with a poker face. His plays were full of opinion, but he rarely revealed his own, which left his work gloriously open to interpretation to those who wished to co-opt it for their own purposes. Hence, during the American War of Independence (1775 - 1783) both sides rallied their troops with Hamlet's famous soliloquy To Be or Not to Be, thinking it spoke specifically to them. Similarly, when it came to the pro-slavery southern states resisting anti-slavery laws proposed by the abolitionist north a few decades later, both cited the love of Desdemona (a white woman) for Othello (a black man) as legitimising their point of view. In fact, you could go through the entire history of colonised America and discover examples of how Shakespeare has played a prominent role in significant political and social shifts in a country he never visited and knew precious little about. You could write a very good book about it. Which is exactly what the Professor of English at Columbia University has done. James Shapiro is an academic who not only teaches Shakespeare, but has also learnt a thing or two himself from the Sweet Swan of Avon about the art of storytelling. His book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, is an unpretentious, fact-filled, lightly-written, meticulously-researched history of seven politically-defining moments that occurred in the US over the past 200 years. It's not remotely nerdy. There's no talk of iambic pentameters or assumed arcane knowledge. That would be contrary to the purpose of the book, which is to take Shakespeare out of the academic ghetto to demonstrate that all the world really is a stage and each and every one of us merely players. Shapiro starts and ends with the present day, telling a story about a recent production of Julius Caesar at the Public Theater in New York, in which an allusion is clearly made suggesting the current President is the eponymous Roman leader. And we all know what happened to him, don't we Brutus? I won't delve further into that particular contemporary tale as it would spoil it, other than to say it is a very potent example of the universality and power of Shakespeare's plays. Think of any major world event, and then think of every little inconsequential moment, and you'll find Will from Stratford has already captured it perfectly with piercing accuracy in beautiful verse. Abraham Lincoln was a big fan. So was the chap who assassinated him. As was Bill Clinton, and his one-time lover Monica Lewinsky, who placed this advertisement in the Washington Post on Valentine's Day 1997: HANDSOME With love's light wings did I o'er perch these walls For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt. •Romeo & Juliet 2:2 Happy Valentine's Day M As Shapiro explains, this public love note was intended for the then President, who, being a Shakespeare fan would have noticed Ms Lewinsky used a passage spoken by Romeo not Juliet - a gender swap that would have amused the great playwright who liked nothing more than a bit of cross-dressing. But the book is not all about him. The star of the show is America and its past, which in this instance, broadly starts with the Pilgrim Fathers arriving from England after a very rough crossing on the Mayflower in 1620 (four years after Shakespeare's death). As puritans, they were no fans of theatre, and Shakespeare was no fan of theirs, judging by the way he lampoons them in the guise of the pompous Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Nevertheless, those who followed in the Pilgrim Fathers' wake brought The Bard's words with them, and soon enough he had become a staple of American culture along with the Bible and apple pie. He represented the roots of a culture that had colonised America, the leaders of which saw themselves as Anglo-Saxon, and could claim as their own. Shakespeare was their poet laureate in perpetuity. Shapiro finds him in the country's troubled history of race relations, he has him as a protagonist in civil unrest and class war, and then used him as a pawn as America responded to an influx of immigrants in the early decades of the 20th Century. None of this is gratuitous; Shakespeare is indeed an actor in all these events. But he is not always the leading man as Shapiro sometimes suggests. To make the case, the author digresses too much on occasion, taking the reader down dreary alleys and winding corridors, which illustrate his deep knowledge of American theatre but wander off topic to the detriment of the broader narrative thrust. He tells a very good story about how the hit musical Kiss Me Kate evolved from a young producer watching a famous theatrical married couple squabbling backstage when playing the leads in Taming of the Shrew, and another about the film Shakespeare in Love, which is a little over-written but deals firmly and fairly with its disgraced producer, Harvey Weinstein. There has been so much written about Shakespeare, and a great deal about America's history, but by bringing them together James Shapiro has pulled off a masterstroke and illuminated both in a fresh, vivid, and thoroughly entertaining book. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter

वर्तमान में प्रवाह की स्थिति में दुनिया में, कम से कम, कुछ स्थिर हैं। किम कार्दशियन अभी भी इंस्टाग्राम पर व्यस्त हैं, पियर्स मॉर्गन अभी भी ट्विटर पर व्यस्त हैं, और दुनिया भर के थिएटर निर्माता अभी भी शेक्सपियर के नाटकों को प्रस्तुत करने में व्यस्त हैं।


Thailand dead elephants: Officials try to retrieve bodies

Summary: Officials are trying to retrieve the bodies of six elephants that fell to their deaths while trying to save each other from a waterfall in Thailand, warning that they pose a water contamination risk.

Khao Yai National Park officers have set up a net downstream from the bodies to stop them from reaching a major dam. The elephants died after falling from a notorious waterfall known as Haew Narok (Hell's Fall). Two others were rescued on Saturday. Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) said officials were called to the scene on Saturday at 03:00 local time (20:00 GMT on Friday) when a group of elephants was seen blocking a road by the waterfall. Three hours later, the body of a three-year-old elephant was spotted near the base of Haew Narok, and five others were discovered nearby. The two surviving elephants were found struggling on a rock. A park official told the BBC on Monday that officers had been monitoring their tracks and were confident they were safe, but experts have warned that their long-term survival may be difficult as elephants rely on large herds for protection and finding food. "The next mission is how to take the carcasses from the river. Six of them are still in the river and the river is very strong now," the official said. "We are using rope across the river and have a lot of people helping together to retrieve the carcasses." Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told the BBC the rescuers "hope to get the carcasses to an area where they can lift them with a backhoe (an excavating digger) and bury them there." "The decomposing bodies will be too smelly and spread of disease is a concern," he added. Saturday's incident is not the first of its kind at Haew Narok. A herd of eight elephants died after falling from the waterfall in 1992, in a case that brought national attention. Officials are now seeking to prevent further incidents from happening in the future. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa has ordered the construction of a barricade to stop animals from falling into the waterfall and called for food banks to be set up around the park in an effort to prevent food scarcity which can cause animals to approach dangerous spots, according to the Bangkok Post.

अधिकारी थाईलैंड में एक-दूसरे को झरने से बचाने की कोशिश करते हुए मारे गए छह हाथियों के शवों को निकालने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं, यह चेतावनी देते हुए कि वे पानी के संदूषण का खतरा पैदा करते हैं।


It's A Sin and HIV in the 1980s: 'By 25, I'd lost 50 friends to Aids'

Summary: "By the time I was 25, I had lost 50 friends to Aids and I stopped counting at that point."

By Miriam BarkerBBC News Mike Phillips, 53, was a young gay man in the 1980s and, like many others who have watched Russell T Davies' Channel 4 series It's a Sin, he has been reflecting on the HIV and Aids crisis it depicts. The programme has shone a light on the misunderstandings and the mistreatment of many gay men at the time. "I am still processing it now, those things that Russell writes about, there is truth in it," Mike said. He was told he was HIV positive in 1991 and, at just 23, he saw it as a death sentence. 'Seeing someone die at 27 was profound' "It was just a real shock, you know, being told you have possibly only got six months left to live, I just didn't know what to think. One of my best friends insisted on coming with me and we were both just stunned when I got my result. I am just so glad she came with me." Mike was in drama school in Cardiff at the time but his life was "turned upside down" by the diagnosis and in the months that followed he left, abandoning his plans of a career in acting. "I just thought it is difficult enough being out and gay in the industry, but being HIV positive as well, well it just isn't going to happen," he said. Mike, who was openly gay and had no plans to hide his sexuality, said he had to go to London, to an organisation called Body Positive, to find support and contact with people in his position. "That was a real great support for me, but what is awful is knowing not many of my peers from that group are still around today," he said. Mike felt there was a need for a group like that in Cardiff and decided to set one up with his friend Martin Nowaszek, who was HIV positive. But not long after, Martin became ill. Mike joined Martin's sister, her husband and a handful of his closest friends in round-the-clock shifts at his bedside in the final weeks of his life. He died aged 27. "Seeing someone of that age die in front of you was just profound - it was a huge privilege but profoundly painful." Mike said there was "always this uncertainty of who is going to go next" and there was a period with a "funeral every week" in his tightly knit community. But Mike, who was alienated from his family, said his friends got him through and he could see parallels with some of the characters in It's A Sin. "I had a lot of 'Jills' - Lindsey who came with me to get my HIV positive test result, we're still friends, she calls me little bro and I call her big sis. My friend Cath who came back from Cheltenham to support me, I call her my soul sis," he said. In the UK, 106,000 people are currently living with HIV, with 98% of those on treatment. Mike feels a memorial for those who have died as a result of HIV and Aids is long overdue. 'Everyone was terrified' Nigel Lewis remembers whispers about Aids from the United States and then in London. He came out when he was 19 but did not tell his family until he was 27. "It was called this 'gay plague' but no-one knew how it was spreading. Was it contagious? Everyone in the gay community was terrified, and all of a sudden everyone withdrew. "I can remember how all the pubs went quiet and emptied and some people avoided you due to ignorance. You could see they were embarrassed to talk to you. It was a very unkind time." The 63-year-old recalls sitting next to a close friend in a clinic who, when Nigel asked him if he was OK, replied "no, I have HIV". "He died not long after and I watched him keep it a secret and not tell anyone, it was terrible. "That was the other thing, the shame that the men had who had it. It was heartbreaking, I knew one lad really well, he ended up going into hospital and, because he was so ashamed, he wouldn't let anyone see him, so no-one cared for him. It was just horrible, so upsetting." Nigel said there were also good times but it was a fearful period. "You didn't even dare tell anyone you were gay, let alone your HIV status. It was a really worrying time." A scene in It's A Sin shows one character scrubbing a mug until it breaks. It brought back memories of Nigel's fears about his colleagues using his cup or spoon and that they might be worried they would catch Aids. Nigel said his friends and family stuck by him when he came out, but there were still challenges. "I had good friends, but we still had to fight all the ignorance, you would be fearful of wearing a red ribbon on World Aids Day and getting on the bus thinking you were going to get attacked." Nigel even suffered a homophobic attack on what he describes as "probably the worst day of his life". He was punched several times, leaving his face "unrecognisable". He lost his confidence and did not go to work, finding it hard to speak to even his closest friends for some time. 'A pretty bleak time' Craig Stephenson lived in Barry in the 80s and struggled to come to terms with being gay. But when an opportunity to work in London for a year in 1986 came up, it allowed him the space to come to terms with his sexuality. "It was a difficult time, under Margaret Thatcher's government and Clause 28 was happening, they were trying to stop local authorities promoting homosexuality as a way of life. "There was so much negativity around being gay and, at the same time, there was this kind of double whammy, this new disease that was ripping through the gay community," he said. The 57-year-old said it was not a pleasant time to be even thinking about coming out because of the negativity. "You just had this feeling you were going to be ostracised and it basically took me a lot longer to come out than it probably should have. So I was in my mid-20s when I moved back to Barry and I still hadn't come out properly." In 1989, he moved to Cardiff and felt he could be more open about his sexuality, but he felt you still had to be careful about who you told as there was a lot of homophobia. On top of this, Craig said the HIV epidemic cast a shadow over the gay community. "You knew people who were HIV positive or who had Aids and then you gradually no longer saw them, I had two friends who died of Aids. He added: "It was a pretty bleak time for gay people, people were losing friends, which emotionally hits you, it just felt like such a dark time. The adverts, bringing the only information available were so horrifying and scary. "It just wasn't a pleasant time at all. There was a lot of denial. People thought it was a choice to be gay and this disease they brought on themselves, people didn't understand it was an orientation and not a lifestyle choice." Craig said it was more prominent in other areas like London, but it did have an impact in smaller cities and towns. "There were people you know of who had died, even if you didn't know them personally you knew of them, because in Cardiff the gay community was quite a small, close-knit community." 'I had so much shame and guilt' Garry Brough grew up in Rhondda and left to go to London for college when he was 18 in 1985. He knew about HIV as it was in the news, and it was also the year that testing was first made available. Garry felt it made sense to get tested, and went every year. He was negative, up until 1991. "The test came back positive, and I just wasn't expecting it," he said. "I wasn't prepared for what that meant." Asking the doctor, he was told as he was negative last year, it was a new infection so he would have a couple of years of good health, then his health would start to fail and he was expected to be dead in five years. He was 23, in his final year at college about to finish his degree. Garry knew he was gay from a young age, but bullying led him to have a lot of internalised homophobia and he turned to drink to suppress those feelings. "I had so much shame and guilt and just had an inability to cope with it and to manage it. I had a few close friends who were incredibly supportive and my parents were cautiously supportive. "I remember them saying 'we want you to be happy but be careful of Aids' - that was one of the first things they said to me. "And at that point, if you were a gay man, you were just expected to get Aids, you didn't really know what being careful meant, there wasn't any clear information," he said. Garry said he remembers thinking "I am going to be dead before I am 30" and it was "a huge wake-up call". He refused the medication recommended by his doctor as he wanted to avoid the potential side-effects of the trial drug - the only one available at the time - and opted for alternative ideas. "Having given up alcohol and drugs, I then gave up caffeine and sugar and dairy and meat. I was doing tinctures of this and juices of that and in some sense it gave me some sense that I was in control when in fact I really had no control," he said. Refusing treatment for so long, Garry developed Kaposi's sarcoma - a type of cancer caused by a virus. A key cell count was low and he was diagnosed with Aids. He then started chemotherapy. By 1996, there was evidence that a combination of drugs was working and Garry started treatment on his 30th birthday. "Seeing people getting out of their death beds, being told to visit friends in hospital as they aren't expected to be around next week, and then next week they are in the club, it sounds dramatic but that is what happened." One thing he struggled with was accepting he was going to live and Garry said it took time to come to terms with that. "The fear of what life would be and could be like, not knowing what was going to happen and expecting ongoing illness, that was far more terrifying and took me a long time to come to terms with." It was at this point that Garry started volunteering and got involved in HIV peer support. He felt that is what got him through and he has continued to focus on it for the past 20 years.

"जब मैं 25 साल का था, तब तक मैंने 50 दोस्तों को एड्स के कारण खो दिया था और मैंने उस समय गिनती बंद कर दी थी।"


Bristol Kill the Bill: The protesters' perspective

Summary: Public reaction to Kill The Bill protests has been mixed. Some people were shocked by the scenes of violence they saw and others felt disappointed their voices were not heard. Protesters who attended the past three demonstrations have anonymously given their accounts of the events that unfolded on the streets of Bristol.

By Jasmine Ketibuah-FoleyBroadcast Journalist 'Generally law abiding citizens' Mark was a volunteer first aider and had to treat and send a large number of protesters to hospital. He said: "Are the police reacting to protester violence or are they reacting with violence to anyone, no matter how they are protesting? "There are thousands of generally law abiding citizens of Bristol who are supporting this cause. "I've been a youth worker here for four years. It's very disingenuous to par off the protesters as hooligans from outside Bristol. "I think Marvin (Bristol's mayor) was unfair in his statement saying we didn't represent Bristol and are politically illiterate. "We were there side by side with some of those violent protesters and didn't all condone their acts." 'It felt like revenge' Tom attended the protest on 23 March along with others who occupied College Green in their tents. He arrived with the intention to oppose the trespass elements of the Police and Crime Bill that could affect traveller communities way of life. He said police attacked them without provocation. "We saw the helicopter and riot vans parking up and asked the police what was going on. "We could see the camp was going to get attacked and as we got back there was a military sized presence lining up around the green. "They just waded in and started beating people, clearing the square and attacked people with their shields. "People were so diligently peaceful it was shocking to see the police reaction. It felt like retribution, like a revenge attack for Sunday's protest." Following the third protest, Supt Mark Runacres, from Avon and Somerset Police, said "reasonable force had to be used". "This is not something we ever want to do but we have a duty to uphold the law, prevent crime, and protect people and property. "Officers must be able to justify use of force and any complaints made to the force will be investigated." 'No one knew where to go' Student journalist and news editor for the Bristol Tab Ben Bloch said: "On the Sunday, there was a lack of police numbers compared to the crowd and they didn't seem prepared for it. "The amount of anger that people had towards the police. "People were very upset with some shouting general abuse at them and others were shouting about Sarah Everard, they felt the police couldn't protect them and others were just generally angry about lockdown. "Police have become a focus for the protests and with no organisers no one knows where to go." 'Pushing the police line' Editor of the Bristol 24/7 website Martin Booth attended all three protests and was mistakenly detained after one of them as he did not have his press identification card. He said: "There was a carnivalesque-style atmosphere on Sunday afternoon, as the march snaked its way through the city centre, as was the march on Friday. "It was a really positive atmosphere as was Tuesday when people had put tents up. "But that all seemed to change when it got dark. That was the demarcation between the peaceful protest and when things got more agitated. "From where I was standing, on the Sunday, it seemed when the first few people in the crowd started pushing at the police line, it started to take on a different atmosphere." 'Heavy handed police' Bristol student Tuff, 23, blamed the protests turning violent on the lack of organisation. She said: "It kept on ending in a stand-off between police and the protesters on who could stay there the longest. "Sunday was just chaos from both sides. "But on Tuesday, that was provoked by the police. "We had a communicator from the protesters' side talking with the police. "The last I saw of them they went to the police who told them they would be fine and that the protesters were allowed to stay there. "When he came back to the crowd, riot vans arrived so either there was a big miscommunication or it was a lie. "There were no bottles thrown, eggs thrown, no drunk people or people causing havoc, it was 100 percent the police that came in heavy handed and unannounced." Some contributors' names have been changed to protect their identity.

किल द बिल विरोध प्रदर्शन पर सार्वजनिक प्रतिक्रिया मिली-जुली रही है। कुछ लोग हिंसा के दृश्यों से हैरान थे जो उन्होंने देखे थे और अन्य लोगों को निराशा हुई कि उनकी आवाज़ नहीं सुनी गई। पिछले तीन प्रदर्शनों में भाग लेने वाले प्रदर्शनकारियों ने ब्रिस्टल की सड़कों पर हुई घटनाओं के बारे में गुमनाम रूप से अपना विवरण दिया है।


Trump wall: Transcripts of president's speech and Democrats' response

Summary: President Trump gave his first TV address to the nation explaining why he wants Congress to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border. It was swiftly followed by a response from the Democrats' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who oppose his plan. The stand-off has partially shut down government.

Here is a transcript of what they said: President Donald Trump My fellow Americans, tonight I'm speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border. Every day, Customs and Border Protection agents encounter thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country. We are out of space to hold them, and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country. America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation, but all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. Among those hardest hit are African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans. Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90% of which floods across from our southern border. More Americans will die from drugs this year than were killed in the entire Vietnam War. In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now. This is a humanitarian crisis. A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul. Last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the United States, a dramatic increase. These children are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. One in three women are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico. Women and children are the biggest victims, by far, of our broken system. This is the tragic reality of illegal immigration on our southern border. This is the cycle of human suffering that I am determined to end. My administration has presented Congress with a detailed proposal to secure the border and stop the criminal gangs, drug smugglers and human traffickers. It's a tremendous problem. Our proposal was developed by law enforcement professionals and border agents at the Department of Homeland Security. These are the resources they have requested to properly perform their mission and keep America safe. In fact, safer than ever before. The proposal from homeland security includes cutting edge technology for detecting drugs, weapons, illegal contraband and many other things. We have requested more agents, immigration judges to process the sharp rise of unlawful migration fuelled by our very strong economy. Our plan also contains an urgent request for humanitarian assistance and medical support. Furthermore, we have asked Congress to close border security loopholes so that illegal immigrant children can be safely and humanely returned back home. Finally, as part of an overall approach to border security, law enforcement professionals have requested $5.7bn (£4.5bn) for a physical barrier. At the request of Democrats it will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall. This barrier is absolutely critical to border security. It's also what our professionals at the border want and need. This is just common sense. The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500bn a year. Vastly more than the $5.7bn we have requested from Congress. The wall will also be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico. Senator Chuck Schumer, who you will be hearing from later tonight, has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other Democrats. They changed their mind only after I was elected president. Democrats in Congress have refused to acknowledge the crisis and they have refused to provide our brave border agents with the tools they desperately need to protect our families and our nation. A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know. The federal government remains shut down for one reason, and one reason only, because Democrats will not fund border security. My administration is doing everything in our power to help those impacted by the situation, but the only solution is for Democrats to pass a spending bill that defends our borders and reopens the government. This situation could be solved in a 45-minute meeting. I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow (Wednesday) to get this done. Hopefully we can rise above partisan politics in order to support national security. Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences, and gates around their homes? They don't build walls because they hate the people on the outside but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimised. America's heart broke the day after Christmas when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien, [who] just came across the border. The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country. Day after day, precious lives are cut short by those who have violated our borders. In California, an air force veteran was raped, murdered and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history. In Georgia, an illegal alien was recently charged with murder for killing, beheading and dismembering his neighbour. In Maryland, MS-13 gang members who arrived in the United States as unaccompanied minors were arrested and charged last year after viciously stabbing and beating a 16-year-old girl. Over the last several years I have met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration. I have held the hands of the weeping mothers and embraced the grief stricken fathers. So sad, so terrible. I will never forget the pain in their eyes, the tremble in their voices and the sadness gripping their souls. How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job? To those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask, imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken. To every member of Congress: pass a bill that ends this crisis. To every citizen, call Congress and tell them to finally, after all of these decades, secure our border. This is a choice between right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is about whether we fulfil our sacred duty to the American citizens we serve. When I took the oath of office, I swore to protect our country and that is what I will always do so help me God. Thank you and good night. Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American people tonight about how we can end this shutdown and meet the needs of the American people. Sadly much of what we heard from President Trump throughout this senseless shutdown has been full of misinformation and even malice. The president has chosen fear. We want to start with the facts. The fact is on the very first day of this Congress, House Democrats passed Senate Republican legislation to reopen government and fund smart, effective border security solutions. But the president is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would reopen government over his obsession with forcing American taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall, a wall he always promised Mexico would pay for. The fact is, President Trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services for the health, safety and wellbeing of the American people, and withhold the pay cheques of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them veterans. He promised to keep the government shutdown for months or years, no matter whom it hurts. That's just plain wrong. The fact is, we all agree we need to secure our borders while honouring our values. We can build the infrastructure and roads at our ports of entry. We can install new technology to scan cars and trucks for drugs coming into our nation. We can hire the personnel we need to facilitate trade and immigration at the border. We can fund more innovation to detect unauthorised crossings. The fact is, the women and children at the border are not a security threat. They are a humanitarian challenge, a challenge that President Trump's own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened. And the fact is, President Trump must stop holding the American people hostage and stop manufacturing a crisis, and must reopen the government. Thank you. Leader Schumer. Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer Thank you, Speaker Pelosi. My fellow Americans, we address you tonight for one reason only. The president of the United States, having failed to get Mexico to pay for his ineffective, unnecessary border wall, and unable to convince the Congress or the American people to foot the bill, has shut down the government. American democracy doesn't work that way. We don't govern by temper tantrum. No president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down. Hurting millions of Americans who are treated as leverage. Tonight, and throughout this debate and throughout his presidency, President Trump has appealed to fear, not facts. Division, not unity. Make no mistake, Democrats and the president both want stronger border security. However, we sharply disagree with the president about the most effective way to do it. So, how do we untangle this mess? Well, there's an obvious solution. Separate the shutdown from arguments over border security. There is bipartisan legislation supported by Democrats and Republicans to reopen government while allowing debate over border security to continue. There is no excuse for hurting millions of Americans over a policy difference. Federal workers are about to miss a pay cheque. Some families can't get a mortgage to buy a new home. Farmers and small businesses won't get loans they desperately need. Most presidents have used Oval Office addresses for noble purposes. This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration. My fellow Americans, there is no challenge so great that our nation cannot rise to meet it. We can reopen the government and continue to work through disagreements over policy. We can secure our border without an ineffective, expensive wall. And we can welcome legal immigrants and refugees without compromising safety and security. The symbol of America should be the Statue of Liberty, not a 30ft wall. So our suggestion is a simple one. Mr President, reopen the government, and we can work to resolve our differences over border security. But end this shutdown now. Thank you.

राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प ने राष्ट्र को अपना पहला टीवी संबोधन देते हुए बताया कि वह क्यों चाहते हैं कि कांग्रेस अमेरिका-मेक्सिको सीमा पर दीवार बनाने के लिए धन दे। इसके तुरंत बाद डेमोक्रेट के सदन की अध्यक्ष नैन्सी पेलोसी और सीनेट के अल्पसंख्यक नेता चक शूमर की प्रतिक्रिया आई, जिन्होंने उनकी योजना का विरोध किया। गतिरोध ने सरकार को आंशिक रूप से बंद कर दिया है।


Malala Yousafzai: Schoolgirl friend recalls terror of shooting

Summary: A global "day of action" for girls' education is under way, declared in the name of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner shot by the Taliban last month. The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil spoke to a friend of Malala's who was also injured in that attack.

"It was mayhem," recalls Kainat Riaz of the day when her friend Malala was shot while they were on on their school bus last month in Pakistan's Swat valley. She says that her memories of that day are dominated by the sense of confusion and fear. Kainat received a bullet in her hand and Malala was shot in the head. 'Everyone was screaming' "First we thought it was a joke, when he [the gunman] entered the bus and asked 'where's Malala, who is Malala?' - but anyone can recognise her because we used to cover our faces but she never did. "The moment she said 'I'm Malala' he opened fire and with one bullet she was down," she told the BBC World Service Outlook programme. "It was a very terrifying and scary situation when he opened fire. "When Malala went down he was still there and I got a bullet in my hand. "I was just holding my hand and after that nothing was making sense to us. It was happening so quickly. "Everyone was screaming. People started crying. The driver realised what was happening so he didn't stop and tried to make a getaway." Showing considerable courage he drove the injured girls to hospital. Another friend of Kainat's - apart from Malala - was also shot and injured. Kainat remembers pleading to see her father on that terrible journey before she fainted. She does not recall what happened after that. The schoolgirl is now back home where she is recovering from her hand injury. Malala is now being treated at a hospital in the UK. Malala was widely known as a campaigner for girls' education in Pakistan. In early 2009 she wrote an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, who had banned all girls in her area from attending school. 'Nightmare' Kainat's father, Riaz , said he heard what happened from her mother and uncle and went straight to the hospital. "Her shawl and her trousers were covered in blood," he said. "I was worried that she got shot in the stomach too. "One thing was going through my mind. Will she survive? It was worse than a nightmare." When Kainat woke up in hospital she was in a state of panic. She recalls crying for hours. "People in the hospital wanted me to stay for treatment but I was scared and wanted to go home," Kainat said. "But I said 'no!' I want to be with my mom and dad and I just left." She remembers being scared that the attacker may come for her in the hospital. "That's exactly what was going on in my mind. I literally ran for my home," she said. Back in her house, Kainat is still recovering. She says that despite the guards outside her family home she still does not feel completely safe. "I have not been out of the house. There's something in my mind stopping me. I don't feel free to go out. "My grandmothers both say 'come stay with us'. It's strange, I used to love going but I can't go now, I'm still scared." Back to school One of the hardest things for Kainat now is not to think of what happened that day. "One my aunts was on the same bus and she visited me. I also spoke to the other girl who was injured. "Whenever we talk we go over what happened. We remember it but our parents say just forget it. "When I remember it all, I cry. I cry and I can't stop." But despite all her fears, Kainat went back to school to receive warm welcomes from teachers and students. "I want to be a doctor. I can't do that unless I go to school." Her father, a teacher, believes that education is the only route for Kainat and her colleagues. "Education is our destiny and we must make an effort to educate our girls even more than the boys," he says. Speaking of her friend Malala, Kainat said that she shared what she wrote about girls' education and other matters with her friends. "The interesting thing was that although she was scared she still [kept on] writing. "That gave us the courage not to be scared of anything. She made us powerful." Kainat had one last message to her friend. "Malala please be happy," Kainat pleads. "Have a speedy recovery; I'd like to see you healthy again. So, head up and stay strong. Come back so we can go to school together."

लड़कियों की शिक्षा के लिए एक वैश्विक "कार्रवाई दिवस" चल रहा है, जिसकी घोषणा पिछले महीने तालिबान द्वारा गोली मारे गए पाकिस्तानी स्कूली छात्रा प्रचारक मलाला यूसुफजई के नाम पर की गई है। बीबीसी की शैमा खलील ने मलाला के एक दोस्त से बात की जो उस हमले में घायल हो गई थी।


117 homes plan for Cardiff Bay look set to be approved

Summary: Plans for 117 homes on undeveloped land in Cardiff Bay look set to be approved.

Cardiff Community Housing Association and Morganstone have submitted plans for the development next to Cardiff Council's offices on Schooner Way. It will comprise an apartment block overlooking Atlantic Wharf with 85 flats and 32 affordable homes on the rest of the site. Planners at Cardiff council have recommended the plan goes ahead. A decision will be made on Wednesday.

कार्डिफ खाड़ी में अविकसित भूमि पर 117 घरों की योजनाओं को मंजूरी दी जाएगी।


Fast fashion: How to make clothes last longer and save the planet

Summary: What's the oldest item of clothing in your wardrobe?

Chances are you may struggle to top a 70-year-old dress - which happens to be Hannah's pride and joy. "It was passed down from my grandma to my auntie, then cousin, then me. There are so many amazing dresses like that, built to last." Radio 1 Newsbeat has been talking to sustainable fashion blogger Hannah about fast fashion - as MPs say clothing brands and retailers should pay to fund a clothing recycling scheme. Hannah's been giving us her tips on helping to protect the environment and revive the items in your wardrobe. Only buy things you really love or need Do you see yourself wearing that item at least 30 times? If the answer is no, then put it back on the rack. Hannah says the more items that factories have to produce - the more damage is done to the environment. "Commit to wearing clothes more than just once or a handful at times. It also ensures you don't waste your money on things that you don't actually love." Swap with friends Call up your bestie or organise a meet-up via the group chat. "Your friends might have some clothes that you may like and vice versa. Swapping wardrobes might also stop you from wasting money on something new." Upcycling Bored of that pair of jeans? Hannah says changing them into something new is a good option. Hannah says: "Around 11 million items of clothing go into landfills every day in the UK which is just a crazy amount. "If you're just a bit bored of the length of a pair of jeans sometimes I cut the hem off a bit just to give it a bit of a refresh. This keeps my clothes in my wardrobe for years longer." Get out the needle and thread "Mend your clothes," Hannah advises. "I find that if I have got a hole in a jumper or a pair of jeans with a broken zipper, I just fix them." Wash on lower temperatures "Washing clothes on 30° rather than 40° and not using tumble dryers is definitely better for the environment," Hannah says. Washing machines and tumble driers can also age your clothes faster. "There are lots of websites that give great tips on how to wash different fabrics and different bits of clothing so you can wash your clothes more sustainably." Don't bin it People in the UK send 235 million items of clothing to landfills each year, according to the most recent figures. Hannah says rather than throwing them away - often these items could be given to second hand or charity shops for a new lease of life. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

आपकी अलमारी में सबसे पुरानी पोशाक कौन सी है?


Manchester Arena Inquiry: 'Gifted' Eilidh MacLeod was a 'bundle-of-fun'

Summary: Eilidh MacLeod was "a blonde-haired, green-eyed, bundle-of-fun", the 14-year-old's family and islanders from Barra in the Outer Hebrides recalled in their "pen portrait" to the teenager.

Over the next two weeks, the relatives of the 22 people killed in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing will provide a personal insight into the lives of their loved ones. and how their lives were changed forever. Tributes to one of the attack's youngest victims came in a video with moving contributions from family and members of her island community, illustrated with stunning shots of Barra's landscape, haunting music and family photos. Her mother Marian said: "It wasn't hard to love Eilidh - even her date of birth was quirky 1/2/3 and she absolutely loved that." Mrs MacLeod recalled how Eilidh loved hanging about with her sister Shona, who was two and a half years older but described her younger sibling as her "best friend". "It didn't matter whether they were on the beach or in each other's bedrooms making lots of noise, listening to music, giggling and just having fun, working out the next caption for Instagram or Facebook," she said. The teenager loved make-up, her phone, social media, music, Harry Potter and playing in pipe bands. Younger sister Laura said: "Eilidh absolutely loved English - it was as if she had a dictionary stored in her head. "She once called me a filament which made me angry until I found out it was the inside of a light bulb and meant I was the light of her life." Islander Patrick Nicholson, who taught her to play the bagpipes and had known since she was a "wee girl", said she was "brilliant, keen and able". "She was a great wee player and I was very, very fond of her," he added. 'Brought joy' Her dad Roderick said how much Eilidh's "confidence just grew" playing in a pipe band. He recalled her joy when the band was honoured in an international pipe band contest nine months before her death. "It was just stunning - she was so proud that day," he said. "She was growing into a lovely young woman with this fantastic gift she was able to express herself with." Her aunt and godmother Margaret McNeill said Eilidh "brought joy to our lives from the day she was born - she was a blond-haired, green-eyed bundle of fun with perfect quips, one liners and an infectious laugh". The teenager's former primary school teacher Michelle McLean reflected on a happy girl who brought a "special warmth and glow about her" to the classroom. She added: "You are told as a teacher not to have a favourite but some children stick with you. Eilidh has a special place in my heart. "The whole island community misses her - as her teacher she taught me to be a better person." Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

14 वर्षीय के परिवार और आउटर हेब्राइड्स में बारा के द्वीपवासियों ने किशोर को अपने "कलम चित्र" में याद करते हुए कहा कि इलिध मैकलियोड "एक सुनहरे बालों वाला, हरी आंखों वाला, मनोरंजन का बंडल" था।


Queen's Birthday Honours: Mid-Wales volunteers recognised

Summary: Volunteers and charity champions from across mid Wales have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Aberystwyth University Professor Lynda Warren was conferred a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to environmental protection. Prof Warren, of Machynlleth, Powys, sat on the UK government committee for radioactive waste management. Five other Mid-Wales champions are honoured in the list. These are: 100-year-old leads Welsh Queen's honours Nursery owner 'humbled' to receive BEM Caernarfon mountain rescue volunteer honoured Flintshire Iceland boss knighted in Queen's honours

मध्य वेल्स के स्वयंसेवकों और चैरिटी चैंपियनों को रानी के जन्मदिन सम्मान सूची में मान्यता दी गई है।


Stolen van tumbles 150m over cliff at Freshwater

Summary: A stolen van tumbled 150m (500ft) from a cliff on the Isle of Wight and landed in the sea.

No-one is believed to have been in the Renault Master when it crashed near Military Road, Freshwater, where it was discovered at 10:30 GMT on Wednesday. Coastguards abseiled to the vehicle to check no one was inside. Police said the van was apparently stolen from Queens Road sometime between 21:00 GMT on Tuesday and 08:15 on Wednesday and pushed over the cliff. Witnesses and anyone with dashcam footage are urged to contact Hampshire Constabulary. Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links Hampshire Constabulary

एक चोरी की वैन आइल ऑफ वाइट पर एक चट्टान से 150 मीटर (500 फीट) गिर गई और समुद्र में गिर गई।


Air ambulance helicopter contract signed for Aberdeen service

Summary: A contract has been signed for the operation of a new air ambulance based in Aberdeen from next year.

The city was unveiled last year as the base for Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) helicopter. Babcock's four-year contract will see Helimed 79 - a Eurocopter EC135 - operate from Aberdeen International Airport from early 2020. The charity has operated an air ambulance since 2013 alongside two funded by the Scottish government. It is hoped the new Aberdeen service could help save scores of lives. The helicopter will join a stablemate already operating out of Perth Airport.

अगले साल से एबरडीन में स्थित एक नई एयर एम्बुलेंस के संचालन के लिए एक अनुबंध पर हस्ताक्षर किए गए हैं।


Cat trapped in car's engine for 30 miles

Summary: The RSPCA in Derbyshire wants to trace the owner of a cat which apparently survived a 30-mile journey trapped under the bonnet of a car.

The male cat, nicknamed Scotty, is thought to have climbed into the engine compartment from under the car while it was parked in Carlton, Nottingham. It was found by the driver when he arrived in Hasland in Chesterfield earlier this month. The animal charity said Scotty had escaped with some burns to his paws. Richard Woodwards, manager of the RSPCA's Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Animal Centre, said: "Sadly, because Scotty was not micro-chipped, we have no way of finding his owners. "He really is a sweet friendly cat and we just hope that there is someone out there who may know who his owner is." Scotty is black with a small patch of white chest fur, has not been neutered, and is about two years old. Anyone who can help trace the cat's owner should contact the animal centre.

डर्बीशायर में आर. एस. पी. सी. ए. एक बिल्ली के मालिक का पता लगाना चाहता है जो स्पष्ट रूप से एक कार के बोनट के नीचे फंसी 30 मील की यात्रा में बच गई थी।


Basque Eta: Spain's frozen peace process

Summary: Spain is obliged to release dozens of convicted Basque militants after a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and is not happy about it. Yet the move may help reconciliation in the Basque Country.

By Tom BurridgeBBC News, Madrid Nowadays the Spanish Basque Country is more famous for its mouth-watering food and incessant rain than for kidnappings, shootings and bombings. But the violence of the recent past still casts a shadow over modern Spain, while the process of reconciliation in the Basque Country moves very slowly on. Eta announced a permanent ceasefire just over two years ago. Events since then have been shaped by the fact that Spain's government is not a player in what barely resembles a "peace process". Officially, Eta and the Spanish government do not talk. In fact the current Popular Party government of Mariano Rajoy is committed to the "destruction" of Eta, which Spanish ministers believe they are close to achieving: some 40 alleged members of Eta have been arrested since December 2011. The group is already weak. Paul Rios, who leads Lokarri, a citizen-led Basque group working for peace and reconciliation, believes that because it so weak, there is little incentive for the Spanish government to enter talks. Mr Rios believes that Eta now only has around 50 members who are not in prison. New dynamic But former militants will soon be on the streets again, after the ECHR decided that a 2006 ruling by Spain's High Court could not be used retrospectively. The ruling had been used by Spain to keep Eta prisoners behind bars by exempting them from early release. However, because many Eta prisoners were convicted before 2006, the ruling means that at least 56 must now be released. The October release of Ines del Rio, a convicted multiple murderer, who served 26 years for several bombings which killed a total of 24 people in the 1980s, caused fury and disbelief. Angry scenes have greeted other Eta prisoners leaving jail in various parts of the country, and in Madrid, thousands gathered, including many of Eta's victims, to protest against the ECHR ruling. Several leading Spanish politicians on the right attended the demonstration. As author and journalist Giles Tremlett puts it, opposition to Eta is part of the genetic make-up of Spain's political right, and the current government of Mariano Rajoy. However he believes the implication of the ECHR ruling could be "quite positive". Some people in the government, he suspects, are secretly glad that the doctrine was thrown out not by them, but by an independent court. "But they can't say it publicly because the right wing of a very broad right-wing party would find that very difficult to swallow," he adds. Unlikely friends Away from the turmoil of recent weeks, other people with different backgrounds are working quietly to promote peace and reconciliation in the Basque Country. Axun Lasa and Mari Carmen Hernandez are unlikely friends. Ms Carmen's husband, Jesus Maria Pedrosa, was a Popular Party councillor in the Basque town of Durango. He was killed by Eta in June 2000. "They shot him near where we live, with one bullet in the head," she says. "I was listening to the radio at home and straightaway I knew it was him." Ms Lasa's youngest brother, Juan Antonio Lasa, was a member of Eta. Members of a state-sponsored paramilitary group, known as Gal, abducted, tortured and killed him and his friend and fellow Eta member Jose Ignacio Zabala. "In 1983 we had the terrible news that he was missing," she says. "Our nightmare went on for ages." The two men's remains were found in Alicante in 1985 but only identified 10 years later. 'So many suffered' Ms Lasa and Ms Carmen first met in 2007 on a trip to Northern Ireland, organised by the Basque authorities to try to foster reconciliation by victims on both sides of the divide. According to a study by the Basque government, there are around 900 victims of Eta violence and around 200 victims of violence perpetrated by the police or other groups linked to the Spanish security services. Ms Lasa wants the Spanish state to acknowledge this. "All the victims need to be remembered and recognised," she says. "So many have suffered on all sides." And despite losing her husband, Mari Carmen supports the ECHR's decision. She believes it is "just" that people who have completed their sentences, "however bloody their crimes", should be released. However she, too, wants more recognition of the damage done in the past. "What hurts me, is people who leave [prison] without recognising and taking responsibility for the irreparable damage they have done, to society," she says. Process stalled However away from the work by people like Ms Lasa and Ms Carmen, there are unresolved issues that stand in the way of the Basque Country's formal process of reconciliation moving on. The non-violent pro-separatist Basque political parties which have occupied the political ground once held by Eta and its political wing, want Eta prisoners to be relocated to Basque jails, so they are nearer their families. However the Spanish government is opposed to this and with little, or no, formal dialogue, the "peace process" has stalled. There is no sign of Eta getting ready to decommission arms or disband. That may not be possible until there is political change in Madrid or until Eta is, as Spain's interior minister puts it, "destroyed".

यूरोपीय मानवाधिकार न्यायालय (ईसीएचआर) के एक फैसले के बाद स्पेन दर्जनों दोषी बास्क उग्रवादियों को रिहा करने के लिए बाध्य है, और इससे खुश नहीं है। फिर भी इस कदम से बास्क देश में सुलह में मदद मिल सकती है।


Guernsey States approve sewage plant upgrade

Summary: An £11m upgrade to Guernsey's main sewage treatment plant has been approved by the States.

Due to get under way in January, the 17-month project involves building new inlet works and a stormwater storage facility at Belle Greve Bay. Public Services Department officials said the current plant was 40 years old and repairs had become lengthy and expensive. The project and its budget were unanimously approved by deputies.

ग्वेर्नसे के मुख्य सीवेज उपचार संयंत्र के 11 मिलियन पाउंड के उन्नयन को राज्यों द्वारा मंजूरी दी गई है।


Pembrokeshire council to end free black bags to save £83k

Summary: Residents in Pembrokeshire will have to buy their own black bags as the council looks to save more than £80,000 a year.

The council had issued a roll of 52 black bags to each household free of charge each year. But councillors have now voted to stop the supply from 2016 onwards, with an estimated annual saving of £83,000. Two years ago, the council reduced the size and quality of black bin bags, saving £130,000 a year. The council report said it expected that "some residents who do not currently participate in the recycling scheme would be encouraged to do so".

पेम्ब्रोकेशायर के निवासियों को अपने स्वयं के काले थैले खरीदने होंगे क्योंकि परिषद प्रति वर्ष £80,000 से अधिक की बचत करना चाहती है।


Could chip fat help dirty shipping clean up its act?

Summary: The global shipping industry is as big a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions as aviation. And the heavy fuel oil that powers its giant vessels is exceptionally dirty - packed with soot, black carbon and sulphur. So is it doing enough to clean up its act?

By Chris BaraniukTechnology of Business reporter Shipping is facing a big problem. In little more than a year from now it will have to conform to new international regulations on toxic sulphur dioxide emissions. But there's little consensus on how this should be done, with many companies dragging their feet as a result. Sulphur dioxide belched out by ships when the fuel is burned is harmful to people and can cause environmentally damaging acid rain. On top of that, the sector contributes about 3% to global greenhouse gas emissions - that's more than 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere. Could chip fat help mitigate these failings? In September, a biofuels program called GoodShipping announced that it had supplied a small container ship with 22,000 litres of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) - former cooking oil that has been turned into a diesel. When burned, it produces much less carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and particulates. Powering ships with biofuel has been done before, but the challenge is getting the industry to switch to cleaner alternatives in a big way. "We expect to be adding more, and larger, companies to our list of customers very soon," a spokeswoman for GoodShipping tells the BBC. A report by Lloyd's Register published last December argued that biofuels were probably the best way to help shipping lower emissions by 2030. But, the authors noted, "biofuels have two key, and coupled, challenges - sustainability and availability." Getting biofuels from food crops on a huge scale could push up food prices. It might be cleverer to make the fuel from algae instead, the report suggested. But algal biofuel has been discredited by some as being environmentally and commercially unsustainable. The world's biggest ships aren't about to switch over to running their engines on oil from plant matter or animal waste until there's a proven security of supply at an affordable cost. But the International Maritime Organization (IMO) says the sulphur dioxide content of shipping emissions has to be cut drastically from 3.5% to 0.5% by 2020. So how is the deadline to be met? This has become a massive talking point in the gigantic shipping industry that we rely on for practically all of the goods we own. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently warned that the world was running out of time to curb the potentially disastrous effects of global warming, yet shipping pollution has actually been getting worse in recent years as demand for goods rises. "The regulation is set in stone, as it were," a spokeswoman for the IMO says, as is the deadline. But the IMO is flexible in terms of how shipping firms try to cut their sulphur dioxide emissions: "We don't have a preferred option." Besides biofuels, shipping companies could switch to low-sulphur oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) or stick with the sulphurous fuel but install exhaust gas cleaning systems known as "scrubbers" to extract the sulphur dioxide. The trouble is, there isn't much time left to decide what approach to go for and many firms seem to be leaving it to the last minute. "There has been a head-in-the-sand approach for quite a while on this," says Jack Jordan at market research firm S&P Global Platts. The deadline was fixed two years ago, he says, "so you can't say they haven't had adequate time to think about it". Switching to a low-sulphur fuel oil has its challenges because refineries will produce a range of different products, which may not mix well together aboard ships. Plus, those new fuel products are currently more expensive than the high-sulphur versions. So many companies are opting to use scrubbers. A string of such announcements has surfaced in recent months, with some smaller firms, such as Greece-based Star Bulk Carriers, deciding to equip its whole fleet with the devices. But Simon Bergulf of Danish shipping giant Maersk - a self-confessed "huge sulphur nerd" - explains that fitting scrubbers is difficult, expensive work. It can cost around $2m-$3m (£1.5m-£2.3m) per ship. "It's like installing something the size of a 40ft (12m) container into a relatively small area," explains Mr Bergulf. "Each ship is a different project; even sister ships are different." More Technology of Business The company is installing scrubbers on just a few of its ships. And there are critics of scrubbers, too, because "open loop" varieties turn the captured sulphur dioxide into a dilute sulphuric acid that is washed out into the sea. "The sulphur isn't being removed from the environment, it's just being redistributed," says Alan Gelder at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. The IMO says it has strict rules about where ships should discharge scrubber run-off, and Maersk says it is making sure it will be "absolutely compliant" with those rules. Further down the line, ships may move away from burning fuels of any kind. Rolls-Royce announced in August that it had developed a new battery system for powering ships. Its offering is a lithium-ion device - a much bigger version of the battery in your smartphone - that is liquid-cooled. A 70m-long (230ft) vessel running on battery power was launched in China last year - ironically, to carry coal - so it is by no means an untested technology in shipping, even if it is unlikely to become widespread in the next few years. The first step towards cleaner shipping is getting over the 2020 hurdle - but there's a lot more work to be done after that to make this behemoth of industries less damaging to the planet.

वैश्विक जहाजरानी उद्योग ग्रीनहाउस गैस उत्सर्जन में उतना ही बड़ा योगदानकर्ता है जितना कि विमानन। और भारी ईंधन तेल जो इसके विशाल जहाजों को शक्ति प्रदान करता है वह असाधारण रूप से गंदा है-कालिख, काले कार्बन और सल्फर से भरा हुआ है। तो क्या यह अपने कार्य को साफ करने के लिए पर्याप्त प्रयास कर रहा है?


Study into opening new Bow Street rail station

Summary: A study to consider opening a new railway station in Ceredigion is being funded by the Welsh government.

There has been a long running campaign to reopen Bow Street station outside Aberystwyth. A separate project looking at reopening the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth railway line has already been agreed. Ceredigion council has welcomed the latest study and investment, with leaders saying the area "relies upon an efficient transport network".

सेरेडिगियन में एक नया रेलवे स्टेशन खोलने पर विचार करने के लिए एक अध्ययन को वेल्श सरकार द्वारा वित्त पोषित किया जा रहा है।


What went wrong at the Co-op Bank?

Summary: As a sobering assessment of missed warnings, leaders that could not see the wood for the trees and a failure of governance at a bank that very nearly went bust, Sir Christopher Kelly's report on the debacle at the Co-op Bank will take some beating.

Kamal AhmedBusiness editor@bbckamalon Twitter As the BBC revealed last week, the Kelly report says the root cause was the attempt to take over the Britannia Building Society. Sir Christopher says the merger "should probably never have happened", a view that could equally legitimately be taken about Lloyds Bank's takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland. Or the Royal Bank of Scotland's calamitous attempt to buy ABN Amro. The Co-op saw Britannia as an easy route to retail customers and a ready-made branch network. It received into the bargain a mass of commercial property assets "outside its risk appetite", according to Sir Christopher. Britannia had loan-to-value ratios - a key test of the stability of a bank - that should have made the board wince. Due diligence was "cursory" and what is known as the "fair value adjustment" - reporting the true value of assets and liabilities at the time of the deal - proved "woefully inadequate". It estimated a £284m adjustment downwards. The actual figure was later revealed to be £802m. Sir Christopher says "the Regulator did not object" to the deal. Why the Financial Services Authority kept quiet is a reasonable question, given that it had put Britannia on its own private "watch list" as an organisation in trouble. The report says that on capital "forecasting and planning" were poor at the Co-op, the bank's board was "ill-informed" and managing day-to-day budgets appeared more important than ensuring a healthy balance sheet. Key executives had little or no banking experience, Sir Christopher says. The person put in charge of the bank's strategy post-merger was an expert in human resources. On top of the bank's struggles to integrate the Britannia, the Co-op Group Board applied two further stresses - Project Unity, to bring together functions at the Co-op Group and the bank; and an attempt to buy 632 branches owned by Lloyds Bank. It was like attempting to fit after-burners on a Trabant. Sir Christopher touches on the culture of the Co-op, a section of the report which should be required reading for any budding management gurus out there. His report says there was a willingness to accept poor performance, a tendency to promote good news over bad and a dislike of challenge. Niall Booker, the present chief executive of the Co-op Bank, insists that that culture is changing. After its near collapse and restructuring, the Co-op Bank was bought by a number of American hedge funds and Co-op Group's stake fell to 30pc. Attention will now turn to the lessons in Sir Christopher's report for the Group, which has its key annual general meeting on May 17. What it says of governance will be the key. Will members be convinced by Sir Christopher's finding that "the methods used over the last few years to appoint members of the board have led to serious failures". Will they vote through governance reforms? Many argue that the future of the Group hangs on reform and that the banks which are supporting the Co-op Group despite quite eye-watering losses will demand action. Sir Christopher's report is likely to strengthen the resolve of those who argue that without reform, Co-op Group will not have the tools to fix itself.

चूक गई चेतावनियों के एक गंभीर मूल्यांकन के रूप में, जो नेता पेड़ों के लिए लकड़ी नहीं देख सकते थे और एक बैंक में शासन की विफलता जो लगभग ध्वस्त हो गई थी, सहकारी बैंक में पराजय पर सर क्रिस्टोफर केली की रिपोर्ट कुछ मार लेगी।


Campaigner feels 're-victimised' after peer's groping ban blocked

Summary: A women's rights campaigner has said she feels "re-victimised" after a peer she has accused of sexual harassment was told he would not face immediate suspension from the House of Lords.

Jasvinder Sanghera said she felt "bullied from afar yet again" after peers voted for the case against Lord Lester to be looked at again. She said it was "disheartening" how peers had focused more on procedural issues rather than her allegations. Lord Lester says her claims are untrue. The former Lib Dem peer faced being suspended from the Lords until 2022, the longest ban in parliamentary history, after Ms Sanghera accused him of groping her and offering her a peerage in return for sleeping with him. The Privileges and Conduct Committee, which oversees members' behaviour, said earlier this week that the 82-year-old peer had "failed to act on his personal honour by sexually harassing the complainant and offering her corrupt inducements to sleep with him". But when the issue was debated in the Lords on Thursday, peers voted by by 101 to 78 to send the case back to the committee to look at it again in the interest of "natural justice and fairness". Ms Sanghera said the allegations, which date back to 2006, had been upheld three times in the House of Lords and to now be told, in effect, that she was not "believed" realised her "worst fears". She said peers seemed to be more concerned about Lord Lester's reputation than hers, while those who had spoken out on her behalf had been "sidelined". "Sitting there watching the debate for me personally felt as if I was being subjected to being bullied from afar yet again," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I felt re-victimised. It was disheartening to hear members of the House of Lords straining to discuss me as an individual, what I did, what I didn't do. And nobody in that room, actually very few talked about the real issues here, the issues of sexual harassment and bullying." Ms Sanghera, a campaigner against forced marriage, was not named in the Lords report but waived her anonymity, in an interview with the Times, to encourage other women to speak out about harassment. She told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show that the peers' actions had sent completely the "wrong message" to victims of sexual harassment and bullying. She said she would still encourage victims to speak out, but added that she "cannot advise any person at the moment out there who is a victim of sexual harassment at the hands of a peer to give them confidence to come forward because I would not want them to go through what I went through". She said the Lords Commissioner for Standards, who carried out the original investigation, had followed the procedures laid down for her by peers and Lord Lester had not objected at any point during the probe. But Lord Lester, a veteran human rights lawyer who worked for several decades on gender equality and race relations, has welcomed the Lords' decision. He thanked peers who supported the amendment tabled by cross-bench peer Lord Pannick for "recognising the importance of process and now look forward to restoring my reputation". Lord Pannick argued that the investigation process was "manifestly unfair" and that Lord Lester should have had the opportunity to cross-question his accuser if, as he claimed, the commissioner was unwilling to do so. But the decision to refer it back to the committee was criticised by deputy Lords Speaker, the former Labour MP Lord McFall, who said it was "deeply disappointing".

एक महिला अधिकार प्रचारक ने कहा है कि वह यौन उत्पीड़न का आरोप लगाने वाले एक सहकर्मी को यह बताए जाने के बाद "फिर से पीड़ित" महसूस करती है कि उसे हाउस ऑफ लॉर्ड्स से तत्काल निलंबन का सामना नहीं करना पड़ेगा।


Chinese media hail Moon probe landing 'for humanity'

Summary: Chinese state media and internet users are celebrating the Chang'e-4 probe landing on the far side of the Moon, calling it "a major milestone in space exploration", and comparing it favourably to past American and Russian missions.

By BBC MonitoringThe world through its media State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) aired video simulations of the landing a couple of hours after it took place. Close-up pictures taken by the probe and relayed by the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge) satellite "lifted the ancient mysterious veil" of the far side, the broadcaster said. 'Dream of a shared destiny' The mission was cast very much as an achievement for the world, not just China. "The mission achieved humanity's first soft landing of a probe and the first relay communication between the Moon and Earth, opening a new chapter in human lunar exploration," CCTV said. The nationalist Global Times newspaper contrasted the "open and cooperative" nature of China's space mission with the US' Apollo and Soviet Union's lunar missions, which it described as driven by a "struggle for hegemony". China's lunar exploration mission "has always harboured the dream of a human community of shared destiny", it said. "Since the start of our lunar exploration mission, all of our images and data have been presented openly to the international community and used by scientists worldwide," it added. Questions over deleted tweets News of the landing also generated some speculation internationally on Twitter, after some journalists and scientists noticed that two state media outlets - the China Daily newspaper and the broadcaster CGTN - deleted tweets confirming that the landing had been a success. The reason for the deletions is unclear but both outlets later released new tweets on the story, similar to the deleted ones, with only the time of the landing added. Twitter is largely blocked in China but the topic was also discussed by a few Chinese users on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, which is tightly moderated. "China Daily and CGTN are both reporting the success of Chang'e-4 on Twitter. But there is no news at all from Xinhua back home," one user noted. Most users, however - numbering in the millions - expressed congratulations and pride in their country's achievements on Sina Weibo. Not quite most popular On most state news portals, including Jinri Toutiao, Sina, Sohu, The Paper, Global Times and Xinhua, the Moon landing ranked second in popularity after a political story very important to Beijing - President Xi Jinping's New Year speech on Taiwan on 2 January. On Sina Weibo, the hashtag "Chang'e-4 lands on far side of the moon" was also pinned as an alternating top theme for the day on the platform's "hot search" list, along with news of China's new e-commerce law. A number of users strongly criticised Sina Weibo for not giving the landing sole top billing. "Can't this be the top hot search item? Our country is too amazing!" demanded one Weibo user. "Scum Sina! This should be the first hot search item, OK? Great pride. Childhood dream!" said another, popular Weibo post. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

चीनी राज्य मीडिया और इंटरनेट उपयोगकर्ता चंद्रमा के दूर की ओर चांग-4 जांच लैंडिंग का जश्न मना रहे हैं, इसे "अंतरिक्ष अन्वेषण में एक प्रमुख मील का पत्थर" कह रहे हैं, और इसकी तुलना पिछले अमेरिकी और रूसी मिशनों से कर रहे हैं।


Israel's Netanyahu: Is 'King' Bibi's crown slipping?

Summary: Benjamin Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for a decade.

By Tom BatemanBBC News, Jerusalem His grip on power has been extraordinary, vacuuming up multiple government positions - at one stage a meeting between prime minister and ministers of defence, foreign affairs and health would have theoretically consisted of him talking to himself. Supporters and opponents alike point to the leverage he has had over vast areas of life in Israel including business, security and parts of the media. Not to mention how the US-educated articulate English speaker became the international face of Israel. No wonder some people, using his nickname, call him "King" Bibi. But on Wednesday night, the King sat ashen-faced in the centre of Israel's parliamentary chamber as the hands of a wooden clock outside moved towards midnight; his sense of control ebbing away with every tick. That was the deadline for him to get enough political parties to sign up to a record fifth governing coalition, which he would lead as prime minister. On paper this was a straightforward task. When he celebrated victory in the elections last month, the right wing and religious parties - usual coalition allies with his Likud party - could tot up 65 seats, well over the number needed for a majority in the 120 seat Knesset. But no coalition agreement was reached and his new government collapsed before it had even begun. So what went wrong? Sticking point The headline issue concerns a fracture that runs deep in Israeli society, between the religiously conservative ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, which is growing in number, and secular Jews whose lifestyles often align more closely with those in many Western nations. On one side was Avigdor Lieberman, leader of a secular nationalist party. He supports a new bill forcing quotas onto ultra-Orthodox young men to serve in the army. On the other side the ultra-Orthodox parties, which would make up a sizeable chunk of the coalition, object to national conscription for religious reasons. Mr Netanyahu needed both groups in his right-wing coalition. But they clashed. The ultra-Orthodox parties said they went as far as they could to accommodate the military draft law; Mr Lieberman said not far enough. Ultimately the Israeli PM could not break the deadlock, leading to the collapse of coalition talks. Cloud of suspicion But beneath the row was a deeper political rivalry, and a sense among some observers that Mr Netanyahu's crown was slipping. The Israeli leader and Mr Lieberman, a former defence minister, are old allies-turned-adversaries on the right wing of Israeli politics. Mr Netanyahu is facing corruption charges and his loyalists reportedly want coalition partners to agree to immunity from prosecution while he is in office. It has left him politically weakened, with a narrower range of options to choose from in building a coalition, and arguably more biddable to demands from potential partners. His rivals, like Mr Lieberman, are likely to have sensed his growing political vulnerability. They calculate that the Netanyahu era may soon be over, and are jockeying for position. In addition the Israeli prime minister's pitch to the electorate has been as the sole guarantor of Israel's security. He has tried to deflect international attention away from Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, and to move the issue down the agenda domestically. It has added to the sense that no realistic political solution to the conflict is on the horizon. Tough talk Mr Netanyahu's right-wing coalition partners tend to judge him by his performance on defence. Last year, Mr Lieberman resigned as defence minister, portraying the prime minister as ineffective in his handling of militants in Gaza. And in this atmosphere, a new political force rose to prominence at the April election - a centrist party led by a former Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who also tried to outflank Mr Netanyahu arguing for a more muscular approach. In the next election Mr Lieberman thinks he can win 18 seats (up from his current five), selling himself as tougher on security and a bulwark against what he sees as religious fanaticism governing Israel. The Likud party accused Mr Lieberman of trying to "eliminate" the prime minister with a "lust for power". As the left wing, Israeli Arab parties and the traditional "peace" camp decline in popularity, the second Israeli election in a year may again revolve around rhetoric over military prowess and national identity. Mr Netanyahu will fiercely try to hold on to his crown.

बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू एक दशक से इजरायल की राजनीति पर हावी रहे हैं।


Herring fishing faces decline in south Down

Summary: It's herring fishing season in south Down.

By Cormac CampbellBBC News NI South East Reporter Once upon a time there were more than 100 small herring boats fishing out of Kilkeel and Annalong. The locals say it resembled a village at sea. Today there are just a handful, in addition to a few larger trawlers. The skippers put this down to poor prices and small quotas. 'Dying out' "We get about £200 a tonne and we've a quota of 40 tonnes," says Peter Chambers. He's the skipper of the Jessie Belle and as an engineer by day and with five men working on his boat he is not fishing to make his fortune. The quotas, which are set by the EU and allocated by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) , are annual. It means the most the crew can make in a year from catching herring is about £8,000 as prices can fluctuate. "These villages and towns were built on fishing, and herring fishing mostly. It is sad to see the way it has died out the way it has" Peter says. "We are out here more as a hobby to try and keep the tradition going." As hobbies go it is part beautiful cruise and part brutally hard work. On board the Jessie Belle Our trip begins at 16:00 BST when we get on board the Jessie Belle in Kilkeel harbour. We spend about an hour searching for where the fish might be. On one side are the Mourne and Cooley mountains - on the other seemingly endless sea. Peter is at the wheel monitoring various screens which tell him what is around him and what lies beneath. At the back of the boat Brian Sloan is watching. He's the elder statesman of the Jessie Belle. He has been fishing herring for more than 30 years and he knows what he is looking for. Herring hunting "You have to look for the signs," he says. "Once you see the gannets diving at this time of year it is nearly a sure sign of herring. And once you see the seals you know there is herring." Brian's instincts are correct. Peter's screens show a glut of herring exactly where Brian says they'll be. But they are too high in the water for the Jessie Belle's net and they won't drop down until after nightfall. Anchoring up Peter marks the spot on his computer and we sail into Annalong Harbour. There to meet us is Trevor Orr of the Harbour Inn. He's prepared a selection of herring for us to try. "We do them in a number of ways - we do the pickled herring or the rollmats as we call them, we do smoked herring and today we poached some herring in Guinness and brown sugar," he says. Back on board the Jessie Belle, the night crew has arrived. They have all taken time away from their regular jobs for adventure rather than money. 'Herring fever' According to Bobby McGuinness, a joiner, herring fishing is in the local DNA. "They call it the herring fever," he says. "It means that once this time of year comes you can't wait to get out. "And then you are out and you are thinking, 'what am I doing here?' "It is just something that is in your blood. It's something you grew up with." 'A brutal and filthy spectacle' By this stage night has fallen, the herring have dropped and our nets are cast. When the haul comes in the hard work begins. The other boats are also fishing in the same place. Our nets get tangled with another boat and take time to free. When they're freed it isn't a case of simply flopping a full net into the hold. The fish must be vigorously shaken free. It's a brutal and filthy spectacle. Everyone and everything is covered in scales and guts. But it's a good haul. With the boat half full at midnight we are left back in to Kilkeel. The men will go again and won't return until morning. Then they will take their catch to market. After that, they then wash down themselves and their boat, go back to their normal jobs and wait until the conditions are good enough to go again, until their quota is reached.

साउथ डाउन में हेरिंग मछली पकड़ने का मौसम है।


'Crossing the Channel by boat is risky - we came by lorry'

Summary: Azis Hanna, from Iraq, was about to pay smugglers to get his family across the English Channel in an inflatable boat. But when his friends nearly died he thought again, says the BBC's Sue Mitchell.

Azis Hanna, his wife Maryam, and their five-year-old daughter, Chia, arrived in Dunkirk in October and made more than 20 attempts to reach the UK before finally succeeding last weekend, in the back of a lorry. For a while he had considered making the trip in an inflatable rubber boat. The smugglers made it sound quite safe, promising that one of them would travel in the boat with the migrants for 14 miles. "When you go to English water they then call the police, the police come to help take you to England. Every smuggler says like this," Azis says. At this point the smugglers themselves would travel back to France in an accompanying boat, the story went. But the experiences of two friends from the Dunkirk camp filled Azis with horror. Iranian Christians Bahador and Shoku, together with their children Maryam and Brinyamin, were driven to a beach south of the ferry port one winter morning and climbed into a small boat with six others. About 15 minutes after setting off, it capsized - and there were no life jackets. Seven-year-old Maryam says she was one of the only ones who could swim. "This water was so cold, so much cold. My feet were going cold, it made me want to die," she says. "I saw my brother, but couldn't get him." Fortunately Bahador was able to lift them on top of the upturned boat. Find out more Listen to Dangerous Crossings on Radio 4 at 11:00 on Wednesday 20 February Or catch up later online "The sea was going up and down so much," Maryam says. "It was strong and dark. My mum was crying and praying and others were shouting for help. They said we were going to die." Eventually they were rescued but both children had to be treated in hospital for hypothermia. The other story that put Azis off the boat crossing involved his friend Solomon, and Solomon's partner, Siree, both also Iranian Christians. They had already been at sea for hours when their engine failed. As efforts were made to restart it, the boat began to fill with a mixture of salt water and fuel - which burned their skin. "Our skin was burning, just so painful. We were just scared. Somebody was crying, someone was praying. The boat was drifting," Solomon says. "We were asking God, 'Why, what is happening to us? Why?' Me too, I ask God, 'Why God you take me from Iran to this sea to die here? Nobody knows where I am.' Three hours after our engine went off we were still at sea." It was dark when a small boat - British, Solomon thinks - picked them up and transferred them to a French vessel, and they were taken to a hospital in France. After hearing these stories, Azis told smugglers in Dunkirk that he wanted to make the journey by lorry. His mother borrowed £10,000, using her house as security, and paid the money to the smugglers' associates in Iraq. Then a long series of failed attempts began. Sometimes they were found by sniffer dogs at the French ports. On other occasions, the lorries set off in the wrong direction, heading into France towards Spain or Romania. On one occasion they climbed into a refrigerated lorry, but Chia could not stand the cold and started feeling unwell. Azis says the French police took a relaxed attitude if they caught him, often wishing him better luck next time. His successful crossing took place on Saturday. They were called by the smugglers during the day and travelled by bus from Dunkirk to a lorry park in Belgium. There they were put in the back of a Romanian lorry with another family and entered the UK via the Eurotunnel. They stayed hidden until Northampton, when they created a disturbance and the surprised driver let them out. Tackling smugglers DCI Neil Cripps of the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit says investigators sometimes have to allow unsafe boats to set off in order to gather evidence against the smugglers. "To get our best evidence and to do a long-term permanent disruption to this crime route, we have to balance and juggle an element of risk to people." An Iraqi Kurd smuggler operating in northern France, using the name Johno, says he spent four years in jail for human trafficking - then returned to the illegal business after his release. They hid in woods until one of Azis's cousins, who is already living in the UK, could pick them up. Hours later, Azis reported to a police station to start his claim for asylum. Azis says life in Iraq had become dangerous for him because of an earlier attempt to reach the UK as a teenager, 15 years ago. On that occasion his travelling companion had died, as he jumped from a slowly moving lorry. Years later the man's uncle contacted Azis out of the blue, blaming him for the tragedy, he says, and threatening to kill his daughter if he failed to pay £50,000 in compensation. Azis did not think of staying in France, because he speaks English, has relatives in the UK, and because the UK government helps refugees, he says. "They give houses and everything," he says. "In France it isn't like that. They do help, but nothing like that." He adds: "I am overjoyed and thank God for this. England is like heaven to me. No-one can hurt us here and we can sleep properly for the first time in months. My daughter can start school and get an education. She will be very clever and maybe even a doctor." DCI Neil Cripps of the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit says increased vigilance at ferry ports, and the increased risk of getting caught when travelling by lorry, is making sea crossings more attractive for migrants. "I am predicting, probably in the spring when the weather becomes calmer, that dinghies will start to increase," he says. Despite his family's disastrous experience, Azis's friend, Bahador, is one of those thinking of attempting the boat crossing again. "We want to get away from here," he says. "And we cannot come back to Iran because I am a Christian and would definitely die. The sea is dangerous, but Iran is more dangerous." You may also be interested in: More than 3,000 Nigerian migrants who failed to reach Europe, have been flown home by the International Organization for Migration. Many sold everything to make the trip and aren't sure how to face their families. Read: 'I sold all I had to go to Europe - now I'm home, and broke' Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

इराक का अज़ीज़ हन्ना एक हवा वाली नाव में अपने परिवार को इंग्लिश चैनल पार करने के लिए तस्करों को पैसे देने वाला था। लेकिन जब उसके दोस्त लगभग मर गए तो उसने फिर से सोचा, बीबीसी के सू मिशेल कहते हैं।


End of the road? Are major routes through cities outdated?

Summary: A report looking at Birmingham's transport network for the next 20 years has concluded the future of the Queensway tunnels should be examined. It is not the only place in the UK that relies on a route for cars through the city. So are such roads outdated?

By David LumbBBC News, West Midlands When it emerged Birmingham's Queensway tunnels would be closed for six weeks over the summer, it is no surprise there were predictions of "chaos". The main through route for the A38, the tunnels are used by thousands of drivers each day and have been an integral part of the city's transport network since they were built in the 1970s. There was some surprise, therefore, when the anticipated gridlock did not materialise. The reality was so different that a report into Birmingham's transport network for the next 20 years has called for a debate about how much they are needed, pointing out they create a "noisy unattractive barrier to intra-centre movement". Motorists in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow rely on similar urban routes - the A57M, A58M and M8. But do we really need them? 'Almost vandalism' "Our view is that it is entirely inappropriate to have major roads crashing through the middle of cities," said David Tittle, from the Design Network, which advises on design in urban environments across the country. He said while such roads were effective at getting drivers directly from one place to another they split areas down the centre, reducing the scope for development and regeneration. "The more we can do away with them - the better," he said. Peter Rayner, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and former advisor to the government's transport select committee, said major urban roads through cities "fly in the face of the inevitable". "In the future we will not have the oil to run cars so it is foolish to have large roads running through city centres," he said. "It's almost vandalism." Mr Rayner said councils needed to think about moving away from a reliance on such routes and instead concentrate on the development of integrated public transport and tram networks. There have already been a number of schemes to abolish major urban routes in the US to create extra space. In Boston, an underground highway was created to replace an elevated six-lane route which previously carried 200,000 cars per day through the heart of the city. Although the Big Dig project, which also saw the creation of two new bridges over the Charles River, overran by billions of pounds, studies have shown it has already yielded benefits. A study by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority said getting rid of the road had encouraged $5.3bn worth of construction projects in the freeway's vicinity which had generated nearly 36,000 new jobs. Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon, city bosses in 1974 closed the Harbor Drive freeway to make way for a 37-acre park. The three-mile long highway ran alongside the Willamette River and carried 25,000 vehicles a day. 'Trusted friend' But a report called the Seattle Urban Mobility Plan said the move had increased land values in Portland from a total of $466m to more than $1.6bn and reduced trips on nearby roads by just under 10%. Council bosses have already been looking at the long-term future of the A58M in Leeds and the M8 in Glasgow. Councillor Richard Lewis, responsible for highways at Leeds City Council, said he believed the city could cope without the A58m but said the council would need to do a lot of things to replace it. "It's a trusted friend," he said. "There may come a time when we don't need it anymore but we would not want to part company with it in a hurry." Mr Lewis said they were spending £20m to refurbish the east-west link at various sections and said: "I don't want to be spending large sums of money on something that is no longer fit for purpose." Meanwhile Alistair Watson, executive member for transport at Glasgow City Council, said he would welcome exploration of alternatives to the M8 but said any change would require a "radical overview" of how Glasgow connected to other towns and cities. And back in Birmingham? Katie Teasdale, from Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, believes the city could survive without its tunnels. "Yes of course, but there would need to be a genuine alternative in place," she said. "At the moment they are very important. Yes we want a safer, cleaner, greener city but we also need to make sure people can get from A to B." But Dr Pat Hanlon, a lecturer in transport economics at the University of Birmingham, could not see the benefit. "It would create such an accumulation of traffic at the bottom end by Bristol Road... I shudder to think what would happen to all the traffic," he said. "I would be really worried if they did that."

अगले 20 वर्षों के लिए बर्मिंघम के परिवहन नेटवर्क को देखने वाली एक रिपोर्ट ने निष्कर्ष निकाला है कि क्वींसवे सुरंगों के भविष्य की जांच की जानी चाहिए। यह यूके में एकमात्र स्थान नहीं है जो शहर के माध्यम से कारों के लिए एक मार्ग पर निर्भर करता है। तो क्या ऐसी सड़कें पुरानी हैं?


Syria war: Raqqa deal agreed to evacuate civilians

Summary: A deal has been struck to evacuate civilians by bus from the Syrian city of Raqqa, where so-called Islamic State (IS) is surrounded by a US-led coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

Under the agreement arranged by local officials, a convoy is due to leave on Saturday, a coalition spokesman said. But foreign members of the IS jihadist group are apparently excluded. Fighting is expected to continue for days before the former IS stronghold is fully liberated, the coalition added. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been besieging the city for nearly four months. They say about 100 IS fighters have surrendered in recent days. The coalition was not involved in the evacuation deal but the SDF reserve the right to search people leaving the city, a statement said. "The arrangement is designed to minimise civilian casualties and purportedly excludes foreign Daesh [IS] terrorists," it noted. The coalition said IS had been "hiding behind women and children for three years" and it was against any arrangement that allowed them to continue to do so Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an activist group that reports on the city, said on its Facebook page that dozens of buses had arrived there overnight, after travelling from further north. Civilians have been making dangerous journeys of their own to leave the embattled city. Raqqa became the de facto capital of the IS "caliphate" whose creation was proclaimed by IS three years ago, attracting thousands of jihadists from around the world. Enforcing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, the group used beheadings, crucifixions and torture to terrorise residents who opposed its rule. Nouri Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia which is part of the SDF, told Reuters news agency: "The battles are continuing in Raqqa city. "Daesh is on the verge of being finished. Today or tomorrow the city may be liberated."

सीरियाई शहर रक्का से बस से नागरिकों को निकालने के लिए एक समझौता किया गया है, जहां तथाकथित इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) कुर्द और अरब लड़ाकों के अमेरिकी नेतृत्व वाले गठबंधन से घिरा हुआ है।