Q&A: Academies and free schools

Summary: The coalition government is inviting all schools in England to become academies and encouraging parents to set up their own schools, called free schools. The Academies Bill, which paves the way for these changes, is currently being debated in the House of Commons. The BBC News website examines key questions about academies and free schools.

What is an academy? Academies are publicly funded schools which operate outside of local authority control. The government describes them as independent state-funded schools. Essentially, academies have more freedom than other state schools over their finances, the curriculum, and teachers' pay and conditions. A key difference is that they are funded directly by central government, instead of receiving their funds via a local authority. In addition, they receive money which would previously have been held back by the local authority to provide extra services across all schools, such as help for children with special educational needs. This is estimated to range from 4 to 10% of the funds allocated to the school. Academies do not have to follow the national curriculum. They can choose their own curriculum, as long as it is "broad and balanced". Don't academies exist already? Yes, there are more than 200 of them in England at the moment, all secondary schools. They were established by the Labour government, seen as a way of turning around the worst-performing schools and schools in disadvantaged areas. Under Labour, academies had to have sponsors - who invested up to £2m in return for receiving state funding directly from central government. Sponsors included businesses, church groups, charitable trusts and private schools. New academies were usually established with state-of-the-art buildings and the philosophy that transforming children's environment would help them engage more with learning. Academies set up before 2007 were able to set their own curriculum, but those which came afterwards had to teach the national curriculum in English, maths and science. Those academies will have to renegotiate their agreements with the government to to get the new academy freedoms over the curriculum. What is the government's vision for academies? The coalition wants all schools to have the chance to become academies, including primary and special schools, as part of an "education revolution". In its Academies Bill, which will make the legal changes needed for this academies expansion, the government says becoming academies will "give schools the freedoms and flexibilities they need to continue to drive up standards". Its says it aims to raise standards for all children, narrow the attainment gap between the most and least advantaged, and create a "world-beating system". However, in contrast to Labour, the coalition is focusing first on the top end of schools. It wants to enable schools judged "outstanding" by Ofsted to convert into academies by September, although it then wants successful schools to mentor struggling ones. Education Secretary Michael Gove sees academies as a way of cutting bureaucracy and giving more control to schools. The changes could mean thousands of schools opting out of local authority control and a much-reduced role for local councils in education. The Bill removes the need for local authorities to be consulted about the setting up of an academy. How fast will academy numbers grow? The Academies Bill is due to be passed by the Commons before MPs break for the summer. This will mean that some schools - those judged outstanding by Ofsted - can convert in September, if they are able to overcome the necessary legal hurdles in time. The government has not yet said how many schools will be in a position to become academies in September. More than 1,500 schools have expressed interest in becoming academies, it says. Labour questions this number, saying the schools were merely interested in getting more information. What is a free school? Free schools are schools which will be set up by groups of parents, teachers, charities, trusts, religious and voluntary groups. They will be set up as academies and will be funded in the same way - directly from central government. The Academies Bill will make it easier for such groups to set up schools by removing the need for them to consult local councils. The Free Schools programme attracted a lot of attention in the run-up to the general election. The scheme is similar to the Charter School system in the United States and the situation in Sweden, where non-profit and profit-making groups can set up schools - funded by the government - but free from its control. So is there a difference between free schools and academies? Essentially not, because free schools will be established as academies. But the free schools programme will give parents and teachers the chance to initiate in the creation of a new school if they are unhappy with state schools in a particular local area. The day-to-day running of free schools will often be by an "education provider" - a group or company brought in by the group setting up the school. The provider would not be allowed to make a profit from running the school. What happens to the schools left under local authority control? They will stay as they are. What are the criticisms of the Academies Bill? Labour and the big classroom teachers' unions are the chief critics. Labour says the changes will benefit more privileged neighbourhoods and that the best schools will be able to "suck the best teachers and the extra money", leaving those left under local authority being regarded as second best. Critics also say that the ability of local councils to provide extra services for schools such as help for children with special educational needs will be weakened if a lot of schools in an area become academies. The NUT (National Union of Teachers) said the move could spell the end of state-provided education and the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) that it could "segregate and fragment communities". There have also been fears that the changes will give too much freedom to faith schools or fundamentalist agendas - for example that they would allow the teaching of Creationism. These have been dismissed by the Education Secretary Michael Gove. He says to reach the necessary "funding agreement" with the government, a school will have to show that its curriculum is broad and balanced. How will academies be regulated? They will be subject to inspections by England's schools inspectors Ofsted as other schools are. The government has announced that all outstanding schools will no longer be subject to routine Ofsted inspections - and the first wave of new academies will all have been judged outstanding. The results of their public exams will continue to be published. What is the role of local authorities in schools now and how will that change? Local authorities have a duty to ensure that children in their area receive an education. They coordinate the admissions system - whereby school places are allocated - and will continue to do so, although academies will be responsible for drawing up their admissions criteria in line with the Admissions Code. Councils are also responsible for monitoring standards in the schools they maintain, in terms of their performance and financial arrangements. They will not have this responsibility over academies. Mr Gove has said he sees councils continuing to play a strong strategic role in the schools system. The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents local councils, says councils do not run schools but advise and support them. It wants clarification of what this strategic role will involve. It proposes a new role for councils, "as local commissioners of education". Councils pass on money allocated for schools to individual schools - in most cases about 90% of it. They use the remainder to provide services for pupils with special educational needs and those who are expelled or excluded from mainstream schools. Some money is also spent on nurseries. New academies will receive all of their funding allocation and will be expected to organise and pay for special education provision themselves. The government has said they will be free to choose to buy in these services from the council as well as other providers. Why has there been a row about the Academies Bill? The government has been accused of rushing the bill through Parliament. It wants the law passed in time for some schools to convert to academies in September. MPs have just a week to consider it on the floor of the Commons. Usually, a bill would pass through a "committee stage", when a panel of MPs would scrutinise it. But in this case, the committee stage is being taken on the floor of the House. The government has said it made an election pledge to allow schools to take on academy freedoms in September; that the bill has been scrutinised at length in the House of Lords and that taking the committee stage on the floor of the Commons allows more MPs to have their say on this important bill. The Department for Education has produced a list of "Frequently asked questions" on academies for its website.

गठबंधन सरकार इंग्लैंड के सभी स्कूलों को अकादमी बनने के लिए आमंत्रित कर रही है और माता-पिता को अपने स्वयं के स्कूल स्थापित करने के लिए प्रोत्साहित कर रही है, जिन्हें मुफ्त स्कूल कहा जाता है। अकादमी विधेयक, जो इन परिवर्तनों का मार्ग प्रशस्त करता है, पर वर्तमान में हाउस ऑफ कॉमन्स में बहस चल रही है। बीबीसी समाचार वेबसाइट अकादमियों और मुफ्त स्कूलों के बारे में प्रमुख प्रश्नों की जांच करती है।


Instant translation – no longer sci-fi

Summary: The idea that you could speak into a device in one language and it would emerge in another has long been a sci-fi fantasy. But this week that kind of automated translation came a step closer to reality when Skype launched the beta version of its Translator service.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter For now it's an invitation-only trial and the only languages that it can handle are English and Spanish. I tried it out, talking to Maria Romero Garcia, a Spanish professor in Seville, who works with Skype. What I found is that you have to use a good quality microphone and speak clearly in full sentences without pauses - otherwise the machine translation will kick in and interrupt you. But the results were not bad at all. I asked Maria what she had been up to that morning. She replied in Spanish: "Esta manana ha estado trabajando un poco poco y concertando citas para ver a mis amigos esta tarde." That came out in English as this: "This morning has been working a little bit and arranging appointments to see my friends this afternoon." The technology does struggle at times - when Maria's cat wandered in front of the camera I asked what it was called and Translator decided I'd asked whether it was cold. But there is a lot going on here, as Vikram Dendi, Microsoft's lead engineer on the project, explained on the line from the US. Live translation involves speech synthesis, voice recognition and machine translation - "each technology on its own is pretty complex, putting them together is a very difficult problem." As someone who studied languages at university, spending many hours toiling my way through translation - and seeing friends go into the interpreting profession - I could see that teaching a computer a language was a huge challenge. But it seems it is not a question of getting the machine to learn like a human. "It's not like someone who goes to school and learns a language by learning the rules," Vikram explains. "Computers use a different approach. They take large amounts of parallel texts - high-quality translated texts - and then use that text to build a probability base language model." Computers, then, are living off the work of human linguists, scouring the web for examples of translated text. If this blogpost is translated into other languages, for instance, it could help feed translation engines of the future. That means the poor old human translators are helping to build the robots that could take their jobs, doesn't it? Vikram Dendi says that is much too pessimistic a view - he believes that the explosion in internet use by people whose first language is not English will lead to a surge in demand for translation. "This will increase the amount of translation that will happen in the world - a portion of that will be done by technology and a portion by technology in conjunction with human translators." In any case, Skype's Translator and its rivals have some way to go before they can match the abilities of a skilled human linguist. You would not want them involved in vital negotiations between world leaders for example. But over the next decade, you can expect to chat to friends whose language you don't share without stopping to flick through a dictionary.

यह विचार कि आप एक भाषा में एक उपकरण में बोल सकते हैं और यह दूसरे में उभर सकता है, लंबे समय से एक विज्ञान-काल्पनिक कल्पना रही है। लेकिन इस सप्ताह उस तरह का स्वचालित अनुवाद वास्तविकता के एक कदम करीब आ गया जब स्काइप ने अपनी अनुवादक सेवा का बीटा संस्करण लॉन्च किया।


Wife cake and evil water: The perils of auto-translation

Summary: Imagine a far flung land where you can catch a ride from the Jackie Chan bus stop to a restaurant called Translate Server Error, and enjoy a hearty feast of children sandwiches and wife cake all washed down with some evil water.

By Mark SmithTechnology of Business reporter If such a rich lunch gets stuck in your gnashers, you'll be pleased to know there are plenty of Methodists on hand to remove your teeth. And if by this point you've had enough of the bus, fly home in style on a wide-boiled aircraft. But whatever you do, please remember that when you land at the airport, eating the carpet is strictly prohibited. No, I haven't gone mad. These are all real-world examples of howlers by auto-translation software. Joking aside, poor translations can have big implications for firms who run the risk of offending customers and losing business, or at least looking very amateurish. Yet we keep being promised that machine learning and natural language processing will soon make flawless, near-instantaneous translation a reality. So how long will businesses have to wait? Obscenities In January, Skype rolled out its real-time translation software, which allows voice-to-voice translation in seven languages. But even this hi-tech development was not without its teething problems, randomly turning Mandarin words into obscenities on one occasion. The glitch was spotted by photographer Tom Carter who was in China shooting a Skype commercial and had been using it to speak to people in Mandarin. When he said: "It's nice to talk to you" to a local scout in Yangshuo, Skype translated it into a very offensive stream of swear words. The issue was blamed on how the Great Firewall - China's way of censoring the web - had interrupted the Skype conversation. Neural networks Translation programs, such as Google Translate, have traditionally been built around phrase-based statistical machine translation. This works by analysing a back catalogue of texts that have already been translated - such as academic papers and glossaries. It analyses them in parallel in both their original and target languages, then uses statistical probabilities to select the most appropriate translation. Its effectiveness depends greatly on the quality of the original language samples and it's prone to mistakes, often sounding clunky and mechanical. For this reason, Alan Packer, director of engineering language technology at Facebook, said recently that statistical machine translation was reaching "the end of its natural life". Instead, translation tech is now moving towards artificial neural networks. These are structured similarly to the human brain and use complex algorithms to select and use the appropriate translation. But rather than just translate the words, a neural network can learn metaphors and the meaning behind the language, allowing it to select a translation that means the same thing to a different culture, rather than a direct literal translation which may in some cases cause offence. Facebook, which carries out up to two billion translations a day in 40 languages, plans to roll out such a system later this year. Search giant Google, too - which now offers 103 languages covering 99% of the online population - is also reported to be working on switching its translation service over to neural networks. But it has not said publicly how soon it plans to make that transition. 'Hard problems' But before you think auto-translation is on the verge of perfection, think again. Professor Philipp Koehn, a computer scientist and expert in translation technology at the University of Edinburgh, tells the BBC there is still some way to go. "There are very hard problems with semantics and knowledge representation that have to be solved first, and that we are not close to solving," he says. "The main challenges are when there is less explicit information in the source language than what is needed for generating proper target language." For example, Chinese doesn't have the equivalent use of plurals, verb tenses, or pronouns as in English, which makes exact translation very difficult, he says. And English doesn't use gendered nouns, which makes things tricky when translating into languages that do, such as French, Italian and German. Human touch Until these challenges are overcome, mistranslations are likely to continue, whether that's Chinese bus routes changing Sichuan Normal University Campus Station to The University Jackie Chan Campus Station, or restaurant owners calling their establishments "Translate Server Error". Although translation technology may be improving rapidly, the cost of failure is potentially huge, so many businesses are unwilling to put their faith in it entirely. Clem Chambers is chief executive of ADVFN, a global stocks and shares information website that covers over 70 stock exchanges around the globe. He says: "For us, when it comes to creating geographic and language-targeted websites, nothing beats having native speakers who actually have a thorough understanding of the financial markets. "Translation tech has come a long way and can provide good literal translations, but what we need is something that really speaks the language of the local end user, with all the subtleties and colloquialisms specific to their country." In other words, translation tech has its uses, but rely on it entirely at your peril. Follow Technology of Business editor @matthew_wall on Twitter Click here for more Technology of Business features

एक दूर की भूमि की कल्पना करें जहाँ आप जैकी चैन बस स्टॉप से ट्रांसलेट सर्वर एरर नामक एक रेस्तरां तक की सवारी कर सकते हैं, और बच्चों के सैंडविच और पत्नी के केक का आनंद ले सकते हैं जो सभी कुछ खराब पानी से धोए जाते हैं।


Private money, public controversy

Summary: It used to be the hottest of topics in Scottish politics. Three Holyrood elections ago, in 2003, the BBC's "issues poll" found that the private financing of public services was the most unpopular policy, and fourth on a list of concerns.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland (As you're probably wondering, and contrasting with 2016, "bobbies on the beat" was top, followed by nurses pay.) Private finance of public services has intruded into this year's Scottish Parliament elections in the kind of intervention that no-one could have foreseen - more than 7,000 Edinburgh pupils unable to attend school because of a risk that the walls might tumble on them. If you're in the business of government (or, indeed, the government of business), this is a serious issue. Parents need to know that children are safe at school. So does everyone else. Sorting things out is a priority. But in election season, so is the placing of blame. Is this a sign of the failure of the private financing of school buildings? Could the private funding model that is now being used by government ensure this could not happen? Does conventional procurement offer any better protection against walls falling down? To get at answers, some other questions might first be useful, to explain private finance of public assets. Here are some of them: How do we fund the building of schools and other public assets? Some projects are funded by conventional means. Government (or a council or a health board, Police Scotland or the Scottish Prison Service, etc) commissions a design, and after competitive bidding, a building contractor to build it. Once it is completed, it is handed over for the public agency to operate. If something goes wrong with the design, then the client or designer takes responsibility. If the building is faulty, the contractor retains responsibility for lots of things over 12 months, and long after that for latent defects. And what about private finance? I was coming to that. Over the past 30 years, private finance has been deployed to design, build and to operate assets. Government (or its agencies) negotiates a contract with private companies to build an asset such as a school. The private companies typically form a consortium comprising a construction firm, facilities manager and investment funds. For an agreed monthly fee, and usually for 25 or 30 years, the consortium provides and maintains the infrastructure. A lot of the profit from this is derived from managing the facility. That can mean facilities management of a school or clinic, but not the service in it, or it can extend to running every aspect of a prison. What is the appeal of the private finance option? With constrained capital budgets, it spreads costs over decades, and pushes the cost onto the revenue budget - as if renting the building and paying for it to be maintained and factored. It is also argued that the private sector brings tougher financial disciplines, so that projects are delivered on time, and the risk of going over-budget is transferred away from the taxpayer. But transferring risk comes at a price, and that is factored into the monthly payments. And as it is mandatory for public authorities to provide services such as schools and hospitals, they always have to step in as a last resort. So an element of risk remains with the taxpayer. Some contracts have suffered from inflexibility, or hidden extra charges. Critics of private finance point to high lifetime costs for government, and big profits for financiers. The secure future stream of payments is an asset that can be sold in a secondary market, and some have changed hands for obscene sums. How has private financing of public assets changed over time? In the 1990s, under Conservative government, the first Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects were particularly controversial. The Skye Bridge, for instance, was seen as very poor value for the public and toll-payers. The contract was eventually bought out. The Edinburgh Royal Infirmary deal was notoriously inflexible. The business model relied on charging patients and visitors, for instance for use of a television and for car parking. The Labour government came to office in 1997 promising to end the excesses. But it liked the integration with private finance, at a time when renewal of schools and other public buildings was overdue. Under Tony Blair, Labour re-badged the policy as the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). In Scotland, the party embraced the opportunity to have a huge school building programme without needing the capital budget to pay for it, along with LibDems once in Holyrood coalition. Meanwhile, public sector officials were gaining experience in negotiating contracts. The early deals had been done with little understanding of financial risk. The Internal Rate of Return, reflecting that risk, was very high in the early days. As negotiators on both sides got experience, the typical IRR fell sharply. Bidding was getting more competitive, and as profits got tighter, some consortia even went bust. The SNP was against PFI-PPP, so surely it ended this when it came to power? Yes. And no. The Scottish National Party came to power in 2007 with a promise of a new funding mechanism. Something called the Scottish Futures Trust would use council borrowing powers, bundled up for national projects and issued as bonds. It didn't work out that way. The Scottish Futures Trust was introduced by the SNP government, but it looks very different to the pre-election plan. It is an organisation which offers project funding expertise for the public sector. It commissions hubs - buildings shared by public organisations to improve efficient use of taxpayer pounds. This year, it intends to complete 21 school buildings or upgrades, start construction of 19, and start planning for 19 more. It is an arm of Scottish government policy, for instance looking at ways to expand capacity for nursery education and childcare. It has sought to reduce design costs with model buildings, as guidelines for others throughout Scotland. Re-use of designs has been one of the ways in which private financiers have reduced cost - though it looks less clever now in Edinburgh, where repeated designs may have led to repeated mistakes. So the SNP didn't introduce a new model for funding? It was new-ish. The Non-Profit Distributing model had already been tried for projects in Argyll and Bute and Falkirk. And the incoming SNP government embraced it. NPD is similar to PFI-PPP, with one difference in its design. Contractors do not have ownership of the assets. That means they provide finance as debt, in return for a predictable flow of income. Without equity, they lack the opportunity for unlimited profits. But finance experts point out that equity had already become a minor part of the deal, as the rate of return was brought down. And financiers expect the same Internal Rate of Return that they could expect for their money if invested in English PPP. If they don't get that as return on equity, they'll increase the IRR on the debt to get to the same numbers, and the same profitability. How extensive are these privately-funded projects, and how much is being paid out for them? The revenue cost for all of the PFI-PPP projects to which the public sector is committed runs to just over £1bn this year. That is just under 4% of all spending, while the SNP has set a ceiling of 5% of spend. Roughly a third of that is in education, and just under a quarter is in health and sport. Scottish government figures issued last July show more than £6bn of capital value to these privately-funded projects, 8% of which was then NPD (but growing quite fast). Thirty-eight schools accounted for £3.4bn, 28 hospitals and clinics for £1.3bn. The next big tranches were in transport, at £610m, and waste water, at £562m. So what could all this have to do with walls falling down in Edinburgh schools? Perhaps not very much. We know from problems in Glasgow's Lourdes Primary that a similar problem has been found in a conventionally procured building. We know from the Holyrood Parliament building project that conventional procurement can also turn into a fiasco. It could be that work on the Edinburgh schools was done too hastily, or with the wrong materials, in order to cut costs. But if you were a builder cutting corners, you probably wouldn't start with wall ties. The self-certification of building completion looks a likely line of inquiry, once one gets under way. But it's not clear there is any connection between that and the source of funding. That building standards regime operates equally across building sites. The only difference between conventional procurement of a school and private finance is one that points to a higher chance of shoddy workmanship in a conventional contract. That is, a construction company contracted to be responsible for maintenance over 25 years has an incentive to build to a higher quality than otherwise, so as to minimise cost over that term. So who is responsible for the Edinburgh schools scandal, and who will pay for it? The political blame game will surely go on, arguing over the funding methods. An inquiry ought to shed some light on whether there was any connection. But there's no evidence yet. PFI, PPP and NPD have kept a lot of the contractual detail private. But there's not much doubt the private consortium will be held liable for the costs of repair and of disruption. How much will they pay out? Well, the construction industry is quick to resort to lawyers to fight over such costs. It seems a safe bet that this will land up in court, or in arbitration. And one of the questions for parents is whether they too can claim the cost of disruption to their family, childcare and working lives.

यह स्कॉटिश राजनीति में सबसे गर्म विषय हुआ करता था। तीन होलीरूड चुनावों से पहले, 2003 में, बी. बी. सी. के "मुद्दों के सर्वेक्षण" में पाया गया कि सार्वजनिक सेवाओं का निजी वित्तपोषण सबसे अलोकप्रिय नीति थी, और चिंताओं की सूची में चौथे स्थान पर थी।


Searching for truth in China's Uighur 're-education' camps

Summary: The Chinese region of Xinjiang is home to millions of ethnic Muslim Uighurs who have lived there for decades. Rights groups say hundreds of thousands have been detained in camps without trial, but China argues they voluntarily attend centres which combat "extremism". The BBC went inside one of them.

By John Sudworth BBC News, Xinjiang I'd been to the camps before. But the closest I'd managed to get on previous visits were snatched glimpses of the barbed wire and watchtowers from a passing car, while the plainclothes police officers tailing us tried to stop us getting any closer. Now I was being invited inside. The risks of accepting were obvious. We were being taken into places that appeared to have been carefully spruced up - with satellite images revealing that much of the security infrastructure had recently been removed. And one by one the people we spoke to inside, some of them visibly nervous, told us similar stories. All of them members of Xinjiang's largest, mainly Muslim ethnic group - the Uighurs - they said they'd been "infected by extremism" and that they'd volunteered to have their "thoughts transformed". This was China's narrative in the mouths of people selected for us, and for whom any cross-examination might pose a serious risk. What might be the consequences if they did let something slip? How could we safely separate the propaganda from the reality? Radicalised and reborn There are plenty of precedents for this kind of reporting dilemma. There was the heavily managed 2004 press tour of the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in the wake of the abuse scandal, with reporters herded away from detainees clamouring to have their voices heard, some while waving their prosthetic legs. Or there's the example of the rare and restricted media access to Australia's offshore immigration detention centres. And in the 1930s and 1940s, Germany organised media trips to camps at Sonnenburg and Theresienstadt, designed to demonstrate how "humane" they were. In all such cases, the reporter is witness to a story of vital global importance, but forced to try to tell it with only limited or highly controlled access to those most affected by it. In Xinjiang though, there is one big difference. The authorities grant access not only to show that the conditions inside the facilities are good, they also want to prove that they are not prisons at all. We were shown adults seated in rows at school desks in brightly lit classrooms, chanting in unison while learning Chinese. Some performed highly staged and choreographed music and dance routines for us, wearing traditional ethnic costumes, whirling around their desks, smiles fixed in place. And what was quite clear was that the Chinese officials accompanying us believed wholeheartedly in the narrative on display, some almost moved to tears as they looked on. These people, we were urged to recognise, were reborn. Once dangerously radicalised and full of hatred for the Chinese government, they were now safely back on the road to reform thanks to the timely, benevolent intervention of that same government. The West could learn a lot from this was the message. Referring to the date the re-education policy began, one senior official looked me sternly in the eye. "There has not been a single terror attack in Xinjiang in 32 months," he said. "This is our patriotic duty." 'Oh my heart don't break' But in accepting the access, our job was to try to peer beneath the official messaging and hold it up to as much scrutiny as we could. There were the bits of graffiti we filmed, written in Uighur, that we later had translated. "Oh my heart don't break," read one. Another in Chinese said simply: "Step by step." There were the answers, in extended interviews with the officials, that revealed much about the nature of the system. Those in it were "almost criminals," they said, viewed as a threat not because they'd committed a crime, but because they might have the potential to do so. And there was the admission that, once identified as having extremist tendencies, they were given a choice - but not much of one. The option was "of choosing between a judicial hearing or education in the de-extremification facilities". "Most people choose to study," we were told. Little wonder, given the odds of a fair trial. And we know, from other sources, that the definition of extremism is now drawn very widely indeed - having a long beard for example, or simply contacting relatives overseas. We saw the dormitories in which these "extremists" slept, up to 10 per room, in bunk beds and with a toilet at one end, shielded with only a thin sheet of fabric. And then there was the cautious questioning that revealed much, not in what they could say, but what they couldn't. I asked one man, who'd been there for eight months already, how many people he'd seen "graduate" in that time. There was a slight pause before he answered. "About that, I have no idea," he said. Just one voice from within a giant system of mass internment thought to hold more than a million people on the basis of their ethnicity and their faith. However faint and muted, we should listen carefully to what such voices might be telling us.

शिनजियांग का चीनी क्षेत्र लाखों जातीय मुस्लिम उइगरों का घर है जो दशकों से वहां रह रहे हैं। मानवाधिकार समूहों का कहना है कि सैकड़ों हजारों लोगों को बिना मुकदमे के शिविरों में हिरासत में लिया गया है, लेकिन चीन का तर्क है कि वे स्वेच्छा से उन केंद्रों में जाते हैं जो "चरमपंथ" का मुकाबला करते हैं। बीबीसी उनमें से एक के अंदर गया।


The grief that comes from lost buildings

Summary: Why do people mourn the loss of buildings?

By Vicky BakerBBC News Across the world, destruction of cultural attractions causes a specific sort of communal grief. Parisians have spoken about how the devastating fire at Notre-Dame cathedral has made them think about identity, memory and shared culture. Here, people from other countries talk about their experiences seeing important sights destroyed - some under very different circumstances. Brazil: The National Museum The 200-year-old former royal palace that housed Brazil's national museum in Rio de Janeiro was gutted by fire in September last year. Flames tore through rooms containing some 20m artifacts; very little survived. Bruna Arakaki, a graphic designer from Rio, watched the blaze from her apartment. She says seeing the Notre-Dame fire in the news brought that sadness back and evoked a sense of solidarity with Parisians. "It felt like part of who we are and our history burnt alongside the museum," she says. "People were very fond of it. It was in a poorer part of the city and was one of few museums in that area. For many generations, it was the first museum they visited." Many people have blamed the authorities, saying a lack of funding had left it vulnerable. "Watching it burn, there was a feeling of impotence and revolt," says Ms Arakaki. "It was so imposing and had been there so long, no-one expected that one day it would just end." Filmmaking student João Gabriel Barreto was an intern at the museum in 2014. He is still in a WhatsApp group with his old colleagues, and they shared tearful, panic-stricken messages on the night of the fire. "We didn't know what to feel or think about it. It was so messed up," says Mr Barreto. "It felt like a huge part of our bonding was being ripped away from us." He has not been back to the site as he cannot bear to see it as an empty shell. President Jair Bolsonaro sent sympathies to France on Monday, but has previously emphasised that he cannot "work miracles" to rebuild Brazil's national museum. "It has already burned - what do you want me to do?" he said last year. Syria: Palmyra Syria does not have the luxury to consider rebuilding its lost culture amid its civil war. The conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed many of its most precious cultural sites. Among these is the ancient city of Palmyra. Photographs of it lying in ruins made international headlines in 2017. "It's controversial," says Khaled Nashar - a Syrian who left the country in 2015 and is now based in the UK. He is referring to how Syria talks about its cultural losses. "One could think it is selfish to look at the loss of 'some stones' and not the loss of people." But can both feelings co-exist? Hazza Al-Adnan, a lawyer turned journalist living in Idlib, describes it as a different sort of sadness. "It is a kind of regret. It is not the same grief as when people die," he says. He lives in one of the last remaining rebel strongholds. "Next to the city where I live, there is a Roman archaeological village called Shansharah. The war has destroyed much of it and then turned into a camp for the displaced," he says. He also remembers the day he first heard that Palmyra had been ruined, and how it still stunned him - even amid such constant disaster. "It was a shocking event. Isis does not give any value to civilisation and human history," he says, adding that the fact that it was deliberate made it much worse. Mr Nashar agrees that it is hard to process. He says: "The feeling of sadness is even greater when you realise the country has not been only losing its future, but also a significant part of its past." Haiti: Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince Business student Naomi Handal, from Haiti, lived through her country's 2010 earthquake, and now lives on the same street as the Notre-Dame in Paris. "The hard thing about Haiti was knowing the destruction came from natural causes. It was not an accident, there was no-one to blame, there was no reason why. It is like something that cannot be tamed. It could happen again," she says. Around 160,000 people died in the magnitude seven quake. The government of Haiti estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed or were severely damaged. Amid all that carnage, Ms Handal said there was a "disorientating" feeling that came from losing the presidential palace. "It symbolised the government and when you saw they were impacted too, you did not know whom to turn to. We were so lost." There has been talk of rebuilding it, and France offered to help, but the proposal split opinions. Some feel there are still too many other priorities. "The symbolism of the National Palace is very important for Haitians," says Eveline Pierre, executive director of the Haitian Heritage Museum, based in Miami. "Haiti was the first black nation to gain independence and the palace represented this for each individual. That is something that cannot be taken away." She says many other buildings were also lost, including Port-au-Prince Cathedral and the Holy Trinity Cathedral, with its important murals of Biblical characters depicted with black skin. "There are many cultural losses that were, for sure, undocumented and no-one knows the full extent," says Ms Pierre. As of Tuesday night, Ms Handal has been unable to return to her Paris apartment. "It is sad, a tragedy," she says. "But around the world, there are so many worse things going on. It sounds so blunt to say it. But nobody died." She worries now about the small businesses around her apartment, because they rely on tourism. Germany: Dresden's Frauenkirche Dresden's Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) was destroyed by bombing in World War Two and left in ruins for decades. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, its reconstruction became a metaphor for reconciliation. It was finished in the mid-2000s, thanks to a €180m ($217m) project, mostly based on private donations. Raka Gutzeit, a retired English teacher, has lived in Dresden since 1994. "We were all very moved when the renovation started," she says. "It was based on so much goodwill. There were workers from all over Europe, working all hours. It was beautiful to watch." Some people she knew moved back to the city because of their emotional attachment to the Frauenkirche. She admits it has taken a while for the new building to blend into the city. "It needed some greenery around it and it looked so bright at first," she says. "It is still becoming part of people's lives again." David Woodhead, a former trustee from the Dresden Trust, a British organisation that helped raise funds for the project, says the Frauenkirche has the same sort of significances for the people of Dresden as Notre-Dame has for Parisians. "It was a prominent part of the Dresden skyline, featuring in so many 18th Century paintings," he says. "During the 1945 bombing raids, a firestorm caused the original building to melt. Sandstone melts at 800C (1470F) and temperatures were said to have reached 1000C, so it imploded." It was something no-one thought would be possible and it created a profound sense of something being "missing". He says there was controversy over whether it should be rebuilt in the same way or take a new form, but ultimately its Baroque grandeur was restored. "It is not intended as a war memorial, but to be looking forward," he says. Ms Gutzeit agrees. "Notre Dame is much bigger and older than Frauenkirche, and it has much more international status," she says. "But I hope Dresden's story brings hope to Parisians."

लोग इमारतों के नुकसान पर शोक क्यों मनाते हैं?


Why I went in to the Nairobi mall when others fled

Summary: When video journalist Nichole Sobecki (above) arrived at the Westgate mall in Nairobi on Saturday, she saw a stream of people running out of the building. But as others escaped from the gunmen who had opened fire, the AFP reporter decided to go into the complex. Here she tells her story.

I could see that ambulances were picking people up and trying to get them out from the third floor, so I thought that might be an opportunity to get inside. When I got close to the third floor entrance of the mall I followed a security officer inside and linked up with another security team. I never saw any of the attackers. It was unclear where the shooters were, so we were sweeping from shop to shop through the mall trying to locate the shooters and also looking for civilians that were trapped, and trying to get them out to safety. When I first arrived in the mall a security team was trying to disable the elevators to prevent the attackers from moving between floors and popping out and surprising someone. Before they were able to to that, one of the elevator doors did open and a middle-aged woman crawled out - she was obviously terrified and they were able to get her out quickly to safety. It seemed like everywhere we looked, more people would come out as soon as they realised that this was the security forces and that they were safe, or at least that they had an opportunity to try to get out. People were hiding in air vents, crouched on the floor, hiding in cinemas, casinos, beauty salons, locking themselves in. This is a mall that I go to frequently. It's not far from where I live and to see it become the scene of terror was absolutely surreal - the mall soundtrack with pop music continuing to play but otherwise the sort of eerie silence, bursts of gunfire. I have covered conflict before in a more conventional sense, in Afghanistan and Somalia - places where you go and you have an expectation of what you are going to find. To see a mall on a busy Saturday afternoon transformed into such horror was really surprising. I was inside the mall for about three hours, and of course you are afraid in these situations, it's very stressful, you are always looking where you could find cover if you have to move, which direction you will be going in. We were with a team of security forces and you just need to make sure that you are staying rational, that you are making good decisions and that you are not putting your life or the lives of anyone around you at any greater risk. There was little the security forces could do aside from trying to get people out. They were searching them on their way out to make sure that no-one was armed, to make sure that anyone leaving the building was doing it as a civilian. But if some of the attackers did try to pose as civilians there was not that much that they could do. They had to get people out, they had to evacuate the mall and that was a risk. Any attack of this sort is meant to divide people and the more [Kenyans] can reach out together as they have been, donating blood, coming together to call for unity, making sure that there is no backlash on the Somali community in Kenya, I think that is what is going to make Kenya move forward after this horrible attack. Nichole Sobecki spoke to Newsday on the BBC World Service. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

जब वीडियो पत्रकार निकोल सोबेकी (ऊपर) शनिवार को नैरोबी के वेस्टगेट मॉल में पहुंची, तो उसने देखा कि लोगों की एक धारा इमारत से बाहर भाग रही है। लेकिन जैसे ही अन्य बंदूकधारियों ने गोलीबारी शुरू की, ए. एफ. पी. रिपोर्टर ने परिसर में जाने का फैसला किया। यहाँ वह अपनी कहानी बताती है।


Could new Welsh taxes also change our behaviour?

Summary: The Welsh budget has a different feel today.

By Sarah DickinsBBC Wales economics correspondent As well as broad spending commitments on areas like education and health, the Welsh Government announced the rates and bands of the two taxes it has control of from next April. The Land Transaction Act - which was Stamp Duty - and Landfill Disposals Tax are expected to collect together around £300m a year for the Welsh Government. They only account for a tiny fraction of funding but the fact that they will be under Welsh Government control is significant. But this is just the start of a wider change. The Welsh Government has already asked for suggestions of what other taxes people think should be introduced and it has had 300 responses with ideas for 60 different taxes. There is also a Tax Forum made up of representatives from the public and private sectors and a Tax Advisory Group to discuss how money should be raised in the future. This is chaired by Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford and includes civil servants, accountants, lawyers, business and voluntary sector representatives. Ideas from a chewing gum tax to a sun bed tax were suggested but four have now been shortlisted. One will be selected to go forward. The four shortlisted ideas unveiled on Tuesday are: A tourism tax: This could be a small charge per night for tourists staying in accommodation - say £1 paid when they book in - with the money raised spent on public services and infrastructure related to tourism A disposable plastics tax Greenpeace has already called for a tax on plastic coffee cups or "problem" plastics that cannot be recycled. Cardiff University research estimates such a charge on disposable cups could cut their use by up to 300m a year in the UK. A vacant land tax This would look at the issue of so-called "land-banking" - which is speculative accumulation of plots of development land by house builders and supermarkets, clogging up the system, so new homes are not built. Analysis two years ago suggested that across the UK there are 600,000 plots of land that are not being developed that could be. That has been highlighted as one of the issues that are escalating the shortage of homes in the UK. It comes as Mr Drakeford announced £340m would go towards the flagship commitment to build 20,000 affordable homes. A levy to support social care It has been estimated that the cost of social care will rise by 4.1% a year over the next 15 years in Wales, presenting a huge challenge. Mr Drakeford spoke of the "significant pressures" on the Welsh budget from the growing demands and said he wanted to explore potential financial levers, including taxation. Ministers here will also work with UK government to help support a soft drinks industry levy in Wales. This could raise the cost of excessively sugary food and drinks - and be a deterrent. A proposed tax on drinks has already been outlined by the UK Government, which it is estimated could add up to 8p to the price of a can of fizzy soft drink. The Welsh Government is keen that there should be a distinctive Welsh approach to taxation encouraging behavioural change - in the way that the levy on single use carrier bags has already changed people's habits in the six years since it came in. It is estimated that bag use was cut by more than 70% in the first three years. As well as millions of pounds raised for charity, it has made people think about their use of plastic bags. Under the Wales Act 2014, the Welsh Government's proposals for new taxes will still have to be agreed by AMs, the UK Government, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In June, ministers published their Tax Policy Framework. This said tax would be used to help achieve wider objectives of fairness and economic growth and be developed by collaboration. The debate about what taxes should be levied and how they should be spent will increase in intensity right up to the next Welsh elections. By this time next year the debate will be about possible changes to income tax. From April 2019 ministers will be able to cut or raise rates by 10p in the pound within each tax band. However, First Minister Carwyn Jones has made it clear there is no intention to change income tax rates before the election in 2021.

वेल्श बजट का आज एक अलग एहसास है।


Bid to boost Newtown's recreational facilities

Summary: Plans to turn 100 acres (40 hectares) of open space into recreational land with play facilities and allotments have taken a step forward in Powys.

The move by Powys council and Newton town council allows a £1.1m lottery bid to be submitted to try to turn the plans into reality. Land ownership will transfer to the town council under the new agreement. It would then be eligible to bid for funds to support "exciting" sport and recreation developments in Newtown. Local environmental group Cwm Harry Land Trust secured £50,000 earlier this year to help develop the plans to enhance the town's riverside play park, provide more allotment plots, build a bike track and increase water-based recreational facilities on the River Severn.

पविस में 100 एकड़ (40 हेक्टेयर) खुली जगह को खेल सुविधाओं और आवंटन के साथ मनोरंजक भूमि में बदलने की योजना ने एक कदम आगे बढ़ाया है।


Europe in 2015: A year of insecurity

Summary: For Europe, 2015 will witness another attempt to reach a place of safety. For the past two years European officials and leaders have declared the economic crisis over. In the past six months a sense of foreboding has returned.

Gavin HewittEurope editor@BBCGavinHewitton Twitter The dangers are not the same as 2012. There is no danger of countries being unable to fund their debts. The threat now is of stagnation and deflation. European officials have warned time and again that the failure to create growth and new jobs risks not just social tension but support for the European project. Currently the economy will not return to its 2007 level until 2020. In 2015 economic recovery will be uneven. Demand is chronically weak. Germany will remain the engine room of the European economy but will not be the powerhouse it was two years ago. Growth in France will be around 0.7%. Italy should edge away from recession but the eurozone is not expected to achieve growth of more than 1% and that will not be enough to dent an unemployment rate that remains at 11.7%. Once again eyes are turned towards the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. Sometime in the first three months of the year he is expected to turn on the taps, boost demand and buy sovereign bonds. It may not be straightforward however. There is opposition in Germany; there may well be legal challenges and there are doubts over what impact all of this will have. Anti-austerity movements Europe still seems to be placing its bets on keeping the value of the euro low and relying on cheaper exports to boost demand at home. Popular discontent with austerity is growing. Once again there are likely to be tensions between Berlin, which continues to demand deficits be reduced to below 3% and reforms are made to labour laws, and Paris and Rome, which believe Europe needs growth and investment in large-scale infrastructure projects. 2015 will once again give the anti-establishment parties the opportunity to mine Europe's discontent. There are elections where these insurgent parties may play key roles. Within weeks Greece could be voting with the radical left-wing party Syriza, who are currently ahead in the polls. If successful, the party would be looking to restructure its debts and it would raise fears that the Greek crisis might return. Later in the year Spain will got to the polls. It, too, has a fast-charging radical left party called Podemos which is fiercely anti-austerity. And in Britain in May, the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) may have a say in any post-election bargaining for power. One of the key factors in undermining support for the mainstream parties is unemployment. In France the number of people looking for work has reached a record high. In November the unemployment figures rose by 27,400 to 3,488,300. The numbers looking for a job have risen by 5.8% in the past year. This threatens the political future of President Francois Hollande. Unless his administration can start creating jobs in 2015 he will become a lame duck president and that plays into the hands of Marine Le Pen's Front National. 2015 will also test whether the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only has a firm grip on his party but whether the French people might give him a second chance. In Italy, Matteo Renzi is facing popular opposition to his reforms but the test will be whether those reforms are watered down and whether they are rigorously implemented. The mood in Italy is fragile; a country which has seen little growth in the past ten years. Two of the country's opposition parties are openly anti-EU with one pushing for a vote on staying in the euro. Immigration concerns No issue reflects the volatility of the European mood more than migration and immigration. Once again the summer months will see large numbers of people fleeing instability in the Middle East and Africa trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Mainstream politicians will struggle with this challenge. Germany, which has taken in far more refugees from the Middle East than other countries, has recently been shaken by protests. Just before Christmas 17,500 people marched in Dresden under the banner "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West". There were protests in other cities. The German political establishment has been shocked by these street protests and political leaders have appealed for "understanding and openness". What this demonstrates is that concerns about migration are not confined to Britain. In many European countries it is a potent political issue that is contributing to the rise of anti-establishment parties. Europe's leaders have yet to discover a convincing response. Europe will wait with some anxiety to discover the outcome of the British election. One senior European official said the UK - after the European economy - will be the central European question for the next three years. If David Cameron stays in office it is expected that discussions will start in the second half of the year on what his re-negotiation shopping list will look like - ahead of an in/out referendum on EU membership in 2017. At the European Council meeting in June he will be expected to set out what he broadly wants. He will face both a desire to keep Britain in the EU but an unwillingness to offer concessions that makes the UK a special case or which undermines the fundamental principles of the EU such as freedom of movement. It remains unclear what the process for these negotiations will be. Some European leaders are hopeful changes can be made via secondary legislation but ultimately it seems likely that a British re-negotiation might require treaty change. Some countries, like Germany, believe that treaties will have to be changed to support the new architecture of the eurozone. They believe the EU is already at the margins of what is permissible under the treaties. But there is little appetite to call an inter- governmental conference and France, in particular, will oppose any steps that lead to a referendum. So for the UK the road to re-negotiation will be long and winding and will be a major test for British diplomacy which, recently, has not always read the European mood correctly. In 2015 the new European Commission will have to demonstrate it has the will and flexibility to embrace meaningful reforms. Will its 300 billion euro investment fund actually fly? Will the EU take steps towards a digital single market or energy union? Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is off to a confident start. He is a wily tactician presiding over a pragmatic Commission. He remains vulnerable, however, over his time as Luxembourg prime minister when companies based their companies in the Duchy to lower their tax liabilities elsewhere. On balance he should survive because the two largest parties in the European Parliament are solidly behind him. However Mr Juncker would be at risk if it turned out that he had been an activist prime minister, encouraging companies to embrace schemes that helped them avoid paying taxes. The star of the new Commission looks set to be Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president. He is already emerging as an able advocate for the EU in several languages and will surely play a key role in any future UK referendum. Russia test Russia will remain a troubling unknown. A miscalculation in Eastern Ukraine could tug Europe towards a new cold war. The Russian economy is hurting. Recently a former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said "we have entered or are currently entering a full economic crisis". That would hurt the wider European economy. 2015 is likely to see European unity tested again over Russia. Some countries - like France and Italy - may yet be tempted to push for an easing of sanctions. Russia has the potential to become the dominant European story of 2015. In interviews on the street many young people refer to themselves as the "precarious generation". In order for Europe to rediscover stability and to restore faith in the European project them the insecurities of a new generation have to be addressed. The best sense of what is at stake came from Herman Van Rompuy, the outgoing president of the European Council. He said: "Without the UK, Europe would be wounded, even amputated - therefore everything should be done to avoid it. But it will survive. Without France, Europe - the European idea - would be dead." Once again in 2015 Europe will face big questions about its future. To all those who follow this blog - best wishes for the New Year!

यूरोप के लिए, 2015 सुरक्षित स्थान तक पहुँचने का एक और प्रयास देखेगा। पिछले दो वर्षों से यूरोपीय अधिकारियों और नेताओं ने आर्थिक संकट समाप्त होने की घोषणा की है। पिछले छह महीनों में पूर्वाभास की भावना वापस आ गई है।


Livestock carrier and car in serious crash near Hoddom

Summary: Police have appealed for witnesses after a serious crash involving a livestock carrier and a car on a minor road in Dumfries and Galloway.

The incident took place at about 07:20 on the B723 at Longmoor near Hoddom. It involved a green Peugeot 206 and a white Mercedes livestock carrier. The driver of the car was taken to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow for treatment. Police asked drivers to avoid the area if possible and expect delays if travelling near the route.

डमफ्रीज और गैलोवे में एक छोटी सी सड़क पर एक पशुधन वाहक और एक कार की गंभीर दुर्घटना के बाद पुलिस ने गवाहों के लिए अपील की है।


Guernsey Airport commercialization is investigated

Summary: The feasibility, practicalities and costs of commercializing Guernsey Airport will be investigated by the island's government.

It follows a report into the subject by York Aviation, which raised some concerns regarding the way the airport was currently run by the States. These included an inability to make changes quickly, including reacting to customer needs. The States approved a budget of £50,000 for the investigation work.

ग्वेर्नसे हवाई अड्डे के व्यावसायीकरण की व्यवहार्यता, व्यावहारिकता और लागत की द्वीप की सरकार द्वारा जांच की जाएगी।


Devon folk music marathon raises £15K for air ambulance

Summary: BBC Radio Devon listeners have contributed more than £15,000 to the Devon Air Ambulance in a 24-hour fundraising marathon live on air.

Musicians Seth Lakeman, Ellie Williams and Steve Skaith were among the performers who raised £15,663.48. Lakeman said afterwards: "We've had a fabulous time and the amount of money they raised is fantastic in 24 hours." The Radio Devon Air Ambulance Appeal has raised £181,849 towards a target of £600,000 for a new helicopter. Devon Air Ambulance Trust thanked all the listeners for their contributions.

बीबीसी रेडियो डेवोन के श्रोताओं ने 24 घंटे की धन उगाहने वाली मैराथन लाइव ऑन एयर में डेवोन एयर एम्बुलेंस में 15,000 पाउंड से अधिक का योगदान दिया है।


Jimmy Savile investigation: Man in his 80s questioned

Summary: A man in his 80s has been released after being interviewed by detectives investigating allegations which arose following revelations about TV presenter Jimmy Savile.

The man, from Berkshire, attended London police premises by appointment and was interviewed under caution. Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Operation Yewtree searched an address in Berkshire on Saturday. The police said it was part of the inquiry not directly related to Savile. The man arrived at 12:00 GMT, said the Met. He has not been charged.

टीवी प्रस्तोता जिमी सेविले के बारे में खुलासे के बाद सामने आए आरोपों की जांच कर रहे जासूसों द्वारा साक्षात्कार लिए जाने के बाद 80 के दशक के एक व्यक्ति को रिहा कर दिया गया है।


Reading bike hire scheme to launch in June

Summary: A bicycle hire scheme in Reading will open next month.

The first phase of the ReadyBike scheme, which will include 200 bikes located at 29 docking stations, will be ready for the summer Reading Borough Council has confirmed. Infrastructure for the scheme is currently being established at sites including Broad Street, the University of Reading and Green Park. The bikes have also been changed in colour from pink to purple and orange. Reading Borough Council transport boss Tony Page said the decision was made after speaking to residents. He said: "We consulted on the bikes and felt that it was appropriate to make a slight change to the colour." 'Overwhelming support' He added that there has been "overwhelming support" for the £1.2m project, which aims to help create an extra 2,300 daily cycle trips across the town. The system is currently undergoing testing by volunteers. The bikes can be hired for £4 per day for members via the ReadyBike website where real-time information will show how many machines are available at each location. However, some residents have expressed disappointment that the west of Reading has not been included in the launch. Chris Price, who regularly cycles in the city, said: "I think it a shame that the opportunity offered by the scheme succeeding in the first phase will be lessened because locations in west Reading are not served." Concerns have also been raised about the fact that people are locking their own bikes to the new docking stations. The council says it hopes this will stop happening once the bikes become a familiar sight. It also stressed that this is the first phase of the scheme and there is the opportunity for it to expand in the future. Related Internet Links ReadyBike Reading Borough Council

रीडिंग में साइकिल किराए पर लेने की योजना अगले महीने शुरू होगी।


The disabled doctors not believed by their colleagues

Summary: People often feel nervous when they visit a doctor with some fearing their symptoms may not be believed. But what if you are the doctor, and your colleagues dismiss your disabilities and mental health difficulties? Miranda Schreiber explores this challenging relationship.

When I was 15, I described what turned out to be the neurological symptoms of mental illness to my doctor. I told him I couldn't do schoolwork, feel the cold, or understand a book. He suggested I go on walks if I was stressed. This breakdown in communication, in which patient and doctor seem to live in different worlds, is well-documented by disabled people. Many feel they have to translate their experience, because disability and medical structures seem incompatible. But this experience is familiar to disabled doctors too, and some are seeking solutions. Sarah Islam was a fourth year medical student at Indiana University when she developed a chronic illness which caused exhaustion, chronic pain, and cognitive impairment. She said her symptoms, which didn't tick a specific box, made her feel like she lacked fluency in the medical language she was learning. 'Brick wall' "I remember, even as a med student, having the vocabulary to explain what I was going through but feeling like I had hit a brick wall," she says. "I actually didn't know how to describe it." With her experience of sickness, Islam shifted from believing legitimate illness could be diagnosed to living as a patient with symptoms which didn't fit a clear disease profile. But she noticed a change in her colleagues too, when she returned to medical school after a period of recovery. "If I said the word 'pain' [colleagues] took it as coded language for 'I'm lazy' and 'I can't do my work'. "They would challenge my reality," she says, something which led her to conceal her symptoms. "I felt like everything I shared was going to be weaponized against me. They would say 'you walked two days ago so why can't you walk today?' Almost like they caught me in a lie. "The baseline understanding of what it means to be disabled is not there." This sort of discrimination is often referred to as ableism - which favours non-disabled people over those with disabilities. It is made all the harder to confront in medicine when disabled clinicians are vastly underrepresented. Disabled people make up about 20% of the population in the UK and US but only 2% of British and American doctors. Islam says simple accommodations like taking notes in front of patients, or taking the elevator rather than the stairs, were criticised by her advisors as unprofessional. And these same attitudes, Islam explains, manifest in patient interviews. "It's completely baffling to me how we can expect patients to respect us when we won't even believe what they're telling us. "It's scary to be viewed as good or bad because you can or cannot work," she says. Hardeep Lotay, a fifth year medical student at the University of Cambridge and mental health advocate, sympathises with Islam. "There's the idea in medicine you have to stretch yourself further than is reasonable because that's the nature of the profession," Lotay says, who also researches medical racism. "I took a year-and-a-bit out from the course. In medical school any difference is seen as weakness, and any weakness is taken to mean you're not as good as your cohort. There's stigma in everyone knowing you've taken time off. "It can be very negative to see the perception of psychiatry patients from your colleagues and seniors." The attitudes Lotay and Islam experienced were also identified in research by Drs. Havi Carel and Ian Kidd, philosophy professors at the University of Bristol and University of Nottingham. They found medical experts often perceive disabled patients as incapable, unreliable, and emotionally unstable, leading clinicians to "downgrade the credibility" of what disabled patients say. This discrimination can impact treatment decisions and compromise disabled patients' health, increasing their risk of secondary conditions. 'Gaslighting the patient' Revealingly, Canada Care Connection, which helps patients find family doctors, found in its team audits that patients with chronic pain took the longest to place, and that some family doctors refused to see "undesirable" patients because of a disability. "They just won't accept them," one Care Connector wrote. Joanna, a disability activist from New Jersey, has mast cell activation syndrome. The disorder causes overactive mast cells - which form part of the immune system - which trigger anaphylaxis. Joanna lived without medical support until she was 25 because doctors believed she was exaggerating her symptoms. "I wish medical students were taught to be open to information disabled patients provide," she says. "It's okay for a medical student or doctor to admit that they don't have the answer. That's so much more helpful than gaslighting the patient." This is something the University of Michigan is trying to address. Its medical school has started providing students with teaching sessions focused on disability in its entirety - from disability pride to the everyday and justice. But there are also the disabled activists, medical students and doctors who propose that the breakdown in communication could be reduced if there were more disabled physicians. "As a disability activist who's proud of being disabled, there's a vocabulary of identity that I can't use with doctors," says Charis Hill, an activist from Sacramento, California. "They think disability is bad. It's what they want to keep you from becoming. "With a disabled doctor I wouldn't have to explain so much because we're speaking the same language," they say. "My care outcomes would be so much better because I would be understood." Lotay and Islam have both used their personal experience to guide the way they approach medicine. "If a patient comes to you and tells you they're completely deflated, you can communicate with them and speak a language of mental health," says Lotay. Dr. Duncan Shrewsbury, a clinician and senior lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School who has ADHD, agrees. "We should be systematically looking at how we support and advocate for disabled learners, both at university and postgraduate training levels," he says. "It wasn't until disabled people chained themselves to the front of a bus [in the UK] that disability legislation started looking at public services needing to cater to people with different abilities," he says, reflecting on the 1995 protests for disability rights. The University of Michigan has also tried to address barriers by altering its technical standards for admission. Disabled applicants no longer need to demonstrate physical competencies, like being able to lift a patient. But Islam observes that practicing medicine is only part of the challenge. "The barriers start before any of us even apply," she says. "If this had happened to me when I was 17 I probably wouldn't have had the energy, or the finances frankly, to apply. It's clear you are not the person wanted in this field." But with systemic change, things could be different. The experiences I described to my doctor when I was 15 did not need to be beyond understanding. Perhaps, rather than recommend I go on walks, my doctor might have said: "I have felt the same way." For more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to the weekly podcast on BBC Sounds. Related Internet Links Canada Care Connection University of Michigan University of Bristol Brighton and Sussex Medical School

लोग अक्सर घबराहट महसूस करते हैं जब वे डॉक्टर के पास जाते हैं और कुछ लोगों को डर होता है कि उनके लक्षणों पर विश्वास नहीं किया जा सकता है। लेकिन क्या होगा यदि आप डॉक्टर हैं, और आपके सहयोगी आपकी अक्षमताओं और मानसिक स्वास्थ्य समस्याओं को खारिज कर देते हैं? मिरांडा श्राइबर इस चुनौतीपूर्ण रिश्ते की खोज करते हैं।


Prince Charles hands keys to owners of 250th Poundbury home

Summary: The Prince of Wales has personally given keys to a family who bought the 250th home in an experimental Dorset town he set up in the 1990s.

The prince met Nathan and Sarah Dunford and their four children outside 54 Peverell Avenue East, in Poundbury. The prince also officially opened the Poundbury Cancer Institute in the town and met staff. The institute's aim is to help identify the most effective treatment for individual cancer patients. Poundbury is an urban extension to the Dorset county town of Dorchester and is based on the prince's planning ideals. The development aims to combine social and private housing with work and leisure facilities to create a "walkable community".

वेल्स के राजकुमार ने व्यक्तिगत रूप से एक ऐसे परिवार को चाबी दी है जिसने 1990 के दशक में स्थापित एक प्रयोगात्मक डॉर्सेट शहर में 250वां घर खरीदा था।


Home education: The children going 'not back to school'

Summary: It's that time of year again when social media fills up with photographs of shiny-faced children wearing too-large new uniforms as they head off for the first day of school. But what of those who are home educated? The hashtag #notbacktoschool has been gaining traction as parents post their first day pictures.

Here are some of the pupils - and teachers - who do their learning away from the formal classroom. Jane Ellis, Rochester We have a picnic every September to celebrate home education and to welcome and answer questions from new home educators or those who are considering it. Schooled siblings are also welcome although most are back at school then. Some families have a child in school and home educate another child so we are very inclusive of all situations. I home educate as it allows my children learn at their own pace and follow their interests, as well as to socialise in a mixed age group. Laura Avery Our Not Back to School picture shows us at The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, learning more about Vikings and Hans Christian Andersen. We love home education there is no bullying, no forcing square pegs into round holes, no stress, no little tick boxes to fulfil. They're learning at their own pace. Vikki Voyce, Kent Nine-year-old Harry is home educated due to a lack of suitable provision at his old school. He would spend all day in a tiny room doing nothing. Curtis, 12, receives an education at home due to wanting a more tailored, suitable education that suits his needs better. This picture shows them setting up a "not back to school" picnic fete. Katie Pybus, West Sussex The home education families we know are making huge sacrifices, mainly financial, and in many cases, it would be much easier to send the children to school every day. Home education is more than about not going to school. When you are with your family all the time you can have different rules about meals, bedtimes and TV. We are not totally there, our daughter can "self-police" much more effectively than our son, for example, but it is a journey and that is where we would like to go. So for us it is about being in control, not of our children - aged seven, nine and 11 - but of our lives and having the freedom to seize the moments. Ten minutes with an interested child is more beneficial than a whole day with someone who is not listening. They don't stop painting because the bell goes, they stop because they have finished. Home Schooling in the UK Parents are entitled to teach their child at home, either full or part-time. If your child has already started school, write to the head teacher and tell them you want to take your child out of school. If you're taking your child out completely, they must accept. They can refuse if you want to send your child to school some of the time. You must make sure your child receives a full-time education from the age of five but you don't have to follow the national curriculum. If your local council wants to check on your child's education, it can make an "informal enquiry" to make sure your child is getting a suitable education at home. They can serve a school attendance order if they think your child needs to be taught at school. Louise Alsford, Portsmouth I have a four-year-old daughter, Mabel, who was due to start school this September but we decided to decline her place and home educate instead. She settled fine at preschool when she first started, but then she began to struggle with the number of children all together and without me there. She's really sociable when we go to the park, or anywhere she can meet other children - she's always looking for friends to make. But she likes to make friends in smaller groups of one-to-one and she likes to have the back up of her mum or dad nearby, just in case. As she's still so little, I don't see a problem with that, and I'm sure she'll expand her social horizons in her own time. We've already started homeschooling really, it's mostly playing and being creative, lots of reading and the odd maths game and phonics workbook thrown in for good measure. But when all the "first day of school" photos started going up... that was the milestone moment. I also have a two-year-and-nine-month old, Greta, who is not starting preschool, and a nine-month-old called Ernie. Instead of school and preschool we read stories, we paint, we play games, we explore our local area, we cook and bake together, we talk about everything and anything - and the girls play endless dressing up games that I don't even pretend to understand. Maria Parker, Malvern We have just started home educating - until now my children have been in a private school. My son Alex would have been in Year Four and Jayden would have been in Year One. The school was absolutely brilliant and provided amazing opportunities for both of my children and I thought they would miss out on so much by taking them out. But I realised that by home educating them and going to different groups within the home education community they will gain more than even a private school can provide, such as more knowledge of the world. They will definitely benefit from something very precious - which is time with family. I also have a 17-month-old baby who will be home educated as well. Katie Grey, Hemel Hempstead I home educate my children aged 11 and 14. I also have a two-year-old who will not be going to preschool or nursery either. We choose to home educate following a much more child-led and relaxed approach. Each of them is able to learn about what interests them in a way that works for them - we are able to provide them with an individual education that meets all of their (constantly changing) needs at any one time. There is no "one-size-fits-all" package; my children are not pressured to keep up in areas they struggle with and nor are they held back in those areas they find easier. They are able to form friendships in a more realistic and lifelike sense based around shared interests and common ground rather than only mixing with children born in the same 12-month period as them, and they are able to learn, play and socialise in environments free from bullies. Home educated children are able to study for GCSEs and other qualifications, and access colleges and universities. For us as a family there isn't really a downside to home education.

यह साल का वह समय है जब सोशल मीडिया बहुत बड़ी नई वर्दी पहने चमकीले चेहरे वाले बच्चों की तस्वीरों से भर जाता है जब वे स्कूल के पहले दिन के लिए निकलते हैं। लेकिन उन लोगों का क्या जो घर में शिक्षित हैं? हैशटैग #notbacktoschool आकर्षण प्राप्त कर रहा है क्योंकि माता-पिता अपने पहले दिन की तस्वीरें पोस्ट करते हैं।


Worcestershire Royal Hospital visitor ban as norovirus hits

Summary: Eight wards at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital have been closed to visitors following an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug norovirus.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said visitors were only allowed access to outpatients, intensive care, paediatrics and maternity units. Exceptional visiting can be arranged by prior agreement with the ward manager, the trust said. Restrictions also apply to hospitals in Redditch and Kidderminster.

विंटर वामिटिंग बग नोरोवायरस के प्रकोप के बाद वॉरसेस्टरशायर रॉयल अस्पताल के आठ वार्डों को आगंतुकों के लिए बंद कर दिया गया है।


The return of the lynx

Summary: A captive breeding programme that has tripled numbers of lynx in Spain over the last 15 years may now be followed by the reintroduction of the lynx to the UK after an absence of more than 1,000 years. While the return of a major predator worries farmers, the tufty-eared cat is proving a major hit with others in both Spain and Germany, writes Fergal MacErlean.

In 2002, things were looking bad for the Iberian lynx. Once widespread in Portugal, Spain and southern France there were fewer than 100 adults left - all in southern Spain - and only 25 breeding females. Cork oak forests, the lynx's favourite habitat, had been being felled or thinned for more than a century, and the move to screw-top wine bottles was threatening even what remained. At the same time the rabbit population, the lynx's main food, had been ravaged by disease. It was at this point that urgent steps were taken to capture young animals and start a breeding programme. The first animals born in captivity were released in 2010. In 2014 and 2015, 124 animals were released. By the end of last year there were 400 lynx on the Iberian peninsula, the vast majority in Andalusia, in southern Spain, but with smaller new populations in the hills near Toledo, in Extremadura (south-western Spain) and in southern Portugal. Just occasionally the breeders have been surprised by one of these reintroduced lynx. Most scent-mark a territory of 20 sq km and stay put to defend it - though the territory of males and females may overlap - but four of the released animals have gone wandering. Two brothers, Kahn (pictured at the top of the page) and Kentaro (pictured at the bottom of the page), have been followed thanks to the GPS transmitters they wear, with Kahn heading north and west, Kentaro south and west. Contact with Kentaro, who is now surviving on roe deer rather than rabbits, is about to be lost, as the battery in his transmitter is running out. Efforts to capture him over the last month, in order to replace the battery, have proved fruitless. "He is not entering the traps. Whenever he sees anything strange he goes the other way," says Ramon Perez de Ayala, head of the WWF-backed LIFE-Iberlince recovery programme. "Some animals just like travelling. Males especially need to move so populations don't have genetic breeding problems." The Iberian lynx differs in some respects from the Eurasian lynx, the species that populates other parts of Europe. It's smaller, with shorter fur and darker spots. While the Iberian lynx eats mostly rabbit, the Eurasian lynx eats mostly deer - it's the third largest predator in Europe after the brown bear and the wolf. One competes with foxes for food - the other eats fox. But the success of the Iberian lynx programme provides encouragement to those hoping to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to Britain. Know your lynx "The Iberian lynx project has been incredibly successful and we hope to emulate that in the UK," says Dr Paul O'Donoghue, an adviser to the International Union for Conservation of Nature cat specialist group. While the UK could support hundreds of lynx, he says, the Lynx UK Trust aims to start with a five-year pilot project that will see the release of three male and three female animals of breeding age from Romania. Any offspring will be "the first lynx born in the UK for 1,300 years" he says - an estimate based on carbon-dating of lynx skeletons. "It's incredibly exciting." In July the Trust will apply for a licence for a single unfenced site in one of five locations in Cumbria, Norfolk, Northumberland, Argyll and Aberdeenshire. This could see the lynx released as soon as the autumn, though it may take longer to persuade people in the community that they do not present a threat. Completely harmless to humans, they have been known to kill sheep in Norway, and in the French Jura mountains. "They're reputed to do a lot of their hunting within a 200-250m area surrounding woodland, and there is an awful lot of grassland grazed by sheep surrounding woodland," says Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association (NSA). O'Donoghue, though, thinks the threat to British sheep is minimal. He describes the lynx as a "deer specialist" - it can be used to control excessive numbers of roe and muntjac deer - and a "forest ambush predator". "You will never see Eurasian lynx running across an open field," he says. In Spain a compensation programme has also helped to assuage farmers' concerns about the lynx reintroduction programme - in their case, the casualties have mostly been poultry. Whether or not lynx are a threat to British sheep, it does appear that they could excite nature lovers. In Spain companies are already offering tours promising customers a chance to see the elusive creature in the wild. In Germany, meanwhile, the Harz national park has been rebranded as "lynx country", with a lynx enclosure near Bad Harzburg as the main attraction. Members of the public get a chance to watch the lynxes Pamina and Tamino climbing trees or on the prowl through woodland, as they are too tame to be released into the wild. There are plans now to reintroduce lynx into the south-western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate too. The lynx is not an animal you are ever likely to see on a country walk. Those who want to see one in the wild will probably have to pay for the experience. But compared to the situation 14 years ago, things are undoubtedly looking up for the Iberian lynx - and the prospects for the "British lynx" are better than they have been for more than a millennium. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

एक बंदी प्रजनन कार्यक्रम जिसने पिछले 15 वर्षों में स्पेन में लिन्क्स की संख्या को तीन गुना कर दिया है, अब 1,000 से अधिक वर्षों की अनुपस्थिति के बाद ब्रिटेन में लिन्क्स को फिर से पेश किया जा सकता है। जबकि एक प्रमुख शिकारी की वापसी किसानों को चिंतित करती है, फर्गल मैक अर्लीन लिखते हैं कि ऊँचे कान वाली बिल्ली स्पेन और जर्मनी दोनों में दूसरों के साथ एक बड़ी हिट साबित हो रही है।


Paris migrants: Moved from ring-road camp to uncertain future

Summary: The pre-dawn queue out of the Porte de la Chapelle migrant camp snaked beneath Paris's massive ring-road. Hundreds of people waited to leave: their belongings stuffed into back-packs and shopping bags, their children wrapped in blankets against the rain.

By Lucy WilliamsonBBC Paris correspondent By the time offices opened here on Thursday, more than 1,600 people - around half the area's migrant population - had been loaded on to buses and taken to shelters to be processed. Many, like Muhammad who moved here from Afghanistan, said they were glad to leave their cold, wet, sometimes violent home for a few nights in a shelter. "It's a good reaction," he said. "We're very happy about the French government. They help us, give us food, it's good." But the prospect of being registered, processed and possibly deported by the French authorities meant some residents fled before the buses had even arrived. One woman from Ethiopia told me before police moved in that she had come to France after being rejected several times by another EU country. "It wasn't really my choice to come to France, but I heard it was better here," she told me. "And I saw a programme about the football team. It seemed that France was an international country, with more black people." She wasn't in the camp on Thursday morning. Read more from Lucy on France's migrant issue "It's clear that for people who have already had their asylum claims rejected, or for the 'Dublin' people things will become much harder," said Yann Manzi, who heads the migrant organisation Utopia56. Under the EU's Dublin Regulation, anyone seeking asylum should be considered in the first member state in which they arrive. He believes the police operation will mean more people trying to reach the UK via camps in France's Channel ports. "We've seen before that those who can't apply for asylum go to Calais, so we think this will intensify what's happening in Calais and Dunkirk." The Paris clearance is the first strike in new tougher immigration policies, announced this week by French PM Edouard Philippe, including quotas for those with professional skills, a mass clearance of France's migrant camps, and restricted access to medical care for those who arrive here illegally. "It's about sovereignty," the prime minister said. "We want to take back control of our immigration policy. Taking back control means ensuring that when we say yes, it's really yes. And when we say no, it's really no." The government has vowed to clear all the major migrant camps in France before the end of the year. Another operation is planned to evict the remaining areas of Porte de la Chapelle in Paris. Patrols have been brought in to make sure migrants don't return, as they have in the past. The Paris camp grew so large partly because of a chronic lack of accommodation for migrants claiming asylum. As part of its package of 20 measures to "take back control", the government has announced the creation of 16,000 more housing places, along with three more detention centres for those who remain here illegally. The new policy is popular with many right-wing voters, but condemned as a PR stunt by some on the left. President Emmanuel Macron's party is facing a duel with the far-right party of Marine Le Pen in local elections next year. Polls currently put them neck and neck. Mr Macron was trying to win over Le Pen supporters, Yann Manzi told me. But if he sails too close to the nationalist opposition, voters in future may decide they prefer the original.

पोर्टे डे ला चैपल प्रवासी शिविर से सुबह की कतार पेरिस के विशाल रिंग-रोड के नीचे फंस गई। सैकड़ों लोग जाने के लिए इंतजार कर रहे थेः उनका सामान बैक-पैक और शॉपिंग बैग में भरा हुआ था, उनके बच्चे बारिश के खिलाफ कंबल में लिपटे हुए थे।


Friend's 'murderers' shout after boy crushed to death by headstone

Summary: A friend of an eight-year-old boy who died after a gravestone fell on him as they played in a cemetery shouted "you're murderers, we're murderers" at other boys.

Ciaran Williamson died at Craigton Cemetery in Cardonald, Glasgow, in May. He had been playing with a group of boys when "the big stone" toppled over, a fatal accident inquiry has heard. One of his friends said he tried to lift the stone off Ciaran after also being struck. The boy told police officers: "I tried to help him but couldn't because the gravestone jammed his foot. "So I tried to lift it but I wasn't strong enough because my back hurt so then I just helped (another boy)." The schoolboy was asked what he saw when he looked at Ciaran and said "just blood". He added that it was "at his mouth and nose". Another boy in the group said one of his friends had jumped on a gravestone to try to get on to a wall and it "just collapsed". He said Ciaran ended up underneath it. 'Very shaken' The boy told police he believed he then blacked out. He said: "I don't know what happened then next thing I woke up, I was standing up, turned round, the gravestone was on Ciaran. "(A boy) was saying 'you're murderers, we're murderers'. Then I said 'no we're not it's just an accident'." The inquiry will establish if there were any reasonable precautions that could have prevented the tragedy and if there were any defects in the system of work which caused or contributed to Ciaran's death. PC Neil Galbraith told the inquiry he was the first officer on the scene after hearing a young person in the cemetery had a possible head injury. He said Ciaran was already in the ambulance when he arrived. The officer said he had to "coax" one of Ciaran's friends who was "very shaken, very nervous" when he took a statement later that night. He said: "It was very hard to take information from him, however we were trying to establish exactly what happened." The inquiry heard the boy said he went into the graveyard "through the hole in the wall" with friends including Ciaran. 'Pushed off from gravestone' He told police: "We seen a tree we wanted to climb, the tree was next to a big stone. "Ciaran was standing in front of the big stone. Me (and others) all jumped from the tree at the same time. "As soon as I landed, the big stone fell on my back. It hit Ciaran in the face. "I stayed with Ciaran while everyone ran for help." PC Galbraith also took a statement from another boy who was with Ciaran at the time of incident. He told police some of the boys wanted to use gravestones to get on to a wall. He said a group of youngsters climbed up and Ciaran was "waiting at the tombstone to get up on to it". The child claimed one of the boys pushed off from the gravestone as he tried to get from the tree to the wall. The boy said: "As he pushed off the tombstone, it fell. I leapt out the road but it caught me on my heel." The inquiry before Sheriff Linda Ruxton continues.

एक आठ वर्षीय लड़के का एक दोस्त, जो कब्रिस्तान में खेलते हुए उस पर एक कब्र गिरने से मर गया था, अन्य लड़कों पर चिल्लाया "तुम हत्यारे हो, हम हत्यारे हैं"।


Emeli Sande among first names for Lovebox festival

Summary: Hot Chip, Kelis, Emeli Sande, Azealia Banks and Friendly Fires are among the first names announced for this year's Lovebox festival.

The three-day event takes place in Hackney, east London, from 15-17 June. Also set to play are Magnetic Man, Sub Focus and Little Dragon, while US soul singer Bobby Womack will fill the legends slot. This is the 10th anniversary of the Victoria Park event, which started as a club night before becoming a festival. Previous years have featured Groove Armada, Snoop Dogg, Mark Ronson and Florence and the Machine. The last day of the festival will once again have a Mardi Gras atmosphere, with an Out and Out Fierce theme of high-energy disco and electro. More names will be announced in the coming months.

हॉट चिप, केलिस, एमेली सांडे, अज़ीलिया बैंक्स और फ्रेंडली फायर्स इस साल के लवबॉक्स उत्सव के लिए घोषित किए गए पहले नामों में से हैं।


Is London's 24-hour Night Tube plan dying?

Summary: Is London's weekend Night Tube plan dying?

Tom EdwardsTransport correspondent, London@BBCTomEdwardson Twitter With talks between London Underground (LU) and the unions at an impasse and showing little sign of progress, are there now further signs the idea of a Night Tube is withering? Previously London Mayor Boris Johnson has said the Night Tube could not be at "any cost" and today he told LBC Radio the weekend service was not "absolutely critical". Asked whether he could provide a date for the introduction of the 24-hour Tube, Mr Johnson said: "I've got to tell you this is something that the city of London has done without for 150 years. What I won't do is pay an unreasonable price for it, which Londoners would feel in their fares. 'Political apathy' "There's a very good deal on the table. I just hope that members of the Tube unions will get a chance to look at it. No-one will work more hours than they do today. Drivers have the same number of weekends as now. "I want you to know that this is something I think we should have but - I hope my attitude is clear - it is not something that I regard as absolutely critical." That is arguably a further shift away from a policy announced with much fanfare alongside the closure of ticket offices two years ago. Compared to the policy of closing ticket offices the differences are stark. LU forced those closures through even though the unions didn't want the changes. With the Night Tube it depends on the agreement of those same unions, but it cannot force the changes through without drivers. There also doesn't seem to be a sense of uproar from anyone that the plans for the Night Tube now seem to be in disarray; there is no start date and there seems to be political apathy around the whole idea. Of course there is much bluff and bluster during these talks, but it does makes you wonder if it'll ever happen?

क्या लंदन का वीकेंड नाइट ट्यूब प्लान मर रहा है?


Your pictures of Scotland 16 - 23 October

Summary: A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 16 and 23 October. Send your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs which can be found here.

Please also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly. Conditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions. Please ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice). In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide. However, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News. At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law. You can find more information here. All photos are subject to copyright.

स्कॉटलैंड की अपनी तस्वीरों का चयन 16 और 23 अक्टूबर के बीच भेजा गया। अपनी तस्वीरें scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk पर भेजें। कृपया सुनिश्चित करें कि आप तस्वीरों के संबंध में बीबीसी के नियमों का पालन करते हैं जो यहां पाए जा सकते हैं।


Thousands take part in Whitby Goth Weekend

Summary: Thousands of people from all over the UK and beyond have taken part in the Whitby Goth Weekend.

The event, which was first held in 1994, was prompted by the town's association with Bram Stoker's gothic novel, Dracula. Organisers said the weekend was now one of the biggest of its type anywhere in the world. Since 1997, it has been held twice a year, in April and October. More on this and other stories from across Yorkshire The event is also said to generate about £1m in revenue at what is otherwise a quiet time of year for local hoteliers.

व्हिटबी गॉथ वीकेंड में पूरे ब्रिटेन और उससे बाहर के हजारों लोगों ने भाग लिया है।


Girl, 15, charged over teenager's stabbing in Bulwell

Summary: A fourth teenager has been charged with murdering a 17-year-old who was chased and stabbed in Nottinghamshire.

The 15-year-old girl is due before Nottingham magistrates later accused of Lyrico Steede's murder. Lyrico died six days after suffering a number of injuries in the attack in Stock Well, Bulwell, in February. Kasharn Campbell, 19, from Bobbers Mill and two 17-year-old boys have already been charged with murder and are due to go on trial in October. A 17-year-old girl has also been charged with assisting an offender

चौथे किशोर पर नॉटिंघमशायर में पीछा करने और चाकू मारने वाले 17 वर्षीय युवक की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।