If the US election were like Canada's...

Summary: Canada - it's like the US, only different.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter It's colder; they play a lot of ice hockey (even if their teams can't seem to win the Stanley Cup anymore); their bacon is really ham; and their obsession with maple syrup products borders on unhealthy. Oh, and they also go about governing and running for public office very differently than the US. As the American presidential campaign season grinds into its 10th month, the Canadian general election, which started just last month, is nearing its conclusion. Before it's over, take a moment to contemplate what a US presidential election would look like if it were a bit more, well, Canadian. 1. Swing states might be a thing of the past Let's start with the obvious structural differences between the US and Canadian systems of government. The US has an executive branch headed by an elected president that often faces off against a legislative branch that - like now - is at least partially controlled by the opposition party. Canada operates under a parliamentary system, with a prime minister selected by the majority party. Divided government? It's not a thing up north. So, what if the Americans were to scrap their constitution and go Canadian (or British, or Australian, or Japanese … take your pick)? First of all, US elections would look a lot more like the 2018 mid-term congressional contests than the 2016 presidential race. With the US Electoral College system relegated to the dustbin, key "swing states" would be a thing of the past, replaced by a focus on battles in individual congressional districts (or "ridings", as the Canadians call them - a term whose etymology, sadly, doesn't involve horses or Mounties). Judging from those recently concluded midterms, US political wags would be focusing on suburbanites in urban areas as the key demographic, while those white working-class voters in the mid-west would lose some of their political lustre. Oh, and one more thing about the parliamentary system. The leaders of the parties in the legislature are the ones in line for the top job. So instead of Donald Trump versus Joe Biden (or Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders), you could get Democrat Nancy Pelosi against Republican Kevin McCarthy. While a conservative populist outsider like Mr Trump might be able to find a foothold in Canadian-style politics - one need look no farther than the successes of Rob and Doug Ford in Ontario - diving headfirst into the deep end of the electoral pool would be much more difficult in the Canadian system. That's either a feature or a flaw, depending on how you look at it. 2. There could be breakaway parties on left and right There's another quirk of the Canadian system that could translate into fun (or chaos) if it were magically installed in the US. With parliamentary elections, it is easier for smaller parties to gain traction. There are currently five established political parties with varying levels of influence in the Great North: Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, Bloc Quebecois and the Greens. The American equivalent of the New Democrats is probably the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party - so it's not too difficult to imagine the US left fracturing under a Canadian set-up. The same could happen on the right, of course, with Trumpists breaking off from the corporate/free-trader and small-government true believers of the Republican Party (instead of, you know, just burying them with insults and beating them in the primaries box). In fact, this could be unfolding right now in Canada, after the 2018 founding of the Canadian People's Party - a group of self-styled conservative populists that is running parliamentary candidates across Canada this year. And while a Quebec-style separatist movement doesn't exist in the US, is it impossible to envision Californians (or New Englanders or Texans) getting so fed up with Washington politics that they strike out on their own? Back in 2015, then-candidate Justin Trudeau promised to enact electoral reform - which some hoped would include switching the Canadian parliament to proportional representation. He ended up proposing a ranked-choice voting set-up, but then abandoned the idea once in the prime minister's office. Either change would have done even more to give smaller parties a crack at representation in the legislature, as it does in many European countries. Maine is the only US state to try ranked choice - and in 2018 it resulted in a congressional seat switching from Republican to Democrat. A proportional representation system would really shake things up, though. Sadly, that hypothetical will have to wait for the yet-to-be-scheduled "what if the US were run like Belgium" feature. 3. It would be all over in six weeks OK, let's get to the good stuff. US presidential hopefuls began launching their campaigns in early 2019 - nearly two years before the November 2020 election day and a full year before the first ballots are cast in the primary process to selected the major party nominees. In just about the time between the third and fourth (of 12!) Democratic primary debates, Canada will conduct their entire general election campaign. Pause, for a moment, to imagine such a scenario in the US. It's October 2019. Americans wouldn't have to think about campaigns, debates, candidate television adverts, non-stop cable news coverage and a seemingly endless stream of horserace for another year. Sure, Canada has leadership races that determine the heads of the various parties and, well, politics is never totally out of mind. And as we've seen with the Trudeau blackface scandal, even a short campaign has plenty of time to devolve into very American kinds of political scandal. With legal limits on the length of the campaign, however, elective politics could be kept mostly out of sight for vast stretches of time. 4. There would be a LOT less money involved Time is money, as the saying goes. You know what else is money? Money. Both the US and Canada have limits on the amount of money that can be donated to political candidates and parties. Only in Canada, however, are there hard limits on the amounts that candidates and parties can spend. The US tried to impose such restrictions in the post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s, but the US Supreme Court has repeatedly held that "money is essential to disseminating speech" - and therefore spending restrictions infringe on constitutional protections. The US has tried to impose "voluntary" limits on presidential spending, offering federal matching funds to those who abide by the caps. Ever since Barack Obama in 2008, however, presidential candidates have decided it's more lucrative to go it alone. What that means is that US elections are expensive, and US presidential elections are very, very, very expensive. In 2016, Hillary Clinton and her affiliated campaign committees spent $1.18 billion - yes, billion - on her failed presidential bid. Mr Trump spent a (relatively) modest $616.5m. Compare that to Canada's 2015 general election, where all the parties could spend a maximum of $296m (Canadian) combined. They didn't even come close to hitting that mark, however, shelling out just $72.6m. Even on a per-capita basis, Canadian spending on their general election ($2 per person) is much less than the US ($5.6) - and that's just US presidential campaign spending, which doesn't include $4bn spent on congressional races in 2016 as well as the money spent by losing presidential primary candidates. In the US, politics is big business - for candidates, campaign consultants, media outlets and all the other industries that fuel the massive enterprises. And business is good. Change the Constitution, throw some hard spending limits on US candidates and parties, and watch the whole thing go from boom to bust in short order. 5. Perhaps we'd have no clear winner So perhaps you're an American who's thinking: "Shorter, less expensive campaigns. Greater choice in political parties. An end to the Electoral College, which can award the presidency to candidates who receive fewer votes than their opponents. Where do I sign up?" Before you jump on board the Canada express, however, you might want to know that the Canadian system isn't necessarily a safe haven from electoral chaos. It's a not-too-remote possibility that this upcoming Canadian election, or a future one, could result in no party winning a majority. If the party with the most seats can't form a successful coalition government (and they usually can't), they end up trying to rule in the minority - holding onto power on a vote-by-vote basis, making whatever concessions they need to hold onto power. If you thought American democracy has been a bit shaky of late, imagine a President Elizabeth Warren who is just one congressional vote away from getting knocked out of power, prompting another election not too long after the last one. One need only cast an eye at Israel's recent electoral upheaval to understand what that might look like. Winston Churchill once quipped that "democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Perhaps Canadians and Americans can start a mini-debate about which one of their democratic systems is the least bad. Follow Anthony on Twitter More from Anthony on the candidates

कनाडा-यह अमेरिका की तरह है, केवल अलग है।


Khashoggi murder: Is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed finished?

Summary: "He's toast". "He's toxic". "He's my hero". "We love him". Opinions are clearly divided on the man they call MBS - Saudi Arabia's controversial Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent Since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate on 2 October, the MBS brand has become positively toxic in the West. Official Saudi denials that he himself had anything to do with the murder - in a plot hatched from right within his inner circle in the Diwan al-Maliki, the Royal Court - have been met with profound scepticism. In a part of the world where almost nothing gets done without sign-off from above, the current Saudi version that this was some sort of a rogue operation does sound implausible. One theory being quietly put forward in the Gulf is that while MBS wanted "something done" about Khashoggi's outspoken criticism, he never actually sanctioned murder, and that the man who ran his office, Sa'ud al-Qahtani, exceeded his orders while telling those taking part everything had sign-off from the crown prince. The problem is that outside Saudi Arabia hardly anyone believes the Saudi narrative. For days Saudi media indignantly denied any suggestion Khashoggi had met his end inside the consulate, claiming instead he had walked out into the streets of Istanbul. Then we were told he had died in a "fist fight". The latest version, from the Saudi prosecutor, is that his murder was indeed pre-meditated. The Saudi handling of the aftermath of this murder has been every bit as cack-handed as the operation itself. One can only assume that if MBS was listening to good counsel from his well-paid media advisers, he wasn't taking it. Watershed moment All of which leaves MBS in the dock of global public opinion, and someone most Western governments and multinationals do not want to be associated with. For Saudi Arabia, a nation only formally united in 1932, this represents a watershed moment. Do the senior princes temper this all-powerful figure by removing just enough of his powers to appease the US Congress and other Western bodies, some of which are now calling for an arms boycott? Do they "dethrone" him altogether, giving him some titular promotion to a meaningless sinecure? Or do they try to weather the storm, as they tried to do, unsuccessfully, after this story broke a month ago? In fact, there are extremely serious discussions going on right now behind closed doors in Saudi royal circles. The gravity of the crisis facing the ruling al-Saud family can be gauged by the sudden return to Riyadh on Tuesday of Prince Ahmed bin Abdelaziz, the last surviving full brother of the 82-year old King Salman. He arrived from London in the dead of night to be greeted with wafts of bukhur incense and embraces from fellow princes, including MBS himself. The quiet and thoughtful Prince Ahmed had become something of a cult hero amongst those who oppose MBS after he spoke out against the war in Yemen and placed the blame squarely on the crown prince and his father. He was said to be afraid to return to Riyadh for fear of house arrest - but now he is back and helping the family circle the wagons around the senior leadership. No obvious challengers So what are the factors they are now considering when it comes to MBS's future? First of all, he has no obvious challengers, he saw to that some time ago. At just 33 years old, his rise to power has been meteoric. Since becoming crown prince in June last year, replacing the older, wiser but duller Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, MBS has successfully gathered all the reins of power into his hands. He controls the ministry of interior (which includes the feared Mabahith secret police), the National Guard (a huge and loyal Praetorian Guard that protects the ruling family and their interests), and - as defence minister - he controls the armed forces. He heads the Royal Court, economic policy and - although his ailing father is king - it is MBS who really runs the country. Even before the Khashoggi crisis broke in October, MBS's policies were becoming increasingly controversial, causing several senior Saudis to question whether he was starting to become more of a liability than an asset. Supremely confident and blessed with a green light from his father, MBS dragged Saudi Arabia and its allies into a costly and seemingly unwinnable war in Yemen in 2015. Last year, he locked up dozens of princes, businessmen and senior figures in Riyadh's Ritz Carlton hotel until they agreed to pay back vast sums allegedly earned through corruption. This went down very well with Saudi youth, despite the fact MBS had recently splashed out on a $450m (£347m) super-yacht for himself. Then there is the ongoing spat with neighbouring Qatar, a major Western ally. Last weekend in Manama, US Defence Secretary James Mattis made a point of mentioning the vital coalition airbase there, which hosts 17 nations, a reminder that the US would like to see this spat ended. This year has seen a pointless row with Canada over a single tweet by its foreign minister calling for human rights in Saudi Arabia to be respected, as well as a raft of arrests of peaceful reformers. It's been clear for some time that MBS was no democrat - one person who has had dealings with him described him as "a reckless, out-of-control thug" - but until now most fellow Saudis have been prepared to overlook his excesses. Hi-tech future hopes To millions of young Saudis, MBS is still their hope for the future: a bold, charismatic leader and visionary reformer who has rolled back the powers of the conservative clergy, given women the right to drive and reintroduced entertainment into the kingdom's sterile public life. His plans to reform the oil-based economy, embodied in his Vision 2030 programme, have given Saudis an ambitious glimpse of a hi-tech future with meaningful jobs for everyone. To diplomats and policy-makers in Washington, London and Paris removing - or at least restraining - MBS may seem like the obvious thing to do. But for Saudi Arabia's conservative, risk-averse ruling family this is a decision it would far rather not have to take. So is he finished? It is hard to say at this stage. Remember that by mid-2011, a few months into the Arab Spring uprising, almost everyone assumed that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad would be deposed by Christmas. Seven years on he is still in power.

"वह टोस्ट करता है।" "वह विषाक्त है।" "वह मेरा नायक है।" "हम उससे प्यार करते हैं। जिस व्यक्ति को वे एमबीएस कहते हैं उस पर राय स्पष्ट रूप से विभाजित है-सऊदी अरब के विवादास्पद क्राउन प्रिंस मोहम्मद बिन सलमान।"


Brexit meets Alice in Wonderland

Summary: It feels a bit like Alice in Wonderland.

Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter Politics in the UK turned inside out and upside down after last week's general election. Things that certainly were not going to happen (like Labour's Jeremy Corbyn doing well) did, while what was definitely expected to happen (a Tory majority for Theresa May) did not. The Mad Hatter's Tea Party is scheduled a week from today: that long-awaited face-to-face meeting between the chief Brexit negotiators of the EU and the UK. The very first one since the UK voted to leave the European Union a year ago. While fireworks and expletives may be ricocheting off the walls behind closed doors, in public both sides will put on their most serious expressions and make out that nothing has changed. At all. Though, of course, it has. Nervous wait With only seven days to go before the Brexit tea party guests sit down at the negotiating table, and with the clock ticking loudly on the limited time allowed for these talks under EU law, the UK is abuzz with cross-party debate about the most basic of basics - what kind of a Brexit this should be. David Davis may be the UK's chief Brexit negotiator now, and he may trumpet his views loudly, but he could be out of a job in a week, or a month or a year. Along with his boss, the UK prime minister. Brussels is sharply aware of that. So everything Mr Davis agrees or disagrees with in talks with Brussels will be taken with a pinch of salt. In fact, the EU insists that, when it comes to Brexit, "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed". So only when all the divorce issues have been chewed over and debated by both sides, will the shape of the final Brexit deal become clear. This is why, at the moment, there is very little appetite in EU circles to talk about Brexit and the political mess in the UK - on or even off the record. EU leaders are keeping stumm, as one put it to me, because they feel it would be "suicidal" to be seen to intervene or offer advice to London. They are waiting for the uncertainty to be clarified, and meanwhile proceeding with the timetable triggered by the UK's Article 50 letter - the formal notification given by Theresa May back in March, that the UK was leaving the EU. UK rethink? What there is not here in Brussels or in Berlin, Paris or Rome, is a sense of schadenfreude at the UK prime minister's political own goal at the general election. Amongst EU leaders, that is; there is plenty of snickering and finger-pointing further down the political chain, and in the European press. There is understanding, though precious little sympathy, in Brussels for the complicated mess the UK finds itself in. That has led to backroom talk of the possibility to extend negotiations beyond the two-year set limit - as long as all the 27 EU member states and European Parliament agree. The UK could also withdraw its Article 50 letter, any time before the two-year negotiating period is up. Again, as long as there was unanimous acceptance amongst the so-called EU27 and European Parliament. That option has just been described to me as "Europe's secret wish". Of course, from the Brussels perspective, nothing would be a better advert for the value of EU membership than having what is perceived as a high-handed, recalcitrant, inherently eurosceptic UK choose to return to the European fold after all. But there is zero expectation here that that is likely to happen. Indigestible rhetoric The EU's working assumption is that Britain is leaving the EU. As one high-level European contact of mine put it: no-one here is working on a Plan B. As for whether it is a hard or soft-boiled, medium-rare or well-done Brexit, Brussels just rolls its eyes. It is felt here that the texture and flavour of Brexit will only become apparent at the end of the negotiating process. Until then, Brussels views all Brexit descriptions as political rhetoric, aimed at the British public by UK politicians as a means of political point-scoring rather than a serious element of Brexit negotiations. But after all the vitriol during the UK's EU referendum campaign aimed against the European Court of Justice, the freedom of movement of EU citizens, regulations imposed by and payments made to Brussels, the EU is not expecting the UK to ask to remain a full member of the European single market (though perhaps the customs union). EU morale boosted The ball is firmly in Downing Street. The EU says it's ready and waiting - as of yesterday. One source commented that he's never seen Brussels so sanguine over a contentious issue. For once, EU member states really are aligned and calm, he told me, We have done our homework and we are ready for Brexit. It's the Brits who have to sort themselves out. In the meantime, the EU is concentrating on other pressing matters: security and defence, Russia, eurozone problems in Greece and the rule of law in Hungary and Poland. The mood in Brussels is increasingly confident. Not so much because of the UK's unstable Brexit position, but thanks to the electoral success this weekend of France's pro-EU President Emmanuel Macron and his new centrist party, as well as Sunday's drubbing in local elections for Italy's eurosceptic Five Star movement, and the steady return to popularity for the EU's grande dame, Chancellor Angela Merkel, ahead of Germany's autumn elections. With or without the UK, the EU is determinedly looking forward.

यह थोड़ा एलिस इन वंडरलैंड जैसा लगता है।


Brecon Beacons crash: Mini Cooper driver, 19, dies

Summary: A 19-year-old man has died in a crash on the Brecon Beacons.

The Mini Cooper driver was pronounced dead at the scene, near Storey Arms, on a stretch of road known locally as RAC Bends. Dyfed-Powys Police has urged anyone who may have seen the car - a black Mini Cooper - to contact them. No other vehicles were involved in the crash at about 22:30 GMT on the A470, the force added. Its officers have been supporting the victim's family.

ब्रेकन बीकन पर एक दुर्घटना में एक 19 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


My Money: 'I'm a sucker for a promo sticker'

Summary: My Money is a series looking at how people spend their money - and the sometimes tough decisions they have to make. Here Charmel Flemming from Johannesburg, South Africa takes us through a week in her life during the coronavirus pandemic.

Charmel, 37, and her husband Michael each run their own businesses from home and have two girls, aged six and three. Charmel founded her business in 2018, providing entrepreneurs with accounting and administrative support services. She only uses cloud accounting via the internet which means she could continue servicing her clients without interruption since the start of the pandemic. She loves the "magic of baking" - the planning, preparation, presentation and how it brings people together. She says baking, cooking and being in the kitchen is where she finds her happy place. Over to Charmel... A slower start to my day than what I had hoped for but the girls are on mid-term break, and I get them ready for the day. The late (10:00) exercise session adds to the slowness of the day. Twice a week, my trainer and I have a Zoom training session, which is my splurge during lockdown! When we started lockdown in SA, we were not permitted any form of exercise outside your property, so we had to make do. Training helps my mentality. Since lockdown I bumped it up to two sessions a week. Nothing feels better than when the endorphins kick in, and all is right with the world. Each session is 225 ZAR or South African Rand ($13.5, £11). The mid-term school break for my girls makes my life exponentially crazier. The kids have been nagging to decorate the Christmas tree. Yes, I am aware that it is six months early, but it also gets me 90 minutes relief. After my gym session, I head to the fuel station to fill up my car for the first time in about 100 days. After I started working from home, I filled up every four to six weeks. So 100 days is a new record. Total cost: ZAR 564.55. We try to stock up once a week although this is virtually impossible. I plan the week's meals in advance but always change my mind at the last minute and then realise I don't have all the ingredients. My first stop was to get bulk cheese (two different variants), butter and eggs. Yes, I know we consume way too much cheese and butter, but life is short. ZAR 344.10. Next stop: the spice shop which is around the corner from the cheese place. My favourite part must be the aroma of the store, and I usually spend too much time buying things I don't need. But today I am focused: baking supplies and spices. ZAR 239.10. Next was the shopping for the week ahead. I head to Pick n Pay simply because I need basics, and I know they are well stocked. During the stringent level five of lockdown, I realised that previously well-stocked stores simply don't have what I need, not even an alternative. I end up store-hopping just to make sure I get everything. Very frustrating. I get a few discounted items (I'm a sucker for a promo sticker) and some essential foods for our domestic worker to send home. Her mom lives in Zimbabwe, and she sends supplies to her whenever she can. It's cheaper than trying to get it in Zimbabwe. She sends rice, oil, sugar, maize meal, flour and baking powder. ZAR 923.40. Last stop is the pharmacy to get a zinc supplement for the girls. ZAR 60. Today was a real banger of a spending day. Total spend: ZAR 2,356.15 ($142, £116). I can knock out a batch of pancakes in under 20 minutes, including getting the girls to help. I have found that adding two drops of food colouring makes any food more appealing to the girls. Today's colours reminded me of Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi. Today was a more productive day, kind of, if you take into account the puzzle building I did before lunch and the bike rides late afternoon. The welcome distractions were rather pleasant after a frustrating day, which is a whole other story. Lunch was a very colourful stir-fry with stuff I had in the fridge and homemade ramen noodles. For my last birthday, I had been gifted a voucher and indulged myself with a pasta maker. I would never spend my own money on anything like that. I also make my yoghurt (coconut and dairy), and bread (most of the time). It's not a cost factor but a health one. My husband owned a bakery a few years ago. I was shocked at what goes into a loaf of bread. Some of the ingredients don't even have a name; only letters and numbers. I prefer to make it myself when I can. My insurance policy is due for renewal soon. The initial increase was ZAR 267.16 per month, which isn't a bad increase, but I do enjoy the challenge of negotiating. Thirty minutes later, I managed to increase some of my benefits with a decrease of ZAR 55.25 per month on my current premium. Total spend: ZAR 0 In my corporate job I made really good money and spent it frivolously. When I started my business, I reassessed my spending habits and cut back. I thought I was doing well but then Covid hit and I realised that I might have slipped back into some of my lousy spending habits. My Instagram scrolling also took a turn for the worse but I was introduced to some amazing local brands that I should be supporting. As a business owner in South Africa I feel obligated to support other local businesses but sometimes it gets expensive. Let's take loungewear for example. ZAR 1,000 for a top and bottom set. I think it's a bit pricey for glorified pyjamas. I am still trying to navigate buy local at a premium vs cheaper imports. #buylessbuylocal Total spend: ZAR 0 I had to replace the gas cylinder for the stove. Each one lasts about eight to 10 weeks. So no big hassle. Total spent ZAR 209. My youngest daughter has physio sessions once a week to work on her core instability. Before Covid-19 it was done at school and that was great because it meant I didn't have to take her to the session. With schools being closed that all changed. Under Covid threat level five we did Zoom sessions, which as you can imagine was a nightmare. Under threat level four, we managed to see the physio again. Each session is ZAR 498. Total spend: ZAR 707 ($42, £35) We have wooden floors in our house, and after moving in we realised that there was some termite damage. Besides treating the house itself, we are supposed to treat the garden every three months as a preventative measure. It does slip my mind, and I only just treated the garden a year after the last treatment. Total cost ZAR 1,610. I feel guilty about the lack of time I spent with the girls during their mid-term break while I was working. I booked pony rides for the afternoon. ZAR 200 per child, ZAR 400 in total. It was such an excellent outing for us. The set up was more than merely pony rides, we spent an hour, brushing Joe the pony, getting him strapped in, riding around the garden and playing fun educational games. We had to take an Uber there and back, my car battery is completely flat. Return trip ZAR 112. Decided today was takeout Friday and it didn't go as planned. Ordered pizza and sushi from different restaurants and the sushi place got our order wrong. So instead of spending ZAR 529 for both, I only ended up spending ZAR 205. Some kind of a saving. Total spend: ZAR 2,327 ($140, £114) My Money More blogs from the BBC's My Money Series: Today started with a brutal Zoom training session. At the end of the session, my thighs were in tears. I come to the realisation that a takeout is the same price as a training session. ZAR 225. Should I skip takeouts completely and increase my training sessions? Just a thought. Most of the day I spent preparing for a board meeting, which was almost as brutal as the training session. With the ongoing conversation about equality and diversity, I have appreciated the small things. I ordered 10 packs of Colour Me crayons. Each pack contains 12 shades of skin colours that celebrate diversity at ZAR 40 per pack . Total spent ZAR 400 - merging continuous diversity conversation with local brands: priceless. We streamed Jungle Beat: The Movie, which is excellent for the kids and entertaining for the adults. ZAR 35 and it's available for 48 hours. Total spend: ZAR 660 ($40, £31) To make sure my thighs won't hate me forever, I went for a little run. I only do little runs, no more than 10km. I ended my little run (3.44 km) at the Pick n Pay to get things for the week ahead and to make sure we have everything for the braai (barbecue). It has become a tradition, either Saturday or Sunday my husband takes over the cooking responsibilities by having a braai. I got loads of fruit, veg, meat, and lunch supplies for my eldest daughter, who returns to school next Tuesday and Thursday. Once again I couldn't get everything at the one store and had to do two stops. ZAR 1,143.39 and ZAR 996.09 between the two. At the end of the shopping trip, my husband picked me up. The little run was about stretching my legs, not a weightlifting exercise. The girls watched Jungle Beat again. At least I get my money's worth from the BoxOffice movies. A Sunday breakfast tradition is koe'sisters. It is prepared from balls of dough flavoured with cinnamon, aniseed, ginger and cardamom deep-fried in oil, allowed to cool, then cooked for one minute in boiling syrup and rolled in desiccated coconut. Which is too much work for me! My mother-in-law makes it in bulk which I can freeze, pop into the syrup, roll in coconut and ta-da! A dozen koe'sisters would usually cost ZAR 54. Total spend: ZAR 2,139.48 ($128, £105) Savings: ZAR 54 Total spent this week: ZAR 8,189.63 ($492, £402) How does Charmel feel about her week? Emotionally each week is entirely different from the next. This week was filled less with anxiety, probably because of the mid-term school break. The girls were allowed to sleep in, had too much screen time and went to bed way too late. It is surprising how much angst having to oversee a six-year-old's schooling brings. I spent more than an average week because of the one-off costs, but I couldn't avoid it. We're looking for more people to share what they spend their money on. If you're interested, please email my.money@bbc.co.uk or get in touch via our My Money (World) Facebook group, or if you live in the UK, please join our My Money (UK) Facebook group and we'll aim to contact you.

माई मनी एक श्रृंखला है जिसमें देखा जाता है कि लोग अपना पैसा कैसे खर्च करते हैं-और कभी-कभी उन्हें कठिन निर्णय लेने पड़ते हैं। यहाँ दक्षिण अफ्रीका के जोहान्सबर्ग से चार्मेल फ्लेमिंग हमें कोरोनावायरस महामारी के दौरान अपने जीवन में एक सप्ताह के माध्यम से ले जाती है।


Five years that shaped the British military

Summary: There's currently controversy over the prospect of spending cuts for the British military. But there have been many years after World War Two in which big cuts have been made.

By Tom de CastellaBBC News Magazine 1946 - gearing up for peacetime During World War Two the UK defence budget reached a peak of £86bn a year [in real terms - see note at bottom for methodology] in 1944. In the final year of the war, the defence budgets fell by 48% to about £44bn. When the war ended, Britain had to rapidly change gear for a peacetime economy. At this point the British Army numbered 3.12 million soldiers. Add in the Navy, Royal Air Force and other parts of the military and demobilisation involved five million servicemen and women. Britain had won the war but it owed huge sums to the US. At the same time, Clement Attlee's government began building the welfare state. Austerity set in and the defence budget dropped - in 1946 falling by 56% to £19.5bn. There was a steep rise in 1947 before it fell back in 1948 and 1949 with cuts of 18% and 4% respectively. The Times in August 1947 reported "Cuts all round to meet the crisis". The petrol ration was reduced by 33%, coal miners were to work an extra half hour a day. And defence personnel would be cut to 1,007,000 by the end of March 1948, the prime minister announced. By October, further cuts were announced - the armed forces would now number 937,000 by the following April. The Conservative opposition "expressed grave anxiety at the state of the country's defences", according to the Times. Winston Churchill, now in opposition, made his Iron Curtain speech in 1946. There followed a slow period of realisation that the Soviet Union - formerly an ally against Hitler - was becoming a threat. It is thought the term Cold War was first used by Bernard Baruch, a White House adviser, in April 1947. The UK was moving secretly towards a nuclear deterrent. Despite demobilisation, conscription continued and in 1948 the National Service Act adopted this for peacetime. Britain's role was changing. Attlee was dismantling the Empire - in 1947 India gained independence. British forces were still being deployed as peacekeepers to the Middle East and to police the Empire. Troops were based in Palestine in the years before the declaration of Israel's independence in 1948. The Malayan Emergency - an attempt to put down a communist uprising - began in the same year and continued until 1960. 1957 - the year after Suez Britain found itself at war again in the early 1950s. Winston Churchill - back as prime minister - sent almost 100,000 British troops to serve in Korea - 765 lives were lost. UK defence spending rose dramatically to cope with the operation. And 1952 was the year the UK first successfully tested a nuclear bomb. There was a cut of 6% in 1953, anticipating the Korean armistice of July that year. The resolution of Korea led to hopes of detente. The Times talked of an olive branch being extended from Moscow and Peking (Beijing). There were other operations for UK forces to worry about - the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya, the independence campaign in Cyprus, and Borneo, among others. But the Suez Crisis was perhaps the definitive moment for the UK. The seizing of the Suez Canal with France, after Egypt had nationalised it, and then the humiliating withdrawal after pressure from US President Dwight Eisenhower, has been identified by some historians as the moment Britain ceased to be a great power. During the mid-1950s the UK defence budget had bobbed around - up a little in 1954, down in 1955 and up a little in 1956. But in 1957 following Suez, there was a 10% cut. It was the first double-digit cut since the post-World War Two downsizing. Spending on defence fell below 7%. The philosophy was set out by incoming Defence Secretary Duncan Sandys in his 1957 Defence White Paper. The army was to be slimmed down again and aircraft numbers cut. The new philosophy accepted the supremacy of nuclear weapons. In February 1957 a Times report summed up Sandys' position: "We must as far as possible resist the temptation to dissipate our limited resources on forces which in themselves had no deterrent value, for to that extent we should be reducing our contribution to the prevention of war." Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King's College London, says it was an attempt to reduce the cost at a time when the UK was overstretched. "The basic problem was we were still trying to manage an empire, putting a great strain on spending. Sandys' review was a shift to nuclear deterrence." Sandys also announced the end of conscription, although this didn't come into effect until 1963. The defence budget was frozen in 1958 and 1959. By 1960 the British Army was down to 315,000 men - about a tenth of its size at the end of WW2. 1969 - no place in Vietnam The Cold War was at deep freeze during the 1960s. The early 1960s were shaped by the Cuban Missile Crisis, the end of the decade by the Vietnam War. For the first half of the decade, the UK defence budget rose in most years. But Harold Wilson's Labour government came to power in 1964 pledging cuts. It promised to do this by banishing the "pretence" of a nuclear deterrent independent from the US, while still maintaining UK bases east of Suez, and keeping the British Army on the Rhine up to size. Defence secretary Denis Healey oversaw the scrapping of aircraft carriers but the thrust of defence policy remained the same - a reliance on the nuclear deterrent. In the second half of the 1960s, spending fell in three years - 1966, 1968 and 1969. In an interview in 1968, Healey said: "I think the services can be rightly very upset at the continuous series of defence reviews which the government has been forced by economic circumstances - and maybe economic mistakes too - to carry out." But 1969 was a key year and showed the divergence of US and UK military spending. This was the year that US troop numbers peaked in Vietnam at 549,500. But the UK was not involved, prime minister Harold Wilson having refused to send troops. Instead, the worsening economic picture in Britain led to more cuts. Healey's 1969 defence review produced a cut of 7%, the biggest since the Sandys review of 1957. Healey committed Britain to withdrawing from its bases east of the Suez Canal by 1971. He also cancelled plans to buy US F111 strike aircraft. By the end of the decade spending on defence had fallen to 4.65% of GDP. 1977 - the effects of inflation The UK defence budget appeared on paper to rise fast throughout the 1970s. But inflation was high - fluctuating between 10-25%. Adjusted for inflation, there were only small rises. It is often said that defence equipment costs rise faster than inflation. The reality during the 1970s was that the armed forces were being "hollowed out" by lots of small cuts, says Freedman. The Cold War had entered something of an impasse. But Northern Ireland was a drain on resources. At the height of the Troubles in 1972, there were 27,000 British military personnel based there. Public finances were tight in the later 1970s. In 1976, Prime Minister James Callaghan faced a Sterling crisis and was forced to apply to the International Monetary Fund for a £2.3bn rescue. It demanded cuts and the following year Defence Secretary Fred Mulley oversaw a 3% cut in spending. His Conservative shadow, Sir Ian Gilmour, accused Labour of cutting defence spending by £100m and called on Mulley to resign. According to the Times, in March 1977, Gilmour told the Commons the cuts were exposing the country to the danger of Soviet aggression: "The government had pretended that the defence review had cut Britain's commitments outside Nato but had not cut its Nato capability. That was untrue. They had weakened the fleet on the flank - reduced the reserves earmarked for Nato, and made dangerous reductions in the capability of the air force." By 1978, defence spending was down to 4.5% of GDP. But in this period only two Nato countries spent more on defence as a percentage of GDP - the US and Greece. 1991 - the post-Cold War world Defence spending in the US and UK grew in the 1980s as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher took a more aggressive strategy in the Cold War. The arms race was ratcheted up, which some historians credit for the collapse of the Soviet economy. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and the Warsaw Pact was dismantled, the Cold War seemed over. The "peace dividend" led countries to scale down their militaries. Spending in the UK had already peaked in 1985 at 5.1% of GDP and fallen back slowly. In 1990, the Thatcher government produced Options for Change, a review looking to make the most of the "peace dividend". Alan Clark, defence procurement minister, wrote in his diaries at the time: "We are at one of those critical moments in defence policy that occur only once every fifty years." It was a reshaping of defence now that the Soviet threat had gone. And a chance to save money. In 1992 the budget dropped 6% and the pattern continued for the next five years. Cuts were made of 4% in 1993, 5% in 1994, 7% in 1995, 2% in 1996, 7% in 1997. Spending as a proportion of GDP fell from 4.1% in 1991-92 to 2.4% by the end of the decade. There were similar cuts from other nations. The US announced the closure of more than 100 bases and reduced its army in Germany from 300,000 to below 100,000. It was not just a response to the strategic situation. The US budget deficit was "out of control", the Times reported in June 1990, and defence cuts were inevitable. US spending fell from 6.3% of GDP in the late 1980s to 3.4% a decade later. In the UK, the scale of the cuts met with anger from MPs from all parties. The Army was to be reduced to 116,000. The government cancelled an order for 33 Tornado jets and cut three RAF Tornado squadrons. Defence Secretary Tom King described it as "the biggest cut in real terms" the armed forces had faced for a long time. The Gulf War created concerns that the cuts were too big. Members of the Commons Defence Committee attacked Options for Change. "The Ministry of Defence is being led by the nose by the Treasury towards reductions in Britain's armed forces which have no rational basis," Lib Dem defence spokesman Menzies Campbell said in August 1991. King resisted calls to postpone the cuts because of the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. King said a few days later on the BBC's World at One: "The Warsaw Pact has gone. Soviet troops have left Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and Germany is united." Protests among Tory backbenchers and the opposition went on. In an October debate in the Commons, former Conservative minister Julian Amery asked King: "Putting your hand on your heart, could you say 'yes, we could cope with another Falkland operation, with another Gulf operation?' If you can't, you had better go back to the drawing board." Sources and working: All defence spending figures are real terms meaning that spending has been adjusted for inflation. The source is the MoD. The pre-1955 figures are only estimates. They use "current prices" spending figures, which have been turned into real terms budgets using Office for National Statistics inflation figures. Special thanks to Fenella McGerty of IHS Jane's Defence Budgets for her statistical analysis. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

ब्रिटिश सेना के खर्च में कटौती की संभावना पर वर्तमान में विवाद है। लेकिन द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के कई साल बाद भी इसमें बड़ी कटौती की गई है।


Turtle Menai washed up on Anglesey 'may not survive'

Summary: A zoo which cared for a rare sea turtle which washed up on Anglesey said it is "devastated" to hear she may not survive.

The Olive Ridley turtle, nicknamed Menai, was the first such turtle to have been reported in UK waters since records began almost 200 years ago. She was flown to Gran Canaria last summer to recover in a warmer climate. But Anglesey Sea Zoo said Menai's condition "has rapidly deteriorated" and it may be "too late to save her". Staff travelled with her to the Canary Islands in June 2017 where it was hoped Menai would acclimatise before being tagged and taken to the southern Atlantic Ocean for release. But posting on its Facebook page, the zoo said her condition had deteriorated over the last two to three weeks. "Since realising this, we have been desperately trying to find a more suitable place to move her on to," it said.

एक चिड़ियाघर, जो एक दुर्लभ समुद्री कछुए की देखभाल करता था, जो एंग्लेसी पर बह गया था, ने कहा कि यह सुनकर "तबाह" हो गया कि वह जीवित नहीं रह सकती है।


Welsh cancer treatment times improve but target is still missed

Summary: There has been a slight improvement in the number of people being treated for cancer within the Welsh government's target time - although the overall target is still being missed.

The latest figures for November show 89.4% of those diagnosed with cancer began treatment within 62 days. The target level of 95% has not been reached since 2008. The previous figure for October 2014 was 85%. A Welsh government spokesman said: "We have made considerable progress in cancer care in Wales with more people now surviving cancer, even though more people are being diagnosed." But the Conservative's shadow health minister Darren Millar said efforts to improve cancer waiting times were not helped by Labour's "legacy of record-breaking cuts to the Welsh NHS, which have constrained capacity and heaped pressure on hardworking staff".

वेल्श सरकार के निर्धारित समय के भीतर कैंसर का इलाज कराने वाले लोगों की संख्या में थोड़ा सुधार हुआ है-हालाँकि समग्र लक्ष्य अभी भी छूट रहा है।


England lockdown: How to exercise safely

Summary: With gyms and pools shut as England's second lockdown begins, many of us will be digging out the running kit again. But for some, the thought of running in the dark is a scary one - so how can we exercise safely?

By Annabel RackhamNewsbeat reporter Hannah Baptiste keeps fit by playing in a women's football team and running. "I felt safe going to the park and playing football in the spring because I could see people around me but now the thought of finishing work and going for a run - it's really not ideal," Hannah tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. The 27-year-old adds: "Football season started back up and I was able to go to training and at least we had floodlights on training days which made us feel safe." "Going to the park at 5pm is scary, there are no lights whatsoever." Hannah says she feels being a woman makes her "more susceptible to being abused or being attacked." "When I go for a run I do it to release stress, but not being able to do that because you're thinking about who could be hiding behind a tree means it's not an option." And it's not just a worry for women, Hannah says. "With everything that's been going on in the world, it has shown that people can be openly racist," she adds. "Even for BAME men, going for a run could see them stereotyped for the colour of their skin and someone might think they're going to be attacked by them as that's the way the world perceives them." Kate Dale, from Sport England, says there are a few things you could try if you're scared of exercising in the dark, starting with having a word with your boss. "If you're working from home, see if there can be some flexibility so you can take a longer lunch hour or start a bit later," she says. "If you work during the time you would have spent commuting, you could use that time for example. "You don't have to go out for a long time, 10 -15 minutes and just a change of scenery is going to make a huge difference to how you feel physically." Kate says physical exercise will be key to keeping our mental health in check during lockdown, and it allows you to see your friends too. Guidelines in England say you can exercise outdoors with members of your household or one person outside of it, as long as you socially distance. "You can still connect with friends and catch up even though it might be cold or dark," Kate says. If you have no choice but to exercise alone in the dark, some simple measures can keep you safe. Saskia Garner is from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which campaigns to help reduce the risk of violence and aggression towards people. "Our key piece of advice is for people to have a buddy - a trusted person they can tell their plans to, so if they were to not return home safely, someone will be alerted," she says. She says runners should be careful with tracking apps - making sure privacy settings are in place so routes and regular exercises times are not visible. She says: "Stick to well-lit busy routes, somewhere you can call for help if you need it." And if that's not enough to convince you to get your thermal running vest out, then home workouts could be an option. "At the minute it's raining, it's cold outside and that is not going to motivate you to go outside for a walk or a run - obviously you need to get up and get moving." says Courtney Black, a 24-year-old personal trainer, who started doing daily workouts on Instagram at the start of the first UK lockdown. "It's not healthy to sit on the sofa or your desk all day, if you get up and do a workout you're going to feel so good after and it will really set you up for the day." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

इंग्लैंड में दूसरा लॉकडाउन शुरू होते ही जिम और पूल बंद होने के कारण हम में से कई लोग फिर से रनिंग किट निकाल रहे होंगे। लेकिन कुछ लोगों के लिए अंधेरे में दौड़ने का विचार डरावना है-तो हम सुरक्षित रूप से व्यायाम कैसे कर सकते हैं?


Comey may be many things, but is he really a liar?

Summary: So let's cut straight to it. I've been reading the book, and watched the interview. I also spent hours listening to James Comey giving testimony to Congress before he was fired and afterwards. And my views about him have coalesced.

Jon SopelNorth America editor@bbcjonsopelon Twitter I think he is vain, arrogant, pious, slightly pompous, supercilious, faux-naïve over the Hillary Clinton emails and the role he played in determining the outcome of the election, and sly in the personal comments he makes about Donald Trump - orange face, white half-moon eyes and (not unusually small) hands. A little juvenile, no? And most of all I think it is the lowest of political smears to give credence to the Moscow hotel peeing prostitutes story on the basis of salacious and unsubstantiated claims. "I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013," Comey said in an interview with ABC News. Well if you don't know, then don't say it. If the long serving prosecutor (as he was in his younger days) had said that in court, the defence would have risen and said "Objection your honour, conjecture". And the judge would have sustained that objection. So why is Comey doing that in a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" way in his interview with George Stephanopoulos? It makes him look like a small, bitter man who lost his mind and lost his judgement at roughly the same time. There were a couple of other asides about the Trump's marriage that seemed to me to fit into the "unworthy" category. But there is one other judgement I would make about Comey. I don't think he's a liar. And on the stuff that really matters, that is the key. If it ever comes to an impeachment process against President Trump (something interestingly Comey says he hopes doesn't happen - his argument that it was the American people who elected him; it should therefore be the American people who boot him from office), then his testimony could prove vital. In the interview, he asserts there is "certainly some evidence" that Donald Trump obstructed justice in asking the former FBI chief to see a way of dropping the case against Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor (Flynn has since pleaded guilty to one charge of lying to the FBI). Comey thought it so unusual that he was having one-to-one meetings with the president, without the attorney general or chief of staff present, that he took a contemporaneous (ugly word, I know) note of the meeting - either in the form of an aide-mémoire to himself, or in a memorandum to colleagues. Why this matters is that in a court case, an FBI officer's contemporaneous note is admissible as evidence. Just like a recording of the conversation. Are we to believe that the serving head of the FBI deliberately fabricated these notes because he knew sooner rather than later he was going to be fired, and these could then be used to help bring an obstruction of justice case against the sitting president? Comey is an ambitious, proud and status-conscious kind of guy. He wanted to do everything to keep his job - self immolation was never part of his plan. In the interview he talks about flying back from the West Coast immediately after he'd been unceremoniously fired. You could see the memory of that still caused him pain. But proving he is a liar is a key element to Republican strategy at the moment. That is the way you draw his sting. The rest is just playground insults. The argument from the White House is that Comey is "known to be a leaker and a liar" - a phrase used by the president; a phrase used by his press secretary, Sarah Sanders. The evidence, as they see it, is his changing explanation for re-opening the Hillary Clinton email investigation. And giving testimony initially to Congress that the president had not sought to interfere over the treatment of Flynn. They also accuse Comey of leaking classified emails. The president tweeted that he will go down in history as the worst ever director of the FBI. Well, let's see. He will certainly go down as one of the most controversial - yes, even running J Edgar Hoover close. His behaviour over the Hillary Clinton emails is unbelievable - for both Republicans and Democrats alike - although for different reasons. And they show the worst of Comey. He announces she's not going to be prosecuted for her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State, but then added a stern rebuke to her behaviour, saying she'd been extremely careless. FBI directors normally don't say anything. That was grandstanding. Then two weeks before polling day - two weeks! - he announced he was reopening the investigation because of the discovery of a new hoard of emails. It totally transformed the closing stages of the campaign, and led to a massive reverse in the polls. But he made that announcement before looking at what those emails were. And then just days before polling, he exonerated candidate Clinton. So what the hell was that all about? I thought what he said was hogwash and the reasoning flawed. But I don't doubt his sincerity when he says he felt he had no other course of action open to him. In the interview Comey gets nowhere near to giving an adequate explanation of why he did what he did. He looks like he was trying to be too clever by half. He told Congress a few months back that it left him feeling mildly nauseous to think that he could have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Only mildly? He is deeply flawed. But ultimately it will come down to a question of who do you believe: the president or his former FBI director? One has a bit of a track record of, how can one put this, making assertions that don't bear close scrutiny (for example, the false claims that Obama wasn't born in the US, therefore was illegitimate as president, that Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the twin towers came down in 2001, that the crowds for his inauguration were bigger than Obama's, that three million people voted illegally and that his was the biggest electoral college victory since Reagan - I could go on). His former communications director, Hope Hicks told a congressional hearing that one of her jobs was to tell "white lies" for the president. The other does not. The president has called Comey a slimeball. Quite possibly. But to neutralise him fully, Donald Trump has to undermine his credibility, and prove he's a liar. That hasn't happened yet, so for the moment the 6ft 8in former FBI director can still walk tall. And that makes him dangerous.

तो आइए सीधे इस पर आते हैं। मैं किताब पढ़ रहा हूं, और साक्षात्कार देख रहा हूं। मैंने जेम्स कोमी को बर्खास्त करने से पहले और बाद में कांग्रेस को गवाही देते हुए घंटों बिताए। और उनके बारे में मेरे विचार एकजुट हो गए हैं।


Why is a Tanzanian chief's skull mentioned in the Versailles Treaty?

Summary: The Treaty of Versailles, signed exactly a century ago, reshaped Europe in the wake of World War One. So why, within its many hundreds of clauses, does the treaty refer to the decapitated head of an African anti-colonial hero?

By Damian ZaneBBC News Chief Mkwawa's skull now sits on a plinth, protected by a glass box, in a tiny museum in a small town in central Tanzania. But like a trophy, it once adorned the house of a colonial official in Germany's administrative centre in Bagamoyo, before being spirited away to Germany at some point at the beginning of the 20th Century. The skull was used as a symbol to intimidate the Wahehe people, who the chief had led in a fierce rebellion against the German colonisers. So successful was his campaign in the 1890s that a bounty was put on his head by the Germans. He is believed to have eventually taken his own life in 1898, rather than submit to the humiliation of being captured, as he sheltered in a cave that was encircled by German soldiers. Two decades later, the fate of his skull was on the minds of the diplomats who spent months arguing over the settlement of World War One. The Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations and detailed the reparations Germany had to pay for starting the conflict, runs to tens of thousands of words amounting to 440 clauses, or articles, plus several annexes. Chaotic negotiations Hundreds of diplomats from around the world, holed up in the French capital, Paris, drafted and redrafted the articles. The chaotic nature of the process may have allowed the fate of Chief Mkwawa's skull to be snuck into the text - largely thanks to the efforts of Horace Byatt, a British colonial administrator in East Africa. Historian Jeremiah Garsha has found a letter Byatt sent just three days after the end of the war in November 1918, which lobbied to have the skull returned from Germany, saying it would give "satisfaction" to the Wahehe people, offering "tangible proof in the eyes of the natives that German power has been completely broken". It is likely he had another motive - to show that the British, who had seized control of German territories in East Africa, were now in charge. But while the four leaders of the main allied powers gave the idea a sympathetic hearing, they were not convinced. Mr Garsha has found minutes from one of their meetings in February 1919, in which it was said that the impact on the Wahehe people was "hardly sufficient for the inclusion [of the skull] in the venerable peace treaty". 'Craniological curiosity' That should have been the end of it, but some in the British camp, including Colonial Secretary Viscount Milner, were keen on the issue and spotted an opportunity in the section of the treaty that dealt with reparations. Chief Mkwawa's full name: Some countries wanted to see Germany return artefacts and art works and Mr Garsha argues that it was Milner's description of the skull as a "craniological curiosity" that allowed it to be seen as an object of art. And so under a section headed "special provisions" and sandwiched between demands from France and Belgium sits article 246: "Within six months… Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's Government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa, which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany." However, the skull was not returned within six months - it took another 35 years for this to happen. What WW1's end meant for Africa By Martin Plaut The Treaty of Versailles helped shape modern Africa as Germany renounced sovereignty over its former colonies and Article 22 converted these into League of Nations mandate territories, to be run by the former allied powers. Togoland was divided between France and Britain, the French part becoming modern-day Togo and the British part joining Ghana. Kamerun (Cameroon) was also partitioned between the two allies. Ruanda (Rwanda) and Urundi (Burundi) were given to Belgium. Britain received German East Africa (Tanzania), while German South-West Africa (Namibia) went to South Africa. South Africa's mandate over Namibia became hotly contested because of the imposition of apartheid, and was finally terminated by the UN in 1961. The partition of Cameroon is a factor in the current conflict between the country's Anglophone and Francophone populations. Initially, Germany denied it had Chief Mkwawa's skull but for the British it remained an important symbol that they wanted to use to their advantage. So when it seemed the skull had resurfaced in the German town of Bremen in the 1950s, the British governor of what was then Tanganyika, Edward Twining, was quick to take action. He went to investigate the collection of human remains a curator had found as he catalogued artefacts that had been stored for safety during World War Two. Twining was keen to capitalise on the reputation of Mkwawa as a hero and brave warrior - the chief who in 1891 had led his troops armed with spears to victory over the Germans, killing 300 of their soldiers and capturing their guns at a battle at Lugalo. The Wahehe had been pushing north and winning territory in East Africa throughout the second half of the 19th Century as Germany sought to take control of the region. Three years later, the Germans marshalled their troops, this time bringing powerful cannons to overwhelm the Wahehe forces. But Mkwawa evaded capture for four more years, until surrounded at his hideout he decided to take his own life. Crude forensics Governor Twining believed that although Mkwawa had killed himself, the Germans shot him through the head to make sure he was dead. This was an important clue when identifying the skull, using crude forensics. He measured the diameter of a large hole in the skull and said it matched the calibre of the type of bullet the Germans would have used. At the ceremony that saw the return of the skull to Kalenga, Twining did not dwell on the chief's anti-colonial credentials, instead speaking of honour being restored and how he felt the skull had come back to the Wahehe as a source of protection. More on Germany's colonial legacy: But then he struck his bargain: "I hope too that you and your people will continue to give your unstinted loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors." For Twining that loyalty extended to fighting in Britain's colonial force known as the King's African Rifles (KAR) - a military and security unit that was recruited from East Africa. "It would be a great pity if the Hehe became soft and lost their martial qualities," he added. A recruiting officer from the KAR was at the ceremony, ready to sign up 70 young people. Mr Garsha told the BBC this happened in 1954 at the height of the anti-colonial Mau Mau rebellion in neighbouring Kenya - and KAR soldiers were being used to pursue a brutal crackdown. There is some irony that the memory of this anti-colonial figure was being invoked to help the colonialists. But 1954 was also the year that Julius Nyerere formed the Tanganyika African National Union, which successfully campaigned for independence from Britain, granted in 1961. While at one time colonialists may have hoped Chief Mkwawa's skull would help curry favour, it served as a symbol for an independent and proud Tanzania - and still sits in its own museum in Kalenga. "It gives us a chance to be proud of people who resisted the colonisers," Eric Jordan from the museum told the BBC.

ठीक एक शताब्दी पहले हस्ताक्षरित वर्साय की संधि ने प्रथम विश्व युद्ध के बाद यूरोप को नया रूप दिया। तो फिर, अपने सैकड़ों खंडों के भीतर, संधि एक अफ्रीकी उपनिवेश-विरोधी नायक के सिर काटने वाले प्रमुख का उल्लेख क्यों करती है?


Borders fox-hunting trial adjourned

Summary: The trial of two huntsmen accused of breaching Scotland's fox hunting legislation has been adjourned.

Legal reasons meant no evidence could be led on the second day of the trial of John Clive Richardson, 66, and his 24-year-old son Johnny Riley. The pair, both members of the Jedforest Hunt who live near Bonchester Bridge, deny deliberately hunting a fox with hounds near Jedburgh in February 2016. The trial will resume at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on 27 April. Deliberately hunting a fox with hounds has been illegal in Scotland since the introduction of the Protection of Wild Mammals Act 2002.

स्कॉटलैंड के लोमड़ी शिकार कानून का उल्लंघन करने के आरोपी दो शिकारियों के मुकदमे को स्थगित कर दिया गया है।


'Very high' air pollution in Wales from Paris smog

Summary: Smog which has blown from Paris has caused air pollution levels to be "very high" across Wales.

Air monitoring stations in Cardiff, Newport and Chepstow have all shown high levels of particle pollution. The smog blew over the English Channel from Paris and the current high atmospheric pressure has led to hazy visibility. People who suffer from breathing difficulties are being warned about the potentially harmful cloud of smog.

पेरिस से उड़ने वाले धुंध के कारण पूरे वेल्स में वायु प्रदूषण का स्तर "बहुत अधिक" हो गया है।


Church clerical abuse: Former nuns share their experiences

Summary: A day after Pope Francis publicly admitted for the first time that clerics had sexually abused nuns, promising to tackle the issue that was "still going on" within the Catholic Church, two former female members of the Church have spoken about their experiences with the BBC.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Thursday morning, the women welcomed the pontiff's acknowledgement of the scandal, saying that for too long there had been a "culture of silence and secrecy within the hierarchy". But the descriptions of their experiences will only serve to exacerbate a scandal that continues to rock the Catholic Church. Dr Rocio Figueroa Dr Figueroa is a theologian and lecturer in Auckland, New Zealand, and a survivor of abuse she says she suffered at the hands of a priest in Lima, Peru. She told the BBC that she joined the society of apostolic life within the Catholic Church as a teenager living in a "very poor part of the world" because she "needed to do something". "I was 15 years old and the founder asked me to begin a spiritual direction with a vicar, who became my spiritual director. "After months of gaining my trust he asked me and some young men to bring our sports gear to study yoga. After some group sessions he moved to personal sessions. He then said he would teach me exercises that would help develop... my self-control over my sexuality. "I was very naive; I had no prior sexual experience. And so he began touching me all over. I was thinking - wrongly - that he was good and that I was the evil one. I felt that it was my fault. I felt very guilty and disorientated. "He never raped me but he absolutely committed sexual abuse in my regard. The first time I realised that I was a victim of sexual abuse I was 40 years old. "The people I trusted, the ones representing God, were fake." Dr Figueroa said she decided to speak out after the man who committed the abuse against her died. She said she felt it was important to come forward and denounce him because at the time he was still considered a holy man and a saint by the people within her community. Doris Wagner-Reisinger "Before I was sexually abused I was spiritually abused - I wasn't allowed to read books or speak to anyone about personal matters. I lost my self-confidence and became very weak. "Five years into this, [a male member of the religious community] began to approach me whenever I was working on my own. He would come into my room and just stand beside me and talk. "Eventually he would hug me and, at some point, he just came into my room in the evening and started to undress me and rape me. "That was a shock. I understood what was about to happen but couldn't believe it. I knew it wasn't right. I definitely didn't want it to happen. But I was completely convinced; he is a priest, this is a sacred community, this is impossible, "I was unable to understand that abuse was happening in this world, in this perfect world that I was living in. It took years for me to realise that what was happening was rape and I was able to talk about it. "I had a severe faith crisis: my first impulse was to think that, if I spoke out I would damage the Church, so God wants me to be silent. It was unbearable. "I do not have to believe in that kind of God. "Eventually I met another priest in the community who I was able to talk to, and gradually we fell in love with each other. I knew that, if God exists... then he has sent me this person - somebody who loved me." Doris Wagner-Reisinger left her religious community in Germany and abandoned religious life in 2011.

पोप फ्रांसिस द्वारा पहली बार सार्वजनिक रूप से स्वीकार किए जाने के एक दिन बाद कि मौलवियों ने ननों का यौन शोषण किया था, कैथोलिक चर्च के भीतर "अभी भी चल रहे" मुद्दे से निपटने का वादा करते हुए, चर्च की दो पूर्व महिला सदस्यों ने बीबीसी के साथ अपने अनुभवों के बारे में बात की है।


Trump in hospital: 'We're here to tell him that we love him'

Summary: Supporters of the president spent hours outside the hospital where he is being treated, and they were rewarded when he drove past on Sunday evening. Before that, they told the BBC's Lebo Diseko why it was important to be there.

"We love Trump!" "Four more years!" "Donald Trump FOREVER!" shout his supporters gathered outside Walter Reed military hospital where the US president is being treated. As passing cars and trucks hoot support, there are cheers and whoops from the the crowd of MAGA-hat wearers and Trump-Pence 2020 flag-wavers. The crowd and the hooting seem to grow every hour - as the world's media stand across the road. A convoy of cars and trucks honking their horns and waving US flags streams past us. "This feels like a soccer parade after a win!" my colleague remarked. It's just a couple of hours since Donald Trump's medical team gave an update on his health, and said that they hope he will be back at the White House on Monday. The crowd and their convoys have grown steadily since. "We're cheering for his good health," says an African-American supporter called Barbara. "We want him back as soon as possible, so we're here to tell him that we love him, we're praying for him and we need him in America." "In America and the WORLD!" her friend Wanji chips in. She says the president's critics are persecuting him because he stands up for Christians. "He has been taking all the stress of America and the world." His sickness just shows the country is sick, she adds, and like him it is recovering. No-one has done as much for African Americans as Donald Trump, they say. That's echoed by a Latino gentleman standing next to them. Waving two flags - a blue one, which is his and a pink one belonging to his wife, Maurio says: "I'm very much for such a good president - he's done a lot of stuff for the Spanish people." A little further down the line are a couple who say they flew in from Arizona - a journey of about 2,400 miles, which took them more than four hours. "We support our president 100%" says Danny Carroll, who adds they would have travelled even further if they needed to. "That's our president - we're all in it together, red, yellow , black and white - we're all precious in his sight." His wife Jeanie says she doesn't always like the way the president expresses himself but she appreciates his results. She says the couple drive across the country a lot and six years ago, the country was dying economically but now he's brought it back. They plan to stay until he's back at the White House - then make the long journey home. Of course, the president is no ordinary patient, and when he does go home he will be monitored by his medical team 24/7. But there are still questions left unanswered after Sunday's briefing from his medical team. They admitted he his oxygen levels had dipped twice in the last few days - Friday and Saturday - but pressed for details on the second round of oxygen Dr Sean Conley said he would have to check with the nurses. And when it came to possible damage to the president's lungs. Dr Conley said there were some "expected findings" but didn't expand on that. This comes a day after mixed messages from the medical team and his chief of staff on Saturday. He admitted the was trying to present an "upbeat attitude". "I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true." The fact that last sentence was considered necessary shows an awareness that for at least some Americans, there is a trust gap when it comes to the president's medical team. But that's certainly not the view of the crowd gathered here. Families with children joined senior citizens in the festival of well wishers. The president knows they're there and rewarded them with an unexpected appearance. His supporters know he appreciates them and they appreciate him.

राष्ट्रपति के समर्थकों ने उस अस्पताल के बाहर घंटों बिताए जहां उनका इलाज किया जा रहा है, और रविवार शाम को जब वे गाड़ी से गए तो उन्हें पुरस्कृत किया गया। इससे पहले, उन्होंने बीबीसी के लेबो डिसको को बताया कि वहां होना क्यों महत्वपूर्ण था।


Waste used to heat bat home at Durrell wildlife park

Summary: The bats at Jersey's Durrell wildlife park can now enjoy temperatures similar to those in their tropical forest homes without it costing the Earth.

A burner using waste wood and animal feed is heating the enclosure for the endangered Livingstone's fruit bats. The bats live in an enclosure made from recycled tyres, wine bottles and straw bales. Staff at Durrell wanted to keep the creatures who live there warm using an energy-efficient system. A biomass burner, fuelled by waste wood and animal feed, gives off heat levels similar to the bats' home forests in the Cormoros Islands near Africa. A spokesperson said it also provided a use for the waste generated by the wildlife park which does not compost well.

जर्सी के ड्यूरेल वन्यजीव उद्यान में चमगादड़ अब पृथ्वी की कीमत चुकाए बिना अपने उष्णकटिबंधीय वन घरों के समान तापमान का आनंद ले सकते हैं।


Anatomy of an Afghan 'turncoat' killer

Summary: In November 2010, an Afghan border policeman with an excellent record of service killed six US soldiers as they all sat down for tea during a routine training session. Why did he do it? A study of his life story - and his mobile phone - provides only a few clues.

By Bilal SarwaryBBC News, Nangarhar, Afghanistan It was a chilly winter day in Nangarhar province and the mountains in the distance were covered in snow. While US soldiers training a small group of Afghan border guards were resting during a break, Ezatullah Wazirwal offered his American colleagues some tea. "The trainers relaxed and put down their body armour and guns. It was then that Ezatullah opened fire," one of his fellow unit members said. Wazirwal had served for three years in the border police and was a popular guard with a spotless record. His brother - also a border guard - watched aghast as Wazirwal killed the US soldiers and was then himself shot dead. So what went wrong? Intelligence sources responsible for vetting recruits told me they had absolutely nothing on him but they now believe he had been recruited by the Taliban. Wazirwal's family and friends, however, refuse to accept this theory. A girl in Jalalabad Ezatullah Wazirwal came from the remote and mountainous farming district of Khogyani in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Tribal elders in his home village recall a cheeky young boy who revelled in teasing his friends and stealing from neighbours' gardens. Most people in his village looked to the police and army - rather than the Taliban - as a source of security and as a path for self-improvement and, according to those who knew him, Wazirwal was no friend of the Taliban. His friends and colleagues say that he was fed up with constant Taliban meddling in the daily affairs of ordinary people. He and his brother enrolled in the border police to escape abject poverty, but this exposed them to the possibility of Taliban reprisals. "He was afraid that the Taliban would come after him as he had dared to join," says Wazirwal's childhood friend, Mohammad Yasin. He moved his parents from the village to a larger town, for extra security. And just like many young men - Wazirwal was in his mid-20s - he was in love. His love interest was a high school student from Jalalabad, who he pursued doggedly after meeting her in an ice-cream shop on a visit to the city. She described him as a chirpy young man who was caring, polite and funny. "He dreamed of owning a house in Jalalabad and settling down there with the girl," says Wazirwal's friend, Engineer Mohammad Ebrahim. There is a clip of Wazirwal talking to his beloved in Jalalabad, recorded on his mobile phone. "I am not what you think I am. I would come during the night and meet you. I also own a vehicle. We would live together happily," a worried Wazirwal tries to reassure the reluctant girl at the other end of the line. And Wazirwal's phone was full of popular Pashto songs, photos of Pakistani actresses and Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai. There were family photographs, and pornography. So far, so normal. Basic emotions But the phone also contained Taliban songs, mostly hypnotic chants without music, in the kind of Pashto spoken in Afghanistan's eastern and southern areas, or the dialect of Pakistan's tribal areas. One song goes: "You are the martyr of Islam. You are fighting for the religion of God. God doesn't forget such sacrifices." An intelligence official, by chance from the same village as Wazirwal, told me that he himself can get confused about his allegiances, listening to such songs. They prey on the basic emotions of Afghan villagers, blending religious faith and ideas about masculinity with condemnation of the supposed evils of the West. "In rural areas, in deprived areas - people are uneducated and very religious. You play such songs to them and this is a magnet for Taliban recruitment," he says. There is one song dedicated to the hegemony of the US dollar: "You Dollar have no shame, you have misled a lot of people. You have managed to buy a lot of people. You are so powerful, Hey you have no shame, you dollar!" One song on Wazirwal's phone scorns a man refusing to fight, castigating him as a "woman" and telling him to "put bangles on". But the fact that these songs were on his phone proves little. Many people across Afghanistan have Taliban songs on their phone and it does not necessarily imply allegiance to insurgents. There are some other indications, however, that Wazirwal's state of mind was changing in the weeks before the attack. The girl in Jalalabad says he had not called or visited for three months, while Mr Ebrahim says Wazirwal's dangerous life patrolling Afghanistan's border, involving frequent skirmishes with militants, was getting him down. "He was tired of fighting... He always complained of his long duty hours and bad food. He also sorely missed his friends," he says. Family ties But for intelligence officials, the key discovery is that Wazirwal travelled home to Khogyani three days before killing the soldiers. They believe that he spent time with his uncles, who had fought alongside well-known local Taliban commanders, and was recruited by them. Wazirwal's devastated friends, however, do not accept the verdict. "They must have blackmailed him. We can tell you he was not a Talib," says Mohammed Yasin. Intelligence officers confess they are amazed that Wazirwal never did anything unusual or suspicious before turning his gun on the Americans. The great challenge for Afghanistan's security forces is to prevent insurgents from influencing young men like Wazirwal. But a senior counter-terrorism official who has studied Wazirwal's case warns there will be more "turncoat" attacks, simply because so many soldiers come from areas where insurgents are in control. Even carefree village boys who become conscientious border guards cannot avoid being exposed to militancy and radicalism, when it is all around them.

नवंबर 2010 में, सेवा का उत्कृष्ट रिकॉर्ड रखने वाले एक अफगान सीमा पुलिसकर्मी ने छह अमेरिकी सैनिकों को मार डाला क्योंकि वे सभी एक नियमित प्रशिक्षण सत्र के दौरान चाय के लिए बैठे थे। उसने ऐसा क्यों किया? उसके जीवन की कहानी का एक अध्ययन-और उसका मोबाइल फोन-केवल कुछ सुराग प्रदान करता है।


Why the doctor of Lampedusa changed jobs

Summary: Three years ago Pietro Bartolo, sometimes known as the doctor of Lampedusa, was working round the clock to treat migrants landing on the Mediterranean island. Now he is tackling the same problem but in a different way, reports the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby.

By Emma Jane KirbyBBC News, Lampedusa Dr Pietro Bartolo blinks at me from the top of the hot, bleached staircase that leads up to his apartment. He kneads his knuckles into his eyes a few times as though trying to untangle himself from the comforting clutches of Morpheus's arms. I apologise for waking him and he protests feebly that he hasn't been sleeping, just resting a little. As he makes his way slowly down the stairs, I see him fiddling with his mobile phone, switching the sound back on. By the time he reaches me in the lobby, his phone is ringing. "Pronto?" he says wearily, tucking the mobile under his ear and offering me his right hand. "No, no," he protests to whoever is on the phone, "I wasn't asleep I was just… there was a problem with the mobile. Anyway, what can I do for you?" When I first met Pietro Bartolo three years ago at Lampedusa's hospital, he looked completely exhausted. He was completely exhausted. He had been suffering from a fever and had not gone to bed that night as two migrant boats had arrived in the dark hours and he'd been called out to tend to sick passengers. I remember that during our interview his mobile phone and his desk phone never stopped ringing. And I remember him hurling his fax machine against the wall in frustration to stop its incessant, impatient beeping. But when a newly rescued giggling four-year-old girl from Mali burst through his office door and climbed into his lap for a cuddle, I can also recall how he threw back his head in delight and told me this was why he did his job, this was why it was worth the exhaustion. Bartolo isn't Lampedusa's doctor any more. He can't be Lampedusa's doctor any more, he tells me, with his eyes fixed firmly on the pavement, because what has he changed as Lampedusa's doctor? For 30 years, he reminds me, he's been visiting migrants, meeting every landing, treating the sick and injured, performing autopsies on those who didn't make it. "But nothing changes," he says looking up at me with his heavy-lidded eyes that are circled with dark, bruised shadows. "I've written books, taken part in documentary films, what more can I do? Nothing changes. "So that's why I've gone to Brussels. Maybe from there I can change things." Dr Bartolo has exchanged medicine for politics. In March this year he was elected as a member of the European parliament. He is proud he says to have been invited to be part of a working party tasked with reforming the Dublin Regulation, an EU law that determines which EU member state is responsible for dealing with a migrant's application for asylum. Sometimes, as we talk, he dives into the opaque lingua franca of Strasbourg and Brussels - directives, recommendations and binding legislative acts. Then, quite suddenly he surfaces, returning to plain Italian/English. "How is it possible," he snarls, "that it's becoming a crime to save someone at sea?" Find out more Listen to Emma Jane Kirby's reports from Lampedusa for PM, on BBC Radio 4, at 17:00 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Or catch up later online Italy's populist Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, has banned civilian or NGO search and rescue ships - and recently even the Italian coastguard - from docking at Italian ports if they are carrying asylum seekers. Salvini believes rescued migrants should simply be returned to Libya, pointing out that under current EU rules, if migrants disembark on Italian soil, it will be up to Italy to process the passengers' asylum claims. And why, he asks, should Italy serve as Europe's refugee camp? "But more people are dying!" argues Bartolo, tightly squeezing his mobile in his right fist. "More people than ever." In 2017, one out of every 41 people attempting to make the perilous Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Italy drowned on route. Today fewer people are making the journey, but with limited search and rescue facilities as many as one in six are dying at sea, according to the UN refugee agency. "This violates all human rights, our constitution and international law," snaps Bartolo, thumping his phone into his thigh. "It's our duty to save lives - but today it's becoming a crime?" A few metres up from Bartolo's house, the parish church of Lampedusa offers some calming respite from the unpitying sun. Hanging over the altar, Christ is crucified on a stark cross made out of the rotten oars from shipwrecked migrant boats; it was a gift from Pope Francis to thank parishioners for the humanitarian work they do to help desperate migrants who land on the island. But in the European elections last Spring, Salvini's right-wing nationalist League party came first in Lampedusa. Pietro Bartolo is close to tears when he tells me how homesick he is in Brussels and what a wrench it's been to leave his island and his calling. He returns as often as he can. "But here I only see suffering!" he protests. "I can't make it change!" He holds his head in his hands. "When I've solved the problem, I'll come back here," he says with forced determination, staring at the kerb. "I'll be the doctor of Lampedusa again. Because once a doctor always a doctor." His mobile phone begins to vibrate in his hand and he clears his throat. "Pronto?" says MEP Pietro Bartolo, in a different voice. You may also be interested in: When a Syrian stonemason and his family were granted asylum in Greece in 2017 they immediately made their way to the island of Crete - completing a journey begun by their great-grandparents 130 years ago. Read: Coming home after 130 years

तीन साल पहले पिएत्रो बार्टोलो, जिन्हें कभी-कभी लैम्पेडुसा के डॉक्टर के रूप में जाना जाता था, भूमध्यसागरीय द्वीप पर उतरने वाले प्रवासियों का इलाज करने के लिए चौबीसों घंटे काम कर रहे थे। अब वे उसी समस्या से निपट रहे हैं लेकिन एक अलग तरीके से, बीबीसी की एम्मा जेन किर्बी की रिपोर्ट है।


Cliff falls leave Lulworth coast path in 'perilous state'

Summary: A section of a Dorset coastal path is in a "perilous state" after cliff falls, the coastguard has said.

Several landslips west of Lulworth were reported on Sunday afternoon, on a stretch of the path between White Nothe and Durdle Door. People have been advised to keep clear of the affected areas on the cliffs and beaches below. A coastguard spokesman said expected rain and continuing cold weather could cause the path to deteriorate further. A section of cliff came down on Swanage beach just before Christmas, and 20 miles away at Burton Bradstock, 22-year-old Charlotte Blackman, 22, was killed in July when tonnes of rock fell on to the beach.

तट रक्षक ने कहा है कि चट्टान गिरने के बाद डोरसेट तटीय मार्ग का एक हिस्सा "खतरनाक स्थिति" में है।


Travellers move on to Anglesey show park-and-ride site

Summary: Travellers have moved on to a key location of the Anglesey Show ground just hours before organisers take over the site.

The land on the Mona Industrial Estate is used as a park-and-ride site for the some 60,000 visitors to the two-day show. Anglesey council, which owns the land, is seeking a court order to remove the travellers. Show organisers who take over the site at midnight would not comment. A council spokesperson said: "If for any reason our application is unsuccessful, we would willingly work with show organisers and North Wales Police to ensure that this prestigious and important event is not compromised in any way."

आयोजकों द्वारा स्थल पर कब्जा करने से कुछ ही घंटे पहले यात्री एंग्लेसी शो ग्राउंड के एक प्रमुख स्थान पर चले गए हैं।


In Pictures: The Covid-19 volunteers supporting front-line NHS staff

Summary: Across England an army of volunteers is supporting the NHS in the battle against Covid-19. The BBC met some of them to find out why they stepped forward.

You might also be interested in: Photography by Charlotte Ball and Laurence Cawley Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk Related Internet Links East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust EPUT Volunteer Centre - Community360

पूरे इंग्लैंड में स्वयंसेवकों की एक सेना कोविड-19 के खिलाफ लड़ाई में एन. एच. एस. का समर्थन कर रही है। बी. बी. सी. ने उनमें से कुछ से यह पता लगाने के लिए मुलाकात की कि उन्होंने आगे क्यों कदम रखा।


What freediving does to the body

Summary: With sea levels rising, can humans adapt to a more watery world? The Bajau people of South-East Asia live in stilt houses and fish underwater for up to five minutes on one breath. What does this do to the body?

By Megan LaneBBC News Take a deep breath in - how long until the urge to gasp for air becomes too much? Perhaps it comes after 30 or 40 seconds. But the bodies of habitual freedivers, who hold their breath for minutes at a time, can change to be better adapted to the water. The Bajau people, sometimes known as the sea gypsies of Malaysia and Indonesia, are renowned natural freedivers. Traditionally, they are born, live and die at sea, and fish by diving 20m (more than 65ft) underwater for minutes at a time on one breath. At this depth, water pressure is almost three times what it is on the surface, squeezing lungs already deprived of oxygen. Filmed underwater in real time for the BBC's Human Planet, Bajau fisherman Sulbin demonstrates his techniques off the east coast of Sabah, Borneo. Wearing hand-made wooden goggles and armed with a spear, he first prepares himself mentally. "I focus my mind on breathing. I only dive once I'm totally relaxed," says Sulbin, who goes into a trance-like state before entering the water. This degree of mind control is crucial, says freediving instructor Emma Farrell, the author of One Breath, A Reflection on Freediving. "You have to be warm and relaxed - you don't want to hyperventilate before taking your last breath." The mammalian dive reflex - seen in aquatic animals such as dolphins and otters, and in humans to a lesser extent - helps, says Farrell. "It's a series of automatic adjustments we make when submerged in cold water. It reduces the heart rate and metabolism to slow the rate you use oxygen." During breath-holding, oxygen stores reduce and the body starts diverting blood from hands and feet to the vital organs. Our bodies have a way to compensate. Underwater pressure constricts the spleen, squeezing out extra haemoglobin, the protein in red corpuscles that carry oxygen around the body. "Not enough research has been done to know if it wears off when you're not diving," says Farrell. "But I know people who do a lot of deep training - as Sulbin does - whose blood is like that of people living at high altitude." In high altitudes, there is less oxygen and so the amount of haemoglobin in blood increases. Seeing underwater For most of their history, the Bajau have lived on houseboats, or in stilt houses built on coral reefs - some far from shore. Many report feeling "landsick" on the rare occasions they spend time on dry land. Thanks to time spent in the water as children when the eyes are developing, the Bajau, in common with other coastal dwelling people, have unusually strong underwater vision. Their eye muscles have adapted to constrict the pupils more, and to change the lens shape to increase light refraction. This makes their underwater eyesight twice as strong, according to Anna Gislen, of Sweden's Lund University, who from 2003 has compared the water vision of sea gypsy children of Thailand and Burma with that of European children. A gap that can narrow with training. One part of the Bajau body that hasn't fared well is the eardrum, which ruptures at a young age, says Human Planet director Tom Hugh-Jones. "Sulbin's hearing is shot because he doesn't equalise the pressure in his ears as he dives. He's never had formal dive training. He was taught by his father to hold his breath." There are evolutionary theories - not widely accepted, he adds - that an early ancestor of modern humans had to adapt to a partially aquatic environment. The aquatic ape theory suggests this is why humans are largely hairless and have a subcutaneous layer of fat for underwater insulation, and so are better adapted to swimming than near relations such as the great ape. But Sulbin and other Bajau divers have little body fat. The wiry frame of these subsistence fishermen may actually help. A lean physique is more efficient at using oxygen. And having little body fat makes Sulbin less buoyant, able to walk across the reef bed with ease. "This type of freediving - repeatedly diving to depths of 10 to 20m - carries the greatest risk of decompression sickness," says Farrell. "But you are less likely to get the bends if you are lean, or very well hydrated." Some Bajau die of the bends from diving - also a risk for compression divers in the Philippines encountered by the Human Planet team. "Anyone who thinks this is an example of what a non-smoker's lungs can do will be disappointed," says Hugh-Jones. "Sulbin smokes like a chimney. He says it relaxes his chest." Human Planet will be broadcast on Thursday 13 January at 2000 GMT on BBC One, and will also be available on the BBC iPlayer.

समुद्र का स्तर बढ़ने के साथ, क्या मनुष्य अधिक पानी वाली दुनिया के अनुकूल हो सकते हैं? दक्षिण-पूर्व एशिया के बाजाऊ लोग एक सांस में पांच मिनट तक पानी के नीचे स्टिल्ट घरों और मछलियों में रहते हैं। यह शरीर के लिए क्या करता है?