M6 Toll is sold to investment group IFM

Summary: The M6 Toll has been sold, the BBC has learnt.

The 27-mile route between Cannock and Coleshill in the West Midlands opened in 2003 but has always lost money. It was put up for sale for nearly £2bn last year after a consortium of 27 banks effectively took ownership from Midlands Expressway Ltd. The road is now owned by IFM - owners of Manchester Airports Group, Anglian Water and Arqiva - which runs the transmitters used for BBC broadcasts. Latest figures show the average daily traffic across weekdays and weekends in January and March, for all vehicle types, is 44,942 - up from 42,045 over the same period last year. More updates on this story The road, which opened at a cost of £900m, bypasses the most congested parts of the M6 - starting at junction 3a and rejoining at junction 11a. The National Alliance Against Tolls has said the government should buy the loss-making motorway and remove the charge to reduce congestion. The weekday price for cars is currently £5.50 and £11 for HGVs. Peter Plisner, BBC Midlands Today transport correspondent, said the road was likely to move into profit under its new owners instead of losing an estimated £25m on average each year. A debt-restructuring process led to the consortium taking ownership from Midlands Expressway Ltd. The consortium then put its equity stake up for sale, which has now effectively been bought by IFM, which is owned by several Australian pension funds. Analysis: BBC Midlands Today Transport Correspondent Peter Plisner: Ownership of the M6 Toll has passed from one Australian company to another. Now, it's a group of pension funds that sees the road as a good investment. Despite the losses of previous year IFM, the road's new owner, sees it not only as a viable asset, but a profitable one too. Losses of the past happened mainly because of a huge mortgage needed to pay for the construction of the road. Following restructuring in recent years and the latest sale of the road, that mortgage has effectively been wiped away, clearing the way for the M6 Toll to finally make a profit. Growth in traffic and more roadworks on the Midlands motorways can only add to the profit potential.

बीबीसी को पता चला है कि एम6 टोल बिक चुका है।


Minsk's fond memories of Lee Harvey Oswald

Summary: Mystery and infamy surround Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who shot US President John F Kennedy in Dallas, 50 years ago. So it's odd to visit a city where people remember him clearly and fondly - and refuse to believe he is guilty.

By David SternBBC News, Minsk, Belarus "I just liked the guy," says Ernst Titovets, a medical student who attached himself to Lee Harvey Oswald after the American defector's arrival in Minsk, then the capital of the Soviet republic of Byelorussia, in 1959. The pair went to dances and concerts together, they both enjoyed practical jokes, and both energetically chased young female students. Titovets, who spoke good English, was able to play Cupid's helper when Oswald met his future wife, Marina, whom he describes as "attractive in a raw sexual sort of way". What did he think when he heard Oswald named as the man who had killed Kennedy, and then was himself shot? "I couldn't believe my ears," says Titovets, now a spry 75-year-old bio researcher. "I deeply believe he was innocent. He was incapable of killing anybody." Oswald, a 20-year-old former marine, had arrived in the USSR claiming to be a Marxist. According to Peter Savodnik, whose book The Interloper about Oswald's Minsk years was published earlier this month, he said he had secret details about the US's prized U-2 spy plane. The KGB however wasn't impressed and initially rejected his application, but on the day his tourist visa expired Oswald slashed one of his wrists. Fearing an international incident if he tried again, the Soviet authorities let him stay. They sent him to Minsk, a distant provincial capital, which might as well have been Siberia. He was assigned a job at a radio and TV factory, and allocated a one-room apartment in the city centre. Oswald basked in the attention of being one of Minsk's few foreigners, and its only American. He regularly made social calls to a girls' dormitory, near his flat. "He would come without warning and knock at someone's door and say, 'Hello, here I am,'" says Inna Markava, an English-language translator who was a student at the time. "And that's it - spend two or three hours. "He thought that he was the centre of the group," she says. "I remember that we were in the room, sitting, and if he thought we had forgotten about him, he would immediately remind everybody, that he was there, that he should not be forgotten." The KGB kept close tabs on Oswald, bugging his apartment and drilling a very small hole to record even his most intimate moments. Titovets says Oswald suspected as much. He remembers one time the two of them looking for listening devices. After an initial comic mix-up - Titovets thought "bugs" meant insects - they scoured the apartment high and low, finding neither the listening device in the ceiling or the peephole in the wall. It was only after the collapse of the USSR that he discovered how intense the surveillance had been, and that even the central location of the flat was deliberate. "He was placed in a carefully thought-out environment, easy to observe his minutest movements," Titovets says. At first the KGB thought he might be working for the CIA, and that his stumbling attempts at Russian might be a clever act. But Norman Mailer, one of the few people to have been allowed to study the KGB files on Oswald, for his 1995 book Oswald's Tale, reveals that instead of hearing Oswald reveal his motives in intimate moments, the KGB tended to get an earful of marital friction. Oswald: You never do anything! Wife: Have you ever cleaned up this apartment - just once? I've done it 21 times. You'll do it and then talk about it all day. Oswald: …You sleep until 10 in the morning and you don't do anything. You could be cleaning up during that time. Wife: I need my sleep. If you don't like it, you can go to your America… You're always finding fault; nothing's enough, everything's bad. Oswald: You're ridiculous. Lazy and crude. Savodnik says Oswald "believed he was a Marxist, a revolutionary" who was "taking part in the cause". But the deeper reason for his defection is "more psychological than ideological," he argues. "I think he went there because he didn't fit in anywhere else, and he was a desperate and lonely young man, who believed that in Russia he would be rescued." Before he met Prusakova, he proposed to a young woman called Ella German, and her refusal led to a "growing sense of isolation, detachment, anger and alienation", Savodnik says, which his subsequent marriage failed to reverse. Titovets noticed that Oswald began to chafe at life in the Soviet Union. There were outbursts. "Whenever our discussion would concentrate on the differences within the Soviet Union, the ways here, and the ways in the United States, I would say, 'You are unfair to coloured people there,' Titovets remembers. "And he admits, 'Yes, we are.' But then… he would say, 'You, here, you live like slaves!'" No-one I spoke to in Minsk believed that Oswald could have assassinated the US president. This proves nothing. It's human nature to believe only the best about your friends. Still it was somewhat unnerving to hear so many good things about a person whose name is associated with one of the most infamous acts of our era. I met one of Oswald's former workmates, Vladimir Zhidovich, at a local cafe. He, like everyone else, told me how Oswald was a "good guy" and he couldn't imagine him a murderer. As we parted, he asked a favour. If I ever go to Texas, he asked, would I lay some flowers on Oswald's grave, from him and the other colleagues at the radio factory? The request took me aback. I didn't know what to say. On the one hand, this was Oswald we were talking about - a man who may have slain a political leader and irrevocably altered world history. On the other hand, Zhidovich's appeal came from the heart. I still haven't made up my mind what to do. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

रहस्य और बदनामी ली हार्वे ओसवाल्ड को घेरती है, वह आदमी जिसने 50 साल पहले डलास में अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति जॉन एफ कैनेडी को गोली मार दी थी। इसलिए एक ऐसे शहर में जाना अजीब है जहाँ लोग उसे स्पष्ट रूप से और प्यार से याद करते हैं-और यह मानने से इनकार करते हैं कि वह दोषी है।


The Arab country turning to 'female Viagra'

Summary: As Egypt becomes the first Arab country to authorise the production and sale of a drug meant to boost the female libido, the BBC's Sally Nabil explores whether there's a market for it in such a socially conservative country.

"I felt drowsy and dizzy, and my heart was racing." This is how Leila felt after taking her first pill of the so-called "female Viagra" - chemically known as flibanserin. The drug was first authorised for use in the US almost three years ago, and is now being produced in Egypt by a local pharmaceutical company. Leila - not her real name - is a conservative housewife in her mid-30s. She prefers to conceal her identity as, like many women in Egypt, talking about sexual problems and sexual needs is still very much a taboo. After almost 10 years of marriage, she says she decided to get the drug "out of mere curiosity". Leila, who has no health problems, bought the drug without a prescription - a very common practice in Egypt, where people can buy many medicines over the counter. "The pharmacist told me to take a pill every night for a few weeks. He said there would be no side effects," she says. "My husband and I wanted to see what would happen. I tried it once, and will never do it again." Divorce rates are on the rise in Egypt, and some local media reports have attributed it to persistent sexual problems between couples. The local manufacturer of flibanserin says three out of every 10 women in Egypt have a low sex drive. But these figures are just rough estimates - such statistics are hard to come by in the country. "This treatment is very much needed here - it's a revolution," says Ashraf Al Maraghy, a representative of the company. Mr Maraghy says the drug is safe and effective, and any dizziness and drowsiness will disappear over time - but many pharmacists and doctors disagree. One pharmacist I spoke to warned me that the drug could lower blood pressure to "alarming levels" and might be problematic for people with heart and liver problems. Murad Sadiq, who runs a pharmacy in northern Cairo, says he always explains the side effects to customers but that "they still insist on buying it". "About 10 people a day come in to buy the drug. Most of them are men. Women are too shy to ask for it." 'It's all in the mind' Inside Mr Sadiq's pharmacy, I noticed an advert that referred to flibanserin as "the pink pill". It's the female version of the "blue pill" - a term used in Egypt to refer to Viagra for men. But the manufacturer says the term "female Viagra" is inaccurate. "The media came up with this name, not us," says Mr Maraghy. While a Viagra pill treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood flow to the penis, flibanserin was developed as an anti-depressant and boosts sexual desire by balancing chemicals in the brain. "'Female Viagra' is a misleading term," says Heba Qotb, a sex therapist, who has refused to prescribe it to any of her patients. "It will never work with a woman who suffers any physical or psychological problems," she adds. "For women, sex is an emotional process. It all starts in the mind. A woman can never have a healthy intimate relationship with her husband if he mistreats her. No medication will help this." Ms Qotb says flibanserin's efficacy is very small and is not worth the risk. "Lowering blood pressure is a very serious side effect," she warns. Read more on women in Egypt: Egyptian women still have a long way to go before they will feel comfortable speaking up about their sexual needs. Leila says she knows a lot of women "who filed for divorce after their sexual relationship had soured as a result of the accumulative tension in their marriage". "If your husband is sexually weak, you will support him and help him seek treatment, as long as he is a loving life partner. But if you have an abusive husband, you will definitely lose all interest in him, even if he is good in bed. Men don't seem to understand this." Though it's still early days, Mr Sadiq the pharmacy manager says sales of flibanserin have been very promising so far and believes they will rise. But Ms Qotb, the sex therapist, is very concerned about the potential repercussions on marriages. "When a man notices no improvement in his wife's sex drive, even though she has been taking the pills, he will blame her and not the ineffective drug or their tense relationship. He might even find this as an excuse to dump her."

जैसा कि मिस्र महिला कामेच्छा को बढ़ावा देने के लिए एक दवा के उत्पादन और बिक्री को अधिकृत करने वाला पहला अरब देश बन गया है, बीबीसी के सैली नाबिल ने पता लगाया कि क्या ऐसे सामाजिक रूप से रूढ़िवादी देश में इसके लिए कोई बाजार है।


Covid: Three men due in court over York testing site threats

Summary: Three men are due to appear in court next month charged with obstruction after allegedly threatening staff at a coronavirus testing site.

The men were arrested after reports a group was aggressive towards staff at Poppleton Bar, near York on Monday, said North Yorkshire Police. The site is a closed park and ride being used as a Covid testing facility. One man is due to appear on 2 February the others on 4 February, at York Magistrates' Court, said the force. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

कोरोनावायरस परीक्षण स्थल पर कर्मचारियों को कथित रूप से धमकी देने के बाद बाधा डालने के आरोप में तीन लोग अगले महीने अदालत में पेश होने वाले हैं।


Regimental goat joins Royal Welsh parade in Llandudno

Summary: Soldiers from the Royal Welsh have taken part in a parade - joined by L/Cpl Shenkin, the regimental goat.

He led the parade of soldiers along Llandudno promenade to re-affirm the Freedom of the County of Conwy. Hundreds of residents and holidaymakers turned out to see the march in the shadow of the Great Orme headland, where Kashmir goats are an attraction. The Royal goat tradition began in 1844 when Queen Victoria presented the Royal Welch Fusiliers with its first one. The soldiers were accompanied by the Regimental Band of The Royal Welsh, and paraded with colours flying, bayonets fixed and drums beating.

रॉयल वेल्श के सैनिकों ने एक परेड में भाग लिया-जिसमें एल/सी. पी. एल. शेनकिन, रेजिमेंटल बकरी शामिल हुई।


Read all about it: The online newspaper archive

Summary: Want to find out more about the history of your street, your community or your family? The archives of your local paper may be a good place to start. So I'm betting that a website which went live this morning will get a lot of attention.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter The British Library's newspaper archive at Colindale in north London has long been a place of pilgrimage for writers and historians wanting to search through its extraordinary collection of just about every paper printed in the UK over the last 300 years. But even if you make the trek, finding your way to that particular article in the Ayrshire Post or the Wigan Observer can be a challenge. Now, though, you won't need to make the trip, which in any case is being moved to a new home; you will be able to search it online. The British Newspaper Archive website is one of the most ambitious digital projects undertaken by a museum. In a room high up in the library, giant scanning machines have been capturing the contents of papers from across the UK. The project will last another 10 years and involves scanning 40 million pages. The British Library has teamed up with Brightsolid, a technology firm which specialises in family history. The process, which will involve substantial investment, is run on commercial lines, and users will have to pay a subscription if they want to view the digital archive and download items. For now most of what's on offer dates back to the 19th Century, partly because scanning more recent newspapers involves all sorts of copyright issues: some of the papers would rather keep control of their own archives. But it looks likely to become an extraordinary resource for anyone interested in knowing a bit more about their family background, or as a way of exploring history through the eyes of the reporters of the time. On a quick tour, I got some feeling of the scale of the project. Walking along the miles of shelves you come across all kinds of treasures: from accounts of the Battle of Waterloo to rare 1920s football programmes; from the great affairs of state to the dog show held at my local pub in 1896. Now, if you master the arcane art of searching the site, all this can be yours - for a price, of course. What really comes across is the sheer depth of information buried in the archives of our regional press. And that raises a question. With local newspapers getting thinner or closing every week, what picture of our communities in the 21st Century will be left for future researchers?

अपनी सड़क, अपने समुदाय या अपने परिवार के इतिहास के बारे में अधिक जानना चाहते हैं? आपके स्थानीय समाचार पत्र के अभिलेखागार शुरू करने के लिए एक अच्छी जगह हो सकती है। इसलिए मैं शर्त लगा रहा हूं कि आज सुबह लाइव होने वाली वेबसाइट पर बहुत ध्यान दिया जाएगा।


How is the NSA’s vault of secrets being unlocked?

Summary: Media organisations have revealed startling details about US espionage in recent weeks. The disclosures can be traced back to three people who don't play by the rules - intelligence leaker Edward Snowden and his chief disseminators, the Guardian newspaper reporter Glenn Greenwald, and independent film-maker Laura Poitras.

By Tara McKelveyBBC News Magazine The National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly collected data on millions of US customers of Verizon, a telecom firm, and on 60 million calls in Spain. It is also said to have obtained data on 70 million digital communications in France - and spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel for years. The revelations, which appeared in articles co-written by Mr Greenwald or Ms Poitras in the UK's Guardian newspaper, French paper Le Monde, Germany's Der Spiegel and two Spanish newspapers, El Mundo and El Pais, shed light on an organisation which, as experts explain, is even more shadowy - and hard to cover - than the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The media reports have unnerved diplomats, spies and politicians. In August UK authorities detained Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, at Heathrow Airport - and confiscated Snowden documents he had been carrying. "Disclosure of any information contained within those documents would be gravely injurious to UK interests, would directly put lives at risk and would pose a risk to public safety and diminish the ability to counter terrorism," said a detective, according to Reuters. On Monday, a European delegation went to Capitol Hill in Washington to talk with US lawmakers about the spy programmes. Meanwhile the man who has been masterminding the release of the documents about the NSA - and disrupting the schedule of world leaders - was on a Brazilian road, talking on his mobile and complaining to the BBC about a lousy phone connection. Mr Greenwald says that Brazilian telecommunications are spotty. "It is almost like pot luck," he says. In addition he has security measures for his phone. "Sometimes that makes it harder," he says. The security precautions make sense, given that quite a few people would like to listen to his conversations. As Mr Greenwald tells the BBC, the revelations about the NSA are based on documents obtained by Mr Snowden, the former contractor who is now in hiding in Russia. There are apparently tens of thousands of documents, many of which have not yet been published. They include details about NSA activities, US military intelligence and methods used to eavesdrop on embassies and missions. And they are not all about US operations. A former UK official says that Greenwald has 58,000 top-secret British security documents, according to the Independent. As one expert, Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, says: "The Snowden collection is the mother lode." Mr Greenwald says that he and Ms Poitras are in charge of the documents, and that they decide how and when the documents are disseminated. "We each have a complete set, and Snowden is not the one making the decisions," he says. "That's Laura and myself." Their goal, he says, is simple: "We want to inform people about what's being done to privacy." Mr Greenwald is the journalist who has garnered the most attention for his dealings with Mr Snowden, but he is not the only one. The Washington Post's Barton Gellman, was also given documents - that may or may not be the whole set - which he used for his work on an internet surveillance program called Prism. Mr Greenwald says that he tries to give the documents about the NSA to reporters and editors at influential media organisations so that the stories will have the biggest possible impact. Mr Aftergood explains: "He is releasing them strategically in different parts of the world." Mr Greenwald admits, however, that the process is somewhat ad hoc. He works with journalists at Le Monde and other media organisations to report on a story. When the piece is ready, he says, they publish it. "The process for deciding what gets published is not all that refined," he says. "It's not necessarily a scientific formula." Sometimes he makes mistakes. Le Monde's article, written under the bylines of Mr Greenwald and journalist Jacques Follorou, gives an account of alleged US eavesdropping operations in France. After the story appeared, a US official, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, fired off a statement saying that the newspaper provided "inaccurate and misleading information". "The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million 'recordings of French citizens' telephone data' is false," he wrote. Mr Greenwald says that he believes the newspaper may have inadvertently said the NSA was monitoring calls - when in fact the agency was collecting metadata, which includes information such as the place where someone logged on to their email account. "That's the confusion," he says. He seems unfazed by the glitch. For Mr Greenwald, releasing the documents and having this kind of impact on the world - the New York Times' Bill Keller wrote in an article that he broke "what is probably the year's biggest news story" - has been a heady experience. Mr Greenwald sounds giddy on the phone, describing his accomplishments in journalism and his new media venture with eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Mr Greenwald announced recently that he will leave the Guardian in order to work on a general-interest news site backed by Mr Omidyar. Mr Greenwald explains that he will continue to publish documents about the NSA in conjunction with other media organisations. He sounds confident that his work will continue to have an impact - and reminds the BBC reporter on the phone that Mr Omidyar is one of the "richest men in the world". "I don't feel like I'm leaving the Guardian to work for some obscure website," Mr Greenwald says. "I'm not worried about our ability to be heard." He has the attention of the world - though like other journalists he is also at the mercy of modern telecommunications. A moment later the phone signal gets weak - and his voice is cut off. Update: NSA director Gen Keith Alexander said on Capitol Hill that reports about their collection of European phone records are "completely false".

मीडिया संगठनों ने हाल के हफ्तों में अमेरिकी जासूसी के बारे में चौंका देने वाले विवरणों का खुलासा किया है। इन खुलासों का पता तीन लोगों से लगाया जा सकता है जो नियमों का पालन नहीं करते हैं-खुफिया जानकारी लीक करने वाले एडवर्ड स्नोडेन और उनके मुख्य प्रसारक, गार्जियन अखबार के रिपोर्टर ग्लेन ग्रीनवाल्ड और स्वतंत्र फिल्म निर्माता लौरा पोइट्रास।


Olchfa to Oxbridge: The Swansea students who bucked the trend

Summary: Low academic attainment and low aspiration were issues raised in a 2014 report on why so few Welsh youngsters were applying to Oxford and Cambridge universities. But in the late 1970s, one Swansea comprehensive school alone got about 45 pupils into Oxbridge over three years - many of them going on to reach the top of their chosen professions. BBC Wales producer Gareth Jones asked two of his contemporaries at Olchfa - Russell T Davies and Sir Andrew Dilnot - how the school achieved such success.

By Gareth JonesBBC News Within a decade of opening in 1969, Olchfa Comprehensive had gained an enviable reputation for the number of pupils getting into Oxbridge - 15 in my year alone. In the year before me, 15 got in, including Andrew Dilnot, knighted two years ago for services to economics. In the year after me, 13 were accepted, including Dr Who screenwriter Russell T Davies, who became one of the most talented writers of his generation. Both say it was down to the teachers. One in particular, Iris Williams, made it her job to get as many applying to Oxbridge as possible in a part of Swansea where there was no such tradition. "Iris, bless her!" Russell said, when I asked him how he remembered her. "Big hair, big character. She stood out and stood up for academic excellence." Sir Andrew Dilnot recalls her wondering aloud: "Why shouldn't our children go to Oxford and Cambridge? They're as good as anyone else!" Iris brought in a programme of lunchtime talks and extra tuition for the candidates. She took us in her car to visit Oxford, she got to know admissions tutors, studied individual colleges and matched the candidates to them. She told Dilnot to apply to St John's Oxford, then as now one of the toughest to get into, academically. He was accepted to do PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). I followed him there a year later, same college, same subjects. One by one, those ancient bastions, from Balliol to Trinity Hall, fell to the all-conquering Iris and her sixth-formers. Perhaps her sweetest success was getting Gaynor Williams into Christchurch in 1980; one of the first women, not just from Wales but from anywhere, to be accepted by that most male and aristocratic of colleges. But this success was not down to just one woman. "We had some terrific teachers," Sir Andrew says. "There was Dai Jenkins for maths. He was incredibly demanding. When I got three out of 10 for a test, he wrote 'OAF' in big red letters on my book." It may have helped. Andrew is now the UK's top statistician. Peggy George, a former deputy head, thinks Olchfa's success was down to exceptionally motivated pupils and some superb staff. "It was a new comprehensive, formed after school reorganisation," she told me. "We had teachers from the old grammar schools who really knew their subject. We also had some very tough male staff, from the old secondary moderns, and they knew how to keep order." I benefited from Peggy's extra tuition. She taught me how write an essay. "It's not just the answers you come up with, boy," she used to say. "It's about asking the right questions." It was good training for Oxbridge's uniquely challenging tutorial system. One of my tutors was the leading economist John Kay and I, along with my tutorial partner Angela Eagle - who now sits on Labour's front bench - had to argue against him. There was a third factor in Olchfa's success - the parents. We came from hugely aspirational families who really valued education. Many of us, including me, were the first in our families to go to any university. Lord Murphy of Torfaen, who was commissioned by the Welsh government to to look into how to boost numbers of Welsh students at Oxbridge, says we need to raise the level of aspiration. Sir Andrew Dilnot, the first person from a comprehensive school to head an Oxford college, agrees: "Oxford wants students from all backgrounds, and we are very keen to get more applications from state schools." Murphy believes sending people to Oxbridge is important and benefits Wales. Russell T Davies is more ambivalent: "The most important thing is to move away from home - anywhere - to study because it gives you freedom. And there are so many great courses around now." Of that extraordinary group of Olchfa youngsters, hardly any came back to Wales to work. They are captains of industry, one owns a hedge fund, another set up the first nanoscience laboratory. Russell is one of the exceptions. His work has made a big contribution to the Welsh economy. Recently he went back to his old college to receive an honorary fellowship. "I felt proud. But I was the only one from a comprehensive school there that day," he said. You can watch BBC Wales' Week In Week Out programme, Is It Because I'm from Wales, on BBC One Wales at 20:30 GMT on Monday 8 February.

2014 की एक रिपोर्ट में कम शैक्षणिक प्राप्ति और कम आकांक्षा के मुद्दे उठाए गए थे कि इतने कम वेल्श युवा ऑक्सफोर्ड और कैम्ब्रिज विश्वविद्यालयों में आवेदन क्यों कर रहे थे। लेकिन 1970 के दशक के अंत में, अकेले एक स्वानसी व्यापक स्कूल ने तीन वर्षों में लगभग 45 छात्रों को ऑक्सब्रिज में प्रवेश दिलाया-उनमें से कई अपने चुने हुए व्यवसायों के शीर्ष पर पहुंच गए। बीबीसी वेल्स के निर्माता गैरेथ जोन्स ने ओल्चफा में अपने दो समकालीनों-रसेल टी डेविस और सर एंड्रयू दिलनॉट से पूछा कि स्कूल ने ऐसी सफलता कैसे हासिल की।


Brexit: Will Theresa May delay MPs' vote to last minute?

Summary: As we talked about late on Monday , there has been a sense building in Westminster that the prime minister is, maybe by accident, maybe increasingly by design, looking to almost the last possible minute for the definitive Brexit vote.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter While ministers speak publicly of "talks" that must be given time to be completed with the EU, and officials continue to chew over the possibility of the "Malthouse compromise" (remember that? It already seems like months ago that it emerged, blinking, into the Brexit saga) more and more MPs believe it is displacement activity - ministers keeping outwardly busy while they run down the clock. Early on Tuesday morning, Commons leader Andrea Leadsom did not exactly quash that notion in an interview with the Today programme. She appeared to open up the possibility that MPs might in the end be asked to vote at a moment of peak jeopardy, and that ministers might be willing to let the matter run that long. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister herself hinted that the government was prepared to do that. She was answering a technical question about the CRAG (the constitutional reform and governance bill before you ask, Brexit is nothing if not replete with acronyms). For ages, the existence of that bill has built a theoretical pause between a vote on the deal, and our actual departure from the EU. But today the prime minister said that process could be put on fast forward. So, in practice, if she wants to push this vote later, and later, then only to the very last minute (and remember the EU doesn't want to budge until then), that bit of legislation might not be a block, because if MPs approve it, she can get round it. That's always a big if, of course, but it certainly suggests that the government can at least foresee a situation where they have to take dramatic last-minute action, whatever the existing law says. What's also emerging though is how former Remainers want to stop that happening. They won't be using up their energy this week on votes that might not get anywhere. But their concerns have pushed the PM now to promise a vote will take place on 27 February. And there will be another go from the prominent Labour frontbencher Yvette Cooper, working with backing from Tories like Sir Oliver Letwin and Nick Boles. They will again try to force through legislation that would delay Brexit if the government can't get a deal done in time, removing the possibility of that last-minute kamikaze choice. But that will only work if enough Tory Remainers are ready to vote with them. And the way the numbers stack up, that probably has to mean ministers being ready to quit. One member of the government told me on Tuesday: "They have to realise that is it - and if no senior member of the cabinet is willing to do it, then we're heading for that terrible choice." Another minister, one of those who is thinking about departure, said: "I have to look the PM in the eye and ask what she is really willing to do. But for a number of us it's party versus country, and the Tories don't do well if we put ourselves before the public." Some of those organising the push to take the March "deal or no deal" choice off the table believe there are at least 10 government ministers who would be ready to quit. Maybe so. On past evidence, ministers who see themselves as moderate and pragmatic hang back in the end. But the end of February really does seem to be the last moment where they could do more to stop no deal than just pass a resolution the government could then ignore. If they are not willing to give up their ministerial red boxes on 27 February, their chance really will have gone.

जैसा कि हमने सोमवार को देर से बात की, वेस्टमिंस्टर में एक भावना निर्माण हुआ है कि प्रधान मंत्री, शायद दुर्घटना से, शायद तेजी से डिजाइन द्वारा, निश्चित ब्रेक्सिट वोट के लिए लगभग अंतिम संभावित मिनट की ओर देख रहे हैं।


Police and crime commissioner election 2016: Fergus Wilson's nomination rejected

Summary: A millionaire property magnate is taking legal action after his nomination to become Kent's next police and crime commissioner was rejected.

Fergus Wilson, who planned to stand as an independent, was told it was invalid as his papers were not hand delivered to the returning officer, but posted. Several voters nominating him had also not included their electoral numbers. Mr Wilson, of Boughton Monchelsea, said he would apply to the High Court for an injunction, and seek to be reinstated. A statement from the police area returning officer for Kent said he would respond in the event of any legal challenge. A total of six candidates are standing for the post of police and crime commissioner in Kent:

केंट का अगला पुलिस और अपराध आयुक्त बनने के लिए उनके नामांकन को खारिज कर दिए जाने के बाद एक करोड़पति संपत्ति व्यवसायी कानूनी कार्रवाई कर रहा है।


Trump Xi meeting: An A-Z of the big issues

Summary: US President Donald Trump will host his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for two days of talks in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. From trade to currency to North Korea, a lot is on the table for the leaders of the world's two largest economies. Will they have time for some golf?

Carrie GracieFormer China editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter As in alpha males. At a fraught moment in history, the world's two biggest economies are led by two macho men about to meet on a blind date. A could also be for the anxiety this unpredictable encounter provokes among policymakers on both sides, especially in a Chinese presidential team which hates surprises. President Trump has done a lot of rhetorical China bashing. But at this summit the contours of a real US China policy must start to appear. Was all Mr Trump's campaign talk of winning against China just sound and fury signifying nothing or was it a muscular new policy in the making? President Trump has repeatedly accused China of being a master manipulator of its currency. Many economists say it was once but isn't now. For the past two years China has been selling its reserves to keep the value of its currency up rather than driving it down to boost exports. In Florida, will President Trump call President Xi a currency manipulator to his face or will he pick a different battle? Read more: The risks and benefits of China weakening its currency What will this summit actually deliver? Nearly half the US trade deficit is with China and this week President Trump said again the US "cannot continue to trade if we are going to have an unfair deal like we have right now". But in his lexicon, D is also for difficult. He has warned that the summit with President Xi will be exactly that, which is perhaps a way of managing expectations down towards Ds for disappointment and deterioration. Some pessimists warn that the most this summit can deliver is greater predictability in a stressed and uncertain relationship. Other pessimists say those pessimists are already too optimistic, that this summit is premature because President Trump doesn't even have a China team let alone a coherent China policy. But those pessimists are in the American camp. For China, US incoherence is a source of optimism. And US employment. President Xi must convince his host that China offers solutions for both if he wants to keep US markets open to Chinese goods. President Trump is giving President Xi plenty of it by inviting him to his private Florida resort. That's meaningful to a status conscious Chinese audience at home. If Mr Trump can refrain from tarnishing the gift by some unforeseen slight or offence, optimists say he may get a calculated concession on North Korea or trade in return. Because President Xi disapproves of a game played back home between tycoons and corrupt Communist Party officials. Instead G is for globalisation of which the Chinese president now likes to see himself the champion. Along with efforts to tackle climate change. Expect subtle Chinese allusions to President Trump's retreat from both. It's supposed to be a gesture of peace and its absence would send the wrong signal, but President Xi has his own version of this ritual and will not want to submit to the much studied Trump grab and yank. Watch for a hybrid handshake. Ivanka Trump, The soft power weapon of the Trump administration in China. Opinions divide on the father, but the daughter is a source of fascination to many young Chinese, and when relations between the incoming Trump administration and Beijing were at their nadir following the president elect's phone call with the Taiwanese president, it was Ivanka who kept lines of communication open with her attendance at a Chinese new year embassy function in Washington. Read more: Could China's Trump tactics actually be working? Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, has also established a good relationship with China's top diplomats in the US. At 36 and with no previous government experience, President Trump's son-in-law has become a key channel of communication between the White House and Beijing. But he's a novice on the most complex bilateral relationship in the world, and until last week his family's real estate business was pursuing a significant investment from a politically connected Chinese company. Those negotiations have now been suspended amid suggestions of a potential conflict of interest, but some observers still worry that he may be vulnerable to China's master negotiators and mistake a short-term gain for long-term US advantage. The leader of North Korea managed to overshadow a visit to Asia last month by the new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. On that occasion it was the carefully timed announcement of a new rocket engine. No one is in any doubt that North Korea's bid for nuclear missiles which can reach American soil will loom large over this summit. But to prevent the world's inattention even for a moment, Kim Jong-un test fired a missile on the eve of President Xi's arrival in Florida. Read more: North Korea's missile programme And the lower key presence of the first ladies Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan. As fashion model and folk singer respectively, both were familiar with the limelight long before their famous marriages. It will be interesting to watch the first ladies attempt to engage without upstaging the husbands. For all President Xi's fine talk of openness and globalisation, the US market is currently open to Chinese goods and services in a way that China's is not. Beijing has repeatedly promised to remove import barriers, and as this is in the interests of China's long term growth, there really ought to be room for progress here. President Trump will have to avoid shouting, sulking and abuse. Chinese protocol will simply not tolerate it. The slogans that China likes: "One China" and "One Belt, One Road". The former is the formulation which frames a fragile US-China understanding on how to avoid going to war over Taiwan. The latter is China's massive infrastructure and development initiative for Asia. After initially threatening to re-examine relations with Taiwan, President Trump committed to the "One China Policy" in a phone call with President Xi in February. But there is no fixed US position on "One Belt, One Road" and President Trump is highly unlikely to sign up to President Xi's other favourite slogan the 'new model of great power relations' by which China signals its hopes for an Asian sphere of influence. The American ghost at the summit feast. The pivot to Asia was the slogan of the first Obama administration eight years ago, a vision of a United States firmly embedded in Asia with the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement underpinning a mesh of American security alliances. In Mr Obama's second term, the pivot to Asia was rebranded the rebalance, but with President Trump's decision to walk away from TPP, both pivot and rebalance are history. Even some US security alliances in Asia are looking less than solid in face of the rise of China and its vigorous cheque book diplomacy. If President Trump wants to hang onto allies like the Philippines and Thailand he urgently needs an Asia policy as well as a China policy. In fact, it's hard to define the latter without the former. The Trump administration talks tough on China, but when it comes to actually engaging, it is in the same quandary as every previous US administration since the US and China restored diplomatic relations four decades ago - how to exert leverage on Beijing without damaging itself or its allies. But also for rivalry and risk. In just a few brief hours together over a dinner and a lunch, can the two presidents build enough personal rapport to cut through the strategic rivalry and mistrust which risk the future of the world's most important bilateral relationship? The South China Sea. President Trump does not want to accept China's audacious island-building and militarisation as a fait accompli but President Xi will certainly not back down to a summit threat. And if the new US president is silent on the subject of the South China Sea, some allies may see it as a signal of willingness to surrender control of these vital waters to Beijing. So what to say about the South China Sea? Read more: South China Sea dispute And tariffs and Twitter. And also for Thucydides Trap, the theory that a rising power causes fear in an established power which then escalates toward war. Xi Jinping actually discussed the Thucydides trap at the 2015 summit with Barack Obama. On that occasion, there was no agreement on how to avoid it. Most would agree that the rise of the rising power and the fear of the established power have only increased in the interim. Read more: Is Trump wise to take on China over trade? This week President Trump said the US would solve the problem of a nuclear North Korea on its own if China was unwilling to help. In the first instance, dealing with the problem may mean secondary sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals who trade with North Korea. And as a last resort, it may mean the threat of pre-emptive US military action against Pyongyang. It's a discussion which will get President Xi's full attention but it seems unlikely that he and his host can agree on what constitutes Chinese "help with North Korea" let alone how much of it would be enough. US presidents often use summits to remind their Chinese communist counterparts of the virtues of democracy, human rights and freedom. But President Trump may choose to remain silent on values. The new US secretary of state gratified President Xi last month when on a visit to Beijing. He used the Chinese formulation "non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation" to describe US-China ties. President Xi would dearly love to hear President Trump echo this language. Despite all the name calling from Mr Trump over the past year, the Chinese president and his state-controlled media have stuck to mild appeals to reason and common interest in framing the US-China narrative. Vanilla is President Xi's favourite flavour here and if he can persuade President Trump to tweet bland he will call it a triumph. At home, the Chinese president is in the sensitive run up to a Communist Party Congress at which he wants to install key allies in top positions. The last thing he needs is a trade war with a vital export market, especially as China's economic growth is slowing. A standoff in the South China Sea or on the Korean peninsula would be even worse. President Xi needs his relationship with President Trump to work. And he needs to go home calling this summit a success. Read more: The ever-growing power of Xi Jinping … hmmm… not sure. Any suggestions? As in zero sum game. If President Trump takes a zero sum attitude towards the US trade balance with China, and if President Xi takes a zero sum attitude towards the US role in Asia then their summitry will swiftly sour and all talk of winners will look hollow.

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प अपने चीनी समकक्ष शी जिनपिंग की फ्लोरिडा के मार-ए-लागो में दो दिवसीय वार्ता के लिए मेजबानी करेंगे। व्यापार से लेकर मुद्रा तक उत्तर कोरिया तक, दुनिया की दो सबसे बड़ी अर्थव्यवस्थाओं के नेताओं के लिए बहुत कुछ है। क्या उनके पास कुछ गोल्फ खेलने का समय होगा?


The EU debate - who won?

Summary: Much will be written about who won and who lost this debate. For what it's worth one instant poll hands it to Mr Farage. That, though, ignores the reason both men agreed to take part. They knew they could both be winners.

Nick RobinsonPolitical editor Nick Clegg relished the chance to present himself as the leader of "the party of IN", the man willing to stand up to UKIP's populism who is using his stance to appeal to Tory and Labour pro-Europeans to lend him their votes. Nigel Farage saw this as an opportunity to establish that his party is part of the political premier league and that he is more than a man with a pint, a fag and a jokey soundbite. He too is counting on those in the bigger parties to vote for him to make their views on Europe plain. Both men were confident. Neither stumbled. However, the UKIP leader looked vulnerable when challenged to justify his party's inflated claims on the scale of immigration and the cost of the EU. The Lib Dem leader looked least comfortable when trying to defend past promises that voters would get a referendum and would get EU reform. Few voters were likely to be watching or listening weighing up whether to back Farage or Clegg. What the leaders of Britain's smaller parties want was the status of men prepared to stand up and fight for what they really believe.

इस बहस में कौन जीता और कौन हारा, इसके बारे में बहुत कुछ लिखा जाएगा। एक तत्काल चुनाव के लिए यह श्री फराज को सौंप दिया जाता है। हालाँकि, यह इस कारण की अनदेखी करता है कि दोनों लोग भाग लेने के लिए सहमत हुए। वे जानते थे कि वे दोनों विजेता हो सकते हैं।


The millionaires' club with too few women

Summary: Amid the ongoing fallout from widespread sexual assault and harassment allegations and the #MeToo campaign, gender equality is high on the Davos agenda this year, but the elite annual gathering still has its own issues to solve.

By Katie HopeBBC News, Davos Gillian Tans is softly spoken and unassuming. The 47-year-old isn't someone you'd immediately associate with power. Yet she has a lot of it. As the chief executive of online accommodation website Booking.com she's in charge of a staggering 15,000 employees in 70 countries around the world. In 2016, she earned an impressive $17.1m (£12.3m; €13.9m). That was more than her own then boss at US firm Priceline which owns Booking.com as well as other travel related brands including Kayak and rentalcars.com. In the world of business, a successful woman on this scale is still pretty rare. In Davos for the first time, Mrs Tans says showcasing people like her can help address the imbalance. "Role models are important." That's exactly why the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos wants her here. It's no secret that the annual gathering of chief executives, world leaders and celebrities has a problem attracting women delegates. The attendees are still overwhelmingly men, outnumbering women by five to one despite a quota system for large firms which must bring one woman for every four men. Every year photos of the suit-heavy gathering captioned "spot the woman" do the rounds on social media. Of course, this largely reflects the current reality - those at the top in both business and politics are predominantly male. WEF is undoubtedly trying. For the first time in the annual conference's 48-year history all seven of the conference's co-chairs are female, yet just 21% of attendees are women, little change from last year's 20%. Criticism of Davos as a boys' club is hard to shake, and not just because of the gender inequality. Anecdotal evidence suggests that even in these refined environs female attendees may have to deal with unwanted approaches. "Things can get tricky," says Mark Turrell, who is attending Davos for the 10th year in a row. The founder of business social networking application Vork says the overlap between professional work and the notorious night time parties means there can be misunderstandings. "There is an obvious grey zone where people are not sure. People try to find out and there may be a moment that wasn't quite expected," he says. Mr Turrell organises an informal group of young Davos attendees to help them reduce costs by sharing lifts and accommodation. He says some single attendees bring wedding or engagement rings to reduce the odds of unwanted approaches. In reality it's not that surprising. The outpouring of stories from women using #MeToo has showed just how widespread the issue is. From an unwanted comment or touch to (at the extreme end) physical abuse or rape, the problem is everywhere. "No matter where we look men are practising these things," says Gary Barker, chief executive of Promundo, which works on engaging men to end female harassment and violence. Often in the workplace, he says it may be "subtle psychological denigration". One solution, he says, is to use quotas to help promote more women into senior roles. "Short term a little bit of tokenism could help. There isn't a shortage of qualified women." WEF isn't shying away from the issue. This year's conference includes several sessions on what firms and society can do to help put a stop to sexual harassment as well as addressing the much broader issue of gender equality. On equality, WEF's evidence shows there's still a long way to go. Its latest report found that at the current rate of progress it will be another 100 years before we achieve gender parity worldwide. It's the first year since it started measuring the issue in 2006 that progress has gone backwards. But Shelley Zalis, founder of a firm which aims to advance workplace equality called The Female Quotient, believes the current heightened awareness will help. "People are no longer accepting the status quo for the norm," she says. This year she has quadrupled the space of her women's networking lounge, which she sets up at major conferences each year. The space hosts talks from successful women and have attracted some heavyweight commercial partners including Unilever and Google. Normally called The Girls' Lounge, this year at Davos she's called it The Equality Lounge in recognition of the topic's pertinence - men can also attend. The location on one of the main roads leading to the conference centre means that it's impossible to miss. She describes the lounge "as a safe place" for women, somewhere where they can be themselves. "A minority acting and feeling like the majority" as she puts it. "No one really understood it [the lounges], but now we've got a critical mass working together, understanding that their voice matters, all of a sudden we're seeing a shift," Ms Zalis says. This means the time is right to shake up the status quo with "new rules", she says. Yet the workplace solution at least isn't necessarily complicated. 'Little things' Research suggests that when firms have more women in senior roles, then more women are promoted or hired, when firms have more women in senior roles, then more women are promoted or hired. Booking.com is a case in point. Mrs Tans says more than half of its staff overall are female and they account for 20% of its tech team, typically a male dominated area. She says recruiting teams are always diverse and the firm makes sure shortlists of potential new staff or those being considered for promotion are from mixed backgrounds and sexes. It has also had an external audit to make sure the firm pays men and women equally. In the end, she says changing a lot of "little things" can help address the balance. "Companies need to own this to change it. I'm not a fan of systems [quotas] but firms need to look at the data and and what they need to do to bring numbers up," she says. Next year, when we see whether or not Davos has more female attendees, we'll have a better idea if that has happened.

व्यापक यौन उत्पीड़न और उत्पीड़न के आरोपों और #MeToo अभियान से चल रहे नतीजों के बीच, इस साल दावोस के एजेंडे में लैंगिक समानता अधिक है, लेकिन कुलीन वार्षिक सभा को अभी भी अपने मुद्दों को हल करना है।


Free transport for college students in Cornwall

Summary: Free transport is to be offered to 16 to 18-year-olds studying at colleges in Cornwall who come from households earning less than £31,000.

Cornwall College and Truro & Penwith College said the scheme would be available to new and returning students from September. Some of the funding has come from the Cornwall Bursary, which aims to help local students stay in education. It replaces the Education Maintenance Allowance axed in government cuts. Cornwall College has more than 45,000 students on full and part-time courses at seven sites across the county - Camborne, Newquay, St Austell, Saltash, Duchy College Rosewarne and Stoke Climsland and Falmouth Marine School. Truro & Penwith has more than 5,000 full-time and 11,000 part-time students.

कॉर्नवॉल के कॉलेजों में पढ़ने वाले 16 से 18 साल के बच्चों को मुफ्त परिवहन की पेशकश की जानी है, जो 31,000 पाउंड से कम कमाने वाले परिवारों से आते हैं।


Migrants at Greece-Turkey border face bleak future

Summary: The EU's border agency has sent a force to Greece's land border with Turkey to help stem the flow of illegal migrants. But human rights groups criticise the conditions in Greek detention centres. The BBC's correspondent Razia Iqbal reports from Orestiada:

"This is not what we thought Europe would be. They treat us like animals". A man from Morocco shields his face from the cold and our camera. We are talking with a fence between us, at the Filakio detention camp in northern Greece. He is among hundreds of illegal migrants being held, having crossed the border with Turkey. Greece is on the frontline of a European problem, which is why the Greek government has asked the EU for help. And the EU border agency, Frontex, has seen considerable signs of success. Before the 175-strong Rapid Border Intervention Team (Rabit) began its mission a month ago, 350 people a day crossed the border. Now, around 60 people a day make it. The region most affected is North Evros, and the area's police chief, Colonel Georgios Salamagkas, told us that since the beginning of the year, 35,000 migrants had been arrested. That is the equivalent to the population of the villages in that region. Since the sea borders have been contained and closed off to migrants, Greece's land border has become vulnerable. Frontex deputy director Gil Arias Fernandez told me: "This operation is not a panacea. The operation alone will not be the solution." "More needs to be done by Greece and more also by the EU. We will offer the Greeks all the assistance they need." What's changed the situation is a combination of manpower and technology. Frontex is using thermal imaging cameras. They work all day but are most effective at night, when most migrants cross. How Greece is coping with the detention of those they have caught is causing some concern. Barbed wire The scene at the detention centre we visit in Filakio is very bleak. Most of the detainees are being kept behind bars, including women and young children. When some notice we're filming, they are desperate to get our attention. One man tells us it's miserable inside, it's overcrowded, and unhygienic. He also says it's not a place for humans, but for animals, and he never imagined that Europe would be like this. There is barbed wire and arms reaching out from behind bars, holding out notes saying "help me". The UN's refugee agency UNHCR has described the conditions as a humanitarian crisis. Simone Troller of Human Rights Watch agrees. She also told us that Greek police are openly acknowledging that they are unable to cope with the numbers being detained. This may be Greece's burden at the border, but it is also Europe's frontier. And since the majority of migrants don't want to stay in Greece, but would like move on to the UK, France or Germany, this is a Europe-wide issue.

यूरोपीय संघ की सीमा एजेंसी ने अवैध प्रवासियों के प्रवाह को रोकने में मदद करने के लिए तुर्की के साथ ग्रीस की भूमि सीमा पर एक बल भेजा है। लेकिन मानवाधिकार समूह ग्रीक हिरासत केंद्रों की स्थितियों की आलोचना करते हैं। बीबीसी की संवाददाता रजिया इकबाल ओरेस्टियाडा से रिपोर्ट करती हैंः


'Small' Forties pipeline leak being repaired

Summary: A "small" leak on the Forties pipeline in Aberdeenshire is being repaired.

The leak was detected near Netherley on Wednesday morning during routine maintenance. The pipeline carries crude North Sea oil across land for processing at Grangemouth. The pipeline's owner, Ineos, said a very small quantity of oil was seeping out and added that there had been no environmental impact. Some local people were moved to temporary accommodation.

एबरडीनशायर में फोर्टीज पाइपलाइन पर एक "छोटे" रिसाव की मरम्मत की जा रही है।


Apple's iPhone 7 ditches traditional headphone socket

Summary: The iPhone 7 will not have a traditional headphone socket.

Apple said its lightning connector could be used instead, which would make room for other components. It will also promote the use of wireless earphones, and has released a set of its own called Airpods. The firm said it had taken "courage" to take the step. However, it risks annoying users who will now require an adapter for existing headphones. The US company unveiled its latest handsets at an event in San Francisco following a year in which its phone sales and market share shrank. Other new features include: The launch comes a week after the European Commission demanded Apple pay up to €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland - a ruling the firm is appealing. "The current difficulties with the EU will have little bearing towards the iPhone 7 at this juncture," predicted Ben Wood from the CCS Insight consultancy. "But the dispute will drag on for years, and if sentiment turns against Apple that could have major implications for the brand. "For now, there's a strong argument that the iPhone 7 is more than an iterative update. "Upgrades are all important to Apple and for consumers coming from an iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, the iPhone 7 will feel like a considerable step up." Airpods The 3.5mm headphone jack was made popular by Sony's Walkman cassette players, but was first introduced in one of the Japanese company's transistor radios in 1964. Apple has repeatedly been willing to ditch connectors and other ageing tech from its products earlier than its rivals. However, it was not first in this case. "Lenovo's Moto Z and select models from Chinese manufacturer LeEco have launched without the 3.5mm socket in 2016," noted IHS's Ian Fogg. "These manufactures have had little adverse reaction, in part, because they sell many fewer smartphones than Apple." One audio expert also had doubts. "If you've been interested purely in the audio quality then a wired connection has always been best," said Simon Lucas, editor of What Hi-fi magazine. "You have greater stability - there's no possibility of drop-outs. Wireless headphones also need to be charged, and the louder you listen to them the quicker they will run out of power. "With regards to headphones with a lightning connector, there's only about eight pairs currently available and they will all have had to pay Apple a licence to use its proprietary connector." Apple, however, suggests there are advantages to using its Airpods, which will cost £159. It demonstrated that the wireless headphones could be paired with the phone much more quickly than is normally the case with Bluetooth sets. The Airpods also contain infrared sensors to detect when they are in the user's ears. This allows them to automatically stop music when they are taken out. Motion sensors in the buds also allow the firm's virtual assistant Siri to be activated for voice commands by double-tapping their sides. Users will, however, have to get used to charging another device. Apple said the Airpods would last "up to five hours" on a charge, and come with a recharging case that can extend their life up to 24 hours before a plug socket is required. Another related change is the introduction of stereo speakers - one at each end of the handset - which Apple said meant the iPhone 7 could deliver twice the volume of the iPhone 6S. One company watcher said removing the 3.5mm socket would still annoy some users, but added that their frustration might be short-lived. "Apple changed the charger port a few years ago and people got upset," said Francisco Jeronimo from the research firm IDC. "But it didn't stop people from buying the iPhone. Removing the headphone jack won't either. "What's more important is whether a consumer likes Apple's ecosystem or Android's, because at this point Windows and Blackberry phones have an extremely low market share." Two cameras The iPhone 7 Plus has both a wide angle and telephoto lens on its back, both using their own 12 megapixel sensor. This allows the owner to quickly switch to a tighter shot without sacrificing image quality, and also allows the device to offer 10x zoom - double the amount than before - by digitally cropping the photo in the camera app. A similar feature is already available on LG's G5 phone. But Apple says it will also be able to combine data gathered by both camera sensors to simulate an effect associated with larger DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras. It said software would be able to automatically pick people's faces out from the background, keeping the humans in focus while blurring the rest of the shot in order to enhance the portraits. The feature will not, however, be available at launch but will rather be provided as an update later on. The iPhone 7 ranges from £599 to £799, depending on the amount of storage. The iPhone 7 Plus ranges from £719 to £919. That marks an increase on last year's prices, when the entry-level iPhone 6S was £539 and the iPhone 6S Plus was £619, albeit with less storage. US consumers have not seen such significant increases. They are available to buy from 16 September. Apple has also raised the prices of other products in the UK, including its iPads, despite the fact that the tablets have just been given price cuts in the US. The BBC understands this has been done to reflect the weaker pound. Analysis: Dave Lee, North America technology reporter The room went silent upon seeing Apple's adapter for using normal headphones in the iPhone 7's lightning port. It's purposefully irritating and clunky, because Apple of course wants you to invest in wireless headphones. But a big cheer rang out for the Airpods themselves. They look cool, and relatively discreet - but could be a bit prone to falling out of your ears. Charging them could also become a hassle. Stereo speakers for external sound is a nice new touch - but Apple is really slow to this compared to rivals like HTC and ZTE. And, the grumpy man in me hates anything that encourages phone audio to be played out loud in public. The demonstration of the iPhone 7 Plus's camera capabilities didn't exactly draw cheers, but more satisfied "mmm, nice" noise from most of those around me. It also feels like Apple has had a slight rethink with the Apple Watch. The device is clearly a fitness device first, fashion statement second - no longer is it pushing a $10,000, gold-plated model. Now the poster people of Apple Watch are the likes of Serena Williams, not Beyonce. New Watch Apple also unveiled a new version of its smartwatch, which it described as the "ultimate fitness device". The firm said the Apple Watch Series Two is water resistant to 50m (164ft), meaning it can be used while swimming or surfing. It also introduces: The original Watch is the best selling smartwatch on the market, but shipments of the device dropped more than 50% between the April-to-June quarter of 2016 and the same period the previous year, according to IDC. "It seems people don't want all their smartphone features on a smartwatch - what they want is basic notifications and basic alerts, and that's why some other brands are now making traditional-looking watches with additional digital features instead," said Mr Jeronimo. "That's a challenge for Apple as well as for Samsung and other tech firms selling feature-rich smartwatches." Apple said it thought the device would have particular appeal to runners, and may be able to stoke interest through a partnership with Nike. The fitness brand has created an app that lets its owner share details of their runs with others, and has also launched its own bands for the timepiece. Super Mario Although many of the details of the new devices had leaked in advance, there was one major surprise at the start of the event. Video game character Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, appeared to announce that Nintendo's plumber would appear in his first iPhone video game before the end of the year. Mr Miyamoto confirmed that the running-themed adventure would be an iOS exclusive at launch. It follows the success of another Nintendo franchise, Pokemon, on the platform. It was also revealed that the Apple Watch would soon gain the ability to tell owners how close they are to nearby monsters in Pokemon Go, and to show which characters have hatched from eggs in the augmented reality title. Gone but not forgotten Apple has a habit of being an early abandoner of tech it thinks has become outdated. 1998: Floppy disk drive When Steve Jobs unveiled the original iMac, there was surprise that it was missing a floppy disk drive. Apple said 1.44 megabyte disks had become too small to hold the files owners would want to create. But the decision left the computer without a built-in way to get files on to removable storage as its CD-ROM drive could read but not write data. 2005: Dial-up modem An iMac refresh dropped built-in support for dialling up the internet via a telephone line. Most people in the US still did not have access to a broadband connection at the time, and some of those affected criticised Apple for making them buy a $50 add-on peripheral. 2008: CD/DVD drive Apple boasted that the MacBook Air was the world's thinnest computer and ran TV ads showing it fitting into an envelope. But the achievement was only made possible by building a laptop without the ability to play CDs or DVDs. Many reviewers believed that the trade-off made it an impractical choice as a user's primary computer. 2012: 30-pin connector Apple had used its proprietary 30-pin connector ever since 2003's iPod. It ditched the data-and-power plug in the iPhone 5 to help slim down the handset. But it left many users with old chargers, docking stations and other peripherals that did not fit the new devices. 2015: USB 3 ports Last year's Macbook launched with a single USB-C port for data connections and charging. The firm describes it as the "future of the notebook", but for now users need to buy an additional hub if they want to use it with older plug-in hardware.

आईफोन 7 में पारंपरिक हेडफोन साकेट नहीं होगा।


Thailand's political trial of the decade explained

Summary: In an unexpected development, Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra secretly left the country in late August just as she was due to appear for a verdict on criminal charges. She has now been sentenced in absentia to five years in jail.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok answers some of the key questions around what's going on in the country. Why was Ms Yingluck on trial? The former prime minister was charged with negligence, essentially failing to prevent excessive losses and corruption in a rice subsidy scheme under her administration. She faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Ms Yingluck's government was toppled by the military in 2014, and she was impeached over her role in the rice scheme a year later. The former PM insists the case is politically motivated Ms Yingluck was elected prime minister in 2011 and is the sister of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by the military in 2006. Like her brother, who remains a dominant influence over the Pheu Thai Party, she introduced populist policies which won her strong support in the mainly rural north and north-east. One of those policies was a scheme to buy farmers' rice crops for a generous price. The military government says it cost the state at least $8bn and was mired in corruption. Our correspondent says it is impossible not to see a political dimension to the trial: "The military ousted her government in a coup and so the current rulers can hardly be considered impartial. And of course under a military government, there are always suspicions that the judiciary can be influenced. "It is not surprising that Ms Yingluck and her supporters say the whole thing is entirely politically motivated." Was her mystery-escape helped by the government? Ms Yingluck had been widely expected to turn up in court on 25 August and her sudden disappearance caught her supporters and even some family members by surprise. For months, she had stood firm, refusing to leave the country, even though it is widely believed she was quietly encouraged to do so. But Jonathan Head suggests her flight "will have been broadly welcomed in top circles, regardless of whether there was actual collusion or not". "Looking at the way that Ms Yingluck got out of the country so quickly and at the last minute, to flee to Dubai, there's little doubt there must have been some high-level support for this." The government is denying any collusion but many people on all sides of the political spectrum in Thailand say it is hard to imagine she could have left unnoticed. Why would the government allow her to leave? Ahead of the trial, the military government was faced with a dilemma: whatever the verdict, it would likely have provoked an angry reaction from either of the two sides. Had she been acquitted, hardline opponents of Ms Yingluck would have been upset. Had she been given a prison sentence, her own supporters would have been equally angry. Hence, many people think her fleeing is the best option for the government. "It takes the sting out of the possible verdict and reduces the possibility of an angry reaction," our correspondent explains. "All this comes at a very sensitive time for the country," he says. "The cremation of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is scheduled for October, and the government wants there to be complete calm. It is a very important symbolic moment and carries a great deal of significance for the monarchy. The last thing that authorities want is any trouble." What is the reaction among her supporters? There was a sense of shock when her political followers found out out she had left the country. Her Pheu Thai party has won every election since 2001 but now faces a problem: There is no one else in the family who could take the leadership role that she and before that her brother Thaksin had filled. Yet the huge support base means the party will almost certainly remain the largest political force in the country. What now for Thai democracy? There's no other party in a position to replace Pheu Thai, our correspondent says. The party has an emotional hold over the north and north-east, making up about 40% of Thailand's voters. But the damage done to Pheu Thai may reduce its chances significantly of being able to form a government. The new constitution, signed into law by the new king in April this year, already diminishes the power of elected parties. Under the new electoral system, it will be very difficult for Pheu Thai to win an outright majority as it has in the past. So it is likely the previous dominance of Pheu Thai will be replaced by a more fractured political landscape, with the military and the traditional royalist elite playing a more influential role. Will a guilty verdict lead to unrest and protests? The fact that Ms Yingluck is out of the country takes away the symbol around which her supporters could rally. "Thailand has been divided and polarised for the best part of the past 12 years," Jonathan Head says. "The military and the conservatives have not been able to destroy the Shinawatra family and the family has not been able to fight its way back into a position of dominance they once had. "The general assumption has been that in the end either one side has to be destroyed, or there has to be a grand bargain. The latter scenario doesn't seem to be viable at the moment, but at the same time it is not clear if the current situation represents the beginning of the final destruction of the Shinawatra family's influence."

एक अप्रत्याशित विकास में, थाईलैंड की पूर्व प्रधान मंत्री यिंगलुक शिनावात्रा ने गुप्त रूप से अगस्त के अंत में देश छोड़ दिया, जैसे ही वह आपराधिक आरोपों पर फैसले के लिए पेश होने वाली थी। उन्हें अब अनुपस्थिति में पांच साल की जेल की सजा सुनाई गई है।


Coronavirus: Surrey to St Ives seaside day trip 'due to exam pressure'

Summary: A couple flouted lockdown rules with a drive from Surrey to Cornwall for a seaside trip to relieve "exam pressure".

The pair, in their 20s, told police they felt the 265-mile (426km) journey to St Ives was essential. Officers told them the day trip breached coronavirus travel rules, gave them a £60 fine and sent them home. "All in all a very long 530 mile round trip for an hour by the sea," said Penzance Police.

एक दंपति ने "परीक्षा के दबाव" को दूर करने के लिए सरे से कॉर्नवाल तक समुद्र के किनारे की यात्रा के साथ लॉकडाउन नियमों का उल्लंघन किया।


Planning reform critics 'to be disappointed by review'

Summary: Remember that battle the government had with the National Trust where it seemed to find itself very uncomfortably on the wrong side of the silent majority whose idea of Sunday afternoon fun is a stately home, afternoon tea and trip to the gift shop?

By Allegra StrattonPolitical editor, BBC Newsnight It was over the rather dry-sounding issue of how to reform the planning system but the National Trust believed the government intended to allow developers to pave paradise. And the government was forced by the fracas to go away and consult. Well, the consultation is not over yet but I understand that the eventual document is not going to go down well with the National Trust, English Heritage, Daily Telegraph and so on (apologies, I know I've missed many). Treasury officials met officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government on Monday after the Chancellor George Osborne grilled Communities Secretary Eric Pickles about the non-appearance of this plan in Cabinet one week ago. Because of the "tense" grilling Monday's meeting was convened. Now sources say it is "highly unlikely" the new document is going to please its critics. The phrase "a presumption in favour of sustainable development" is to stay, and indeed the Treasury is pushing for it to be implemented incredibly quickly. There may be a more explicit "glossary", I understand, to make it absolutely clear that drills do not start up in ancient woodlands - better explanations of areas of outstanding beauty and so on - but the plan is to be hardly altered from its first incarnation. The process of debate is this - does it come out on the Monday after the document as a discrete entity where the government will try to emphasise it is about what is best for communities rather than for the macro-economy? Or does it come out in the Budget explicitly as a growth document? (By the way, my hunch is that this Budget is going to be a bigger deal than we realised, that the Treasury has allowed debate to get up around peripheral issues like mansion taxes and the 50p tax rate to allow them space to crack on with supply side changes to the British economy, but I may well be over-thinking this). The Treasury is very bullish about this timing issue right now. They actually think that in this area, they may not have been as radical as they would like. For people less interested in process it means this - the government hopes building will start up soon - greater housing construction which means greater local employment, but also more homes for, among other people, first time buyers, so depressing price and so on. That's the idea.

याद रखें कि सरकार ने नेशनल ट्रस्ट के साथ वह लड़ाई लड़ी थी, जहां वह खुद को मूक बहुमत के गलत पक्ष में बहुत असहज महसूस कर रही थी, जिसका रविवार दोपहर की मस्ती का विचार एक आलीशान घर, दोपहर की चाय और उपहार की दुकान की यात्रा है?


Diamond Jubilee: Queen adopts Slimbridge Bewick's swan

Summary: The Queen has accepted the offer of a Bewick's swan to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

Diamond Two is one of more than 200 that fly into the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust site at Slimbridge each winter. WWT chief executive Martin Spray said the trust was delighted that as patron the Queen had decided to accept the gift. Its founder, the late Sir Peter Scott, is credited with the discovery of a Bewick's individual bill markings. Bewick's swans remain faithful to one site and Diamond Two has been coming to Slimbridge every year since 2008.

महारानी ने अपनी हीरक जयंती मनाने के लिए बेविक के हंस के प्रस्ताव को स्वीकार कर लिया है।


Young 'depressed' about money

Summary: Debt, unemployment and repossession have all been concrete and visible effects of the recession but there isn't as much focus on how it affects people emotionally. According to counselling charity Relate, many younger people are having a tough time at the moment. They see 15,000 young people every year and reckon a quarter are depressed about money.

By Catherine BurnsNewsbeat Reporter in Milton Keynes ___________________________________________________________ It's late afternoon, and there are dozens of young people hanging around. Some are skating, some flirting and some just chatting. None of them are buying anything though, because they don't have any cash to spare. One 16-year-old boy says the recession has "drastically affected his life." Another admits things are tight and money is hard to come by. Twenty-one-year-old Becky Apperley says her financial situation really gets her down. She's been unemployed for three years and isn't having any luck finding work. She said: "A lot of the time I feel suicidal. I do actually self-harm sometimes, although I've stopped it now. "It wasn't because of the fact that I was depressed over other things, it was because I was depressed about money." Becky is an extreme example. Relate counsellors say only 3% of the under-25s they see are so worried about their finances they think about killing themselves. Have Your Say: How has the recession affected you? Depression Paula Hall is from the charity. She says it's important not to underestimate how much of a problem the recession is for young people. "Half of Relate cousellors say the young people they see are worrying really significantly about money," she said. "It's high up on their agenda. It's something they want to talk about in sessions. The charity says 21% of the young people they see are worried about losing their home. It's a pressing concern for 16-year-old Conner. He said: "I'm actually having to move out this year, because my mum can't afford to have me live there. I'm worried I won't find a house for quite a while." Another boy, a 17-year-old who's asked Newsbeat not to give out his name, says when his dad lost his job the whole family thought about selling up. He said: "Cards were put on the table, options and that. One of them was we were going to have to move, probably to a different town. "I've never moved in my life so it was going to be a big thing." Luckily, his dad found more work and it didn't come to that. But the stress has affected things at home. He talked about sitting in his room, listening to his parents arguing and worrying. Relate say that's a common problem. 21% of the young people they see at finding it difficult to get on with their families. Hopeful The experts also say under-25s are worrying about their own future, and that 19% are stressed about their careers. Fifteen-year-old Beth wants to be a photographer. She worries that once she's done her GCSEs and college, she'll still struggle to get a job. Depsite that, she's staying positive. "I kind of just look on the bright side of things," she said. "I do think I am going to be able to make it. I'm only 15 now and things will change." Relate's Paula Hall reckons that's the right attitude. "It's important to get that balance between being realistic and being hopeful," she added. "We aren't going to be in a recession forever and we are still a fairly wealthy country. It's bound to turn around."

ऋण, बेरोजगारी और पुनर्निवेश सभी मंदी के ठोस और स्पष्ट प्रभाव रहे हैं, लेकिन इस बात पर उतना ध्यान नहीं दिया गया है कि यह लोगों को भावनात्मक रूप से कैसे प्रभावित करता है। परामर्श चैरिटी रिलेट के अनुसार, कई युवा इस समय कठिन समय से गुजर रहे हैं। वे हर साल 15,000 युवाओं को देखते हैं और मानते हैं कि एक चौथाई लोग पैसे को लेकर उदास हैं।


Will UK provide light bulb moment for US Democrats?

Summary: For the most part American politics exists in its own bubble with its own preoccupations. But every now and then something that happens in a foreign country intrudes. And pokes its nose in. Big time.

Jon SopelNorth America editor@bbcjonsopelon Twitter The 12 December 2019 UK General Election might be such a moment for the US Democratic Party - just as British politics imposed itself on the US presidential election on 23 June 2016, when the British people voted for Brexit. Coincidentally, Donald Trump arrived in Scotland the following day (not the day before as he has repeatedly claimed) and what the British people had just done was a galvanising moment in his campaign, a light bulb moment, as he prepared to face the American people five months later. So what should Democrats learn from the misery that befell the Labour Party last Thursday night? And more particularly can they afford to have Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren as their candidate and stand a chance of defeating Donald Trump in 2020 after the shellacking meted out to Jeremy Corbyn and his brand of radical, left-wing policies? Does UK election provide clues to Trump’s fortunes? Mind-boggling Let me start in Sedgefield in County Durham, an old mining constituency, whose pits closed in the 1970s and 1980s. It is a largely white, working class area. It has been rock-solid Labour since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. It is not unlike any number of towns you could find in the Appalachians in Pennsylvania. I've spent a bit of time there from when I was writing a long forgotten biography of Tony Blair in the mid-1990s through to when he became prime minister. In the village of Trimdon is the Labour Club. The last time I was there, Tony Blair was pulling the winning numbers out in the raffle: main prize a turkey (plucked), second prize a pound of sausages. The people I met there were decent, hard-working, straight-talking - and small "c" conservative. They had chosen Tony Blair as their candidate for the 1983 election because he wasn't on the "loony left" wing of the party, as his election agent explained to me over a pint in the Dun Cow Inn in the constituency. I reported from the nearby leisure centre in 2005 when Tony Blair won the seat for Labour with a huge majority, and won his third successive general election. The people of Sedgefield had delivered him a majority of over 18,000 and 58% of the vote. No-one else came close. But last Thursday night incredibly, unbelievably, ground-shakingly, Sedgefield went Conservative. Sedgefield. Conservative. It is mind-boggling. Remember, when Blair won with that gargantuan majority in 2005 he was at the height of his unpopularity - or the nadir of his likeability (whichever way you want to put it). The controversial Iraq War had been two years earlier and there was a strong feeling that Britain had gone to war on a false prospectus. No weapons of mass destruction had been found, and - hugely uncomfortably for Blair - the father of a British soldier who had died in conflict there stood against the prime minister as an anti-war candidate. Blair, by now, was no longer seen as the great hope, but as smarmy, President George W Bush's poodle, in the pocket of big business - and a war criminal. It was ugly. And yet he romped home on his "third way", left of centre, progressive ticket. And he was returned as prime minister with a comfortable majority: a third successive election victory, a feat that no other Labour politician in history had achieved. Seismic change But the policies of Labour in the 2019 election are very different from what they were in 2005 when Tony Blair and the so-called "modernisers" held sway. Labour last Thursday went into the election with an unashamedly socialist set of policies, promising a massive increase in government spending, and big tax increases for the well-off. Nationalisation of some industries was back on the agenda. There would be massive increase in spending for the National Health Service - and an offer of free broadband for everyone. Why no offer of free puppies for all, one wag asked derisively. The problem is that the pragmatic, working-class people of Sedgefield - and any number of other constituencies across the industrial towns and cities of the UK - held their collective noses and said you must be joking. These are smart, savvy people. They know that you don't get something for nothing. Electoral districts that all my life have been Labour - Blyth Valley, Bolsover, Rother Valley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Dudley, Grimsby - are now held by the Conservatives. It is hard to overstate just how seismic this is. And remember social class in the UK has always been a bigger determinant of how people vote than it has been in the US. Just like the whole class system, frankly. Some of these constituencies have never, ever flirted with the right. Of course, there is a massive caveat that makes reading across from what happened in the UK to what might happen in the US precarious. Brexit, no deal, the European Union Withdrawal Agreement will not be on the ballot in the 2020 US presidential election. Brexit did play a big part in this general election - how could it not given the turmoil in Britain of these past three-and-a-half years? But as Phil Wilson, the man who succeeded Tony Blair as the Labour MP in Sedgefield - and who lost his seat on Thursday night - pointed out, Brexit was nothing like as big an issue on the doorstep as Jeremy Corbyn and Labour's socialist policies. Kitchen table issues Democrats would be wise to dig deeper into the reasons for such wholesale rejection of the UK Labour Party. If you are plotting a path to victory in 2020 that takes you through Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - the three states that the Democrats lost in 2016 by a teeny, weeny number of votes and that guaranteed Donald Trump victory - then there are many similarities between these states and the industrial heartlands that Labour have just lost. Michigan's Democrats swept the board in the midterms in 2018, and the newly-elected Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is admirably straightforward about why they were able to turn around the fortunes of the Democratic Party after the shock of 2016. They didn't promise the earth, they promised to fix the roads. Kitchen table issues. But among the radical/socialist/progressive/liberal (choose your epithet) wing of the Democratic Party there is an ambition, a hunger for earth-shaking pledges. The bold Green New Deal, Medicare for all (which to those of us who are European may not seem such a giant leap) - these are big ticket policy ambitions with even greater price tags attached. But will they fly in a country where the centre of political gravity is much further to the right than it is in the UK? Promising bigger government and higher taxes may not be impossible. But it's not going to be an easy sell. I saw two sets of statistics that really struck me. In last Thursday's election, it seems 58% of 18-24 year-olds voted Labour. Only 16% of those over 60, it's estimated, voted Labour. Similarly, the percentage of Democrats under 30 and qualified to vote in the primaries who are backing either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is massive. Something like 70%. Everyone else in the field is an also ran. But look at any statistics on election turnout, and you will see it is those infuriating oldies who vote in the highest numbers. Grasshoppers and cows And to Democrats in the US who look at their Twitter feeds and see the "likes" and retweets mounting up as they advance this or that position, let the 2019 UK election be a warning to you. For some Labour activists the result of the election seems to have come as a massive shock, because in the echo chamber world that we all now to a greater or lesser extent live in, you come away with the impression that everyone thinks like you. Twitter is not the real world. Nowhere near. In the 1980s and 1990s when protestors would take to the streets of London over the Poll Tax or the siting of American cruise missiles at Greenham Common or more recently the Iraq War, and most recently the huge protest marches backing Remain, the participants would often claim that because so many people had come out onto the streets this was the view of the British people. But for the million who may have protested (still a huge number), there were 59 million who had stayed at home. American Democrats need to be mindful of this. People like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be a social media genius (and she is), and she may have a massive number of followers (and she has), and be charismatic (and she has that by the bucketload) - but America is a big country with an awful lot of voters who are not signed up to all the "woke" things she and others might be advocating. The best voice on this is from a pre-tweeting, pre-electronic media, pre-opinion poll age - and it is from the 18th-Century Anglo-Irish philosopher, Edmund Burke. He wrote: "Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field." Labour in the UK lost the working class, but gained the woke. And that will give the party sleepless nights over the coming months and years. It was their worst defeat since 1935. I watched the UK election on Thursday night from the British Embassy in Washington, where the toast of Washington society met and mingled as the results came through. A smart friend of mine had to leave early to go to another event. She contacted me the next day to say that she went to a dinner and was seated next to a Democrat senator. As she sat down he leaned over to her and said "Are you following what's going on in Britain? Labour getting clobbered? We Dems in the US had better pay close attention." Who will take on Trump in 2020?

अधिकांश भाग के लिए अमेरिकी राजनीति अपनी व्यस्तताओं के साथ अपने बुलबुले में मौजूद है। लेकिन समय-समय पर कुछ ऐसा होता है जो किसी विदेशी देश में होता है। और अपनी नाक अंदर घुसाता है। बड़ा समय।


Bristol's mental health care providers announced

Summary: The winning bidders to take on the care of mentally ill people across Bristol have been announced.

Mental Health Bristol, a partnership of 10 organisations, has been appointed to take over from the Avon and Wiltshire Mental (AWP) Health Partnership. AWP which is part of Mental Health Bristol will still run parts of the service under the new contract. Bristol Dementia Partnership, Richmond Fellowship and St Mungo's Broadway are also taking on parts of the service. Related Internet Links Future Mental Health: Bristol CCG Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

ब्रिस्टल में मानसिक रूप से बीमार लोगों की देखभाल के लिए विजेता बोलीदाताओं की घोषणा की गई है।


Ebola: Why is it this disease we fear?

Summary: The current Ebola outbreak in Africa is dominating headlines globally. But Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance questions why this - rather than any of the other deadly diseases which exist. He suggests it's because people in the west have forgotten what it is like to deal with an untreatable disease.

By Dr Seth BerkleyCEO of the GAVI Alliance It starts with familiar flu-like symptoms: a mild fever, headache, muscle and joint pains. But within days this can quickly descend into something more exotic and frightening: vomiting and diarrhoea, followed by bleeding from the gums, the nose and gastrointestinal tract. Death comes in the form of either organ failure or low blood pressure caused by the extreme loss of fluids. Such fear-inducing descriptions have been doing the rounds in the media lately. However, this is not Ebola but rather Dengue Shock Syndrome, an extreme form of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease that struggles to make the news. Ebola is without a doubt a truly horrible disease, but then there are many other bad ones that kill far more. So, why is it that Ebola is grabbing headlines and other deadly diseases are not? Not the only one Is it because people in Africa are suddenly dying? That seems unlikely. Dengue has a relatively low death rate, but it still kills up to 20,000 of the half a million people who are infected every year; that's an order of magnitude more than the worst Ebola outbreak, and yet barely a fifth of the number killed by measles every year. And when you start to look at pathogens like pneumococcal and rotavirus - causes of the two biggest childhood killers, pneumonia and diarrhoea - the number of deaths rapidly climbs up into the high hundreds of thousands. It is true that Ebola is also highly infectious, which drives away health workers who may understandably fear a needle stick. But then so many others are more infectious, like measles, through air-droplets, and hepatitis B, which is transmitted by similar means to HIV but 50 times more infectious. Perhaps then it has something to do with the fact that there is no cure and that 50%-90% of people infected will inevitably die. Possibly, but then there is no cure for rabies either, and once someone develops symptoms they are almost 100% likely to die a slow and painful death, unless, that is, they have been vaccinated post-exposure. And herein lies a clue. The fact is while Ebola means a painful and isolated death, away from loved ones, there are other diseases that are horrific and equally deserving of both our fear and respect; diseases which, like Ebola, are still dreaded in West Africa and beyond, and which regularly kill hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world's poorest countries. However, in wealthy countries, thanks to the availability of modern medicines, many of these diseases can now usually be treated or cured, and thanks to vaccines they rarely have to be. Because of this blessing we have simply forgotten what it is like to live under threat of such infectious and deadly diseases, and forgotten what it means to fear them. So when an outbreak like this comes along, from the comfort of our relatively disease-free surroundings it is only natural to look on in horror and be terrified by the prospect of something like Ebola making its way to our shores. Attention 'welcome' But while Ebola remains a genuine concern in West Africa, if it ever did make it to Europe or North America the chances of it spreading far are remote. This is for two important reasons: first our disease surveillance is more stringent, and second Ebola kills or immobilises its host before they have much of a chance to spread it. In reality, a bigger concern far closer to home is that some diseases which we once vanquished, like measles, rubella and pertussis, are now making a comeback. Thanks to an insidious complacency we have seen significant drops in vaccination rates in many parts of the western world, to the extent that diseases are not only coming back but to levels where we are actually exporting them to poorer countries. Why should we see deaths from diseases we have previously wiped out and for which we have safe and effective vaccinations? And yet in these same wealthy countries people are now asking why there isn't an Ebola vaccine. So the fact that this Ebola outbreak has received so much attention is something to be applauded. For one thing it may help to accelerate the progress of some of the quite promising candidate drug treatments and vaccines whose development have otherwise been stalling. More of a certainty is that it will help bring in improved emergency response plans in affected countries, measures which could help prevent any future outbreaks from spreading quite so fast and so far. International spotlight For people in West Africa who are currently trying to get through this terrible outbreak that will be of little comfort. Even so, if casting the international spotlight onto Ebola helps to bring our notions of risk perception into sharper focus then that can't be a bad thing - not just in terms of boosting immunisation rates at home. But also if it helps to remind us that Ebola is not the exception, but rather just one example of the terrible norm - where thousands of men, women and children are dying from a range of horrible diseases every day - then perhaps that will bring the world a step closer to doing more about it.

अफ्रीका में वर्तमान इबोला का प्रकोप विश्व स्तर पर सुर्खियों में है। लेकिन जी. ए. वी. आई. गठबंधन के सी. ई. ओ. डॉ. सेठ बर्कले सवाल करते हैं कि ऐसा क्यों है-किसी भी अन्य घातक बीमारी के बजाय जो मौजूद है। उनका सुझाव है कि ऐसा इसलिए है क्योंकि पश्चिम के लोग भूल गए हैं कि एक अनुपचारित बीमारी से निपटना कैसा होता है।