Syria war: Forgotten amid the bombs: Idlib's ancient, ruined riches

Summary: The haunting beauty of Syria's so-called Dead Cities, once seen, is never forgotten. Here on the wild and magical hills of the north-west nestles the world's richest repository of 4th, 5th and 6th Century churches - over 2,000, spread among hundreds of early Byzantine settlements.

By Diana DarkeAuthor on Middle East culture Together, they represent the transition from Roman paganism to the zeal of early Christianity, providing unique evidence in stone of the influence of Syrian styles on the subsequent evolution of European Romanesque and Gothic religious architecture. But today, like the three million souls currently kettled in Idlib province, they are endangered and largely forgotten. Bygone inhabitants grew prosperous from production of olive oil and wine, as their stone presses testify. Today's cash crop is cigarette tobacco - lifeblood of the war which has been raging since 2011. Ironically, Syria's tourism ministry rebranded the ruins The Forgotten Cities before the war, imagining high-end walking tours for romantically-minded visitors. So forgotten were they, that the UN's cultural agency Unesco only recognised as them as a World Heritage Site in June 2011, calling them Ancient Villages of Northern Syria. 'Heart of the Almond' Confusion over what to call them remains, but beyond doubt is their astonishing state of preservation. The ancestor of France's beloved Notre-Dame Cathedral still stands on a remote hilltop in rebel-held Idlib, its familiar twin-towered facade flanking a monumental entrance. Crafted from local limestone around AD460, it has survived wars, earthquakes and centuries of use as a playground for village children, never requiring buttressing in over 1,500 years. Known as Qalb Lozeh - literally Heart of the Almond (or, crème de la crème) - its flamboyant doorway was designed to welcome eager pilgrims en route to hear the eccentric St Simeon preach from his pillar, a day's walk north-east. In the valley below, today's Qalb Lozeh villagers would have heard the explosions from Barisha on 27 October 2019, when the head of the Islamic State (IS) group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died in a raid by US special forces. Idlib's rugged karst geography makes it natural guerrilla territory, with perfect caves for rebel hideouts. Hermits too have long sought refuge in these caves. St Simeon Stylites, son a local farmer, was the most celebrated hermit of his day, moving from a cave to a pillar ("stylos" in Greek) to escape the crowds who pursued him. When he died in 459 after living 36 years on top of his pillar, the Byzantine emperor ordered the construction of four basilicas and a walk-in baptistery to mark the spot. The resulting St Simeon's Basilica complex, completed in 490, was the Santiago de Compostela of its day, the first centred church beneath a dome, not surpassed in all of Christendom till Hagia Sophia in 537. Its curved apse (or chevet) and the finely sculpted ornamentation on its lintels, arches, mouldings and facades herald the many subsequent architectural refinements of Constantinople and Europe. The magnificent complex was badly damaged in May 2016 by Russian air strikes, carried out in support of the Syrian government against rebels, blowing what remained of St Simeon's pillar to pieces. Today the raised hilltop is the site of a Turkish observation post, set up as part of a deal to "de-escalate" the fighting. Abandoned to their fate Alas, one development at least eluded the observers: on 17 December 2019 the disappearance was reported from Ain Dara, an unusual neo-Hittite temple just north of St Simeon's, of a giant basalt lion, guardian of the site for 3,000 years. Now feared smuggled across the Turkish border, it represented Mesopotamian fertility goddess Ishtar, popularised through Agatha Christie's Curse of Ishtar set in Iraq where Christie, who worked on excavations in northern Syria with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan, helped save ancient treasures under threat. In January 2018 the temple was 60% destroyed by Turkish air force bombing, part of an operation to drive from Afrin Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a rebel group fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey. The routine Russian/Syrian bombing of Idlib's schools and hospitals barely makes the headlines these days. Neither does the displacement of thousands of its poverty-stricken civilians into cold and muddy olive groves. Idlib's inhabitants and culture are both "Forgotten" and "Dead", abandoned to their fate. Unmoved by massive loss of life and heritage, hardcore Islamist extremists are digging in for the long haul. Most are not local, but with north-west Syria now home to the world's largest concentration of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, the next iteration of IS may even now be incubating, soon to emerge from the caves of Idlib, to wreak more damage on Syria's battered people and culture. Diana Darke is the author of several books on Middle East culture, including My House in Damascus (2016) and Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic architecture shaped Europe (2020). Follow her on Twitter.

सीरिया के तथाकथित मृत शहरों की भयावह सुंदरता, जो एक बार देखी गई थी, कभी नहीं भुलाई जाती है। यहाँ उत्तर-पश्चिम की जंगली और जादुई पहाड़ियों पर चौथी, पांचवीं और छठी शताब्दी के चर्चों का दुनिया का सबसे अमीर भंडार है-2,000 से अधिक, जो सैकड़ों प्रारंभिक बीजान्टिन बस्तियों में फैले हुए हैं।


Constable Carroll murder united Northern Ireland in revulsion

Summary: It was a time of grief, shock, and resolve.

By Will LeitchBBC News Constable Stephen Carroll was murdered in March 2009 during a surge in dissident republican activity. Just two days before the officer was shot dead, two soldiers on duty at Massereene barracks in Antrim were killed by the Real IRA. But it was the Continuity IRA which claimed responsibility for the death of the police officer. The then Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said the PSNI would not be stopped by dissident republicans. "It is self evident that the more universal the support for the small disenfranchised and rather ridiculous group that is that dangerous, to realise their whole attempt is futile," he said. "We will not step back." It brought the first and deputy first ministers together to share a widow's grief - uniting to condemn the murder. Speaking shortly after the death, Peter Robinson said it was "a battle of wills between the political class and the evil gunmen". "The political class will win," he said. "We are absolutely determined these people will not direct us, will not frame our agenda and will not cause us to retreat from the steps which we believe to be right to take this country forward." His words were echoed by Martin McGuinness. "These people are traitors to the island of Ireland, they have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all the people who live on this island and they don't deserve to be supported by anyone," he said. So who was Constable Stephen Carroll? He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, he liked a laugh, loved sport, lived for his family. Born in the Republic, raised in England, and settled in Banbridge, he was also a Catholic and a police officer, starting to think about retirement. His wife Kate described the conversation she had that morning with her husband. "He said to me that day he was going to work, he said, 'Kate, you know, we've come through a lot, we've come through this and that and wouldn't it be ironic, just with my last year-and-a-half, that something would happen', and it did," she said.

यह दुख, सदमे और संकल्प का समय था।


Man seriously injured in crash on A82 near Fort William

Summary: A man has been seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash on the A82 near Fort William.

The collision involving a car and a van happened at about 10:00 and closed the trunk road between the town and North Ballachulish. Some drivers in cars have been able to use the Corran Ferry, but most of the traffic have been following a 161-mile (259km) diversion along the A861. The A82 reopened later in the afternoon.

फोर्ट विलियम के पास ए82 पर दो वाहनों की दुर्घटना में एक व्यक्ति गंभीर रूप से घायल हो गया है।


Sergei Skripal and the 14 deaths under scrutiny

Summary: When Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, collapsed suddenly on Sunday in the sleepy cathedral city of Salisbury, there were unavoidable echoes of a messy, high-profile death in London a little over a decade before.

By Joel GunterBBC News In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian agent, was rushed to hospital after collapsing in London. As the world watched, a rare and highly radioactive isotope destroyed Litvinenko's organs one by one, and he died three weeks later. A British public inquiry found that the former Russian agent had ingested Polonium 210, and that his assassination was likely ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Skripal, 66, who was imprisoned in Russia for working for British intelligence and later came to the UK as part of a spy swap, is currently in critical condition, along with his 33-year-old daughter who was also taken ill. Authorities say they are trying to determine if he was poisoned. Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has put renewed scrutiny on a string of deaths in the UK in the past two decades. The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper MP, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Tuesday calling for a review of 14 other cases. Those cases were variously found to have been heart attacks, suicides, accidents, and deaths by natural causes, but some allege that they amount to a pattern of state-sponsored murder on British streets. Heartbreak grass Security guard Neil St Clair-Ford was driving through Weybridge in Surrey in November 2012 when he saw something lying in the road ahead of him. He pulled over and found Alexander Perepilichnyy, an exiled Russian banker, in the foetal position, pale, cold, and displaying "very faint" signs of life. Mr St Clair-Ford called a local former Navy colleague, Liam Walsh, to help administer first aid. Mr Walsh told an inquest that Perepilichnyy vomited "greeny-yellow" bile during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with a strange taste, like "licking a battery". Perepilichnyy was born in Ukraine and made his fortune as a financier in Russia, allegedly helping government-connected Russians launder money. In 2010 he fled to Britain and began to co-operate with British authorities. He collapsed during a run near his home, the day he returned from a short trip to Paris. Initial toxicology tests on Perepilichnyy's body revealed nothing suspicious and police said they had no evidence of foul play. But later tests performed by an expert botanist at Kew Gardens suggested the presence of a rare and deadly plant toxin in Perepilichnyy's stomach. Gelsemium, a flowering plant native to China and South East Asia, is known as "heartbreak grass", because its leaves, if swallowed, cause cardiac arrest. Further tests of the compound found in Perepilichnyy could not definitively identify it as gelsemium, and an inquest into his death was suspended last year pending yet more tests. The inquest resumes next month. US intelligence sources told the BBC in 2016 that they believed Perepilichnyy was murdered. An extensive investigation by Buzzfeed News claimed that the businessman was one of at least 14 deaths in the UK that US officials suspected were connected to Russia. 'The highest level of risk' The following year, 2013, Boris Berezovsky, a one-time oligarch and close friend of Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in his bathroom. All the evidence seemed to point to a suicide. He had been suffering from depression and was in debt. According to police there was no sign of a struggle. A Home Office pathologist concluded that his injuries were consistent with hanging. But he had also made himself a sworn enemy of Mr Putin, having fled Russia for exile in Britain and fiercely criticised the regime from afar. Berezovsky's family arranged for an asphyxiation expert to examine photographs of his body. Dr Bernd Brinkmann testified that the ligature mark on Berezovsky's neck did not share the typical V-shape created by a hanging, and instead suggested strangling. The dead man also had a broken rib and a cut on the back of his head. It was enough to persuade the coroner to record an open verdict. "Anyone Putin deems to have betrayed Russia is at the highest level of risk," said Bill Browder, a former Moscow-based financier who led a campaign to impose sanctions on top Russian officials accused of corruption - sanctions that enraged Mr Putin. "And Russia can get away with brazenness in the UK because there have never been any consequences to Russian assassinations here," he said. "The British government either ignores the crimes completely, as they did in the Perepilichnyy case, or they recognise the crime and don't do anything about it." Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said any evidence of Russian involvement with Mr Skripal's condition would be dealt with "appropriately and robustly". "I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished," he said. Among the other deaths flagged to the home secretary on Tuesday are those of Gareth Williams, the so-called "spy in the bag", whose badly decomposed body was found locked inside a holdall in his bath; Dr Matthew Puncher, a British scientist involved in the Litvinenko case who was found in his kitchen with multiple stab wounds from two separate knives; and Scot Young, a business associate of Berezovsky, who was found impaled on railings outside his London flat after falling from a fourth-floor window. Williams' death was ruled to be "probably an accident" and Puncher's and Young's both suicides, and British police say they have found no evidence of Russian involvement in any of the cases barring Litvinenko's. "British police are under no sort of political pressure whatsoever," Tony Brenton, the British ambassador to Moscow at the time of Litvinenko's death, told the BBC. "If they had found evidence of Russian involvement in those cases, we would have followed it up." But the UK government has faced criticism over a perceived lack of action. In the wake of Litvinenko's death, the UK tried and failed to extradite two Russian agents alleged to have carried out the hit. Instead, several Russian diplomats were expelled, provoking a tit for tat response from Russia. The problem facing the UK government now, said Mr Brenton, is that ministers have already levied significant sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and Syria, and diplomatic relations are already very poor. "If it is proven that this was an attack with Russian state involvement we will of course do something, there will be lots of anger and probably more sanctions. But we have already used up an awful lot of our ammunition. The locker is quite bare," he said. In a statement, the Russian embassy in London said: "Media reports create an impression of a planned operation by the Russian special services, which is completely untrue." In Salisbury, counter-terror police have taken over the investigation. The park bench where Mr Skripal collapsed has been cordoned off and a restaurant where he ate lunch has been temporarily closed. If it turns out to have been a Russian attack, part of the purpose will have been to warn those in Russia against betrayal, and those in exile that they are never safe, said Mr Browder. "It sends a message to the rank and file that terrible things can befall you and your family," he said.

जब एक पूर्व रूसी डबल एजेंट सर्गेई स्क्रिपल रविवार को नींद में डूबे कैथेड्रल शहर सैलिसबरी में अचानक गिर गए, तो एक दशक से थोड़ा अधिक समय पहले लंदन में एक गंदी, हाई-प्रोफाइल मौत की अपरिहार्य प्रतिध्वनि थी।


£3m funding for Inverness announced

Summary: Scottish Secretary David Mundell has confirmed £3m funding for Inverness during a meeting with Highland Council.

The money would enable the local authority to go ahead with plans to upgrade the grounds and access to Inverness Castle. A second project to create a free public access wi-fi scheme for the city is also expected to be funded. The money will come from the UK government.

स्कॉटिश सचिव डेविड मुंडेल ने हाईलैंड काउंसिल के साथ एक बैठक के दौरान इनवर्नेस के लिए 3 मिलियन पाउंड के वित्त पोषण की पुष्टि की है।


Trouble in orbit: the growing problem of space junk

Summary: In 2014, the International Space Station had to move three times to avoid lethal chunks of space debris. The problem also threatens crucial and costly satellites in orbit. So what is the scale of the space junk problem, and what can we do about it?

By Dr Hugh LewisUniversity of Southampton Forty-five years ago the associate director of science at Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center, Ernst Stuhlinger, an original member of Wernher von Braun's Operation Paperclip team, was asked by Sister Mary Jucunda, a Zambia-based nun, how he could suggest spending billions of dollars on spaceflight when many children were starving on Earth. Today, Stuhlinger's response still provides a powerful justification for the costs associated with space research. "It is certainly not by accident that we begin to see the tremendous tasks waiting for us at a time when the young space age has provided us the first good look at our own planet," he said. "Very fortunately though, the space age not only holds out a mirror in which we can see ourselves, it also provides us with the technologies, the challenge, the motivation, and even with the optimism to attack these tasks with confidence." In the intervening years, the maturing space infrastructure has supported our new and ongoing efforts to tackle global health, hunger, poverty, education, disaster risk reduction, energy security and climate change. Indeed, we have made great use of Stuhlinger's "mirror" to meet many of society's biggest challenges. Sadly, the space environment has borne the brunt of our increasing reliance on satellites and our long-lived belief that "space is big". More than 5,000 launches since the start of the space age, each carrying satellites for Earth observation, or communications, for example, have resulted in space becoming increasingly congested and contested. The issue has been examined for a BBC Horizon documentary on BBC Two. Now, the US Space Surveillance Network is tracking tens of thousands of objects larger than a tennis ball orbiting above us, and we suspect that there are one hundred million objects larger than 1mm in the environment. Due to their enormous orbital speed (17,000 mph), each one of these objects carries with it the potential to damage or destroy the satellites that we now depend on. Red Conjunction Perhaps the most visible symptoms of the space junk problem are the regular collision avoidance manoeuvres being performed by the International Space Station (ISS), and the increasingly frequent and alarming need for its occupants to "shelter-in-place" when a piece of junk is detected too late for a manoeuvre. The systems on the ISS that provide vital life support are also responsible for its unique vulnerability to a debris impact - a pressurised module in a vacuum might behave like a balloon if punctured. The recent "red conjunction" (where a piece of debris comes close enough to pose a threat to the space station) involving a fragment from a Russian satellite on 17 July this year was yet another demonstration of the growing threat from space junk. Thanks to the hit film "Gravity", and the Oscar-nominated performance of Sandra Bullock, we can now readily appreciate the anxiety that must be felt by the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station whenever they receive such a "red conjunction" call. In spite of these occurrences, the space station is actually orbiting at an altitude where the number of debris is relatively low. At higher altitudes the amount of space junk is substantially greater, but only robotic spacecraft are exposed there. Nevertheless, these satellites are some of the most valuable for understanding our planet. Due to this congestion, there is an increasing chance that the space junk population could become self-sustaining. That is, more junk could be created by collisions than is removed through the natural decay caused by atmospheric drag. Indeed, we already have some experience of this: in February 2009 two relatively small satellites collided over Siberia creating about 2,000 new fragments that could be tracked, with many still orbiting today and regularly passing close to other satellites. Space junk in numbers Sources: Nasa, Esa The Kessler Syndrome Self-sustaining collision activity is something else that the film Gravity showed us. Dubbed the "Kessler Syndrome" after the Nasa scientist Don Kessler (now retired) who recognised and described this process with Burton Cour-Palais in 1978, such a scenario is a real - albeit often exaggerated - possibility. Concerns of an uncontrollable growth of the space junk population and the loss of key satellites that enable us to address our society's problems have prompted scientists to look for ways to remove junk from space: If we can remove the problematic junk, then we can stall or even prevent the Kessler Syndrome. This is no easy task, however, requiring new technologies, potentially new laws and - crucially - financial investment. The European Space Agency (Esa) is taking the lead, working on a mission it calls "e.Deorbit" that has the objective of removing a large European satellite from space. The mission is ambitious; numerous technologies have been developed and assessed, including a solution based on a harpoon proposed by UK engineers from Airbus Defence and Space. It is also not without risk, but a successful outcome will surely show the space-faring world that a technical solution to the space junk problem exists, even if the political, legal and financial issues have yet to be solved. The e.Deorbit mission will face key hurdles in 2016: its systems requirements review and the Esa Ministerial Council meeting, where approval (and funding) to proceed with the mission will be debated. Tracking systems Small satellites: the future? Against the background of an increasing space junk problem, a renaissance is now taking place in space; what was the principal domain of governments and space agencies, with their large, multi-billion dollar satellites, is becoming the province of an emerging industry that is revolutionising the use of space. Diminutive companies and start-ups, in particular, are showing how small budgets do not necessarily mean small ambitions. For example, San Francisco's Planet Labs, are using "cubesats" to redefine the market for Earth imagery. Their Dove satellites are smaller than a briefcase, yet have the capability to deliver high-resolution images of the Earth for a multitude of purposes. With plans by other companies, including SpaceX and OneWeb, to develop large constellations of small, low-cost satellites, there is some concern within space agencies about the long-term consequences of the ubiquitous and rapid commercialisation of space. In particular, these concerns focus on the abrupt increase in the number of satellites orbiting the Earth, which could substantially increase the need for collision avoidance manoeuvres and hasten the onset of the Kessler Syndrome. 'Super wicked problem' In 2014, Brian Weeden, a technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation, described space junk as a "super wicked problem." Such problems, he explained, are particularly challenging to solve because time is running out, there is no central authority providing guidance or support, those seeking to solve the problem are also causing the problem, and the solutions are left for future generations to find. The critical first step in tackling super wicked problems is to expand the group of people who support measures that reduce the risk. Indeed, there are encouraging signs that both old and new space actors understand the need to mitigate negative impacts of their activities in space and to limit the consequences for other space users. Several companies, including Planet Labs and OneWeb have affirmed their commitment to tackle the space junk problem in the public domain. However, much work is still needed to fully understand the problem, develop technologies (such as e.Deorbit), remove legal and political barriers, and to increase awareness. The Kessler Syndrome remains an ever-present threat. The space age has enabled global solutions to some of society's biggest challenges, just as Ernst Stuhlinger described in his letter to Sister Mary Jucunda. It has also held out a mirror and shown us that a continuing disregard for the space environment will surely affect our ability to deliver these solutions, with potential consequences for millions of people. Hugh Lewis is a Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southampton. He is also a member of the UK Space Agency delegation to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and a member of the UK delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. HORIZON: The Trouble With Space Junk is on BBC Two at 2000 on Wednesday 5th August.

2014 में, अंतर्राष्ट्रीय अंतरिक्ष स्टेशन को अंतरिक्ष मलबे के घातक टुकड़ों से बचने के लिए तीन बार आगे बढ़ना पड़ा। समस्या से कक्षा में महत्वपूर्ण और महंगे उपग्रहों को भी खतरा है। तो अंतरिक्ष कबाड़ समस्या का पैमाना क्या है, और हम इसके बारे में क्या कर सकते हैं?


Flintshire dad bailed after charged with baby son's murder

Summary: A Flintshire man who appeared in court charged with murdering his two-month-old son has been bailed.

Sean Michael Mullender, 22, from Connah's Quay, was charged on Wednesday following baby Daniel's death in October 2014. At Mold Crown Court on Thursday, Mr Justice Wyn Williams bailed him on the condition he stays at an address in Northumbria. Mr Mullender's trial date has been set for next April. North Wales Police were contacted by health officials after Daniel was admitted to the Countess of Chester Hospital on 2 October. He was later transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool where he died on Saturday 4 October.

अपने दो महीने के बेटे की हत्या के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुए फ्लिंटशायर के एक व्यक्ति को जमानत मिल गई है।


Scottish independence: What is the size of the task facing Sturgeon?

Summary: According to the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, it is "highly likely" that a second referendum on Scottish independence will be held sooner rather than later, following the UK-wide decision to vote to leave the EU contrary to the preference of most Scots.

By John CurticeProfessor of politics at Strathclyde University That statement means the launch today by the SNP of a somewhat delayed "summer offensive" on independence, an offensive that was initially promised as long ago as last March, has gained an added importance. It is now potentially a launch pad for a second attempt to persuade a majority of Scots to vote for independence. One of the implicit assumptions behind Nicola Sturgeon's "highly likely" remark is that enough of those who voted No to independence two years ago are sufficiently unhappy about the prospect of Scotland being required to leave the EU that they would now vote Yes. But it is far from clear that there has been a post-Brexit increase in support for independence. Referendum question Since 23 June five polls have asked people how they would vote now in response to the question that appeared on the September 2014 ballot, "Should Scotland be an independent country?". Three of these polls were conducted in the immediate wake of the Brexit vote. All three showed a small, but potentially crucial, swing to Yes. Two were conducted by Survation. In one case 54% said they would vote Yes (after Don't Knows were left to one side), while in the other 53% did so. When earlier this year Survation had on a number of occasions posed the referendum question, a little less than half - between 47% and 49% - then said they would vote for independence. The third poll to be conducted soon after 23 June was done by Panelbase. It reported that 52% now backed independence. In polls the company conducted earlier this year it had consistently put support at 47%. In short, all three of these immediate post-EU referendum polls suggested the Brexit vote had stimulated a small but potentially decisive swing in favour of independence. Instead of there still being a small majority in favour of remaining in the UK, as most polls had suggested was the case hitherto, there now appeared to be a small majority in favour of independence. Realistic prospect If those poll figures were right, there was some realistic prospect that the SNP could win a second referendum, albeit holding such a ballot would still represent a considerable risk for the first minister. However, two more recent polls, taken after the dust of the EU referendum had settled somewhat, have painted a different picture. Conducted by YouGov, these polls have found little or no evidence of a swing in favour of independence. One taken at the end of July put support for independence at 47%, while a second undertaken at the end of last month and published today, puts the figure at 46%. These figures are more or less exactly in line with four polls YouGov conducted in advance of the Scottish Parliament election in May, all of which put support for independence at 45%-46%. If these polls are correct then, whatever might have been the immediate reaction to the result of the EU referendum, it appears that over the longer term the outcome has failed to change the balance of opinion on independence after all. Doubtless the first minister will be looking anxiously to see if any further polls in the coming weeks confirm YouGov's picture. But at present it looks as though she cannot presume that she will be in a position to hold a successful second independence referendum any time soon. Consequently, she needs the "summer offensive" being launched today to succeed in persuading more voters of the merits of independence. To do that, the offensive will need to do more than reiterate the arguments in favour of Scotland staying in the EU. YouGov's poll in July found that only 18% of those who voted No in the September 2014 referendum said they would rather live in a Scotland that was in the EU but not part of the UK than in a Scotland that was part of the UK but was outside the EU. Economic case This suggests that most No voters have a stronger commitment to the Union with the rest of the UK than to the European Union headquartered in Brussels. The SNP need to focus instead on persuading more voters that the case for independence makes economic sense. In March this year - when the SNP envisaged Scotland would have become independent if it had voted Yes two years ago - as many as 49% said that they thought Scotland would now be worse off financially if it had voted for independence. Just 22% thought it would be better off. Crucially, amongst those who voted No in September 2014 only 5% felt the country would now be better off, while as many as 81% reckoned it would be worse off. The SNP's failure so far to persuade most voters of the economic case for independence is underlined by today's YouGov poll, which finds that as many as 49% believe that Scotland benefits economically from being part of the UK, while just 23% believes being part of the UK is harmful. Whatever voters feel about the rights and wrongs of the vote on Brexit, persuading a majority of them to vote for independence is always likely to be an uphill task for so long as so many of them are doubtful that the proposition makes economic sense.

प्रथम मंत्री, निकोला स्टर्जन के अनुसार, यह "अत्यधिक संभावना" है कि अधिकांश स्कॉट्स की प्राथमिकता के विपरीत यूरोपीय संघ को छोड़ने के लिए मतदान करने के यूके-व्यापी निर्णय के बाद, स्कॉटिश स्वतंत्रता पर दूसरा जनमत संग्रह जल्द से जल्द आयोजित किया जाएगा।


Axed Jersey seafood festival could return

Summary: The Jersey Hospitality Association has said it will work hard to reinstate a seafood festival in Gorey.

The Fete de la Mer had been due to take place at Gorey Pier on 14 May. But the 2011 event has had to be cancelled because of a lack of funding from sponsors. The association said events such as the Fete de la Mer, which included traditional sea food, al fresco dining and entertainment, were crucial to the hospitality industry.

जर्सी हॉस्पिटैलिटी एसोसिएशन ने कहा है कि वह गोरी में एक समुद्री खाद्य उत्सव को बहाल करने के लिए कड़ी मेहनत करेगा।


Will Uber drivers turn on Uber?

Summary: This week a judge decided that a legal case involving ex-Uber drivers could become a joint action - which simply means lots of people who have the same grievance can get together and sue at once.

Dave LeeNorth America technology reporter The disagreement is over how Uber's drivers are hired by the company. Uber considers them contractors: they work when they want, for as long as they want. Drivers must pay for their cars, fuel, maintenance - everything. The alternative - and the one successfully argued in the case - is that Uber drivers should actually be employees. This could mean a heap of benefits: cars provided, holiday pay, perhaps even health insurance. On the face of it, that sounds like a better deal for drivers. But is it what they want? Sit and wait Just down the road from San Francisco's international airport is what can only be described as a holding pen for Uber drivers. When I visited this week, the car park - which can hold more than 100 cars - was so full they had to close the road leading up to it. Drivers were livid. They're not allowed to wait anywhere else. They certainly can't sit in the taxi rank or they'll get a fine - the driver pays, of course, not Uber. Those lucky (!) enough to be in the holding pen were in a long queue. Each time a request was made, a car was dispatched. Some had been there for over an hour, they said, with a suspicion that the queue system was broken. Uber driving is very much a solo pursuit. Unlike cabbies, who have ranks around towns and cities, Uber drivers are normally found cruising around for the next fare. So the holding pen is one of the few places they get to socialise with each other. Clock in, clock out Uber's defence in the employee/contractor debate is that its workforce is pretty diverse. Some want to work part-time, others full-time. Some want to work intensely for a few weeks, then take a few weeks off. It's on their own terms, and Uber says only a contractor set-up makes this possible. And the vast majority of drivers I spoke to agreed. Passionately. "If we were employees we'd have to have a boss," said Kirk, a full-time Uber driver for over a year. "We'd have to clock in, clock out for breaks. It's not a viable solution for what we do. "You essentially run a small business, but without the overhead of a brick-and-mortar business." Overhearing our conversation was Nate, who has been an Uber driver for two months, as is his wife, who drove off as I was arriving to go and pick up a passenger. The hours go far more quickly when you're calling your own shots, Nate said. Driver power There's more than one exception to the positivity, though, and it's the drivers who've had more than two years on the job who are more keen on the idea of being an employee. One man - who didn't want to be named as even his family are unaware of his worry - told me that he feels trapped in Uber, caught in a spiral he's not sure how to control. Like many drivers, he took up Uber's offer of a loan to get a new car. That was in October last year, and it already has 80,000 miles on the clock. The money for the car is deducted automatically from his earnings each week. It's about $1,000 (£655) a month. It's crippling him - so he works more hours, over 12 a day, putting even more strain on the car. "I would prefer to be an employee with pay and benefits," he said. "And they could help me look after the car." The financing plan runs for five years - and he's sure the car won't last that long. New tyres every four months. A new set of brakes. It's all going on credit, and he's running out of options. "And then Uber drops its rates." Recently, Uber offered a special deal for trips that went to the East Bay - the stretch of land east of San Francisco, over the water, that includes major cities such as Oakland and Berkeley. For a limited time, rides to this area were 25% off. It enraged many drivers for whom a trip from the airport to Berkeley (and perhaps back again) is ordinarily a terrific earner - the difference between an average day and a great one. 'Working crazy' Every driver said they felt they needed better representation, a system that could perhaps give drivers more of a say on how and when to reduce fares. One man, Napoleon, said some drivers could do with support when they feel they have got unfair ratings or other issues that affect their ability to pick up jobs. And every driver said that as Uber was getting more popular, it was getting harder and harder to earn a living. "It used to be 10 hours a day," said Nang, from Myanmar, who started Uber driving just over two years ago when she was studying. "Now I have to work 16 or 17 hours. It's exhausting. I'm thinking of quitting next year. I'm working crazy - seven days. "They are hiring so many people. I don't know where to go. I was in downtown for one hour and I didn't get a customer. Sometimes [at the airport] I wait two hours." Uber's rapid growth Nobody I spoke to said they were considering getting involved in the lawsuit. Most wouldn't be eligible - Uber thinks only about 15,000 of its 160,000 drivers could qualify - but even if they were, there's little suggestion that many would follow it up. Being independent for the overwhelming majority of Uber drivers in that blustery car park was what made them sign up in the first place. But the pressures of covering all the costs, while prices for rides get lower and lower, and more and more Uber cars compete for jobs - it's keeping some drivers awake at night. Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

इस सप्ताह एक न्यायाधीश ने फैसला किया कि उबर के पूर्व चालकों से जुड़ा एक कानूनी मामला एक संयुक्त कार्रवाई बन सकता है-जिसका सीधा सा मतलब है कि बहुत से लोग जिनकी एक ही शिकायत है, वे एक साथ मिल सकते हैं और एक ही बार में मुकदमा कर सकते हैं।


Myanmar jade mine landslide kills at least 12 in Kachin

Summary: Rescue efforts are underway in Myanmar's jade-producing area after a landslide killed at least 12 people with fears that there may be as many as 100 others buried under the rubble, local officials have told the BBC.

The disaster happened at Hpakant, a town in the northern state of Kachin. Billions of dollars of jade are mined in Hpakant each year. Most of it is for the lucrative Chinese market. However, the industry is unregulated and landslides are common. Dozens of people were killed by a landslide in the Hpakant area in December and in November more than 100 were killed. 'Many missing' in Myanmar landslide (December 2015) Dozens missing in Myanmar landslide (November 2015) Myanmar elite 'profits from jade trade' Jade mining produces piles of waste rock. Itinerant workers climb the heaps to search for the gem stones left behind by large-scale industrial mining firms. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Myanmar says that the exact circumstances of the latest landslide are still emerging - but it is another reminder of just how dangerous the country's jade mines are. Local police have told the AFP news agency that the rescue effort is continuing. However, it has been hampered by heavy rainfall and poor transport and communication links to the affected area. Local residents and aid workers say that hundreds of people were searching the deep pits abandoned by the mining firms during Myanmar's rainy season, when most big companies stop operations. "We think about 200 people were working in that area when the landslide occurred [on Monday] night... There could be many more casualties," a local resident told AFP. Myanmar - also known as Burma - is the source of nearly all of the world's finest jadeite, a near-translucent green stone known in neighbouring China as the "stone of heaven". In a report in October, advocacy group Global Witness said the value of jade produced in 2014 alone was $31bn (£21n) - the equivalent of nearly half of Myanmar's GDP - yet hardly any of the money was reaching ordinary people or state coffers.

स्थानीय अधिकारियों ने बीबीसी को बताया है कि भूस्खलन में कम से कम 12 लोगों के मारे जाने के बाद म्यांमार के जेड उत्पादक क्षेत्र में बचाव के प्रयास जारी हैं, इस आशंका के साथ कि मलबे के नीचे 100 अन्य लोग दबे हो सकते हैं।


Resignation over 'future of Guernsey Post'

Summary: Gordon Steele, the chief executive of Guernsey Post, has resigned with immediate effect over a difference of opinion about the company's future.

Chairman Dudley Jehan said: "The Board and I would like to thank Gordon for the valuable contribution he has made over the last three years. "We wish him all the very best for the future." The company described the resignation as "a mutual decision between Mr Steele and the Board". Boley Smillie has been appointed as the interim chief executive and said the process of selecting a new Chief Executive was likely to take some time.

ग्वेर्नसे पोस्ट के मुख्य कार्यकारी गॉर्डन स्टील ने कंपनी के भविष्य के बारे में मतभेद को लेकर तत्काल प्रभाव से इस्तीफा दे दिया है।


Missing Charlie Pope: Body found in Manchester canal

Summary: Police searching for a missing teenager have found a body in a canal.

Charlie Pope, 19, left the Zombie Shack on New Wakefield Street, Manchester, at 02:30 GMT on Friday. He was last seen on Whitworth Street two hours later. Following an underwater search in the canal just off Whitworth Street West, a body was found on Friday afternoon. Police believe the body found is that of the teenager, from Ponteland, Northumberland. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

एक लापता किशोर की तलाश में पुलिस को एक नहर में एक शव मिला है।


Warwickshire to close youth centres keeping five

Summary: Youth centres across Warwickshire will close with five kept as centres of excellence, a council has agreed.

The county council has confirmed it needs to make cuts of £33m in its youth services. Almost 360 people are employed in the youth sector, and unions have said they fear up to 80% could lose their jobs. Warwickshire County Council agreed the proposals which see centres in Atherstone, Camp Hill, Lillington, Studley and Nuneaton stay open. It is hoped that volunteers will step in to help with the remaining 18 youth centres.

एक परिषद ने सहमति व्यक्त की है कि वारविकशायर में युवा केंद्र उत्कृष्टता केंद्रों के रूप में रखे गए पांच केंद्रों के साथ बंद हो जाएंगे।


The Maldives: Political turmoil threatens the 'island paradise'

Summary: Are you dreaming of a holiday in the Maldives?

Justin RowlattSouth Asia correspondent@BBCJustinRon Twitter You may want to choose another fantasy destination after the British Foreign Office told tourists to be aware that some political demonstrations in the capital, Malé, have led to violence. It did add, though, that most trips there are trouble-free. At the end of last month the Maldives celebrated its birthday, 52 years since independence from Britain. But the festivities were marred when the government ordered troops to storm the country's parliament and prevent opposition MPs from entering. It was the latest dramatic attempt by President Abdulla Yameen to maintain his grip on power, and the latest twist in a tale of tropical intrigue worthy of a thriller. The story is certainly set against a suitably exotic backdrop. Murky politics The Maldives is justifiably famous for its breathtakingly beautiful beaches and breathtakingly expensive luxury hotels. But while the water of the coral reefs that surround them may be crystal clear, politics in the so-called "island paradise" has always been very murky indeed. The political drama is centred, not on the beaches but on Malé, the tiny, urbanised island where all of the Maldives' major institutions are based and which is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth. For 30 years the country was a corrupt autocracy, ruled with the proverbial "iron fist" by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. President Gayoom shrugged off numerous coup attempts during his three decades in power, but the wily tactician could not resist forever the growing demand for democratic reform. In 2008, a charismatic young progressive, Mohamed Nasheed, swept to power in the country's first democratic elections. He rolled back repressive laws, bolstered democratic institutions and captured the world's attention with an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the risks of rising sea levels. But the Maldives' brief moment as a model Islamic democracy was not to last. Spectacular falling out Less than four years later, Mr Nasheed resigned following a mutiny by the police and weeks of demonstrations after the arrest of the chief justice, something he now calls a coup. In November 2013, Mr Yameen took office, but as he is Mr Gayoom's half-brother, it looked like a return to the old order. However, over the last year the two strongmen have had a spectacular falling out. So much so that Mr Gayoom, the grizzled old dictator, has thrown in his lot with the dashing young democrat, Mr Nasheed. To give you an idea of just how improbable this union is, you should know that Mr Nasheed was imprisoned and tortured during Mr Gayoom's rule. Nevertheless these unlikely allies have prospered and - bolstered by defections from the ruling party - the opposition has managed to gain a small majority in the Maldivian parliament. They had a plan - to stage a coup, but a democratic one. They tabled a no-confidence vote against the speaker of the country's parliament. The idea was to replace him and his deputy with opposition figures, who would lead an emergency government until elections early next year. It looked likely to work, until, that is, Mr Yameen literally called in the troops. They barred opposition MPs from entering parliament for the vote, thereby putting paid to the plotters' plans. Strategic importance Since then Mr Yameen has been trying to strip the opposition of its majority, arresting MPs and ruling that defectors must resign their seats. It has been enough to allow him to cling on to power, for the moment at least. If you are wondering why on earth you should care about this sun-soaked soap opera, you need to see the wider picture - because the Maldives is at the centre of a much bigger strategic power play. The country's more than 1,000 islands stretch 800km (500 miles) into the Indian Ocean. They straddle crucial sea-lanes, notably the busy but prosaically named bottleneck, the "One and a Half Degree Channel". It makes the Maldives a pawn in the great game for regional influence being played out between India and China, the outcome of which may influence the shape of the world economy for years to come. But there are more basic principles at stake here too - human rights and the rule of democracy. And they matter just as much in small nations with great beaches like the Maldives, as they do anywhere else in the world.

क्या आप मालदीव में छुट्टी मनाने का सपना देख रहे हैं?


Donald who? Davos shrugs off President Trump's visit

Summary: Donald Trump's visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos was billed as a showdown between the sophisticated "global elites" who attend in droves, and the baseball-cap wearing president's brash "America First" rhetoric.

By Katie Hope and Joe MillerBBC News, Davos Yet mention his name in the bustling foyer of the Congress Centre, and the reaction is surprisingly benign. Many attendees shrug indifferently, rather than launch into an angry rant. 'Every leader should have their shot' Gabrielle Bacon, who lives in the US, says she gets to listen to President Trump a lot at home, and is not remotely excited about his Davos appearance. Her main interest is in the European leaders who have spoken here, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. She predicts, however, that his speech may not go down well, saying that President Trump is sometimes misunderstood in Europe. "He doesn't talk in the same way as the European leaders and I think that's very confusing to people," she explains. Keen to clarify that she's not defending Donald Trump, Mrs Bacon says that his much-touted "America First" message is seen by some in the US as wanting the best for citizens there, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't want good things for other countries too. Nonetheless, she's glad he's come: "Every leader should have their shot up there". 'Personally, I'm not a fan' Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, co-ordinator for the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad, thinks the president's visit is drawing attention away from more respected attendees. "Personally, I'm not a fan, I am not going to be here to listen to what he is going to say," she says. "What Justin [Trudeau] and Macron and the president of WEF said, those are the words of politicians who resonated in my head, and who are are calling on people to collaborate, to come together, to respect women's rights, to change the economy, to respect the environment - what is [Trump] going to say that is better than what they said?" Ms Ibrahim, who first came to Davos a year ago, says Donald Trump's profanity-laden comments about immigrants from countries like hers have not been forgotten. "I am still shocked by what he said last week about African and Caribbean countries," she says. "I don't want to waste my time or energy thinking about [Trump]" 'It will not help in our relations with the Palestinians' Some delegates are reluctant to put their views of Trump's visit on record, and privately have reservations about whether his arrival, along with the biggest ever US government delegation in WEF's 48-year history, will achieve much beyond generating headlines. "I think it's very good that he's coming, because he has to be exposed to what is going on in the world," says one Israeli financier. Not that the exposure will mean much, he adds. "He's driven by something else," the man, on his fourth trip to WEF, says. "He's coming to calm down the world, but then somebody will [annoy] him the day after tomorrow, and he will tweet it all around the world, and that's it." Donald Trump has extended a hand to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he met at Davos, by promising to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognising the latter as Israel's capital. But the Israeli delegate we spoke to thinks this move is counter-productive, especially for those representing his country on the "Magic Mountain". "It will not help in our relations with the Palestinians, and we are coming here to build it up, we want to talk, we want to get a solution." 'We will welcome him' Chinese delegate Layla Dong, is adamant that inviting Donald Trump to Davos was the right thing to do. "It's an open platform, we will welcome him because he's the president of the United States," she explains. "The Forum is all about being a platform for people to communicate, so we are open to everybody, and if one day, the leader of North Korea wants to come to the Forum, they should also be welcomed". Yet Ms Dong, who has been coming to Davos for three years, is sceptical about whether Mr Trump will say much worthy of note. On her phone, she points to a response to Trump's tweet on Thursday, announcing that he was heading to Davos to "tell the world how great America is and is doing." The riposte reads: "It's only a few days after your first government shutdown, and you're going to Switzerland to lecture other countries on how they run their governments. You're funny." "I agree with this guy," she says. 'We're all equal here' Andrea Bandelli is chief executive of Science Gallery International, a group which works to engage young people with science. He isn't planning to listen to President Trump due to other meetings that clash with the speech. But he's still glad that Mr Trump decided to come, saying the whole point of the World Economic Forum is that everybody should be invited. For all attendees here, he says, how much they get out of it depends on how well they listen and how much empathy they have. His hope is that President Trump's visit will be "a constructive one rather than a destructive one". Mr Bandelli notes that the point of the Forum is to bring everyone together, and that "no one comes here with a reason that is higher than anybody else's". "We're all equal here and that's how we are treated," he says. But might President Trump, who is not known for his humility, find that rather difficult? "There is always a chance that everybody is changed for the better after attending the annual meeting," he quips.

दावोस में विश्व आर्थिक मंच में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प की यात्रा को परिष्कृत "वैश्विक अभिजात वर्ग" के बीच एक प्रदर्शन के रूप में पेश किया गया था, जो बड़ी संख्या में भाग लेते हैं, और बेसबॉल-टोपी पहने हुए राष्ट्रपति की तीखी "अमेरिका फर्स्ट" बयानबाजी।


World War One 'still affects Shetland to this day'

Summary: In comparative terms, Shetland had one of the highest losses of life in World War One. The conflict had a huge impact on the population that made up the towns and villages of the islands, which can at times seem apart from the rest of the UK.

By Daniel BennettBBC Scotland According to the 1911 census, Shetland had a total population of 27,911. Of this population, more than 600 servicemen died in the war. But according to local historian and history teacher Jon Sandison "the total of the war memorial and the Roll of Honour is closer to 700". This loss of life, in proportion, is considered one of the largest for any area of the UK. John Taylor, a former serviceman living in Shetland, said: "Throughout the country, 1 in 45 people were lost, but in Shetland it was about 1 in 38. Percentage-wise, the loss here was greater than the rest of the UK." 'Decimated by war' Bobby Hunter, Lord Lieutenant of Shetland, said: "It still leaves an effect. Folk still talk about folk who were lost in the First World War. "I had my own grandfather and grand-uncle, two brothers, who were lost. It still affects folk to this day." The War Memorial in Lerwick was unveiled in January 1924 by Janet Hardy. Her family experienced the pain that war inflicts perhaps more keenly than any other family in Shetland. Three of her sons, Thomas, Charles, and William, went to war. None returned. Thomas died when the ship he was serving on in Penzance sank in 1916. Charles died in November 1914 from wounds sustained in Ypres. William died in Calcutta in 1917 from drowning. As Mr Taylor said: "A lot of families were decimated by the war." There were, however, positive stories; stories of brothers surviving the war gave people hope. The Cluness family ended up sending five sons to the war. Remarkably, all five came back. What did Shetland contribute? Despite its distance from mainland UK, Shetland was active in sustaining and supporting the war effort, in inventive and innovative ways. Knitting in the Shetland Islands has for centuries been a practical pursuit. Due to the often harsh weather, making use of wool has been necessary for survival. Those knitting skills were underlined and put to the test in World War One. Thousands of women from across the Shetland Islands produced various types of knitted goods for troops. They were part of the Queen Mary's Needlework Guild. Its aim was to provide clothes and knitted goods to servicemen. And Shetland women did just that, producing more than 15,000 knitted items. Their efforts did not go unnoticed. After the war, thousands of soldiers sent letters of thanks to those women who had provided them with clothes to help them see out cold winters. This was just one way Shetlanders used wildlife and nature to pitch in with the war effort. The 'Egg Collection for the Wounded' campaign aimed to distribute eggs from towns and parishes across the UK to the war wounded, often in hospitals. About 32 million eggs were sent to feed wounded soldiers in areas of France and Belgium. Shetland contributed a total of 300,000 eggs for the effort. One more contribution from the Shetland Islands is perhaps more surprising - moss. The contribution of sphagnum moss was classed as "significant", with the plant material being used for "surgical dressings" due to its antiseptic qualities, making it a first aid essential. Days were especially organised so that locals could go out to gather moss. Mr Sandison said: "There was a moss day in August 1917. People went to the hillsides and collected 2,500 bags of moss. The following year they sent 3,000 bags." Those 5,500 bags of moss were sent to help wounded soldiers. What happened then? The 1911 census also revealed that Shetland had a majority female population - a majority of about 2,500. Mr Hunter explained: "The women were left at home with the families. They had to work on the crofts so they were left with the heavy end of the stick when the men were away." They were affected by men being away and from the toll of those who did not return - and the whole of Shetland was impacted through that generation and beyond. Mr Sandison added: "Overall, most men did come home. But, when they did come home, they had to fit back into society. "A lot were affected for the rest of their lives and their family had to deal with that "The loss was very large for women. We often speak about the 'Lost Generation'. "Perhaps there was another lost generation; the families who went through that and those who were left at home."

तुलनात्मक रूप से, शेटलैंड में प्रथम विश्व युद्ध में सबसे अधिक जानमाल का नुकसान हुआ था। इस संघर्ष का द्वीपों के कस्बों और गाँवों की आबादी पर बहुत प्रभाव पड़ा, जो कभी-कभी ब्रिटेन के बाकी हिस्सों से अलग लग सकते हैं।


Coronavirus briefing: Questions over testing pledge and grim global statistics

Summary: If you want to get this briefing by email, sign up here

By Andy McFarlaneBBC News Testing times Health Secretary Matt Hancock's pledge to ensure 100,000 people a day are tested for coronavirus by the end of the month might have sounded significant but it has raised questions about how the government will meet the target. Labour says details are scant. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth wants to know how many of the 100,000 would be blood tests, and what role testing would play in the government's lockdown "exit strategy". Academics warn testing is not a "magic bullet" and caution against creating a "false sense of security" with talk of "immunity certificates" when the science is unproven. Health correspondent Nick Triggle assesses the government's performance against its pledges on testing, protective equipment for NHS staff and provision of ventilators for seriously ill patients. Meanwhile, the battle to preserve the health of the economy continues, with the government revamping its emergency loans scheme to make it easier for struggling businesses to access funds and bailing out the bus industry to keep routes open. For a second week, the nation honoured its key workers with applause on Thursday evening. One of them, Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary, writes for us about the pressure NHS staff feel now they are dealing with multiple patient deaths. Grim statistics As our live page notes, the US and Spain have recorded new highs for daily deaths of patients with Covid-19. To get an idea of the pressures medical teams are under, watch American nurse Tre Kwon's powerful account of cutting short her maternity leave to return to the frontline, and see the conditions in an intensive care unit in the Spanish region of Catalonia. More than a million cases have now been confirmed worldwide, with nearly 53,000 people dying and more than 210,000 having recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University, in the US. We look at the handful of countries yet to declare a positive case, and the steps they are taking to try to stay virus-free. Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning Questions and answers If you're confused about the kind of shopping classed as "essential", you're not alone, as reporter Cherry Wilson discovered. In our latest explainers, we examine what it means - in practical terms - to be furloughed, and answer your questions about the outbreak, on subjects such as whether you can walk the dog or what policies exist on birthing partners. Remember, there's lots of information and advice on our dedicated page. What does 'from Russia with love' really mean? By BBC News Russian, Moscow Russia's latest gesture in the coronavirus crisis came in the form of medical supplies arriving in New York - part of an operation dubbed "from Russia with love" by the Kremlin. In late March a similar cargo was flown to Italy - the worst-hit country in the crisis - along with 100 Russian military medics. Russian media speak of widespread gratitude for this generosity, but how much of that is fact, how much fiction? US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the US had paid for the Russian supplies, and that "we have to work together to defeat #COVID19". The Russian foreign ministry says the US paid for half of the supplies, and the other half was donated by Russia. Read the full article One thing not to miss today How the UK's newest hospital was built in nine days Listen up Science in Action, on the World Service, examines whether lessons from west Africa's Ebola crisis can help in the current situation. Meanwhile, the Coronavirus Newscast assesses the government's chances of meeting its latest pledge to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. What the papers say Coronavirus testing continues to dominate front pages. Every NHS worker forced to self-isolate has been promised a test by the end of April, notes the Times. Mr Hancock has staked the government's reputation on the commitment to test 100,000 people per day by then, which is four times more than health chiefs previously said was possible, according to the Daily Telegraph. However, the Guardian warns the so-called "immunity passports" and antibody tests the government is relying on remain unproven. And the Sun pictures an empty testing site in Surrey, while reporting that swabs are being sent to Germany for analysis. Things have gone from "bad to wurst", suggests its headline. From elsewhere Boris Johnson is looking for a lockdown exit strategy, But ministers and experts disagree on how to do it (Buzzfeed) Details of Nightingale Hospital's clinical model revealed (Health Service Journal) 'War doctor' says treating Covid-19 is like fighting an invisible enemy (NPR) Eddie Large obituary (Guardian) Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your phone Need something different? Peer into the past via newly discovered "forbidden footage" of the UK's World War Two codebreakers relaxing. Cameras were banned from the site of their secret operations in Buckinghamshire, and the film was anonymously donated to the Bletchley Park Trust. You can test your knowledge of events over the past seven days with our quiz of the week's news or - if sport is your thing - visit at 20:00 GMT to take part in the inaugural Quarantine Quiz. If you simply fancy wrapping yourself in the warm fuzz of nostalgia, delve into the BBC Archive to relive the time Blue Peter's Shep the dog met R2D2, of Star Wars fame, 42 years ago today.

यदि आप ईमेल द्वारा यह जानकारी प्राप्त करना चाहते हैं, तो यहां साइन अप करें


Sir Kyffin Williams exhibition first of centenary events

Summary: The first of a series of events to mark 100 years since Sir Kyffin Williams' birth will get under way on Saturday.

An exhibition at Oriel Mon, in the artist's hometown of Llangefni, Anglesey, starts on Saturday and runs until 1 July. Oriel Mon is home to more than 400 of Williams' paintings and works. Sir Kyffin, who died aged 88 in September 2006, is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century. Further events will take place throughout the year across Wales, as well as in London and China.

सर किफिन विलियम्स के जन्म के 100 साल पूरे होने के उपलक्ष्य में कार्यक्रमों की एक श्रृंखला में से पहला शनिवार को शुरू होगा।


Guernsey States asked for airport radar funding

Summary: The States has been asked for £3.25m for a new radar at Guernsey Airport, on top of the £80m pounds already earmarked for the runway redevelopment.

The current radar is approaching the end of its operational life and funding for a new one will be debated by the States in December. The Public Services Department said a new radar was vital to the airport's efficient operation. If approved the radar would be installed in about a year's time. The £80m redevelopment project, which includes moving the runway, changes to the drainage system, new landing lights and navigational aids as well as the resurfacing of the aprons and taxiways, has been agreed and is due to take two years to complete. Public Services said the airport contributed about £30m a year to Guernsey's economy.

राज्यों से ग्वेर्नसे हवाई अड्डे पर एक नए रडार के लिए £ 3.25m के लिए कहा गया है, जो रनवे के पुनर्विकास के लिए पहले से ही निर्धारित £80 मिलियन पाउंड के ऊपर है।


South Georgia: The lost whaling station at the end of the world

Summary: Once British sailors were a big part of the whaling industry in the southern hemisphere. Now only rusting buildings and ship skeletons remain, where once thriving whaling stations were, writes Adam Nicholson.

The abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia in the south Atlantic looks as if it has been bombed. Rusty steel chimneys lie collapsed across the roadways. Power plants and dormitory blocks lie half-smashed, their innards spilling out through the walls - cast-iron beds and baths, piping and wiring, cushions and mattresses all now leaking into the freezing air. Some of the huge steel cylinders of the whale oil tanks, 30ft high and 30ft across, have had their sides folded in, as if by a giant hand. But these are just the effects of time and the brutal winds of the Southern Ocean. It is not somewhere you would ever like to be alone. The winds that hurl off the mountains of this sub-Antarctic island, 800 miles east of the Falklands, on the same latitude as Cape Horn, make the whole place creak and groan. Rusted corrugated sheets screech against their fixings, doors slam open and shut, the ventilator cowls on the giant processor plants still turn in the wind as they have done since the place was finally abandoned and left to the elements in 1965. No-one is there now because Leith Harbour, like most of the other whaling stations on South Georgia, is strictly off-limits. The collapsing structures are too dangerous and the asbestos in which the whale processing machinery is still wrapped makes the enclosed places too toxic. The South Georgia government - this is one of Britain's few remaining overseas territories - had to give us permission to film in this breathtaking time-capsule of a forgotten way of British life. And we had to be accompanied by Tommy Moore, a Yorkshireman familiar with asbestos safety, and dressed in full protective gear. Pick your way through the buildings now and you find yourself in a forgotten world - mounds of harpoon heads lying rusted together, whale ribs and scapulae everywhere, abandoned tractors and rusted lathes. In the manager's villa, graffiti tells of Argentine joy in 1982 at recovering their own, every word of it covered with the unequivocal responses of the crews of Royal Navy ships who arrived a few weeks later. Snow clogs the doorways of the cinema where the whalers used to watch over and over again the few films they had, the dust-filled hall still filled with memories of Elizabeth Taylor and Deborah Kerr. The hospital still has unopened bottles of milk of magnesia and tins of Prickly Heat Powder on the shelves of its half-trashed pharmacy. Stinking fur seals lurk in the radio shack and among the overturned benches of the canteen. In the dormitories, the whalers' pin-ups still smile winsomely from the walls. Hidden in attic spaces you can find the bowls, ladles and tins of yeast with which the whalers made the fearsome hooch to console themselves on long winter evenings 8,000 miles from home. The whole place is a monument to a huge and massively destructive episode in British history. By the beginning of the 20th Century, whaling had virtually eliminated the stocks of whales in much of the northern hemisphere. Europe had a growing appetite for the oils that whales could provide - most of it for margarine and soap - and the vast stormy waters of the Southern Ocean beckoned, teeming with krill and with the whales that fed on it. Almost entirely fuelled by British finance, the whalers came south and embarked on a bonanza that lasted for two-thirds of the century. Individual whalers made the kind of money they could only have dreamed of at home. A young man returning to Shetland or the Hebrides in the 1950s after 18 months "at the ice" could buy a house, start a business or commission a fishing boat on his earnings. Christian Salvesen, the Edinburgh-based whaling company that built Leith Harbour, could hope in some years for 100% dividend on their investment. At the peak of the business in the 1920s, Salvesen's were making the equivalent £100m a year in profit in today's money. None of it was easily earned. The conditions were brutal. Ice often clogged the rigging and individual catching boats were known to founder in the steep seas of the southern ocean. Earnings were dependent on the number of whales caught and the skipper-gunners drove boats and crews relentlessly. When the enormous bodies of the whales were hauled ashore into the huge processing plants, an army of men got to work, working 12-hour shifts, stripping the blubber from the carcasses, "like peeling a banana", as the whalers all say, shovelling the meat into the giant cookers, cutting up the bones with enormous steam saws and boiling them up for the oil they contained. An entire whale, the size of a railway carriage, could be disposed of in 20 minutes. If newly caught, there were consolations: "You could warm your hands in the fresh blood," Jock Murray, a whaler from the Hebrides remembers. "If it was a week old, that was something else." It is difficult to recover the frame of mind in which the destruction of so many of the greatest animals on earth seemed like a good idea. About 1.6 million whales were killed in the Southern Ocean in about six decades. The whalers remain deeply ambivalent about it today. Many say they are proud to have done it but wouldn't do it now. There are other ways, largely through plant extracts, of getting equivalents of the oils once taken from the whales. But, as one of the whalers, John Alexander, says: "We thought we were doing some good for the country." They were garnering fats which Britain desperately needed, particularly in the years after World War Two. It was a difficult task, at which they became immensely skilled. And as boys from crofts or fishing families in marginal parts of Scotland, they were providing for themselves in a way little else could have. Even so, there is some pain in the memory. "When we killed the sei whales," Roddy Morrison, from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, remembers, "they used to make a noise, like a crying noise. They seemed so friendly, and they'd come round and they'd make a noise, and when you hit them, they cried really. "I didn't think it was really nice to do that. Everybody talked about it at the time I suppose, but it was money. At the end of the day that's what counted at the time. That's what we were there for." Britain's Whale Hunters: The Untold Story, presented by Adam Nicholson, is broadcast on BBC Four on Monday 9 June at 21:00 Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

एक समय में ब्रिटिश नाविक दक्षिणी गोलार्ध में व्हेलिंग उद्योग का एक बड़ा हिस्सा थे। एडम निकोलसन लिखते हैं कि अब केवल जंग लगने वाली इमारतें और जहाज के कंकाल बचे हैं, जहां कभी समृद्ध व्हेलिंग स्टेशन थे।


Guernsey school pool closure petition signed by nearly 1,000 people

Summary: A petition calling for a school swimming pool to remain open throughout the year has been handed to Guernsey's Education Department.

Hautes Capelles Primary School pool is due to shut for six months of the year as part of closures at most primary schools under cost-saving plans. Margaret Honey, who runs a swimming school, said it would damage children's swimming skills and ruin her business. The petition with 916 signatures was handed to the education minister. Last month the department announced the change to swimming pool opening times to save £100,000 a year. It is one of the savings identified by the department, which has been tasked with saving £7.2m by 2014 as part of the financial transformation programme, a States-wide savings project.

स्कूल स्विमिंग पूल को पूरे साल खुला रखने का आह्वान करने वाली एक याचिका ग्वेर्नसे के शिक्षा विभाग को सौंपी गई है।


How author Lee Child lost his job and found global success

Summary: Lee Child has had the kind of success most authors can only fantasise about. He's written 23 thrillers featuring American hero Jack Reacher - with total sales of at least 100 million copies worldwide. He's just been named author of the year at the British Book Awards. And if he hadn't lost his job in TV none of it would have happened.

By Vincent DowdArts reporter, BBC News Lee Child - born Jim Grant in Coventry in 1954 - says he grew up reading exactly what an average British boy would read in the 1960s. "I'm not one of these guys who claim they read Dostoevsky when they were seven. I started with Enid Blyton and then the Biggles books by Captain W.E. Johns and later it was Ian Fleming. Alistair MacLean probably made the biggest impression on me with stories like Where Eagles Dare. All very normal stuff for a kid of my generation. "Back then everything was so unstructured compared to the modern world of online book groups and suggestions for further reading. I sort of miss the chaotic days of random discovery." When he was four the family moved to Birmingham. After university in Sheffield Jim Grant worked at Granada TV in Manchester, making countless trails and writing presentation links. "Most media people have lived and worked in London but I never did." But as he neared 40 his job at Granada disappeared. He needed an income fast. Necessity proved the making of Lee Child, literally. "I had never tried to write anything of length," he says. "Often at Granada I was writing scripts of three or four words. I completely admire people who combine writing with a day job because that would have been very hard for me. The first Jack Reacher story (Killing Floor) was written in Kirby Lonsdale in Cumbria which is as far away from America as you can imagine." That first attempt began on 1 September and even now he always starts his annual round of writing on the same date. Jack Reacher is 6'5" tall and a man without ties: he wanders America as a sort of freelance righter of wrongs, bringing justice to a world where it's in short supply. Reacher's a former military policeman but has no permanent occupation. "In some ways he shouldn't appeal: he's a rough tough guy and he can be brutal. But there was always a sort of organic honesty about him which people liked." Reacher's adventures quickly found an audience. Child's evident mastery of what readers want has since bought him homes on Central Park West in Manhattan and in Wyoming. Even pre-Reacher did he always love the US and know he might one day live there? "The first time I went to America was 1974, 20 years before I started writing. I think what appealed was its size. You couldn't have a Jack Reacher who came from Surrey. I needed the vast, vast landscapes and the sense of lost, secret towns which no one has visited for years. It wouldn't work if Reacher came from Guildford. "Often people really only know the two coasts of America. But the interior truly fascinated me. Just occasionally an American will say why is this Brit trying to tell us about our country? Usually I find I've been to far more states than they have and I've listened more." But Child is also wary of too detailed research into the world he writes about. "You need to throw away 90%. The last story (Past Tense) was set in New Hampshire but I didn't research by going there: often it's more a memory of a place you visited years ago." The next Reacher book, Blue Moon, is set in an amalgam of two cities in south-east USA but he won't say which. "I have a sympathy for the places that are disregarded or left behind or forgotten. In America often that came about when the interstate highways were built in the 1950s and hundreds and hundreds of towns were just bypassed. They either dried up and blew away completely or sometimes they survive but just as a shell of their former selves. That can be where you find the fascinating stuff." He's not a political analyst but does he ever consider that the places Jack Reacher mainly visits tend now to make up the Trump-voting heartland? "I do sometimes comment on politics obliquely. Reacher's a tough character who will have an organic appeal for the Trump voter. I use him to poke and prod them a little bit. People in the American interior can have a complex about being there. "I've been travelling around America for 45 years and I've always loved it. I've come to the conclusion that the true split in America - socially, politically and in every way - is very basic. It's between areas of low population density and high population density. "My adopted state of Wyoming is the size of the UK but it probably has the population of Leicester. The two versions of America are so radically different that it really does explain the divide you see now in politics." Child says he wants to explain the attitudes of the people in the middle to the people on the US coasts. "But also the other way round because they never really see eye to eye. I've spoken to a lot of Americans and I listen wherever they are and whatever their politics. Almost always they're very generous people." There were two Reacher films, in 2012 and 2016, starring Tom Cruise. No follow-ups are planned although there's talk of a possible TV series with a different lead actor, possibly taller. The producers will need to dramatise on screen the scenes of harsh violence which form an essential part of the stories' success with readers. "People live with this low-level buzz of frustration, especially when it comes to crime and justice. In most places if your car gets stolen the police will never catch the guys. So people want to turn to fiction where there's a beginning and a middle and an end and absolutely the bad guys will get caught and punished. "People want order restored and they can't get it in the real world but they can get it in the fictional realm. It's a tremendous consolation and it's a big part of what Reacher does in the books." Lee Child is so productive that talking to him it's hard not to stray into his next book and the one after that. Blue Moon will appear in October but by then he'll already be at work on Reacher 25. "By August there should be an opening line in my mind or maybe even an opening paragraph. Then it's important to me to sit down on 1 September and start the actual writing: it gives a structure to my year which I think you need if you're self-employed. "Sometimes the story develops quite slowly and by January 2020 probably I'll be getting worried that I'm drying up and not enough is written. So I put myself under more pressure and tell myself it needs to be done by March. Though usually it becomes April. But sitting here in May 2019 genuinely I haven't the faintest idea where Jack Reacher will be or what he'll be doing next time." Though seeking justice for the disregarded or left behind or forgotten will surely be in there somewhere. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

ली चाइल्ड को उस तरह की सफलता मिली है जिसके बारे में अधिकांश लेखक केवल कल्पना ही कर सकते हैं। उन्होंने अमेरिकी नायक जैक रीचर की विशेषता वाली 23 रोमांचक फिल्में लिखी हैं-जिनकी दुनिया भर में कम से कम 10 करोड़ प्रतियां बिकीं। उन्हें ब्रिटिश बुक अवार्ड्स में वर्ष का सर्वश्रेष्ठ लेखक नामित किया गया है। और अगर उन्होंने टीवी में अपनी नौकरी नहीं खोई होती तो ऐसा कुछ भी नहीं होता।


Nigeria's Arik Air and aviation industry in disarray

Summary: The Nigerian government has announced a takeover of the country's biggest airline - Arik Air - to prevent it going bust. But this is just the latest example of problems in Nigeria's aviation industry, reports the BBC's Martin Patience from Lagos.

By Martin PatienceBBC News, Lagos The government agency (Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria) now responsible for supervising the airline said the decision was made to "instill sanity in the country's aviation sector and to prevent a major catastrophe." Customer service at Arik Air is at times non-existent. When the airline cancels a flight, most of the time its ground staff flee rather than deal with the fallout from irate passengers. As the company's troubles mounted at the end of last year, 70% of its international flights were delayed. The firm's staff bear the brunt for an airline that even by Nigerian standards is a byword for utter dysfunction. Last month the company was forced to issue a plea for passengers not to attack its employees. How to survive the chaos The government agency that pushed the airline into receivership reeled off an astonishing rap sheet of Arik's alleged offences - enormous debt, bad governance, and "erratic operational challenges." As Nigeria's biggest airline, the government decided that it could not allow the company to collapse. But to fly Arik often means never getting off the ground. I was at Enugu airport when I was told my flight was cancelled. The man beside me at the check-in desk just shook his head - all his flights had been cancelled for the past two days. To survive Nigerian air travel means coming up with new strategies. First, find the most reliable airline and stick with it. And, if possible, take the first flight in the morning as it's normally guaranteed to go on time (give or take an hour.) Delays become compounded throughout the day as most airlines operate a shuttle service. So a good bet is that a mid-afternoon flight will probably turn into early evening flight. Passengers normally only miss their flight if it actually leaves on time. Nobody wants to spend too much time at the airports here. Port Harcourt was named the world's worst in 2015. Generally speaking, though, I've always felt pretty safe on flights apart from after a rocky landing when several of the overhead luggage bins burst open. To be fair to the airlines, Nigeria is not the easiest place to operate. International carriers face huge issues repatriating their profits as they can't get their hands on dollars because of Nigeria's current economic crisis. The dollar shortage has also led to aviation fuel shortages causing massive disruption in the past few months. Capital's airport to close The latest major inconvenience facing the traveller to Nigeria is the closure of Abuja's airport for six weeks starting from next month while major repairs are carried out on its runway. At least one airline has damaged its landing gear on the pot-holed tarmac. With the capital's only airport shut down, the government is going to reroute flights to an airport in the nearby city of Kaduna. The small airport there currently handles just 300 passengers a day compared to the 5,000 who pass through Abuja's terminal. Many predict chaos. Travelling to the capital from Kaduna will also involve a two-hour journey along a road that has been hit by a spate of kidnappings. The government is promising to put on extra security. Unsurprisingly, several international airlines have already announced they will not being flying into Kaduna, although direct flights to Lagos, Kano or Port Harcourt will continue. There are, however, a few perks about air travel in Nigeria: Free snacks onboard; unbelievably cheap excess baggage and the fact that you can board with as much carry-on luggage as you can actually carry on. Also, during a year's travel in Nigeria, my bags have always arrived on time, which is more than I can say for British airports. And despite the immense frustrations, I frequently strike up conversations with complete strangers. Delayed Nigerians can make for great company while waiting at the airport.

नाइजीरियाई सरकार ने देश की सबसे बड़ी एयरलाइन-एरीक एयर-के अधिग्रहण की घोषणा की है ताकि इसे ध्वस्त होने से रोका जा सके। लेकिन लागोस से बीबीसी के मार्टिन पेशेंस की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, यह नाइजीरिया के विमानन उद्योग में समस्याओं का नवीनतम उदाहरण है।


Redcar jobs fair to aid steel workers

Summary: A jobs fair is being held on Teesside in a bid to help steel workers and contractors hit by the closure of the SSI plant find new employment.

The Thai-based owners have gone into liquidation, with the loss of 2,200 jobs at the Redcar site. There have also been knock-on job losses at contractors and suppliers. More than 30 employers are showcasing opportunities, with vacancies ranging from heavy industry to administration and logistics. Sue Soroczan, from Durham and Tees Valley Jobcentre Plus, said: "We've had a fantastic response from companies in the area and beyond. "They recognise that the SSI workforce have excellent skills that would be transferable to a range of jobs currently available."

एसएसआई संयंत्र के बंद होने से प्रभावित इस्पात श्रमिकों और ठेकेदारों को नया रोजगार खोजने में मदद करने के लिए टीसाइड पर एक रोजगार मेला आयोजित किया जा रहा है।


'Let's be honest about the NHS'

Summary: Three years ago, Nick Robinson was diagnosed with cancer. The operation that successfully removed the tumour in his lung damaged his vocal cords. On Tuesday, he will present a debate about the future of the NHS at it approaches its 70th anniversary.

Nick RobinsonPresenter, Today programme We can all delight in the fact NHS care is generally safer than in other systems - although the events at Gosport hospital are a reminder of the need not to be complacent - that it generally treats people with care and courtesy, is relatively cheap to run and gives the same level of care to rich and poor alike. What, though, about those "healthcare outcomes" that put us "near the bottom" of the league table? What, for example, about the illness I had - cancer? Cancer survival rates here are significantly lower than in other countries. This is true not just of lung cancer but of other big cancer killers - in the bowel, in the colon, the pancreas and the prostate. Indeed, in nine out of 10 cancers, the survival rates here are well below the European average. In bowel cancer, we are 17th in the league table. Put simply, put starkly, what that means is that tens of thousands of people with cancer survive for fewer years than they would if they lived in say Germany, France or the Netherlands. BBC's Nick Robinson to have tumour removed What will the NHS look like at 100? The history of the NHS in charts There have been great efforts to improve NHS cancer care. And some improvements are visible. The detection and treatment of breast cancer has become significantly better in recent years - but there is a long way to go. What's true of cancer is also true of the other big causes of death - heart attacks and strokes. When it comes to tackling the most serious illnesses, the NHS is very far from being the best in the world. "Aha," you might say, "surely the problem is obvious - money. We simply don't spend enough." It is certainly true that the NHS has been through the longest, tightest financial squeeze in its history. We spend less as a share of our national income on healthcare than they do in Germany or France. We employ fewer people to care for us than they do in many other countries. That is, no doubt, why the prime minister felt unable to resist the calls for a big boost to spending over the next five years. Yet it is also true that we spend more than, say, the Irish or the Spanish and that our poor "healthcare outcomes" existed and were known about long before the age of austerity. Yet in the decades I've been covering debates about the NHS, I have reported on endless rows about waiting times and waiting lists; on "reforms" and reorganisation; on allegedly secret plans to privatise the NHS but almost never on why it fails to keep people alive as well as other systems do. I was lucky There are, of course, no easy answers to that question. Resources and organisation are surely a factor. Lifestyle, diet and public attitudes to health must all count too. When it comes to cancer, it is even possible that one of the jewels in the NHS crown - the GP system - may slow down the process of getting people to see the specialists they need to see to get the tests and the treatment they need. I was very lucky. My cancer could have been diagnosed much later. International surveys suggest people in the UK are more likely to say their doctor knows about them and their health - but they also indicate the time we get to spend with our doctor is much shorter than elsewhere. I worry that as more and more GPs retire early and as the pressure on the system increases, that standard of care is bound to fall. On average, people now see their GP six times a year, which is twice as often 10 years ago. It is just one of the new pressures on the health service we will be examining in NHS at 70 - Live. We will look at the impact of an ageing population. In the past five years, the number of people aged over 85 has risen by almost a third. Their care costs on average five times more than that of someone under 30. We'll explore the increase in obesity. A staggering 63% of us are now officially classified as obese or overweight - including half of all NHS staff. Then there is the increased demand for mental health care - one in four adults now experiences a mental heath problem in their lifetime. I have much to be thankful for. The tumour in my lung was removed successfully. The damage to my vocal cords - which was a side-effect of the operation - almost robbed me of my voice. But another op and many many hours of therapy restored it so I could fulfil my career ambitions and become a presenter on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. Incidentally, my experience raises one more question we all too rarely discuss - should there be limits to what the NHS provides? When it came to getting my voice back, I had no choice but to pay for that therapy since there was no way the health service could - or, probably, should - have paid for the daily therapy sessions needed to get me back to work in weeks and not months. There will always be limits on what the system can afford. I have known for a very long time how superb the NHS can be but also that it has limitations. Car crash survivor As an 18-year-old, I was the sole survivor in a fatal car crash in France. I spent a week heavily sedated in a respiratory intensive care unit in Lille, unable to breathe for myself. When I pulled through and was sent home, I was treated and cared for by superb NHS doctors, nurses, physio- and occupational therapists, who got me back on my feet. I was also informed that I would have died if I'd had the same accident in Britain, as the facilities in France were simply better than the ones we had. So, I'll be joining with all those wishing the NHS a happy 70th birthday next week. I'm aware there'll be parties and even religious services to celebrate the birth of one of Britain's best-loved institutions. I know that no politician with any hope of high office will dare to declare anything other than love for it and will insist that it's the best of British. However, the birthday gift the health service deserves as it turns three score years and 10 is not just warm words or even the promise of more cash. It is an open, honest, clear-headed diagnosis of its strengths and, yes, its weaknesses too. That and a national conversation about how those who care for us can help more people live longer healthier lives. Nick Robinson will be presenting NHS at 70 - Live, on BBC Two, on Tuesday at 20:00 BST.

तीन साल पहले, निक रॉबिन्सन को कैंसर का पता चला था। उसके फेफड़े में ट्यूमर को सफलतापूर्वक हटाने वाले ऑपरेशन ने उसके स्वर तंत्र को क्षतिग्रस्त कर दिया। मंगलवार को, वह एन. एच. एस. की 70वीं वर्षगांठ के करीब आने पर उसके भविष्य के बारे में एक बहस प्रस्तुत करेगा।


Cannes 2019: Could streaming really cancel cinema?

Summary: The future state of cinema has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in sun-drenched Cannes this week, during what jury president Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu described as a "crucial" stage for the "collective film experience".

By Paul GlynnEntertainment reporter at the Cannes Film Festival For the second year running, movies by streaming giant Netflix are notable by their absence, as talks remain ongoing between the studio and the festival about its commitment to theatrical releases. French cultural laws dictate films considered for the esteemed Palme d'Or prize cannot be streamed within three years of competing and this unwavering stance caused Cannes to miss out on hosting the Oscar-winning Roma last year - as Netflix took the film to Venice for its premiere instead. Prior to this year's event, festival director Thierry Frémaux declared: "We are not ready to welcome films that are not released in a theatre" and his passion for the preservation of the big screen experience - amidst a sea of readily available online content - was echoed on Tuesday by Inarritu who praised the "communal experience" of cinema. However, the filmmaker remains upbeat that cinemas and streamers can work together to find a better solution. "There are great films all around the world," he said, "the thing is the way they are accessed by everybody. "France is an exception that they protect [cinemas] but I always ask how many of these films that we will see over the next 10 days will be exhibited around the world? "I am a true believer that to watch a film is not to see a film, and to see [something] is not to experience something, and cinema was born to be experienced as a communal experience." He continued: "I do not have anything against watching on a phone, on an iPad or a computer; I sometimes do it myself with my headphones and I can enjoy. "But I know that to watch a film there, is not the same." Inarritu - who won an Oscar for the sweeping survival tale The Revenant in 2016 - added: "I was saying the other day to a friend, if somebody 200 years from now should come alive and should see me listening to Beethoven in ridiculous speakers in my car, I would say 'yeah, it's great, what is wrong with that?' "But it would be disastrous if there was not an opportunity to hear a whole 100 person orchestra playing in a concert hall. "It's great that they [Netflix, Amazon et al] exist in TV but why not give people the chance to experience cinema?" Blockbusters One thing people in Cannes will not be able to experience this year, is the premiere of Martin Scorsese's new film, The Irishman - starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The Netflix-backed film would have been one of the biggest draws at this year's festival had an agreement been in place, although reports suggest it might not have been ready in time. Scorsese has praised the streaming giant for affording him the "money" and freedom" to tell the story. Other directors, though, including Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino - who arrives next week with his new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - appear more loyal to the Cannes cause and less keen to make "TV movies". Imax CEO Richard Gelfond is doing nicely out of cinema and told the BBC streaming companies, which will soon include Apple+, Disney and Warner, might struggle to attract top filmmakers. "I don't want to sound arrogant," he said, "but there really hasn't been an Imax-worthy film released by a streaming service until now. "I think that they'll continue to [move into blockbusters] but they're a long way away." "The biggest directors are reluctant to make a blockbuster for streaming," he added. Gelfond has been toasting the recent success of the record-busting Avengers: Endgame movie. Imax screenings of the MCU finale broke through the $200m mark. The chain's next move is to team up with Amazon studios to debut The Aeronauts, directed by Tom Harper and starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, on Imax screens exclusively for a week in October. The movie mogul suggests the success of the Avengers films in theatres globally "bodes well" for another concluding "event-driven" big-hitter, Star Wars, as audiences still want "to feel like they're inside the movie". "To get people off the couch you've got to give them something different," he declared. But he predicts the future for mid-budget movies will generally be away from the traditional major studios and "increasingly on to streaming platforms", as the industry adapts to the new technological era. Netflix screened Roma in US movie theatres in order to it qualify for the Academy Awards and Gelfond argues that "once the [Cannes three year] window issue resolves itself" there is no reason why films made for online can't include "theatrical screenings" on release. He's also hopeful that an Imax movie can one day win a Palme d'Or, claiming that Christopher Nolan's 2017 war epic, Dunkirk, was unlucky in that regard. 'Boutique on a world scale' Away from the glamour of the Oscars and Cannes' official selection, filmmakers from around the world can be found in the basement of the Palais Des Festivals, showing off their wares to potential buyers and distributors. Chantal Toporow from House of Film - "a boutique distributor on a world scale" as she puts it - believes the value of a theatre showing for a small film anywhere is worth much more than being included on a streaming service. "We make movies with a twist and more cerebral curated content," she said. "You're not monetising your film as best as you can only by streaming. "You really want to get as many theatrical releases as you can, in Cambodia or wherever." Whether her movies and those of many other filmmakers of the future will be able to find a home in cinemas, online and in competition at Cannes in the near future, remains to be seen. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

जूरी के अध्यक्ष अलेजैंड्रो गोंजालेज इनारितु ने "सामूहिक फिल्म अनुभव" के लिए एक "महत्वपूर्ण" चरण के रूप में वर्णित किया, इस सप्ताह धूप से भीगे कान में सिनेमा की भविष्य की स्थिति सबसे गर्म-बहस वाले विषयों में से एक रही है।