A curious British airship experiment

Summary: Britain was seen to lag behind other countries during the global airship-building race of the 1920s and 1930s. But a quirky scientific experiment 85 years ago briefly gave a boost to the image of the giant aircraft.

By Justin ParkinsonBBC News Magazine As airship R100 crossed the Atlantic on its maiden voyage, the captain stuck his arm out of the window. In his rubber-gloved hand was a round piece of glass. Every three hours during the trip from England to Canada, Squadron Leader Ralph Sleigh Booth, or another member of the 44-man crew, repeated the action, for five minutes at a time. A couple of thousand feet below, a passenger on a steam ship heading in the same direction, Lester Dillon Weston, watched with great interest through a telescope pushed through his porthole. Booth was carrying out an experiment aimed at ensuring the human race could continue to feed itself. The piece of glass was a Petri dish designed to pick up spores released by a fungus known as wheat rust, which had destroyed large areas of crops in North America. Cambridge University scientist Dillon Weston - a man with a passion for aviation - was keen to find out whether spores could cross the Atlantic. He decided to use airships, still at the experimental stage as passenger craft, to aid his research. "It wasn't just Dillon Weston who benefited from this," says Ruth Horry, a researcher at Cambridge University's history and philosophy of science department. "People were suffering a sort of airship fatigue in Britain. The government had spent lots of money on developing them and nothing seemed to be coming out of it. "So the fact they could be used to aid scientific endeavour was very useful for publicity. That's why the captain took part in the experiment. It was excellent PR." Airships, quiet but huge, had not always been popular with Britons. Germany had used them to drop bombs on Britain during World War One. After one was shot down over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, in 1916, the pilot responsible, William Leefe Robinson, was awarded £3,500 and a Victoria Cross. In contrast, after the war, the government became involved in efforts to turn airships into luxurious passenger craft, able to compete with ocean liners and linking the British Empire more quickly. It was envisaged that they could get from England to Australia in 10 days, India in six and Canada in three. Cruising speeds were lower than those for aeroplanes but during this era using the latter was expensive and involved many stop-offs. "The public was pretty much in favour of airships," says airship historian Dan Grossman. "I don't think people were tired of them by 1930 but maybe that there was a sense that the British effort could move on a bit quicker." Other countries' programmes had resulted in tales of bravery which enthralled the public. In 1926, the airship Norge became the first aircraft to reach the North Pole, on an expedition organized by Norwegian Roald Amundsen and American Lincoln Ellsworth. Germany's LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin had made a five-stage flight around the world in 1929, amid huge press coverage - unsurprising as media mogul William Randolph Hearst was the tour's major backer. Airship disasters The 720ft-long R100, built by Vickers at Howden, East Yorkshire, set off from Cardington, Bedfordshire, in July 1930. Its inflated volume was more than five million cubic feet and its construction involved 58,200ft of tubing and five million rivets. Its opulent design included a double staircase leading down to the dining room, flanked by panoramic windows, and a two-tier promenade deck. It could carry 100 passengers, sleeping in bunk beds, and had a nautical theme, with the use of portholes as windows. The official brochure described the R100 as like a "small hotel" and "intermediate in comfort between a Pullman coach and ocean liner". Costing about £450,000 to build and run, the maiden voyage coincided with Dillon Weston's trip to Canada for a year-long study of the effects of fungi on crops. Dillon Weston persuaded those in charge of Sqn Ldr Booth's mission to assist his experiment. As a former member of the Cambridge University Air Squadron, he had previously badgered friends to fly around Cambridgeshire in planes to test his Vaseline-coated collection dishes. His involvement in the R100 voyage was timely for the government, as it gave it an added note of practicality. "Devastating yet invisible plant diseases were an important enemy to conquer and new aviation technologies were vital in winning the war against them," says Horry. "Newspaper coverage of the time showed that the scientist who chased invisible diseases captured both tiny spores and the imagination of the public. 'Disease germs two miles up - flying scientists chase them,' declared one newspaper." "No plane would have been able to carry the equipment needed for any scientific expedition across the Atlantic at that stage, so the airship was vital," says Grossman. Dillon Weston watched some of the flight from below, but the 64mph cruising speed of the R100 was far greater than that of the Ausonia, on which he sailed. The R100 took just over three days to travel from Bedfordshire to Montreal, where 100,000 people came to see it. The Toronto Star newspaper christened it a "wonder airship" and the Manchester Evening News called it a "beautiful sight, the sun glinting brilliantly" on its hull. The R100 was nicknamed the "capitalist airship" because a private firm had built it, while its sister ship, the R101, became known as the "socialist airship", having been constructed by the Air Ministry, although both were to transport only wealthy travellers. The R101, despite the proximity of millions of cubic feet of hydrogen, had a smoking room on the lower deck. The floor and ceiling were made of light asbestos. When he arrived in Canada, Dillon Weston collected the Petri dishes to analyse, for what he thought was the start of a series of experiments. But this was not what happened. On 5 October 1930, the R101 crashed near Beauvais, northern France, en route to Karachi. The hydrogen ignited, killing 48 of the 55 passengers and crew. Among them were aviation minister Lord Thomson of Cardington, who had pushed for the government to promote airship building, and his valet. Grossman feels Thomson was partly to blame for demanding the R101's launch before sufficient testing. Having arranged an official dinner at the planned stop-off point in Ismalia, Egypt, Thomson decided against refuelling there, to avoid eating amid noxious smells. This meant overfilling the balloon, Grossman argues, meaning more rubbing on girders and hydrogen leakages. Thomson also reportedly brought a 129lb carpet and two cases of champagne, weighing 52lbs, on board. The crash was a PR disaster, with pictures of the site splashed across newspapers and survivors appearing fully bandaged in photographs. The British Airships Scheme was abandoned with what the historian Nick le Neve Walmsley has called "extraordinary haste", with the R100 being scrapped. Manned airships programmes largely ended after the German Hindenburg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in May 1937, with the loss of 35 of those on board. Dillon Weston, who died in 1952, used a Bunsen burner to create glass models of the spores he analysed, which can be seen at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. He never wrote his full report, not considering the evidence gained from the R100 conclusive on the movements of wheat rust spores. But Horry has used flight papers, telegrams, family letters and newspaper reports to re-trace his journey. Although Dillon Weston's experiment was never repeated, Horry believes its "piggy-backing" spirit continues in Nasa's gathering of peripheral scientific data on its missions. "It sounds brave to stick an arm out of an airship window," she says. "But really, like going into space, the brave thing was flying the airship in the first place." More from the Magazine The longest aircraft in the world has been unveiled at an airfield in Cardington, England, from where the great airships of the 1920s flew. The world's longest aircraft in the making (February 2014) Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

1920 और 1930 के दशक में वैश्विक हवाई जहाज निर्माण की दौड़ के दौरान ब्रिटेन को अन्य देशों से पीछे देखा गया था। लेकिन 85 साल पहले एक विचित्र वैज्ञानिक प्रयोग ने कुछ समय के लिए विशाल विमान की छवि को बढ़ावा दिया।


Thieves use digger to take Market Deeping Co-op cash machine

Summary: Thieves using a digger have ripped a supermarket cash machine out of a wall and escaped with its contents.

The raid happened in the early hours of Wednesday at the Co-op store in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. Police are looking through CCTV footage, while forensic officers examine the scene. Officers, who are appealing for witnesses to contact them, believe two or three people were involved and left the scene in a car.

चोरों ने एक खुदाई करने वाले का उपयोग करके एक सुपरमार्केट कैश मशीन को एक दीवार से बाहर निकाल दिया और उसकी सामग्री के साथ भाग गए।


In quotes: Reaction to Jeremy Thorpe's death

Summary: Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg

Politicians and commentators react to the news that former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe has died aged 85 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. "Jeremy Thorpe's leadership and resolve were the driving force that continued the Liberal revival that began under Jo Grimond. Jeremy oversaw some of the party's most famous by-election victories and his involvement with the anti-apartheid movement and the campaign for Britain's membership of the common market were ahead of his time." Lord Steel of Aikwood, who succeeded Mr Thorpe as leader "He had a genuine sympathy for the underprivileged - whether in his beloved North Devon where his first campaign was for 'mains, drains and a little bit of light' or in Africa, where he was a resolute fighter against apartheid and became a respected friend of people like President Kaunda of Zambia." Former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Nick Harvey, who represents Mr Thorpe's former constituency of North Devon "Jeremy Thorpe was a colossal figure in the revival of the Liberal cause in post-war Britain and today's Lib Dem politicians continue to feast on his legacy. His charisma, energy and innovative campaigning lit up his generation of British politics. He was the first to embrace fully the television age, the first to hit the campaign trail in a helicopter and both the first and, rather memorably, the last to deploy a hovercraft. "He would have shone in whatever walk of life he chose, but it was to the lasting benefit of Liberalism that he rejected the Conservatism of his ancestors and devoted himself to progressive causes at home and abroad. In North Devon he was a greatly loved champion of the community and is remembered with huge affection to this day." Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell "Jeremy Thorpe's enforced resignation as leader of the Liberal Party and his subsequent departure from Parliament should not obscure the fact that in his day he was an outstanding parliamentarian with a coruscating wit, and a brilliant campaigner on the stump whose interest and warmth made him a firm favourite with the public." Greg Hands, deputy government chief whip and Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham tweets: "One of my earliest political memories was of Jeremy Thorpe arriving to campaign where I lived in Looe, on a hovercraft on the beach, 1974." Michael Crick, political correspondent for Channel 4 News tweets: "Jeremy Thorpe had been top TV reporter in '50s, early '60s for ITV's "This Week". Big intvs w Kenneth Kaunda, King Hussein, Hastings Banda" Businessman Roland Rudd tweets: "Jeremy Thorpe also remembered as incredible showman using hovercraft in campaign and photographed hurdling fence on eve of feb 74 election."

उप प्रधान मंत्री और लिबरल डेमोक्रेट नेता निक क्लेग


Paul Roberts: How he taught Harry Styles his gloom-busting Kindness moves

Summary: When the Harry Styles video for Treat People With Kindness was released it became an immediate hit. Its choreographer Paul Roberts had created dances for One Direction - though with 1D there was no Phoebe Waller-Bridge to consider. So how did Roberts combine the two stars' talents to create the energy-lift which people have been craving in the Covid gloom?

By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC News Styles' video for Treat People with Kindness came out on New Year's Day - though it was shot in London in February 2020. Choreographer Roberts had worked often with Styles in the One Direction years. Roberts says the timing of the shoot, at the art deco Troxy in Stepney, east London, turned out to be fortuitous. "We had a great time but we didn't know how lucky we were. Looking back it was about three weeks before the world started to burn. Maybe that's partly why people are loving it now - the video has such a carefree sense to it." Roberts has had 20 years as one of the UK's most in-demand commercial choreographers. He created dances for the 2019 Spice World tour and has worked with everyone from Katy Perry to Sir Paul McCartney. He devised work for the dance group BalletBoyz and, as well as stage work, he choreographed One Direction in videos such as Kiss You, Steal My Girl and Best Song Ever. "So when Harry got in touch to say he wanted me for a new video it was a thrill. The only definite thing was it would be a song from the album Fine Line - but we didn't even know which song would be chosen." With One Direction, Roberts spent six years working with a hugely successful boy band whose members insisted dance would never become a major part of the act. 'Waiting for 10 years' Wasn't that a choreographer's nightmare? "It was always really interesting working with One Direction. I knew very early on that there was a magic about them and I could see they had other skill-sets aside from being this very good-looking five-piece - and then four-piece - band. "In personal moments you got to see them flourish. They'd mess around doing silly dance moves but I'd think, 'Actually if you wanted to dance really well you sure as hell could do it.' "So when Harry contacted me and we spoke about doing a video with a lot of dance I was like, 'Well I've been waiting 10 years for this.'" Styles knew he wanted Phoebe Waller-Bridge to have an equal presence. "I believe Harry went to see Phoebe in the West End when she had her success with Fleabag. They went out to dinner and got on really well. That's when Harry started to think how they could work together in some way." Before shooting began there was a five-week rehearsal period - far more generous than most projects ever get. But a lot of the time Styles and Waller-Bridge weren't in the same room or indeed country. "I was with Harry in a dance studio in London and we had all kinds of music to try out from modern alternative stuff to old school big band and Glenn Miller. We were exploring. Only on the third day did we begin to apply what we'd done specifically to the Treat People With Kindness track. "Meanwhile Phoebe was in Canada working on the James Bond script. But fortunately I had a brilliant assistant on the project called Jared Hageman so Jared flew out to work with Phoebe. And eventually Harry needed to be in LA so I went there. "He was amazingly devoted to the whole thing. He'd be shooting the Watermelon Sugar promo in Malibu and they'd wrap at 8pm but he'd get in a car and come to the studio and we'd rehearse moves until gone midnight." Roberts says by then it was clear the choreography would at least nod to the Hollywood of an earlier age. 'Dance language' "The directors Ben and Gabe Turner sent me a link to a black and white movie from 1943 called Stormy Weather. There is a justly famous sequence in it with the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, called Jumpin' Jive. "I think it's the greatest dance-sequence ever filmed and Gabe and Ben and Harry all wanted our video to have some of the same feel. "I think in Harry's head he wanted to push himself to the absolute limit of what he was capable of. We were never talking about just an average soft-shoe shuffle. "So the reality was that I and Jared would talk constantly and exchange material from thousands of miles part. And of course Phoebe and Harry would also pitch in ideas. "We wanted to find a dance language that would take things as far as we could possibly go with Phoebe and Harry, without it becoming comedic. "Actually my big worry was practical - that they'd both start out with massive energy but that as the weeks progressed you'd have these two incredibly busy people with no time for everything needed to make the project special. But neither would give up, not for a moment." Nostalgia for better times He says it was important the dancing had a contemporary edge as well. "Harry and Phoebe are modern artists and very intelligent. They're fashion forward-thinking. "I find that once you've stopped giving artists their steps it's often quite nice to step back and just watch how they interpret the music. Sometimes little gems can be grabbed and put into the mix. "It was discovered very early on that both Harry and Phoebe had huge potential. The delight came from their energy combined with the talent of the film-makers plus the extended period of time we had to rehearse. "I work in a world where budgets have shrunk considerably so it was a big investment for managements and Harry's label." Roberts remembers the two stars finally came together for little more than the last week of the project, including the shoot. But there was still time to bring in a ballet dancer to give guidance on "port de bras" - how to hold your shoulders or extend an arm gracefully. "Harry and Phoebe are both decent and generous beings. So we all kept it fun, despite the blood, sweat and tears which had gone into the preparation. "When finally we were together they could layer on little side-eyed glances or maybe some tiny movement of the face which the camera would pick up. Above all we wanted a sense of style [no pun intended] and panache." He says the fact most of us feel a real lack of either style or panache in our lives has given Treat People With Kindness an impact as a video it might not otherwise have had. "The whole thing has a nostalgia for a time where you could be in a club and socialise with friends with no social distancing. I think the chemistry Harry and Phoebe have together just oozes joy. And for most people joy is in short supply."

जब ट्रीट पीपल विद काइंडनेस के लिए हैरी स्टाइल्स का वीडियो जारी किया गया तो यह तुरंत हिट हो गया। इसके कोरियोग्राफर पॉल रॉबर्ट्स ने वन डायरेक्शन के लिए नृत्य बनाए थे-हालांकि 1डी के साथ विचार करने के लिए कोई फोबे वालर-ब्रिज नहीं था। तो रॉबर्ट्स ने दोनों सितारों की प्रतिभा को ऊर्जा-लिफ्ट बनाने के लिए कैसे जोड़ा जो लोग कोविड की निराशा में तरस रहे हैं?


50 lodges at Rossnowlagh Orange Order parade

Summary: About 50 Orange Order lodges have taken part in the annual parade in the County Donegal village of Rossnowlagh.

The march comes before the annual 12 July celebrations in Northern Ireland, marking the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Orangemen from Northern Ireland took part in the parade. They were joined by lodges from Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan and the host county, all in the Republic of Ireland. The demonstration made its way along a one-mile route starting just outside the village, before a religious service at the field.

रोसनोलाघ के काउंटी डोनेगल गाँव में लगभग 50 ऑरेंज ऑर्डर लॉज ने वार्षिक परेड में भाग लिया है।


Who gains from Kenya's ICC cases?

Summary: Six Kenyan politicians accused of links to the violence which followed the 2007 elections are to appear at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Some Kenyans have been lobbying for the case to be deferred. As Kenyan analyst Gitau Warigi writes for the BBC Focus on Africa magazine, this has more do to with politics than justice

The ICC tug-of-war has provoked another savage bout of infighting within Kenya's shaky coalition government. The Kibaki wing of the coalition, the Party of National Unity (PNU), is spearheading the deferral campaign and has even instigated a motion in parliament to have Kenya withdraw entirely from the Rome Statute, the treaty that underpins the ICC. President Mwai Kibaki is entirely fixated with the predicament of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta. He is also worried about the case of his closest confidante Francis Muthaura, a secretary to the cabinet and that of the former police commissioner, Hussein Ali. The case against these three is that they organised retaliatory attacks against the initial perpetrators of the massacres. Overall, the violence left 1,200 people dead and more than 500,000 homeless. The rival Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) faction, led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is pulling in the opposite direction and has insisted the country's obligations to the Rome Statute be upheld. Justice unserved Whatever the debate, this is in fact about politics rather than justice and it is threatening to destroy the political settlement that ended Kenya's post-election crisis. Mr Kenyatta and William Ruto, the former higher education minister who has also been summoned to The Hague, have been saying they will be candidates in the 2012 presidential election when Mr Kibaki's tenure comes to an end. An indictment by the ICC would almost certainly end these ambitions. The foremost beneficiary would be Mr Odinga, already being prejudged by opinion polls as the 2012 presidential frontrunner. Yet the ICC matter is hurting the ODM leader almost as much. It has intensified the long-running feud between Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto. Those who are backing Mr Ruto have been driven into a marriage of convenience with the PNU, and specifically Mr Kenyatta, with the sole intention of stopping the prime minister's political ambitions dead in their tracks. Improbable as it sounds, a whispering campaign that Mr Odinga somehow wrote the list of targets for Mr Ocampo, is spreading among both Mr Kenyatta's and Mr Ruto's core supporters. The other silent beneficiary of the ICC ruckus is Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, but he has opted to play his cards more tactfully than his bitter foe Mr Odinga. With an eye on 2012, he has deliberately chosen to be the face of the government's anti-ICC campaign. By doing this Mr Musyoka is making a critical investment, drawing on potential supporters in the areas that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto control. The expectation is that he will reap the rewards come election time. If indeed the ICC was to put Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto out of political circulation, then Mr Musyoka may be looked upon kindly for his efforts. So far, the question of his sincerity is being delicately side-stepped. What is beyond doubt is that if this previously implausible alliance between Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Musyoka ends up fronting a joint candidate - who the vice-president fervently hopes will be himself - the numbers they can call up would easily overwhelm Mr Odinga. Already, that is apparent in parliament where the ODM's dominance has been eroded with the defection of Mr Ruto's allies. Political backfire The person who could end up paying the highest price over the ICC imbroglio is Mr Kibaki himself. He is the person whom victims of the violence look to for restitution and justice. Mr Kibaki's uncharacteristically unsubtle campaign to forestall any ICC trials has left the victims pained and disillusioned. More so as they see the president hobnobbing with characters like Mr Ruto in whose area most of the violence and destruction was carried out. Meanwhile, the ICC business remains unfinished, with Mr Ocampo suggesting that the court's decision on indictments could come very soon. Kenya's lobbying has gone a notch higher to target UN Security Council members. However, there is no guarantee the council will heed Kenya's and the AU's deferral request. Under ICC rules, a deferral is allowed if a state party guarantees that it has established a credible and independent judicial process to try the crimes in question. The state party must also demonstrate that it is singularly committed to prosecuting those crimes. Kenya has yet to demonstrate a commitment on either front. If anything, attempts to create a special tribunal to try the cases arising from the post-election mayhem have failed twice in the Kenyan parliament. Gitau Warigi is a political columnist with the Sunday Nation newspaper and an online editor with africareview.com

2007 के चुनावों के बाद हुई हिंसा से जुड़े होने के आरोप में छह केन्याई राजनेताओं को हेग में अंतर्राष्ट्रीय आपराधिक अदालत में पेश होना है। कुछ केन्याई मामले को स्थगित करने के लिए पैरवी कर रहे हैं। जैसा कि केन्याई विश्लेषक गीताउ वारिगी ने बीबीसी फोकस ऑन अफ्रीका पत्रिका के लिए लिखा है, इसका न्याय से ज्यादा राजनीति से लेना-देना है।


Drug rooms: Admirers eye Copenhagen model

Summary: As a senior police official in northern England calls for safe rooms for the injection of hard drugs, attention has focused on similar projects around Europe. County Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg points to an experiment in Copenhagen, which Danish police say has saved lives and helped clean up drug-ridden districts.

By Maddy SavageBBC News, Copenhagen The harsh Danish winter has yet to set in but Louise Hultman has just pulled on a thick, woolly hat. "I haven't washed my hair for days, it looks horrible," she says. "Life is difficult when every moment is about getting your next fix." The 23-year-old has been taking hard drugs since she was 15 and says she steals to fund her addiction to heroin and cocaine. But these days she injects inside one of Copenhagen's so-called drug consumption rooms, where she can access sterile needles and get help from nurses if anything goes wrong. Addicts shoot up from inside individual booths spread along a spotless metal bench. They bring their own drugs, which remain illegal in Denmark, but police in this neighbourhood, Vesterbro, no longer prosecute them for possession. "I feel ashamed when I shoot up on the streets. If somebody passes by, they should not see my problem," says Louise, her eyes glazed following her most recent drug dose. "So it's great we have somewhere to go now. And I feel safer here," she adds. A clean environment Copenhagen is home to the biggest, most open drug scene in Scandinavia, with up to 8,000 users concentrated in a 2.5km radius. The capital's first drug consumption room launched a year ago, following a change in national legislation. It is funded by the city council, which spent more than a decade lobbying the government for permission to launch the project. A second room opened in August 2013 and a third is planned for Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city. "We are providing a clean environment for long-term addicts and we have found that they are now much more likely to access other health services in the area," says Ivan Christensen, who manages the drug rooms in Copenhagen. He says it is impossible to know how many lives have been saved by the project, but there has not been a single death on the premises, despite more than 100 overdoses. "Two of my best friends died this year because they weren't near a room like this," says Ms Hultman. Safer streets Vesterbro is the city's former meat-packing area and is now its red light district. The largest drug room is tucked behind a homeless shelter scrawled with graffiti and opposite a bar boasting to be one of the world's best strip clubs. But like Hackney in east London or Berlin's formerly communist Mitte, this neighbourhood has quickly become a hub for young creative people and some of the Danish capital's hippest bars. Police believe the drug consumption rooms are crucial to help clean up the area as it becomes increasingly gentrified. They say the amount of drug-related litter on the cobbled streets has reduced tenfold over the past year, there are fewer street fights between addicts and there has been a drop in burglaries in the area. "You have to find new ways to deal with drug addicts. You can't succeed by putting them into jail," argues Deputy Chief Superintendent Kaj Majlund. "You have to have a dialogue with these junkies and get them into the drug rooms so they can get help." Domino effect Denmark is not the first country to launch drug consumption rooms. Switzerland pioneered the idea in the 1980s and since then others have opened in Germany, Spain, Norway, Canada and Australia. Trials have also taken place in three parts of the UK: London, Brighton and County Durham. Brighton City Council will vote on whether to introduce a permanent project in 2014. Commissioner Ron Hogg in County Durham wants his region to go even further, supplying "safe heroin" for addicts rather than make them bring their own. Deputy Chief Superintendent Kaj Majlund says he is happy to pass on his number if other places want advice. "I would say try it, try it, try it and you will see that it helps," he smiles. Conservative critics But not everyone is convinced by the concept. "Yes the addicts are no longer out on the streets confronting tourists or children," says Peter Buurskov, who runs a hotel a few streets away from the main drug district. "On the other hand these rooms keep people in the system because they are surrounded by other addicts." It is this kind of voter that the city's opposition Conservative party leader, Rasmus Jarlov, is hoping to attract when he stands in mayoral elections next month. He worries that in the longer term consumption rooms will increase drug dealing in the area and encourage more people to shoot up. "We all want to help the drug addicts of Copenhagen but we think that maybe we should use the resources on getting them out of drugs instead of providing facilities where they continue to take drugs and a zone where police cannot enforce the drug laws," he argues. The road home Back at the consumption room in Vesterbro, manager Ivan Christensen stresses that his staff are developing a rapport with long-term users who previously had no access to support services for addicts and says he has noticed a "growing interest" in rehabilitation programmes. Ms Hultman is amongst those on the waiting list; she is hoping to get a place in Sweden, where her family lives. But other addicts say that they will continue to take drugs, no matter how much time or money is spent on programmes designed to help them. "I don't have the balls to get into rehab," says Fransesco Raccio, 37, who started using when he was at boarding school. "It's very hard, it takes a lot of courage, you have to be 100% sure and you have to do it for yourself and not for anybody else. I tried that once and it didn't work." "I understand the critics, but in the end if people want to do drugs they will do drugs. Why not help us with these rooms, which are a better place for us?"

जैसा कि उत्तरी इंग्लैंड में एक वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधिकारी ने कठोर दवाओं के इंजेक्शन के लिए सुरक्षित कमरों की मांग की है, ध्यान यूरोप के आसपास इसी तरह की परियोजनाओं पर केंद्रित है। काउंटी डरहम की पुलिस और अपराध आयुक्त रॉन हॉग कोपनहेगन में एक प्रयोग की ओर इशारा करते हैं, जिसके बारे में डेनिश पुलिस का कहना है कि इसने लोगों की जान बचाई है और नशीली दवाओं से ग्रस्त जिलों को साफ करने में मदद की है।


States, debt, nationalisation and money

Summary: Imagine you got a bargain. You bought a £1m house for £100,000. And imagine you get a great deal on the mortgage. It's only a tiny portion of your disposable income. Anyone hearing that would think you'd done well.

Chris CookPolicy editor, Newsnight@xtophercookon Twitter Anyone except an official from a finance ministry. All around the world, governments use a particular way of thinking about debt. If they applied it to our story, they would see the £100,000 debt and the flow of payments to service the mortgage. But they would not notice you had a £1m asset and were living in a cavernous house rather than a tiny flat. That is the consequence of a focus on a particular sort of net debt and the deficit. Governments have a way of thinking that focuses on cash-flows and liabilities. Debts and assets But a new IMF report, released today, has pointed out that this focus - which misses the benefit of non-financial assets - can be extremely misleading. The Japanese state, for example, looks like a global laggard if you just look at debt - it has debt three times its national output. But because it owns a lot of stuff, the aggregate fiscal position is a lot better. It has a big mortgage. They also have a lot to show for it. Conversely, Germany has little debt, but also little stuff to offset it. (Norway, which has a huge fund of oil money salted away, is in clover.) Britain's debt looks like a bigger problem when you consider that our government owns relatively little to offset it. Of the states they analysed, only Portugal has a worse overall position, relative to the size of their economy. This is not the only thing worth considering: Russia's apparent solvency on this measure is a rather rosy way of presenting its current state. And there are risks to states owning a lot of stuff: if our state still owned Pickfords removals, would you trust it not to make regulation work better for them than other removers? They could end up dampening competition, which can lead to poor outcomes for consumers. And the state can be a bad owner: if it is politicians who decide on what gets investment, politics can make it difficult to get money into things. Our railways, under nationalisation, were not renowned for being a growing network crawling with slick new locomotives. Slightly odd accounting Our Treasury has tended to take the view that it should seek to minimise the complexity of its balance sheet. It dislikes holding onto assets that it could sell - even if that means selling things at a steep discount, For example, it loses money when it sells tranches of the student loan book. But this is rarely recognised: the slightly odd way we do public sector accounting means that even if I take a £100bn asset and sell it for £10bn, it shows up in the accounts as a £10bn windfall. The real effect - a net loss of £90bn - is disguised. Conversely, if the state buys up private assets - as Labour has proposed - then our official national accounts will turn blood-red because we will need to issue debt to buy out the current owners. But that is because we ignore the assets: so long as the Treasury pays a fair price we will really be exchanging, say, £100bn of government debt for £100bn of shares. There are strange consequences to our aversion to holding public assets. The government is keen, for example, for hospitals to shed extra land they have nearby. Sell it and use the money to build, they say. This is also a bet that we will not be desperate for land adjacent to large hospitals for expansion in the next few decades. A bold punt - and one we took without much thought for decades ahead. Governments could learn a lot from what people ask when they hear from friends who are first-time buyers: they are more interested in the house than the mortgage. You can watch Newsnight on BBC 2 weekdays 22:30 or on Iplayer. Subscribe to the programme on YouTube or follow them on Twitter.

सोचिए कि आपको एक सौदा मिल गया है। आपने 100,000 पाउंड में एक मिलियन पाउंड का घर खरीदा है। और सोचिए कि आपको बंधक पर बहुत अच्छा सौदा मिलता है। यह आपकी खर्च करने योग्य आय का केवल एक छोटा सा हिस्सा है। जो कोई भी यह सुनेगा वह सोचेगा कि आपने अच्छा किया है।


Kim Jong-un: Who might lead N Korea without Kim?

Summary: Speculation and rumour about Kim Jong-un's health may amount to nothing, but questions about who might succeed him in the short or long term will always be there. The BBC spoke to analysts about the contenders and whether history is on their side.

A male member of the Kim family has been in charge of North Korea ever since its founding by Kim Il-sung in 1948 - and the mythology of this family runs deep throughout society. Propaganda about its greatness begins for citizens before they can even read: pre-schoolers sing a song called: "I want to see our leader Kim Jong-un." So how can you imagine a North Korea without this symbolic and political figure at the top? How would elites organise themselves, as well as society as a whole? The easy answer is: we don't know. More interestingly, they don't know either. They have never had to do it. There has always been a Kim... As Kim Jong-un was being prepared for power, they even began using the term "Paektu Bloodline" to help legitimise his rule. Paektu is the sacred and mythologised mountain where Kim Il-sung is said to have waged guerrilla war and where Kim Jong-il was reportedly born. Kim Jong-un still goes there when he wants to emphasise important policy decisions. There has always been a Kim at the ideological heart of the country. What would North Korea be like without such an heir? Kim Jong-un, 36, is believed to have children - but they are far too young. It is thought he has three children, the oldest being 10 and the youngest three. Kim Jong-un himself was considered young when he took power - he was 27. It is likely that some sort of group leadership would emerge, perhaps as in Vietnam, that leans heavily on the founder's teachings and legitimacy to boost their own standing. Observers can track who holds certain key positions and can follow news and open-source intelligence about important institutions, but can't really tell how factions are developing, nor who is holding power through personal rather than institutional bonds. Moreover, sometimes vice or deputy directors wield more real power than the titular heads of institutions. This makes all predictions extremely difficult. The three remaining Kims There are three Kims who could potentially be involved in the political make-up of North Korea if Kim Jong-un were to disappear. They all face limitations in carrying on family rule. The first is Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un's younger sister. She is said to have been a favourite of her father who commented on her precocity, her interest in politics from a young age. Her manner is efficient, mild and one suspects rather observant. Much has been made of her closeness to her brother. At the Singapore Trump-Kim summit she was famously on hand to pass him a pen to sign the agreement with, and at the next summit in Hanoi, was pictured peeking out from behind corners as her brother posed for statesman-like photos. Yet she was not above a temporary demotion after the Hanoi summit - purportedly because of its failure although this will never be confirmed. She doesn't sit on the top policy-making body, the State Affairs Commission, but is an alternate member of the Politburo and vice director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) of the Workers' Party of Korea. These may seem like incomprehensible acronyms but the PAD is a powerful organisation that ensures ideological loyalty in the system. She is a woman, however, and this makes it hard to imagine her occupying the top position in such a deeply patriarchal country. North Korea is an extremely male state, in which gender carries rigid expectations. Being supreme leader, and certainly running the military, does not fit in the range of womanly duties. The second is Kim Jong-chul. He is Kim Jong-un's older brother, but has never appeared interested in politics or power. (He is known to be interested in Eric Clapton.) At most, he could be a symbolic link to the Kim family: perhaps made the head of a foundation and put forward to read the odd speech. The final one is Kim Pyong-il, Kim Jong-il's half-brother. His mother - Kim Jong-il's stepmother - was angling to have him become Kim Il-sung's successor. She failed and was sidelined by Kim Jong-il as he rose in influence. Kim Pyong-il was sent to Europe in 1979, where he has held various ambassadorships, returning to North Korea only last year. This means it is very unlikely he has the network to be a central player in elite politics in Pyongyang. The second-most powerful man in North Korea right now There are other individuals who have been central in the Kim Jong-un era, but it is difficult to know who among them would form co-operative relationships and who would compete with one another. One is Choe Ryong-hae. He has had his ups and downs under Kim Jong-un, but having weathered a few storms currently sits on the presidium of the politburo and is also first vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission. Last year he became the first new president in 20 years, replacing the aging Kim Yong-nam - so he is the person who represents the North at international engagements. Choe has also held high positions in the military and the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) of the Worker's Party of Korea, responsible for enforcing loyalty throughout the regime. This is an extremely powerful organisation: it enforces the adherence of all citizens to North Korea's ideology. He is probably the second most powerful man in North Korea. The old spymasters and rising political grandees Another is Kim Yong-chol. This general paved the way for the Trump-Kim summits, meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo several times. He has been head of the United Front Department (responsible for relations with South Korea) and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country's main intelligence service. He seems to have suffered a demotion following the collapse talks with the United States, but it is unlikely this spymaster will remain obscure for long. Yet another is Kim Jae-ryong. As well as being on the State Affairs Commission, he is Premier of the Cabinet, a moderately influential position. Relatively little is known about him, but his star has risen in the past years as others have fallen. He is known for managing industries and ran the most isolated province, home to key military-industrial sites, for several years. This may mean he has been closely involved in the nuclear program. Jong Kyong-taek is responsible for the State Security Department, which investigates and punishes political crimes. It also helps physically protect the leadership. These are crucial responsibilities that help enforce stability in the system. Hwang Pyong-so is another official who has held top military posts and has run the OGD in the Kim Jong-un era. Like Choe (and many others) he has been disciplined; he doesn't seem to have been rehabilitated in the same way, however. Other 2010s foreign policy stalwarts Ri Yong-ho and Ri Su-yong have also seen roles diminish recently. They have been replaced by Ri Son-gwon and Kim Hyung-jun. The former is said to be an ally of Kim Yong-chol. The military enforcers A handful of top generals of the Korean People's Army (KPA) would also certainly exert influence in any transition period. Currently, two men sit atop the General Political Bureau of the KPA, Kim Su-gil and Kim Won-hong. This bureau enforces political loyalty in the military, something that would be absolutely crucial during periods of uncertainty. Kim Won-hong, helps illustrate how difficult it is to predict how power would be shared if Kim Jong-un were no longer there. Kim Won-hong and Hwang Pyong-so had been thought to be rivals, competing to influence Kim Jong-un at the other's expense. Amongst top elites, who would clash and who would ally? Would there be pro and anti-Kim Yo-jong factions? Would the fear of instability stop rivalries from getting out of hand? After all, it is in no elite politician's interest to see the state collapse, opening the door for some kind of takeover by South Korea, or even China. There is currently no perfect contender: his sister would have to overcome the sexism and the break from tradition of a male heir. Anybody else is not directly descended from that all-important Paektu bloodline. but in the end, they will all have to think of the unity of the state they have defied every international norm to preserve.

किम जोंग-उन के स्वास्थ्य के बारे में अटकलें और अफवाहें भले ही कुछ भी न हों, लेकिन इस बारे में सवाल हमेशा रहेंगे कि कम या लंबे समय में उनका उत्तराधिकारी कौन हो सकता है। बीबीसी ने विश्लेषकों से दावेदारों के बारे में बात की और क्या इतिहास उनके पक्ष में है।


PJ Crowley: Yemen back to square one

Summary: Give or take, the fourth anniversary of the Arab Spring coincided with the resignation of Yemen's government following a confrontation with a Houthi insurgency, leaving Tunisia as the only regional country that continues to inch along a path towards more pluralistic governance.

By PJ CrowleyFormer US Assistant Secretary of State Yemen is back to square one. The collapse of the government of Yemeni President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi is bad news on several levels. The headlines in western media have focused on what this means for the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) or for Iran's ambitions in the Middle East. These are important questions. Certainly given the identification of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, there is a justifiable concern that AQAP will take advantage of potential chaos. While the Houthis have been battling the government for several months, they have also been fighting al-Qaeda. It is perhaps its only overlapping interest with the West. The Houthis are not enamoured with the US policy in Yemen, nor drones. But even the Houthis seem to recognise the potential value of Monday's drone strike that allegedly killed three al-Qaeda operatives. But being the enemy of an enemy only goes so far. The relative ease with which the Houthis gained strength in recent months, took over de facto control of the capital and became the country's new kingmaker is remarkable and undoubtedly disconcerting to Yemen's primary backers, the United States and Saudi Arabia. The United States has been training Yemeni forces under a counterterrorism effort US President Barack Obama termed a "model" several months ago. While that may be true, the model is clearly a work in progress. The Saudis have poured billions into Yemen to try to ensure the political primacy of the Sunni majority over the Shia minority. The Houthis are a Shia Zaidi sect. The Houthis apparently received support from Iran. Their dramatic rise does suggest that no strategy in Yemen is likely to succeed without taking Iran into account. The Obama administration has been careful to avoid mixing other pressing issues with the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, but it needs to find out what the Houthis and the Iranians want in Yemen and what they can live with. A more fundamental question is: Can Yemen, arguably the region's weakest country, even survive this latest crisis intact? This is not a given. Not so long ago Yemen was two countries - North and South. It only unified in 1990 after a process that took two decades. Like everything else in Yemen, the bond is fragile. The proximate cause of the Houthi confrontation with the Hadi government was a failure to implement an acceptable power-sharing agreement based on a shared future vision for Yemen. The government was considering constitutional changes that would have established a new federal system in Yemen. Hadi favoured the creation of six federal regions and the Houthis just two. At stake is the question of how to divvy up income from Yemen's energy sector. The Houthis participated in both the 2011 revolution that upended the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh - who is nonetheless now backing them - and the National Dialogue Conference that followed. Intriguingly, the Houthis appear to want to be part of the solution, but don't necessarily see themselves as the solution. Since none of the key players in Yemen want to see the country divide and open the door for another mini-caliphate, the potential exists for an inclusive political process that leads to an interim government, constitutional changes and new elections. Parliamentary elections last occurred in 2003 and presidential elections are overdue. Even these basic steps will be a heavy lift. Yemen will need help pulling it off. Mr Obama's brief stopover in Saudi Arabia en route home from India, leading a high-powered bipartisan delegation to pay respects to the Saudi royal family following the death of King Abdullah, was an important gesture and provided a valuable opportunity to discuss Yemen with the new monarch, King Salman. In turn, the United States needs to broaden its counterterrorism approach in Yemen. The Obama administration has become far too tactical. Drones have a role to play, but the secret to success in Yemen is ultimately better governance and economic growth. Just as the crisis in Syria was less about democracy but the price of grain, so too cuts in fuel subsidies in Yemen contributed to the current unrest. Most American aid to Yemen is military. Whacking bad guys is important, but what Yemen desperately needs is more economic assistance. Its economy is stagnant; it imports 90% of its food, and is running out of water. What Yemen needs is a long-term commitment from the United States and the international community. If there is one thing we now understand about the transformation under way in the Middle East, helping a country like Yemen save it from itself will take not years, but decades. P.J. Crowley is a former Assistant Secretary of State and now a professor of practice and fellow at The George Washington University Institute for Public Diplomacy & Global Communication.

दे या ले, अरब स्प्रिंग की चौथी वर्षगांठ एक हौती विद्रोह के साथ टकराव के बाद यमन की सरकार के इस्तीफे के साथ हुई, जिससे ट्यूनीशिया एकमात्र क्षेत्रीय देश बन गया जो अधिक बहुलवादी शासन की दिशा में आगे बढ़ रहा है।


Amazon: Meet Jeff Bezos's successor - Andy Jassy

Summary: Andy Jassy is not a household name.

By James ClaytonNorth America technology reporter He is, though, about to take on one of the biggest jobs in global business - replacing Jeff Bezos as chief executive of Amazon. Accompanying the appointment of a new football manager comes endless speculation. What will the style of play be? Are they the right fit at the club? Can they manage the big stars? Business is no different. Yet with Amazon's new chief executive, we kind of know what to expect. Amazon's business is so big it essentially acts as an umbrella organisation for many different companies. Mr Jassy has been at the company for 23 years, conducted plenty of interviews, and has been pretty open about what makes him tick. He also runs its most lucrative business - Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon's quarterly results, announced on Tuesday, confirm that AWS is the driving force behind its profits - accounting for about half of the company's operating income. It saw the potential for the outsourcing of computing and storage, that companies use to run things like websites, before its rivals. Google and Microsoft got into the game later - and now offer similar services. However, there's a clear market leader in the field, and that's Amazon. According to one estimate, AWS accounts for about a third of worldwide cloud infrastructure spend. It's a long way away from where Amazon started - as an online shop selling books. Mr Jassy, who founded AWS in 2003, nurtured this side-bet of Amazon's into a money-spinner - and became the obvious successor to Mr Bezos. And the way Mr Jassy has relentlessly developed AWS is strikingly similar to the way Mr Bezos went about building Amazon, and he is most certainly moulded in his predecessor's image. AWS has become so successful it's even become a focus of anti-trust campaigners - and the Federal Trade Commission. So should it be hived off from Amazon entirely? Investors want Amazon to have many more offshoots like AWS - hugely profitable firms all under the company's banner. That's what Mr Jassy has delivered before, and that's what they hope he can do again. Amazon has a burgeoning advertising business. It has acquired companies like Whole Foods and Ring home security systems, and is venturing into pharmacy. And don't forget Amazon Prime. All of these businesses have plenty of room to grow. You might expect shares in Amazon to take a dive on the news that Mr Bezos had stepped back. But the market seemed pretty relaxed about the move. They know Mr Jassy, and see him as an able replacement. It's not uncommon for a hyper-rich founder to do this - there are precedents. Think of Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Google or Bill Gates at Microsoft. Those two companies have done fantastically well under Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella respectively. And Mr Bezos is not leaving, remember. He'll be less involved in running the everyday aspects of the company, but Amazon is still his baby, he'll still be the most influential person in whichever room he finds himself at the company. Mr Bezos's move then is capturing headlines. However, Amazon has become a very big, very successful company - and that's likely to continue under Mr Jassy.

एंडी जेसी कोई घरेलू नाम नहीं है।


Covid lockdown: 'My baby screamed when she saw new faces'

Summary: When Rachael Powell's one-year-old daughter met her grandparents for the first time after months of Covid-induced separation, she "absolutely screamed the place down" as she "didn't know who they were".

By Rachael LazaroBBC News The 39-year-old was on maternity leave with Emmeline when the first national lockdown was announced in March and she had to shield. "I was really looking forward to going to coffee shops, meeting other mums and going to baby classes and then everything stopped," she says. "I felt guilty that she didn't get any of that and have that interaction." The mum from Monton in Greater Manchester is far from alone in having those concerns. Many parents believe their babies' development has been hit by the impact of coronavirus. Baby classes have been cancelled, restarted and cancelled again, while meet-ups with fellow parents now feel like a luxury enjoyed only in the distant past. Rachael says it left her feeling "cheated" out of her maternity leave and upset that even simple things like visits from Emmeline's grandparents had become fraught. "She just screamed - absolutely screamed the place down," she says. "I couldn't leave her in the same room as them. She didn't know who they were." Rachael says Emmeline had managed to have some interactions with other babies when classes started up again with new Covid-secure guidelines, but it was "just not the same" as when she took her baby's seven-year-old brother Charlie to classes when he was her age. "It was good at first, because she got to do songs and activities, but as a mum, you didn't get anything from it as I was sat so far away from other mums. "And, as Emmeline was getting bigger and wanting to get off the mat and see other children, the whole thing became about keeping her on the mat." Liz Osler, who runs Little Groovers music classes in Greater Manchester, agrees that Covid-secure sessions are "the opposite of what the groups are about really". "Children are usually encouraged to be sociable and come up and select an instrument, but now they're given instruments in a bag and you've got to keep the bag on your mat." However, she believes it is still worthwhile hosting the sessions, as they give parents somewhere to go during a difficult time. She says everyone was "so happy to be able to do something normal, even though it's not normal", but reorganising her business had meant "massive financial outlay" on items such as headsets and loud speakers and on booking larger venues to allow for social distancing. She says running the classes also means she is "on pins all the time". "Before Covid, I was in the moment... and now the music is the last thing on my mind [as] all I'm doing is thinking about everyone's safety. "I can't wait for when children can be sociable with each other and we can blow bubbles and just enjoy the music together. "You just want to fast-forward to when it's all over." Delimar Recio, who is originally from Venezuela and lives in Walkden, Greater Manchester says that pressure of having to second guess her one-year-old daughter Sabrina's interactions is hard. The 31-year-old says while it was "frustrating" to have a burgeoning support network taken away when the first lockdown was announced, the easing of restrictions was also stressful because of Sabrina's natural curiosity. "She wanted to reach out and touch the other babies and crawl towards them," she says. "I had to hold her back and she was crying. "I thought 'what is the point if she was going to get upset all the time?'." Education consultant and child psychologist Dr Paul Kelly says classes and meet-ups are vital to a baby's development and Covid was having a "massive impact". "We are social creatures, social beings - it is pre-programmed in our brains," he says. "When children's brains are stimulated, they grow." Dr Kelly says there is also an impact on parents, who are missing out on "mutual support", adding: "An informal get-together is massive in terms of benefitting both parent and child." For him, people should "grab what they can, when they can" during these uncertain times and focus on "how you can enhance [your baby's] development... rather than spending time thinking about how your child might be behind". Both mums say they have been surprised by what their daughters now take in their strides. Rachael says Emmeline "just clung on to me" when she first started nursery and was "quite teary", but, "after a week or two", stopped crying and settled in, while Delimar says Sabrina is now used to video-calling and is slowly getting used to meeting more people. "After the first lockdown, she'd cry if she saw a new person," she says. "Now she's more friendly." Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

जब राचेल पॉवेल की एक साल की बेटी महीनों के कोविड-प्रेरित अलगाव के बाद पहली बार अपने दादा-दादी से मिली, तो वह "पूरी तरह से चिल्लाई" क्योंकि वह "नहीं जानती थी कि वे कौन थे"।


At Thanksgiving, discordant Trump heads squabbling American family

Summary: The Thanksgiving holidays will provide little respite from rhetoric in a highly polarised US.

Nick BryantNew York correspondent@NickBryantNYon Twitter In this week of Thanksgiving, a holiday observed by most Americans regardless of creed, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation or politics, it seems untimely to talk of national discord and divisiveness. However, a shared activity and shared menu of turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie is something altogether different from a genuine act of commonality. In these angry times, America seems incapable of putting aside its differences, of truly coming together and even of engineering temporary political ceasefires. Calamitous events are instantly politicised. Even as the death toll continues to mount in California, the wildfires have sparked rancorous debates about forestry policy and global warming. Terror attacks claimed by ISIS are invariably followed by rows about immigration. Each successive multiple shooting fuels the unending fight between those who believe thoughts and prayers offer an adequate response and those demanding tighter controls on firearms and gun ownership. The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last month also shone a light on an alarming rise in anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League reported a 57% spike in anti-Semitic incidents in 2017. Donald Trump's visit to Pittsburgh, a customary presidential act at such times of bereavement, became contentious rather than communal, with a Jewish social justice group mounting street protests because of his unapologetic embrace of nationalism and his characterisation of some of hate-spewing racists in Charlottesville as "decent people". This kind of protest, which drew widespread community support, would have been almost unthinkable under most recent presidents. Given the prevailing mood of acrimony, however, and Donald Trump's role in stoking it, it came as no surprise. Even acts of sacred remembrance, such as the recent trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One, become needlessly controversial. Prior to Mr Trump heeding the advice of the Secret Service not to travel by motorcade to an American war cemetery when Marine One was grounded by bad weather, a decision seized upon by critics as a dereliction of presidential duty, the trip had already taken an ugly turn. He arrived in France saying he planned to "celebrate" the end of World War One, a discordant choice of word. The moment Air Force One touched down in Paris, he also picked a fight with his host, the French president Emmanuel Macron. If ever there was a moment to observe a diplomatic ceasefire, surely it was the anniversary of the Armistice. Read more from Nick Long before Donald Trump arrived in Washington, the esteemed American political scientist James Q Wilson shrewdly observed: "Once politics was about only a few things. Today, it is about nearly everything." That dictum seems especially pertinent now. Politics comes to the war cemeteries of France, to American football stadiums on a Sunday afternoon, to the charred cul-de-sacs of Paradise, California, to the National Cathedral in Washington. When political leaders from both sides gathered there to remember the late Republican Senator John McCain, President Trump was deliberately excluded. John McCain decided before his death that a bipartisan coming together was possible only in the enforced absence of America's head of state, a view widely shared amongst those who packed the pews. Division, of course, is nothing new. From the country's fractious founding through to the modern-day, this great American experiment has always been explosively combustible. Just visit the Civil War battlefields of Gettysburg, Antietam or Manassas; or the trouble-spots of the civil rights and Vietnam era, such as Birmingham, Selma, and the campuses of "Ole Miss" or Kent State University. The past forty years, if anything, have been relatively peaceable if measured in urban violence, political assassinations or '60s-style mass demonstrations. But what makes this era so unsettling is the ingrained polarity of the politics. During the civil rights era, when policy makers in Washington feared the country might be overwhelmed by the racial fury breaking loose in almost every major city, progressive Democrats and moderate Republicans joined forces to defeat segregationist Democrats and unsympathetic Republicans. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, which sounded the death knell for southern segregation, would never have been enacted were it not for bipartisanship. Likewise during Watergate, Democrats and Republicans buried their differences to serve the national interest and to avert a full-blown constitutional crisis. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee joined Democrats in voting to subpoena those incriminating White House tapes. Moderate Republicans helped draft articles of impeachment - though Richard Nixon resigned, of course, before they were put to a full vote of the House of Representatives. The poser of the famed question, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" was not some liberal firebrand but rather Senator Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee. Gone, it seems, is an era when moments of national mourning and commemoration, such as the Challenger space shuttle disaster or the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings, were politically benign; when a US president could speak on behalf of all of his compatriots, as Ronald Reagan did so memorably on both occasions. But it is also important to point out that the politicisation of national tragedies and convulsions by no means started with Donald Trump. Along with the soothing words uttered by Bill Clinton in response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when 168 people were murdered in a domestic terrorist truck bombing, came an attack on unnamed right-wing figures whom he accused of recklessly stoking anti-government sentiment - the "loud and angry voices in America today," as he put it, "whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible." It was a valid point to make, but also a highly political one at a time of national grieving. For a president then struggling for relevancy in the aftermath of the Republican Revolution in 1994, Clinton saw in the rubble of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building a partisan opportunity. The bombing marked the turning point of his troubled first term, and the start of a comeback that culminated two years later in his re-election. The attacks of September 11th offer another case study. The national unity and patriotic bipartisanship - crystallised on the floor of a joint session of Congress when then-Democratic Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle hugged George W Bush - proved short-lived. In the run-up to the Iraq war, the White House pushed through a war authorisation vote ahead of the 2002 congressional mid-terms, seeking to tag Democrats who opposed it as soft on terrorism. President George Herbert Walker Bush, by contrast, had waited until after the 1990 mid-terms to seek congressional approval for the first Gulf War, a deliberate act of depoliticisation. What marks out Donald Trump is the speed and apparent relish with which he douses these moments of crisis and mourning with politics. Divisiveness is his default setting, conflict defines his presidency, and though he often pays lip service to national unity in scripted comments and formal statements, his authentic self usually finds quick expression on Twitter. His talent lies in being a partisan attack dog rather than a national consoler. This month's midterm congressional elections, at which a divided nation produced a divided result, highlighted America's disunity. They reinforced a historic realignment where Democratic strength is now concentrated in the cities and their suburbs, and Donald Trump's America lies beyond. The political map, rendered in deeper shades of red and blue, looks more partitionist. Almost the entire western seaboard and most of the northeast coastline is now Democratic. On a road trip hugging the Pacific Ocean, you could travel from the southernmost tip of California to the northern-most tip of Washington state and step foot in only one congressional district represented by a Republican. New York City no longer has a single Republican congressman or congresswoman. Conversely, the landlocked states of America look like a giant red sea, save for a few isolated blue archipelagos. Though it is an exaggeration to speak of political no-go areas for the Republicans and Democrats, large swathes of the United States resemble one-party fiefdoms. Texas hasn't elected a Democratic Senator since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. That was also the year California last voted in a Republican Senator. It should come as no surprise that the new Congress convening in January will be the most ideologically polarised in decades. Donald Trump is not the cause of this disunity. His victory in 2016 was the culmination of a politics that has continually become more wilfully and aggressively partisan. Both Democrats and Republicans have accelerated this trend. His presidency, however, has widened and deepened the breach. His political business model, after all, has long been based aggravating points of cultural, economic and racial contention, whether on birtherism or immigration. At his rallies, he often looks and sounds more like the leader of a cult than the leader of a nation. As he told rally-goers in West Virginia ahead of the mid-terms, in one of those inadvertently insightful sound-bites he delivers from time to time: "It's so easy to be presidential, but instead of having ten thousand people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we'd have about 200 people." The problem for Trump is not the ongoing adulation of rally-goers. Even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, as he once famously boasted, some would probably not cast off their Make America Great Again caps. It is the wider audience outside. Though his blue-collar base remains solid, and his strength in rural states helped the Republicans retain control of the Senate, the mid-terms became a revolt of white-collar suburban voters. This was especially true of college-educated women, whose unexpectedly high support for him in 2016, even in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood comments, helped him beat Hillary Clinton. For all the polarity, moderates and registered independents can still sway presidential elections. The mid-terms suggested that the America turned off by Donald Trump is more heavily populated than the America happy with his performance as president. Even in the Senate, where Trump interpreted the results as validation of his leadership, preliminary vote tallies suggest some 45 million Americans cast their votes for Democratic Senate candidate, as opposed to 39.3 million for Republican candidates. Presidents commonly rebound after mid-term setbacks, as Barack Obama did in 2012 and Bill Clinton did in 1996. Trump's three predecessors were all two-term presidents. The Electoral College means he could lose the popular vote by a heavy margin, as he did in 2016, and still win the White House. Also it would be an act of analytical folly to write him off, a repeat of the colossal mistake so many pundits made in 2016. However, as the respected political statistician Nate Silver noted earlier this week: "His base alone will not be enough to win a second term." In 2016, Donald Trump benefited from the politics of division. But this avowed nationalist has struggled to be a truly national leader. The polarisation which fuelled his rise also has the potential to bring about his fall.

थैंक्सगिविंग की छुट्टियां अत्यधिक ध्रुवीकृत अमेरिका में बयानबाजी से बहुत कम राहत प्रदान करेंगी।


IVF struggle: 'Our baby dream feels further away'

Summary: Every year, about 50,000 women walk into an IVF clinic in the UK, hoping it will help them achieve their dream of parenthood. But despite almost 40 years of research, the treatment fails 70% of the time. The BBC's Sophie Sulehria shares her struggle of trying for a baby.

By Sophie SulehriaBBC News I didn't think it could happen to us. We had been married for six months and had no reason to think we couldn't have children. All our friends had become pregnant so easily, it should have been the next step. But four years of IVF treatment and £38,000 later, our baby dream feels further away. Listen to Sophie's story here on BBC Radio 4's PM programme Jonny and I met in 2009 and two years later, we were married. We bought our first house together which we were going to renovate ourselves, excited to earmark the spare room as the nursery. We'd always wanted children, from the moment we met we talked about it. I didn't have a thought in my head it would be hard for us. But of course, it was. By the end of 2013 I was pulling my hair out. Although people warned me it could take time, I knew something was seriously wrong. I had always had acute tummy pain but was repeatedly told by doctors it was "probably IBS". But when I didn't fall pregnant, I started to join up the dots. A laparoscopy confirmed it was far worse than we had feared - I had stage four endometriosis, a condition where tissue that behaves like the lining of the womb is found in other parts of the body. It was suffocating my reproductive organs and had started to grow on my diaphragm, kidneys and liver. It was that day we were told it would probably be impossible to have children naturally. I remember Jonny collapsing into a chair, unable to take in the news. Blood tests also revealed I was suffering from premature ovarian failure. I was in my early 30s and had the egg count of a 50-year-old. We needed to move quickly if we wanted to try IVF with my own eggs, so we started treatment on the NHS in April 2014. Even after a huge amount of medication, they were only able to collect one egg, though it was "top quality". As I waited the two weeks until I was able to do the pregnancy test, I was certain it had worked. 'I had IVF for a couple I'll never meet' My endometriosis story 'I wish IVF had never been invented' Sadly I was wrong and we were forced to face doing the whole thing again. But this time we would have to pay privately. Time was of the essence as with every month that passed by, my egg reserve got lower and lower. Three more years of hell ensued - six rounds of unsuccessful IVF, at a total cost of £38,000. We had to borrow money from family and with each failed round, the news has got worse and worse. How could this be happening to us? I hit complete depression. My body didn't feel like my own and my phobia for needles was getting worse, yet every day I had to face up to five of them. But the hardest part of it all was my mind, I was all-consumed with being a mum. People would only have to mention their baby news and I would have a meltdown. Everywhere I turned, people would be pregnant. The worst year was 2016. Some days I couldn't get out of bed, just staring into space thinking how far away the dream of being a mum felt. But it was Jonny I felt for more. Not only did he have to face the fact he may not be a dad any time soon, but he also had to live with me. This wasn't the woman he married - a low, depressive person who couldn't have his children. 'I wish I could do more' - Jonny Baker When I first heard the words "you won't be able to have children naturally", it hit me like a wrecking ball. Since that day my positivity and determination to build a family with the woman I love so dearly has rarely wavered, but when it does, it feels like overwhelming waves of raw emotion with no end in sight. People have said what a great support I have been to Sophie and what a rock I am. The reality is, my weaknesses are often hidden, covered by a brave face. I always wish I could do more, I wish I could fix this, make everything OK. The reality of how I've coped with the journey is simple - Sophie. She is the only reason I have been able to, and still can, get up every morning. I will continue to do everything I can for her and our future family, however that comes. Sophie and I used to talk about our life together, building a family, home and future filled with love and joy. I know this can all still happen, just in a different way than we envisaged, and more than ever we are determined to make that happen. I had no idea about the 70% IVF failure rate until we became one of the statistics. We are now nearing the end of our fourth year of our fertility journey and I can't remember what life was like before we started trying for children. But if we want a family, we may need to start looking at other ways to do so. So what do people do when "baby plan A" starts to move further and further away? What other options are out there for us to become parents? What does "plan B" look like? We have no idea. Do we look at adoption? Fostering? Using donor eggs? In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) Source: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority/Fertility Network UK We don't have a solution, we don't have a baby, and we don't know what to do next. Over the next few months we will be exploring our options as part of the PM series on BBC Radio 4. It wasn't an easy decision for us to make, to bare our souls to millions of people. However, if it helps one other man, woman or couple start to face the next step in their journey to have a family, then it is worth it. Sophie Sulehria will be sharing her story and exploring her options as part of a three-month series on PM on BBC Radio 4.

हर साल, लगभग 50,000 महिलाएं यू. के. में आई. वी. एफ. क्लिनिक में जाती हैं, इस उम्मीद में कि इससे उन्हें माता-पिता बनने के अपने सपने को पूरा करने में मदद मिलेगी। लेकिन लगभग 40 वर्षों के शोध के बावजूद, उपचार 70 प्रतिशत समय विफल हो जाता है। बी. बी. सी. की सोफी सुलेहरिया एक बच्चे के लिए प्रयास करने के अपने संघर्ष को साझा करती हैं।


TV's white spaces connecting rural Africa

Summary: "This is the greatest achievement I can say for this school. [The students] are finding it a great favour that they should be the first school in Africa to have this kind of a project. It is very exciting. They wonder how they got there."

By Fiona GrahamTechnology of business reporter, BBC News Beatrice Nderango is the headmistress of Gakawa Secondary School, which lies about 10km from Nanyuki, a market town in Kenya's rift valley, not far from the Mount Kenya national park. The school is situated in a village that has no phone line and no electricity. The people that live here are mostly subsistence farmers. "We don't really have a cash crop, but the farmers do a bit of farming," says Mrs Nderango. "They grow potatoes, a little bit of maize, but we don't do well in maize because of the wild animals. They invade the farms." Although Kenya has fibre optic broadband thanks to the Seacom cable, most of rural Kenya is not connected and until now getting online would mean travelling to town. But all of this is changing, thanks to technology that uses the unused parts of the wireless spectrum that is set aside for television broadcasters - the white spaces. The colour of television The project is part of the 4Afrika Initiative, an investment programme being announced by technology giant Microsoft, that also includes a new Windows Phone 8 smartphone for the region and investment in help for small businesses on the continent, and in education and internships. For the white spaces project, the company is working with a Kenyan ISP, Indigo Telecom, and the Kenyan government. The ISP is installing wireless 'base stations' - or masts - that are solar-powered, to get round the lack of mains electricity. The base stations act as a link to the nearest main cable connection to the internet, without the expense of extending the fibre-optic network. The signal supplied is much more powerful than normal wifi. "What we are calling TV white space, that is just a different set of frequencies. It is between 400 megahertz and about 800 megahertz, and those radio frequencies will just go further," says white spaces expert Professor Robert Stewart of Strathclyde University. "They can go through walls, they will kind of bend around hills, they will give you much better connectivity. And of course, that's why the TV guys chose that in the first place." Local schools, a healthcare clinic, a government agriculture office and a library have been connected in the first part of the pilot. Ms Nderango says internet will benefit teachers and students alike. "Students will now be introduced to e-learning, they will be able to carry out the assignments, they'll be able to do a lot of research," she says. "To add to that, there is the exposure to the rest of the world." And she believes the wider community will benefit as well. "It will change lives, because on the internet you can access information about skills. "The farmers for example will improve their skills, and learn entrepreneurship." Business networking Microsoft's Fernando de Sousa says getting rural areas online is a crucial part of making them economically viable. "There is... a commercial responsibility that both private and public sector have across Africa to bring technology and bring access that can then drive economic growth, economic development and sustain employability, especially outside of the metropolitan areas," he says. "It is going to significantly increase the ability for innovation and the great ideas that Africans have to actually reach markets and become available for use by consumers... I think that there is a fantastic opportunity for Africa to showcase its own capabilities in the world because of the increased access." The next step is to open the network more generally to the business community in the area. "The commercial viability of actually deploying white spaces on a broad spectrum across the communities, is something that is very important... because a. it can't be a subsidised service; and b. it is not a private government or community network," says Mr de Sousa. "It really needs to be a commercially viable network. Bringing small businesses online and enabling them to use the technology is very, very important." This is not the first time that TV white spaces have been used in this way - in the UK pilots are underway on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and in Cambridge. In the United States, Wilmington, North Carolina, has a white spaces project in place, and the Air.U partnership hopes to connect rural college campuses. There are several test beds around the world. More is planned. In Africa, Google is sponsoring a project in South Africa that will connect 10 schools in the Western Cape for six months, that will launch soon. There are obstacles: in many countries this part of the spectrum is licensed, and the way it is used is changing as television services move to digital. National and international regulators are looking at how to allocate space, to avoid having competing services trying to use the same space. For now, and probably in the long term, TV white space networks will be complementary to fibre-optic broadband rather than a replacement. But Strathclyde University's Prof Stewart, one of the men behind the pilot on the Isle of Bute, thinks that for remote rural areas it may be the most cost-effective option. "If we find that rural communities in developing or developed countries can access this without significant expense, then it will make a difference," he says. "It is not going to solve all the problems. It is not for everyone. But it will solve problems for some folks."

"यह इस स्कूल के लिए सबसे बड़ी उपलब्धि है जो मैं कह सकता हूं। [छात्रों] को यह बहुत अच्छा लग रहा है कि वे अफ्रीका में इस तरह की परियोजना वाला पहला स्कूल होना चाहिए। यह बहुत ही रोमांचक है। वे आश्चर्य करते हैं कि वे वहाँ कैसे पहुँचे।"


Avon and Wiltshire 'not meeting dementia waiting times'

Summary: A mental health trust says only a third of people with suspected dementia are getting a consultation within the prescribed four weeks.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust guidelines also say any further treatment should start within 13 weeks of the consultation. Another third of people are being seen within 10 weeks and the final third take longer, figures show. The partnership said it was due to the success of an awareness campaign. The partnership trust, which operates in Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, says it has increased training for GPs and held a number of public events to raise awareness of dementia. The guidelines are agreed with the South West Strategic Health Authority.

एक मानसिक स्वास्थ्य ट्रस्ट का कहना है कि संदिग्ध मनोभ्रंश वाले केवल एक तिहाई लोगों को निर्धारित चार सप्ताह के भीतर परामर्श मिल रहा है।


Swanage Railway steam train sparks cause fire

Summary: Firefighters had to be called after sparks from a steam train started a fire on a railway embankment in Dorset.

The fire covered an area of grassland by Swanage Railway between Corfe Castle and Afflington Bridge. It was reported by a member of the public shortly before 16:30 BST on Sunday and tackled by 17:00. A Dorset Fire spokesman said: "A steam train passed through throwing out hot sparks which resulted in the very dry track side vegetation catching alight."

डोरसेट में एक रेलवे तटबंध पर भाप ट्रेन की चिंगारी से आग लगने के बाद अग्निशामकों को बुलाना पड़ा।


Rescuing America's roadside giants

Summary: Anyone making a road trip across America will sooner or later run across a giant statue - a cowboy, an American Indian chief or a lumberjack, perhaps. Many, now half a century old, are falling apart, but one man and his friends are tracking them down and bringing them back to life.

By Jasmine Taylor-ColemanBBC News, Illinois On the concrete floor of an Illinois garage, a giant rests in pieces. His head is the size of a wardrobe, his bulging torso bigger than a double bed. The 23ft-high (7m) colossus stood for 45 years outside Two Bit Town, a now-abandoned tourist attraction in Lake Ozark, in the heart of the American Midwest. Chief Bagnell, as he was nicknamed, was one of thousands of giant statues designed to entice travellers to pull off US highways. Now he is getting a makeover thanks to Joel Baker, a television audio technician by day who is America's leading restorer of fibreglass figures made in the 1960s and 70s. "Over the years these guys have been in the weather and the wind. Some of them have been hit by cars," says Baker as he weaves his way through the outhouse strewn with body parts. With the help of three friends, he has spent his evenings for past three months stripping off layer after layer of paint from Chief Bagnell's body. They have patched up cracks and painstakingly polished around every feather in the warrior's headdress, and every wrinkle in the face. What started out as a fun hobby for Baker five years ago, tracking down the statues made by a California-based boat building firm, International Fiberglass, has developed into a mission to save and repair them. The firm began making giant human figures in 1964 after a restaurant in Arizona ordered a model of Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack in American folklore. It made hundreds more over the next decade, of which between 180 and 200 still exist, according to Baker. After Paul Bunyan came cowboys, golfers, pirates and goofy-looking country bumpkins, advertising everything from tyres to golf courses. "These giants were just going out all over America," says Baker. The first American Indians were purchased by Pontiac dealerships, while the cowboys were made for Phillips 66 petrol stations. The figures were also a common sight outside car repair workshops often carrying an exhaust pipe - a muffler in American English - and have become known as Muffler Men. But there were also about 20 female models - so-called Uniroyal Gals, made for the Uniroyal tyre company in 1966, some clad in a bikini, others in a skirt, T-shirt and heels. By today's standards the gals in bikinis, the stereotyped American Indians and country bumpkins might be considered inappropriate. But they reflect the values of the period - and so it's no surprise that the vast majority of Muffler Men were white and male. "The American hero was this big brawny guy who's going to change your tyre or chop down your tree," says author Doug Kirby, one of the founders of RoadsideAmerica.com which maps the giants' locations. "It's all quite politically incorrect now, of course." For Baker and his fellow enthusiasts, the Muffler Men epitomise the road culture and mass production of the 1960s - but the idea of building models of epic proportions to attract passing trade goes back much further in American history. The founding father was James V Lafferty, who built a six-storey elephant on a strip of undeveloped coastal land just south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1881. Lucy the Elephant was intended to attract property buyers and visitors and still stands as a tourist attraction today, having survived Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In 1882, Lafferty filed a patent on giant buildings "of the form of any other animal than an elephant, as that of a fish, fowl, etc.", which he claimed was his invention. One of the first examples of giant novelty architecture at the roadside was a 64ft-high (20m), bright orange wooden bottle on the outskirts of Auburn, Alabama. Built in 1921 to advertise Nehi soft drinks, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", the structure housed a service station, grocery shop and living space. It burned down in about 1936, but the area on the map is still called The Bottle. Traders had always relied on images rather than words to advertise goods to America's multilingual immigrant population, says Brian Butko, a historian whose books include Roadside Giants and Roadside Attractions. But as time went on, scale became important. "It is a lot harder to attract attention when cars are going by at 50 mph," says Butko. "That's where the roadside giants got started. They were trying to draw people off the road from long distances away." When the modern American road trip really got going after World War Two, with the rapid growth of car ownership and the new interstate highway system, more and more businesses competed to cater for road-weary travellers. "A lot of the people I talk to say Muffler Men remind them of their childhood in the 60s," says Joel Baker. "They remember being in the back of their dad's car, they remember the make and model of the car and driving by whatever restaurant the Muffler Man stood at." But just as Muffler Men multiplied thanks to the success of the car industry, they suffered when it stumbled in the 1970s. International Fiberglass ceased operations in 1972, and slowly attitudes towards its giants began to change. "There was a sense of embarrassment about these models," says Butko, when the fuel crisis and subsequent recession caused some dealerships, fuel stations, and repair workshops to close. More efficient cars had less need to stop in small towns, and just drove past. Many of the Muffler Men were "just trashed", says Joel Baker. Among those that were simply neglected, he has discovered many in dire condition, with arms and heads falling off. It's the contrast between childhood memories of the models and their current state that has driven him to take action. And it seems communities are beginning to appreciate the figures again as other authentic elements of the roadside, such as diners and petrol stations, disappear. "In lots of places, they went from tacky things that half the town hated, to becoming a cherished landmark," says Kirby. Businesses are also harnessing their pulling power once more. Shawn Fennel, who owns a repairs garage for vintage cars near Nashville, Tennessee, paid $20,000 (£14,000) for a Muffler Man to stand on his forecourt last year, and transported it across the country from El Monte, California. "It's every day that somebody stops and has their picture made," Fennel says. Doug Kirby says travellers are also taking greater interest, and sometimes going out of their way to see one. "There's awareness that a roadside attraction or model is something of a rarity," he says. "It's a fun diversion, something that's pretty simple - just as it always was." So Muffler Men made in the 1960s are still doing their job. In the garage, Joel Baker and his team are slowly revitalising the giant war chief, with a view to reinstalling him in Lake Ozark this summer. Two colleagues spray the model with grey primer to prepare for repainting. Baker stands back and smiles with satisfaction. "There's a pull to these giants," he says. "That's why they were made - to attract attention. And it worked." Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

अमेरिका भर में सड़क यात्रा करने वाला कोई भी व्यक्ति जल्द या बाद में एक विशाल मूर्ति के सामने भाग जाएगा-एक काउबॉय, एक अमेरिकी भारतीय प्रमुख या एक लम्बरजैक, शायद। कई, जो अब आधी सदी के हैं, टूट रहे हैं, लेकिन एक आदमी और उसके दोस्त उनका पीछा कर रहे हैं और उन्हें फिर से जीवंत कर रहे हैं।


Why do China's biggest brands celebrate being single every year?

Summary: Millions of people in China are celebrating being single on the social network Sina Weibo - because it's "Singles Day" on 11 November. Here's BBC Trending's quick guide to the day and the huge viral phenomenon, driven by online retailers, that it has become. What is it?

BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why It's meant to be a day set aside for single people to spoil themselves. The date is four single 1s - 11.11 - or as they call it in China, "bare sticks" - in other words, you're unattached. Who started it? It's hard to be sure but an often repeated explanation is that it started as a grassroots movement among students at Nanjing University in the early nineties. They bought themselves presents, as a sort of "anti-Valentines day". So it's just grown from there? No - it's grown because of heavy promotion by online retailers and brands. In 2009, the online retail giant Alibaba decided to turn the day into a massive marketing opportunity. Every Singles Day, Alibaba offers huge discounts, aimed at those who are single. It's also a shopping day for other brands and retailers - China Daily called it "China's Black Friday" last year, comparing it to the big US sales day after Thanksgiving, after sales of 10 billion yuan (US $1.63 billion) were recorded on just one online shopping site. So it's big, then? It's one of the biggest online conversations each year. It's perhaps no surprise that the Singles Day hashtag on Weibo has reached hundreds of millions of people over the years - because the online retailers who help drive it know their sites are just a click away. But wait - people are also getting married this "Singles Day"? Er... This appears to be a growing trend. Last year, the Xinhua news agency reported a "wedding boom" on Singles Day. It seems some people see the "bare sticks" next to each other (11.11) as a romantic symbol of singles finding one another. What's this picture? This twist on Communist-style propaganda art is used all over the internet to represent Singles Day, including on the Weibo page for the hashtag. The slogan translates as: "Our Singles Day strength". What's going viral this Singles Day? The Chinese account of the US sitcom, the Big Bang Theory, has been making jokes about the upcoming day on Weibo. Some students are sharing selfies of themselves holding boards explaining why it's OK to be single and stating that they aren't interested in finding a partner. One student has dreamt up a fake "Singles card" that looks like a marriage licence, which is also drawing clicks. But big brands are still among the top Singles Day trends. Research by Kerry Allen Blog by Whitney Henry and Mukul Devichand Next story: Should drivers over 70 years old be retested? A man whose wife killed by an elderly driver, who mistook the accelerator for the brake, has started a popular online petition calling for over-70s to be retested every three years.READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

चीन में लाखों लोग सोशल नेटवर्क सिना वेइबो पर एकल होने का जश्न मना रहे हैं-क्योंकि यह 11 नवंबर को "एकल दिवस" है। यहाँ बीबीसी ट्रेंडिंग की उस दिन की त्वरित मार्गदर्शिका और ऑनलाइन खुदरा विक्रेताओं द्वारा संचालित विशाल वायरल घटना है, जो बन गई है। यह क्या है?


Guernsey Education Department 'ready for review'

Summary: Guernsey's education minister has said her department "has nothing to fear" from a review of its services.

It follows Chief Minister Lyndon Trott's suggestion to the Policy Council of a root-and-branch review of the island's education services. The council is due to decide if it will take place at a meeting later. Deputy Carol Steere, who has offered to resign over poor GCSE results, said if a review received backing, her department was happy to face it. She said: "I say bring it on, the department will say bring it on. We have nothing to fear from a review."

ग्वेर्नसे के शिक्षा मंत्री ने कहा है कि उनके विभाग को अपनी सेवाओं की समीक्षा से "डरने की कोई बात नहीं है"।