Brexit: What is UK offering EU citizens?

Summary: Since the vote to leave the EU a year ago, millions of EU citizens living in the UK, and about a million UK expats in other EU states have been living in a state of uncertainty about their future.

Ministers have now given details of what EU citizens can expect after Brexit but make clear that their offer is based on the expectation that the other 27 EU members give reciprocal guarantees for British expats living on the continent. What has Theresa May offered? Theresa May outlined her proposal in a statement to Parliament, having given EU leaders an early sight of her plans at a private dinner on Friday. She has insisted that no EU national currently resident in the UK would have to leave at the point of Brexit and that people will be treated the same irrespective of their nationality. The main feature is the offer of "settled status" for EU citizens, as well of nationals of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, who have been living legally and continuously in the UK for at least five years. This will not be available automatically and anyone who qualifies will have to apply for their residence status. Those given, in effect, indefinite leave to remain will be entitled to use public services and receive benefits, including pensions and healthcare, on the same basis as British citizens. They would also be able, as now, to apply for British citizenship. Those who have not yet reached five years would be entitled to apply for continued residence on a temporary basis and to stay on until they reach the threshold for settled status. Those arriving after an as-yet-unspecified cut-off date would be given a "grace period" - expected to be two years - to obtain a work permit or return to their home countries. Although they will ultimately be able to seek permanent residence, officials make clear there should be "no expectation" this will happen. Mrs May has said she does not want to see families split up and that rights under the new "settled" status will also apply to family members living elsewhere, including children, if they come to the UK before Brexit and apply on the same basis. For those who arrive after Brexit, they will be subject to the same rules that currently apply to foreign family members joining British citizens from abroad. It is worth bearing in mind this offer is not unilateral - it is dependent on UK citizens living abroad getting a reciprocal deal from other EU states. What about healthcare and other benefits? This is a major issue for EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens on the continent. The UK says existing rules on the transfer of benefits to dependents living in the EU will be protected for those resident before the cut-off date while the UK state pension will continue to be uprated for pensioners living on the continent. Existing healthcare arrangements in force before the cut-off date will also be protected. The UK wants British citizens to continue to be eligible for free or discounted care while on temporary trips to the EU either through the existing European Health Insurance Card or a similar arrangement. EU citizens studying in the UK will continue to be eligible for loans for degree or further education courses as well as maintenance support. When will the process start? The government says there is no pressure on people to apply for their new status straight away and no obligation for them to do so before the UK leaves. But with the process expected to take some time, ministers say they want to give people the opportunity to do so at their "earliest convenience" and the application procedure will be launched before Brexit - expected to be in the summer of 2018. Those who already have permanent residence will have to reapply although the process will be as "streamlined" as possible. What don't we know? Quite a bit. For how long would this deal apply? There is uncertainty over the "cut-off" date. The UK has suggested it could be anywhere between March 2017, when it triggered Article 50, the formal process of leaving the EU, and March 2019 when it will formally leave. Ministers say the proposed date will be discussed with EU partners but insist people will be given "adequate time" to prepare and there will be no "cliff edge". And there is also the question of who will enforce the new rules, which is likely to be one of the greatest areas of dispute. The UK government says it will create new rights in domestic law and that it must be the responsibility of British courts to uphold them. The European Court of Justice should have no jurisdiction, it says, putting the UK at odds with the rest of the EU. By including legal commitments in the withdrawal treaty, the UK suggests the agreement will have the status of international law - raising the possibility that it could also be policed by a new body. What has the EU said? Before Mrs May's offer, the EU proposed that EU citizens in the UK and the estimated 1.2 million Britons living in EU countries should continue enjoying the same rights, enforceable by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Mrs May's offer as a "good start" but by Friday EU officials were sounding more lukewarm. European Council President Donald Tusk went further, saying it was "below our expectations" and suggested that what is being offered is "about reducing the citizens' rights, the EU citizens in the UK" from their current level. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker focused on the issue of which court would oversee any new system, saying it was "inconceivable" to him that the European Court of Justice would not be involved. The issue of the cut-off date for any new immigration status to apply, and which court will rule on the new system, look set to be the subject of some dispute. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg has more on the courts issue here. Why is this all an issue? There are thought to be about 3.2 million EU citizens who have moved to the UK to live, work and raise families - and about 1.2 million UK citizens who have left their home country to move to other EU states. While the UK is a member of the EU, they are free to do so, and to enjoy almost the same benefits as citizens of their host country, under EU freedom-of-movement rules. But the UK voted on 23 June 2016 to leave the EU, and Theresa May has said the UK will leave the single market - which would mean it was no longer subject to those rules. Immigration is believed to have been a key factor in the Brexit vote and the lack of clarity about what will happen to those EU citizens already living in the UK has led to fears among some that they could be deported or see their rights reduced. The UK government has been under pressure to guarantee unilaterally the rights of those EU citizens who are already living in the UK. But it says it cannot do so until the rights of British expats living in other EU countries are guaranteed, as well. This has led to accusations that the government is ready to use its EU citizens as "bargaining chips" in negotiations. What are the current rules? Under the current system, EU nationals can move to the UK under freedom of movement rules and can take up any job - employers do not need to apply for permission to take them on. Non-EU citizens in the UK are subject to a work-permit system, which limits entry to the UK to skilled workers in professions where there are shortages. EU nationals have a right to permanent residence, which is granted after they have lived in the UK, legally and continuously, for five years. For some, the requirement for "lawful" residence may include having personal medical insurance. There has been some criticism that the permanent-residence system is "not fit for purpose" with applicants having to fill in a "complex and onerous" 85-page form, according to the cross-party Commons Exiting the EU Committee. Theresa May has said that the new system she is offering would streamline the process for the millions of EU citizens already resident in the UK. For UK citizens abroad, permanent residency rules vary across the other 27 EU states. Read more:

एक साल पहले यूरोपीय संघ छोड़ने के लिए मतदान के बाद से, यूके में रहने वाले लाखों यूरोपीय संघ के नागरिक और अन्य यूरोपीय संघ के राज्यों में लगभग दस लाख यूके के प्रवासी अपने भविष्य के बारे में अनिश्चितता की स्थिति में रह रहे हैं।


Indian Dalit recalls protest that paralysed Mumbai

Summary: Thousands from India's low-caste Dalit community protested against right-wing Hindu groups in the western city of Mumbai earlier this month, bringing the city to a halt. Nehali Upasham explains why she took part.

I work and live in Mumbai but every year, on 1 January, I visit a village called Bhima Koregaon four hours away, for a festival that commemorates a battle where Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) helped defeat an upper-caste ruler. Usually, since thousands of Dalits visit the site of the battle on this day, one sees many stalls selling items such as food and medicines or books and films on Dalit history. But something seemed wrong this year. Many of the stalls were shut. This was all the more surprising because 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon. On 1 January 1818, Dalits fought alongside British colonial forces to defeat an upper caste ruler, in what my community calls the first battle against caste oppression. People gather around the "victory pillar", an obelisk-shaped memorial in Bhima Koregaon, to honour the courage that this day represented for Dalits. I have been doing this ever since I was a child. I am also married to a man who was born in this village - so my connection to this place is stronger now. This year, I was setting up a stall on behalf of a production house that I manage along with some other women. We produce videos and run a YouTube channel about Dalit empowerment. What happened in Bhima Koregaon? We were in the parking lot unloading materials when I realised there was trouble. A group of men approached us and told us that we could not put up any stalls and we should "get out" of the village. Although they appeared threatening, we chose to ignore them. Nearly an hour later, we found that we could not use our phones to make calls because we weren't able to access the network. My brother-in-law, who had gone back to the parking lot, returned with the news that the windows of our car had been shattered. And he said he had to flee from what looked like a mob of more than a 100 men, all of whom were holding saffron flags [which are commonly used by right-wing Hindu groups]. When we went out to the parking lot, we saw people running. And then the mob started running towards us. People started pelting stones at us from their balconies. Vehicles with symbols of Buddhism or those that displayed images of Dalit icons were targeted. An elderly man threw a large stone at a bus that had an 'Ashok Chakra' [a blue wheel that is a symbol of Buddhism] on it. [Dalits who have converted to Buddhism display these symbols on their vehicles.] Through all this, the police failed to protect us. We fled towards a neighbouring village but villagers prevented us from entering. They said: "You cannot wait here because they will burn our houses." We had no choice but to walk until we were a safe distance from Bhima Koregaon. Why I joined the Mumbai rally I took part in the protests on the streets of Mumbai to get justice for what happened to us - Dalits - in Bhima Koregaon. On that day in Bhima Koregaon, there were those like me who were there to represent justice and our struggle for it. But there were also others who were representing their individual agendas. But what was worse than the violence itself was the discussion that it kicked off on social media. It made me realise how little people knew of Dalit history or their status during British colonial rule. Some of my colleagues provoked me to react on social media and then humiliated me. They didn't treat me like a human being. They reduced my existence to my caste. Some people commented that this should happen to "them" [Dalits] since "their" status has progressed only because of "reservations" or quotas based on caste. Others said that while upper castes pay taxes, Dalits enjoy the benefits, adding that perhaps Dalits should go to Britain to "beg" for quotas since they had fought alongside British forces in the Koregaon battle. The comments don't surprise me since I have been hearing similar statements for a long time. Every time there is violence against Dalits, everyone blames the caste-based quotas in India. I want to know why is there so much anger and discrimination against Dalits? What does anyone truly gain from this? Aren't we - Dalits - human like the rest of them? More than a week has passed since the events in Bhima Koregaon but I can't forget what I saw. Now it's become a matter of our identity. So, we will fight until we get justice. We, the followers of BR Ambedkar [an iconic Dalit leader], believe in peace and I believe those who share our beliefs will never indulge in violence.

भारत के निम्न जाति के दलित समुदाय के हजारों लोगों ने इस महीने की शुरुआत में पश्चिमी शहर मुंबई में दक्षिणपंथी हिंदू समूहों के खिलाफ विरोध प्रदर्शन किया, जिससे शहर बंद हो गया। नेहाली उपाशम बताती हैं कि उन्होंने इसमें भाग क्यों लिया।


Green New Deal : Can this plan pushed by some Democrats really work?

Summary: Despite being labelled as a "socialist manifesto", the Green New Deal (GND) on climate change and jobs has sparked a lively debate in US politics. So what's in the deal and what will be its likely impact?

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent President Trump was quick to thrash the Democrats' new approach to tackling rising temperatures. Speaking in El Paso, he said the Green New Deal amounted to "taking away your car, taking away your plane flights". However in its current form, the GND is more a political statement than a set of proposals aimed at penalising US citizens. Introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey, the GND is a large scale re-imagining of how economies should work to deal with the root causes of climate change. It firmly and deliberately sets out to echo the past glories of FDR and the economic New Deal of the 1930s. Republican leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, said on Tuesday he will bring it to the Senate floor for a vote, so Democrats will have to back it or distance themselves from it. In the document, the GND calls for a "new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilisation on a scale not seen since World War II and the New Deal." The plan is built around the recent warnings from scientists about the impacts on the planet of a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius this century, above pre-industrial levels. Climate change would cost the US around $500bn a year in lost economic output, and risk trillions of dollars damage to infrastructure. By 2050 wildfires will likely burn at least twice as much forest area in the western states than was typically burned in the years preceding 2019. But as well as outlining the damage that climate change might bring, the GND links these threats to ongoing issues such as clean water, healthy food, adequate healthcare and education that are "inaccessible to a significant proportion of the United States population." To meet these challenges the document proposes a number of radical steps. The one making the biggest headlines is the 10-year decarbonisation of the US economy. This would be incredibly difficult to achieve without some sort of major technology advance. The UK, which already has a climate law on the statute books for a decade, is consulting on strengthening this to a net zero emissions target by 2050. That is a hefty challenge and would likely require the offsetting of continuing emissions, especially from truck transport and aviation. The EU also has a plan for net zero emissions by 2050. Some small island states or countries like Costa Rica may well decarbonise fully more quickly. I think the US will really struggle to get anywhere near net zero at any time without huge offsets from planting trees, or by using techniques like this to capture CO2. The New Green Deal also calls for all existing and new buildings to be upgraded to achieve maximum energy efficiency. Transport needs to be overhauled to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. However it goes well beyond questions of climate change, calling on the government to "guarantee a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security to all people of the United States." The need to help "frontline and vulnerable communities," who work in greenhouse gas intensive industries to transition to greener jobs is also seen as a key priority. Many observers believe that the programme is high on ambition but is not a practical plan to tackle climate change. "I'm afraid I just cannot see how we could possibly go to zero carbon in the 10-year timeframe," said former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz speaking to NPR. "It's just impractical. And if we start putting out impractical targets, we may lose a lot of key constituencies who we need to bring along to have a real low-carbon solution on the most rapid timeframe that we can achieve." As well as problems on the practicality of the plan, there are political issues as well. While the project has support from the more left-leaning Democrats in the House and Senate, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appeared less than enthusiastic initially. "It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive," she said. "The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it, right?" Republicans have been caustic in their dismissal. "I would like them to push it as far as they can. I'd like to see it on the floor. I'd like to see them actually have to vote on it," said Representative Mike Simpson, a republican from Idaho. "It's crazy. It's loony," he told Politico. Many commentators feel that right now, the Green New Deal is simply exacerbating the split between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of climate change, and allows the president to make all sorts of unsubstantiated comments on how it might impact on Americans. However it would be a mistake to see the plan as a utopian pipe dream designed to wind-up Republicans. Opinion polling in the US shows levels of concern over climate issues have never been higher. There is also a growing global movement, led mainly by young people, for whom the Green New Deal is exactly the type of action they believe is urgently needed. Many scientists feel the same. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has shown, in her short time in politics, that she is a formidable operator, who should not be underestimated. Despite the presidential and republican scorn, the GND has ignited a serious debate that may in time bring forward legislation on climate change that could, in time, command broader support. "This is an agenda setting exercise," Sarah Ladislaw from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told BBC News. "It basically recognises two fundamental problems - economic insecurity/inequality and climate change. There are lots of ways to address those issues that span the ideological spectrum. Hopefully the debate about which combination of policy approaches comes next."

"समाजवादी घोषणापत्र" के रूप में लेबल किए जाने के बावजूद, जलवायु परिवर्तन और नौकरियों पर ग्रीन न्यू डील (जी. एन. डी.) ने अमेरिकी राजनीति में एक जीवंत बहस छेड़ दी है। तो इस सौदे में क्या है और इसका संभावित प्रभाव क्या होगा?


Boy stabbed in chest as fight 'spills into' McDonald's in Coventry

Summary: A 17-year-old boy has been stabbed during an outbreak of disorder that spilled into a McDonald's restaurant.

Police were called to the fast food chain on Cross Cheaping in Coventry at 20:15 GMT on Friday after trouble flared between a number of youths. The boy was stabbed in the chest but his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, West Midlands Police said. CCTV is being checked and officers remain at the scene on Saturday.

मैकडॉनल्ड्स रेस्तरां में अव्यवस्था के प्रकोप के दौरान एक 17 वर्षीय लड़के को चाकू मार दिया गया है।


Why blend? Exploring the art and science of blending

Summary: Humans are the blending species, says philosopher of the senses Barry Smith, but what makes some blends work when others don't? What does the skill of a good blender consist in? And is blending an art or a science?

Whether your favourite drink is tea or coffee, champagne or Scotch whisky, you may be surprised to learn that what you're drinking is probably a blend. Whisky lovers often prize single malt whiskies more highly than the blended Scotch that combines them, but even single malts will be mostly blends of spirits from different casks. The urge to blend, it seems, is everywhere, and it is also a distinctly human act. We alone go in for these repeated experiments of combining what is known and familiar to create something new, and this marks us out as the blending species. The blending of words and phrases to express new thoughts, like the blending of sounds to create music, provide examples of a productive process in which we generate novel experiences by rearranging recognisable parts into previously unencountered wholes, and it is this process that makes blending fundamental in our creative ingenuity. When did the human urge to blend first appear? It is hard to put a date on it but the blending of flavours in teas or aromas in perfume has been with us for as long as we've known these products and the seemingly inexhaustible possibilities of creating new fragrances and new blends of teas continues apace. A blend is a combination of ingredients mixed together to produce something unique and distinctive and the success of a blend lies in its ability to unite separate elements into a seamless whole - or, a harmonious and unified arrangement of parts. Find out more The greater the number of elements, the harder it is to achieve overall balance and harmony, where all the parts make a contribution and no one element dominates the others. It may surprise you to learn that in a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky there can be as many as 30 single malts in the blend, mixed together with grain whisky. What is more astonishing still is that from year to year the blenders must attempt to reproduce the sought-after flavour of Black Label even though the malt whiskies they use to blend are in a different condition each year - and even when some of those malts may be unavailable. This is the skill of the blender: to aim at the same thing each time while ingredients change from year to year. It is the same story with champagne. Veuve Clicquot's Yellow Label wine is a blend of more than 450 wines, made from different grapes - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier - picked from different vineyards, combined with reserve wines made in previous years that have evolved with time. This famous blend depends on place, time and type of grape variety, to which are added the carbonated bubbles produced by a second fermentation of the wines in the bottle, making champagne perhaps the ultimate blended product. The secrets of blending are built up through a lifetime of experience. Perfumers know when two aromas will stay separate and when they will fuse to become a single new based on the proportions we combine. These combinations of notes, known as an "accord" - the French word for chord - which in turn becomes yet another ingredient to go into the blend. The art is knowing which mixtures are likely to work, which combinations of scents will fuse - and not confuse. We still don't understand the science behind this merging of compounds into a single, unified aroma. Is it something about the chemistry of these volatile substances, or, more likely, is it a characteristic of our olfactory equipment that our noses treats some collections of molecules as a single note and others as a diverse collection of odours? A single molecule, such as benzaldehyde, can smell like a mixture of cherry and almond, whereas collections of more than 800 molecules can smell like a single thing, coffee. The neuroscience of olfaction has several unresolved mysteries concerning the way we code and smell odours, which is why no artificial nose can yet predict which arrangements of scents we will experience as a whole let alone which ones we will find agreeable. For now, at least, the blending of aromas and flavours still relies on art as well as science. But why blend in the first place? Why not stick to the best quality ingredients without combining them? The urge to blend has been opposed by an equally strong urge for purity. There are passionate advocates of single-leaf teas, single-cask malt whiskies and single-vineyard champagnes, who argue that only here will we find true quality. The thinking behind the straining for purity is all about origins. The direct line back to a single source ensures that nothing has been lost or adulterated. Unfortunately, we sometimes encounter the same line of thought when it comes to the mixing of races or cultures. Opposed to this is cosmopolitanism, which says it doesn't matter where we come from, it's all about fitting in. Is this the right view? Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah is suspicious of the search for purity and he points out that hardly any of the things we care about in the domain of culture fit that model. "Shakespeare wouldn't have been very interesting if he'd said, 'I can't write a play about Hamlet because he's a Dane,'" he says. "Basho wouldn't have been much of a poet in Japan if he had said, 'I can't use Buddhism and I can't use this Chinese script to write my poetry, so I can't write haiku.' "It seems to be the natural condition of music and literature and so on to want to borrow and mix and rethink in order to make new things." At the same time Appiah is keen to stress that the importance of origins has been unduly neglected by some cosmopolitans. "I like what Gertrude Stein said about this. She said, 'What good are roots if you can't take them with you?' And I think all of us in fact can claim connection back down many branching routes through the family tree to many different places," he says. "I grew up in two places and each of them was very different from the other - one was a village in Gloucestershire and the other was the second largest town in Ghana. And I am pleased to be able to connect myself to both of those places both by ancestry and by experience. I wouldn't want them not to be different from each other; there wouldn't be anything additive about it, if they were to become the same." Stories of origins are important to most of us, and perhaps we can all agree that it's what's in the mix that matters - but also how well it's blended. Prof Barry C Smith is director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London's School of Advanced Study, and the founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses You may also be interested in: It's a delicious structure consisting of a small sponge with a chocolate cap covering a veneer of orange jelly. It is arguably Britain's greatest invention after the steam engine and the light bulb. But is a Jaffa Cake actually a biscuit, asks David Edmonds. Read: Cake or biscuit? Why Jaffa Cakes get philosophers very excited We all assume that we see what's before our eyes, and if we have normal colour vision we should be able to tell what colour the dress is. And yet we've just discovered that the world of observers divides into two groups - those who see the dress as white and gold, and those who see it as blue and black, or blue and olive green. They know they are looking at the same image and that it isn't changing, so why is there such marked disagreement about how the dress looks? Read: What would Wittgenstein say about that dress? The English language contains an alphabet soup of swear words. Those of a sweary disposition can draw upon the A-word, the B-word, the C-word, the F-word, the S-word, the W-word and many more. So here's a puzzle - if you see the F-word spelled out with all four letters, are you more offended than when you read F with asterisks? Read: Why do people swear?

इन्द्रियों के दार्शनिक बैरी स्मिथ कहते हैं कि मनुष्य सम्मिश्रण करने वाली प्रजाति हैं, लेकिन कुछ मिश्रणों को क्या काम करता है जब अन्य नहीं करते हैं? एक अच्छे सम्मिश्रक का कौशल किसमें निहित होता है? और यह एक कला या विज्ञान का सम्मिश्रण है?


National Arboretum in Alrewas marks VJ Day

Summary: A service has been held at the National Memorial Arboretum to mark the 65th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day.

The centre, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, marked the occasion as part of its remembrance service in the Millennium Chapel. Elsewhere, The Prince of Wales and Prime Minister David Cameron joined veterans at the Cenotaph in London. Almost 30,000 UK lives were lost in the Far East with 12,500 dying in prisoner of war camps. Related Internet Links Burma Star Association National Memorial Arboretum

जापान दिवस पर विजय की 65वीं वर्षगांठ को चिह्नित करने के लिए राष्ट्रीय स्मारक अर्बोरेटम में एक सेवा का आयोजन किया गया है।


Teenage suicide: Bereaved siblings fight mental health 'stigma'

Summary: Every few weeks, Sophie Fagg visits her sister Lucy and shares the latest twists and turns in her life - including the details that would likely have been used as ammunition for gentle, sisterly jokes.

By Josie Hannett and William McLennanBBC News "She liked to make fun of me, as sisters do," she said, standing by Lucy's grave in Sturry, Kent. The "bubbly" 16-year-old, who was an avid Liverpool fan and competitive angler, took her own life in March 2020. For Sophie, then aged 19, life changed forever in an instant. Daydreams of dropping future children with "fun aunt Lucy" disappeared. Regular trips to the local cemetery became the reality. "I like to chat to her, to let her know that she's still in our hearts," Sophie said. One year on, her emotions are still a mixture of guilt, pain and anger - both at herself and, less often, her sister. "I told my sister off at her funeral," she said. "I've got a little bit of anger at Lucy, because I'll never quite understand it." "You've got this pain that will never go away that you weren't able to help the person that you love," she said. Rates of suicide among young people have "generally increased in recent years," but the overall numbers remains low, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says. The deaths of 601 under-25s were recorded as suicides in England and Wales in 2019, compared to 434 ten years earlier. The rise was particularly clear in females aged between 10 and 24, for whom the rate per 100,000 rose from 1.6 in 2012 to 3.1 in 2019, the ONS said. Over the same period, the rate for males of the same age rose from 7 to 8.2. Last week, the government said £79m would be spent to increase mental health support for children and young people, including capacity to help an extra 22,500 people. Paul Farmer, of mental health charity Mind, welcomed the extra funding, and said that many children faced problems accessing support even before the pandemic, which had "disproportionately affected younger people". Sophie believes swift professional support would have saved her sister's life. "If she got the help that she needed, I'd still have my little sister to go home to everyday," she said. Sophie hopes speaking publicly about her sister will encourage people to get help and break a "weird stigma about talking about mental health". "I've got this fire in me to make sure that nobody else feels the way that I do," she said. Sapna Patel was just 14 when her 19-year-old brother, Sadil Narayan, ended his life. "I cry nearly every single day, because I miss him so much," she said. Four years later, she too hopes that sharing her story will help others. "I want to give a positive message: 'Please reach out to someone as you are not alone. I lost my brother and I wouldn't want anyone to go through this.'" At first, her sadness was tinged with anger. "I'd miss him so much, I'd feel like he abandoned me," the 18-year-old, from Edgware, north London, said. Seeing other people with their siblings triggered feelings of jealousy and memories of their tight bond, forged over hours of Xbox games and trips in his car. "He loved cars so much," she remembers. "That was his favourite hobby." In the years since, Sapna said she became increasingly withdrawn, wary of forming close friendships that might lead to questions about her brother. "I isolated myself from a lot of people," she said. "With friends, I try and stay away from them because I don't want to talk about my situation." With the help of therapy, she is determined to end her self-enforced isolation. When she returns to college as lockdown eases, she is prepared for any questions from the new friends she hopes to make. "If people ask me how many siblings do you have, I say I used to have a sibling, but he is not here anymore. I just say I don't want to talk about it, otherwise it's going to make me upset." Ben West's drive to improve awareness and treatment of mental health issues has reached many highs, including an appointment with the prime minister and a Pride of Britain regional award. It began when his 15-year-old brother Sam took his own life in the family home in Cranbrook, Kent, in January 2018. The cycle of emotions triggered by the shock, trauma and grief was "like being put into a washing machine," he said. "It will go and then it will stop, and then you'll have a different phase of the cycle. It's totally confusing, disorientating, claustrophobic." How to help If you're worried someone is suicidal, asking them directly can help, the Samaritans say. There are some signs to look for: Source: The Samaritans In the weeks after his brother's death, he received hundreds of messages from people sharing their stories and he thought to himself: "How can all of these people be suffering in the same way, and none of them know they're all suffering in the same way together?" Sam had been diagnosed with depression in September 2017. Despite having an amazing group of friends, who Ben knows would have been understanding, his brother did not want to share his struggles, he said. "In hindsight knowing what he was dealing with and me as an older brother not understanding that at the time, I just wanted to do my best to stop this from happening to somebody else," he said. Despite the strides forward in awareness, and public outpourings at key dates like World Mental Health Day, many people still feel hesitant to speak out, he said. "Publicly, everyone is supporting this, but there's still a stigma." The 20-year-old, who is studying aeronautical engineering at university, says the campaign has helped him carry on through the grief. "I couldn't be functioning as a person if I wasn't doing this. I'm still going through the death of my brother. I still need to cope with that. So for me, this positive that I can bring out of it has been just invaluable to coping with that." While he was helped by a "lovely group of friends and an amazingly supportive family", he feels more should be done to help siblings bereaved by suicide, with a greater emphasis on therapy. "It's taken me three years to actually go and see a counsellor, because I've had to go out of my way to go and find out about that," he said. "If someone had actually sat me down and said let's get you involved in this, that could have saved me so much pain in the last few years." Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.

हर कुछ हफ्तों में, सोफी फैग अपनी बहन लुसी से मिलने जाती है और अपने जीवन में नवीनतम मोड़ और मोड़ साझा करती है-जिसमें वे विवरण भी शामिल हैं जिनका उपयोग संभवतः सौम्य, बहन के चुटकुलों के लिए गोला-बारूद के रूप में किया गया होगा।


Australia country profile

Summary: Australia ranks as one of the best countries to live in the world by international comparisons of wealth, education, health and quality of life. The sixth-largest country by land mass, its population is comparatively small with most people living around the eastern and south-eastern coastlines.

The country's first inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, are believed to have migrated from Asia tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers in 1788. They now make up less than 3% of Australia's 23 million people. Years of mass immigration after the Second World War heralded sweeping demographic changes, making modern Australia one of the world's most multicultural countries. But migration continues to be a sensitive issue politically. In shaping its foreign and economic policy, Australia first looked to Europe and the US but in the last 20 years has developed stronger ties with Asia. It has acted as peacekeeper in the region sending missions to Solomon Islands, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Although Australia remains part of the Commonwealth, the future role of the monarchy has been a recurring issue in politics. An aging population, pressure on infrastructure and environmental concerns such as climate change are some of the long-term challenges facing the country. FACTS Commonwealth of Australia Capital: Canberra Population 22.9 million Area 7.7 million sq km (2.9 million sq miles) Major language English Major religion Christianity Life expectancy 80 years (men), 84 years (women) Currency Australian dollar LEADERS Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general Prime Minister: Scott Morrison Scott Morrison emerged victorious from a week of governing Liberal Party infighting in August 2018 to succeed Malcolm Turnbull as leader of Australia's main conservative party and prime minister. The socially-liberal Mr Turnbull steered same-sex marriage among other measures through parliament after ousting his more conservative predecessor Tony Abbott in 2015, but his poor poll ratings spurred an unsuccessful right-wing challenge. The weakened prime minister bowed out, allowing the socially conservative but pragmatic finance minister Scott Morrison time to unite the party ahead of May 2019 elections that saw the governing coalition returned to power with a majority. As immigration minister under Tony Abbott in 2013-2014, Mr Morrison came to prominence for enforcing the policy of stopping boats run by people-smugglers from docking in Australia. MEDIA Australia's media scene is creatively, technologically and economically advanced. There is a tradition of public broadcasting but privately-owned TV and radio enjoy the lion's share of viewing and listening. Media ownership is highly concentrated. Leading groups include News Corp Australia, Seven West Media and Fairfax Media-Nine Entertainment. Around 88% of Australians are online. TIMELINE Some key dates in Australia's history: 40,000 BC - The first Aborigines arrive from southeast Asia. By 20,000 BC they have spread throughout the mainland and Tasmania. 1770 - Captain James Cook charts the east coast in his ship HM Endeavour and claims it as a British possession, naming it "New South Wales". 1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia comes into being. 1914 - Australia commits hundreds of thousands of troops to the British war effort during World War 1. Their participation in the Gallipoli campaign leads to heavy casualties. 1948 - Australia launches a scheme for mass immigration from Europe. 2002 - In Bali, 88 Australians are among 202 people killed when bombs go off in two nightclubs. 2008 - Government makes a formal apology for past wrongs committed against the indigenous Aboriginal population. Read a full timeline

धन, शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य और जीवन की गुणवत्ता की अंतर्राष्ट्रीय तुलना में ऑस्ट्रेलिया दुनिया में रहने के लिए सबसे अच्छे देशों में से एक है। भूमि द्रव्यमान के हिसाब से छठा सबसे बड़ा देश, इसकी आबादी पूर्वी और दक्षिण-पूर्वी तटरेखाओं के आसपास रहने वाले अधिकांश लोगों के साथ तुलनात्मक रूप से कम है।


Manx Wildlife Trust surveying Isle of Man seal population

Summary: The seal population off the Isle of Man is being surveyed for the first time in a decade.

Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT) is aiming to collect as much information as possible as the numbers have not been formally monitored since 2007. MWT is looking for volunteers to spend time on the Calf of Man, an islet off the Isle of Man's south coast, which is the main seal colony and breeding site. It is thought about 40 seals are born there every year.

आइल ऑफ मैन की सील आबादी का सर्वेक्षण एक दशक में पहली बार किया जा रहा है।


Farewell, Lords reform?

Summary: So. Farewell. Then. Lords Reform. Today's rumours, that Nick Clegg may be about to fold on his proposed elected Upper House, suggest that the coalition is drawing back from a major clash over a bill it probably can't get through the Commons in any event.

Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent Most of the senior Liberal Democrats I talked to as this week's events unfolded maintained an almost zen-like calm abut the whole thing. They regarded it as a Tory problem - giving rise to a subtle attack line, that Cameron's Conservatives were not quite the cuddly reformist bunch they wished to appear. The official coalition line, as recounted to me by the Leader of the House, Sir George Young, on tonight's edition of Today in Parliament (BBC Radio 4, 11.30pm) is that they hope to defuse their internal opposition with some concessions, and negotiate a deal with Labour to timetable the bill. But neither of these options look very plausible. First, the Tory rebels' central objection is to the whole idea of an elected Upper House, empowered to challenge the ancient supremacy of the Commons. On that, it seems, most of them will not budge. And so effective has the rebel operation been, that they clearly have the numbers and organisation to tie the government in knots at committee stage. As for Labour, their support for Lords reform may not extend to helping the coalition out of this particular hole. There are certainly a lot of hard-liners who want to leave Nick 'n Dave to stew in their own juice. Another factor is that the timetable for getting the bill through is tighter than might be imagined. Suppose the bill cleared the Commons (an optimistic thought) it would still run into sand in the Lords. So the government would then have to use the Parliament Act to over-ride the Lords. This would entail passing the same bill, a second time, in the 2013-14 session, opening up the prospect of a re-run of this week's festivities. In that event, the bill would go to the Lords again, and once blocked or amended, it would automatically be sent off for Royal Assent, and would become law. So we're looking at a bill which goes onto the statute book in the autumn of 2013 at the earliest. And here's where things get tight: suppose that the bill is amended in the Commons to require a referendum to endorse the new-look Lords - not improbable since Labour and many Tories want a referendum - the Electoral Commission normally requires a six-month consultation on the terms of a referendum, which would make for a tight timetable, if it was to be held in tandem with the 2014 European elections. So any delay would make matters very difficult. All this will have been stirred into Nick Clegg's calculations. And since this will be the first occasion on which one of the coalition parties has failed to deliver the votes for an agreed part of its programme, he will doubtless feel entitled to demand a price for getting David Cameron off the hook. One novel idea might be to demand something the voters actually want, which might attract a bit of support for his party. They've garnered little credit for the income tax cuts they pushed for, or for the pupil premium. * A commentator asked about the committal motion necessary to send the bill to a committee of the whole house. This is normally a pretty routine procedure, taken on the nod, normally alongside a programme motion. But with this bill almost anything could turn into a procedural Gettysburg. It would be a committee of the whole house, because this is a constitutional issue. * Another commentator said snap elections are a thing of the past under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. Not quite. If the government fell, as a result of a no-confidence motion, there would be a two-week grace period to allow the parties to see whether a new administration could be constructed. If it could not, the Speaker would have to certify that - and then Parliament would be dissolved and an election held. So, to be sure, a prime minister could not wake up one morning and decide to hold an election - but it is far from impossible to engineer such a stalemate, thus causing an election. Indeed, several Conservative MPs devote happy hours to fantasising about that very possibility.

तो. अलविदा. फिर. लॉर्ड्स रिफॉर्म. आज की अफवाहें, कि निक क्लेग अपने प्रस्तावित निर्वाचित उच्च सदन में शामिल होने वाले हैं, यह बताती हैं कि गठबंधन एक ऐसे विधेयक पर एक बड़े टकराव से पीछे हट रहा है जिसे शायद किसी भी स्थिति में कॉमन्स के माध्यम से प्राप्त नहीं किया जा सकता है।


How can Scotland cope with China's salmon demands?

Summary: The Scottish salmon industry had a major boost after China opened its doors to imports - but with the government setting a target to increase salmon production by 50% by 2020, local communities are divided over whether the financial rewards outweigh environmental concerns.

By Anne-Marie BullockProducer, Costing the Earth: Chinese Salmon "Thousands of people come from all over the world to look at this landscape. This is the one place in the world you shouldn't put a factory fish farm." Roc Sandford is the owner of the island of Gometra in the Inner Hebrides - one of the wildest and undeveloped parts of the UK. To get there you have to travel to Mull, summon the small foot ferry to the island of Ulva and then either commission a boat, walk a five mile causeway or, I suppose, swim. There are no roads so a quad bike is the fastest way to get across the island - and the handful of residents live without electricity. Off the north shore of the island, in Loch Tuath, an application has been made for a fish farm by The Scottish Salmon Company. "It's a wild landscape and to have something just popping out of the sea with the sheer size that it is, is just not we want here" says resident Rhoda Munro. The residents have started a petition which they say has been signed by people from over 40 countries and the Community Councils of both Mull and Iona have objected strongly to the farm. They argue that it will be a navigational hazard, forcing their boats to detour into rougher waters and they are concerned about the impact on wildlife including seals as well as light pollution ruining their rare dark skies. The Scottish Salmon Company, has declined to comment on the application. But on the neighbouring island of Ulva there is support as the farm will provide four full time jobs. "The important thing for me is we get some more young families into this area because otherwise it dies out," says Lucy McKenzie who runs a B&B on Ulva. "If we've no young families, the school closes and if that happens young people move away. Emma McKie and Rebecca Munro run the Boathouse café on Ulva. They say the tourists who come into the café tell them they are not put off by the nearby fish farms but realise it is part of the life and economy. "People appreciate that the people who live here have to make a living and you can't survive on the tourist industry six months a year." "And they are fairly sympathetic to the landscape - they blend in fairly well." Gometra is just one of the rumbling conflicts across Scotland. In the last six months there have been five applications for new fish farms in Scotland. The Scottish government's National Marine Plan aims to expand salmon production sustainably by 4% a year from 154,000 tonnes in 2010 to 210,000 tonnes by 2020. But in January 2011 the Scottish and Chinese governments signed a deal to allow the export of Scottish salmon into the Asian giant's market for the first time. Previously Norway was the main exporter to China Chinese Vice premier Li said even if only 1% of the people of China chose to eat Scottish salmon it would have to double production but that has rung alarm bells. Demand is also increasing from other Asian countries as well. Salmon farms have traditionally involved large numbers of fish contained in nets in inshore waters raising a number of environmental issues. Critics are concerned about the levels of sea lice at farms which can be passed on to passing wild fish and are particularly harmful to juvenile fish. They say escaped fish pass on genetic weakness to wild salmon if interbreeding occurs. The Salmon and Trout Association's Guy Linley-Adams says they are not against salmon farming but object to "the inappropriate location of some fish farms where they have negative effect on wild fish populations." There is also concern with the amount of allowed pollution of the sea bed under farms by faeces and waste food and the shooting of predator seals. But the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation says the Scottish Environment Protection Agency assesses farms before and during operation, and sets limits on the use of chemicals and allowed pollution. It says farms are required to monitor sea lice and seals are discouraged by acoustic deterrents and nets. And action is being taken to reduce the number of fish escapes. "We measure the ecological load an area can take and we offer licences only where were convinced there is a proper balance between effects of fish farming and the ability of local environment to absorb the effects of farming," says Stewart Stevenson the Scottish Minister for Environment and Climate Change. "I think we've been successful in that and that's widely recognised." Increasingly one way forward is being seen as locating salmon farms outside of lochs in the sea. Applications are being seen for more dispersive 'open sea' sites out of lochs along the shoreline, which it is hoped could prove less of a threat to wild fish as they are away from the river mouths. "On the West coast where we've traditionally farmed, it's difficult to find suitable locations to give you a good size of farm," says Steve Bracken from one of the largest salmon producers, Marine Harvest which already has two open sea sites in Uist and Barra and three more potential sites. "2,500 tonnes is the maximum amount of live fish you can hold on your farm at any one time. So by going further out into open water locations we hope we might see larger farms develop out there." Another possible development is "closed containment" systems where fish are grown in large tanks kept within the sea or on land and water is pumped in, filtered and recirculated. The Salmon and Trout Association says this system would eradicate all their concerns. Three possible onshore sites in Scotland have been identified by Andrew Robertson for his company Fish From. These are more expensive to set up but he does not think shoppers would be put off by this tank style system rather than having had them swimming in the sea. "The quality of the product has to come highest in the list of people's beliefs," he argues, and points out there is a need for new production systems for the increasing world population. "In the next 18 years the UN has identified there will be a huge shortfall in aquaculture produced food and unless it grows by 60million tonnes there is going to be a shortfall in nutrition. In 2050 when there are 9bn people on the planet there isn't going to be a way of feeding them without innovative ways of growing high quality nutrition." Applications for inshore fish farms are still being made and the level of pollution that is deemed acceptable is still disputed. But for Tessa McGregor a biologist who lives on Ulva the dilemma is not just represented in Scotland but around the world. "It's a balance with 7bn people... so this is a tiny microcosm of the tough decisions we're going to have to make worldwide. The world has changed, farming has changed, our carbon footprint, our expectations have changed and we've got to look at what is now sustainable globally." Costing the Earth: Chinese Salmon is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Tuesday, 11 September at 15:30 and repeated Wednesday, 12 at 21:00.

चीन द्वारा आयात के लिए अपने दरवाजे खोलने के बाद स्कॉटिश सैल्मन उद्योग को एक बड़ा बढ़ावा मिला-लेकिन सरकार द्वारा 2020 तक सैल्मन उत्पादन को 50 प्रतिशत तक बढ़ाने का लक्ष्य निर्धारित करने के साथ, स्थानीय समुदाय इस बात पर विभाजित हैं कि क्या वित्तीय पुरस्कार पर्यावरणीय चिंताओं से अधिक हैं।


London Bridge: Steve Marsh relives 2017 Westminster Bridge attack

Summary: Friday's stabbing attack at London Bridge, in which two people were killed, has brought back difficult memories for Steve Marsh. The former Metropolitan Police officer, from Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, recalls seeing his colleague PC Keith Palmer killed by Khalid Masood at the House of Commons almost three years ago.

On 22 March 2017 Steve Marsh found himself at at the centre of a terrorist attack in London. Four people were killed and at least 50 people were injured when Khalid Masood drove his car into crowds on Westminster Bridge. He then got out of his vehicle outside Parliament and stabbed PC Keith Palmer to death before being shot dead by police. Mr Marsh, who was positioned on the gate at the House of Commons, said he first realised there was a problem when he heard a loud bang and saw lots of people running towards him. 'He's stabbing people' "My first reaction was to try and establish what they were fleeing from," he told Gareth Lewis on BBC Radio Wales. "I remember shouting to people 'what have you seen? What's happening?' "I remember there being one female voice responded saying 'there's a man, he's stabbing people'." At that moment Mr Marsh turned around and saw his colleague PC Palmer being attacked. "I back-tracked through the gate at Parliament and that's when I've seen PC Keith Palmer being driven backwards by the suspect with a large carving knife in each hand, with a stabbing action down on my colleague and driving him backwards." He watched as a pair of armed close protection officers ran past him and shot Masood. After the incident Mr Marsh was given leave but he turned down an offer of counselling: "All the support was there, we had welfare officers in the police and the calls were pretty quick to come in from them. "From my own perspective I never needed them. "I've got good friends and a good large family so I always had someone to talk to. He said his almost three decades in the police had left him "somewhat conditioned for what happened". "I've never seen anything like that happen before but I've seen varying degrees of it. "I've seen injured people, I've seen stabbed people so it didn't come as much as a shock to me as it might have done." Friday's attack has prompted calls for large venues to have a terrorist attack plan, but Mr Marsh is not convinced that would work: "I'm a bit cynical about such things," he said. "No one attack is the same as any other. You never know where it's going to come or what shape it's going to come - I don't see how you can make plans for that. He also doubts people caught up in a sudden attack would follow a plan: "In my experience it's rare that people follow the plans - you have little to no time to react most of the time and so to expect people to follow any kind of plan I think is a bit of a tall order." "Most of these attacks come pretty suddenly, it doesn't give you a chance to react sensibly - you just do what you do."

लंदन ब्रिज पर शुक्रवार को चाकू से किए गए हमले, जिसमें दो लोग मारे गए थे, ने स्टीव मार्श के लिए कठिन यादें वापस ला दी हैं। लैंटविट मेजर, वेल ऑफ ग्लैमॉर्गन के पूर्व मेट्रोपॉलिटन पुलिस अधिकारी, लगभग तीन साल पहले अपने सहयोगी पीसी कीथ पामर को खालिद मसूद द्वारा हाउस ऑफ कॉमन्स में मारे जाने को याद करते हैं।


X Factor singer Katie Waissel is 'fine' after collapse

Summary: X Factor bosses have told Newsbeat that Katie Waissel is "feeling fine" after she collapsed while out shopping with the other contestants in London.

The 24-year-old was in Topshop on Wednesday (20 October) when she was taken ill. X Factor bosses said "Katie felt unwell and there were trained first aiders on hand to look after her". The group will be performing on this weekend's show, which has a Guilty Pleasures theme. Katie's mentor Cheryl Cole will also be performing her new single The Flood on Sunday's show.

एक्स फैक्टर के मालिकों ने न्यूजबीट को बताया है कि लंदन में अन्य प्रतियोगियों के साथ खरीदारी करते समय गिरने के बाद केटी वैसेल "ठीक महसूस कर रही हैं"।


Scaling up, moving out

Summary: Salmon farming is going through unprecedented change. Industry giant Mowi has offered to move away from "contentious" sea loch sites in north-west Scotland, in exchange for permission to replace the capacity in wilder waters. Already the UK's leading food export, the industry has big plans for expansion, driving efficiency and production. Norwegian companies are investing in trials of vast, deep-sea fish farms, which could see the industry move out of dependence on sea lochs and fjords.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland It's 50 years or so since a ramshackle, welded cage was lowered into Lochailort, and salmon farming began. In the first year of production, 1971, Unilever's subsidiary, Marine Harvest, produced a total of 14 tonnes from the site. The industry has put on a lot of biomass since then. And other countries have overtaken Scotland, in output and in innovation - notably Norway, which also dominates corporate clout in the sector. Scotland's salmon farming now accounts for Britain's biggest single food export, yet it also represents merely 6% of global production. It commands a premium price, but its growth has been constrained by planning controls, which in turn have had to take into account the impact of salmon farms on sea loch conditions for wild fish. High concentrations of salmon in cages creates a lot of waste in what they like to call the benthic zone, which most of us call the seabed. Farmed salmon also have a growing appeal for sea lice. While the industry has been spending big to combat infestations - with chemicals, a warm water bath, and the "cleaner fish" which predate on lice - it has failed to get on top of the problem. And sea lice aren't that fussy: they feed off wild species too. Indeed, that's how they got into the cages. Scotland's salmon farming industry is not alone in facing these challenges. Chile, also blessed with a long coastline of relatively sheltered fjords, has seen boom and bust due to disease. On the west of Canada and the USA, environmental impact is hotly contested. After 30 years, and a very large escape, farming of the Atlantic salmon is being phased out in Washington state by 2022. During spring this year, fish farms in northern Norway faced a very costly algal bloom, causing the death of eight million fish. Naturally occurring, hard to predict and possibly more likely due to climate change, a bloom's impact on cages seems anything but natural. So salmon farming is risky, yet that doesn't stop the industry in Scotland wanting to grow. In October 2016, it set out a strategic plan which would see output double by 2030 to around 350,000 tonnes per year, and to £3.6bn in value. That implies a 5% annual growth rate, which is far beyond what it has achieved, largely due to "biological" issues such as sea lice, requiring affected fish to be slaughtered long before their optimum weight. To get to its targets, the industry wants to raise capacity, securing licences which would expand the maximum size of a fish farm site, bringing that closer to the more efficient Norwegian scale. Norway has licences for sites of up to 10,000 tonnes of biomass. It supports the industry with the outlook that global leadership and investment in sustainable aquaculture is one of the country's best prospects after the oil runs out. It has set itself the target of being the world's leading producer of seafood. Faced with losses due to mortality, those Norwegian farms affected by this year's algal bloom have been given 20% more allowance for the next five years, to help them make up for losses. Meanwhile, until recently, the maximum Scottish tonnage per site was 2,500 tonnes. Regulation has been altered so that the maximum capacity is set by environmental impact (primarily, of salmon waste) rather than biomass tonnage. The industry would like more sites in sea lochs, but it recognises that it's not going to be easy to secure them - not while campaigners and MSPs are on its case. A committee report last year called for tougher regulation. It did not support calls for a moratorium, but it warned of some sites having unacceptably high fish mortality, and had 65 recommendations for improvements. Forcing compromise There is a potential game-changer, and it relates to the flimsiness of that ramshackle welded cage back in 1971. The fish have been in sea lochs because their cages have not been able to withstand the battering of wilder waters. If they build the cages stronger, they can expand the area where aquaculture can take place. And that is what is happening. Led by Norwegian trials, bigger cages have been put further out at sea, anchored to the seabed. They are better designed to withstand seal attacks, with a net over the top to discourage birds. Crucially, they are designed to withstand big storms. So Mowi - formarly Marine Harvest, the industry giant, based in Norway - announced on Tuesday that it wants to vacate two of the most "contentious" sites, in Loch Ewe and Loch Duich. That is an explicit recognition that the battle with those who speak for wild fish stocks is forcing some compromise. The Mowi offer is conditional: to give up on the contentious sites only in order to relocate, taking with them at least the same capacity, and with a five-year expansion plan being pursued. That is, there must be the same capacity further offshore, and the industry will be back for more after that. Mowi has stronger cages in "high energy" sites off the small Hebridean isles of Muck and Rum. It is willing to put more fish into such sites, if it is given permission. That ought to be easier to secure than near-shore sites. Stronger currents and tides should disperse salmon waste and disperse its harmful effects. They might also force the salmon to swim harder, thus firming up the texture of the meat, which is less muscled and firm than wild-caught salmon. Different designs of pen are being deployed. Some are trialling methods of keeping salmon below the level, around 3m down, where sea lice thrive. A "snorkel" in the design allows the fish to access oxygen briefly. Others are trying out very large collecting sacks for salmon poop, with the prospect not only of removing it and the harm it can do, but for recycling into fertiliser. Among the most ambitious is SalMar, which owns half of Scottish Sea Farms, the second biggest producer in the UK. It has invested US$70m in the Ocean Farm project. Built in China, with a tubular design, the cage has been shipped to the North Sea. Fitted with sensors, it can pump feed into the water at a lower level in the cages, instead of the less-efficient method of depositing it at the surface. A much larger Smart Fish Farm is planned, for location 20 to 30 miles offshore, in the roughest of seas. It will be twice the size of the Ocean Farm - 170m in diameter, 60m in depth, with the capacity for three million fish. The structure, resembling a spider's web, is to have a central, load-bearing column, to house the facility to harvest fish, as well as a control centre and research lab. To guard against the potential spread of disease, it will include treatment plants with which to isolate problems. In placing people offshore, safety is supposed to be equivalent to that found in the oil and gas industry. Getting the necessary licences from the Norwegian government is not proving to be plain sailing. But if that scale of aquaculture can be made economic, it makes salmon farming a process that can be carried out anywhere in the ocean where there are the right water temperatures. At the same time, with farmed fish and shellfish seen as a vital food source for the world's expanding population, there is growing talk of developing onshore aquaculture, in vast concrete drums. These would be for species that don't grow the way salmon, tuna and halibut do, notably shrimps and prawns. For the Scottish industry, such developments offer both an opportunity and a challenge. With deep sea technology, if sea lochs become an unnecessary feature of production, Scotland could either be squeezed out, or it could be a base - if Norwegian investors give their support - from which the industry could continue to thrive. And what about the building of large, fabricated steel structures, fit for use in hostile seas? There's quite a lot of capacity for that currently going unused at mothballed BiFab, as well as other former yards for offshore oil and gas. Lest there be any doubt, Mowi's offer of moving out of those contentious sites in sea lochs is being welcomed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Having the say on how much harm is being done, and whether it meets or fails the conditions of licences, a SEPA statement says it is "really encouraged to see the industry is proactiely choosing to consider more sustainable locations". "SEPA's new regulatory framework for marine cage fish farming, launched on 1 June, combines more accurate modelling and enhanced monitoring to encourage a more sustainable approach to the siting of fish farms," it said. "In practice, we anticipate this will lead to fewer fish farms in shallower, slow-flowing waters and more fish farms in offshore locations where the environment capacity can better assimilate wastes. The new framework is designed to actively support operators who are seeking to relocate to more sustainable locations, and through improved practices and the innovative use of new technologies, reduce their impact on the marine environment. "Indeed, our new framework provides exactly the type of flexibility and outcome-focus Mowi outlines it is looking for. Within this new framework, we will consider each individual proposal on its merits against the legal standards."

सैल्मन की खेती अभूतपूर्व बदलाव से गुजर रही है। उद्योग की दिग्गज कंपनी मोवी ने जंगली जल में क्षमता को बदलने की अनुमति के बदले उत्तर-पश्चिम स्कॉटलैंड में "विवादास्पद" समुद्री लॉच स्थलों से दूर जाने की पेशकश की है। पहले से ही यूके के प्रमुख खाद्य निर्यात, उद्योग के पास विस्तार, ड्राइविंग दक्षता और उत्पादन के लिए बड़ी योजनाएं हैं। नॉर्वे की कंपनियां विशाल, गहरे समुद्र में मछली खेतों के परीक्षणों में निवेश कर रही हैं, जो उद्योग को समुद्री लॉच और फ्जॉर्ड्स पर निर्भरता से बाहर निकलते हुए देख सकती हैं।


Investigator Peter Humphrey warns over GSK China ordeal

Summary: It's exactly two years since the door of Peter Humphrey's Shanghai bedroom was kicked in by police and he disappeared into a prison nightmare which ended only three weeks ago with his deportation from China.

Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter In an exclusive interview with the BBC, the British corporate investigator who became embroiled in GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) China corruption scandal tells me his story is "a cautionary tale which many people can learn from". The risks of doing business in China, he says, are "on the same scale as the opportunities", and governments, including the British government, "have not been doing a very thorough job of making business understand the risks". "Absolutely any company going to China could be the next party to suffer our fate if they fail to understand this," he says. The fate suffered by Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng was to spend two years in squalid and crowded jail cells, to be denied urgent medical attention and to be separated from each other and from their son. The corporate investigator says it was both a shattering experience and a miscarriage of justice. "None of our staff did anything illegal," he told me. "We engaged third parties to help us with some parts of our work. We always instructed them to follow legal means but had no control over the methods they used." So why the prosecution and the prison term? "It doesn't stack up at all when you analyse our case and the GSK case on the basis of the information you have. It doesn't stack up at all." The couple were corporate investigators who became embroiled in a Chinese police investigation of corruption at GSK. The British pharmaceuticals giant had bribed Chinese doctors and hospitals to buy its medicines. Mr Humphrey and his wife were in no way implicated in that corruption, but had been hired by the company to investigate the source of a secretly filmed sex video of GSK's top boss in China and of whistleblower emails sent to company headquarters in London. "I believe we were collateral damage in a wider dispute between a company and the authorities which led to us being dragged in," he said. Even now, Peter Humphrey is reluctant to discuss the details of the GSK case or of his relationship with his former client. Asked why, he tells me: "It's not impossible that we may sue some of these parties or through other means try to seek redress." Corruption crackdown He says he watched the TV coverage of the GSK trial from his Shanghai prison cell. The company was found guilty of systematic bribery and fined £300m. He was shocked by the contrast between his punishment and theirs. "Suspended jail sentences for three or four of the main culprits when I and my wife had been sentenced to years in prison," he says. "Someone asked me recently why someone like Mark Reilly (GSK China's boss) could be set free and we were in jail. I think it's very simple, we don't have half a billion dollars. That story was about money from the beginning. Money got them into trouble and money got him out." The events which led to these trials took place in the early part of 2013 when China's new President Xi Jinping had just declared nationwide campaigns against corruption and for the rule of law. Peter Humphrey says that at the time he welcomed these developments: "We felt hopeful that a new era with a genuine crackdown against corruption, had arrived. "What we were doing for companies in the private sector was very similar to what the government now seemed to be doing in the public sector. Unfortunately though, when such a crackdown is driven in a sort of campaign style, throughout China's history in the past 60 or 70 years, we have seen that campaigns are often taken advantage of and used to conduct personal vendettas and I think that's what happened to us. Someone took offence and then orchestrated an act of personal revenge." Having been deported from China, Peter Humphrey does not know whether he'll ever be able to go back. His two years in prison do not erase his 40 year affection for the country. "I love China. I love the Chinese people I've known over the years. I've had many positive memories and experiences. This does not erase them," he says. But once the investigator, always the investigator. From a world away in south-east England, Peter Humphrey needs to focus first on getting the medical treatment that he was denied in prison. But he is also determined to work out exactly what triggered his two year nightmare in Shanghai. "I and my wife are not vengeful people. But we are angry because an injustice occurred. We are pursuing justice not revenge," he adds. How the case unfolded:

ठीक दो साल हो गए हैं जब पीटर हम्फ्री के शंघाई शयनकक्ष के दरवाजे पर पुलिस ने लात मारी थी और वह जेल के एक बुरे सपने में गायब हो गया था जो केवल तीन सप्ताह पहले चीन से उसके निर्वासन के साथ समाप्त हुआ था।


Man charged with murder over Joanne Rand chemical splash death

Summary: A man has appeared in court charged with murdering a woman who died after being splashed with a corrosive substance.

Xeneral Webster, 18, of no fixed address, is accused of killing Joanne Rand from Marlow, Buckinghamshire. The 47-year-old was burned in Frogmoor, High Wycombe, on 3 June and died in hospital on 14 June. Mr Webster appeared at Amersham Law Courts on Thursday and was remanded in custody. More news from Buckinghamshire He is due to appear at Reading Crown Court on 9 April.

एक आदमी एक महिला की हत्या के आरोप में अदालत में पेश हुआ है, जिसकी मौत एक संक्षारक पदार्थ के छिड़काव के बाद हुई थी।


Do bank branches just need a makeover?

Summary: After being met by a concierge as you step through the door, you can help yourself to a cappuccino and a hot towel, and dispatch the children to the Kids' Zone while you relax by the granite rock garden fountain.

By Kevin PeacheyPersonal finance reporter, BBC News Welcome not to a high-end hotel, but to the Financial Spa. It is, in fact, a branch of the North Shore Credit Union in Vancouver, Canada. There are displays of local artists' work and among the aromatherapy candles, you can discuss loans and insurance in what the credit union describes as a "cosy, semi-private lounge" with soft music playing in the background. It is all a far cry from the stereotype of a branch of a UK bank, with its long queues, poorly staffed counters and freezing cold draughts from the overused entrance. Is this boutique, sofa-clad destination modelled in Vancouver the bank branch of the future? Or, as the Co-op pulls out of a deal to buy more than 600 branches from Lloyds, is there any point in banks having a shop-front at all? The UK's major banks, running a £9bn current-account market, have a branch network numbering about 10,000. They appear to have changed little over the years, with a line of counters and a deposit and withdrawal machine tucked into the wall. New entrants to the UK market have tried to jazz up the look of branches, convinced they remain key to the demands of customers. For example, Metro Bank is selling itself with a branch network that is open every day except Easter Monday, New Year's Day and Christmas Day, and the doors are not locked until late. The branding even goes so far as to call their premises "stores", not branches. "Through our stores we are able to provide traditional banking services and build personal relationships, and as a community bank our ethos is entirely focused on offering amazing customer service," says chief executive Craig Donaldson. Online v branch In Vancouver, they are targeting better-off members of the community. Chris Catliff, chief executive of the North Shore Credit Union, says that while their deposits have grown since the Financial Spa makeover, the membership numbers have stalled. These affluent customers are likely to be using their laptops, tablet computers and mobile phones for their banking needs too. Mr Catliff sees the future of retail financial services as one of "bricks and clicks" - with online banking just as important as a branch network. "Increasingly, banking will no longer be about where you go, but what you do online. As a result, branch investment will decline over time. Having a strong, emotional, physical brand is a leg up for online branding," he says. The bank branch of the future may see the digital world come into the branches, rather than replace them. The Bank of America recently announced plans to introduce video cash machines at branches in Boston, followed by the rest of the US later in the year. The machine will include a screen so customers can talk to a member of staff by video link. In effect, it will be a conference call to a call centre, and will be available later in the day, when counter staff have gone home. Technology such as this may dilute the importance of face-to-face banking and, according to banking expert Peter Hahn, of Cass Business School, remove the need for traditional branches altogether. "First the telephone and now the internet allows us to pay our bills and choose our investments from almost anywhere. There can be no doubt that face-to-face contact at the bank branch has been in steep decline for ages," he says. "It is time to question why we have bank branches at all. Sceptics might say that banks want to keep us coming to branches so that they can sell us something we don't need - and we're much less likely to buy unnecessary stuff from banks on the internet." He accepts that there is still demand for branches, for those who need to cash a cheque, sign for a mortgage or discuss their savings options face to face. Those communities without any branches often feel left out. Yet he still seems far from convinced about the idea of the modern branch. "In my case, slicker, brighter, safer and more informative branches would be a nice thing to have, but I am not sure they would draw me in beyond curiosity nor would I want to pay for them," he says. "I have already left a bank when it told me their in-branch deposits had a higher interest rate than their online offering. My view of this was, 'Hey, not only do they want me to waste my time going to the branch, but they are also going to try and sell me something - no thanks.'" Cashless kiosks A report by brand consultancy Bancography says there is a long-term future for branches, but they will need to change and adapt with modern technology to remain profitable. It says cash machines, online banking and mobile banking have not replaced the branch, but have just given consumers more choice. Branches are increasingly popular with customers as their financial lives become more complex with age. Cashless kiosks could concentrate on basic services, such as opening accounts, and there may even be the possibility of banks linking up with workplaces to allow people to complete transactions from their desks. "Branches still matter, because consumers say they do. The role of the branch is changing, but the fundamental consumer preference for it endures," the report says. The collapse of the deal that would have seen the Co-op buy more than 600 branches from Lloyds has prompted more debate about competition in High Street banking in the UK. But even if the banking names on the High Street do not change, their branches may start to look a little less uniform and a little more imaginative. And, you never know, they might eventually be the place to go for a nice coffee and a comfy seat.

जब आप दरवाजे से कदम रखते हैं तो एक दरबान से मिलने के बाद, आप खुद को एक कैपुचिनो और एक गर्म तौलिया लेने में मदद कर सकते हैं, और बच्चों को किड्स ज़ोन में भेज सकते हैं जब आप ग्रेनाइट रॉक गार्डन फव्वारे के पास आराम करते हैं।


Anti-Islam 'Pegida' rally in Dresden sees record turnout

Summary: A record 17,500 people have turned out for the latest "anti-Islamisation" rally in the German city of Dresden, according to police estimates.

Demonstrators sang Christmas carols and listened to speeches about immigrants and asylum seekers. Weekly rallies by a group called Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or Pegida, began in October. Several counter-demonstrations were being held on Monday. Chancellor Angela Merkel and other senior politicians have spoken out against the Pegida rallies.

पुलिस के अनुमान के अनुसार, जर्मन शहर ड्रेसडेन में नवीनतम "इस्लामीकरण विरोधी" रैली के लिए रिकॉर्ड 17,500 लोग निकले हैं।


Cockermouth Flood Action Group helps pay for defences

Summary: Families and businesses in Cumbria have raised £215,000 towards the cost of new flood defences for their town.

The Cockermouth Flood Action Group collected donations to help fund a £4.4m project expected to start this summer. Sue Cashmore from the group said she was "proud" of the local community. Council tax payers also voted to pay higher bills to support the work. About 900 properties in Cockermouth were devastated by flooding in 2009.

कुम्ब्रिया में परिवारों और व्यवसायों ने अपने शहर के लिए नई बाढ़ सुरक्षा की लागत के लिए 215,000 पाउंड जुटाए हैं।


Kanye West pictured meeting Donald Trump in New York

Summary: Kanye West has been pictured meeting Donald Trump in New York.

President-elect Trump says he and the musician talked "life" before posing together for photographs. Mr Trump said the two of them were "just friends" and described Kanye as a "good man" but did not say whether he would perform at the presidential inauguration in January. Kanye was silent as he stood next to the Republican, telling reporters: "I just want to take a picture right now." Reports from the US suggest Donald Trump may have been having difficulties in finding high-profile performers for the ceremony to make the start of his presidency. Trump Tower is the headquarters for The Trump Organisation, the business run by the president-elect. Kanye has been recovering from exhaustion at home recently, after spending time in hospital last month. Since Mr Trump's success in the US elections security has been heightened at Trump Tower and it's here where the businessman has been co-ordinating his plans for his future government. Oliver Dancy tweeted a video of the pair meeting. It's not clear exactly what Kanye West and Donald Trump spoke about during their meeting. Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump announced the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, as his choice for US secretary of state. He also confirmed he would be revealing more details about his upcoming government. Donald Trump tweeted: "I will hold a press conference in the near future to discuss the business, Cabinet picks and all other topics of interest. Busy times!" There is so far no sign of Kanye West's wife, the reality television star, Kim Kardashian. Last year, Kanye said he intended to run in the US presidential campaign in 2020. But more recently he said, had he actually voted in this year's election, he would have supported Donald Trump. "I told you I didn't vote," he told fans in San Jose, California. "But I didn't tell you... if I would've voted, I would've voted on Trump." The audience booed in response and threw things on to the stage. Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat

कान्ये वेस्ट को न्यूयॉर्क में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प से मिलते हुए देखा गया है।


Eight immigration arrests after people jump from lorry in Somerset

Summary: Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of entering the UK illegally after jumping from a lorry on the A38 in Somerset.

A member of the public saw several people getting out of the vehicle in North Petherton on Wednesday evening. All those arrested are male and identified themselves as Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian nationals, the Home Office said. Three are minors and were transferred into the care of social services. In connection with the same incident, two Spanish men, aged 43 and 44, have been arrested on suspicion of assisting illegal migration. The investigation is being led by Immigration Enforcement's Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI) team.

समरसेट में ए38 पर एक लॉरी से कूदने के बाद अवैध रूप से ब्रिटेन में प्रवेश करने के संदेह में आठ लोगों को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Syria conflict: Why did my Tunisian son join the rebels?

Summary: Tunisia's government says that some 800 of its citizens are fighting alongside Islamist rebels in Syria, although some estimates put the figure much higher. As radicalised young Muslims increasingly join the conflict, what of the families - and the political dilemma - they leave behind?

By Ahmed MaherBBC News, Tunis Aziza cannot help crying every time she looks at a picture of her only son who has gone to fight in a battle she neither supports nor understands - the battle for Syria. I met the heart-broken mother at her one-bedroom flat in one of the slums on the outskirts of the capital city, Tunis. It has been more than a year since 22-year-old Bilal went to declare jihad, or holy war, alongside rebels in Syria against government forces. And she agonises over his picture all the time. "Bilal was a good, caring son. He was the main source of income for the family, especially after his father died two years ago," said Aziza, fighting back her tears. She remembers the moment he left. "One day he told me and his sister that he was going to Libya to buy clothes and sell them at high prices in Tunis. He never came back. We knew later he was captured in Syria." The jihadist trend has picked up steam in several Arab countries following the Syria revolution, which has entered its third year. As more blood is shed in Syria's conflict between the government and the rebels, more young Muslims are being radicalised to fight in Syria. This is not the first time that Tunisian men have taken part in jihadist activity. Security estimates say that hundreds fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'Not a terrorist' Aziza found out about her son's fate last month when the Syrian government released a second list of foreign fighters, who they say had sneaked into the country to support the "terrorists" - a catch-all term that the government has been using to describe the rebels since the start of the revolution-turned-conflict more than two years ago. The mother showed me a copy of this list, which was published in the Tunisian press. All of the 26 names on the list are Tunisian, and they include Bilal's full name, his home address, date of birth and his mother's name. What breaks her heart is that her son has been called "terrorist" in some Tunisian media outlets. "He is not a terrorist but a victim. I don't know who brainwashed him into going to Syria. He could have stayed in his country and helped with money or clothes." The phenomenon of young men fighting in Syria has raised alarm on the streets of Tunis. The government publicly puts the number of Tunisians fighting in Syria at about 800. But interior ministry sources told me the number was much higher. "They are around 2,000," a security source said on condition of anonymity. "Only 150 of them have returned. Most of them have been imprisoned for questioning." It is hard to get authentic statistics for foreign fighters in Syria as the armed opposition is already divided into splinter groups and fighting along different frontlines. The number often quoted in the media is 5,000. Rebel sources in the southern city of Deraa, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution, said that Tunisian jihadists form one of the biggest forces of foreign fighters in the war-torn country. 'Humanitarian mission' Many secular Tunisians attribute the rise in radical Islam to the religious discourse of some Islamist preachers known as Salafists, who adopt a strict interpretation of their religion. Following the 2010-11 Tunisian revolution. which ousted long-time President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Salafist-jihadist activity has increased significantly in an atmosphere of free politics and almost absent security. Before the revolution, state surveillance of mosques across Tunisia was a fact of life. In today's Tunisia, the state has lost control of most of the mosques to Salafist groups. Many imams, like Sheikh Bashir bin Hassan, endorse jihad in Syria openly and are proud of what they see as the "heroic acts of the young jihadists". "They are on a humanitarian mission. The West insists on associating jihad and Salafism to terrorism, which is not true," Sheikh Bashir told me in an interview inside a mosque in the town of Masakin, 200km (124 miles) south of Tunis. For Sheikh Bashir, it is justifiable for Sunni Muslims to take arms against the Assad forces, who belong to a Shia sect, to protect oppressed fellow Sunnis - a stance that reflects the sectarian overtone of the conflict. And he accuses the West of double standards. "Let's imagine that the British government decided to attack a county with scud missiles to stamp out a peaceful rebellion. Europeans would be watching entire families being slaughtered day in day out. What would the young do? They would flock in droves to England to protect the oppressed." Dialogue Tunisia's Islamist-led coalition government is widely accused by the secular opposition of turning a blind eye to the rise in jihadists. The government denies this but does admit it is difficult to monitor potential jihadists leaving the country's airports. "They are faking tourism trips to Turkey and Lebanon," said Habib Ellouz, a leading member of parliament for the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. He was referring to the two main crossing points for jihadists into Syria. "It is easy to get to Syria - just fly to Turkey or Lebanon and you will be over the border and into the action," he added. Mr Ellouz says the authorities cannot prevent Tunisians from travelling. "We did not revolt against a dictator to now deny people freedom of movement. Police state tactics do not work. The only way to counter radicalisation of those unemployed youths is dialogue and moderate preaching." The government says it will leave no stone unturned to repatriate captured Tunisians. But the process is not easy. Tunisia has cut diplomatic ties with Syria in protest at the Assad regime's heavy-handed response to the rebellion. This means that getting any information about captured Tunisians is difficult - and getting them extradited is even more so. Back at her apartment, waiting is the hardest thing for Aziza. The charge her son faces in Damascus is serious: Belonging to al-Qaeda's network of fighters could carry the death penalty.

ट्यूनीशिया की सरकार का कहना है कि उसके लगभग 800 नागरिक सीरिया में इस्लामी विद्रोहियों के साथ लड़ रहे हैं, हालांकि कुछ अनुमानों के अनुसार यह आंकड़ा बहुत अधिक है। जैसे-जैसे कट्टरपंथी युवा मुसलमान तेजी से संघर्ष में शामिल हो रहे हैं, परिवारों का क्या-और राजनीतिक दुविधा-वे पीछे छोड़ जाते हैं?


Hampshire building site death: Man charged with manslaughter

Summary: A man has been charged with the gross negligence manslaughter of a worker on a building site.

The body of Kulwant Singh Athwal, 64, was found at a house undergoing work in Ling Dale in Chilworth, Hampshire, on 16 July 2019. Mr Athwal, from Southampton, died from crush injuries to his chest, a post-mortem examination found. Paramjit Singh, 48, of Iris Road, Southampton, is due to appear before Southampton magistrates on Tuesday. Related Internet Links Hampshire Constabulary

एक व्यक्ति पर एक भवन स्थल पर एक कर्मचारी की घोर लापरवाही से हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Jersey Water meter roll out 'vital to supply'

Summary: Installing meters in homes across the island is "vitally important" to help avoid water shortages, Jersey Water has said.

In 2011 the island's reserves were so low the company looked into possibly importing water from Norway. Last year the company installed 3,716 meters, meaning a total of 65% of connections have been changed. Helier Smith, finance director, said the company's focus was on future supplies "despite a very wet year". In 2013 the company plans to start installing meters in St Clement, Grouville and parts of St Helier. Mr Smith said the congestion of utilities under the roads in St Helier was expected to slow down the rate of installation.

जर्सी वाटर ने कहा है कि पानी की कमी से बचने के लिए पूरे द्वीप में घरों में मीटर लगाना "बहुत महत्वपूर्ण" है।


Brexit limbo: Hotels, packing boxes and plans on hold for the MEPs

Summary: Their offices are full of boxes, they're living in hotels and don't ask them when they're having their leaving drinks. How have the UK's MEPs been coping with the ever-changing Brexit situation?

By Joseph LeeBBC News It's the last day of the European Parliament in Strasbourg before the elections in May, but there's not much last-minute packing for the UK group of MEPs - they've been ready to go for nearly a month. When the UK voted to leave the EU, the country's representatives in the European Parliament expected to be out of a job on 29 March. Instead they have watched two deadlines pass by as MPs in Westminster failed to agree on the withdrawal deal. Now a new Brexit date of 31 October means the UK is likely to take part in European elections on 23 May and some MEPs are eyeing an unexpected return to Europe. But job prospects there could be short-lived. Whenever the UK breaks the Brexit deadlock, they could be sent home. And if the prime minister succeeds in winning support for a deal before polling day, elections could be called off altogether. MEPs are used to a nomadic life, dividing their time between parliament sessions in Brussels and Strasbourg, as well as their home constituencies in the UK. But many of them feel recent months have taken an already unstable situation to extremes. Catherine Bearder, Liberal Democrat MEP, says: "Life is never certain as a politician, but this is beyond anything I've ever seen before." The 70-year-old had been planning a quiet retirement - "painting, gardening, doing yoga" - but said she is back on an election footing now, determined to fight to keep the UK's place at the European table. For Nathan Gill, a former UKIP and independent MEP who has now joined the newly launched Brexit Party, the delays have been a blow to the cause he spent the last 15 years of his life on. Speaking from an office filled with packing boxes, he says: "It's unbelievable, it's disgraceful." He says he was forced to leave his Brussels apartment and move into a hotel after his lease ended. Later he got turfed out of there too. As UK Prime Minister Theresa May sought the latest extension to Brexit and an emergency EU summit rolled into town, prices rose so much that Mr Gill had to temporarily decamp to Antwerp, some 25 miles (41km) away. Who are the UK's MEPs? Every country in the EU elects representatives to the parliament, which meets in Strasbourg and Brussels. The UK has 73 MEPs, representing each of its 12 regions for five-year terms. Their job is to debate and to help decide on EU laws, as well as scrutinising the work of EU institutions. The last election saw 19 Conservatives elected, 20 from Labour and 24 from UKIP - although 19 UKIP MEPs have since left the party and one was expelled. The Greens have three MEPs, the SNP has two and there is one each from the Liberal Democrats, Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party and Plaid Cymru. Labour's David Martin is the UK's longest-serving MEP, first elected in 1984. The Brexit Party is not the only new party planning to contest these European elections. Change UK - formed by former Labour and Tory MPs, initially under the name The Independent Group - says it had 3,700 people applying to be candidates. MEPs themselves will receive a transitional allowance when their term ends, equivalent to a month's salary for every year they have served. But across the political spectrum, they are united in feeling that staff have been treated badly. Each MEP has a budget to hire assistants, with up to three in Brussels as well as staff in their home region. Information about the future for these staff members is scarce and always changing, MEPs say. Contracts could not be extended until Brexit extensions were officially confirmed by the European Council, usually at the last minute as negotiations went to the wire. For some staff, the last-minute deadline extensions meant losing redundancy pay as they had already accepted jobs elsewhere. Others who remain are sleeping on sofas as their apartment leases run out. "It's very brutal from a staff point of view," says Conservative MEP Daniel Dalton. "You're in one day and out the other and your staff are out with you." Green MEP Jean Lambert says staff had to be made redundant and offices closed as the original Brexit deadline loomed in March. But the party kept in place a contingency plan in case the UK took part in European elections. "We've got a plan A and a plan B, which is more than the government has," she says - although she plans to retire as an elected representative. If the UK does elect MEPs, what will they do in a potentially short-lived return to Brussels and Strasbourg? Some Brexiteer politicians such as Nathan Gill warn that they plan to make the EU nations "regret" the UK MEPs' return. Mr Gill says the Brexit Party hopes to work with other anti-EU and anti-euro parties across the continent, such as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Italy's anti-immigration League party, to cause disruption. "We want them to realise they should have just let us go," he says. "They don't need this thorn in their side." But Conservative MEP Mr Dalton, who backs the government's Brexit withdrawal agreement, says it would be "completely counter-productive". He says British politicians have often failed to understand that the EU Parliament is based on compromise, so the adversarial politics of Westminster fall flat. "All it does is annoy people," he says. "They're much more likely to get more stubborn." UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew is another who has postponed retirement to take part in the elections, if they happen. He says he was surprised that Westminster MPs had let the Brexit deadlock get to this point. "I would have lost a bet. I thought they would have banged heads together, that the Conservatives wouldn't want European elections and neither would Labour. I was wrong," he says. Other MEPs have made firm decisions not to stand again but have still been left bewildered by recent weeks. David Martin, Labour MEP, says he intends to do academic lecturing on the EU and trade policy, but had been struggling to agree a start date. "The Brexit negotiations will be a really good case study in how not to negotiate with the European Union," he says. He has also been puzzling over a unique issue of etiquette: when should Brexiting MEPs say their goodbyes? As Mr Martin puts it: "You don't want to have a farewell dinner and say goodbye to everyone, and still be there the next day."

उनके कार्यालय डिब्बों से भरे हुए हैं, वे होटलों में रह रहे हैं और उनसे यह नहीं पूछते कि वे कब शराब पी रहे हैं। ब्रिटेन के एम. ई. पी. हमेशा बदलती ब्रेक्सिट स्थिति का सामना कैसे कर रहे हैं?


Poison parsnips beach warning issued by Larne council

Summary: Larne Borough Council has put up warning signs after a dog reportedly died from eating hemlock water dropwart weed or 'poison parsnips'.

They are urging beach users and dog walkers to watch out for the weed, which has washed up at Drains Bay and neighbouring Carnfunnock Bay. The Environment Agency said it supported the precautionary measure. Dropwort grows along river banks and may have been washed onto the beach during recent flooding.

लार्ने बरो काउंसिल ने कथित तौर पर हेमलॉक वाटर ड्रॉपवार्ट खरपतवार या 'ज़हर पार्सनिप्स' खाने से एक कुत्ते की मौत के बाद चेतावनी के संकेत लगाए हैं।