Hungary: Media law row overshadows EU presidency

Summary: The continuing row over a controversial new Hungarian media law, which its critics claim represents a full-scale assault on press freedom, inevitably overshadowed the launch of Hungary's first ever six-month term in the European Union presidency.

By Jonathan MarcusDiplomatic correspondent, BBC News It is a moment for Hungary to be in the European spotlight, to try to shape the EU's agenda. But what if the country concerned is seen by some as falling short of the liberal values espoused by other European Union countries? The centre-right Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban enjoys an unprecedented two-thirds majority in parliament, enabling it to make radical changes to the country's institutions. For Mr Orban and his government this means modernisation - in the case of the media law, sweeping away old legislation and introducing a range of new measures intended to clamp down, for example, on racist and anti-Semitic material. The whole row has inevitably become highly politically charged. But there's no doubt that the national public media is being concentrated, slimmed down and is now managed by government appointees. Many broadcast journalists fear that at a time of looming job losses, this is not a good moment to say things that the government might not like. The economic pressures are real enough. But the government's protestations that it has the best of intentions are greeted with scepticism by journalists from newspapers who do not follow the government's political line. Gabor Horvat is the deputy editor of the centre-left daily Nepszabadsag. It's the country's biggest selling quality broadsheet. "Just imagine a situation," he says, "where you are living in a neighbourhood where a guy is walking around with a huge gun but he says he's a good guy and will not use it. How worried would you be?" "The government too", he argues, "says that it's a good guy and will not use the massive fines in the new media law to stifle views it does not like." But he feels that key constitutional checks and balances are being removed. 'Stereotypes' Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sought to defuse the crisis by accepting that EU legal experts will now go through the new legislation with a fine-toothed comb. If they find things that are contrary to European law, he says, then changes will be made. But he clearly does not believe that this will be necessary. He has also sought to dampen criticism by insisting that the implementation of the new law will be closely monitored. If some of its critics' worst fears are realised, then, he says, changes will again be contemplated. For now this seems to have satisfied the EU. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed this commitment, and expressed his confidence in Hungarian democracy and in its government's support for the rule of law. Both he and Mr Orban do not want to see Hungary's presidency undermined by this issue. However, just a little pointedly perhaps, Mr Barroso made it clear that Hungary too had to take every step at home to make sure that there were no doubts about its democratic credentials. Indeed some officials here in Budapest believe that the media row has just been an excuse to revive old prejudices and to cast doubts on the strength of Hungary's relatively young democracy, only 20 or so years since the end of communism. Junior Minister for Government Communication Zoltan Kovacs is in no doubt. "These types of stereotypes," he told me, "are still with us and its very hard to fight against them. "Look, it's really a kind of an insult when I have to prove that I am a democrat. I think in all measures we share the common values of the European Union." Those close to the government in Budapest feel their country is attracting fire for its particular approach to managing the economic crisis. Big European multinational firms are critical of the crisis taxes that have been imposed on key sectors like energy and banking. Hungary, the government's supporters believe, has enemies and that in part is why the media issue has been seized upon abroad. Come what may, the implementation of these new Hungarian media laws is going to be closely watched as much in Brussels as in Budapest.

एक विवादास्पद नए हंगरी मीडिया कानून पर निरंतर विवाद, जिसके बारे में इसके आलोचकों का दावा है कि यह प्रेस की स्वतंत्रता पर एक पूर्ण पैमाने पर हमले का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है, अनिवार्य रूप से यूरोपीय संघ के अध्यक्ष पद में हंगरी के पहले छह महीने के कार्यकाल के शुभारंभ पर भारी पड़ गया।


Oscars 2020: 17 quirky facts about this year's Academy Awards

Summary: The short gap between the Baftas and the Oscars this year has barely left Joaquin Phoenix enough time to wash his multi-use tux.

By Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporter The Joker star is just one Hollywood actor currently hot-footing it from London to Los Angeles in time for the Academy Awards on Sunday. This year's ceremony is being held earlier than usual in an attempt to combat falling ratings. The slew of other awards ceremonies over several months was thought to be damaging interest in the Oscars, which mark the conclusion of awards season. Oscar-ologists have been closely studying the nominations list for trends, patterns, quirks and clues about who might win what. 1. Scarlett Johansson has joined a rather exclusive club. She is only the 12th person to receive two acting nominations in the same year. Johansson is nominated for both best actress and best supporting actress for her performances in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit respectively. The other 11 people who've been nominated twice in acting categories at the same Oscars ceremony include Sigourney Weaver (in 1989), Al Pacino (1993), Emma Thompson (1994), Jamie Foxx (2005) and, most recently, Cate Blanchett (2008). But none has ever won in both their categories. 2. It's been 15 years since the winner of best actress and best picture were in sync. Very rarely does the winner of best actress also star in the winner of best picture - the last one who did was Hilary Swank in 2004's Million Dollar Baby. That's unlikely to change this year. Renée Zellweger is the favourite to win best actress for Judy, which isn't even nominated for best picture. 3. Cynthia Erivo could end up with a massive EGOT. In fact, if the Harriet star wins an Oscar to go with her Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards she'll become the youngest EGOT winner in history. The 33-year-old would take over from the current record holder Robert Lopez, who completed the quad in 2018 at the age of 39. Erivo has two chances to do this on Oscars night - because she's nominated for both best actress and best original song (she co-wrote Harriet's anthemic original song Stand Up.) 4. If Sam Mendes wins best director, it'll be the biggest gap between two directing wins in Oscars history. The newly-knighted Sir Sam first won in 2000 for American Beauty, but could triumph again at the 2020 ceremony with his hugely successful World War One epic 1917. Before now, Billy Wilder recorded the biggest gap, winning his two best director trophies 15 years apart for The Lost Weekend (1945) and The Apartment (1960). 5. There's a competing couple in the best picture category. Directors Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, who began dating in 2011 and have a child together, are up against each other for the top prize. Gerwig's nomination for Little Women and Baumbach's for Marriage Story make them the first director-couple to go head-to-head for best picture. This almost happened in 2009, when James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow both had films nominated - but they had divorced some 18 years earlier. Gerwig and Baumbach are nominated in slightly different categories for writing (best adapted screenplay and original screenplay respectively), so at least that slightly eases the tension over the dishwasher. Coincidentally, both their films star Laura Dern, who is nominated for best supporting actress. 6. Having said that, Little Women and Marriage Story are both long shots for the top prize. That's partly because it's unusual for a film to win best picture without a nomination for best director, which neither Gerwig nor Baumbach have. It's not impossible, however. Last year, Green Book triumphed without a director nod for Peter Farrelly. Prior to that, 2013's Argo was the last to win without a nomination for its director Ben Affleck. 7. Toy Story 4 could better the Oscars record it set with Toy Story 3. The prize for best animated feature was introduced in 2001, and since then only one sequel - Toy Story 3 - has won. So a victory for Toy Story 4 would make it not just the second sequel to win best animated feature, but the second to win within its own film series. 8. Parasite has already broken a record and it could break another if it wins. It's the first Korean film to receive a best picture nomination, and only the sixth film to be nominated for both best picture and international feature film. That list of previous double nominees includes last year's Roma, 2012's Amour and 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. 9. Jonathan Pryce brings a dose of reality to best actor. The Two Popes star is the only nominee in the category who plays a real-life figure - Pope Francis. The others, Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas, Adam Driver and Joaquin Phoenix, all portray fictional characters. (Admittedly, Pedro Almodóvar wove some of his own experiences into the film director character played by Banderas in Pain & Glory.) There's more reality in the best actress category - Renée Zellweger plays Judy Garland, Cynthia Erivo portrays anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman and Charlize Theron plays Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. 10. Magazines are fertile ground for film ideas. Two of this year's awards season hopefuls were based on single magazine articles. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was inspired by a 1998 feature in Esquire magazine by journalist Tom Junod, who wrote a profile interview with the children's entertainer Fred Rogers. Hustlers, meanwhile, was based on a 2015 investigation in New York magazine by Jessica Pressler. Despite both films being nominated across awards season, including at the Golden Globes, sadly only Beautiful Day registered on the Academy's radar. Jennifer Lopez will have to rely on a future film to score her first Oscar nomination. 11. The average age of the supporting actor nominees is 71. That's considerably older this year than the average age of all previous winners in this category - which is 49. This time around, Brad Pitt is the youngest at 56, nominated alongside Tom Hanks (63), Joe Pesci (76), Al Pacino (79) and Sir Anthony Hopkins (82). Having been around a while, it's perhaps unsurprising that all five of these greedy guts already have an Oscar - Pitt's came as a producer on 12 Years A Slave while the others won for acting. 12. Birdman could act as a benchmark for 1917. Oscar pundits keep a close eye on best film editing every year, because there's a strong correlation between being nominated in this category and ultimately winning best picture. It's notable, therefore, that 1917's momentum for the top prize comes despite the lack of an editing nomination. Only one film since 1980 has won best picture without a best film editing nod, which was 2014's Birdman. Interestingly, Birdman and 1917 already share something in common - both films appear to have been shot in one continuous take. Neither actually were, which, ironically, shows how skilful the editing must have been. 13. Ford v Ferrari is the first motor racing film to get a best picture nomination. This might not sound particularly interesting, but there's a surprisingly large number of racing films which have missed out in the past - such as Rush, Grand Prix and Days of Thunder. Senna wouldn't have been eligible for best picture as it would have been in for best documentary, but it wasn't even nominated for that. Ford v Ferrari (which is titled Le Mans '66 in some countries) is nominated but is highly unlikely to win. "It faces tough competition," acknowledged Christopher Smith of Motor1, "but beating tough competition is what the movie is all about." 14. Netflix have doubled their chances of winning best picture this year. The streaming service pinned all its hopes (and money) on Roma in 2019, campaigning hard for the best picture win which eventually went to Green Book. They fielded far more films for awards season this year, such as The King, Dolemite Is My Name, The Two Popes and The Laundromat (a film about which the less said the better). However, two of their films in particular, The Irishman and Marriage Story, are nominated for the top prize. It may well be that the Academy is still not ready to allow a streaming service to win best picture. But if any Netflix title can win them over, you'd think it'd be a Martin Scorsese gangster film starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. 15. Neither of the two favourites for best picture have nominations in the acting categories. This may be down to Parasite being perceived as a film with an ensemble cast, where no performance is easily singled out for a leading actor category. The absence of 1917 in the acting categories is perhaps more surprising as George MacKay appears in the entire film. 16. Songwriter Dianne Warren's nod in best original song (for I'm Standing With You from the film Breakthrough) is her 11th Oscar nomination. Her others include LeAnn Rimes's How Do I Live (from Con Air), Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (from Armageddon) and Faith Hill's There You'll Be (from Pearl Harbor). But, as we said last year, she has still never actually won. In fact, she is now the most Oscar-nominated woman without a win in history, which keeps the heat off Glenn Close a little longer. Sir Elton John's nomination in this category comes 25 years after he won it for Can You Feel The Love Tonight? from The Lion King. 17. Judy Garland never won an Oscar. But she was supposed to. She was widely expected to win for 1954's A Star is Born, and even had cameras set up around her hospital bed (she had just given birth) to capture her speech. Grace Kelly won instead for The Country Girl - one of the biggest upsets in Oscars history. The cameramen rapidly dismounted the equipment around Garland and left. So if Renée Zellweger does win best actress, at least that will indirectly mark some form of (late) Academy recognition for Garland, more than five decades after she died. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

इस साल बाफ्टा और ऑस्कर के बीच के छोटे अंतराल ने मुश्किल से जोकिन फीनिक्स को अपने बहु-उपयोग वाले टक्स को धोने के लिए पर्याप्त समय दिया है।


Martin McGuinness says Sinn Féin 'will back RHI inquiry in 2017'

Summary: The Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness has told the BBC that Sinn Féin will put forward a motion calling for an investigation into the Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) when the assembly meets again in January.

The botched scheme could end up costing the taxpayer up to £400m over 20 years. Mr McGuinness said it was clear that the RHI scheme had resulted in an "enormous financial scandal". But, he said his party would not pull the plug on Stormont. Cross-community support He also called the day's business in the assembly a "shambles" after a vote of no confidence in First Minister Arlene Foster was voted down. Some 39 MLAs voted for the motion, but it needed 'cross-community support' to pass. "From my perspective there is an urgent need to restore credibility in the institutions," Mr McGuinness said. "It is very, very important that the highest level of government - i.e the executive office, that we find a way forward to resolve the quite clear difficulties that are there." Step aside Mr McGuinness suggested that an independent investigation and a credible working relationship between Economy Minister Simon Hamilton and Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir could help to cut back on that figure of £400m. He also called again for Mrs Foster to stand aside while an investigation takes place. "In my conversation with Arlene Foster a number of days ago I outlined, not an instruction, but what I would do if I were in her position," he told BBC News NI. "Number one is accept a robust investigation and number two is step down for, what I believe, would be a short period." On a separate matter, Mr McGuinness commented briefly on his health. "I am being attended to by a wonderful group of doctors and nurses from our health service and I think that's all I have to say about it at the moment," he said.

उप प्रथम मंत्री मार्टिन मैकगिनेस ने बी. बी. सी. को बताया कि सिन फेन जनवरी में फिर से मिलने पर अक्षय ताप प्रोत्साहन (आर. एच. आई.) की जांच के लिए एक प्रस्ताव पेश करेंगे।


'I bought Bitcoins in 2011 - now they're worth £19,000'

Summary: Drew Llewellyn bought his first Bitcoin in 2011.

By Meabh Ritchie Newsbeat social media producer Over the years, he has paid up to £899 ($1,100) and as little as £14.70 ($18) for one Bitcoin, as the value of the digital currency has dramatically risen and crashed. But now, for the first time, one Bitcoin has topped the value of an ounce of gold. And Drew, who owns 18, is pretty happy about it. On Thursday night, the value of a Bitcoin closed at £1,036 ($1,268) while an ounce of gold stood at $1,233. "For years critics have said Bitcoin will never last - that its value will drop, that it will never be adopted, and even that it's some kind of ponzi scheme," he told Newsbeat. "Today's all time high is another example of how, year on year, Bitcoin is becoming more prevalent, reliable and valuable." What can you buy with Bitcoin? Drew, who works in IT in North Lincolnshire, has used his Bitcoin to buy everything from a steam link (to play video games), to Amazon vouchers, to computer parts. He has an app called a Mycelium Wallet on his phone to buy things with Bitcoin, and a secure Trezor Bitcoin Wallet which stores most of his Bitcoin on a separate device (see photo below). But Drew mainly sees his stash as a savings pot and tries not to spend too much. So he's hoping this latest rise in the value is just the start of a bigger trend. He lost money in 2013, when the price crashed. But overall, says that he's made around £6,500. Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that operates completely online - the coins you see are just a novelty. Each Bitcoin is basically a computer file which is then stored in a 'digital wallet' app on a smartphone or computer. People can send a Bitcoin (or part of one) to a digital wallet, and to other people, and each transaction is recorded in a public list called a blockchain. Like Drew, many people like the fact there's no central bank and that you own your money: "Any Bitcoin I own is entirely mine, it can never disappear." He points to people who lost huge amounts of money in Venezuela and even in Britain, during the financial crisis. But he acknowledges that there are risks. He tells Newsbeat: "It's a trade of freedom to have your own money, as opposed to taking your money and putting it in a bank that might crash." Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat

ड्रू लेवेलिन ने अपना पहला बिटक्वाइन 2011 में खरीदा था।


Why NHS reforms are unlikely to bring a dramatic change

Summary: Changes to the NHS always make headlines.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter The public has a strong emotional attachment to it, like in no other country. Using its services is the way that millions of us interact with the public sector every day, often at times of great anxiety, sorrow, or joy. When it comes to election time, it is often at the top of voters' lists. So, no surprise there is always tension and trepidation in Westminster when governments want to make changes. That's why so much has been written about ministers' plans to shift things around in the NHS. You can read an outline of them here. The most important question, of course, is not what is behind the changes, but whether patients will see any difference to the care they receive in the real world in the years to come. But it is worth, for a second or two, pondering the political journey the changes represent. Lansley reforms First, much has been made of the draft law finally burying the changes that were brought in by the coalition government and its former Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley. Even their introduction was painful, causing massive political problems in the early days of the coalition. As one wily observer of the intersection between health and politics recalled: "It was as if Lansley didn't have a political idea in his head and Cameron didn't have a practical idea in his head." The changes turned GPs into consumers, picking and choosing health care on all our behalf. Irrespective of whether the principle of increasing competition was a good one, the way the changes were brought in ratcheted up the level of bureaucracy in the health service in England, which was described by one source simply as often "a waste of time". The coming legislation will unpick all of that. Local health care providers and local councils will have to work together in future, as many of them already have been doing under a new structure. And, of course, because it is the public sector, a new acronym is born - the ICS or the Integrated Care Systems. The hope is this will have a significant impact in the real world, allowing local authorities and local clinicians to work together more easily. Instead of worrying about commercial contracts, they will be worrying about patients. And inside the NHS, there's a belief that the pandemic has shown exactly how this can work. Groups of GPs, Primary Care Networks (known as PCNs, obviously), have been vital to the success of the roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine. The principle is they are small enough to understand and know their patients, but big enough to make the economies of scale. They had already been introduced, however, and to an extent the NHS has, for several years, been bringing in changes like this that found ways of working around the changes that the Lansley reforms had made. In practical terms though, Thursday's burying of the Lansley reforms is a legal consequence of some changes that were already under way. And in fact, when Jeremy Hunt was the health secretary a couple of years ago, it was clear that the Tories were already resolved to ditch the coalition's changes, with the NHS's blessing. Market forces So far, so not that surprising. What is somewhat surprising, or at least ironic, though is that the proposed changes mark a pretty big move away - at least in emphasis - from the use of competition and the private sector. A Tory government that believes in free markets is presiding over a shift away from that and the response to it has been rather muted. The use of market forces in health was, for a long time, a hotly contested argument in politics - not just whether or not the private sector should be used to fill in the gaps, but whether, as New Labour believed, competition between different health care providers and choice for patients was a big part of the answer to the NHS' woes. It is worth noting that Tony Blair's health adviser was none other than Simon Stevens, now, of course, the chief executive of NHS England. The private sector will still be able to provide services to the NHS. This is not a moment where they are being booted out. But what one former minister described as the "ginger of a bit of competition" is fading, leading another source to talk about the "conversion of Simon Stevens". Take control There are also nerves at how the powers the secretary of state will have will read like "back to the future". It is no secret that central government was frustrated, particularly in the early days of the pandemic, that actions they wanted to take at the top of the chain did not always have the desired effect at the end. With the NHS' operational independence, sources complained at the time that the health care system was like a "black box". As a result, the health secretary, as part of these changes, will regain some of the powers that were passed over to the NHS years ago. The temptation to take control is clear, particularly in the current circumstances. But one former minister warns of a two fold risk: "You can't run the system from Whitehall and it's politically foolish. He'll end up with every problem on his desk." The defenders of the changes point out that the solutions being espoused have changed because the health service's problems have changed. When competition and choice were the mantra, the NHS' problem was lengthy waiting lists. Private sector efficiency and competition was seen as a way of driving them down. Now the issues of demand and an ageing population means the gap between health and care is becoming smaller and smaller. With pressure on budgets too now, one source said: "The pressure isn't to compete, it has to be to collaborate." Despite some of the rhetoric around, however, the changes outlined on Thursday do not provide a long term solution to how we care for the elderly. Espousing more working together between doctors, social care and councils could help, but it is not the big answer to the problems laid so bare during the pandemic. That solution is still promised, but still some way off. But the promises are not insignificant. There will be changes to the NHS in England that will make a difference to how one of the most important organisations in the country is run. The government will, in law, correct what many see as the mistakes of a decade ago - formalising some changes that have already been made in practice on the ground. And a Tory government is stepping away, to an extent, from competition and the private sector with barely a political murmur. With the pandemic and the Tories' traditional political vulnerability on the NHS, they have little appetite right now for something more radical, nor the political space to make the argument. But the plans don't seem likely to add up to a dramatic turnaround for the NHS that will either suddenly tear up the system, or make all its problems quickly go away.

एन. एच. एस. में परिवर्तन हमेशा सुर्खियां बनाते हैं।


Okehampton dairy staff lose jobs in closure

Summary: Fifty staff at a west Devon dairy have been made redundant after production ended.

Staff at Wisemans in Okehampton were warned in March that the plant was to close in April. Owners Robert Wiseman are transferring operations to a larger plant in Bridgwater, Somerset. It is believed 19 out of the 69 strong workforce are relocating from the plant, which the company said was too costly to run. The company also has distribution depots at Pensilva, Bristol, Amesbury and Northampton.

उत्पादन समाप्त होने के बाद वेस्ट डेवोन डेयरी में पचास कर्मचारियों को हटा दिया गया है।


Guernsey bus safety 'top priority' claim after vandalism

Summary: The safety of bus passengers is a top priority, Guernsey's bus operator has said, after a man was sentenced for damaging a ticket machine in a vehicle.

The 31-year old man was ordered to do 60 hours of community service and fined £1,450 this week for destroying the machine on a night bus during a drunken argument over fares in December. Lee Murphy, from CT Plus, said the firm had measures in place to ensure safety. They included CCTV and specially selected staff, he said. Interim operations manager Mr Murphy said the vandalism attack was an "incredibly isolated event" which "came out of nowhere". He said: "In terms of drivers, we have the right guys with the right personalities to deal with this. We also have a controller at the terminus. "If anything happens on any vehicle, we are there within minutes." The vandal admitted committing criminal damage.

एक व्यक्ति को वाहन में टिकट मशीन को नुकसान पहुँचाने के लिए सजा सुनाए जाने के बाद, ग्वेर्नसे के बस संचालक ने कहा है कि बस यात्रियों की सुरक्षा सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता है।


How big could the Libor scandal get?

Summary: Does Bob Diamond have reason to feel miffed?

By Laurence KnightBusiness reporter, BBC News Only enthroned last January as Barclays chief executive, his resignation last week was reportedly forced by the displeasure of the Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King at his bank's role in rigging Libor. For those who are still unfamiliar with it, Libor - the "London Interbank Offered Rate" - is an ultra-important benchmark interest rate used in the financial markets. It is calculated every day by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), and is supposed to reflect the average interest rate at which 16 big international banks based in London can borrow from each other. So why should Mr Diamond feel miffed? After all, his bank has agreed to pay a £290m fine after admitting it sought to manipulate Libor for years. Mr Diamond was in charge of Barclays' investment banking division - the one responsible for the manipulation - at the time. Panic Well, here are three possible reasons: Firstly, Barclays has claimed that it was practically forced to under-report its own borrowing cost to the BBA in 2008, because almost ever other bank was also doing so at the time. Barclays' fear in September 2008 - a time when the global financial markets faced total meltdown - was that its supposedly less dishonest (and therefore higher) reported borrowing cost stuck out like a sore thumb. To put it another way, if the publicly available Libor data suggested Barclays was having particular trouble borrowing, it could have put the bank (unfairly in Barclays' opinion) on the wrong end of the financial panic, which could even have forced it to be nationalised like RBS. Secondly, it has emerged that the US and UK financial regulators, including the Bank of England, were well aware since May 2008 that all the banks, not just Barclays, may have been under-reporting their borrowing costs to the BBA's Libor committee. In other words, the Bank of England had known for years about this problem, but apparently only chose this month to force the removal of Mr Diamond. Thirdly, the manipulation of Libor by Barclays, and potentially others, since 2007 might even have done us all a favour. By making it look like they were not in as much financial trouble as they really were, London's banks may have helped to stem the panic in 2008, although the Bank of England might complain that it also hid from regulators how bad things had already become in 2007. Moreover, the lower Libor rate would have resulted in a lower interest rate being charged on the billions of pounds worth of loans to British businesses and homeowners that are linked to Libor. Disgust Yet all these defences miss the real Libor scandal: Barclays did not just admit to having lied about its borrowing cost during the financial crisis. The bank's traders had apparently been rigging Libor since as early as 2005, long before the crisis began, purely in order to increase their profits (and presumably their bonuses) - although ironically their misbehaviour did not necessarily mean that Barclays as whole earned bigger profits. Given how arcane the subject matter is, it can be hard for outsiders to appreciate just how shocking this revelation may be for the people, such as Sir Mervyn, whose job it is to regulate the financial markets. The Libor rate is part of the bread-and-butter of high finance. It is used to calculate the payments on literally hundreds of trillions of pounds worth of financial contracts - several times global GDP, the value of everything produced on the planet in one year. For regulators to discover that the banks' traders had stooped so low has been a bit like the moment it emerged that News of the World reporters had hacked Milly Dowler's mobile, or that MPs had claimed expenses for the cost of doing up second homes. In other words, the rigging of Libor may have pushed attitudes at the highest levels to the point of disgust. What is more, it is hard to see how Barclays could have succeeded in this endeavour without the active or tacit involvement of many of the other 15 banks involved in setting Libor. When the BBA calculates the Libor rate each day, it disregards the four highest and the four lowest submissions it receives from the 16 banks, and then bases the day's Libor on the average of the remaining eight. It means that if Barclays is acting alone, it has very little ability to influence the Libor rate. If it submits a rate that is way too high or too low, its submission will simply be disregarded. And even if it does submit a rate within the middle eight, the Libor rate will only rise or fall by one-eighth of the amount by which Barclays misreports its own rate. Tipping point? All of this raises two big questions: Firstly, if Barclays is only one of many banks to have misbehaved in this way, is it about to rat on all the other banks involved? Indeed, could it be that Barclays has actually got off lightly with its fine, because it was the first to come clean? Is the gathering storm about to hit the other banks even harder? And let's be clear who these "other banks" could be - not just the big UK banks, but also the major US, Canadian, Japanese and continental European lenders. This is a global scandal. Secondly, if the rigging of Libor has indeed created a sense of disgust among the authorities, have we then reached a tipping point? Already, the Serious Fraud Office has seemingly reversed course and opened a criminal investigation into Libor. Could this be the beginning of a much more aggressive exposure of the misbehaviour of bankers during the last decade, going well beyond Libor?

क्या बॉब डायमंड के पास नाराज होने का कारण है?


How Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble

Summary: We've all heard the stories of Bitcoin millionaires.

By Justin RowlattChief environment correspondent Elon Musk is the latest. His electric car company Tesla made a paper profit of more than $900m (£646m) after buying $1.5bn (£1bn) -worth of the cryptocurrency in early February. Its high profile support helped pushed the price of a single Bitcoin to more than $58,000. But it isn't just the digital asset's price that has hit an all-time high. So has its energy footprint. And that's caused blowback for Mr Musk, as the scale of the currency's environmental impact becomes clearer. It also helped prompt a series of high profile critics to slate the digital currency this week, including US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. President Biden's top economic adviser described Bitcoin as "an extremely inefficient way to conduct transactions," saying "the amount of energy consumed in processing those transactions is staggering". It's unclear exactly how much energy Bitcoin uses. Cryptocurrencies are - by design - hard to track. But the consensus is that Bitcoin mining is a very energy-intensive business. The University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) studies the burgeoning business of cryptocurrencies. It calculates that Bitcoin's total energy consumption is somewhere between 40 and 445 annualised terawatt hours (TWh), with a central estimate of about 130 terawatt hours. The UK's electricity consumption is a little over 300 TWh a year, while Argentina uses around the same amount of power as the CCAF's best guess for Bitcoin. And the electricity the Bitcoin miners use overwhelmingly comes from polluting sources. The CCAF team surveys the people who manage the Bitcoin network around the world on their energy use and found that about two-thirds of it is from fossil fuels. Huge computing power - and therefore energy use - is built into the way the blockchain technology that underpins the cryptocurrency has been designed. It relies on a vast decentralised network of computers. These are the so-called Bitcoin "miners" who enable new Bitcoins to be created, but also independently verify and record every transaction made in the currency. In fact, the Bitcoins are the reward miners get for maintaining this record accurately. It works like a lottery that runs every 10 minutes, explains Gina Pieters, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and a research fellow with the CCAF team. Data processing centres around the world race to compile and submit this record of transactions in a way that is acceptable to the system. They also have to guess a random number. The first to submit the record and the correct number wins the prize - this becomes the next block in the blockchain. At the moment, they are rewarded with six-and-a-quarter Bitcoins, valued at about $50,000 each. As soon as one lottery is over, a new number is generated, and the whole process starts again. The higher the price, says Prof Pieters, the more miners want to get into the game. "They want to get that revenue," she tells me, "and that's what's going to encourage them to introduce more and more powerful machines in order to guess this random number, and therefore you will see an increase in energy consumption," she says. And there is another factor that drives Bitcoin's increasing energy consumption. The software ensures it always takes 10 minutes for the puzzle to be solved, so if the number of miners is increasing, the puzzle gets harder and the more computing power needs to be thrown at it. Bitcoin is therefore actually designed to encourage increased computing effort. The idea is that the more computers that compete to maintain the blockchain, the safer it becomes, because anyone who might want to try and undermine the currency must control and operate at least as much computing power as the rest of the miners put together. What this means is that, as Bitcoin gets more valuable, the computing effort expended on creating and maintaining it - and therefore the energy consumed - inevitably increases. We can track how much effort miners are making to create the currency. They are currently reckoned to be making 160 quintillion calculations every second - that's 160,000,000,000,000,000,000, in case you were wondering. And this vast computational effort is the cryptocurrency's Achilles heel, says Alex de Vries, the founder of the Digiconomist website and an expert on Bitcoin. All the millions of trillions of calculations it takes to keep the system running aren't really doing any useful work. "They're computations that serve no other purpose," says de Vries, "they're just immediately discarded again. Right now we're using a whole lot of energy to produce those calculations, but also the majority of that is sourced from fossil energy." The vast effort it requires also makes Bitcoin inherently difficult to scale, he argues. "If Bitcoin were to be adopted as a global reserve currency," he speculates, "the Bitcoin price will probably be in the millions, and those miners will have more money than the entire [US] Federal budget to spend on electricity." "We'd have to double our global energy production," he says with a laugh. "For Bitcoin." He says it also limits the number of transactions the system can process to about five per second. This doesn't make for a useful currency, he argues. And that view is echoed by many eminent figures in finance and economics. The two essential features of a successful currency are that it is an effective form of exchange and a stable store of value, says Ken Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He says Bitcoin is neither. "The fact is, it's not really used much in the legal economy now. Yes, one rich person sells it to another, but that's not a final use. And without that it really doesn't have a long-term future." What he is saying is that Bitcoin exists almost exclusively as a vehicle for speculation. So, I want to know: is the bubble about to burst? "That's my guess," says Prof Rogoff and pauses. "But I really couldn't tell you when." Follow Justin on Twitter.

हम सभी ने बिटक्वाइन करोड़पतियों की कहानियाँ सुनी हैं।


Dairy Crest increases price it pay farmers for milk

Summary: One of the dairy firms targeted by farmers in blockades in the summer has announced it is to increase the amount it pays for milk.

Dairy Crest, which is supplied by 1,000 dairy farmers, will pay 29p a litre on contracts for liquid milk from November - an increase of 3p. The company's plants in Derbyshire and Gloucestershire were the subject of blockades in July over prices. Dairy Crest supplies about 15% of British milk production. The firm said the rise was "much needed" because of "higher on-farm costs that all dairy farmers are currently experiencing following the difficult weather conditions this summer". Dairy Crest, the maker of Cathedral City cheese and Country Life butter, will also pay more for Davidstow cheese.

गर्मियों में नाकेबंदी में किसानों द्वारा लक्षित डेयरी फर्मों में से एक ने घोषणा की है कि वह दूध के लिए भुगतान की राशि बढ़ा रही है।


Coronavirus: The young doctors being asked to play god

Summary: When the tannoy blasts out a "Team 700" alert at Elmhurst hospital in Queens in New York City it is because a "crash" team is needed immediately. Someone is going into cardiac arrest.

Jon SopelNorth America editor@bbcjonsopelon Twitter In normal times that would happen maybe once a week. Yesterday, during the course of one 12-hour shift, there was a Team 700 announcement nine times. Not one of the patients survived, according to the young doctor I spoke to. She is one of the residents in emergency medicine, and nothing in her training could have prepared her for the harrowing scenes she is witnessing on a daily basis at the epicentre of the epicentre of this outbreak. The hospital, which has a capacity of 282 beds, is now housing over 500 patients, according to the latest email sent round by the hospital administrators. And though it has not been declared as such, it is the first Covid-19 hospital in the country. Yes, the ER still functions - but all other patients who were admitted have been moved out. Only those who are gasping for breath are given beds. In the initial stages of the outbreak, it was the worried well who would be turning up in this poor neighbourhood, Elmhurst. Now everyone is sick. Really sick. Half of the patients are undocumented, and don't speak English - they work in restaurants and are hotel chambermaids. They are not "plugged in". The calls for social distancing have passed them by. And this medic, in her early 30s, tells me the stress is intense. Nearly everyone who arrives at the ER needs to be intubated and put on a ventilator. That would normally be a job done in the Intensive Care Unit. But they are overloaded. These people need "pressors" - meds that will keep blood pressure up. And that is a job normally done by specialist nurses. But there aren't the nurses to do it. So people who are untrained are having to do it. "How can I not worry when there are patients not getting the care that they need?" And she says it is not just the old who are falling prey to this. "There are patients in their 30s and 40s with no pre-existing conditions. Equally, we had a 90-year old man the other day who was brought to the ER after he had fallen at home. He had a broken leg - but he also tested positive for coronavirus - even though he was exhibiting no symptoms." It is a confounding virus, is Covid-19. The hospital has been given double the number of ventilators that it originally had - but they are already being fully utilised and they need more. All are being used - and the peak of the curve is still weeks away. And she talks rather quietly when she describes a situation where not all of the people who need a ventilator are getting one. I spoke to this young doctor after she had got home from a 12-hour shift. We were connected by a mutual friend. She said she would call me after she'd put the washing on, cooked herself something to eat, and done a bit of life admin. The mundanities of life co-exist alongside the high stress, life-and-death environment that she is living in. She says she is not frightened for herself. "I am not worried about whether I fall ill. I will be fine. I'm young, and fit. I had a bit of a sore throat last week, and may well have had it. But the medics who are older, who have more complex medical histories are very nervous." A dozen of her co-workers, though, have fallen ill. Elmhurst the epicentre - by the numbers In normal circumstances, if you see a patient who you think is infectious you put on PPE (personal protective equipment), and when you have finished your consultation you take off the overalls and mask and they are incinerated. At Elmhurst you start your shift wearing PPE, and you will not remove it all day - after all, everyone you're seeing is infectious. That has alleviated some of the pressure on kit. Also, the fact that this hospital has been the first hospital to be so much in the front line, and has had so much publicity, has meant that supplies have been forthcoming. She says, though, that her N-95 mask has to last a few days. But what happens to the hospitals further down the road? Will they get the kit they need? I ask her whether she has had time to reflect on the enormity of what is happening. "A bit," she says. But says that will probably come later. She says the focus right now is on doing her job, and saving as many lives as she can. As she tells me this, the thought strikes me that if you're driving a car on a mountain road and the brakes fail, you haven't got time to ponder the vicissitudes of existence, you're just trying to get down the mountain safely. This woman is calm, self-assured and having to be mature beyond her years. Then she opens up on the bits that are hardest about what she is doing, and concedes that much of what she has gone through will need a lot of processing afterwards "The most anxiety I have is around ventilator allocation. Seeing people die is not the issue. We're trained to deal with death. Nor is it the volume of people dying. The issue is giving up on people we wouldn't normally give up on." She described a patient being brought in from an old people's home. He was already on a ventilator - and was "chronically vent dependent". His prospects were never great. But all she could see before her was the ventilator - and not the patient. "When he came in we were so desperate for vents," she told me, "all I wanted to do was get the ventilator off him. I wanted to get that vent off him to allow it to go to someone else." Playing god is not what this young woman thought she would be doing at this stage in her career.

जब न्यूयॉर्क शहर के क्वींस में एल्महर्स्ट अस्पताल में टैनॉय एक "टीम 700" चेतावनी देता है तो ऐसा इसलिए होता है क्योंकि एक "क्रैश" टीम की तुरंत आवश्यकता होती है। किसी को दिल का दौरा पड़ रहा है।


Obesity: The story so far

Summary: The Lancet could not be clearer on the obesity problem: Action is needed - and needed now. The world-renowned medical journal has devoted a large chunk of this week's issue to the problem. A series of articles published by researchers from across the world are calling for more to be done. In effect, it is a call to arms for governments and society as a whole. But how did we get here and what is the solution?

By Nick TriggleHealth correspondent, BBC News No-one noticed at the time, but the 1960s was probably the turning point for what has become the obesity epidemic. As the world embraced the era of free love, they also began eating more. Although in truth, the foundations had probably already been laid during the first half of the 20th Century when people started using cars more and doing less physical jobs. But this was also accompanied by a decrease in food consumption because of shortages during and after the two world wars. By the swinging 60s the food chain had recovered and within a decade obesity started rising. At first it was mainly limited to the rich countries, but today it is sweeping through low and middle-income countries as well. In fact, it is getting so bad that experts are beginning to question the ability of the individual to take responsibility for their own actions because of factors such as the increasing availability of cheap, fast food. Harry Rutter, of the National Obesity Observatory, says: "In practice it is easier for people to gain weight than to lose it. Increasing fatness is the result of a normal response, by normal people, to an abnormal situation." 'No country has escaped' An estimated 500m people across the world are now classed as obese. In the UK, one in four are. Across the Atlantic it is even worse - a third of adults are obese. Tonga has a particular problem among its female population with seven in 10 women obese. But even in countries such as Japan and China, which hardly saw any movement in obesity initially, more and more cases are being registered. "We are seeing an obesity and chronic disease crisis," says Professor Boyd Swinburn, one of the world leading experts in obesity, who is based at Deakin University in Australia. "There is no country that has escaped." And because obesity is linked to a host of health problems, from diabetes and heart disease to cancer, the burden for health systems is becoming worrying. In the UK, experts predict obesity levels will nearly double in the next 20 years. That could mean an extra £2bn a year has to be spent by the NHS to cope. The government - or at least the one in London - is responding by working with industry to encourage healthier lifestyles. Firms have signed up to a series of pledges to reduce the salt, sugar and fat content of food and to pursue more responsible marketing initiatives. But for many experts this is not enough. The Lancet researchers have argued tougher action - such as legislation - is needed to tackle the issue. One of the papers said steps such as a tax on unhealthy food and drinks and traffic light labelling on food would be so beneficial for health that they would save money in the long run. Some countries - albeit a minority - have started to look at some of these measures. In September, Hungary will introduce a tax on pre-packaged foods containing high salt and sugar content, such as crisps and chocolates. Finland and Norway have already taken the step. The question now is how many more will follow them?

लैंसेट मोटापे की समस्या पर अधिक स्पष्ट नहीं हो सकाः कार्रवाई की आवश्यकता है-और अब इसकी आवश्यकता है। विश्व प्रसिद्ध चिकित्सा पत्रिका ने इस सप्ताह के अंक का एक बड़ा हिस्सा इस समस्या के लिए समर्पित किया है। दुनिया भर के शोधकर्ताओं द्वारा प्रकाशित लेखों की एक श्रृंखला अधिक करने का आह्वान कर रही है। वास्तव में, यह सरकारों और पूरे समाज के लिए हथियार उठाने का आह्वान है। लेकिन हम यहां कैसे पहुंचे और इसका समाधान क्या है?


Are Joanna Cherry's claims of SNP 'infighting' true?

Summary: An SNP MP has hit out at party "infighting" after claims of "back-stabbing" and "politically motivated smears". What is the Joanna Cherry row all about, and what are the wider issues for the party?

By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter What's the background? The current row stems from complaints from a number of former members of Ms Cherry's staff. One former caseworker wrote in the Sunday Herald about complaints of bullying against the Edinburgh South West MP and her office manager. Another former employee said that "almost all her staff" had written letters of complaint to Commons authorities over their treatment. Ms Cherry rejects these accusations, describing them as "lies" and "spurious", saying that "I am not and never have been a bully". On the one hand, this could be seen as a matter of office dispute resolution. But on the other, it's politics. Ms Cherry has certainly chosen to cast it that way, talking about "politically motivated smears", which she says "arise from SNP infighting". She has retweeted and "liked" messages from supporters online which use a hashtag reading "I stand with Joanna". And then on Wednesday, she tweeted that "at least the Conservatives do their back-stabbing in public". So what is this "infighting" all about? Equal rights There is a simmering row within the SNP about trans rights and gender identity. In fairness, this isn't just an issue for one political party - it's something that affects the whole of society. But it currently seems to be gripping the SNP more than others, possibly by dint of the party's position in government in Scotland. The Scottish government is planning reforms to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow people to "self-declare" their legally recognised gender. Some ministers see the current system - which requires transgender people to produce medical reports and satisfy a panel that they have gender dysphoria - as intrusive and outdated. But others are urging caution. A group of 15 SNP politicians - including several junior ministers, and MPs including Ms Cherry - signed a joint letter urging the government not to "rush" into "changing the definition of male and female". They are concerned about the potential implications for women - in contrast with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has declared that transgender rights are "not a threat to me as a woman". This is an intensely divisive issue. For example, look at the Dundee councillor who quit the SNP complaining of "institutional transphobia" - who was also suspended from the council for two months over "offensive" and "abusive" tweets on the topic. Ms Cherry has not been right at the forefront of the debate - certainly not to the extent of, say, MSP Joan McAlpine - tweeting at one point that "where there are competing interests there must be civilised and open debate". But by signing the GRA letter she was seen to have picked a side, and she also got into a row with activists over claims she "misgendered" someone on Twitter. It was the MP's complaints of being abused on social media which led to the Sunday Herald article, with the employee involved saying that they "couldn't stay silent anymore" when they saw the "hypocritical" posts. The road to independence It won't be a surprise to anyone that SNP activists enjoy debating independence. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her team have a plan: they want to have a new referendum before the end of the current Holyrood term, subject to an agreement with the UK government. They have drawn up an economic blueprint, the "growth commission", and set up a new campaigning strategy complete with social media hashtag. The leadership's approach is, broadly, accepted - but it is not the only one within the party. Some members want to go faster. Some MPs and party executive members, straining at the leash, have called for a new referendum within the year. There are also divisions over the economic plan, which were underlined at the most recent SNP conference when Ms Sturgeon was defeated over an amendment to currency proposals. It was a minor rebuke, but a rebuke nonetheless. Ms Cherry is among those who have suggested alternative approaches. At another party conference, in October 2018, she suggested that "it doesn't have to necessarily be a referendum" that would trigger independence. She also criticised the "softly softly" approach of the growth commission. In calling for "an end to SNP infighting", the MP specifically linked the issue to independence, saying: "The timetable for indyref2 has been announced, our restiveness is at an end, with unity and civility we will win." Leadership ambitions The other way the row has been cast is as evidence of Ms Cherry's apparent leadership ambitions. The MP "liked" a post on Twitter by the journalist Kenny Farquharson, where he linked to a piece speculating about Ms Sturgeon's departure from office and Ms Cherry's prospects of succeeding her. So, is this really all about the top job in the SNP? For a long time, Ms Sturgeon's position has been unassailable. And to be clear, it is still secure - far more so than that of almost any other political leader in the UK. But the fact is, people are now talking - both behind closed doors and more openly - about life after her leadership. She has been asked about it in the Holyrood chamber and in national TV interviews - making it clear each time that she's not planning on going anywhere. As for Ms Cherry, the fact she would rather Scotland were independent aside, her Edinburgh South West seat is at risk of being abolished at the next election after a Westminster boundary review. She has been tipped as a potential challenger to Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson in Edinburgh Central, so a move to Holyrood could well be in the offing. She certainly has ambitions, having previously been a candidate to lead the Westminster group. And in each of the potential schisms facing the party, listed above, it seems like Ms Cherry is on the opposite side from Ms Sturgeon. On the urgency of holding indyref2 as quickly as possible. On the currency plan. On trans rights. Is this a case of reading too much into minor differences? Perhaps. Maybe it really is just a matter of office politics, rather than national politics. But Ms Cherry is the one fuelling the talk of "back-stabbing" and "infighting", which is why scrutiny like this persists. The whole row has chiefly been interesting because of how unusual it is. The SNP has been an incredibly tight unit in recent years, resisting rebellions even as fractures tear through the other mainstream parties. But like the other mainstream parties, the SNP is a big tent. In particular since its surge in membership after the 2014 referendum, the party includes many passionate people with quite different, strongly-held views, united by the overarching cause of independence. In a big political movement like this, splits are fairly inevitable. The real test is how they are dealt with and managed. Listen to more analysis of the row on the BBC's Podlitical podcast

एसएनपी के एक सांसद ने "पीठ में छुरा घोंपने" और "राजनीति से प्रेरित धब्बे" के दावों के बाद पार्टी की "अंदरूनी लड़ाई" पर निशाना साधा है। जोआना चेरी विवाद किस बारे में है, और पार्टी के लिए व्यापक मुद्दे क्या हैं?


Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi death: Trump takes partisan line after raid

Summary: By all accounts, it should have been a triumphant moment for Donald Trump. The brutal leader of the Islamic State, Abur Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US raid in northern Syria - a climactic moment following the steady erosion of IS's power in the region.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter Instead, the episode became another pointed illustration of the perils of the president's confrontational style of governing and the bitter partisanship into which the US has descended. It began with Mr Trump's Sunday morning announcement of the successful raid. His opening comments were pure Trump - celebrating the way al-Baghdadi died "like a dog" and marvelling at how he was able to see the operation unfold "as though you were watching a movie". It stood in contrast to Barack Obama's solemn evening announcement of Osama Bin Laden's death, although that should not be surprising at this point. Mr Trump has said that his conduct is "modern-day presidential" - and his blunt, frequently casual language is part of that package. When pressed by reporters, however, Mr Trump's attitude turned more incendiary. He criticised European allies, calling them a "tremendous disappointment" for not doing more to take possession of IS prisoners. He celebrated his immigration ban for select majority-Muslim nations as a way to protect the US from Islamic militants. He also claimed that Baghdadi's death was "the biggest" - bigger than the 2011 US raid that killed 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, which took place during the Obama presidency. Flouting tradition Bin Laden was a recurrent theme in Mr Trump's remarks. He said that in a book published in 2000 that he had pointed out that the Al-Qaeda leader "had to be killed before he knocked down the World Trade Center" but that "nobody" had heeded his warning. "If they would have listened to me, a lot of things would have been different" the president lamented. (In fact, Bin Laden was a US target for years before 9/11, and Mr Trump never made such a statement in his book, The America We Deserve.) The president also revealed that, in a break with tradition, Democratic leaders in Congress - including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff - were not informed ahead of the raid. "We were going to notify them last night, but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I've never seen before," he said. The president acknowledged that he had informed some Republicans in Congress, including Senate Intelligence chair Richard Burr and Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent Trump supporter who had been critical of his recent Syrian policies. Mr Trump also praised Russian and Turkish officials on Sunday, while acknowledging that he had given them advance warning of a US operation in the region - a move that did not go unnoticed by Democrats. "The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the administration's overall strategy in the region," Ms Pelosi said in a press statement. "Our military and allies deserve strong, smart and strategic leadership from Washington." The following day, on his way to a speech and fundraiser in Chicago, Mr Trump elaborated on his decision to exclude the current House intelligence chair - who also happens to be leading the impeachment investigation into the president. "I've watched Adam Schiff leak," Mr Trump said. "He's a corrupt politician. He's a leaker like nobody's ever seen before." Political mileage? Prior to launching the Bin Laden raid, Barack Obama informed leaders of both parties in Congress. Some, such as the Republican then chairing the House Intelligence Committee, said they had been in touch with the White House regarding its Bin Laden efforts for months. The Bin Laden raid has, in fact, sparked numerous charges of Washington hypocrisy since Sunday morning. Byron York, a conservative writer for the Washington Examiner, noted on Twitter the marked difference between Ms Pelosi's response to the strikes on Bin Laden and Baghdadi. In the former, she "saluted" Mr Obama, while she reserved such praise only for "military and intelligence professionals" in her statement about the latter. Meanwhile, the Washington Post published an entire article detailing the many times Mr Trump attempted to deflect credit away from Mr Obama for Bin Laden's death. It is difficult to gauge at this point what, if any, political benefit Mr Trump will reap from al-Baghdadi's death. Mr Obama saw only a temporary bump in his approval ratings following the Bin Laden strike, although his campaign touted the accomplishment repeatedly during his 2012 re-election campaign. Despite Mr Trump's insistence, Baghdadi is hardly the US household name that Bin Laden was. The president has, however, had been the subject of sharp bipartisan criticism in the weeks since his sudden withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria presaged a Turkish military operation against US-allied Kurds in the area. While Democrats remain unmoved, dispatching the IS leader could assuage some Republican concerns about the president's Syria policy. "What I see happening in Syria, makes sense to me," Senator Graham said in a White House conference after the Baghdadi announcement. "Now I understand what the president wants to do. He wants to reduce our footprint and lower our costs. And he is right to want to do that." It could turn out that the raid bolsters Republican support, infuriates Democrats and leaves the US public sharply divided. In other words, more of the same in the Trump presidency.

सभी मामलों में, यह डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के लिए एक विजयी क्षण होना चाहिए था। इस्लामिक स्टेट के क्रूर नेता, अबुर बकर अल-बगदादी, उत्तरी सीरिया में अमेरिकी छापे में मारे गए थे-इस क्षेत्र में आईएस की शक्ति के लगातार क्षरण के बाद एक चरम क्षण।


The newly-weds fighting to stop deportation

Summary: Same-sex couples where one partner is not a US citizen say they fear the prospect of being forced to live apart. While gay marriage is permitted in a small number of US states, federal law prevents same-sex partners from sponsoring their spouse's visa and allowing them to stay in America.

By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News, Washington "It was amazing. It was what I'd always imagined," says Joshua Vandiver, reflecting on the day he married his boyfriend Henry Velandia. The couple, who met in Princeton, had been together for four years before they tied the knot in Connecticut this summer. But, unlike most newly-weds, the post-honeymoon glow is tinged with a feeling of fear about their future. "I'm very scared that Henry could be torn away from me," says Mr Vandiver. "It's a very frightening thing." The couple are waiting for the verdict of an immigration judge, who has the power to send Mr Velandia back to his home country, Venezuela. Mr Velandia's US visa has expired, but he is unable to qualify for a spouse visa, because the couple are in a same-sex marriage. "We really believe that it is unconstitutional, and it is causing so much damage to many couples like us," says Mr Velandia. Not recognised While same sex marriage is legal in five states across America, plus the District of Columbia, the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), which became law in 1996, says that other states and the federal government do not have to recognise these unions. Doma defines marriage as "only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife". "Doma means I can't sponsor him for residency," says Mr Vandiver. "If we were a straight couple then the I130 [the form to petition for a relative's visa] would be approved, and Henry would immediately be removed from deportation proceedings." The pair have started an online campaign and petition, calling for the law to be changed to allow same-sex partners to sponsor their spouse's visa. Mr Vandiver and Mr Velandia are not alone in their plight, says Lavi Soloway, a New York-based immigration lawyer who is representing them. He says he is currently working with a dozen couples in a similar predicament, but estimates that there are several hundred individuals across America in the same situation. "The most important thing we're doing right now is trying to bring this to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security so they can take action to stop the deportation of gay and lesbian partners," says Mr Soloway. President Obama has called for Doma to be repealed, and an act has been put before the House of Representatives calling for the law to be changed to allow same-sex partners to be sponsored for US visas. The Uniting Families Act (2009) has 135 co-sponsors, but with a Republican majority set to take control of the House of Representatives when the new Congress convenes in January, it is unlikely to become law. The Democratic House leadership has indicated it considers repeal of the so-called "Don't ask, don't tell" measure, which prevents openly gay people serving in the military, to be a greater priority than repeal of Doma. Politicians who oppose a repeal of Doma include Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, who has filed two motions to defend it. Groups such as the Family Research Center believe in upholding Doma, arguing that the law should recognise only traditional definitions of marriage and family. There are a number of lawsuits pending which challenge Doma's legality. In one case, District Judge Tauro in Massachusetts ruled that the legislation was unconstitutional, a decision which is currently being taken to appeal by the Department of Justice. Until the law is changed, the White House accepts that it is the job of the justice department to uphold Doma. Josh Vandiver will learn early next year whether or not Mr Velandia will be deported. The former has already ruled out the option of starting a new life outside the US. "We're not going to leave America. I believe very strongly that this is a reasonable request that I'm making as an American to sponsor my spouse," Mr Vandiver says. "Our life is here together, and we are continuing to work for change here."

समान-लिंग जोड़े जहां एक साथी अमेरिकी नागरिक नहीं है, उनका कहना है कि उन्हें अलग रहने के लिए मजबूर होने की संभावना का डर है। जबकि अमेरिकी राज्यों की एक छोटी संख्या में समलैंगिक विवाह की अनुमति है, संघीय कानून समान-लिंग भागीदारों को अपने जीवनसाथी के वीजा को प्रायोजित करने और उन्हें अमेरिका में रहने की अनुमति देने से रोकता है।


Are Pakistan’s female medical students to be doctors or wives?

Summary: In Pakistan's prestigious medical schools, female students outshine and outnumber their male counterparts. However, many do not end up as practising doctors - and now there are calls to limit their numbers, the BBC's Amber Shamsi in Islamabad reports.

Twenty fourth-year medical students are learning how to examine a patient with a throat infection. Today's lesson is as much about patient care as it is the anatomy of the throat. The patient is real, a woman, and the instructor invites several of the female students to examine her, since cultural sensitivities dictate that she does not want to be inspected by a man. The instructor has his pick, since there are 17 women and three men in this group of students. It is almost as if men are an endangered species in Pakistan's medical colleges. 'Catching a husband' The government body that regulates the medical profession, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), says more than 70% of medical students are women. Competition to get into these medical colleges is tough - at one college I was told that they receive 10,000 applications for a 100 places. In the more prestigious colleges, students must get 90% grades or more in order to be considered. I ask one male student why the women were outshining the men. He is in his fifth year, specialising in ear, nose and throat. "Boys go out, hang out with their friends," he says. "Girls can't go out as much, so they stay at home and rote-learn." In other words, perhaps the success of women students is not so much their own hard work, it is embedded in the culture of keeping girls at home. And government figures suggest most of these bright female undergraduate doctors do not actually go on to practise. Only 23% of registered doctors are female. Hot ticket The vice-chancellor of the prestigious Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto medical university in Islamabad, Dr Javed Akram, says that girls are more focused on excelling academically than boys. At the same time, he accepts that some female students are more keen on catching a husband than on pursuing a career. "It's much easier for girls to get married once they are doctors and many girls don't really intend to work as professional doctors," he says. "I know of hundreds of hundreds of female students who have qualified as a doctor or a dentist but they have never touched a patient." Privately, many doctors - both male and female - tell me that a medical degree is an extremely hot ticket in the marriage market. To confirm this claim, I visit the Aisha Marriage Bureau run by Kamran Ahmed and his wife. Business is so good they are opening their second branch in Islamabad. Mr Ahmed says his best clients are mothers seeking doctor wives for their sons. "In social gatherings, it's very prestigious to introduce your daughter-in-law or wife as a doctor." And he says if a young female doctor is even a little good-looking, then finding a match for her is a breeze. "By the way, if you know of any single doctor girls, please let me know. I have boys who are looking," he adds in a cheeky aside. But the "doctor wife" is more than a trophy: her absence from hospitals has serious implications on the healthcare system of a poor country like Pakistan. The government spends millions of rupees on subsidies per student - yet there is a serious shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas where women prefer to be examined by female doctors. 'More women-friendly' Dr Shaista Faisal is an official with the PMDC whose research into the subject led the council to try and introduce a limit on the number of women being admitted to medical colleges. When news of the "quota" on male-female admissions broke in the local media it quickly drew flak and controversy. But the PMDC insists it is the only solution. "It's not a quota. We want 50% of admissions to be for males and 50% for females," Dr Faisal says, a little defensively. "It's not discrimination. I don't think we're allowing boys who don't study to get into medical schools. This shortage of doctors is the biggest challenge to Pakistan's health system." Human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar strongly disagrees. "The wrong here is that women are being discriminated against here for being too smart." Mr Akbar has filed a petition in court challenging the decision to introduce the "quota". He calls it unconstitutional and says the government should encourage women to stay in the profession instead. "The answer is that they have to make the working environment more women-friendly rather than saying, no, you can't be a doctor because you end up leaving the profession." Columnist Fasi Zaka also believes that the government has the wrong end of the stick. "Yes, doctors are leaving, but the restrictions should be at the point of exit rather than entry." He suggests asking those who fail to practise to reimburse the government the large sums it costs to train them. Back at the medical school, two starry-eyed female students tell me they are determined to become doctors. But if they were asked to choose between their careers or their families, which would it be? "I'd try to convince them," says 20-year-old Eliya Khawar. "But if they aren't, I'd choose family." Her classmate Manza Maqsood concurs. "Family. In our culture, family always comes first." Everyone seems to agree on the diagnosis of the problem, but not on the cure. Maybe, it's time to introduce a quota for women with pushy families.

इस्लामाबाद में बीबीसी के अंबर शम्सी की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, पाकिस्तान के प्रतिष्ठित मेडिकल स्कूलों में, महिला छात्रों की संख्या अपने पुरुष समकक्षों से अधिक है। हालाँकि, कई अभ्यास करने वाले डॉक्टरों के रूप में समाप्त नहीं होते हैं-और अब उनकी संख्या को सीमित करने के लिए कॉल किए जा रहे हैं।


10 ways to talk to your child about weight

Summary: Education secretary Michael Gove's nine-year-old daughter has been withdrawn from her ballet classes over fears she was becoming worried about her weight. So how exactly do you tackle such a touchy subject with children?

By Kathryn WestcottBBC News Magazine Times columnist Sarah Vine, who is married to England's education secretary, revealed this week that their daughter refused to eat on the day of her ballet classes and insisted on wearing a smaller leotard. The self-consciousness of a pre-teen is something many parents are only too aware of and the dreaded question of "Am I too fat?" can leave many lost for words. Even a carefully phrased response can provoke prolonged silences or slammed doors. Fears that focusing attention on a child's size might make them overly self-conscious, cause them to obsess about their appearance, or even lead to an eating disorder may cause parents to shy away from the topic. There is no single strategy, but there are "common sense" ways to deal with such a touchy issue. First, you have to talk about it Some parents think that the less said the better but there is no barrier to talking about things with your child, says Andrew Hill, professor of medical psychology at the University of Leeds's institute of health sciences. "It's not easy," he says, "but if questions are raised, don't duck them. Be engaged. The key thing is the 'why'. I would want to know why this behaviour is suddenly occurring. Is it something the child has seen on TV, or has someone said something at school - maybe something subtle but hurtful. These concerns are often symptoms of other events - sort these out and the other behaviour will likely moderate itself." A child's weight concerns, he says, often fluctuate and can be temporary. Girls of a particular age - coming up to puberty - do compare themselves with others in the class, he says. The most rapid change for a girl's body is growth associated with puberty and there could be massive differences within a single class. Girls, on average, double the amount of body fat as they go through puberty. Boys' body composition changes, but in a different way: they tend to put on more muscle, he says. "When girls compare themselves, they are at different points of their physical development. Talking to them is a positive and reassuring way to deal with it. Let them know that in a few years' time, those physical differences would have reduced. The key is not to make them self-judgemental." Don't be alarmed A parent should not overreact if a child asks them whether they are fat, says Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University. "There are parents who are absolutely gobsmacked. It's the dreaded question that's come when they are not prepared. But their reaction might cause a child to think "what have I unleashed?" says Gately. Many parents, he says, will "stick their heads in the sand" or tell a child there isn't a problem. But, he says, if there is a problem, the child will get teased in school and end up mistrusting the parent. "The teasing and bullying of overweight children is endemic in our schools," he says. "If a child has mentioned it, the issue is not going to go away. Parents need to have an open-ended, conversations in which the children do the talking. The child needs to understand it from their perspective," he says. Be prepared With child obesity on the rise, parents who have concerns that their child might be overweight could prepare in advance for the conversation that will inevitably come, says Gately, who runs weight management services in partnerships with local authorities. "Parents will benefit because they won't be in a responsive situation," he says. Parents should modify their environment in advance to make it more healthy, so when the question comes up, they can say that the whole family has been living a healthier lifestyle, and this needs to be built on. Emphasise the entire family's eating and exercise habits and commit to change - but not dramatic ones, says Gately. Bringing up the weight issue Is it wrong to broach the issue if a child doesn't bring it up first? The difficulty, says Hill, is if a parent sees it as an issue and wants to raise it. "Judge it - if they don't want to talk about it, don't run the risk of it becoming a contentious issue. If concerns persist, talk to a teacher or GP." Mary George from eating disorder charity Beat says that if a parent is worried about a child eating too much or, at the other end of the scale, too little, then seek advice from a GP or nurse. If parents are worried this might have an effect on a child's self-esteem, "there are ways around it - say the whole family is going for a general check-up". Keep it casual A parent who feels the need to broach the subject could gently ask a child if they would feel more comfortable if they were in a healthier weight range, says psychologist and writer Amanda Hills. "If they say yes, then offer to help them by cooking more healthy food - but encourage their input as this puts them in control." The key is to guide and not try to control your child's eating habits, she says. "Many eating disorders involve the feeling of not being in control," says Hills. "Keep the issue of food casual. Treat it as if it's fuel for a car - don't say that some food is good or some is bad. If a parent does feel the need to point out that something is not the best choice, do it in a low-key way - don't obsess about it." The key is not letting food become a battleground. Deflect the issue "We are hearing of younger and younger children being conscious of their body image," says Mary George of charity Beat. "It's another bit of childhood that is disappearing." If a youngster brings it up, don't avoid it try but try to deflect it, says George. "Offer praise and encouragement in other areas - tell them they are kind, helpful, happy and generous - steer it away from body image." Don't make jokes Parents often don't realise that making a joke about a child's weight can affect them for life, says Hills. "A father, for example, should never call a daughter 'chubby'. A husband shouldn't say negative things about their wife's weight, and vice versa." Parents must be careful not to be critical of their own weight or that of others, says George. "Even really young children - four- or five-year-olds - will take this on board." Mum's not on a diet Research shows that a child is affected by their mother's self-image and the way she treats food, says psychologist and writer Amanda Hills. In the US, this has been referred to as "thinheritance". "It is absolutely crucial that mum should never say she is on a diet," says Andrew Hill, a body image and behavioural specialist. "All of the people I have dealt with for eating disorders had a mother - or a father - who demonstrated obsessive behaviour around food." If a mother feels like cutting down, do it in a low-key way, he suggests. "Say something like, 'Mummy's not going to have a big potato because she's finished growing.' But mum should never serve herself a separate meal." But Andrew Hill says depending on the situation, there might not be a problem with a parent being seen to be managing their weight. "If a parent is going to Weight Watchers, for example, why hide it - it usually means they are overweight and they are trying to manage it." The key is not to obsess about it, he says. Active learning If a child is concerned about their weight, parents need to create a situation in which children are "active learners", says Andrew Hill, in which they learn from their own mistakes. They need to build self-confidence and self-competence, and parents need to give them the opportunity to go out with their friends and exercise - rather than focusing on their weight, he says. Set the nutritional agenda Children consume about 60 to 70% of their food energy at home, so parents set the nutritional agenda, says Hill. "Older children have more and more liberty and financial power - the key is to get them through adolescence so that they are confident and can make choices about how they prioritise, because later on they will make choices based on their own perception." Beat's Mary George warns against giving children low-fat food. "Children need a greater percentage of fat in their diet than adults," she says. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

शिक्षा सचिव माइकल गोव की नौ साल की बेटी को अपने वजन के बारे में चिंतित होने के डर से अपनी बैले कक्षाओं से हटा दिया गया है। तो आप बच्चों के साथ इस तरह के संवेदनशील विषय से कैसे निपटते हैं?


Le Tour Yorkshire's Gary Verity to get honorary degree

Summary: The man who lead the campaign to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire is to receive an honorary degree from the University of York.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, planned this month's Grand Depart which attracted two and a half million spectators. He will receive his doctorate during a ceremony at the university later. South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and Yorkshire Sculpture Park founder Peter Murray were honoured on Thursday. The university also gave honorary degrees to Prof Ahmed Zewail, who earned the 1990 Nobel prize in chemistry for his work in femtosecond science, and author Mairi MacInnes. Former BBC controller Roly Keating will also be honoured later.

टूर डी फ्रांस को यॉर्कशायर लाने के अभियान का नेतृत्व करने वाले व्यक्ति को यॉर्क विश्वविद्यालय से मानद उपाधि प्राप्त करनी है।


Deported from the US to a Somali danger zone

Summary: The sun was burning brightly when Ahmed arrived in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on a deportation flight from the US earlier this year. The tropical trees swayed slowly in the warm wind, oblivious to his anxiety and the torturous months that led to this moment.

By Layla MahmoodJournalist It was a city this 32-year-old man had last seen as a 10-year-old boy. "It was surreal. On the one hand: 'I am free'. But on the other: 'I am here,'" he says. Released in March from immigration detention, where disease and threats were allegedly rife, he had been sent to a city ravaged by decades of civil war and terror. He told me his story but asked for his real name to be withheld as he feared being targeted by the Islamist al-Shabab group because of his work warning young people in the US about the dangers of recruitment by Somali militants. 'TB contracted in detention' Six months earlier, in a small town in Minnesota - which is home to the largest population of Somalis living in the US - it was dawn when Ahmed was driving his daughter to nursery. He noticed a large vehicle with tinted windows beginning to follow him. It seems officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had been watching him closely and, after getting him to pull over, he was shackled and taken into custody. It was the start of a nightmare which would see him shifted between 10 detention centres in the US over the course of six months. At some point, he caught active tuberculosis. According to another deportee, who was sent back to the The Gambia in March, this is not unusual. One detention centre was even nicknamed the "TB unit" following an outbreak of the disease, he told me. One guard reportedly admitted that his colleagues refused to work there. Not that the officers appeared to have much sympathy for their captives, according to Ahmed. "They mistreated us, they beat us up and they tortured us," he recalls. Fellow Somali deportee Anwar Mohamed, 30, alleges they all experienced abuse: "Being maced with the gas. Being threatened to be killed. "While we were shackled they were just throwing us against the wall and on the ground." Ice says it takes all allegations of abuse very seriously, and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any such actions. "Through an aggressive inspections programme, Ice ensures its facilities meet the required detention standards," Ice spokesman Brendan Raedy in response to the allegations about abuse and conditions in detention centres. "Ice provides several levels of oversight in order to ensure that detainees in Ice custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments," he added, saying detainees could file grievances that would be independently reviewed. Last December, Ice dismissed a report published by a US human rights group detailing allegations of physical, sexual and verbal abuse after a failed deportation flight to Somalia via Senegal as "categorically false". Teenage conviction So how did Ahmed, who arrived in the US as a refugee, end up back in the country he had successfully fled more than two decades before? In short, a teenage conviction for selling drugs. Ahmed served three-and-a-half years behind bars - a period of time which, he says, allowed him to finish his high school diploma, take college courses and became a local imam. But the worst was yet to come. Once he had finished his sentence, he was placed in immigration detention. "Fifty days can feel like 50 years in there," he says. So when they put a release form in front of him, he signed it. Later, he would discover it was in fact a deportation order, waiving his rights. Ahmed, who had no passport or documents to prove he was Somali, was not the only one to make that mistake. "Attorneys, Ice, even judges were telling Somalis: 'Don't fight your case, just sign your removal order, you'll never be sent back to Somalia,'" says immigration lawyer John Bruning. At the time, it seemed the advice was accurate as the East African country was still engulfed in violence, and US officials appeared to be less willing to deport those who had committed more minor crimes. More about Somalia: What is more, fighting the case would mean longer in the detention centre, says Mr Bruning. "So a lot of people never fought their case, they just signed and gave up their rights, thinking that they would still be protected. "Now we see that is not the case." US President Donald Trump's administration has ramped up deportations, with federal data revealing the number of Somalis deported from the US rose to 528 in 2017 - almost triple that of 2016. But that is only the start: there are plans to deport 4,000 Somalis, according to former Somali ambassador Ahmed Isse Awed. Mr Bruning believes some people are even being moved to conservative states where the "judges are much more inclined to deny their claims". He points to Somali asylum seekers being detained at the border in San Diego, California, but then moved to states with a "99% denial rate". 'Outsiders in danger' That means there will be a lot more people like Ahmed, who says another flight with deportees from the US arrived in Somalia last week. Immigration lawyer Malee Ketelsen explains that some have had their orders for a decade or longer. During this time "they are getting married, having children, they're getting educated, they're contributing to US society and then, under the Trump administration, they've decided they have to go", she says. More on US immigration: Ahmed had started two non-profit organisations for young Somalis, aimed at preventing gang violence and Islamist extremism. He had married and had two children. Now he is in Mogadishu, 8,200 miles (13,000km) away from his family, in a country which the US State Department says you should not travel to because of "crime, terrorism, and piracy". Indeed Ice did not even provide a direct flight to Mogadishu - flying instead to neighbouring Kenya and transferring deportees to a private airline for the last leg of the trip. The Ice spokesman would not be drawn on whether this was due to safety concerns. Mr Mohammed, also a child refugee, was deported after serving an eight-and-a-half year sentence for burglary. He was initially grateful to have escaped two years in a detention centre but the reality of life in Mogadishu has now sunk in. "Just the other day someone literally got killed in front of us. It's lawless out here," he says. Ahmed says that the fact that they are seen as "outsiders" also puts them in even more danger. "They think we are informants. They think we are spies. There is so much mistrust for us," he says.

जब अहमद इस साल की शुरुआत में अमेरिका से निर्वासन उड़ान से सोमालिया की राजधानी मोगादिशु पहुंचे तो सूरज चमक रहा था। उष्णकटिबंधीय पेड़ गर्म हवा में धीरे-धीरे झूम रहे थे, उनकी चिंता और उन कष्टप्रद महीनों से अनजान थे जो इस क्षण का कारण बने।


Man admits his wife's Chelmsley Wood stab murder

Summary: A man has admitted the murder of his wife who was found stabbed to death with multiple injuries.

Tracy Stonehouse, 51, died at an address in Coralin Close, Chelmsley Wood, Solihull, just after 01:25 GMT on 6 April. A post mortem examination revealed she had suffered multiple stab wounds and other injuries to her head and neck. Arthur Stonehouse, 73, of Coralin Close, pleaded guilty to her murder at Birmingham Crown Court earlier. He was remanded in custody ahead of his next appearance on 6 August.

एक आदमी ने अपनी पत्नी की हत्या को स्वीकार किया है, जिसे चाकू मारकर कई चोटों के साथ मार दिया गया था।


Chess in India: Why is it on the rise?

Summary: The world chess championships are under way in Russia, where Vishwanathan Anand defends his title. His success is widely credited for the growing popularity of chess in his home country, India, the nation widely believed to have given the game to the world.

By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News, Mumbai He's been described by some as the Sachin Tendulkar of chess, a role model to thousands of Indian school children and arguably one of the country's most successful sportsmen. Vishwanathan Anand is India's biggest chess star, and was the first in the country to secure the game's highest honour, by becoming a grandmaster. Anand gained international acclaim in 2007 after he became world chess champion, a title he has now won three times. The 42-year-old from Chennai is currently in Moscow, competing against Israel's Boris Gelfand for his fourth title. The score is currently three points apiece after six draws. His moves are being watched closely by chess enthusiasts in his home country, where the games are being screened on a national sports channel and large sections of the sports pages are devoted to it. Chess has a particularly strong following in Delhi, Calcutta and across the south of India. The state of Tamil Nadu, where Anand is from, was even in the bidding to host the current world championships, losing out to Russia. Chess has risen in popularity in the years following Anand's first triumphs, says Bharat Singh, the secretary of the All India Chess Federation. "The game has really grown in the past six or seven years particularly," he says, highlighting the fact the number of grandmsters (GMs) in India has tripled in that time frame, to 27 GMs today. The number of international chess masters in the country has also tripled (to 76) in the same period, and India is in the world top 10 in rankings. The latest Indian to pick up the grandmaster title is 15-year-old Vaibhav Suri, who won the accolade last month. Success has been equal for both men and women in India, Koneru Humpry is the country's most accomplished female player, who holds the world number four spot. The opening up of India's economy in 1991 enabled more players to travel abroad and play tournaments and achieve rankings, says Devangshu Datta, a chess commentator and journalist. "Increasing internet use is another reason why India jumped several levels so fast and why Anand and his generation broke through. From the early 90s onwards, you had databases where, at the click of the mouse, you could work your way through millions of games." The game is growing at the grassroots, and is now on the curriculum in the states of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and is taught at schools across the country. Chess coaching clubs are springing up at a fast pace too. "We get as many as 50 calls a day from interested parents," says Dhanajay Ramraje, who runs the Chanakya Chess Club in Mumbai. Ramraje coaches children in the game at their houses and in schools, charging as much as $30 (£19) an hour. At one such session, a group of children is gathered around a dining room table. Their eyes are fixed in concentrated, accompanied by hard stares at the black and white pieces in front of them. As they take turns to move them across the board, the silence in the room is punctuated with the tapping of clocks, and the occasional gasp. "I like chess because it helps my brains sometimes," says Namya Kumar, who is six years old and one of the three girls in the group. She is competing against four-year-old Aadya Tekukar, who started playing at the age of two and despite being so young, has already won trophies. Looking on is Aadya's mother, Dr Shubangi Tekukar, who says: "Chess helps you take good decisions in your life. "It is a game in which there are many moves and out of that you choose one best move. Like that, in your life also chess helps to improve your ability to make the best decisions." The educational value of the game is why many Indian parents are encouraging their children to play the game, says Singh. Indians place a huge emphasis on their children's learning, and chess is seen as a welcome addition. "The general perception is that if you play chess it will help with your studies, especially in logical reasoning, mathematics, physics, and there are surveys which prove that chess players are better mathematicians," he adds. Another reason why some say Indians have an affinity for the game is because it is widely believed it began in the country. "I think we Indians have some kind of a knack for the game, maybe it's because it originated here," says Manuel Aaron, India's first international chess master, who is writing a book on the history of the game. One theory is that chess evolved from the Indian game Chaturanga, meaning four units of an army, which began in the country in the 6th Century. "It was not an ordinary people's game," says Aaron. "It was a game to train people in the art of warfare. The pieces were elephants, horses, camels and foot soldiers, symbols of the army." Many people also believe the Mughal emperor Akbar played live chess in the courtyard of his palace, Fatehpur Sikri, in Agra. Legend has it he would sit in a high place, and watch real animals and soldiers move around a giant board, says Aaron. Today chess is attracting more money and corporate sponsorship, but it is still difficult to make a full-time living from playing the game, says Pravin Thipsay, another chess grandmaster. Thipsay, who runs coaching workshops, still works in banking and believes more needs to be done to encourage people to take up the game at the top level. "We've had more world junior champions than any other country... but at a really senior level, aside from Anand, we will struggle to overtake countries like Russia. It'll take 10 to 15 years to do that." Thipsay says while India has embraced the game, it still hasn't fully accepted chess as a profession. "Chess players gets a lot of respect from their colleagues, but you cannot make a living out of it. At a senior level it's hard to find someone who could replace Anand. "At the grassroots, progress is great but progress at the top is not."

रूस में विश्व शतरंज चैंपियनशिप चल रही है, जहाँ विश्वनाथन आनंद अपने खिताब का बचाव करते हैं। उनकी सफलता को व्यापक रूप से उनके गृह देश, भारत में शतरंज की बढ़ती लोकप्रियता के लिए श्रेय दिया जाता है, जिस देश के बारे में व्यापक रूप से माना जाता है कि उसने दुनिया को यह खेल दिया है।


Channel Island ferry service set to return to Weymouth

Summary: Condor Ferries will return to sailing from Weymouth when the ferry berth is fixed by summer next year.

The company relocated sailings to Poole in February because of safety concerns about the structure of the berth. Weymouth Council has agreed plans to rebuild part of the harbour wall. Operations director Fran Collins said regular fast ferry services to the Channel Islands, and on to St Malo in France, would return to Weymouth from 17 July 2013. In the meantime the fast ferry services will continue to operate from Poole.

कोंडोर फेरी वेमाउथ से नौकायन के लिए वापस आ जाएगी जब अगले साल गर्मियों तक फेरी बर्थ तय हो जाएगी।