Why 2020 has been good for England's beavers

Summary: A lot has happened in 2020, but one thing that might have been overlooked is the re-emergence of the beaver in England. A five-year government trial into the reintroduction of beavers into the wild ended, citing a long list of benefits, while new beaver homes have been set up in enclosures around the country. What's so good about the beaver - and why isn't everyone a fan?

By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News Beavers have been dubbed the ultimate environmental engineers, capable of alleviating flooding and sparking new life into barren wildernesses. They are perhaps most famous for their dams, and it is these that bring the ecological benefits according to the Beaver Trust, a campaign group that wants to see the rodents reintroduced "in the right places" in England. With their rudder-shaped tails, webbed feet and goggle-like second eyelids, beavers work best in the water and they only really feel safe and secure in depths of at least 1m (3ft). They gnaw down nearby trees with their incredibly tough orange teeth and collect other debris to dam up streams, creating ponds and pools behind to dwell in. They also dig canals so they can forage for the foliage they liked to feed on, with the accumulating water creating wetlands for other species, such as frogs, dragonflies and fish to flourish in. Their dams also slow water flow, relieving flooding problems further down stream while pooling water for droughts, according to Eva Bishop of the Beaver Trust. "The right beaver in the right place can be amazing," she said. "Beavers create a whole mosaic of diverse habitats and allow a flourishing bio-diversity and bio-abundance. "They have a genuine macro-scale impact and they are a key part of our tool kit to rescue our wildlife. "Beavers bring life." To many of us, beavers seem like a foreign entity, more naturally suited to the wilds of North America. But, until 400 or so years ago, they were native Englanders, before being hunted to extinction for their soft warm fur, meat and glandular oil for use in medicines. In recent years they have been reintroduced in Scotland, Wales and now increasingly in England, with up to 500 thought to be housed around the country, mostly in enclosures. In 2020, pairs of beavers have been released on the Holnicote Estate in Somerset, at Hatchmere near Delamere Forest in Cheshire, on the Lowther Estate in Cumbria and at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk, with plans imminent to release a couple at Willington in Derbyshire In Devon, beavers were given the right to remain and spread naturally on the River Otter by the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) after a five-year study concluded the benefits they bring outweigh the negatives. Meanwhile, a pair of beavers released on the Spains Hall Estate near Braintree in Essex in 2019 have had kits. And the beavers in Somerset have just built the first dam on Exmoor in 400 years. Farmer Chris Jones, who recently appeared on the BBC's Cornwall with Simon Reeve, has enthusiastically welcomed beavers to his land. The livestock rearer introduced two beavers into an enclosure around a stream at Woodland Valley Farm in 2017 and said they had started building their first dam within two nights. They have since built a series of dams, creating what Mr Jones called "water terraces". Mr Jones said the nearby village of Ladock has a history of repeated flooding, but the beavers had helped to slow the flow from the stream on his farm. "The water from here doesn't all end land up in one lump down at the river at Ladock, adding to all the lumps from the other tributaries and then causing a flood," Mr Jones said. He also said the pools the beavers created had sparked an "orchestra of life", adding: "There is no species that does as much as this one." Ms Bishop said we spend large sums on flood relief schemes that echo the work of beavers, such as building dams to slow streams and rivers and make them meander more. "It's bonkers, really," she said, adding: "The beaver will do it for free and, crucially, maintain it." Not everyone is a beaver fan, though. There are two chief concerns from farmers and anglers. Some farmers fear beavers could chomp on their crops, damage trees and create localised flooding. "Any species introduction can have a massive impact on the countryside and farming," said Phil Jarvis, National Farmers' Union (NFU) environment forum chairman. "Beaver activity can undermine riverbanks and impede farmland drainage, making fields too waterlogged for cropping or grazing. "This seriously hinders farmers' ability to produce food for the nation." The NFU says it is assisting as Defra creates a "long-term management plan" which, the union said, must include "an effective exit strategy" should "any major issues occur". Anglers fear the beavers' dams could make it much harder for the likes of North Atlantic salmon and sea trout, both of which are already struggling population-wise, to reach their breeding grounds. The Angling Trust has commissioned an independent "full literature review" to see whether or not beavers have caused such issues elsewhere, which is due to be published imminently. "We are not saying no [to beavers]," said Mark Owen, head of freshwater at the trust, adding: "We are saying we need to look at the possible impact in far more detail. "The report may come out and say there is no reason for concern, but we need to look at it because the study of the impact on fish so far has been sparse." Mr Owen said there were no rivers in England where salmon were "doing well" and it was becoming an endangered species. He said with low fish numbers it was vital to get salmon to their spawning grounds "without delay" and any potential obstacle was a cause for concern. Though such fish can leap over barriers, each attempt saps their energy. "Where you have healthy numbers, a small number of fish not making it isn't really a problem," Mr Owen said. "But where the numbers are already low, you need them all to get through." Ms Bishop said she recognised the concerns of both farmers and anglers and accepted that a "beaver in the wrong place can be a disaster". But she said there were "easy and cheap" fixes, with lessons already learned from releases in Germany and Norway, as well as those in Wales and Scotland. Trees, for example, can be coated with a sand mixture or surrounded by a metal mesh to deter the beavers from munching on them. And a small buffer of unfarmed land between the beavers' habitats and farmers' fields could reduce any clashes. A 5m (16ft) buffer scheme in Germany saw beaver-farmer conflicts reduce by 95%, Ms Bishop said. As for fish, beaver dams normally create side rivulets that travelling salmon and trout can use, she said. "In the wild there are no beaver-fish conflicts. Any issues are because of us and our management of the rivers," Ms Bishop said. And ultimately beavers can be moved or, in the most extreme cases, culled under licence as is happening in Scotland. A Defra spokesman said: "We are firmly committed to providing opportunities to reintroduce formerly native species, such as beavers, where the benefits for the environment, people and the economy are clear. "But we also understand that there are implications for landowners, and we will take care to ensure that all potential impacts are carefully considered, and a consultation on our national approach and management will open early next year."

2020 में बहुत कुछ हुआ है, लेकिन एक बात जिसे शायद नजरअंदाज कर दिया गया है वह है इंग्लैंड में बीवर का फिर से उभरना। लाभों की एक लंबी सूची का हवाला देते हुए, जंगल में बीवर को फिर से पेश करने के लिए पांच साल का सरकारी परीक्षण समाप्त हो गया, जबकि देश भर में नए बीवर घर स्थापित किए गए हैं। बीवर के बारे में इतना अच्छा क्या है-और हर कोई प्रशंसक क्यों नहीं है?


Housing benefit: How does it work?

Summary: Housing benefit is an important means-tested benefit for people on low incomes which helps them to pay their rent.

That can be rent paid to a council, housing association or a private landlord. The rules are set by the government and the benefit itself is administered by local councils. The rules changed on 1 April 2011 and there are more changes in the pipeline.

आवास लाभ कम आय वाले लोगों के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण साधन-परीक्षित लाभ है जो उन्हें अपना किराया देने में मदद करता है।


Tom Bell shooting: Murder charge hearing held in cells

Summary: A hearing was held in the cells below a courtroom when two men charged with murder refused to appear in court.

Boxer Tom Bell, 21, was shot through a window at the Maple Tree in Woodfield Way, Balby, South Yorkshire, on 17 January and died later in hospital. Joseph Bennia, 28, from Balby, and Scott Gocoul, 29, from Bilton, near Hull, were remanded in custody at Doncaster Magistrates' Court. Both men will appear at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday.

एक अदालत कक्ष के नीचे की कोठरी में सुनवाई हुई जब हत्या के आरोपी दो लोगों ने अदालत में पेश होने से इनकार कर दिया।


Who will regulate digital political ads?

Summary: Nearly two-and-a-half-years ago, I did a ring-round of Britain's regulators to see if any of them might fancy regulating political advertising on social media, particularly outside an election period.

Amol RajanMedia editor@amolrajanon Twitter It was obvious then, in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum and election of President Trump, that political campaigning had mostly shifted online. Even if a lot of leading politicians were slow on the uptake - still spending time courting print editors and columnists, for instance, whose influence has waned - they were increasingly surrounded by campaigners who did understand the world had changed. Campaigners like Dominic Cummings. Anyway, the regulators made various sounds that bore a striking resemblance to what you heard the last time you were juggling a hot potato. The Electoral Commission said its focus is campaign finance. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said its focus is personal data. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it doesn't do political ads. Fair enough. All were correct. Regulators regulate what they are told to regulate. It takes legislation, designed by parliamentarians - who ideally have a keen eye for detail and deep understanding of technology - to change the scope and power of a regulator. Many months and moons on, I did a similar ring-round. The Electoral Commission said its focus is campaign finance. The Information Commissioner's Office said its focus is personal data. The Advertising Standards Authority said it doesn't do political ads. To quote a recent prime minister: "Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed." Calling the shots Which is not to say that nothing has changed in the broad - and it is very broad - area of regulating the internet. In fact, the UK has done quite a lot here, even, arguably, taken a lead. Its Online Harms White Paper pledged to bring about the toughest laws for the internet anywhere in the world. The only trouble with that is, it was finalised in the furnace of a Tory leadership campaign, by a home secretary (Sajid Javid) who is now chancellor, and a culture secretary (Jeremy Wright) who has left his post. The ICO has earned respect, and some admiration, across the world for its tough stance on Facebook, against whom it imposed a heavy fine - albeit a paltry footnote in the tech giant's global turnover. And of course General Data Protection Regulation, better known as the European law GDPR, has given consumers much greater rights and awareness of the unspoken contracts they adhere to when they surf the web. But this was European rather than specifically British regulation. The Electoral Commission point out that some of this terrain is regulated. But it urgently wants new powers to do it better. They say all digital campaign material should have an imprint saying who is behind the campaign; that spending on election or referendum campaigns by foreign organisations or individuals should be prohibited; that fines should be bigger, and that their powers to obtain information outside a formal investigation should be strengthened. In an interview for BBC News, Louise Edwards, the head of regulation for the Electoral Commission, is open about the remaining vulnerabilities of our current system. Why the inaction? But there is, frankly, something weird going on here. Everyone agrees that we urgently need new legislation in this terrain. Indeed Damian Collins MP, the chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, says the time has come for emergency legislation. "Our electoral law is hopelessly out of date. And what that means is that people can set up dummy campaigns promoting causes that are there to support an official candidate, but hide who's doing it, hide where the money's coming from," he said. "You can use technology to effectively launder money into political campaigns in micro donations including from overseas and our electoral law was established to make sure voters could see who's campaigning on what, who's paying for it, who it's there to promote. And yet technology allows people to sidestep all of those rules and regulations." He went on: "I don't understand why the government is taking so long. I think we should be looking at emergency legislation to bring our electoral law up to date. At least to establish the basic principles that the same requirements that exist in a poster or a leaflet should exist in an online ad and on Facebook as well." If Damian Collins MP can't understand why no new legislation has been passed, what hope the rest of us? The usual explanation proffered is that Brexit took up most of the bandwidth of Theresa May's administration, stifling the efforts of many reformers. It doesn't help at all that digital matters cut across several government departments; or that the rate of churn among cabinet ministers at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is, at least to the civil servants who have to deliver their policies, an unfunny joke. Nicky Morgan is the eighth secretary of state at the DCMS in the past nine years. In the same time, Google has had a single boss in the UK, Matt Brittin. Moreover, regulating technology is exceptionally hard. Algorithms and coding are understood by very few. Categorising companies, which much of company law depends on, can be near impossible, given hugely different organisations might fall under the same broad banner. For instance, under "social media platform" you might group Facebook, whose revenues are in the tens of billions, with an app developed by dog-lovers in Huddersfield who want to share pooch pics. Above all, the companies that need the most regulation are usually a) American; b) global in reach; and c) domiciled in places where they can limit their tax liability. Getting international agreement on how to approach these complex issues is very tough. And perhaps there is another reason why regulation of this sector has been slow. I interviewed Katharine Dommett, director of Sheffield's Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics, who is now a special adviser to the Lords on these matters. Like the Electoral Commission, she acknowledged that Facebook in particular has made significant strides in opening itself up to scrutiny. The Facebook ad library is manna from heaven to geeks, but something short of that to journalists. You can see plenty about who is advertising, and who is being reached by particular adverts; but it is still not always clear who is paying for these ads. As I wrote in another blog post - The constant influence of dark ads - political donors who want to influence politics while avoiding the public scrutiny that comes from giving money directly to parties or politicians see social media as a great opportunity. According to Dr Dommett, the significant but crucially limited strides made by big technology companies - who focus principally on growing their bottom line, while legislators have a thousand more worries and pressures every morning - have allowed them to set the terms of this debate. Persuasion machines It's important to understand that the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter are radical extensions of the 20th Century advertising industry. They are giant persuasion machines, which we feed with data every time we scroll, click, like and share. Each of our actions allows them to add detail to their picture of us. That, in turn, gives those with a message to sell useful information about where to place their ads. Messages could be personal, commercial or political. We have advanced and generally approved an effective regulation of adverts. We have advanced and generally respected some very particular aspects of our politics. But stick the two together, add in the internet, and you have a mess. The influential campaigning group Who Targets Me has reported recently that Conservative spending is "creeping up". There was a big splurge after the ascension of Boris Johnson to the job of prime minister. This fact, and the re-assembly of the Vote Leave team under the leadership of Dominic Cummings, has re-ignited interest in this vast regulatory void in our democracy. But this is about much more than one man, one party, or one plebiscite. Across the political spectrum and across the world, social media is giving a platform to powerful forces who are able to avoid scrutiny. While it is true that, for reasons outlined above, coming up with effective regulation is tough, it's also true that at some point voters will begin to wonder why, years after we first started talking about it, voters are still being influenced by untraceable money. If you're interested in issues such as these, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook; and subscribe to The Media Show podcast from BBC Radio 4.

लगभग ढाई साल पहले, मैंने ब्रिटेन के नियामकों का एक चक्कर लगाया यह देखने के लिए कि क्या उनमें से कोई सोशल मीडिया पर राजनीतिक विज्ञापनों को विनियमित करना पसंद कर सकता है, विशेष रूप से चुनाव अवधि के बाहर।


Thai King Bhumibol recovering from 'water on brain'

Summary: Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been treated for hydrocephalus, or an excessive build-up of fluid on the brain, and is now recovering, say authorities.

The 87-year-old, who has been in hospital since 31 May, also had a lung inflammation which has since subsided. The monarch has had frequent bouts of ill health in recent years. He is seen as a pillar of stability in Thailand which saw political strife culminating in last year's coup. Though the king has no formal political role, he is seen by Thais as a symbol of unity, having ruled since 1946, and his health is closely watched. Last October he had his gallbladder removed. He was in Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital for seven months, and was discharged in May this year, only to return to the hospital a few weeks later for medical tests.

अधिकारियों का कहना है कि थाईलैंड के श्रद्धेय राजा भूमिबोल अदुल्यादेज का हाइड्रोसेफलस, या मस्तिष्क पर तरल पदार्थ के अत्यधिक निर्माण के लिए इलाज किया गया है, और अब ठीक हो रहे हैं।


Sugar tax: How bold is it?

Summary: The announcement by Chancellor George Osborne that a tax on sugary drinks is to be introduced in the UK came as a surprise - ministers had spent months suggesting they were against the idea. But just how bold is it?

Nick TriggleHealth correspondent@nicktriggleon Twitter There are two ways of looking at it. Firstly, the government has made a pretty radical step. Only a handful of countries have introduced such a levy and for a right-of-centre administration to do so is quite remarkable, and shows a strong commitment to tackling child obesity. The other - less generous interpretation - is that they were backed into a corner. Not only did pretty much the whole health lobby want it to happen, but TV chef Jamie Oliver led a pretty impressive campaign - a petition he set up attracted more than 150,000 signatures. No government wants to get on the wrong side of public opinion. Sugar in fizzy drinks 35g The amount of sugar in a 330ml can of Coca-Cola (7 teaspoons) 30g The recommended max. intake of sugar per day for those aged 11+ £520m The amount George Osborne expects the sugar tax to raise But the more important question is whether this will have an impact on child obesity rates. One in 10 children start primary school obese. By the end, one in five are obese. If you add in those who are overweight, it's one in three. There are many reasons for this. Children are more sedentary than they used to be - as are adults. And our diets are simply not good enough. Earlier this year the Food Foundation produced a model of a typical family's diet. Every member consumed too much sugar and saturated fat and too little fibre, fruit, vegetables and oily fish. So why tax sugar? All age groups consume at least twice as much as they should. Teenagers have three times as much - with sugary drinks their biggest source of the sweet stuff. It's easy to understand why. A typical can of fizzy drink contains enough sugar to take both adults and children over their recommended amount. There is evidence to suggest that a tax will have an impact on this. When Mexico introduced a tax of 10%, consumption fell by 6%. Indeed, the Office for Budget Responsibility, which provides economic forecasts for ministers, has already done some modelling. Its assumption is that for the government to raise the £520m a year it has said it will, it will need to introduce a levy of 18p and 24p per litre (the plan is for two tax bands depending on how much sugar is in the drink). The government has not confirmed whether this is the level being thought about as it wants to carry out a consultation. But it is as good a figure as we have at this stage. The analysis predicts that there will be a 5% drop in sales of the highest sugar drinks, but a 2% rise in lower sugar drinks. That would seem to be a pretty minor gain. But in a way campaigners say that misses the point. The sugar tax carries a symbolic message. That is to say obesity is now such a serious problem that it requires direct intervention. Short of a ban, a tax is arguably the next toughest measure open to a government. However, this should not be seen in isolation. The government is expected to publish its much delayed child obesity strategy in the summer. That could include restrictions on advertising and marketing, as well as a sustained campaign to reduce the sugar content of foods and drinks across the board. A sugar tax may be in the headlines at the moment, but it looks like it will just be the start of the fight against our bulging waistlines. We will have to wait and see to judge just how bold the government really is. Read more from Nick Follow Nick on Twitter

चांसलर जॉर्ज ओसबोर्न द्वारा ब्रिटेन में मीठे पेय पदार्थों पर कर लगाने की घोषणा एक आश्चर्य के रूप में आई-मंत्रियों ने महीनों तक यह सुझाव दिया कि वे इस विचार के खिलाफ थे। लेकिन यह कितना साहसिक है?


Colchester's 'Jumbo' water tower to be sold

Summary: The owner of a 19th Century water tower said he was putting it up for sale after his plans to develop it were turned down.

George Braithwaite had hoped to create an observatory, museum, offices, flats and a restaurant in the tower - known as Jumbo - in Colchester. But his application, recommended for approval by Colchester Council, were turned down late last year. Mr Braithwaite told BBC Essex he was putting the tower up for sale. Jumbo was decommissioned by Anglian Water in 1987.

19वीं सदी के एक जल मीनार के मालिक ने कहा कि जब इसे विकसित करने की उनकी योजना को अस्वीकार कर दिया गया तो वह इसे बिक्री के लिए रख रहे थे।


Oasis at Knebworth: 20 years since Britpop's biggest gigs

Summary: Twenty years ago today, Oasis played the first of two concerts at Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England. They were the biggest gigs of their era. The crowning glory of Britpop. Incredibly, one in 20 Britons applied for tickets.

By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter A quarter of a million eventually got to see Liam, Noel, Bonehead, Guigsy and Whitey as they confirmed their status as the most popular British band since The Beatles. (A status that was swiftly rescinded when the band released their overblown, coke-addled third album Be Here Now 12 months later.) But, in that moment, it was hard to argue with Noel when he strode on stage and declared: "You're making history, you lot." "I'll never forget the sheer scale of it," says Bonehead, AKA guitarist Paul Arthurs. "We flew in from London by helicopter and sort of circled the site. It landed behind the stage but we were like: 'Let's just do a once round and take it all in.' I'll never forget it." Not that conditions were completely idyllic. According to one report, singer Liam Gallagher was not too enamoured with the catering, screaming about the state of the sausages and flinging a handful of corn on the cob to the floor. Bonehead also found it difficult to prepare, thanks to an inconsiderate support act. "We stayed in these Winnebago, caravan things at the back of the stage," he tells BBC 6 Music. "I remember thinking 'I'll just have a quick hour in bed before we go on', and the Prodigy came on. If you've ever tried to sleep 20ft from the stage when the Prodigy were on live? Forget that." Sleep deprived or not, the band blew away the fans. "Hello, hello, hello. Let's go," said Liam, before launching into a gut-punching opening salvo of Columbia, Acquiesce and Supersonic. Almost two hours later, they ended their set with a celebratory cover of The Beatles' I Am The Walrus, capped by a spectacular fireworks display. But it was the ballads, tucked away in the second half of the set, that really brought the crowd together - 125,000 voices per night united for the choruses of Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger. Despite the band's later reputation for attracting a less refined crowd, the atmosphere was overwhelmingly good natured. In between support acts, the audience engaged in mock fights with empty paper cups, while police recorded only 10 arrests. Attended by Kate Moss, Chris Evans and Mick Hucknall (who set tongues wagging by bringing along soap star Martine McCutcheon), the shows made headline news - but the importance was not immediately apparent to the musicians. "It's weird," says John Power, whose band Cast were one of the support acts. "Sometimes these things, because you're involved in it, and because you see the bands all the time... it felt like it was just another a stepping stone to where this movement, or all these bands were going. "Oasis were massive obviously. But I think, now, looking back on it, I don't think it could have got any bigger than that." Always the most analytical member of Oasis, Noel Gallagher realised sooner than most that the band had peaked. "I remember sitting there, at Knebworth, in the backstage area, and someone saying, 'Well, what now?' And I was like, 'I couldn't tell ya,'" he later told Uncut magazine. "And that was how I felt for a good couple of years afterwards. I really suffered. It's like, what do you do when you've done everything? You kind of sink into boredom. Kind of directionless." Looking back, Power agrees: "I think maybe that is the time where maybe [Britpop] started to slowly come down a bit, like. "That doesn't mean there wasn't great performances going on and great music being made - but you can only contain so much fizz in a can before you've got to pop it." For fans, however, Knebworth is a fond memory (even if the queues for the toilets and food stalls remain a nightmare). The gigs were even enough to rile Liam's arch-enemy Robbie Williams into booking three nights at Knebworth, before allegedly asking Oasis to support him in a letter accompanied by a pair of tap dancing shoes. Not everyone was so bowled over, though. Matthew Wright, writing in The Mirror, called the shows "as flat as stale champagne", prompting a foul-mouthed phone call from Noel, who told him: "That's the last time you have anything to do with my [expletive] band." Meanwhile, Henry Lytton Cobbold, who owns the Knebworth estate, has an altogether more unique perspective on the weekend's events. "Amusingly, Noel Gallagher on Sunday morning, decided he wanted a bath, so he came up to the back door of Knebworth House, rang the doorbell and asked if he could have a bath," he recalls. "My dad, who was in the house at the time, showed him up to the Queen Elizabeth bathroom - and brought him a bottle of champagne. "I've since read him describe that he was served champagne by liveried servants, but it was actually my dad! "He then wrote in the Knebworth House guest book: 'Noel Gallagher (clean!)' "As an historic house with an archivist and a museum, those things now become part of our collection. "I just wish we'd kept the soap." You can hear more about Oasis's landmark Knebworth gigs on Steve Lamacq's BBC 6 Music show from 16:00 BST on Wednesday. The programme will conclude with a broadcast of the concert, as originally heard on BBC Radio 1 in 1996. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

आज से बीस साल पहले, ओएसिस ने इंग्लैंड के हर्टफोर्डशायर में नेबवर्थ में दो संगीत कार्यक्रमों में से पहला खेला था। वे अपने युग के सबसे बड़े कार्यक्रम थे। ब्रिटपॉप का शीर्ष गौरव। अविश्वसनीय रूप से, 20 में से एक ब्रिटिश ने टिकट के लिए आवेदन किया।


Irish consulate to reopen in Cardiff

Summary: Ireland will reopen its consulate in Cardiff later this year.

It comes after the country closed its Welsh diplomatic office in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis. The move is a "concrete recognition" of the importance of sustaining political and economic ties with Wales after Brexit, the Irish government said. It is expected to open by June 2019. Planning for where it would be based is currently underway, the government added. "The United Kingdom is Ireland's nearest neighbour and a hugely significant economic partner. Maintaining and growing our relationship beyond any UK exit from the European Union is paramount," a spokesman for the department said. "The re-opening of the Consulate General in Cardiff would be an important element in deepening this key partnership. "It is a concrete recognition of the importance of our political and economic ties with Wales and sustaining those links after Brexit." The spokesman said Wales is Ireland's fourth largest trading partner, with 85 Irish companies holding a presence in Wales and employing just over 5,500 people. Media Wales reported in 2009 that former first minister Rhodri Morgan had called for Ireland to keep the consulate open when its closure was announced. The department said the Welsh Government had been told at the time that the decision was taken for "financial reasons only, and that Ireland would look to reopen the consulate when the situation improved." "The Welsh Government has welcomed the announcement that the consulate will be re-opened and there has already been engagement between our administrations on building further cooperation once the consulate is in place," the spokesman added. The Director-General of the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, John McGrane, said it was an "extremely welcome announcement". "It's affirmation of the very strong bonds that exists between Wales and Ireland. Wales is an extremely important linkage for Irish trade and Ireland is an important customer for Wales," he said. Welsh minister for international relations, Eluned Morgan, tweeted that she looked forward "to working collaboratively with our closest neighbour in Cardiff as we continue to strengthen political and economic ties between our two great nations".

आयरलैंड इस साल के अंत में कार्डिफ में अपना वाणिज्य दूतावास फिर से खोलेगा।


The man stuffed and displayed like a wild animal

Summary: In the early 19th Century, it was fashionable for Europeans to collect wild animals from around the globe, bring them home and put them on display. One French dealer went further, bringing back the body of an African warrior. Dutch writer Frank Westerman came across the exhibit in a Spanish museum 30 years ago, and was determined to trace the man's history.

WARNING: This story contains an image some readers may find disturbing A decorative chain-link fence in the national colours - blue, white and black - marks the grave of one of the most famous, but least enviable sons of Botswana: "El Negro". His resting place in a public park in the city of Gaborone, under a tree trunk and some rocks, is reminiscent of the tomb of an unknown soldier. A metal plaque reads: El Negro Died c. 1830 Son of Africa Carried to Europe in Death Returned Home to African Soil October 2000 His fame comes from his posthumous travels - lasting 170 years - as a museum exhibit in France and Spain. Generations of Europeans gaped at his half-naked body, which had been stuffed and mounted by a taxidermist. There he stood, nameless, exhibited like a trophy. Back in 1983, as a university student from The Netherlands, I accidentally came across him on a hitchhiking trip to Spain. I had spent a night in the town of Banyoles, an hour north of Barcelona. The entrance of the Darder Museum of Natural History, behind a trio of leafless plane trees, happened to be next door. "He's real, you know," a schoolgirl shouted at me. "Who's real?" "El Negro!" Her voice blared out over the square - accompanied by the snorts and laughter of her friends. The next instant an elderly woman stepped out of the hairdressing salon with a cardigan draped over her shoulders. A fragile lady with a pointy chin graced by a few single hairs, she turned a key ring around in her fingers like a rosary. Senora Lola opened up the museum, sold me a ticket and pointed in the direction of the reptile room. "That way," she ordered. "Then go through the rooms clockwise." As I was on my way to the Human Room, an annex of the Mammal Room, past a climbing wall with apes and the skeleton of a gorilla, my merriment gave way to a shudder. There he was, the stuffed Negro of Banyoles. A spear in his right hand, a shield in his left. Bending slightly, shoulders raised. Half-naked, with just a raffia decoration and a coarse orange loincloth. El Negro turned out to be an adult male, skin and bones, who hardly came up to one's elbow. He was standing in a glass case in the middle of the carpet. This was not Madame Tussaud's. I was not staring at an illusion of authenticity - this black man was neither a cast nor some kind of mummy. He was a human being, displayed like yet another wildlife specimen. History dictated that the taxidermist was a white European and his object a black African. The reverse was unimaginable. I flushed and felt the roots of my hair prickling - simply from a diffuse sense of shame. Senora Lola didn't have an explanation. She didn't even have a catalogue or a brochure. She tapped a carousel postcard stand and stared at me through her glasses. I took a card of El Negro and read on the back: Museo Darder - Banyoles. Bechuana. "Bechuana?" Senora Lola kept staring at me. Head back, chin jutting forward. "The cards are 40 pesetas each," she said. I bought two. Twenty years later I decided to write a book about El Negro's extraordinary journey from Botswana (Bechuana) to Banyoles and back again. The story begins with Jules Verreaux, a French dealer in "naturalia", who in 1831 witnessed the burial of a Tswana warrior in the African interior, a few days' travel north of Capetown, and then returned at night - "not without danger to my own life" - to dig up the body and steal the skin, the skull and a few bones. With the help of metal wire acting as a spine, wooden boards as shoulder blades, and stuffed with newspapers, Verreaux prepared and preserved the stolen body parts. Then he shipped him to Paris, along with a batch of stuffed animals in crates. In 1831 the African's body appeared in a showroom at No 3, Rue Saint Fiacre. In a review, the newspaper Le Constitutionnel praised the fearlessness of Jules Verreaux, who must have faced dangers "amid natives who are as wild as they are black". This article set the tone, and the "individual of the Bechuana people" attracted more attention than the giraffes, hyenas or ostriches. "He is small in posture, black-skinned, and his head is covered in woolly frizzy hair," the newspaper said. More than half a century later, the "Bechuana" popped up in Spain. On the fringes of the world exhibition in Barcelona in 1888, the Spanish vet Francisco Darder presented him in a catalogue as "El Betchuanas", complete with a drawing in which he is seen wearing raffia finery and holding a spear and a shield. By the 20th Century, having been brought over to Banyoles, a small city at the foot of the Pyrenees, his origins had been largely forgotten - on his pedestal was mistakenly written "Bushman of the Kalahari". In the decades that followed, the link to his Tswana origins faded even further and he became known simply as "El Negro". At some point, the revealing loincloth that Jules Verreaux had decked him out in was replaced by the Roman-Catholic curators of the Banyoles museum with a more demure orange skirt. His skin was given a layer of shoe polish to make him seem blacker than he was. Standing in his display case, slightly bowed and with a piercing gaze, El Negro embodied in a poignant and harrowing way, the darkest aspects of Europe's colonial past. He confronted visitors head-on with theories of "scientific racism" - the classification of people according to their supposed inferiority or superiority on the basis of skull measurements and other false assumptions. As the 20th Century progressed, El Negro became more and more of an anachronism. Not only was there increasing guilt and awareness of the fact that his body and grave had been violated, but as a European artefact from the 19th Century he reflected ideas that had become universally untenable. Everything began to shift in 1992 when a Spanish doctor of Haitian origin suggested, in a letter to El Pais, that El Negro should be removed from the museum. The Olympic Games were coming to Barcelona that year and the lake of Banyoles was the venue for the rowing competitions. Surely, wrote Dr Alphonse Arcelin, any athletes and spectators who visited the local museum would take offence at the sight of a stuffed black man. Arcelin's call was supported by prominent names such as the US pastor Jesse Jackson and basketball player "Magic" Johnson. The Ghanaian Kofi Annan, then still Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, condemned the exhibit as "repulsive" and "barbarically insensitive". But due to heavy resistance among the Catalan people, who embraced El Negro as a "national" treasure, it was not until March 1997 that El Negro disappeared from public view and "Object 1004" was put into storage. Three years later, in the autumn of 2000, he began his final journey home. Following long consultations with the Organisation for African Unity, Spain had agreed to repatriate the human remains to Botswana for a ceremonial reburial in African soil. The first stage of his repatriation was a night ride in a truck to Madrid. Once in the capital, his stuffed body was divested of its non-human additions, such as his glass eyes. El Negro was dismantled - as if the film of the preparations that Jules Verreaux carried out 170 years earlier was simply rewound. His skin, however, turned out to be hard and crusty - it crumbled. Because of this, and because of the treatment with shoe polish, it was decided to keep it in Spain. According to one newspaper report it was left behind at the Museum of Anthropology in Madrid. So the coffin, destined for Botswana, contained only the skull and certain arm and leg bones. The remains of the Tswana warrior lay in state for a day in the capital Gaborone, where an estimated 10,000 people walked past to pay their last respects. The following day, 5 October 2000, he was committed to earth in a fenced-off area in the Tsholofelo park. It was a Christian burial. "In the spirit of Jesus Christ," the priest said with his hand on the Bible, "who also suffered." An awning, supported by two rows of tent poles, protected the guests of honour from the sun. "We are prepared to forgive," said the then-Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe to the assembled mourners. "But we must not forget the crimes of the past, so that we don't repeat them." Blessings were pronounced, there was singing and dancing. Buglers wearing white gloves sounded a last salute. Subsequently, the grave was neglected for many years, the field around it being used as a football pitch. Lately however, the Botswanan government has restored and enhanced the site with a visitor's centre and explanatory signs. But in 2016 it is still not known who this "son of Africa" was, what his name was, or exactly where he came from. An autopsy, carried out in a Catalan hospital in 1995, nevertheless brought some things to light. The man who became world-renowned as El Negro lived to be about 27 years old. When alive, he stood between 1.35m and 1.4m tall (between 4ft 5in and 4ft 7in). He probably died of pneumonia. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

19वीं शताब्दी की शुरुआत में, यूरोपीय लोगों के लिए दुनिया भर से जंगली जानवरों को इकट्ठा करना, उन्हें घर लाना और उन्हें प्रदर्शन पर रखना फैशनेबल था। एक फ्रांसीसी व्यापारी आगे बढ़कर एक अफ्रीकी योद्धा के शव को वापस ले आया। डच लेखक फ्रैंक वेस्टरमैन 30 साल पहले एक स्पेनिश संग्रहालय में प्रदर्शनी में आए थे, और उस आदमी के इतिहास का पता लगाने के लिए दृढ़ थे।


Ban Ki Moon gets on his bike at climate talks as Polish minister axed

Summary: Dramatic moments here at the climate talks in Warsaw.

Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent@mattmcgrathbbcon Twitter A Polish Government reshuffle saw their environment minister get the order of the boot. Poor Marcin Korolec has also been chairing this Conference of the Parties (Cop) with mixed success. But he didn't lose his post because of the glum state of the negotiations - ironically his political bosses weren't sure he was the right man to handle shale gas in Poland. And I thought fracking was supposed to create jobs? The conference was also "rocked" by a walkout by delegates from developing countries. They were angry about the crucial issue of loss and damage and during a very late session, they walked out, raging with indignity into the cold Polish night. Or perhaps they didn't. By other accounts, several negotiators did actually walk out, but only to catch the last bus home! This group of countries, called G77 plus China, in the language of the Cop, were deeply incensed by the richer countries simply refusing to countenance a new arrangement on loss and damage that would see them legally on the hook for the impacts of rising temperatures. In the words of EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard this concept is a red line for Europe. "We cannot have a system where there will be automatic compensation whenever severe weather events are happening one place or the other around the planet, you will understand why that is not feasible," she said. But it wasn't all fractious infighting about mind numbing details. Bamboo bicycle UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon put on a crash helmet, not to survive the brickbats of angry negotiators, but to steer a bamboo bicycle around the conference centre. Mr Ban was highlighting a project called Momentum for Change, that includes the Ghanaian bamboo bicycle project. This company made 800 of these bikes last year, which not only benefits the environment by using bamboo but gives jobs and crucial transport to villagers in many parts of Africa. Mr Ban had opened the ministerial segment of this meeting yesterday to the strains of some noodly jazz laid on by the Polish government. In a surreal scene, a Ukranian artist drew powerful climate-related pictures in sand that were projected on the big screen - some wag suggested that given the attachment of Poland to anthracite, perhaps she should have used coal dust instead. Mr Ban tried to gee up the participants by telling them he had previously been to a successful climate meeting in Poland in 2008. Perhaps it wasn't the right image. The car crash that became the Copenhagen Cop in 2009, had really started to unravel the year before in Poznan. Many fear that Warsaw will foreshadow similar problems when the climate bus pulls into Paris in 2015. Well at least Mr Ban didn't tell us, for the umpteenth time, that the heat is on.

वारसॉ में जलवायु वार्ता में यहाँ नाटकीय क्षण।


The TV tycoons you may have missed

Summary: What do you need to run a TV channel? Not much these days - get a cheap video camera and access to the internet, and you can soon be a TV tycoon, albeit on a very small scale. But I've been meeting two channels run by young British entrepreneurs who are showing the TV establishment the way to connect audiences and grow businesses in a hurry.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter SB.TV The first is 21-year-old Jamal Edwards. He grew up on a west London housing estate and left school with few qualifications, but he now has a business called SB.TV, offering all sorts of original video content on YouTube and making some serious money from it. When I popped into his recently acquired offices in Ladbroke Grove, where three of his staff were hard at work, he told me how it got started: "When I was 14 or 15, I got a video camera for Christmas and I started going out on my estate and filming lots of rappers - and from there it snowballed. I just kept filming every day." While working by day in a clothes shop, by night he taught himself about making videos and running a business by watching online tutorials. Eventually a cheque arrived from YouTube for the revenue from adverts placed around his videos. "I thought yeah I can give up working at Topman and make it a business." The channel has had over 100 million views, and Jamal is very proud that every bit of the content has been filmed by his team. Some artists that have been featured on SB.TV from Jessie J to Ed Sheeran have seen their profiles boosted - for others it's been the only way to get their music to an audience. Jamal says the key for his business is to build a community, and respond to what its members want. Google has already featured Jamal Edwards in an advert, and mainstream TV and music firms are watching SB.TV very closely, desperate to understand the connection it has with its audience. I would not be surprised to see an approach from a potential buyer, but Jamal says he's just concentrating on growing his channel: "I'm just trying to think of new fresh ideas, keep it buzzing. It's gonna go worldwide man!" he told me. "Music, fashion, sport comedy, just gonna build it up." Unless you're a teenage gamer, you may never have heard of Yogscast, but it is an even bigger video phenomenon than SB.TV. Much bigger, in fact, with one billion views to its YouTube channel so far, and three million people tuning in each day. I first spotted it when browsing through the "most viewed" section on YouTube. It seems to be packed with videos about games, all of them accompanied by a slightly eccentric commentary by two young men. "That's Simon and Lewis from Yogscast, dad," my teenage online game-obsessed son explained, in a voice which suggested that anyone who hadn't heard of them must have been asleep for 100 years. So I went to meet Lewis Brindley and Simon Lane in their shiny new offices in Bristol, global headquarters of a business which has only recently moved out of their respective bedrooms. Lewis was working as a freelance journalist four years ago and played online games with a group of people including Simon. "We would all group together to kill virtual dragons." He decided that the entertaining chat that happened during the games needed to be put online, so he started making videos featuring him and Simon - who he hadn't even met in real life at that stage. Their double act soon proved popular, especially when they began to focus on Minecraft, a creative game which allows players to build their own worlds and adventures. Then came a key moment: "I woke up on Christmas Day in 2010 and we were the most viewed video on YouTube," Lewis explained. "That was when it hit me that this was maybe worth quitting our jobs for and having a good go at it." They have certainly had a good go. Yogscast has assembled a team of more than a dozen people who can all make and edit videos in their new studios in Bristol. Every day, they upload at least one video, with an average length of 15 minutes, and they are working on improving the production values. "If you don't produce good quality videos, then people won't come back," says Lewis. "We listen very carefully to what our community says." They are building a network of people making similar videos, and there is an exciting new project, their own video game. Using the crowdfunding site Kickstarter they have raised over $500,000 to create Yogventures, in collaboration with a Los Angeles based game developer. It sounds rather like Minecraft, and if it succeeds on that scale when it launches next year, then Yogscast will be a serious player in the games world as well as in online video. So what are their ambitions? "I want to be the next Rupert Murdoch," Simon told me - though I'm not entirely clear how serious he was. But Lewis, the straight man in the comedy duo, seems pretty focussed on expanding Yogscast and making increasingly professional video content. But has either of these businesses really got a chance to make an impact on TV? When I spoke to the respected media analyst Theresa Wise she freely admitted she'd never heard of either of them - but was impressed by what I told her about their ambitions. She warned, however, that this was a hits-driven business: "There are two issues - keeping generating the hits and convincing people you're still cool. When dads start to like you there's a danger that people switch to other things." It is, in her words, a "fickle old business". But wouldn't it be great to see Jamal Edwards and the Yogscast duo Simon and Lewis prove that in the internet age Britain can create TV tycoons with staying power?

टीवी चैनल चलाने के लिए आपको क्या चाहिए? इन दिनों ज्यादा नहीं-एक सस्ता वीडियो कैमरा और इंटरनेट तक पहुंच प्राप्त करें, और आप जल्द ही एक टीवी टाइकून बन सकते हैं, भले ही बहुत छोटे पैमाने पर। लेकिन मैं युवा ब्रिटिश उद्यमियों द्वारा संचालित दो चैनलों से मिल रहा हूं जो टीवी प्रतिष्ठान को दर्शकों को जोड़ने और जल्दबाजी में व्यवसाय बढ़ाने का रास्ता दिखा रहे हैं।


Daily and Sunday Politics manifesto tracker: Constitution

Summary: Welcome to the Daily and Sunday Politics manifesto tracker. As the name suggests, it tracks the progress the government is making - or not - in achieving the promises made by the Conservatives in their 2015 general election manifesto and major policy announcements.

The traffic light scorecard above shows the current status of all of the policies. The tracker will be updated over the course of this parliament. The tracker has been broken down into policy areas, which can be explored by clicking on each of the links below. Manifesto tracker by theme This section deals with constitutional matters. CONSTITUTION Scrap the Human Rights Act and introduce a British Bill of Rights - Manifesto, page 60 Implement Wales' devolution settlement - Manifesto, page 70 Legislate to deliver the historic deal for Greater Manchester, which will devolve powers and budgets and lead to the creation of a directly elected Mayor for Greater Manchester - Manifesto, page 13 English votes for English laws - Manifesto, page 69 Reduce the number of MPs to 600 - Manifesto, page 49 A new Scotland Bill will be in the first Queen's Speech and will be introduced in the first session of a new parliament - Manifesto, page 70 Implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission so that more than 50% of the Scottish Parliament's budget will be funded from revenues raised in Scotland and it will have significant new welfare powers - Manifesto, page 70 Work to implement fully and faithfully the historic Stormont House Agreement - Manifesto, page 71 Continue to seek agreement on a comprehensive package of party funding reform - Manifesto, page 49 Strikes should only ever be the result of a clear, positive decision based on a ballot in which at least half the workforce has voted - Manifesto, page 18 Introduce a strike threshold for essential public services (health, education, fire and transport) of at least 40% of those entitled to take part - Manifesto, page 18 Repeal nonsensical restrictions banning employers from hiring agency staff to provide essential cover during strikes - Manifesto, page 19 Ensure strikes cannot be called on the basis of ballots conducted years before - Manifesto, page 19 Legislate to ensure trade unions use a transparent opt-in process for union subscriptions - Manifesto, page 19 Tighten the rules around taxpayer-funded paid "facility time" for union representatives - Manifesto, page 19

डेली एंड संडे पॉलिटिक्स मेनिफेस्टो ट्रैकर में आपका स्वागत है। जैसा कि नाम से पता चलता है, यह 2015 के आम चुनाव घोषणापत्र और प्रमुख नीतिगत घोषणाओं में कंजर्वेटिवों द्वारा किए गए वादों को पूरा करने में सरकार की प्रगति-या नहीं-पर नज़र रखता है।


Teen stabbed at church grounds in Burton-upon-Trent

Summary: A 16-year-old girl suffered "significant" injuries when she was stabbed in the neck at the grounds of a church, police said.

Staffordshire Police said the teenager was "seriously assaulted" at All Saints Church in Branston Road, Burton-upon-Trent at about 19:00 GMT on Monday. The force said she was treated at Queen's Hospital in the town. The area around the church was sealed off, police said, to allow forensic examinations to take place.

पुलिस ने कहा कि एक चर्च के मैदान में गर्दन में चाकू लगने से एक 16 वर्षीय लड़की को "गंभीर" चोटें आईं।


Newspaper headlines: 'Le bust-up' as France 'derails Brexit talks'

Summary: "France derails Brexit talks," is the Times' main headline . It says the suspension of trade negotiations last night came after the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, "ambushed" Britain at the insistence of French President Emmanuel Macron.

By BBC NewsStaff The European Union is said to want access to the UK's fishing waters for up to ten years after the end of the transition period, according to the Daily Telegraph. It says a senior government source described the EU's demands as "ridiculous" and "frankly laughable". The paper reports Boris Johnson could now make a "personal plea" to Mr Macron this weekend to break the deadlock. The latest development is neatly characterised by the Daily Mail's main headline as "Le bust-up". According to the paper, a close ally of Mr Macron said he would veto any trade deal that went against French interests. The Financial Times reports that - despite the "brinkmanship and briefings" - bookmakers are putting the chances of an agreement being reached at more than 80%. The Guardian reports that if an agreement is reached later than the beginning of next week, government officials are preparing to ask MPs to remain in parliament until two days before Christmas to pass the legislation. Away from Brexit, the i weekend says the government is revisiting the idea of immunity passports to establish whether greater freedoms could be granted to people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19. It says Downing Street officials are also considering short-term "freedom passes" to allow anyone shown to be free of the virus to meet friends or attend events. Several papers feature images and reports of the Queen's first attempt at "virtual diplomacy". The Daily Mail says the monarch received zoom lessons from Princess Anne before meeting ambassadors and their families at Buckingham Palace via a video link from Windsor Castle. The ambassadors still had to bow or curtsey in front of the computer screen - while the Daily Telegraph reports that another ceremonial aspect that remained was the state carriages sent to pick up the ambassadors from their residences. The Sun says it hopes the guests were still offered a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. 'Major victory' for Essex girls The Times reports on what it calls a "major victory" for The Essex Girls Liberation Front. The Oxford University Press has agreed to remove a definition of "Essex Girl" from its dictionary for foreign language students trying to learn English. The publication had said the term could be best defined as "a type of young woman who is not intelligent, dresses badly and talks in a loud and ugly way". The OED says it acted not because the phrase was offensive, but because it was falling out of use. Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your inbox

"फ्रांस ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता को पटरी से उतारता है", यह टाइम्स की मुख्य शीर्षक है। यह कहता है कि कल रात व्यापार वार्ता का निलंबन यूरोपीय संघ के मुख्य वार्ताकार, मिशेल बार्नियर द्वारा फ्रांसीसी राष्ट्रपति इमैनुएल मैक्रॉन के आग्रह पर ब्रिटेन पर "घात लगाकर हमला" करने के बाद हुआ।


Could Catalonia make a success of independence?

Summary: Pro-independence parties have won a slim majority in the Catalan parliament. The regional election backfired on the Spanish government, but for now Madrid remains firmly in control, under emergency powers invoked in October.

What if Catalonia were to secede eventually - would it be able to stand on its own two feet? Trappings of statehood To the casual observer, Catalonia looks like it has already got many of the trappings of a state. Flags. A parliament. But its leader, Carles Puigdemont, is in self-imposed exile in Belgium. The region has its own police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra. It has its own broadcast regulator, and even boasts a series of foreign "missions" - mini embassies that promote trade and investment in Catalonia around the world. Catalonia delivers some public services already - schools and healthcare, for example. There'd be much more to set up in the event of independence, though. Border control. Customs. Proper international relations. Defence. A central bank. Inland revenue. Air traffic control. All of these are currently run by Madrid. But assuming it did create these new institutions - would it be able to pay for them? Reasons to be cheerful "Madrid nos roba" is a popular secessionist slogan - "Madrid is robbing us". The received wisdom is that comparatively wealthy Catalonia pays in more than it gets out of the Spanish state. Catalonia is certainly rich compared with other parts of Spain. It is home to just 16% of the Spanish population, but 19% of its GDP and more than a quarter of Spain's foreign exports. It punches above its weight in terms of tourism too - 18 million of Spain's 75 million tourists chose Catalonia as their primary destination last year, easily the most visited region. Tarragona has one of Europe's largest chemical hubs. Barcelona is one of the EU's top 20 ports by weight of goods handled. About a third of the working population has some form of tertiary education. It's also true that Catalans pay more in taxes than is spent on their region. In 2014, the last year the Spanish government has figures for, Catalans paid nearly €10bn (£8.9bn) more in taxes than reached their region in public spending. Would an independent Catalonia get the difference back? Some have argued that even if Catalonia gained a tax boost from independence, that might get swallowed up by having to create new public institutions and run them without the same economies of scale. And some argue that it makes sense for the state to redistribute money from richer to poorer regions in this way. A harder reckoning Perhaps of greater concern is Catalonia's public debt. The Catalan government owes €77bn (£68bn) at the last count, or 35.4% of Catalonia's GDP. Of that, €52bn is owed to the Spanish government. In 2012, the Spanish government set up a special fund to provide cash to the regions, who were unable to borrow money on the international markets after the financial crisis. Catalonia has been by far the biggest beneficiary of this scheme, taking €67bn since it began. Not only would Catalonia lose access to that scheme, but it would raise the question of how much debt Catalonia would be willing to repay after independence. That question would surely cast a shadow over any negotiations. And on top of the sum owed by the regional government - would Madrid expect Barcelona to shoulder a share of the Spanish national debt? Involuntary Catalexit? The uncertainty created by the struggle for independence has already hit the Catalan economy. More than 3,100 companies have moved their legal headquarters out of the region, including major banks Caixabank and Banco de Sabadell. At least part of the uncertainty is over Catalonia's relationship with Europe. Two-thirds of Catalonia's foreign exports go to the EU. It would need to reapply to become a member if it seceded from Spain - it wouldn't get in automatically or immediately. And it would require all EU members to agree - including Spain. Some in the pro-independence camp feel that Catalonia could settle for single-market membership without joining the EU. Catalans may well be happy to pay for access, and continue to accept free movement of EU citizens across the region's borders. But if Spain chose to, it could make life difficult for an independent Catalonia. There is also the question of currency. In 2015, the governor of the Bank of Spain warned Catalans independence would cause the region to drop out of the euro automatically, losing access to the European Central Bank. Normally, new EU member states must apply to join the euro. They have to meet certain criteria, such as their debt not being too large a percentage of their gross domestic product (GDP). Even if they meet those criteria, a qualified majority of eurozone countries has to approve their entry. In theory, that means even if Catalonia became a new EU member state, it may well take time to rejoin the eurozone - and Spain and its allies could block that. In practice, we just don't know what would happen. Nobody has ever declared independence from a member of the eurozone then asked to rejoin as a new country. Could Catalonia use the euro without joining the eurozone? It does happen. Some countries such as San Marino and Vatican City do so with the eurozone's blessing, since they're too small to ever become EU member states. Others, such as Kosovo and Montenegro, use the euro without the EU's blessing, and so don't have access to the European Central Bank. Again, whether either solution would be practical in Catalonia remains to be seen. Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter

स्वतंत्रता समर्थक दलों ने कैटलन संसद में एक छोटा सा बहुमत हासिल किया है। क्षेत्रीय चुनाव ने स्पेन की सरकार पर उल्टा असर डाला, लेकिन अभी के लिए मैड्रिड अक्टूबर में लागू आपातकालीन शक्तियों के तहत मजबूती से नियंत्रण में है।


Dumfries postman attacked while delivering mail

Summary: Police are hunting a man who carried out an "unprovoked attack" on a postman who was delivering mail in Dumfries.

The assault took place at a block of flats on Syme Road at about 10:30 on Friday. The attacker, who ran off, was described as wearing a light blue, hooded top with the hood up. The postman suffered bruising to his face and a black eye. Police have asked anyone with information or who witnessed the attack to contact them.

पुलिस एक ऐसे व्यक्ति की तलाश कर रही है जिसने डमफ्रीज में डाक देने वाले एक डाकिये पर "बिना उकसावे के हमला" किया था।


South Ribble MP Seema Kennedy standing down at next election

Summary: South Ribble MP Seema Kennedy has announced she will be standing down at the next general election.

The Conservative MP, a mother of three, said she would be focussing on other priorities in her life. Mrs Kennedy, 45, has held the seat since 2015 and said it had been "a huge privilege" to serve as an MP "for the best place to live in the UK". She said she was "most proud" of her work towards the appointment of a minister for loneliness.

साउथ रिबल की सांसद सीमा कैनेडी ने घोषणा की है कि वह अगले आम चुनाव में पद छोड़ देंगी।


Cash to cut Jersey orthopaedics treatment waiting times

Summary: More than £1m has been earmarked in Jersey to reduce waiting times for orthopaedics patients for bone, muscle and ligament care.

On average, patients currently have to wait about 28 weeks for an appointment. Although this is a decrease from more than 40 weeks, managers said such waits were still unacceptable. They said they hoped to use to the money from the Health Department to decrease waiting times further to a target of 12 weeks. Michelle West, director of operations at the island's general hospital, said the money would be spent on support staff and an extra consultant.

हड्डी, मांसपेशियों और लिगामेंट की देखभाल के लिए हड्डी रोग रोगियों के लिए प्रतीक्षा समय को कम करने के लिए जर्सी में 1 मिलियन पाउंड से अधिक का प्रावधान किया गया है।


'Driver asleep' crash on Aston Expressway prompts warning

Summary: A warning has been issued after an ambulance was in collision with a car whose driver is thought to have fallen asleep at the wheel.

A tweet from West Midlands Ambulance Service said driving whilst tired was not "worth the risk". Only minor injuries were reported in the crash on Birmingham's Aston Expressway at 06:30 BST, police said. Central Motorway Police Group tweeted: "Please do not drive tired." "Lucky minor injury, but it could of been a lot worse if not for the quick actions of the ambulance driver," the tweet continued. West Midlands Police said no arrests had been made. Related Internet Links West Midlands Police West Midlands Fire Service

एक एम्बुलेंस की एक कार से टक्कर के बाद एक चेतावनी जारी की गई है, जिसके चालक के बारे में माना जाता है कि वह गाड़ी चलाते समय सो गया था।


Stormont talks: What are the key points in the draft deal?

Summary: Stormont parties are considering the details of a draft deal to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

The text, New Decade, New Approach, was published by the British and Irish governments on Thursday night. It sets out a plan of action for a new executive and commitments from the two governments. Here are some of the key points in the 62-page document: Health Education Petition of concern Language and tradition Infrastructure Anything else? UK government commitments Irish government pledges

स्टॉर्मॉन्ट पार्टियाँ उत्तरी आयरलैंड में सत्ता-साझाकरण को बहाल करने के लिए एक मसौदा समझौते के विवरण पर विचार कर रही हैं।


Five things to do with empty retail space

Summary: So far, 2018 has been a rough year on the High Street. Toys R Us and Maplin have collapsed, while New Look and Mothercare have announced closures, as have Jamie's Italian, burger chain Byron and Prezzo.

By Karen HogganBusiness reporter They're the latest victims of increased online shopping and higher overheads. The shift to online and more frequent food shopping also means some retailers have more store space than they need. So what's happening to the space that's being freed up? 1. Gyms Talk to anyone in retailing today and they'll tell you "experiences" are crucial - an effective way for bricks and mortar retailers to differentiate themselves from online. Richard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, says experiences are about "what Amazon can't do". Retailers need to create an interesting experience that "drives footfall and better loyalty and creates an environment that can't be replicated online", he adds. Gyms are a case in point and they've been busily snapping up empty retail space. Low-cost operator The Gym Group has opened up in part of a former BHS in Walthamstow, north London. It's also rented excess space from Sainsbury's at its store at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Founder John Treharne says: "We have always converted retail space - there just happens to be more of it available today." 2. Crazy golf and climbing walls And it's not just gyms getting in on the act. "Competitive socialising" is a big thing these days, says Colin Flinn, regional managing director of shopping centre owner intu, whose properties include Lakeside in Essex and the Trafford Centre in Manchester. Ping-pong bars, trampoline parks, social darts, indoor golf, climbing walls, escape rooms and virtual reality games are all growing in popularity - and are on the hunt for suitable space. That can be empty space in shops. For instance, crazy golf operator Swingers has moved into the first floor of the former BHS flagship store on London's Oxford Street. Co-founder Matt Grech-Smith says snapping up the site was as "no-brainer", because it's "literally a stone's throw from the ultra-high footfall of Oxford Circus. Sites in a location as prime as this don't come along very often - especially sites this big." But the big and successful shopping centres are also attracting activities. "Major regional [shopping] centres are becoming 'resorts'," says intu's Mr Flinn. "Customers can either pop in to do a quick shop or spend a full day with the family." 3. Prosecco and patisserie A key focus for retailers and shopping centres is turning themselves into "destinations" - persuading people to visit and stay for longer, rather than simply ordering stuff online. Next's revamped store in Manchester's Arndale Centre includes a prosecco bar, a barber, a children's activity centre and, in the summer, a car showroom. It's also in talks with a spa operator. A Next spokeswoman says the idea is to give "people a real reason to come to the store - people aren't browsing as much as they were before. Lots of things under one roof is far more appealing to a shopper." Debenhams has also gone down this route. Boss Sergio Bucher says the focus of its strategy is leisure and "social shopping". It's ramped up its food offering and the likes of Patisserie Valerie and Nandos are now in some stores. It has also teamed up with gym operator Sweat, with the first gym due to open later this year, and taken a stake in beauty company Blow Ltd, which has opened salons in store. "When people go shopping with friends, they tend to spend more," says a Debenhams spokesperson. "Destination is really important for all department store operators." Recently, department store group John Lewis kitted out a fully furnished apartment in three of its stores. Customers could stay overnight and order dinner, while everything in the flat was for sale. The department store group says customers are increasingly using its stores as a "leisure destination" and as a convenient place for click-and-collect. "This means that our strategy in shops focuses much more on experiences and giving people a reason to come in and visit us," says a spokeswoman. 4. Houses and flats In some instances, there may be no option but to admit the empty space is not going to work for retail or leisure, either in a town centre or in a worn-out shopping centre. That's when it's time to turn it into residential property. "It makes sense, because we've got too many shops and a lack of flats." says Richard Lim of Retail Economics. The British Property Federation's chief executive, Melanie Leech, agrees: "We think there's a huge opportunity from the empty retail outlets. "We have a huge shortage of residential stock and we know people increasingly want to live in towns and cities." 5. Discounting and convenience Of course, some retailers are still expanding and looking for new space. Leading the charge are discounters Aldi and Lidl, whose popularity is surging. The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) reckons that by 2022, one of every £7 spent on groceries will go to the discounters, with the total value of their sales jumping by nearly 50% between 2017 and 2022 to about £30bn. Lidl has more than 700 stores in the UK and plans to open 50 this year alone, while Aldi has more than 750 stores and will open 70 this year. Convenience stores run by the big supermarket chains are also springing up in many neighbourhood locations as more and more people abandon the weekly shop and leave decisions about an evening meal to the last minute. As a result, the IGD expects convenience store sales to rise by nearly 18% to about £47bn by 2022.

अब तक, 2018 हाई स्ट्रीट पर एक कठिन वर्ष रहा है। टॉयज़ आर यूएस और मैपलिन ध्वस्त हो गए हैं, जबकि न्यू लुक और मदरकेयर ने बंद होने की घोषणा की है, जैसा कि जेमी की इतालवी, बर्गर श्रृंखला बायरन और प्रेज़ो ने किया है।


'With all due respect': Sir Philip runs the show

Summary: Former BHS owner Sir Philip Green has given evidence to the Business and the Work and Pensions select committees, which are investigating the demise of the 164-store group. The BBC's Jamie Robertson was in the room to witness the drama of the six-hour marathon.

A sketch by Jamie RobertsonBusiness reporter, BBC News The first thing you notice as former BHS owner Sir Philip Green walks into the Committee Room is the sun tan. Sir Philip has obviously been having more time in the sun than the MPs cross-questioning him. Maybe they should get out more, though Monaco, where Sir Philip has his home might be a bit beyond their means. "I went there, I met the people, so I moved there," he replied when he was asked why he lived in the Mediterranean principality. Oddly he mentioned nothing about its benevolent tax regime, which might, on reflection, have been the point of the question. And then there were the hand gestures. MPs are remarkably static when they ask their questions, so when he threw his hands in the air and demanded of Richard Graham: "Are we in the same room? I don't think we are," there was a hint of the ham actor auditioning before a group of producers for a part in a Victorian melodrama. And like every actor looking for a part, he wants to show due deference to his listeners. "With due respect, sir," punctuates every other sentence. "Respectively sir." "With the greatest respect." And then he contradicts them, points at one MP and then another and waves his hands a little more. But there is something else an actor does - control his audience. Sir Philip is working at it from the beginning. Halfway through an answer to Michelle Thompson, he turned on another MP, Richard Fuller, and told him to stop staring at him. Mr Fuller looked a little hurt. And bearing in mind that there were 11 MPs all staring at him, it seemed a rather unreasonable request. And what was his answer to the MPs questions? Well, there are a lot of "I don't remembers". It seems the appearance of large holes in BHS' pension fund slipped by unnoticed by the King of the High Street. "I'm not running away," he cried. "I'm here voluntarily." Indeed, Sir Philip was very much there. He has what an actor might call, inadequately, "presence". Then there was the sale of BHS to Mr Chappell, a former bankrupt, a racing driver and an associate of a known fraudster. MP Richard Graham said that Sir Philip had described Mr Chappell as living in a fantasy land. Sir Philip: "I did not." Mr Graham insisted he had. Sir Philip: "When did I say that?" and he looked around the room, his face a mask of astonishment, a man sorely maligned. The MPs conferred amidst much nodding of heads and agreed that Sir Philip had said such a thing. They are, after all, the producers of this melodrama. Sir Philip is amazed and shakes his head, a picture of disbelief. And then he is back on the attack: "No, no, no, no, no, with all due respect..." He is interrupting again. Mr Graham ploughs on. He is a former diplomat, soft-spoken and polite. Sir Philip's hands wave frantically and the questions keep on coming. Sir Philip turns the questions back on the MPs. At one point he ignores a question from one, and turns to another and asks him to continue. And then the inevitable: "Sir Philip, we are asking the questions, not you." Sir Philip bows his head briefly. A moment later, the timing perfect, he's back: "I just don't like the way you are asking the question." He butts in, he demands to answer questions, the committee chair demands to move on. He won't. "We must move on." He won't. Move on. He won't. Move on. How long can this drama go on for? The answer is: a long time. But after more than five hours the performance is finally over. Longer than Hamlet.

बीएचएस के पूर्व मालिक सर फिलिप ग्रीन ने बिजनेस एंड द वर्क एंड पेंशन चयन समितियों को सबूत दिए हैं, जो 164-स्टोर समूह के निधन की जांच कर रही हैं। बीबीसी के जेमी रॉबर्टसन छह घंटे की मैराथन के नाटक को देखने के लिए कमरे में थे।


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

War of the Roses Word of the Tour coming to Yorkshire has gone abroad it seems, with two stories about the race appearing in Friday's Lancashire Telegraph. My favourite is the one titled "Fun for all the family" that is illustrated by a picture of an empty road. It suggests Skipton is the "place to be" as it is only seven miles from Earby, and points out that "a few hundred metres" of stage two is on historic Lancashire soil at Turvin Road, between Cragg Vale and Littleborough. And nation shall speak peace unto nation. Full story: Lancashire Telegraph Flower power Speaking of roses, Welcome to Yorkshire's Grand Depart-themed garden won a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. That said, I am not sure there was anything as clichéd as a rose growing in the country/urban mash-up display. There were wild flowers from York, though, and a windswept hawthorn from Brimham Rocks. Full story: The Press Smoke and manoeuvres For those still not convinced that the Tour de France is a major event, this news will come as a blow. The world's premier aerobatics display team, the Red Arrows, have been booked to perform their traditional red, white and blue flypast as the riders start racing from Harewood House on 5 July. Full story: Yorkshire Evening Post Sign of the times Children from Addingham Primary School have been helping the Lord Mayor of Bradford put up 35 new brown tourist signs along the route of stages one and two, so amateur cyclists and Tour historians can follow in the pedal strokes of their heroes for years to come. OK, it was probably a team of contractors who actually put the signs up, but Councillor Khadim Hussain said: "I hope people using these signs, to either cycle or drive the route, stop off and visit our beautiful towns and villages." Full story: Ilkley Gazette CYCLING ROUND-UP After nearly two weeks of skirmishes at the Giro d'Italia, Colombia's Rigoberto Uran has won the first major battle. And such was the extent of his victory in stage 12's individual time trial, he might even have won the war. The Omega Pharma-Quick-Step team leader powered over the hilly 41.9km from Barbaresco to Barolo to win by a stunning margin of 87 seconds from Italy's Diego Ulissi. He now leads the race by 37 seconds, with nine days of racing to go. Third on the day was Cadel Evans, the overnight leader who had been hoping to stretch that advantage with tough mountain stages to come in the final week. The Australian rode well, but not well enough on a day when Uran was simply in a different class to the rest of the field. Friday's stage should finish in a sprint, before the race returns to the mountains on Saturday. Elsewhere, the protracted doping case involving 2012 Tour of Britain winner Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has been postponed until later this summer. The Team Sky rider has been suspended all season after anomalies became apparent in his biological passport, the individual blood profile that anti-doping authorities use to monitor athletes. The postponement, however, is a relatively simple case of a diary clash between barristers. And while Leeds gears up for its Grand Depart, Brussels has thrown its beret into the ring to host the start of the Tour in 2019. That would mark the 50th anniversary of cycling legend Eddy Merckx's first stage victory. TWEET OF THE DAY "Nice ride by Mick Jagger today #forte" Team Sky's double Olympic champion Geraint Thomas congratulates former colleague and Rolling Stones frontman lookalike Rigoberto Uran on his Giro success. A TO Z OF LE TOUR N is for… Neutralised - If truth be told, N is for not much in terms of cycling lingo, so it is fitting that the only term I could think means the race is not really happening. Stages, or parts of stages, are usually neutralised for safety reasons. This could be the first few miles of a stage - in order to get the riders and race convoy safely out of a city before the real racing starts - or the last few miles of a stage if there has been a big crash or particularly bad weather. In the latter case, everybody is given the same time, regardless of when they cross the line. But you would still have a stage winner, as well points being on offer in that competition, so some riders will race to the line. This can lead to complaints from the sprinters, who feel they are being expected to take risks that the general classification competitors are not. TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA Thursday's news that Yorkshireman Scott Thwaites has been included on his team's long list for the Tour got me thinking about how many British riders we could have on the starting line in Leeds. The record entry from this country is 11 in 1961, when the race was contested by national teams. The Tours in 1967 and 1968 were run on the same lines, with nine and then 10 British riders in the peloton. But the numbers dwindled over the next 40 years, with no Brits in the race in 2004 or 2005. The advent of National Lottery funding, the opening of Manchester's velodrome, Olympic success, Team Sky and cycling's general return to fashion have all played parts in reversing that trend, and we could now see the biggest British contingent at Le Tour for half a century. If anybody wants to make a prediction on the total, tweet me @mattslaterbbc. I am going for 10.

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


How do non-EU citizens get a UK visa?

Summary: Beyond the continuing stories about asylum seekers and their desperation at Calais, the fact remains that vast majority of non-EU migrants, an expected half a million people this year, are not in this category. So how do those who come to work and live in the UK qualify? And how have they got in?

By Peter MarshallPresenter, The Report Skilled workers The greatest number of migrant visas, nearly 169,000 this year, are tied to people who come to Britain for work. Before they get their visas there has to be a job offer. Beyond this, applications for leave to remain are decided on a points system based on factors including previous earnings, qualifications and age. Josy Joseph, a skilled nurse from Kerala in south India, works in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Kent, after four years at nursing college, a two-year internship and a year working in Saudi Arabia. Josy expects to be forced to leave in 2017. New regulations mean she'll be allowed leave to remain only if she's earning at least £35,000. For all her training and experience, a salary like that is out of her league. And her husband, who has an MBA and works in a fast-food restaurant, will have to go too. Josy thinks they'll go to Australia where she says specialist nurses are welcome. She agrees with the head of NHS England, who says that new, tighter visa rules are squeezing out the likes of Josy and simultaneously increasing pressure on the NHS. "Either they'll be under a permanent staff shortage or they'll have to hire agency staff to cover the positions. They are going to lose the nurses, they'll have to replace them, they'll have to train the new staff. And we are taking all the skills with us wherever we go." Students This year 280,000 non-EU citizens will enter the UK on study visas. By far the greatest number, around 80,000 of them, will be Chinese. One of these is Cherry Yu Qiu, a 23-year-old from Shanghai who's just finished her Master's degree at Goldsmith's College. She now has a maximum of four months to find a job and a visa and is looking to work in the media or PR. But if she does go back to China she'd like an employer who'd send her back to Britain. "We call it seagull. Like a half a year in Britain and half a year in China. Young graduates, if they go back to China, they are going to be turtles, they can only stay in the sea, they can never get used to the environment. Of course I'd rather be the seagull." The super-rich For wealthy people, the route to UK residency is straightforward. Yulia Andresyuk, a lawyer with a London firm which helps the super-rich get residency in Britain, says the basic qualification for a Tier 1 investor visa "is [the] ability to show that you have £2m. Once you receive your visa you would have a certain amount of time, that's three months to invest it into the UK in a certain way. That means investing into government gilts or bonds, buying shares or giving it as a loan to a company operating in the UK. "Initially your visa is given for three years, then it can be extended for another two. After the five years that you have lived here you can apply for your permanent residency." But the amount invested, she explains, speeds up the process. "If you invest £5m you can apply for your permanent residency after three years. If you invest £10m, you can apply for permanent residency after two years. "Those people are tax residents here, they have to pay taxes. They're setting up companies here for creating jobs. I think they are very beneficial to the UK." There were nearly 1,200 visas issued to the super-rich last year, not exactly swarms but double the number in 2013. Backpackers More than 20,000 people living in the UK this year will have Youth Mobility Scheme visas, which are valid for two years. They need to be aged 18 to 30 and have £1,890 savings. They come from a mixed bag of countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and even Monaco. One of them, Australian Nate James, became a waiter in London. "I was working in a restaurant on the Thames and every day I would see something amazing go down the river. Every day something crazy would happen and I really loved seeing that." In the evenings Nate took a short course in audio engineering. After his visa came to an end, he tried to get a study visa. But, as the private college he attended was not registered for foreign students, he did not qualify for one. So, as 2014 dawned, Nate was on a plane back to Oz. But he wasn't giving up on his dream. Descendants For those with British ancestors, the door to the UK is still open. A UK Ancestry visa, allowing someone to work in the UK for five years, is available to Commonwealth citizens with British (and in certain cases Irish) grandparents. After five years, the visa holder can apply for an extension or to settle in the UK permanently. Three weeks after being thrown out in January last year Nate, the Australian backpacker, discovered that his grandmother had been born in Sheffield and "immediately applied for ancestry to come back and finish what I'd started". Just over 4,000 of these visas were issued last year. Entrepreneurs The UK also provides visas for those who want to set up or run a business in the UK. Natalie Meyer, a 26-year-old Californian, was a postgraduate student at the LSE. But, with new rules allowing postgraduate foreign students just four months to look for work and an employer to act as sponsor, she decided to apply for an entrepreneur's visa. The Home Office issues only around 1,200 of these annually, imposing tough conditions. Natalie needed a big idea, a minimum of £200,000 to invest in it, and the long-term commitment to take on at least two employees. With a family based in Silicon Valley, she used their connections to set up a software business in Britain and organised a second enterprise, offering "cultural insights, professional introductions and market research for Japanese companies entering the UK and vice-versa". Her visa runs out in March and she has applied for a two-year extension, but is feeling stressed. "I've created jobs and if I'm not allowed to stay, those jobs that I've created will actually disappear. So it's actually beneficial to the UK for me to be here." Family It was an arranged marriage which brought Pragati Gupta to Swindon two years ago. She'd met her husband Aviral Mittal, a micro-electronics engineer, via an online matchmaking website. They're both from India but he's a British citizen and has been in the UK since 2000. As Pragati puts it: "I was looking for a match and he meets my requirements." She says she always wanted to go abroad and after the wedding, back in India, a Family Visa, available to a spouse or child of a UK citizen, entitled her to enter the UK. There will be just over 35,000 family visas issued this year. Pragati is delighted with the UK - she says life is more fun and exciting here. She's also pleased with her husband, saying he's humble, down to earth and family-minded and that "you make a match but then you start talking and the love develops". The Report: How To Get Into The UK is in BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 BST on 15 October 2015 and available later via podcast.

शरण चाहने वालों और कैलाइस में उनकी हताशा के बारे में निरंतर कहानियों के अलावा, तथ्य यह है कि गैर-यूरोपीय संघ के प्रवासियों का विशाल बहुमत, इस साल अनुमानित आधे मिलियन लोग, इस श्रेणी में नहीं हैं। तो जो लोग काम करने आते हैं और यूके में रहते हैं वे कैसे अर्हता प्राप्त करते हैं? और वे कैसे अंदर आए हैं?


Ukraine crisis: Could Trans-Dniester be next?

Summary: Russia's annexation of Crimea has led some to wonder whether any other former Soviet countries could follow. The separatist region of Trans-Dniester has already offered itself to Moscow - a request which Russia has promised to consider.

By Humphrey HawksleyBBC News, Tiraspol "It's been getting much worse in the past few months," said a mother of two who didn't want to give her real name and called herself Anna. "They have closed, let me see...." she counts on her fingers. "Eight blogging sites. The secret police are so active now." We were having coffee in the centre of Tiraspol, capital of the tiny, unrecognised state of Trans-Dniester that lives in a time-warped other age. Teams of workers tend street flowerbeds. A statue of Lenin stands in the main square and a red and green national flag with a small yellow hammer a sickle in the corner flies from the roof of an ugly parliament building - known as the Supreme Soviet. "It's confusing," says Anna. "If I had a choice, I would choose Europe. But a lot of things are better here. There are more opportunities in Russia. Salaries are about the same, but our pensions are much higher - about $180 (£109) a month compared to $75 in Moldova." She smiles. "And our gas is much, much cheaper." This week the Supreme Soviet sent an official request to Moscow asking if - given Crimea - Trans-Dniester could be allowed to join the Russian Federation. But there's been no celebration and barely an announcement. Outside, one couple had not heard and when told, the man shrugged and walked on - wary, it seemed, of talking to a foreigner. Across the wide October 25th Boulevard, a strong wind from the River Dniester scattered flowers laid at a memorial to those killed in recent wars. Each name is listed on a black stone wall, including more than 800 killed in 1992 when Trans-Dniester, backed by Russia, fought to stop the tiny country of Moldova from becoming independent from a disintegrating Soviet Union. It mostly failed. A ceasefire created this strip of land wedged between Ukraine and Moldova, that has become what's described as a "frozen conflict". Trans-Dniester is home to about 300,000 people who live amid a drab and arid agricultural landscape, peppered with checkpoints run by Russian peacekeeping troops. The same soldiers also keep watch over immigration posts on the Moldovan border. More than a thousand are based here. One of the few tourist attractions is a museum in the old headquarters of a swashbuckling Red Army General Grigory Kotovsky, who held sway over Tiraspol in the 1920s. "He is magnificent like the Soviet Union," says the curator Nadejda Kostiurina, holding up a Soviet flag underneath his portrait. "That was much, much better than we have now." She has been watching Russian television on the Crimea crisis and when asked about it says bluntly: "I hope the European Union has enough brains not to start a war. I don't understand why it wants to more bloodshed." Compared with the ordered tranquillity of Tiraspol, where street lamps are polished and curb sides painted, the Moldovan capital of Chisinau carries the muddle of a new market democracy - pot holed roads, chaotic traffic, and luxury car showrooms blending together in Europe's poorest country. Its beacon is membership of the European Union, but now, for many here, there's a new fear that Russia will try to stop that by moving on Trans-Dniester - and, therefore, Moldova. "If Putin will continue in Ukraine, particularly along the Black Sea until Odessa with its connection to Trans-Dniester we could see a very sad scenario," says Oazu Nantoi a political veteran of the Soviet collapse. "If he can be stopped in Crimea, then we have a chance to survive." In recent weeks, more Moldovans have been switching to Russian television channels because, according to analysts, it's what they trust in times of crisis. This is creating a new challenge by pitting the bullish Vladimir Putin against Moldova's urbane and cautious prime minister, Iurie Leanca. "Putin is the most popular political leader in Moldova," remarks a newspaper vendor in central Chisinau, reflecting the view of the still powerful Moldovan communist party. Mr Leanca accuses his opponents of using propaganda to poison the minds of voters, but he admits that such sentiment has added resolve and speed to his policies. He wants to sign an EU Association Agreement - similar to the one that sparked the protests in Ukraine - as soon as practicable. He has set himself an optimistic target of 2019 to join the European Union. He also wants to consolidate Moldova's position as a Nato ally, despite its official policy of being militarily neutral. Yet, as a graduate of one of Moscow's elite universities for diplomats, Mr Leanca believes he has a feel for how far he could go with a head-to-head confrontation against the power of Russia. "My own experience is that you have to have a very good and intense dialogue with Russia and the more you discuss the more you will see progress," he says. "If the Ukrainians think this is a good lesson we would be willing to share it because in our situations there is no alternative to dialogue."

रूस के क्रीमिया के विलय ने कुछ लोगों को आश्चर्यचकित कर दिया है कि क्या कोई अन्य पूर्व सोवियत देश इसका अनुसरण कर सकते हैं। ट्रांस-डेनिस्टर के अलगाववादी क्षेत्र ने पहले ही मास्को को खुद की पेशकश कर दी है-एक अनुरोध जिस पर रूस ने विचार करने का वादा किया है।


Rare Chinese calligraphy scroll fetches $46m at auction

Summary: A rare Chinese calligraphy scroll has fetched 308m yuan (£29m; $46m) - the second-highest amount paid for an artwork at auction in China, the state-run Xinhua news agency says.

The scroll on silk with four lines of characters is a copy of ancient Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi's work. Officials at the China Guardian auction in Beijing did not reveal any details of the buyer. In June, another calligraphy scroll was purchased for 437m yuan. The copy of Wang's work measuring 24.5cm x 13.8cm (9.8in x 5.5in) was sold at auction on Saturday. The scroll originally had nine lines of characters but was torn into parts, so buyers were bidding only for the first part with four lines, Xinhua said. It is a copy of of a work by Wang Xizhi - a Jin dynasty figure who is known as the Sage of Calligraphy. However, none of his works are known to have survived. Experts believe that the scroll sold at auction dates from the Tang dynasty between 618-907.

एक दुर्लभ चीनी सुलेख स्क्रॉल ने 308 मिलियन युआन (29 मिलियन पाउंड; 46 मिलियन डॉलर) कमाया है-चीन में नीलामी में एक कलाकृति के लिए भुगतान की गई दूसरी सबसे बड़ी राशि, राज्य द्वारा संचालित शिन्हुआ समाचार एजेंसी का कहना है।


Sherborne's £4m Paddock Project art gallery plans submitted

Summary: Plans for a new £4m art gallery have been submitted.

The Paddock Project, in Sherborne, Dorset, would incorporate a a tourist information centre and restaurant into the building. Sherborne Community Arts Centre Trust wants to build the venue on a site behind the town's Paddock Gardens. It has sent a pre-planning application to West Dorset District Council. The trust said it would hold public consultations but has not given dates. More on this and other stories from across the South of England An anonymous benefactor has agreed to fund the project, which is also expected to include three gallery spaces, a coffee shop and a sensory or memory garden. West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin described the project as an "incredible opportunity" for Sherborne. "It will also provide a catalyst for change that will transform the local economy," he added. The plans have also been backed by local schools The Gryphon, Sherborne School for Girls and Sherborne Preparatory School, as well as community arts organisation Sherborne ArtsLink which said the project would offer "a stimulating artistic environment". The trust wants the main entrance to the venue to be created through Paddock Gardens, which is currently owned by the town council, and would involve removing one of its stone walls. The trust estimates the gallery could attract between 50,000 and 80,000 visitors a year. The town's current tourist information centre is based on Digby Road.

एक नई 4 मिलियन पाउंड की कला दीर्घा के लिए योजनाएँ प्रस्तुत की गई हैं।