Will the 'populist wave' reach France?

Summary: France's presidential elections next April and May are being carefully watched for signs of a "populist wave" reaching the home of the Enlightenment. After the surprise result of Britain's Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in the US, what are the roots and the limits of populism in France?

By Lucy WilliamsonBBC Paris correspondent In 1956, the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen won a seat in France's National Assembly. Not under the banner of the Front National - the party he would later launch - but as a young MP for an earlier populist movement, the Poujadists. The Poujadists described themselves as defenders of "the little people; the beaten-down; the robbed, the humiliated". Small, local and anti-establishment, they surprised everyone by winning 52 seats in the country's parliament. Within a few years, they'd withered away into political obscurity. And when the far-right Front National appeared two decades later, says Jean-Yves Camus, an expert in far-right politics, many people expected it to follow the same fate. "Back then," he told me, "most of my colleagues said 'this is just a temporary phenomenon, like we had in the 1950s - in a few years, the party won't exist'." Instead, the Front National - with its modern-day mantra of defending "France's forgotten ones" - is now one of Europe's most successful populist parties, winning 28% of the popular vote in last year's regional elections. The question for all France's politicians, as the country approaches presidential elections next year, is why populism has become so popular. "There's been a rise in France of the populist vote," says Olivier Costa, an expert in European politics from the National Centre of Scientific Research, "and it's based on a fear of decline - economic decline, social, cultural. The world is changing fast and people feel anxious. They think the traditional parties can't fix it, and that it's worth trying something new." "It's immigration, always immigration," says the pollster Jerome Fourquet, who runs the Ifop agency here, "when we ask voters, that's their main motivation [for voting FN]." "Thirty years ago," he explained, "the slogan of the FN was 'one million immigrants - one million unemployed.' That's an economic argument. Today's it's 'France for the French' ('On est chez nous'), which means it's the French who [should] decide whether women can wear the veil, whether you can serve pork in school meals, if France stays French." This argument over who is - and is not - French has played strongly into Marine Le Pen's anti-globalisation message, boosting support for her proposals to end immigration and pull France out of the EU. What's striking is that France has not experienced the recent immigration levels of Germany, Hungary, Austria or Scandinavia. But it does have existing sensitivities over how to incorporate different cultures into French society, particularly those from its former colonies in North Africa. "We have this funny concept of laicite," says Jean-Yves Camus from the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, "which is not really secularism. What it means is that when you come from abroad, or at least from a non-European country, you need to assimilate to the extent that you forget about your roots. "In the US, if you want to say 'I'm Italian-American', or 'I'm Chinese-American,' you can. In France, you can't." That concept of laicite has been something to latch onto, for those fearful about rapid global change. It's also provided the backdrop for a campaign by the party's current leader Marine Le Pen to draw in new groups of voters, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks by self-proclaimed Islamists. The Front National now has strong support among the under-25s and gay couples, and is making efforts to attract women and Jewish voters, urging them all to come together against what it calls the "threat" of Islam in France. In a sometimes febrile debate, politicians from the mainstream parties have also toughened their rhetoric on immigration, and the role of Islam in France. But how much of the FN's appeal is based on its policies, and how much on its populist promise of revamping what it calls France's "broken" political system? When it comes to the populist message, says Olivier Costa, "France is very polarised, as are Britain and the US; there's a limit to how much of the electorate the FN will be able to win over." Oddly, that's both a strength and a weakness for the party. It's certainly true that France's two-round voting system has made it difficult for the party to translate votes into power. Few of those who vote against the FN in the first round are prepared to switch their support to it in the second. But its polarising effect is striking in a country where many people say that politicians "are all the same" and that there's no point voting at all. Both mainstream parties here - the Socialists and the Republicans - have inched towards the centre in recent years, which has left parts of France's electorate without a natural political home. Many others feel that the old political debate between Left and Right is tired and predictable. And what's interesting about the centre-right primary race here last month is that it wasn't the centrist who won. Francois Fillon's campaign focused heavily on social issues, immigration and French identity, alongside hard-line proposals to reform France's economy. He won a resounding 66% of the primary run-off against Alain Juppe, who offered voters a more moderate, liberal and inclusive agenda. "Fillon's playing on the Catholic vote is new in France today," says Olivier Costa. "No politician has talked about religion here for a long time. You have to go back to de Gaulle or Pompidou to see social conservatism like this in a major party. It's a smart move by Fillon - he saw there was an electorate to be wooed there." The Socialist Party, which holds its primary contest in January, is split between the traditional left and reformers like former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who supports extending the ban on the Muslim headscarf, and liberalising France's economy. The question is who voters will choose, and whether a red-blooded ideological battle between the two main parties will re-energise politics here, and lessen populism's appeal. Jean-Yves Camus believes it will take more than that. "We really need to have fresh faces in parliament and government," he says. "The overwhelming majority come from the civil service, because it's easier than if you're a lawyer or have your own business. "We need to bring more people from civil society into politics, people who do not want to stay on for decades. We've had people standing for parliament - and sitting in parliament - for 40 years." There's always been a divide between the political class and the "real people", says Olivier Costa, but France's leaders don't seem to understand that it could reach a tipping point. "Everyone says about the primaries 'What a great success, what a wonderful exercise in democracy', but it's a joke," he says. "Fillon has won [a cumulative total of] 107 years of electoral mandates. There's no one new. Even Marine Le Pen has been elected for 20 years." The Front National isn't the only party with an anti-establishment message in this election. The 38-year-old former economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, left the Socialist government earlier this year to run as an independent candidate "from neither the Left nor the Right". Having never been elected to office, he presented himself as a fresh face, not part of the political establishment. "I've seen from the inside the emptiness of our system," he said when announcing his candidacy. "[It] stops ideas because they weaken the system - political parties and vested interests that no longer work for the people but for themselves." "Populism is a style, not an ideology," explains Jean-Yves Camus. "It can go along with any kind of ideology, whether it is left wing, or on the right, or even mainstream." The presidential election taking place in a few months' time is being seen as a test - not just for what politician France chooses - but what kind of politics.

अगले अप्रैल और मई में होने वाले फ्रांस के राष्ट्रपति चुनावों पर सावधानीपूर्वक नजर रखी जा रही है कि एक "लोकलुभावन लहर" प्रबुद्धता के घर तक पहुँच रही है। ब्रिटेन के ब्रेक्सिट जनमत संग्रह और अमेरिका में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के चुनाव के आश्चर्यजनक परिणाम के बाद, फ्रांस में लोकलुभावनवाद की जड़ें और सीमाएँ क्या हैं?


Living a conjoined life

Summary: Abby and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twins determined to live the normal, active life of outgoing 20-somethings anywhere. They have been to university, they travel, they have jobs. But how easy is it for two people to inhabit one body?

By Lucy WallisBBC News Like most 23-year-olds Abby and Brittany Hensel love spending time with their friends, going on holiday, driving, playing sport such as volleyball and living life to the full. The identical, conjoined twins from Minnesota, in the United States, have graduated from Bethel University and are setting out on their career as primary school teachers with an emphasis on maths. Although they have two teaching licences, there is one practical difference when it comes to the finances. "Obviously right away we understand that we are going to get one salary because we're doing the job of one person," says Abby. "As maybe experience comes in we'd like to negotiate a little bit, considering we have two degrees and because we are able to give two different perspectives or teach in two different ways." "One can be teaching and one can be monitoring and answering questions," says Brittany. "So in that sense we can do more than one person." Their friend Cari Jo Hohncke has always admired the sisters' teamwork. "They are two different girls, but yet they are able to work together to do the basic functions that I do every day that I take for granted," says Hohncke. The twins know each other so well that they often say the same things or finish each other's sentences, and are supportive and understanding of the other in all aspects of life. With two sets of lungs, two hearts, two stomachs, one liver, one large intestine and one reproductive system, they have learned from a young age to co-ordinate their body, with Abby controlling the right hand side and Brittany the left. There is a difference in height and at 5ft 2in (1.57m) Abby is taller than her sister Brittany who is 4ft 10in (1.47m). As their two legs are different lengths, Brittany has to stand on tip toe, on her leg, to ensure they maintain their balance. They have had to learn to reach compromises on everything from what food they eat to their social life and even the clothes they wear. "We definitely have different styles," says Abby. "Brittany's a lot more like neutrals and pearls and stuff like that and I would rather have it be more fun and bright and colourful." While Abby is seen as the "outspoken" sister and will always win the argument about what they are going to wear, Brittany says her twin is also much more of a "homebody," whereas she prefers going out. There are other differences too. Brittany is scared of heights, whereas Abby is not. Abby is interested in maths and science, while Brittany prefers the arts. They also respond differently to coffee. After a few cups Brittany's heart rate increases, but Abby is not affected. And they have different body temperatures. "I can be a totally different temperature than Brittany would be," says Abby, "and a lot of times our hands are different temperatures, so I get super-hot way faster." Despite having a normal family and social life, studying and working like any other young women, they do face some additional problems. For example, they have to put up with speculation about their private life - something they prefer not to discuss. The twins deny a rumour that Brittany has become engaged, describing it as a "dumb joke". Travelling to a new country with friends on holiday is also not as straightforward for conjoined twins. They have two passports, but one ticket as they only take up one seat on the aeroplane. However they also have to be on their guard and more aware of entering crowded or confined spaces because members of the public will often try to take unwelcomed photographs. As a close friend of the twins Erin Junkans says you always need to be alert because you never quite know how people are going to react or what they are going to say. "I want to make sure that they're safe and that they're not completely exposed, definitely just standing in the way of pictures, just always keeping an eye on what's going on and just how the girls are reacting to the crowds," says Junkans. "Sometimes if they get more overwhelmed then… we just need to get away from [the] area for a little bit, but they amaze me at their ability to just shake it off and keep seeing what we are there to see." Conjoined twins are very rare - it is thought one in every 200,000 births - and around 40-60% of these births are delivered stillborn. Female siblings tend to have a better survival rate than male siblings. Any operation to separate conjoined twins is a highly complex and dangerous process. It was a risk that Abby and Brittany's parents did not want to take for fear that one of the twins might not have survived the surgery or have the same quality of life they do now. With possibly fewer than 12 adult pairs of conjoined twins across the world today, Abby and Brittany Hensel are defying the odds. Their mother, Patty Hensel, says her hopes and aspirations for her daughters' future are just the same as anyone else's. "Like every mum would hope for, you want them to be successful and to be happy and healthy as they're being successful and that's what I want," says Patty Hensel. As they embark on their working life together, the twins aim to take things day by day and do not tend to look forward to where they will be or what they will be doing in 10 years' time. With their position as teachers they have become role models for children academically, but also in their attitude to life, overcoming any challenges. "I don't think there's anything that they won't try or something that they couldn't be able to do if they really wanted to," says Paul Good, principal of the school where Abby and Brittany work. "To bring that to children, especially kids who might be struggling, that's very special, that's learnt through lived example."

एबी और ब्रिटनी हेन्सेल जुड़वा बच्चे हैं जो कहीं भी 20-कुछ बाहर जाने वाले सामान्य, सक्रिय जीवन जीने के लिए दृढ़ हैं। वे विश्वविद्यालय गए हैं, वे यात्रा करते हैं, उनके पास नौकरी है। लेकिन दो लोगों के लिए एक शरीर में रहना कितना आसान है?


Online underground

Summary: For a few minutes this morning, I watched Jeremy Hunt giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry, then started watching last night's episode of The Apprentice via the BBC iPlayer. Nothing unusual in that, except that I was doing it deep underground on a London tube platform.

Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter I was being given a sneak preview of the free wi-fi service which is going to be made available on London's Underground system during the Olympics. Virgin Media is hooking up around 80 stations to its fibre network, and then installing access points at various points - on escalators, on platforms, in corridors. Where the service will not be available is on the trains - except when they are standing at a platform. Transport for London says it would be extremely costly to wire up a tunnel network, some of which dates back to Victorian times. And it seems there's concern too about the reaction of passengers who may still see the tube as a last refuge from the always-on world above ground. So how does the service work? I logged on via my phone, entered my email address, and then I was online, first on an escalator heading down, then on a tube platform. I checked up on news, sent a historic tweet and then started watching The Apprentice. It seemed very fast, with the video streaming without any buffering. Rather better, in fact, than I get on my home broadband. And a quick speedtest carried out on a TFL employee's tablet computer showed download speeds of over 25Mbps. Now of course that will change when I'm not the only one using it. And the whole service will be a fascinating experiment in the demand for greater connectivity. Will people feel it's a waste of time because they only have a couple of minutes before they get on a train and lose the signal? Or will they all be rushing to check travel information, update their social networking status, and send emails? As someone who is addicted to being online, I think this will prove rather popular. And then there will be pressure to make the service available on the trains as well. So, if you're someone who goes underground to get away from it all, make the most of it.

आज सुबह कुछ मिनटों के लिए, मैंने जेरेमी हंट को लेवेसन पूछताछ में सबूत देते हुए देखा, फिर बीबीसी आईप्लेयर के माध्यम से द अप्रेंटिस का कल रात का एपिसोड देखना शुरू कर दिया। इसमें कुछ भी असामान्य नहीं था, सिवाय इसके कि मैं इसे लंदन के ट्यूब प्लेटफॉर्म पर गहराई से भूमिगत कर रहा था।


Peas and JLS to star at BBC gig

Summary: Black Eyes Peas, JLS and Alexandra Burke are amongst those to play at this year's Switch Live gig held at London's Hammersmith Apollo on 8 November.

The afternoon gig, for 14 to 17-year-olds, will also see performances from N-Dubz, Pixie Lott, The Saturdays and Shaheen Jafargholi. Coverage from the night will be broadcast on BBC One, Radio 1 and online. Now in its second year 2008 saw appearances from Miley Cyrus, McFly and Fall Out Boy. Ticket details are to be confirmed shortly.

ब्लैक आइज़ मटर, जे. एल. एस. और एलेक्जेंड्रा बर्क 8 नवंबर को लंदन के हैमरस्मिथ अपोलो में आयोजित इस साल के स्विच लाइव कार्यक्रम में खेलने वालों में से हैं।


Anne the Elephant and the end of circus animals

Summary: Anne was the last of the UK's circus elephants.

By Laurence CawleyBBC News On Friday, Bobby Roberts, 69, of the Bobby Roberts Super Circus, was found guilty of mistreating the 58-year-old elephant. His wife Moira, 75, was cleared of the same charges. Campaigners say her "shocking" mistreatment was an example of why animals should not be used in the circus. Others say the Anne case was a one off and decry moves to ban circus animals as the killing of a tradition. The use of animals in the circus dates back about 150 years. Before that time, and before the advent of public zoos, those wanting to lay eyes on a menagerie of wild animals would head to a fair. During the 19th Century, animals were taken on tour and shown to an eager public. Later, they were combined with traditional circus shows. But that link between animals and the circus could soon be at an end. Legislation is being drawn up for a ban on circus animals by the government. 'Tough licensing scheme' The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said its work on the bill to ban wild animals in the circus was a work in progress. And until the ban comes into force, which may not be for several years, Defra is introducing what it says will be a "tough licensing scheme" it claims will "ensure the welfare of wild animals". A spokeswoman for Defra said the new licensing scheme would start in the new year and would ensure not only set standards of welfare for existing circus animals but also comprehensive plans for the retirement of those animals when the ban takes effect. Some claim the government's licensing plans are too lax. Katya Mira, of the RSPCA, said the organisation still had concerns about the government's legislation and when a ban would come into effect. "We want to see it brought forward. We want to see it happen as soon as possible. 'Nicely looked after' "The case of Anne really does exemplify the situation of what can happen. Wild animals in the circus are from a bygone era." The RSPCA is also concerned about how the government's legislation will look once complete. "Anything short of a full ban is simply unacceptable and will fail to meet the needs of animals such as lions, tigers and zebras," said chief executive Gavin Grant . "Let's get on with what needs to be done and stop these animals from being dragged around the country in beast wagons or confined to cramped temporary cages." Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, voiced doubts about the stop-gap licensing plan. "Given the circumstances of constant travel, we don't believe it is a realistic solution to attempt to license circuses and set welfare standards. "Wild animals in circuses live in extremely confined spaces and spend large amounts of their time chained, caged and unable to perform natural behaviours, causing them to perform abnormal, repetitive behaviours indicating the psychological distress and the animal's inability to cope with its environment. "This causes levels of suffering which can be worse than some of the violence." Those who work or have worked in animal circuses agree animals should be well looked after. Sandor Foldi, of Bury St Edmunds, was once dragged across the stage of Olympia by a runaway bear when he worked as a circus hand. "I think people do enjoy seeing the animals at the circus and how they react to humans," he said. "We had horses, bears, lions and elephants and they were nicely looked after. "But that was a different time and we have heard recently about people beating their animals up. That, people do not like." Norfolk author Doug McPherson, an expert on the Big Top, said: "Circuses and animals have been inseparable in history. "Animals have always been there. If you go back before the television age, in the early half of the last century, if you lived in a small village you probably would never travel abroad, you'd probably never even travel to a big city more than once or twice in your lifetime. "Where would you see things like a cheetah or a polar bear or an elephant or a tiger apart from the travelling circus? So there was quite an educational role." The Circus Friends Association says it "supports all reputable forms of circus entertainment" whether or not animals are used. For more on this case, see BBC Inside Out East at 19:30 GMT on Monday 26 November and the BBC iPlayer for seven days after broadcast.

ऐनी ब्रिटेन के सर्कस हाथियों में से अंतिम थी।


'Historic' bill for Welsh taxes is passed in Senedd

Summary: Legislation to collect and manage the first Welsh taxes in 800 years has been passed by AMs.

Control of Stamp Duty Land Tax and Landfill tax is due to transfer to Wales in April 2018. A new Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA), like HM Revenue and Customs, will collect the taxes. Finance Minister Jane Hutt said it was an "historic day" for Wales and "another significant chapter in the story of Welsh devolution". The UK government has said income tax powers will also be devolved, but there no timetable has been announced.

800 वर्षों में पहले वेल्श करों को एकत्र करने और प्रबंधित करने के लिए कानून ए. एम. द्वारा पारित किया गया है।


Salman Khan: Victims' families want 'compensation'

Summary: Families of the victims of the 2002 hit-and-run crash involving Bollywood star Salman Khan say life has been hard since the incident. They tell BBC Hindi's Ayush Deshpande and Atul Chandra that all they want is some financial compensation to improve their lives.

"My father died and we are sad because of that. But we do not want any revenge against Salman Khan. What will we gain by his going to jail?" asks Feroz Sheikh. Mr Sheikh's father, Noor Ullah Khan, 38, was killed when the actor's Toyota Land Cruiser hit the American Express bakery in the Bandra area of Mumbai late on 28 September 2002. Four others were injured in the incident. They were all sleeping on the pavement. Thirteen years after the incident, Mr Sheikh says he holds no grudges against Khan and wishes the star would do something to help his family. The 27-year-old lives in a slum in Mumbai's Malad area, and was surprised by the media scrum outside his home after Wednesday's court ruling which found Khan guilty of killing his father and sentenced him to five years in jail. On Friday, the high court suspended the sentence. 'Not bothered' "People are coming to see us now. Where were they for the past 13 years?" Mr Sheikh asks. "The media is obsessed with the news about Salman Khan. But they are not bothered about the people he harmed." Mr Sheikh says he really wishes to meet Khan and tell him about his woes. "I have gone to his house many times and tried to meet him. But his security men always drove me away from the gate." He says he is ready to "forgive" the star if he does something for his family. "We have gone through very difficult times," Me Sheikh says. His mother said they were promised a compensation of 1m rupees ($15,634; £10,127) "But what will we do with this amount at this time of inflation?" Kaleem Pathan, one of the four men who were injured in the incident, echoes similar sentiments. Mr Pathan, who now lives in Sultanpur in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, says he used to work in the bakery in Mumbai when the incident happened. 'Compensation matters' "My hands and feet sustained serious injuries. My waist, chest and legs still hurt. I have not been able to work after that." He said he was paid a compensation of 150,000 rupees after the incident. Since the accident, he and his wife and daughter have lived with his younger brother and depend on his earnings. "We thought we will get more compensation and be able to get on with our lives. My life is wasted." Another victim, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh, was 22 years old and lost a leg in the accident. He says he has been "forced to do petty jobs [in Mumbai] to support my family and face a lot of problems." "I have no hard feelings for him [Khan]. I still watch his movies," he told reporters. "[But] compensation matters more than conviction."

बॉलीवुड स्टार सलमान खान की 2002 की हिट-एंड-रन दुर्घटना के पीड़ितों के परिवारों का कहना है कि घटना के बाद से जीवन कठिन हो गया है। वे बीबीसी हिंदी के आयुष देशपांडे और अतुल चंद्र को बताते हैं कि वे केवल अपने जीवन को बेहतर बनाने के लिए कुछ वित्तीय मुआवजा चाहते हैं।


Zimbabwe: Lion kills 10-year-old girl in Chiredzi

Summary: A young girl has been killed by a lion while relieving herself at night at the back of a hut in a rural part of Zimbabwe, a police spokesman told the state-linked Chronicle newspaper.

The aunt of the little girl, named as Mitchell Mucheni, saw the lion drag her into the bush, Assistant Inspector Kudakwashe Dehwathe said. The child's body was later found about 300m away, he added. The incident happened on Saturday night in Chiredzi. Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories WATCH: Staying safe at South Africa's Lion Park Conflict between humans and animals is common in this south-eastern part of Zimbabwe. Last month, Chief Maranda of nearby Mwenezi appealed to the national parks authority for help after stray lions killed livestock belonging to villagers. Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authorities (ZimParks) has yet to comment on this latest case.

एक पुलिस प्रवक्ता ने राज्य से जुड़े क्रॉनिकल अखबार को बताया कि जिम्बाब्वे के ग्रामीण हिस्से में एक झोपड़ी के पीछे रात में आराम करते हुए एक शेर ने एक युवा लड़की की हत्या कर दी।


Tom Bell death: Hundreds attend boxer's funeral

Summary: Hundreds of people have paid their respects at the funeral of a boxer who was shot through a pub window.

Tom Bell, 21, was shot at the Maple Tree pub in Balby on 17 January and died later in hospital. A horse-drawn hearse was followed by floral tributes to St Peter-in-Chains Catholic Church at Chequer Road, Doncaster. Two men have been charged with murder and seven others arrested by South Yorkshire Police.

पब की खिड़की से गोली लगने वाले एक मुक्केबाज के अंतिम संस्कार में सैकड़ों लोगों ने अपना सम्मान व्यक्त किया है।


Staylittle: The village that is cut off from the UK

Summary: In the era of smartphone addiction, where people self-consciously take breaks from social media and announce "digital detoxes", there is one place in the UK that is getting rather annoyed at being cut off from the outside world.

By Camila RuzBBC News Magazine The Welsh village of Staylittle can be found to the west of Newtown in Powys. It's an isolated place - the nearest market town is almost eight miles away. "Staylittle, which has remained outside the perimeter of progress and stayed little, is miles from anywhere," complained a reporter in the Times in 1965. Fifty years might have passed since then but the village's communications are still tenuous. It has no mobile reception. And because of this, most people in Staylittle - Penffordd las in Welsh - have to rely on their landlines to stay in touch with people. But a fortnight ago, the villagers were cut off. Landlines went dead in at least 25 homes. Rosemary Hazlerigg, who has lived in Staylittle for 20 years, had to drive more than a mile to an area with patchy mobile phone signal to be able to ring BT Openreach to report the fault. Ten days later, Staylittle was still waiting for the problem to be fixed. When you are as cut-off geographically as Staylittle, getting cut off in other ways is frustrating. "We don't have mobile phone reception and I can't get broadband up here either," says 72-year-old David Penn. "There are only about 140 names on the electoral register. I don't think there's any profit to be made up here to be honest so we just don't count." The main conduit of communication is one working landline in the Post Office. BT engineers have been working to fix the problem. They say that it appears that a recent thunderstorm was to blame for the damage to parts of the local network and that they hope to restore the full service this week. It's not the first time that the phone lines have been knocked out by a thunderstorm. "The last time it was out for over a week, it was struck by lightning," says Penn. Staylittle is an extreme example of a wider problem of getting adequate phone connections and broadband in rural areas. "We live in a digital age where we expect to communicate with our family, friends and customers," says Sarah Lee, head of policy at the Countryside Alliance. Rural businesses especially can be at a "massive disadvantage" if they do not have the means to keep in touch with their customers. Inaccurate mobile phone coverage maps are part of the problem, adds Lee. "The coverage maps don't always reflect the topography, particularly in somewhere like Wales." Many people get a contract thinking that there will be signal in their area only to be disappointed. The government says it is looking to improve the situation by providing up to £150m for mobile infrastructure in areas with no coverage from any networks. The situation with broadband is also changing. The government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme aims to provide superfast internet connections to 95% of the country by 2017. The government is still investigating how to get the other 5% connected. Earlier this month, a report showed that nearly 79% of premises in Wales are now capable of receiving superfast broadband, up from 55% in 2014. But it also showed that Wales had the lowest availability of 4G services in the UK. Lee argues that although improvements have been made, they are not happening fast enough to meet customer expectations. "I think some of it's really the age of the infrastructure," she explains. Some of the old cables need replacing and this can delay projects. But even in remote Staylittle, not everybody has been cut off from all communication while they wait for the engineers. Some houses still have satellite broadband. But emails are not all that useful in an emergency. "If there's a fire you can't really email the fire brigade and hope that they pick it up," says Adrian Roberts from the Staylittle Outdoor Centre. Many of the people in the village are trying to put a humorous slant on a frustrating situation. "We always laugh around here that the best thing you can do is send a pigeon," he says. In some ways, people in Staylittle have got used to the difficulties. Nearly two weeks without landlines is bad but the system is patchy at the best of times. Hazlerigg says that people often end up overhearing their neighbour's phone conversations. "We get the equivalent of a party line," she explains. "Sometimes it's been 'Hello, is that you Rosemary? I'm just talking to my mother.' It's like a conference call." Hearing unexpected voices down the phone might be disconcerting but there is a more pressing issue that concerns her. The big problem with a bad phone line, she says is that it's becoming more noticeable. "As more and more people need to communicate, there are assumptions in what I now call the outside world." Recently, Hazlerigg tried to arrange a delivery but the company refused because they said they needed a working mobile phone number. "Unfortunately a lot of organisations seem to assume that everyone has a mobile and that that mobile has signal." Some villagers have got tired of waiting for their phones to work and have gone back to older methods. David Penn's mother will turn 97 next month and they usually try to speak twice a day. "I have had to go back to writing her letters," he says. "Every day I expect the call saying she's gone." It would be awful, he adds, if nobody could get hold of him. It might seem inconceivable that somewhere in the UK could be so cut-off for so long, but to people in Staylittle it's just a new phase of a decades-old problem. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

स्मार्टफोन की लत के युग में, जहां लोग आत्म-सचेत रूप से सोशल मीडिया से ब्रेक लेते हैं और "डिजिटल डिटॉक्स" की घोषणा करते हैं, यूके में एक जगह है जो बाहरी दुनिया से अलग होने पर नाराज हो रही है।


Benin anti-voodoo sect members die of asphyxiation

Summary: Five members of a Benin religious sect have died of asphyxiation after they were reportedly told to burn incense and charcoal in locked prayer rooms as they waited for the world to end.

Several people were taken to hospital after the weekend incident in Adjarra town, near the capital Porto Novo. The Very Holy Church of Jesus Christ of Baname sect opposes the voodoo religion - one of the major faiths in Benin. Members of the controversial sect have clashed with followers of other faiths. The group's young leader, Vicentia Chanvoukini, known by her followers as "Lady Perfect", has proclaimed herself a god. About 40% of the population of the West African nation are believed to be following voodoo. Voodoo Day is a public holiday and there is a national Voodoo museum.

बेनिन के एक धार्मिक संप्रदाय के पांच सदस्यों की दम घुटने से मौत हो गई है क्योंकि उन्हें कथित तौर पर बंद प्रार्थना कक्षों में धूप और लकड़ी का कोयला जलाने के लिए कहा गया था क्योंकि वे दुनिया के अंत का इंतजार कर रहे थे।


The youngsters keeping traditional trades alive

Summary: In 1999, the Labour government set out a pledge that half of all young people should go on to higher education - an aim that has almost been achieved. But what about those youngsters who do not want to go down the academic route? The BBC has met five who have become apprentices in some of Britain's oldest trades.

By Riyah CollinsBBC News Leighann Perry, leatherworker "There are still companies making leather products?" This is the response 22-year-old Leighann Perry encounters almost every time she says she works in the leather industry. She developed an interest in the trade after working at Walsall's leather museum. "People are always shocked to see me being so young working here in this industry. Everyone expects me to have an office job or something." Walsall is a town built on leather and its mark runs through it: Saddlers is the nickname for both the football team and the shopping centre. Whitehouse Cox has been making leather goods, from wallets to luggage, in the town since 1875. It offered Leighann a three-year apprenticeship in leatherwork when she was 18. Production manager Adrian Harris said the company was "not bothered about A-levels and A grades". "People need three things [to work here]," he said. "Common sense, good eyesight, and to be good with their hands." Leighann, who struggles with her mental health, said her schoolteachers "thought apprenticeships were a waste of time". "I was pushed to do college because I couldn't get my English grades. I wanted to go to university, but at the time it wasn't right," she said. "I'm happy doing what I'm doing though. College, sixth form and universities - they're not the only way." Eddy da Silva, globe-maker "There's nothing quite like holding the world in your hands," says Eddy da Silva, an apprentice globe-maker at Bellerby and Co. in London. The 24-year-old, who was born in Venezuela but now lives in England's capital, left a corporate environment to pursue the craft but said "only a handful of people supported my decision". "Having been in an office for two years, making globes is incomparable." Eddy went to school in the Portuguese island of Madeira, where the success of a certain local footballer was as inspiring as the encouragement he got from his teachers. "During this time Cristiano Ronaldo became a superstar, and having a fellow islander make it to that sort of height gave everyone a confidence boost, [that] 'impossible' was truly two letters too long," he said. Eddy said he had always been fascinated by globes but it was only after he followed Bellerby's on Instagram, where an apprenticeship in map-making had been advertised, that he turned his interest into a job. "It has been quite surreal," he said. "I feel incredibly privileged to be doing something like this." "You just have to have the ambition to seek out unique roles like this and be a bit of a risk-taker." You might also be interested in: 'I was stalked by a polar bear' 'Second chance careers' that paid off Adventures on maternity leave and beyond JoJo Wood, clog-maker "Craft is seen as the stupid option. It's what you do if you can't do maths." JoJo Wood has been making wooden spoons and clogs since childhood, following in the footsteps of her parents in a trade as old as time. "As a kid, whittling sticks, playing with knives and making things is something I always did," said the 23-year-old, who grew up in Edale in Derbyshire. "At 18, when I started getting into [woodwork], people thought I was mad. But as they've got to university and their hope for the future has gradually dropped off, suddenly it doesn't seem so bad." Now based in Birmingham, JoJo is halfway through a woodworking apprenticeship with master clog-maker Jeremy Atkinson and also runs her own spoon-making business. "Jeremy is still working but he's very aware of the fact that he's got a very arthritic wrist, he's got a bad back, and at some point it's going to get to the stage where he can't work any more," she said. The crafter believes ancient skills have a place in the modern world and thinks it is important young people are better connected to these industries. "There's a backlash against throwaway culture," she said. "People want to buy something that's made well and going to last, not just a bit of plastic ordered off the internet from China that's going to end up in landfill in a year's time." George Richards, wheelwright "I'd like to think I'll be a wheelwright for the rest of my life," says 20-year-old George Richards. Five years ago, he asked for work experience with Mike Rowland & Son Wheelwrights and Coachbuilders in Colyton, Devon. He was not very academic at school but didn't have much help to consider options other than college. "They weren't really interested if you weren't going on to do that," he said. "But for some people, [apprenticeships are] the only thing that suits them." Mike Rowland and his son Greg are two of about 20 master wheelwrights in the country. Their company has a history of making wooden wheels for carriages and cannon dating back to 1331, and counts the Queen as one of its customers. Greg thinks George is probably the youngest qualified wheelwright in the world. When asked what inspired him to choose such a niche trade, the apprentice is frank. "It was nothing to do with wheelwrighting [as such]," he says. "It wasn't something I'd thought I really wanted to do. "It was just working with my hands, working with wood - I knew I loved that." Zoe Collis, paper maker Zoe Collis describes working at Two Rivers Paper Company as "the best thing that's ever happened to me". The 19-year-old said college was "a lot of pressure" that caused "anxiety and stopped me excelling". "My parents were adamant I went to college, but I never thought it was something I wanted to do. I was more interested in hands-on stuff." Zoe joined the firm in Watchet, Somerset, which specialises in making watercolour paper for artists. It claims to be the only place in the UK where paper is made from old rags using water power. Fourth-generation paper maker Jim Patterson mentors the teenager in his trade. "I'm getting on, I'm an old man now and I'd like the business to carry on the craft," he said. "Having someone younger encourages us to be thoughtful; it helps us question things." Zoe feels it was the right move to spurn the more mainstream routes into employment. "A lot of my friends are miserable because they can't get a job or they're doing something they don't want to do. I definitely feel better off than that." The apprentice expects to be making paper "probably until I'm pushing up daisies". "My future is brighter now I have this apprenticeship. Before, I was just seeing dead ends." Training an apprentice for just one day can reduce a craftsperson's income by 20%, according to the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA). Money for training is scarce, says its trustee Greta Bertram, because "funding follows qualifications", and not enough is done to encourage students who could thrive in traditional industries. "There's virtually no craft career education in schools," she said. "And if people aren't exposed to making, they don't develop a taste for it." A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We have 43 apprenticeships in the creative and design category, which includes traditional craft apprenticeships. "Schools must allow providers of technical education and apprenticeships access to talk to pupils about their offer. This will help young people to hear about the full range of options available to them and make an informed choice about their future."

1999 में, लेबर सरकार ने एक प्रतिज्ञा की कि सभी युवाओं में से आधे को उच्च शिक्षा में जाना चाहिए-एक ऐसा लक्ष्य जो लगभग हासिल कर लिया गया है। लेकिन उन युवाओं के बारे में क्या जो शैक्षणिक मार्ग पर नहीं जाना चाहते हैं? बीबीसी ने उन पांच लोगों से मुलाकात की है जो ब्रिटेन के कुछ सबसे पुराने व्यवसायों में प्रशिक्षु बन गए हैं।


Could the Peak District get another railway line?

Summary: For many years walkers and cyclists have enjoyed Derbyshire's picturesque Monsal Trail. The former rail line's Victorian viaduct and tunnels have become a popular tourist attraction, and have welcomed about 330,000 visitors a year.

By Alex ReganBBC News, East Midlands But some campaigners are calling for the reinstatement of the route as part of a permanent rail line, linking the Peak District National Park's most cut-off areas with Manchester and Derby, causing consternation and anger among many trail users. Why is the proposal so controversial, and is the reopening of the line even possible? What do rail campaigners want? The Manchester and East Midlands Rail Action Partnership (MEMRAP) wants the reopening of a 36-mile stretch of track between Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton and Chinley, known as the Peaks and Dales line. The line was opened in the 1860s but was closed in 1968. The campaign group has said reopening the line could benefit the Peak District's tourism trade by giving people across the North West, South Yorkshire and the East Midlands a new rail connection. Part of the line has also been maintained as a heritage railway by Peak Rail. MEMRAP's chief executive Stephen Chaytow believes the rail line would also reduce harmful emissions from tourists travelling to the Peak District by road. "More than 90% of the visitors to the Peak District National Park have to come by car," he said. "To have emissions from 10 million cars each year really doesn't seem the right way to be going." He said the 40,000 people who lived in the central area of the national park could not currently "participate in the labour markets properly unless they have a car". The line could also open up a new, more direct link between Manchester, Derby and Nottingham. The proposal has seen some support online, with more than 16,500 signing a petition for its reinstatement. Why is it controversial? Reopening the Peaks and Dales line would mean the Monsal Trail, including the Headstone Viaduct and six tunnels, would no longer be solely used for cycling and walking. A spokesman for the Peak District National Park Authority said any proposal would need to ensure that a rail line was "not detrimental to the landscape features of the national park", as well as providing a cycling and walking trail. As a result, MEMRAP said the viaducts and tunnels would have to be used for the reopened rail line, in order to meet the national park's own planning specifications. Monsal Trail user and campaigner Lee Cooper Smith said: "As soon as you take the trails away from the line, away from the viaducts, you've lost all the appeal. "You've just got a basic trail. If you lose it, you lose one of Derbyshire's great tourist attractions which we need to keep hold of." Since the line was closed in the 1960s, its renovation and upkeep has been taken on partly by the Peak District National Park. The 8.5-mile trail attracts 330,000 every year, and since lockdown restrictions eased in May, the trail has seen a substantial increase in visitors. Mr Cooper Smith believes losing the trail would result in a loss of tourists to the area, and a petition he set up to save the Monsal Trail has received 7,600 signatures. "There are going to be those who will benefit but, from what I've seen, there are going to be more people who are disadvantaged by the reinstatement of rail," he said. He also said an old feasibility study, published in 2004, concluded a rail line would "only be beneficial in removing 2% of traffic off the roads". "It would become a glorified freight line for the quarries," he added. Mr Chaytow said the line would need to have a full passenger service otherwise "it wouldn't get backing". But he said it could also be partly used as a freight service for limestone quarries in the area. He said: "I think everybody recognises that if we're going to bring the country's economy back from this deep recession after Covid, we're going to need support from many businesses and the quarries really underpin a lot construction across a lot of the country." Is reopening the line possible? One reason the proposal is being discussed is a £500m government fund launched to look at potentially reopening railway lines closed in the 1960s. Roughly 5,000 miles of track were closed and more than 2,300 stations were axed in that decade, mainly in rural areas, following the Beeching report. In January, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the money would fund feasibility studies on whether lines that were closed could reopen. MEMRAP has been working on proposals to get a feasibility study produced. But journalist and rail expert Philip Haigh said the likelihood of any of the historical railway lines reopening was "extremely low". "It's often a 'dead cat' announcement to distract people from other things," he said. "It's very easy to announce and it's very hard to deliver." He said it would be cheaper to offer a more direct service between the East Midlands and Manchester by upgrading existing rail links on the Hope Valley Line. Estimates have suggested reopening the Peaks and Dales line could cost as much as £720m. "The cost of reopening any rail line will be a big factor," Mr Haigh said. To work out whether there was enough public demand to fund a railway, he added, one would have to "spend millions of pounds in feasibility studies". "Tourism sounds great, but I don't fundamentally believe it has the numbers to support the probable hundreds of millions of pounds cost of reopening the railway." Mr Haigh said the planning issues caused by trying to reopen a railway in a national park could also be prohibitive. The scheme would need to be agreed through passing either an act of Parliament, or a local transport work act order. "All these things are possible, but it does need the demand for it to be there. "It's doable but it's difficult." Could any lines closed by the Beeching report reopen? Philip Haigh is pessimistic about many lines closed in the 1960s reopening. He said: "The main reason for that is it will come down to cost." An example of the potentially staggering cost can be seen in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. A seven-mile stretch of track was used by freight trains up until 2000, but the cost of reopening it could be millions of pounds. "That's just a short stretch of track in a flat area of the countryside that's effectively overgrown," he said. "I think of all the projects that I've seen, Ashington in South East Northumberland has probably got the best case as there are lots of people who will benefit from it. "The railway's already there, it's a freight line, so it would just need upgrading." But he thought hopes for a reopened Peaks and Dales line would be dashed. "I'd love to see this line reopening, the scenery looks stunning, but it's an expensive thing to do and I doubt I'll see it," he said. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

कई वर्षों से पैदल चलने वालों और साइकिल चालकों ने डर्बीशायर के सुरम्य मोनसल ट्रेल का आनंद लिया है। पूर्व रेल लाइन का विक्टोरियन पुल और सुरंगें एक लोकप्रिय पर्यटक आकर्षण बन गई हैं, और एक वर्ष में लगभग 330,000 आगंतुकों का स्वागत किया है।


Former AstraZeneca chief executive attacks Pfizer deal

Summary: Sir David Barnes was the chief executive of AstraZeneca until 2000 and deputy chairman until 2002. He oversaw the merger of Astra and Zeneca in the late 1990s which was at the time one of the largest pharmaceutical deals in Europe.

Kamal AhmedBusiness editor@bbckamalon Twitter Sir David now says that any Pfizer/AstraZeneca deal would not be in the best interests of patients or Britain's science base. Speaking to the BBC, he said that he feared for the future of AstraZeneca worldwide if the bid goes through. He told me that, for Pfizer, "tax was one of the key drivers of the deal" rather than a long term commitment to research and development. "That is a very narrow basis on which to base such a massive task," Sir David told me. "The risk is that the past history of Pfizer has shown that they tend to extract destructive synergies, they have done that in the past. "I have a great concern that they will act like a praying mantis and suck the lifeblood out of their prey." Sir David said that if Pfizer wanted to take advantage of the UK's tax laws and "patent box" - which gives tax breaks for research - it should invest in the UK itself and not attempt to do it via a takeover of AstraZeneca. "They should be building their own labs in Cambridge," he said. Sir David argued that the government should make clear its concerns about the deal and that shareholders should give the opinions of ministers "weight". He said he wasn't necessarily convinced that the government should take on increased powers over takeover deals - a position put forward by Lord Heseltine in an interview with the BBC last week. Sir David has written to Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, outlining his concerns. In the email, seen by the BBC, he said: "There is no significant advantage to be gained from the proposed acquisition. Indeed, for the financial arithmetic to stand up, there will need to be significant reduction in the combined activities. "There is danger in becoming too big. There will be extended lines of communication, greater centralisation of decision taking and increased bureaucracy - none of these consequences is in the interests of patients or shareholders." He continued: "The pipeline of new products for AstraZeneca is regarded as being much more exciting [than Pfizer's] and as such has formed part of the Pfizer case for acquisition. "This reasoning, namely the need to make good the shortcomings in Pfizer innovation, was also used by Pfizer to justify the earlier acquisitions of Warner-Lambert, Pharmacia and Wyeth Laboratories. The result? A further reduction in the discovery of new products and a reduction of some US$3bn per annum in the aggregate former R&D expenditure." Mr Umunna told me that the case against the deal was increasing. He said: "This is a highly significant intervention by a person who knows AstraZeneca well. "Sir David clearly shares the same reservations as Labour and many in industry, science and the City about this deal. The priority should be long term investment and enhancing UK R&D when many of the signs are that this deal is being driven by short term concerns and not the long term interest of a great British company and a key industrial sector." This is now a highly political story, with Vince Cable due to make a statement to the Commons this afternoon. Sources tell me the business secretary will say there are significant powers the government has to delay any deal without resorting to new legislation on a "national interest" defence. Mr Cable will say that the government is acting in the best interests of jobs and investment and that it does not favour any side in the deal. Mr Cable did reject Lord Heseltine's proposals on a national interest defence in 2012 and though a review could be on the cards, there are certainly parts of the government (the Treasury for example) that are against any move that could be construed as "closing the UK" to foreign investment.

सर डेविड बार्न्स 2000 तक एस्ट्राजेनेका के मुख्य कार्यकारी और 2002 तक उपाध्यक्ष थे। उन्होंने 1990 के दशक के अंत में एस्ट्राजेनेका और ज़ेनेका के विलय की देखरेख की जो उस समय यूरोप में सबसे बड़े दवा सौदों में से एक था।


Single market becomes SNP priority over indyref2

Summary: It is supposed to be the Brexit election.

By Glenn CampbellPolitical correspondent, BBC Scotland Yet in Scotland, on the campaign trail, you're more likely to hear talk of independence. The Conservatives have placed opposition to the SNP and their plans for a second independence referendum at the heart of their campaign. Labour and the Liberal Democrats - partners with the Tories in the 2014 Better Together campaign - are making similar pitches. Labour also take a swipe at Tory "austerity" and the Liberal Democrats at Tory plans for Brexit outside the single market. Of the four parties in Scotland defending seats at Westminster, the one least likely to major on independence in this campaign is the SNP, even though it exists to achieve independence. There's an obvious reason for that. Independence divides opinion and in any election the SNP wants to broaden its appeal beyond "Yes" voters. This has worked successfully for the party in the past. In 2015, the SNP said the election was not about independence and that it would seek further devolution of power with a view to Holyrood having "full financial responsibility". In that campaign it positioned itself as the party best placed to "stand up for Scotland's best interests" at Westminster. It secured its best ever election result, winning 50% of the vote, 5% above the level of support for independence in the 2014 referendum. In this year's election, Nicola Sturgeon is once again offering the SNP as a "strong voice" for Scotland at Westminster against what they anticipate will be a Conservative government with a bigger majority. However, the question of independence is unavoidable because it is only two months since the first minister demanded the power to hold another referendum. Ms Sturgeon insists she already has a mandate from the Scottish Parliament for a referendum once the terms of Brexit are clear. She has also sought to redefine the mandate that she is seeking in this UK general election. It is, she said, "to demand a place for Scotland at the Brexit negotiating table and the inclusion of the case for our place in the single market in the negotiating remit". That is a "more immediate priority" than indyref2, Ms Sturgeon said. The first minister demanded the power to hold another independence vote after Theresa May rejected her "compromise" proposals for a special deal to keep Scotland in the single market. Now, she is arguing that the general election result could make the prime minister think again on that and, if so, presumably the demand for a Brexit-related independence vote would be withdrawn. In the event that there is a second referendum, Ms Sturgeon has also said that the SNP may seek a "phased approach" to securing EU membership. It is her clearest indication yet that if Scotland is already out of the EU, the SNP would initially seek Norway-style membership of the single market through EFTA and the EEA. The Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, has described this as "a cynical attempt to win back Leave voters who have deserted the SNP". While 62% of those who voted in Scotland backed Remain, there were still more than a million Leave votes with perhaps one in three SNP supporters favouring Brexit. Labour's Kezia Dugdale said the SNP had "quietly shifted away from a policy of immediate EU membership" and the Liberal Democrat's Willie Rennie accused the nationalists of "selling out" pro-Europeans. The SNP would argue that it is simply acknowledging the possibility that the UK including Scotland has already left the EU by the time of any future independence vote. By prioritising single market membership over independence (whether in or out of the EU) the SNP is also trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of the public regardless of how they voted on Brexit or independence.

माना जा रहा है कि यह ब्रेक्सिट चुनाव है।


Standard Chartered's Peter Sands to step down in June

Summary: UK bank Standard Chartered has announced that its chief executive, Peter Sands, will be replaced by ex-JPMorgan banker Bill Winters.

Mr Sands, who has been under pressure over the bank's slumping share price, says Mr Winters, who takes over in June, is "a great choice". The bank's chairman, Sir John Peace, is to step down in 2016 and three non-executive directors are also leaving. Shares in the troubled bank rose 3% in early morning trading. The Asia-focused bank has been facing tough market conditions and issued three profit warnings last year. It is due to close up to 100 bank branches this year in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in an attempt to improve its profitability.

यूके बैंक स्टैंडर्ड चार्टर्ड ने घोषणा की है कि इसके मुख्य कार्यकारी पीटर सैंड्स की जगह पूर्व-जे. पी. मॉर्गन बैंकर बिल विंटर्स लेंगे।


Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson march to clear name

Summary: Royle Family TV star Ricky Tomlinson has led a march in Shrewsbury to help clear his name of picketing offences he was convicted of in 1973.

He was charged with violent picketing and intimidating workers during a builders' strike in Telford. He was given a two-year jail sentence along with 23 others similarly accused, and served 16 months in prison. The actor maintains his innocence and marched with hundreds of supporters for "Justice for the Shrewsbury 24". The protestors marched from Abbey Foregate to Shrewsbury Crown Court where the sentences were passed.

रॉयले फैमिली टीवी स्टार रिकी टॉमलिंसन ने 1973 में दोषी ठहराए गए धरना अपराधों के अपने नाम को साफ करने में मदद करने के लिए श्रूसबरी में एक मार्च का नेतृत्व किया है।


Meryl Streep 'set for Mary Poppins role'

Summary: Meryl Streep is in talks to reunite with her Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt on Disney's upcoming Mary Poppins sequel, according to Variety .

Streep is linked to the role of Mary's cousin Topsy - a role that would see her sing, as she did alongside Blunt in 2014 film musical Into the Woods. Lin Manuel-Miranda, star of Broadway hit Hamilton, will play another new character, a lamplighter named Jack. Rob Marshall's film is set for release on Christmas Day in 2018. Set in Depression-era London, the film will see flying nanny Poppins make a return visit to Jane and Michael Banks, now grown-up. Streep was seen at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia earlier this week, screaming in delight at the prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming America's first female president. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

वैराइटी के अनुसार, मेरिल स्ट्रीप डिज्नी की आगामी मैरी पॉपिन्स सीक्वल पर अपनी डेविल वेर्स प्रादा की सह-कलाकार एमिली ब्लंट के साथ फिर से जुड़ने के लिए बातचीत कर रही हैं।


Nikki Haley: Aggressive envoy who shook up United Nations

Summary: Through the revolving door of the Trump administration goes another high-level departure: the UN ambassador Nikki Haley, by far the most high-profile woman in the cabinet, and an internationalist who's done much to protect the United Nations from Donald Trump's anti-globalist wrecking ball.

Nick BryantNew York correspondent@NickBryantNYon Twitter At a meeting in the Oval Office, they both went out of their way to stress this was an amicable separation. Donald Trump lavished her with what for him is high praise, by saying she'd brought more "glamour" to the role. Mrs Haley, who is widely spoken of as a possible future president, promised she had no plans to challenge him for the party's presidential nomination in 2020. Like President Trump, she has an eye for a television moment, and after the Assad regime launched a chemical weapons strike in April 2017, she brandished pictures of dead children in the Security Council. "The pictures of dead children were not fake news," she railed. "They were the result of the Syrian regime's barbaric inhumanity. "And they were the result of the regime and Russia's failure to live up to their international commitments to remove all chemical weapons from Syria." It provided diplomatic theatre of the most electrifying and meaningful kind. Mrs Haley was a strident critic of Russia and Syria at the UN, and also fiercely critical of what she claimed was the global body's anti-Israel bias. She supported shutting off US funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency and revelled in defending the Trump administration's decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the face of an acid show of international criticism. She was also instrumental in pressuring China to support a tough sanctions regime against North Korea. Her personal diplomacy in closed-door meetings, when she demanded immediate answers from Beijing's more cautious and sometimes slow-moving diplomats, was unexpectedly successful. Often her style grated with colleagues. Take her debut remarks at the UN. "I wear heels," she said determinedly. "It's not for a fashion statement. It's because if I see something wrong, we're going to kick them every single time." This "new sheriff" in town rhetoric not only alarmed foreign diplomats but some veterans of the state department who man the US mission to the UN. So, too, did her aggressive and repeated warnings about compiling a list of errant countries that didn't back the United States, which irritated even close allies. But she was popular at the UN, partly for her easy 'Hi y'all" southern charm (her personal motto is "Kick 'em with a smile"), partly because she was such an unflinching critic of Moscow and Damascus and partly because she was seen as a human buffer between the White House and UN. From the outset, she formed a strong working relationship with the incoming UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and together they pushed through a reform agenda, focussing particularly on trimming the organisation's peacekeeping budget. It is often said that the UN's biggest peacekeeping mission is directed against the Trump White House, and Mrs Haley was seen as a valuable ally. Resurgent anti-Trump 'resistance' defines a divided America Mr Trump does not go after the UN in the same way that he targets Nato and the World Trade Organisation, which shows how effective the Haley-Guterres partnership has been. A former governor of South Carolina, she's a talented retail politician with the brightest of futures. Once a foreign policy neophyte, she now has a top-ranking diplomatic assignment on her curriculum vitae. She's also been a senior member of the Trump team, though one who managed to maintain a measure of independence. Over the past two years, she has ticked a few important political and policy boxes. Unlike others who have served in the Trump cabinet, such as Rex Tillerson, who she hated, she has also burnished her reputation. Nikki Haley became an articulate spokeswoman for Donald Trump's America First foreign policy, often performing clean-up duties on issues such as the Middle East when the president's tweets and offhand remarks created international confusion. But I doubt if she's ever been a really true believer in Trumpism at home. Asked to deliver the Republican response to Barack Obama's State of the Union address in 2016, she warned Republicans against listening to the "siren call of the angriest voices", which was a clear dig at the billionaire candidate. In that year's South Carolina primary, she backed Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and, as an Indian-American, urged the party to be more demographically inclusive. She was also the governor who pushed after the Charleston shootings for the Confederate flag to be lowered from the state house grounds in Columbia - a particularly brave political act in the state where the first shots of American Civil War rang out. Watching her at the UN perform the diplomatic drudgery of listening to overlong speeches from ambassadors on countries that previously would not have been on her radar, I often wondered whether her heart was truly in it. But on the occasions when the eyes of the world were on the Security Council, she relished her role and rarely failed to deliver the most ringing quote of the day. Certainly, the UN has been a useful stepping stone. One of her predecessors as UN ambassador, George Herbert Walker Bush, went from the horseshoe table of the Security Council to the White House. It does not require a great leap of imagination to see her making the same journey. Certainly, we have not heard the last of Nikki Haley.

ट्रम्प प्रशासन के घूमने वाले दरवाजे से एक और उच्च-स्तरीय प्रस्थान होता हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र की राजदूत निक्की हेली, जो अब तक कैबिनेट में सबसे हाई-प्रोफाइल महिला हैं, और एक अंतर्राष्ट्रीयवादी हैं जिन्होंने संयुक्त राष्ट्र को डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के विरोधी-वैश्विक विध्वंसक गेंद से बचाने के लिए बहुत कुछ किया है।


What can we learn from children's writing?

Summary: A BBC Radio 2 short story competition aimed at children up to the age of 13 has had 90,000 entries. It's an exercise in creativity but the words they used have also been put into a database which gives us an insight into the way they think.

Every one of the 40 million words from the story-writing competition has been collated and analysed by lexicographers at the Oxford University Press, in order to monitor and track children's language. It is the third edition of the 500 Words competition, organised by the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, and the second year the OUP has analysed the entrants. Here are some of the findings. Kids write "mum" more than "dad" The most common word of all was "mum" - or some variation of it, such as "mam" or "mar" - with a total of 115,627 mentions. "Dad" trailed behind, only just scraping into the top 15 most common words, with about half of the mentions of "mum". It probably reflects the more central role that mothers play at a young age, says Vineeta Gupta, one of the head publishers at Oxford Children's Dictionaries. In many stories the dad acted as some sort of action man, says Gupta. He can be found fighting aliens, exploding, and building a time machine in the top 50 shortlisted stories. Kids go wild with similes There were more than 16,000 similes used in the stories submitted. Girls were more likely to use similes than boys, with older children also using more. Here are some examples: Children make up some strange words There were new words for creatures, gadgets and phobias. "Disflomaticinator" He made a disflomaticinator. It would make stuff from the past come into the present and stuff from the future come into the present. I will sell this on eBay, he said. I will sell this for 123456789123456789 million billion trillion dollars. "Hairthlessquipadoliciousphobioa" My fear was hairthlessquipadoliciousphobioa (fear of beards) but people don't believe me what so ever. "Lumbagain" I told them that this ghost is one of a kind called a lumbagain ghost who makes people dull and boring. Shockingly he only gets children but when it gets mad he could get teachers and only comes to schools. "Dulbodogfragonaffe" Dulbodogfragonaffe is very big animal with the head of a duck and the mane of a lion. The neck of a giraffe and the body of a horse. The wings of a bee and the front legs of a dog. The back legs of a from and the tail of a dragon. The spikes on its back of a hedgehog and the ears of a rabbit. All over it is an orangey-pinky coloured. Kids are experimenting with language, says Gupta, often using their existing knowledge to form the basis of new words, such as "fridgemarine" or "shrinkinganator". Boys describe cars in more detail than girls The word "car" surfaced more than 25,000 times in this year's competition, with a roughly 60/40 split in favour of boys. But girls were more likely to use the word "car", whereas boys tended to go into greater detail, says Gupta. "So for example they will name a car as being a Ford RS Turbo or a 1964 Ford Mustang." One boy wrote: When he went the police were not here so he got in his BMW 3.8 Petrol sports trim turbo car and he went. But the most frequently mentioned car for both boys and girls is a Ferrari. "Children are more aspirational, they will dream and adults are sensible," says Gupta. There's another version of the OUP database that analyses adults' language. They write about Fords. Textspeak isn't as common as you'd think The database analysis throws up some newish slang. Some of the writers used "totes", "yolo" (you only live once), "amazeballs", and "rofl" (roll on the floor laughing). The use of "lol" increased by 93% from the first year of the study. But these words still only appeared a handful of times. "They know where to use them and how to use them," says Gupta. "They use them in informal dialogue to create an effect." One girl wrote: "Girls, check out me new iPhone 5, totes up to date!" Snow bragged. Shorter words can be harder to spell than longer words Children do need more support with their spelling but particularly when it comes to shorter words with apostrophes, says Gupta. Very common words like "doesn't", "he'd", or "couldn't", often cause more trouble than longer words. Mixing up difficult vowel-sounds in words such as "minute" or "weird" is also relatively common, says Gupta. But vocabulary is seemingly not a major worry, at least for these young entrants: Its hazy malachite skin gleamed with an amber slime, its emaciated tail propelling it through the tingling sea. It glanced only forward, its atramentous citron eyes fixating on its prey. I approached an altitudinous manor, that looked like a blackened statue of a ghost, damaged by the years of betrayal. Diaphanous ghosts circled it endlessly longing for a visitor brave enough to enter. Blackberries are still usually blackberries The researchers also looked at words with more than one possible meaning, particularly with regard to technology. The analysis of the children's stories found that "blackberries" was still more commonly used to refer to the fruit rather than the phone. Just. But when they say "text", they mean SMS. And "mobile" doesn't refer to something hanging in their room. Cats lose out to dogs (and dragons and monsters) Despite the omnipresence of internet cat memes, they lagged far behind dogs in terms of mentions. Monsters and dragons were also more commonly referenced than cats. Fantasy still rules over technology Everyone knows young children master technology easily. But surprisingly few gadgets appeared in the 90,000 stories submitted. References to iPhones, iPads and games consoles numbered in the hundreds. And there were only 144 mentions of apps - even then they were the likes of a time travel app and a rocket-finding app. But fantasy and fairy tale themes are booming. Use of the word "magic" rose by 7.5%, while witches, fairies, and giants all had more than 5,000 mentions. "Fantasy and fairy tales" was easily the most common genre, with "Horror, supernatural and ghost stories" coming in second. "It's a genre that takes children out of their humdrum lives and into a world where their imagination can run free," says Bea Ferguson of the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Jack and Lucy are the most popular names As with the first year of the study, Jack and Lucy were the most popular names in children's stories. Jack was the most common baby name and Lucy the eighth most common girl's name in 2002, according to the website Babycentre.co.uk. That would make that generation of babies about 11 years old now, so it could be that young storytellers are getting their inspiration from the many Jacks and Lucys among their peers. Kids choose zanier nouns Among the top five two-noun words for kids were "time machine", "space ship", and "tree house". By the time people reach adulthood, these words have been replaced by the more mundane, functional terms like "car park" and "kitchen sink", according to OUP's adult version of the language database. We tend to become more humdrum about our lives, says Ferguson. "We read more literature based about the here and now, kitchen sink type stuff." Children's worlds are constantly expanding, the world is their oyster, she says. However if we're looking for the missing link that unites generations, it appears to be "ice cream", which reaches the top five for both kids and adults. The Olympics are still fresh in the mind It seems Team GB's success has made an imprint on young minds. But despite the Olympics being staged in London, the Olympics were mostly written about by children living outside London. Mentions of diver Tom Daley went up by 1200%, while other Olympic heroes such as Jessica Ennis, Bradley Wiggins, and Chris Hoy also rose in prominence compared with the first year of the study. The Paralympics seem to have resonated too, with more than double the number of mentions in 2012's competition. Usain Bolt more than doubled his number of mentions to become the joint top sportsperson with Wayne Rooney. The versatility of being able to use Bolt as a simile may go some way to explain his popularity: Kerri darted out of the house as fast as Usain Bolt, clinging on to a packet of plain crisps that she was planning to munch in RE. Gender differences occur in music, sport, and games Girls wrote about singers and pop stars in their writing more than boys do, the research shows. One Direction dominates the pre-teen musical world, with almost twice as many mentions as the second-placed Tulisa from N-Dubz. Harry Styles was the most popular member of the boy band, even earning a few mentions from boys - the other members were almost exclusively written about by girls. The only singers that boys mention more than girls were Psy - of Gangnam Style fame - Cheryl Cole, and Tom Jones. Football is primarily talked about by boys. Wayne Rooney was the most popular footballer, with 309 mentions by boys and 33 by girls. David Beckham and Steven Gerrard were the only footballers to occur more often in girls' writing than in boys. Boys more frequently revert to violent terminology such as "gun", "sword", "battle", "attack", or "shoot". Ferguson says boys' preoccupation with violence during her storytelling workshops has made her introduce a rule that if a child kills someone off they have to replace them with a new character. "Otherwise they'd kill off every character." 500 Words live final will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Friday 31 May, 06:00-09:00 BST You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

बी. बी. सी. रेडियो 2 की 13 साल की उम्र तक के बच्चों के लिए आयोजित लघु कथा प्रतियोगिता में 90,000 प्रविष्टियां आई हैं। यह रचनात्मकता का एक अभ्यास है लेकिन उनके द्वारा उपयोग किए गए शब्दों को भी एक डेटाबेस में डाल दिया गया है जो हमें उनके सोचने के तरीके के बारे में एक अंतर्दृष्टि देता है।


Taiwan president rues lack of progress with China

Summary: The president of Taiwan has said that political progress in mainland China is unstable. Speaking in a rare interview with the BBC, Ma Ying-jeou said he was disappointed that despite improvements in the economic relationship during his two terms as president, there had been no meeting between himself and President Xi Jinping of China.

Carrie GracieChina editor@BBCCarrieon Twitter "Mainland China is only 100 nautical miles away from the Republic of China (Taiwan). Therefore it's a big risk and a big opportunity for us. Any leader here has to learn how to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunity. That's what I've been doing for the past seven years," he said. The Chinese government claims the island of Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and threatens to counter any move to outright independence by military force. The first time I visited Taiwan in the early 1990s, there were no direct flights from Beijing. Along with everyone else, I had to make a long-distance dog-leg via Hong Kong. In those days, Beijing was still a low-rise city of coal dust, brick alleys and bicycles. Taipei felt glossy and high-rise by comparison. How things have changed. There are now more than a hundred flights every day across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing is a city of glass and concrete canyons, and China bestrides the global economy. Psychological distance Nowhere has experienced the drama of China's rise more viscerally than Taiwan. Two-fifths of the island's exports go to the mainland and there were nearly four million tourist visits by mainlanders in the opposite direction last year. But President Ma told me the politics of the communist state are still a serious stumbling block to good relations. "In the past several years I've been constantly reminding the mainland Chinese authorities that the important thing is to close the psychological distance between people across the strait. Taiwan believes in the core values of freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law. "But now we also see that the authorities have arrested some human rights advocates including some lawyers. So that's why people will worry that the human rights situation in China is deteriorating. "The situation in mainland China is sometimes better, and sometimes worse. It's not very stable." Strategic shift On the day I visited President Ma, I was not his only visitor. The president of Honduras was due for a state reception straight after our interview, and the blue and white flag of Honduras was flying outside the presidential office, an imposing red-brick palace built during Japanese imperial rule. Of course, the Japanese colonialists are long gone but so too are all the embassies which clustered here in the 1950s and 60s after the KMT fled the communist advance on the mainland and set up a last toehold for their Republic of China on Taiwan. For two decades, this was celebrated by a succession of American presidents as the rightful government of the whole of China and a bulwark against a global socialist threat. But most countries transferred recognition to Beijing in the years after President Nixon signalled an American strategic shift with the famous meeting with Chairman Mao. And now China firmly freezes Taiwan out of international organisations. The only state visitors walking President Ma's red carpet are from tiny countries like Burkino Faso, Haiti and Honduras. And he told me he was disappointed that after two terms of working hard to improve relations with the mainland, Beijing is still resisting a face-to-face meeting. "A meeting of leaders should be a natural development. In the past two years we were hoping to use last November's Apec summit as an opportunity. However, it was not successful which was of course a very great pity. "Of course we are not clear about the decision-making process, but I believe it was Mr Xi who made the final decision." Patience and caution The language pitfalls surrounding cross-strait relations are as delicate as doctrinal questions in the medieval church and make me nervous about writing on the topic. But the fundamental point is that since 1949, the People's Republic of China has insisted that it is the rightful government of a China which includes the island of Taiwan. Now it has a growing arsenal of economic and diplomatic tools with which to punish governments tempted to forget that. Since taking office two and a half years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping has toughened Chinese policy on many fronts, from national security to internet freedoms and Hong Kong. The issue of Taiwan, he has said, "cannot be postponed indefinitely". President Ma told me that after a rift of more than 60 years, both sides must show patience and caution. "In fact, starting in 2005, the military balance of power in the Taiwan Strait has shifted toward mainland China as their defence budget has posted rapid double-digit growth annually, at times nearly 20%. It would be difficult for us to engage in an arms race with mainland China. "So our defence principle is as follows: we want to create a scenario in which neither side would change the status quo through unilateral or non-peaceful means for fear of the price it would have to pay." China-Taiwan relations Profile: Taiwan Peace strategy But last week, video images emerged of a recent Chinese military exercise in which People's Liberation Army troops practised an urban assault on a building which looked like a mock-up of the presidential office in Taipei. President Ma told me he personally shared the displeasure of his government over the military exercise. "Of course we have to be well-prepared for any potential conflicts across the Strait. But the top military strategy is to use a peace strategy not to use force." I asked whether he would like a clear commitment from President Obama or his successor to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. "The point is not just to rely on the United States to help us in any kind of conflict but to reduce the risk of conflict. The top military strategy is to use a peace strategy not to use military force." President Ma and I talked for an hour about everything from last year's student occupation of parliament to next year's election for his successor. I hope the day will come when I can spend an hour with President Xi in Beijing. When all is said and done, geography is both a blessing and a curse for this island and its 23 million citizens. Despite all the tourists and the exports criss-crossing the Taiwan Strait, China's rise creates many uncertainties. This island is a potent symbol of sovereignty for Beijing and the Taiwan Strait remains a dangerous flashpoint for the region and the world.

ताइवान के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा है कि मुख्य भूमि चीन में राजनीतिक प्रगति अस्थिर है। बी. बी. सी. के साथ एक दुर्लभ साक्षात्कार में बोलते हुए, मा यिंग-जियो ने कहा कि वह निराश थे कि राष्ट्रपति के रूप में अपने दो कार्यकालों के दौरान आर्थिक संबंधों में सुधार के बावजूद, उनके और चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग के बीच कोई बैठक नहीं हुई थी।


Sir Tom Jones: 'I might be old but my voice is still young'

Summary: There's a fascinating clip on YouTube of Sir Tom Jones interviewing Stevie Wonder in 1993.

By Mark SavageBBC music reporter For most of the conversation they're on an equal footing, whether reminiscing about their childhood or duelling over the vocals on Superstition. But then Sir Tom brings up Wonder's writing. "It's great you can express yourself but I'm not a songwriter," he confesses. "I can't do that. I have to sing songs that are already there." The moment is laden with pathos. Sir Tom is both in awe of Wonder's work, and humbled by his own inability. But then Wonder retorts that Sir Tom is a "songwriter's dream" - someone who can inhabit a lyric, regardless of whether they wrote it. It's why his recording of The Green, Green Grass of Home remains better known than Porter Wagoner's original; and why his version of She's A Lady eclipsed that of its writer, Paul Anka. Twenty-eight years later, and the Welsh baritone acknowledges the truth of Wonder's reply. It's something he's leant into on his last three albums - which have found him singing gospel, country and folk standards, while shedding the ostentatious showboating of his 60s output. On his latest record, Surrounded By Time, Sir Tom is once again re-interpreting some old favourites - from weather-worn ballads like The Windmills Of Your Mind, which won the Oscar for Best Song in 1969; to more obscure choices, like Terry Callier's nine-minute tale of rebirth and redemption, Lazarus Man. It's a particularly personal album - the first one he's recorded in Wales, and the first since the death of his beloved wife Linda. The songs he's chosen are suitably reflective and intimate, with producer Ethan Johns stretching the icon's vocals over brooding electronics, and swirling psychedelic rock. But whatever you do, don't call it a covers project. "The word cover is widely used and it's not true, because it's my version of other people's songs," says the 80-year-old. "You couldn't say to Sir Laurence Olivier that he's 'covering' Macbeth. It's his take on it. And if you hear somebody else do Macbeth, you know it's not going to be the same. That's the way I feel about songs." Surrounded By Time opens with the slow and mournful I Won't Crumble With You If You Fall. Originally written by Bernice Johnson Reagon for the black civil rights movement, Jones turns it into a lament for his late wife, who died of lung cancer in 2016. "I was there in the hospital room with her for the last 10 days," he recalls. "She was dying and she knew it. I said, 'Linda, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself and she said, 'You've got to carry on.' "More or less, what she meant was, 'Don't crumble with me,' and that's what the song says to me." The couple had been married since they were both 16 and, although Jones had several affairs, their marriage remained strong for six decades. "She holds the connection to who I am," he wrote in his 2015 autobiography. "That's exactly who she was," he says today. "Your head gets a bit large when you start to get hit records. You think, 'Oh yeah, I'm on my way now.' But she would pull me up. She'd say, 'You don't really think you're Tom Jones, do you?'" 'Like a tiger' Linda never let him forget Thomas John Woodward from Pontypridd, south Wales, the teenager who worked in a glove factory to support their young family in the 1950s. He'd always dreamed of being a singer, but his sonorous voice was almost too powerful (he was almost dropped from the school choir for drowning out his classmates) until rock 'n' roll came along. By 1963, he had changed his name to Tommy Scott and become the frontman for Welsh beat group The Senators, often downing 10 or 12 pints before hitting the stage for their raucous live shows. A year later, he was discovered by former Viscounts singer Gordon Mills, who changed the youngster's name again to Tom Jones and negotiated a record deal with Decca. His first single, Chills And Fever, failed to chart when it was released in late 1964. But a few months later, Sir Tom struck gold with It's Not Unusual, a swinging, big-band number delivered with all the subtlety and nuance of a hurricane. It topped the charts in the UK, entered the US top 10 and made Sir Tom a household name. Not bad, when you consider he'd originally recorded the track as a demo for Sandie Shaw. More hits followed - Delilah, Help Yourself, What's New Pussycat - and Sir Tom found himself swept up in the Swinging 60s scene. At one point, Eric Clapton even offered to be his guitarist. Even so, he was never considered cool by the music press. "Because It's Not Unusual had brass on it, and I did What's New Pussycat after that... the public thinks, 'Well that's what Tom Jones is,'" he says. "And then I went to Las Vegas for a month straight, two shows a night. Elvis was there, Frank Sinatra was there, so it was a great place to be. But then you get labelled as a Vegas act. I'm not a Vegas act." To his great discomfort, his ability to send female fans into a delirium detracted even more from his music. According to legend, it was a New Yorker who first threw her knickers on stage, at the Copacabana in 1968. After that, nearly every show ended with an avalanche of underwear. "The only problem I found with it was that your image sometimes overshadows your talent," he says. "Some reviews would say, 'The band struck up, Tom Jones came out, took off his shirt, and all the women screamed.' But not a bloody mention about what was I singing." But his peers recognised his talent. "It's like you opened your mouth and a tiger leapt out," actor Dustin Hoffman once proclaimed. One night in the late 1960s, Sir Paul McCartney even offered to write him a new song. Sir Tom leapt at the chance and, a few days later, he received a demo for The Long And Winding Road. "Paul said, 'If you're going to do it, it's got to be your next single,'" he recalls. "But I already had a record coming out that Friday." His manager, Gordon Mills, and producer, Peter Sullivan, laid out the options, telling the star: "You've already got a record, the publicity is all done, Decca is chomping at the bit for you to get it out before Christmas... but if you really want to, we'll stop the record. Just bear in mind that it'll take at least a month in order to set up a recording session, and all that business." "So they put it all on me," he exclaims. "And I said, 'Well, what do you think? Give me some feedback here.' And Peter said, 'Well, Decca's really on our backs.' So we didn't [do it]. We put a song out called Without Love, which was a big hit. But I missed that bloody song, because the timing wasn't right, you know? "I told Paul that. I said: 'I'm sorry, but you know I love the song. You were quite right to send me that one, it's fantastic.' And then I heard Ray Charles do it a bit later and I thought, 'Damn, that's exactly what I would have done with it.' But it was too late. "And that's gone on with Paul ever since. He wrote me another song when I was doing the Reload album [in 1999] and I said, 'Well, look, this album I'm doing now is all duets.' And he didn't fancy singing on it - so again it was the timing." Fighting the US censors But if Sir Tom never got to duet with a Beatle, he still got to sing with dozens of his other idols. His 1960s TV show, This Is Tom Jones, saw him play host to the likes of Cher, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker and Liza Minelli. But the star ran into problems with the US TV network ABC, who bristled at his support of black artists - whether he was covering protest anthems like The Temptations' Ball Of Confusion, or inviting Aretha Franklin and Little Richard to appear as guests. "They [ABC] didn't want black people on there for a start-off," he recalls. "And when I would do a song with a black female, the censor would say, 'Don't get too close to her, you can't touch her.' "Well, I would do it on purpose. I'd say, '[Expletive] you, I'm gonna do it anyway.' "I remember once I had Leslie Uggams on, she was the star of a TV show called Roots, and we did Somewhere from West Side Story. "The censor said, 'You're looking at one another too much.' And I said, 'This is about one another. The song goes, there's a place for us. I'm not saying it to the audience. I'm saying it to the girl, and she's saying it to me.' "So I was up against all that. I had to push it, to get certain things done. And when those episodes had big ratings, they realised that I was right." First-take vocals These days, Sir Tom is still a TV fixture in his guise as a mentor on The Voice. There, he plays the elder statesman of pop, revered even by the other judges. And, as he starts his ninth decade, he's still charting new ground. His last few albums took Johnny Cash's American Recordings series as their template, mining the folk-blues canon and illuminating it with grizzled wisdom. But the musical choices on Surrounded By Time are more eclectic, and the star has discovered new shades to his voice. On Talking Reality Television Blues, he takes on the role of narrator, tracing the history of the small screen from the moon landings to the coronation of Donald Trump, over a shuffling, Radiohead guitar riff. "An old man with a comb-over came along and sold us the moon / And we stayed tuned in, now here we are / Reality killed by a reality star." "I was there from the beginning of television, you see," says Sir Tom. "In 1952, I had tuberculosis and I was quarantined in my house for two years so my mother and father bought me a TV set, and we watched the coronation. "And then I witnessed the Moon landing when I was in the States, and then Donald Trump, I used to sing at his hotels in Atlantic City. I thought he was just this playboy businessman. "So I saw these things unfold - and that's why this song appealed to me." Throughout the record, Sir Tom's tone and control are impeccable. He says many of the tracks, including the seven-minute highlight This Is The Sea, were recorded in a single take. "It was more or less a rehearsal," he says. "I was in the studio with the rhythm section - I hadn't even got into the vocal booth yet for separation - and we hit it right away." So how does he keep those vocals in such good shape? "It's luck. It's a God-given gift," he says, before conceding that cutting back his alcohol intake might have helped. Oh, and he works out every day, too. "I've got an exercise bike in my bedroom. And I've got this inversion table, where I hang upside down for about five minutes every day. It gets the blood rushing to your head, which is great, and it elongates your spine as well - so if you've got any problems with your back, I highly recommend it. "So I might be old myself but my voice is still young." Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

यूट्यूब पर सर टॉम जोन्स की 1993 में स्टीवी वंडर का साक्षात्कार लेने की एक आकर्षक क्लिप है।


Shamima Begum: What was life like for the IS couple in Syria?

Summary: Shamima Begum said she joined the Islamic State group (IS) in search of the perfect family life, and it was in Raqqa, shortly after she arrived in Syria four years ago, that it arranged a marriage between her and Dutch armed extremist Yago Riedijk.

By Quentin SommervilleBBC Middle East correspondent She was 15 at the time and he was 23. In the UK, he would be committing a sexual offence. He sits opposite me in a yellow plastic chair, 27 years old now, in a freezing interview room in a Kurdish detention centre. His guards have just removed his handcuffs. If I see Shamima, he asks me to "tell her that I love her and have patience". "Hopefully soon we'll be together again and things will turn out all right - hopefully." It seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon. Over the next hour, he paints a contradictory picture of an insulated home life, and a maelstrom of terror outside. He said he kept the two separate and that his wife, despite her public statements to the contrary, was ignorant of IS's crimes. "I was keeping her in a protected shell," he said. "I did not give her any information about what was going on outside. The problems that I was facing, the dangers. "She was just sitting inside taking care of the household while I was trying to get by. "Feed her, feed myself. Try to keep out of trouble. Try to not getting killed by secret services. "You know, making decisions that changed our lives, trying to keep us in safety." When I met Ms Begum last week, she said she had joined IS in search of the perfect family life. She told me: "My family wouldn't help me get married in the UK and the way they showed family life in IS was pretty nice. "Like the perfect family life, saying they'd take care of you and take care of your family. And that was true. "They did take care of me and my family at first but things changed after that." Their caliphate dream unravelled quickly. It was a world of headless corpses and IS prison and torture for Mr Riedijk. When I asked him if he knew of any Yazidis - the religious sect IS enslaved and murdered - he had this to say: "I heard about one Dutch guy. He had a slave. "That's about as close as I ever got to a slave. I heard she was about 40 years old." Ms Begum had said she had seen a human head in a bin; her husband explained it was in a bag on top of a pile of dead IS prisoners wearing military uniforms. And he attended the stoning of a woman accused of "fornication". "I actually never witnessed a beheading," he said. "I've actually witnessed a stoning once. "And I've watched, I've seen people who have been executed but not the execution itself." "Actually, she wasn't stoned to death," he corrected. "She stood up and she ran away. "And, after that, they said to the guys who were throwing stones: 'Stop throwing stones.' "It's not allowed to throw the stones after she gets up and runs away. So we stopped throwing stones at her and she escaped. After that they left her alone." 'I made a huge mistake' Mr Riedijk's wife claimed that he "wasn't really a fighter", but he went to fight for IS in Kobane and was injured. He fought again in Aleppo. He said: "I made a huge mistake. I've thrown away years of my life. It was not my life. "Luckily, I didn't directly hurt other people. But me joining and supporting a group like that. It's something that's not acceptable." He added that he had hardly used his weapon. Now he says he wants to return to the Netherlands, with his wife, and his newborn baby son. "I would love to go back to my own country," he said, "which I now understand the privileges that I lived with. The privilege of living there as a citizen. "And, of course, I understand that many people have a problem with what I did and I totally understand that. "I have to take responsibility for what I did, serve my sentence. But I hope to be able to return to a normal life and to raise a family." For now, Ms Begum and Mr Riedijk have neither their passports nor control of their own fate. They gave up both when they joined the Islamic State group, and are unlikely to see the return of either anytime soon. Ms Begum is in a woman's internment camp not very far away from her imprisoned husband. Kurdish officials say there are no plans for them to be reunited. Correction 4 March 2019: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the husband of Shamima Begum could be liable for statutory rape under English law.

शमीमा बेगम ने कहा कि वह आदर्श पारिवारिक जीवन की तलाश में इस्लामिक स्टेट समूह (आईएस) में शामिल हुई, और चार साल पहले सीरिया पहुंचने के तुरंत बाद रक्का में ही उसने उसके और डच सशस्त्र चरमपंथी यागो रिडिजक के बीच शादी की व्यवस्था की।