Neil Faudemer fails to complete Jersey-Guernsey swim

Summary: A veteran swimmer who was hoping to become the first person to swim between Jersey and Guernsey in 50 years had to stop the challenge 500m from the end.

Neil Faudemer, 52, from Jersey, set off on Friday and hoped to complete the 20 miles (32km) for charity. But 15 hours into the swim and 500m (545 yards) from finishing he had to stop due to difficult tidal conditions. His support team said the swim became too difficult after he went off course and the tide changed. Mr Faudemer said it was unlikely he would try the swim again. He said: "It's a really tough swim. But it would be really nice to see someone from the Channel Islands do it." The last person to complete the swim was Ruth Oldham in 1962. Last year Mr Faudemer became the first person to swim the 12 miles (19km) between Sark and Jersey.

एक अनुभवी तैराक जो 50 वर्षों में जर्सी और ग्वेर्नसे के बीच तैरने वाला पहला व्यक्ति बनने की उम्मीद कर रहा था, उसे अंत से 500 मीटर की चुनौती को रोकना पड़ा।


Bedford: 'If Debenhams goes it's a tragedy for the town'

Summary: The expected demise of Debenhams will leave a hole in many High Streets around the UK. In Bedford, a series of big name stores have already departed in recent years. What will the latest retail failure mean for the town?

By Alex Pope and Kate ScotterBBC News "If Debenhams goes, it's a tragedy," says Desmond Bailey, who has lived in Bedford for 20 years. "But so was losing Beales and so was losing Marks & Spencer. All the big stores are going and that's a problem for us all." The county town, which was given its Royal Charter to hold a market by Henry II in 1166, once boasted a busy town centre, but in the past couple of decades the town's offering for shoppers has deteriorated. Other well-known names, including BHS, Topshop, Laura Ashley, River Island and Woolworths have also gone. Last year, it even lost Goldings, the hardware shop that sat on the High Street for 152 years, with owners saying town centre footfall had become "pretty much non-existent". Many units stand empty and often shoppers opt to take the 17-mile (27km) journey to Milton Keynes, said to be a regionally dominant top 10 shopping destination, or Rushden Lakes in Northamptonshire, which is also 17 miles away. Bedford Borough Council hoped £1.76m from Historic England to restore historical features on 43 buildings would help the town become a "more attractive place to visit and shop". But Mr Bailey, and many others, fears the worst. The 59-year-old says: "It seems to be the pattern of Bedford that it's closing down bit by bit. Over the last 20 years, a lot of the things we had, that we depended on, have disappeared." Nadia Buttice, 34, says: "It doesn't fill you with much confidence when every other week you hear about another thing closing and it makes you feel sad and depressed that there's not much going on here any more." Bedford's Debenhams art deco-style building sits in the heart of the town centre, with entrances on the High Street and Silver Street. It is next to "Reflections of Bedford" - a five-metre (16ft) tall stainless steel sculpture of two large faces staring at each other, almost nose to nose, that was unveiled in the pedestrianised area in 2009. Richard Heathfield, who has lived in Bedford all of his life, remembers when the Debenhams store was EP Rose & Sons - a drapers, outfitters and soft furnishers. "Where in Bedford can we go shopping now? Nowhere. It's an end of era," says the 69-year-old. "For people who haven't got cars, they can't go all the way over to Milton Keynes. They've got to rely on Bedford and there will be nowhere to go." Stella Bailey, 72, says it will have an impact on her shopping habits and she might now travel "further afield". Beryl Skinner, 73, agrees with her friend and adds: "We come in every week, and normally we go for lunch and now there's hardly anything here. "I don't do computers, but most people go online now." Henry Vann, the borough council's portfolio holder for town centres, says Covid-19 has had a "significant impact on retail nationally" and the announcement that Debenhams will be closing all its stores is "deeply sad". He describes the Bedford branch as a "stalwart" of its High Street and says the "outstanding staff at our local store deserve our support at this time". But it is not all gloom and doom. He says the town centre continues to perform well, with a number of independent businesses opening in recent weeks. Mr Vann says the town is getting into the Christmas spirit with a new festive trail to find 12 Christmas characters hidden around the town centre, seasonal window displays, and the Made in Bedford Christmas Artisan Market to encourage people to shop local and support their town centre. One of the independent store owners hoping to turn the closure of the big-name chain stores into a positive is Emma Foley. She runs womenswear store Anorak in the Arcade, and says "we need to feel positive" and "look at how we can use town centres". The 42-year-old, who opened her shop in September 2019, says: "It's almost going back to how town centres used to be and that was residential, so I think that's what we could do with these big spaces. "We are not going to get any more big chain stores coming in because they just won't exist. "So I think it should be more about developing these [buildings] into really nice apartments and just make the town centre about living spaces, cafes and lots more independent shops so people don't have to travel to places like Milton Keynes to go shopping. "I feel genuinely positive about it and I think it could be quite cool." Meanwhile, she says she has seen an uplift in trade with chain stores closing, and has been welcoming customers of all ages through her door. And she thinks town centre shopping still has a place, despite the boom in online retailing. "It's about getting a balance," she says. "Online is great, but you can't get what we give online. "So many people want to come in and feel things, have a nice time, come into town and have a little shopping experience with their friends, and then go and have a drink. "And that's what I think will become of Bedford - it will become a destination." Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

डेबेनहैम्स की अपेक्षित मृत्यु ब्रिटेन के आसपास कई हाई स्ट्रीट्स में एक छेद छोड़ देगी। बेडफोर्ड में, हाल के वर्षों में बड़े नाम की दुकानों की एक श्रृंखला पहले ही चली गई है। शहर के लिए नवीनतम खुदरा विफलता का क्या मतलब होगा?


Caroline Flack death: Will people now 'be kind' in the media and online?

Summary: Former Love Island presenter Caroline Flack's death prompted not just an outpouring of grief, but an overwhelming demand for it to become a turning point for the treatment of celebrities on social media and the press.

By Ian YoungsEntertainment & arts reporter The night after hosting her first live edition of The X Factor in 2015, Caroline Flack was not on a high after reaching another peak in her career. She was in tears after looking at social media. "The reaction was quite overwhelming because I didn't think people would be talking about how I look, how I stand, how I walk or how I laugh," she said at the time. "Not everyone is going to like you all the time, not everyone is going to think you're beautiful, but there is a difference between opinion and abuse." Those are words that many celebrities - especially women - will relate to. Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Billie Eilish - fresh from winning five Grammys, recording the new James Bond theme and having the best-selling album of 2019 - revealed she had recently stopped looking at comments. "It was ruining my life," she said. "It's weird, the cooler the things you get to do are, the more people hate you. It's crazy. It's way worse than it's ever been right now." Her brother and producing and songwriting partner Finneas O'Connell added: "You might see someone who's a 'famous celebrity' and you might think sticks and stones, nothing I can say is going to actually be potent to them. But it all is. It's all very equal online." Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson, Brit Award winner Dua Lipa and former Girls Aloud star and The Masked Singer champion Nicola Roberts are a few others who have spoken about the impact of trolling. 'Social media is a witch hunt' "There has to be a line," Roberts told BBC News on Monday. "There is a culture of a slight witch hunt that happens and social media certainly can prove to be toxic at times. "I think it would be great if we could eliminate those elements within society." Social media has come under scrutiny in the search for explanations and blame since Flack's suicide on Saturday at the age of 40 - as have the mainstream media, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for pressing ahead with a trial after she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend. At her last hearing, on 23 December, where she pleaded not guilty, the TV presenter seemed to be struggling with the media attention and courtroom pressure. The following day - Christmas Eve - she wrote on Instagram that "this kind of scrutiny and speculation is a lot to take on for one person to take on their own". No-one will really know what Flack was thinking, and the reasons for any suicide are usually numerous and complex. As well as the attention, Flack had lost her job on Love Island, having stood down after being charged; been banned from contacting her boyfriend by the court; and was facing trial for domestic abuse. The loudest refrain after her death was for people to "be kind", especially on social media. Laura Whitmore, who replaced Flack on Love Island, appealed to listeners on her BBC Radio 5 Live show "be kind" to others, and added: "To paparazzi and tabloids looking for a cheap sell, to trolls hiding behind a keyboard - enough." Whitmore added: "I'm not going to pretend she was perfect, but is anyone? She lived every mistake publicly, under the scrutiny of the media." Comedian Russell Brand echoed her cry on his blog: "I am angry because I have watched this play out before with vulnerable people in the public eye and I would like to slay with some righteous sword the salacious, foaming, incessant poking, trolling judgment that chased her to the grave," he wrote. A petition calling for "Caroline's Law", which would make it an offence for the media to "knowingly and relentlessly bully a person", has reached 700,000 signatures at the time of writing. Brand said he admired "the optimism" of the petition. "But the media is made up of people, the world of celebrity is made up of people, social media is made up of people. All culture, all values pass through the consciousness of individuals and collectives," he wrote. "If we want the world to change, for less people to die in pain and shame then we should pause before we next vent a pleasurable stab of vindictive judgment or jeering condemnation." 'Really frightening' Asked how long the spirit of kindness might last, columnist and author Joan Smith, who chairs the Mayor of London's Violence Against Women and Girls Board, replied: "It lasts for about 10 minutes usually, doesn't it?" Women like Flack attract a different kind of media attention than men, Smith told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, noting that the presenter's legal case had put her under an intense spotlight. "That kind of attention for somebody who is fragile is really frightening," she said. "I think part of the problem is most people see this on a case-by-case basis. 'That's really awful. Something ought to happen.' And then it all dies down again." She added: "But we did actually have an inquiry, The Leveson Inquiry, which I myself gave evidence to, and whatever happened to that?" The 2011 and 2012 inquiry investigated the conduct of the press after the phone-hacking scandal, but the second part of the inquiry was scrapped by the government, and a new system of self-regulation was set up. "I remember saying at the time, it's not independent, it's too much influenced by newspaper editors. And I still think that's the case," Smith said. 'We are feeding the monster' Labour MP Jo Stevens, who sits on the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said the second part of the Leveson Inquiry "would have looked at precisely the role of newspapers in reporting on this sort of activity". Her committee will "want to look at" what was said about Flack on social media and in the press, she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "And we also need to look at ourselves and how we behave. "Because these stories that are written online, every time someone clicks on a story to read about it, salacious gossip stories about celebrities and personalities, we are feeding that monster because it is creating revenue for the websites." But former Sunday Mirror editor Paul Connew said most of the coverage of Flack's case had been based on facts in the public domain, or information she had put on social media. "She's lived her life on the social media platform and in a way, once that's in the public domain, you can't blame the mainstream media for focusing on it," he said. "But the mainstream media haven't adopted the sort of approach that's taken place on social media, on the Wild West of cyberspace, where people can be as abusive and cruel and wildly inaccurate as they like because they are hiding in nearly all cases behind anonymity." The Society of Editors, which represents newspaper editors, said it was "wrong to blame the media" for Flack's death "without knowing the facts". It cites Samaritans guidance, which states that speculation over the "triggers" can often "oversimplify" the "complex realities of suicide." In a statement, the society said: "It is also wrong for politicians to use her tragic death as a means to attack the media and call for changes in the ways politicians themselves are reported." It added the police investigation and the CPS's decision to pursue the assault case against Flack "were in the public domain and should be covered". "To believe that by silencing mainstream media on such matters would prevent speculation on social media where rumour and accusations run unchecked by the regulations the media adheres to, is both naive and dangerous," it said. PM: Social media firms 'must go further' There have been calls for tighter regulation of social media in the wake of the star's death, with suggestions for measures like removing that anonymity by forcing anyone who signs up to provide ID and a photo. That would go further than proposals contained in a proposed new law to counter "online harms", under which regulator Ofcom will "set out steps that should be taken to tackle cyberbullying". Responding to Flack's death on Monday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The industry must continue their efforts to go further. We expect them to have robust processes in place for removing content breaching their acceptable use policies." Last year a think tank, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, published a report suggesting celebrities should respond to trolls by ignoring and blocking them. On Monday, broadcaster and former Big Brother contestant Andy West said: "When we're talking about practical solutions, if you're finding social media difficult and it's getting you down - and Lord knows it gets me down almost every day - try and control yourself and make sure you're not adding to that by getting involved in the nastiness, and take your own personal responsibility. "But I absolutely agree that we've reached a point now where, to earn your voice on social media, you have to prove you are who you say you are, and you have to be willing to stand by your words. "I would go further and say you have to have a photograph that you can have verified." Monica Shafaq, chief executive of health and wellbeing charity The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, added: "Delete their accounts. Make people verified, for example, before they can actually start using Twitter. "There has to be some control in place because people are losing their lives as a result. It's not a joke. "Caroline's not the first person to be a victim of this, and sadly she won't be the last until we make some significant changes." Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

पूर्व लव आइलैंड प्रस्तुतकर्ता कैरोलिन फ्लैक की मृत्यु ने न केवल शोक की बौछार की, बल्कि सोशल मीडिया और प्रेस पर मशहूर हस्तियों के इलाज के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण मोड़ बनने की भारी मांग की।


Liverpool Covid restrictions: Mental health 'taken for granted'

Summary: "The message to the people of my amazing city is stick together."

Former world cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew is worried Liverpool's new coronavirus restrictions will affect people's mental wellbeing. "I just think people's mental health has actually been taken for granted in this situation," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. The government says it's increased funding for mental health charities during the pandemic. Tony Bellew's home city and areas nearby are the first place to be put on the highest of England's new Covid alert levels. It means households won't be able to mix inside or outside. Gyms, leisure centres, betting shops and casinos will shut until at least some time in November. Pubs and bars not serving meals also have to close. The government's always said restrictions are needed to save thousands of lives. But 37-year-old Bellew thinks the only other things being considered are "money and the economy". "I understand that everybody has to earn money, and businesses still have to exist," he says. "I just think, 'What help is there going to be for people who are completely fed up, and just sitting in a flat on their own?'" "My grandmother hasn't had a visitor for over six months. She's 94. My father lives alone and he's been on his own, basically, for month after month after month." A spokeswoman from the Department of Health and Social Care says anyone having mental health difficulties should "make contact with a health professional as soon as possible". The spokeswoman says: "We are absolutely committed to supporting everyone's mental wellbeing and NHS mental health services have been adapted, including by using digital appointments," and adds they've provided an extra £10.2m in funding to national and local mental health charities to help people affected by the pandemic. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the strictest rules are for areas where infection rates are rising the most and where "the NHS will soon be under unbearable pressure". Figures suggest Liverpool has 600 confirmed cases of the virus for every 100,000 people living there. The average for England is 74. Scientists who advise the government say that without tougher restrictions, those numbers could quickly grow. "It's just very, very sad. People don't see light at the end of the tunnel," Tony Bellew says. "I'm someone who's very mentally strong. I've been fighting all my life, so I'll find a way to get through it. "And I've got even more stuff to fight for when I've got four beautiful kids and a wife. What is there going to be for people who are on their own?" In August, NHS bosses said they'd seen a rise in people reporting severe mental health problems. And figures obtained by Newsbeat suggest the number of young people being referred to mental health services in April and May fell by nearly half. A poll of nearly 3,000 people suggests only 15% of people agree that the latest rules go too far. The research group YouGov says 40% of those questioned actually thought restrictions didn't go far enough. The government's scientific advisers also want even stricter rules across England. Instead of widespread restrictions, Tony Bellew would prefer vulnerable people most at risk from the virus were told to shield. But as things stand, he's got a message for people in his home city. "Stay in contact with your loved ones. Stay in contact with people you care about - and even people you don't care about." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

"मेरे अद्भुत शहर के लोगों के लिए संदेश एकजुट रहना है।"


Teenage computer coders on the rise

Summary: The world's biggest learning technology show has opened in London, with Education Secretary Michael Gove promising a more ambitious computer science curriculum in schools in England. He says pupils as young as five will learn to code and program - but many children already do.

Amy Mather's first taste of coding was at a science festival, when she was 11. Now 14, she designs games, writes her own software and was named the European Digital Girl of the Year in 2013. She even speaks at industry events, to encourage other children to give it a try. "Everyone has ideas how to make our lives easier," she says. "Coding gives you the power to do that. The sky's the limit." Amy, from Manchester, is not surprised by the growing popularity of coding: "Everyone has a smartphone, and we all use computers". Callum Easton, 14, was at the London show with a group from his school in Portland, Dorset. His father, an engineer, gave him his first taste of coding when he was barely old enough to go to school. "There are people who think computers are not that cool, but they are," he says. "And the government is taking more and more notice of how coding can earn the country money." Someone very aware of the growing interest in coding among teenagers is Steven Flower. He set up a group for young coders in Manchester in 2009. About eight turned up - all of them boys. Now he's expecting 150 teenagers next month at his Manchester Coder Dojo. It will be a full house, and it is free. Many bring their own laptop, or their Raspberry Pi - a relatively simple computer for coding. And the parents who used to drop off their kids, and come back later, now often stay to see what is going on. "The average age is about 10-and-a-half, but we have six-year-olds coming along," he says. Plenty of those who turn up are girls - but they are still outnumbered by boys by a ratio of 60:40. "Coding gets more attention now because it's cooler," Steven says. And he acknowledges the occasional story of someone selling their app for big money plays a part. "But overwhelmingly, people are here for the social element," he says. "They get to learning something interesting - and it's fun." For Amy Mather, the stereotypical image of a teenager coder sitting in a darkened bedroom has been consigned to history. "Of course I call myself a geek," she says. "But look it up in the dictionary - it means someone who's an enthusiast." She is, and she is far from alone.

दुनिया का सबसे बड़ा लर्निंग टेक्नोलॉजी शो लंदन में शुरू हुआ है, जिसमें शिक्षा सचिव माइकल गोव ने इंग्लैंड के स्कूलों में एक अधिक महत्वाकांक्षी कंप्यूटर विज्ञान पाठ्यक्रम का वादा किया है। उनका कहना है कि पांच साल से कम उम्र के छात्र कोड और प्रोग्राम करना सीखेंगे-लेकिन कई बच्चे पहले से ही कर रहे हैं।


'We were victims of revenge porn'

Summary: As BBC Scotland reveals that less than half of so-called revenge porn cases are passed to prosecutors , two women victims - one in her 20s and another in her 50s - speak about their traumatic experiences.

By Marc EllisonData journalist, BBC Scotland 'I don't trust anybody now' Kelly McGurk's world came crashing down around her the morning she received a Facebook message from a stranger. It contained intimate screenshots of photos taken by her ex-partner, who she had broken up with six months before. The 29-year-old beauty therapy student said: "I was angry because we'd been split up for so long, I was absolutely livid. "I realised he did it because I wouldn't get back with him, that was his revenge towards me." The screenshots also included two images that Kelly's former partner had taken without her knowledge. She said: "You can quite clearly see in them that my eyes were shut, or they were taken from behind, things like that." Kelly reported the crime to Police Scotland in January 2017 but then heard nothing back for four months. Only when she chased up the matter did she discover the investigating officer was on extended sick leave, with no replacement assigned. Explicit photos When her ex-partner pleaded guilty in September, he was given a community payback and placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months. Kelly said: "He sent explicit photos of me to god knows how many people, so he should have been placed on the sex offenders list. "I knew that that would affect him for the rest of his life, just like he's done to me." But the experience has also had a more long-term impact on her life. "I don't trust anybody now," she said. "I just live my own life. Me, myself in a little bubble, and that's it. "I've pulled myself away from friends, I've lost friends. "Some of them believed him - and even to this day, even though he's been convicted and he pleaded guilty, people think that it was all a lie and that I was twisting things." Kelly waived her right to anonymity in the hope her story would inspire others. She said: "I'm not his victim any more, and so why should I hide? I haven't done anything wrong. "I'm not scared of him any more, I'm not scared of anything any more. "The more victims that come forward, and the more people that are prosecuted, then maybe society will realise that you're not getting away with this, and you can't do it to people." 'I felt worthless and filthy' The text message simply read: "I like what I see, I'd like to have sex with you." Anne (not her real name) assumed the sender had the wrong number, but subsequent texts revealed that intimate images of her had been uploaded to a swingers website without her knowledge. She later found out that it was her ex-husband who had leaked them after their "volatile" marriage had ended. Her email account had also been hacked, and the images sent to all her contacts. Anne said: "All these images were taken over a period of about eight years - I knew that because of how I looked in the images. "Every one of them was taken while I was sleeping." 'No-one believed me' She added: "The police had to look at these images and that alone was embarrassing especially when you're sat there facing them. "This affected me in every way - I wouldn't go out, I even tried to commit suicide once because I felt that worthless and filthy." While the data obtained by BBC Scotland suggests it is typically 20-29 year olds who have reported instances of revenge porn, it also showed that people in their 50s, like Anne, had also been affected Anne's ex-husband was jailed for two years for stalking, but the photo-related charge was dropped by the procurator fiscal. She said: "So it went in the papers that I'd agreed to be photographed. "No one believed me - not even my son - and that made me angry…because I know that I did not consent to these photographs." Anne added: "I've overcome quite a lot but I still have nightmares. "I'm getting there, but I would never in my life trust another man - never, I couldn't. "I mean I was married to that animal for years, and I just couldn't believe what he done."

जैसा कि बीबीसी स्कॉटलैंड ने खुलासा किया है कि तथाकथित बदला लेने वाले अश्लील मामलों में से आधे से भी कम अभियोजकों को दिए जाते हैं, दो महिला पीड़ित-एक अपने 20 के दशक में और दूसरी अपने 50 के दशक में-अपने दर्दनाक अनुभवों के बारे में बात करती हैं।


Learner drivers should take first aid course, says Will Quince MP

Summary: It was 81 years ago when Ronald Beere, of Kensington Hall Gardens, London, became the first person to pass a driving test in the UK. Since then, almost 50 million tests have been taken, and over that time a lot has changed.

Deborah McGurranPolitical editor, East of England For a start there's the cost: Mr Beere paid just 7/6d, around £50 in today's money, but would-be motorists have to find £85 these days. The pass rate has come down from 63% in 1935 to 51% last year, and for the past 20 years there's been a separate written theory test. Now there are moves to make things even tougher. Will Quince, the MP for Colchester, wants all driving licence applicants to have had first aid training before undertaking a practical driving test. His Driving Licence (Mandatory First Aid Training) Bill has been unveiled in the House of Commons, and has the support of St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross. "50% of deaths from road collisions occur within a few minutes of a crash, so there is often not time for an ambulance to arrive," Mr Quince told MPs. "Knowledge of first aid can be absolutely critical. The immediate initiation of CPR, for example, can double or even quadruple survival from cardiac arrest." The Conservative MP said the sad reality in Britain was that knowledge of first aid was patchy. A survey for St John Ambulance found that 59% of people questioned would not feel confident enough to save a life. At the scene of an accident, 24% of people said they would do nothing until an ambulance arrived. First aid is briefly dealt with in the present theory test, but Mr Quince doesn't think it's enough. He's suggesting that every would-be driver sits a four-hour first aid course. This is, of course, only a Private Members Bill and on its own is unlikely to become law. But ministers do take notice when MPs raise issues like this and, if they can be won over, the idea may end up being incorporated in future government legislation. Mr Quince has started that debate.

यह 81 साल पहले की बात है जब लंदन के केंसिंगटन हॉल गार्डन के रोनाल्ड बीरे ब्रिटेन में ड्राइविंग टेस्ट पास करने वाले पहले व्यक्ति बने थे। तब से, लगभग 5 करोड़ परीक्षण किए गए हैं, और उस समय में बहुत कुछ बदल गया है।


Iran, the US and the Gulf: What now?

Summary: The crisis in the Gulf has moved up a gear, with the US providing the first element of the intelligence it insists demonstrates that Iran was responsible for Thursday's attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

By Jonathan MarcusDefence and diplomatic correspondent Although much remains to be revealed about the incidents, as far as the Trump administration is concerned, the evidence is clear. This inevitably raises questions about what happens next: how might the US respond? The stakes are high. What is the danger of a full-scale air and maritime conflict between Washington and Tehran? The grainy video released by the Pentagon showing what is claimed to be a small Iranian vessel - its crew detaching an unexploded limpet mine from the hull of one of the two tankers attacked on Thursday - is a powerful first salvo in the battle to establish what actually happened. However, in the highly charged environment of the social media age, this is inevitably a struggle as much about perceptions as reality. To their respective camps of critics, both the Iranian and Trump administrations are toxic. Iran has denied from the outset any involvement, as it did with the four limpet-mine attacks on ships off the United Arab Emirates in May. The US has now blamed both episodes on Tehran. And there is a clear danger that this war of words could spill over into outright conflict. Last night, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo swiftly and categorically pointed the finger of blame at Iran. "This assessment," he said, was "based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication." Iran for its part was quick to deny any involvement in the incidents. Indeed it sought to deflect blame by arguing in effect that it was being framed. "Somebody," an Iranian official asserted, "is trying to destabilise relations between Iran and the international community." Odd chronology? On the face of things, the US Navy's video is persuasive. But it still leaves many questions unanswered. It was after all recorded some time after the initial explosions - when the Iranians, it seems, according to the implication of the US narrative - were seeking to remove some of the incriminating evidence. But more needs to be revealed about the chronology of these attacks. When, for example, were the mines actually attached to the vessels? The US has remarkable intelligence gathering capabilities in the region, where there is already a powerful US naval presence. More information will undoubtedly be available and a forensic examination of the damage to the two vessels should also yield further evidence. However, the burden of the US case goes way beyond this most recent attacks. Iran, the Trump administration insists, has form. Mr Pompeo made an expansive case, insisting that "taken as a whole, these unprovoked attacks present a clear threat to international peace and security, a blatant assault on the freedom of navigation, and an unacceptable campaign of escalating tension". These are hefty charges and the question inevitably follows: what is the US prepared to do about it? Concerted diplomatic action might be one approach; an effort to marshal international condemnation together with an effort to further isolate Iran through additional economic sanctions. But there is little doubt that stepped up sanctions, rightly or wrongly, have contributed to the current situation, increasing the pressure on Tehran, perhaps to the extent that some elements in the country - maybe the Revolutionary Guard Corps which maintains autonomous naval forces of its own - has decided to strike back. So now what happens? Could the US seek to take some kind of punitive military response? What will be the view of its allies among the Gulf States and farther afield? And what could be the consequences of military action ? Dangerous times There is a very real danger that Iran, if attacked, could launch a kind of hybrid war - both directly and through its proxies - carrying out sporadic and widely dispersed attacks on shipping and other targets, sending oil prices and insurance premiums up and perhaps encouraging further punitive responses. It is an unpalatable prospect for all concerned, risking dangerous escalation. Nobody really thinks that either Iran or the US wants a full-scale conflict. For the Americans, despite their considerable military power, an air and maritime war against Iran would raise all sorts of dangers. And President Trump, for all his sometimes bellicose rhetoric, has so far proved reluctant to take significant military action abroad. US strikes in Syria during his watch were largely symbolic. The fear now is that Iran, through its own misreading of the situation, may have given the hawkish voices in the US administration the grounds they need to launch some kind of punitive response. The danger, as ever, is for war by accident rather than by design. Tehran and Washington are signalling their resolve to each other, but they may not be receiving quite the messages that each intends. Iran, for example, may see the US build-up in the region partly as bluster and partly as an effort at intimidation in what it sees as its own backyard - intimidation that it is not disposed to accept. Just suppose elements in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, for example, misunderstand the signals. Suppose they believe that they have much more freedom to assert themselves in Gulf waters than the Americans are prepared to accept. In other words, rather than as they may see it, "pushing at the envelope", they are straying into actions that Washington and its allies will simply not allow to go unpunished, This is a recipe for conflict, intentional or otherwise. These are dangerous times. Many of Washington's allies, like France and Germany, are already urging caution. The British foreign minister said that while the UK trusted the US, it would draw its own conclusion. "We are going to make our own independent assessment, we have our processes to do that," Jeremy Hunt told the BBC's Today programme. "We have no reason not to believe the American assessment and our instinct is to believe it, because they are our closest ally." Mr Trump must weigh up any response carefully. When he first came to office, there were many - even Republican foreign policy experts - who refused to have anything to do with his administration, insisting that his mercurial and erratic approach to foreign affairs would provoke a crisis. For a time, that looked as though it might involve North Korea or maybe even Syria. But each time, the moment of drama passed. Now a fully fledged crisis is facing the White House. How it responds will have crucial implications, not just for the Middle East, but also for the wider pattern of relationships between the US and its traditional partners in the Gulf and elsewhere, many of whom are unsure of how to deal with this president and his unique diplomatic style.

खाड़ी में संकट ने एक गियर बढ़ा दिया है, अमेरिका ने खुफिया जानकारी का पहला तत्व प्रदान किया है जो यह दर्शाता है कि ओमान की खाड़ी में दो तेल टैंकरों पर गुरुवार के हमलों के लिए ईरान जिम्मेदार था।


Woman who hid Jewish friend nominated for Israeli honour

Summary: A woman who risked her life by hiding a Jewish friend during World War Two, but ended up being disgraced as a bigamist, could finally have her heroic actions honoured by the state of Israel.

By Patrick ClahaneBBC News While Dorothea Weber's husband was fighting for Hitler's forces in Europe she was hiding her friend Hedwig Bercu, who was being hunted by the Germans in Nazi-controlled Jersey. Now more than 70 years later Cambridge University academic Gilly Carr has requested Dorothea become only the second Channel Islander to receive the Righteous Among the Nations honour on the Yad Vashem - the Jewish living memorial to the Holocaust. Dr Carr is also trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Dorothea, whose fate after her bigamy conviction in 1949 is unknown. For 18 months Dorothea shared her rations with Hedwig, who in desperation had faked her own death in a bid to escape persecution - although the Germans saw through the ruse. Dr Carr said: "If she [Dorothea] had been caught, it is likely that she would have been sent to a concentration camp, as would Hedwig." German forces ruled the Channel Islands from June 1940 until May 1945 and made people they deemed to be Jewish register with island authorities. In 1942 three Jewish women from Guernsey were deported to France and were later interned, with all three dying in Auschwitz's gas chambers. Some of the other registered Jews in the Channel Islands ended up in civilian internment camps and returned home after the war. Hedwig Bercu was 24 when she went into hiding after a disagreement with a lorry driver who reported her to the Germans for smuggling petrol coupons out of the office where she worked. As one of a handful of registered Jews - fewer than 100 lived in the Channel Islands pre-1939 and most were evacuated before the occupation - she believed her life was in danger and she left a fake suicide note and a pile of clothes on a beach at St Aubin's Bay. This act did not fool the German authorities who put a wanted notice for her capture in the local paper. Despite the Germans warning islanders they would be "liable to punishment" if they hid Hedwig, Dorothea was not deterred. According to local historian Freddie Cohen, who was the first person to discover Dorothea had hidden Hedwig, the pair survived by sharing Dorothea's ration and fishing at night. Dr Carr said: "'It is quite possible that Dorothea could have been outcast by friends and family. In 1941 she married Anton Weber, an Austrian baker who was forcibly drafted into the German army. "Dorothea could have been seen as a 'jerry bag', the derogatory name for women who consorted with German soldiers. "Her reputation would not have been helped by the occasional presence at her house of Kurt Ruemmele, a German soldier who was sweet on Hedwig Bercu, and who smuggled food to the two women after Hedwig went into hiding." After the war Hedwig followed him to the UK where he was being held in a prisoner of war camp and they later married, raising a family in Germany. Hedwig's daughter Marion Oberer-Ruemmele said her mother, who died in 2009, never told her family about what happened in Jersey. "It's an amazing story; sometimes it makes me angry that she never spoke to us about it. "It was absolutely incredible what both of my parents went through, they were so brave." Righteous Among Nations Stephen Regal, president of the Jersey Jewish Congregation, said: "It is important to perpetuate [accounts of] not just the suffering but the positive sides of the war. "Dorothea needs to be remembered and this could help encourage other people to speak out against injustice in the future." Dorothea's heroism was not recognised at the time and she was to suffer heartbreak and humiliation after the occupation. Believing her husband had died in the war she inadvertently committed bigamy by marrying a liberated British soldier, Francis Flanagan. When her lawful husband returned from a Russian PoW camp in 1949 she was hauled into court to stand trial for bigamy and given a one-year probationary sentence. Maggie Andrews, professor of cultural of history at the University of Worcester, said: "Bigamy was not particularly unusual after the war. "Communications weren't good: armies weren't talking to each other, systems weren't linked up on one big computer. People made assumptions their other halves were dead." Little is known about Dorothea's whereabouts after this time and Dr Carr and Jersey researchers Lucy Layton and Alice Allen are appealing for information about her fate. Dr Carr said: "After the bigamy trial in 1949, the trail goes cold. We cannot find any trace of Dorothea in the UK or Jersey after this date. Did she leave Francis Flanagan to be with Anton in Austria?" Find out more about World War Two from BBC iWonder:

एक महिला जिसने द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के दौरान एक यहूदी दोस्त को छिपाकर अपनी जान जोखिम में डाली, लेकिन एक कट्टरपंथी के रूप में बदनाम हो गई, आखिरकार इज़राइल राज्य द्वारा उसके वीरतापूर्ण कार्यों का सम्मान किया जा सकता है।


Shakespeare's New Year quiz

Summary: This year marks 400 years since William Shakespeare's death.

Events around the world are planned to celebrate the anniversary of England's - and possibly the world's - most famous playwright. So, to mark its beginning, take our quiz on the calendar dates, months and seasons which feature in Shakespeare's year: Shakespeare's Year Users of the BBC News app tap here to take the quiz. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

इस वर्ष विलियम शेक्सपियर की मृत्यु के 400 वर्ष पूरे हो रहे हैं।


Brexit: The Lords gear up for a battle over no-deal bill

Summary: The government's modest band of supporters in the Lords are mounting a formidable filibuster operation to prevent the Benn Bill - the bill which aims to prevent no deal - getting to third reading before a possible prorogation of Parliament on Monday.

Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent Labour and the Lib Dems had put down a business of the house motion which lays down a timetable for consideration of the bill. And the government side has unleashed hordes of amendments, to change every possible aspect of the motion and suggest all kinds of measures that should be debated instead (my favourite is the Bat Habitat (regulation) Bill). Unlike the Commons, where such amendments might be grouped or voted on in a job lot at a set time, the Lords has to debate each amendment. So the bill's supporters will have to move a closure motion to end the debate on each amendment, and then vote on each amendment. That will mean two divisions, each probably taking a quarter of an hour, will be forced on each of around 90 amendments. And the pro-bill peers, Labour, the Lib Dems and many Conservatives plan to simply keep sitting and voting until the job is done. Rotas are being organised to ensure they have enough peers on hand to keep voting down the much smaller band of pro-government Lords - and if the latter don't crack from sheer exhaustion the Business motion should be passed come Saturday lunchtime. At that point the business motion allows them to impose a brisk timetable to get the bill through on Sunday, in good time to receive Royal Assent before the Prime Minister can prorogue. "Time is their weapon, numbers are ours," one senior pro-bill peer told me. He expected a combination of exhaustion and, er, peer pressure, especially from exasperated crossbenchers, to bring the filibuster to a close. Are peers heading to infinity, and beyond? So if Hilary Benn's anti no-deal measure clears the Commons tonight, the effort to get it through the House of Lords could see peers sitting into Sunday. This morning, many were arriving with suitcases full of overnight gear and supplies.

लॉर्ड्स में सरकार के समर्थकों का मामूली समूह बेन बिल को रोकने के लिए एक दुर्जेय फाइलिबस्टर ऑपरेशन चला रहा है-बिल जिसका उद्देश्य कोई सौदा नहीं करना है-सोमवार को संसद के संभावित सत्रावसान से पहले तीसरी रीडिंग तक पहुंचना।


Woman and child critical after eight-vehicle crash

Summary: A child and a 31-year-old woman are in a critical condition in hospital following an eight-vehicle crash.

A lorry and seven cars were involved in the accident on the A34 at Hinksey Hill, Oxford, at about 19:30 BST on 25 August. The woman and child, who were taken to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, were travelling northbound in one of the cars. Police said they are in a "critical but stable" condition. The northbound carriageway was closed for almost 10 hours while emergency services attended the scene. A 58-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

आठ वाहनों की दुर्घटना के बाद अस्पताल में एक बच्चे और एक 31 वर्षीय महिला की हालत गंभीर है।


SNP MP Brendan O'Hara quits culture spokesman role

Summary: Brendan O'Hara has resigned as the SNP Westminster group's spokesman for culture, media and sport.

The party confirmed that the Argyll and Bute MP had left the role for "personal reasons". It is not known whether he will remain on the parliament's culture, media and sport committee, where he recently sparked a row between the SNP and data firm Cambridge Analytica. Hannah Bardell has replaced Mr O'Hara as the party's culture spokesperson. Mr O'Hara, a former BBC and STV television producer, was first elected in 2015 and has also served as the SNP's defence spokesman.

ब्रेंडन ओ 'हारा ने संस्कृति, मीडिया और खेल के लिए एसएनपी वेस्टमिंस्टर समूह के प्रवक्ता के रूप में इस्तीफा दे दिया है।


Mayor of London: Two decades in the spotlight

Summary: The office of the mayor of London as we know it today was created in the year 2000. Since then three men have held the post, each carving out their own platform on the national and international stage. BBC London's political editor Tim Donovan looks at the moments that defined the role.

By Tim DonovanPolitical Editor, BBC London Following a referendum in 1998 London got its first directly elected mayor. Alongside new devolved powers came an opportunity to shout loudly again for the capital. For London's mayor, there was a chance to fashion a distinctive leadership role. It was not one that could be defined precisely, but over two decades it has come to mean many things. Attack on 7/7 Mayors have articulated responses to both crisis and celebration. In July 2005, Olympic triumph and terrorist tragedy became entwined in 48 hours of euphoria and mayhem. On 7 July, four suicide bombers with rucksacks full of explosives attacked central London. They killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. It remains London's worst single terrorist atrocity. It was an examination not just of the resilience of the city itself, but of the qualities of the politician elected to speak for it. At the time, and again when recalled on the 10th anniversary in 2015, Ken Livingstone's response was widely praised. Ken Livingstone was in Singapore, with London just having won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. His speech, hastily put together in a hotel lobby, was an evocative blend of the language of shared defiance with a sense of the unfolding practical response from the emergency services - who were working together closer than ever as part of devolved city government. The protocols around communication in response to acts of terror in the capital are still built primarily around the prime minister and the Metropolitan police commissioner. But is it to the mayor that Londoners now look for reassurance? It is now an essential part of the mayoral job specification to be able to capture tone and mood, and reflect Londoners' collective pain and pleasure. Sorry seems to be the hardest word One notable feature over the two decades has been mayoral defiance, characterised by bullishness towards the media and opponents, and a refusal to say sorry. For a brief moment in 2005, the capital was even without a mayor after Ken Livingstone lashed out verbally at a journalist after a City Hall party. Mr Livingstone - by now a Labour mayor after defying the party to win as an independent in his first term - was suspended from office. He was soon reinstated after a High Court judgement effectively found he had the right to be offensive and didn't have to apologise. Such was Mr Livingstone's disdain for the Evening Standard - at a time of unremittingly hostile coverage - that he couldn't find a detached, apologetic tone that might have better addressed allegations over funding by the London Development Agency, involving his adviser Lee Jasper. The allegations were later dismissed. The sky's the limit During the 2012 London Olympics, Boris Johnson took international (self?) promotion to new and dizzying heights, when he became suspended on a zip-wire in Victoria Park in east London. Some blamed the Conservative mayor's weight and a technical malfunction. But - going against the guidance of the operators - he stretched out his arms, waving little union flags, rather than folding them across his chest. Investigating afterwards, Tower Hamlets Council's environmental health team found nothing wrong with the equipment. Surely this wasn't part of a plan? Three years later in Japan, a demonstration of street rugby in Tokyo was coming to an end when Mr Johnson turned to begin his last run. With two UK photographers well known to him ideally positioned, a 10-year-old boy called Toki was sent flying to the ground. Could anyone ever prove this was deliberate? Yet the desired effect was achieved. An international trip of otherwise minimal consequence was eclipsed by a viral video - with London and its mayor duly promoted across the globe. Home and away All three mayors have been in the beam of the international spotlight on occasion. The current mayor has, er, trumped the lot. As the president of the United States touched down at Stansted airport at the beginning of his official visit in June 2019, a couple of tweets landed with him. They labelled Sadiq Khan as a "stone-cold loser" doing a "terrible" job. Forget zip-wires - wasn't this hitting the political jackpot? Mr Khan had first condemned Donald Trump for proposing a temporary travel ban for Muslims coming into the US. It is a notable PR triumph when the most powerful politician on the planet, however unusual, knows who you are and can be bothered to attack you. Mr Khan, previously a Labour MP, had already come to widespread attention as the first Muslim elected to lead a Western capital. But the spat fitted with his aspirations. Foreign trade Ken Livingstone did a highly unusual deal with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. He organised discounted oil for London's bus fleet in return for Transport for London (TfL) officials sorting out the traffic problems in Caracas. But while making a visit to Venezuela, Mr Livingstone only got as far as Cuba, before Mr Chavez called off their meeting because of an election campaign. There was no meeting either with the ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, leaving Mr Livingstone to sit reading a biography of former Vietnamese premier Ho Chi Minh in the gardens of Havana's National Hotel before flying back - to the glee of his Tory opponents. Big issues All three mayors have clearly seen themselves as international players. Eloquent in his belief that cities drive progress, Mr Livingstone was the prime force behind the C20 - now expanded to the C40. It's a network of major world cities pooling ideas and their combined urban spending power to drive innovation in tackling climate change. Under Mr Johnson, though, London lost its leadership position in the group. In 2009, at its annual international conference in South Korea - attended by Bill Clinton - Mr Johnson was sidelined and sloped off for a sightseeing trip to the demilitarised zone at the 38th parallel. What next? Over 20 years, the mayoralty has undoubtedly hit turbulence from time to time. Conflicts between the last mayor and the current one - who is now of course the prime minister - raise doubts about how best to deliver transport, planning, housing and policing in the capital. About 17% of the mayor's £17bn budget come from government grants. Can a pugilistic approach work in a country where mayors rely heavily on central government for their resources? It feels like the time for a reappraisal. As for the office-holders, what unites them is showing, more than occasionally, a distinctly independent streak. This is an edited version of a chapter in London's Mayor at 20: Governing a global city in the 21st century.

लंदन के महापौर का कार्यालय जैसा कि हम आज जानते हैं, वर्ष 2000 में बनाया गया था। तब से तीन लोगों ने इस पद को संभाला है, प्रत्येक ने राष्ट्रीय और अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मंच पर अपना मंच बनाया है। बीबीसी लंदन के राजनीतिक संपादक टिम डोनोवन उन क्षणों को देखते हैं जो भूमिका को परिभाषित करते हैं।


Stranraer schools shut by wintry weather

Summary: Hundreds of pupils have been sent home in Dumfries and Galloway as wintry weather started to affect the west of the region.

Park Primary in Stranraer was the first school to make the decision to shut for the day. It was followed by the town's secondary school - Stranraer Academy - which closed at lunchtime, and then St Joseph's, Rephad and Sheuchan Primary. All the schools were expected to reopen as usual on Monday.

डमफ्रीज और गैलोवे में सैकड़ों छात्रों को घर भेज दिया गया है क्योंकि सर्द मौसम ने क्षेत्र के पश्चिम को प्रभावित करना शुरू कर दिया है।


The lion hugger

Summary: In 2012 Valentin Gruener rescued a young lion cub and raised it himself at a wildlife park in Botswana. It was the start of an extraordinary relationship. Now an astonishing scene is repeated each time they meet - the young lion leaps on Gruener and holds him in an affectionate embrace.

By Jason CaffreyBBC World Service "Since the lion arrived, which is three years now, I haven't really left the camp," says Gruener. "Sometimes for one night I go into the town here to organise something for the business, but other than that I've been here with the lion." The lion he has devoted himself to is Sirga - a female cub he rescued from a holding pen established by a farmer who was fed up with shooting animals that preyed on his cattle. "The lions had killed the other two or three cubs inside the cage, and the mother abandoned the remaining cub. She was very tiny, maybe 10 days old," Gruener says. The farmer, Willy de Graaf, asked Gruener to try to save her and so he took her to a wildlife park financed by de Graaf and became her adoptive mother, "feeding her and taking care of her". "You have this tiny cute animal sitting there and it's already quite feisty," he says. "It will become about 10 times that size and you will have to deal with it." She's much bigger now, but when Gruener opens her cage she still rushes to greet him - ecstatically throwing her paws around his neck. "That happens every time I open the door. It is an amazing thing every time it happens, and it's such a passionate thing to do for this animal to jump and give me a hug," says Gruener. "But I guess it makes sense. At the moment she has no other lions with her in the cage and I guess for her I'm like her species. So I'm the only friend she's got. Lions are social cats so she's always happy to see me." The companions spend their time hanging out in the Botswana bush, doing the kind of things that cats enjoy, such as lying around under trees, play-fighting, and hunting. "I don't believe we have to teach the lion to hunt. They have this instinct like a domestic cat or even a dog that will try to hunt. Any cat will catch a bird or a mouse. The lion will catch an antelope when it gets big enough," Gruener says. "I'm definitely giving her that opportunity to hunt, about three times a week at the moment. Each walk takes five hours - sometimes up to nine. We sort of hunt together and I'm helping her sometimes, trying to show her how to kill something rather than catch it." After Sirga's first kill Gruener wasn't sure if it would still be safe for him to get close to the lion. But "she let me come in", he says. Now he despatches animals the lioness fails to kill quickly enough. "It's a bit cruel because she will catch an antelope and hold it down, and when it gets tired she could simply go and bite it in the throat and kill it. But because it's so exciting she's like a cat that keeps on playing with the mouse. "It's not so lovely to watch when a lion has an antelope in front of her and she's having fun playing with this antelope." Willy de Graaf has handed Gruener 500 hectares (two square miles) to create a "miniature park" in which Sirga can roam freely, but she will not be released into the wild. Not because she could not survive, Gruener says, but because she has lost her fear of humans. Under those circumstances she is likely to get too close to humans, and if there is an accident she will end up getting shot. "And that's not really the whole point of raising a lion," Gruener says. In the park Sirga can live like a wild lion, but remain safe, he says. "That's the plan for her future." And what of his own future? Gruener has put aside work on a PhD while he has been raising Sirga, and has hardly ever left her alone. "If she gets into a bigger enclosure and gets more space, and maybe another lion to give her companionship, I'm sure I would be able to leave for longer periods of time - which is required for me to finish my studies. "But as long as she needs me, and as long as I feel I want to be there to make her life better, I will have that as my priority. "I doubt anything will change much between me and her." More from the Magazine Lots of people love the birds in their garden, but it's rare for that affection to be reciprocated. One young girl in Seattle is luckier than most. She feeds the crows in her garden - and they bring her gifts in return. "You may take a few close looks," she says, "but don't touch." Inside the box are rows of small objects in clear plastic bags. One label reads: "Black table by feeder. 2:30 p.m. 09 Nov 2014." Inside is a broken light bulb. Another bag contains small pieces of brown glass worn smooth by the sea. The girl who gets gifts from birds Valentin Gruener spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service. Listen again on iPlayer or get the Outlook podcast. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

2012 में वेलेंटिन ग्रुएनर ने एक छोटे शेर के शावक को बचाया और उसे बोत्सवाना के एक वन्यजीव उद्यान में खुद पाला। यह एक असाधारण रिश्ते की शुरुआत थी। अब हर बार जब वे मिलते हैं तो एक आश्चर्यजनक दृश्य दोहराया जाता है-युवा शेर ग्रुएनर पर कूदता है और उसे प्यार से गले लगाता है।


Is the party over for Ibiza?

Summary: Sa Trinxa beach bar is located on the kind of white sandy beach that Ibiza is famous for. During the summer season, palm fronds hang from the roof, dance music pulses from the speakers and lithe, young beachgoers drop by for a late lunch and cold Spanish beers.

By Vivienne NunisBusiness reporter, BBC News, Ibiza But like many of the island's open air venues, Sa Trinxa has recently found itself having to fall in line with tough new regulations. This year, the bar was told it would have to turn down the music, and a limiter was installed to control the volume. "People come here because of the music," says manager Álvaro. "I like quiet places on my day off but this is Sa Trinxa." The Ibizan authorities say that music in open air venues like Sa Trinxa must be capped at 65 decibels (dB) - slightly louder than a normal conversation but quieter than most vacuum cleaners. Andreas Simon is part of a community group called Musica Si, or "Yes to Music", that's been set up to fight the changes. He shows me a video that the group is sharing on social media. It points out that the average sound of traffic noise is 70dB, while an airliner landing reaches a volume of 110dB. Mr Simon says the authorities came to install a music limiter in one beach bar in the town of San Antonio at 7am one morning. Although the bar was empty and the music was off, the limiter showed a reading of 72dB. "The owner asked, 'So who do you fine? The sea or the waves or the wind?'" Mr Simon says the authorities' blanket approach to regulation isn't working. "What we ask for is a specific solution for every venue. [If] one venue has no neighbours, it can have louder music. "The government here wants to make people understand that music is noise. Music is not noise, music is a part of the culture. There has to be a reasonable solution because without music, this island is dead." Marta, an Ibizan DJ who performs under the stage name Hofmann Lalióparda, agrees. She says that small venues located away from residential areas shouldn't be subject to the same rules as super clubs like Ushuaïa. "They want to stop everything," she says. "But we're bringing together different groups to join forces. Musicians, painters and people who love the arts. We're going to fight against these rules that are being imposed upon us. The little bit of culture this island has left is fast disappearing." Illegal parties Last year, 3.2 million tourists visited Ibiza. Across the four Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Formentera, Majorca and Menorca tourism accounts for 45% of GDP and a third of all jobs. But balancing the tourism sector with the needs of local residents is proving increasingly difficult. When a socialist coalition took control of Ibiza's governing council in 2015, reining in tourism was central to their manifesto. Vicente Torres Ferrer is Ibiza's director of tourism. He says there is no problem with loud music in closed clubs and that Ibiza has "the best discos in the world", but when it comes to outdoor venues the residents must be considered. "We know that music is very important for our offer in Ibiza, we don't want to stop that. The problem comes when we have illegal parties in private villas or music till very late at night in open places." Mr Torres Ferrer says modern audio equipment can be used to keep music inside a venue, at a lower volume. "If you have a terrace and you just have one unit hanging from a wall, you have to play the music very strongly so that it arrives at the last table. "But if you have four units in a certain way, then the music doesn't go away. You can hear the music a little bit but it's very low." 'Not enough police' Other changes are being made to tone down the island's image as a party destination. Bars in San Antonio's West End drinking strip now close at 3am instead of 5am. "The early closing doesn't mean that San Antonio doesn't want nightlife. If you want to continue having a party, you can move to the discos and continue celebrating your fiesta there," says Mr Torres Ferrer. But many say the earlier curfew has simply pushed revellers on to the streets, and the real problem with San Antonio is a lack of police. Carlos is a taxi driver and an Ibizan native. "There are so many drug dealers and there are not enough police in the street," he says. Martin Makepeace agrees. He moved to Ibiza from the UK in 1991 and describes himself as a prominent businessman in the San Antonio area. "[Closing bars early has] caused more problems than it's solved. It's put thousands of people on the street earlier. At the end of the day, it's the crime on the streets that's the problem." I ask him about reports of prostitution and mugging in San Antonio. "It's true. There are gangs around who are intent on causing these kinds of problems," he says but argues it would be easy for the authorities to stamp out that behaviour if they wanted to. "Ten more police on the street on a nightly basis would solve more or less anything, but unfortunately they're not able to do that." Spending cuts So why aren't there more police? Ibiza's tourism director Vicente Torres Ferrer lays the blame squarely with the former government in Madrid and the budget cuts applied by then-Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. "We had this economical problem all over the world, but Spain in particular had a very big problem," he explains. "So they made very strong restrictions in order to contain the money spent by public administrations." Ibiza has asked the new government in Madrid to allow it to spend more on basic services and employ more police. The island has also cracked down on accommodation sites, in an attempt to bring spiralling rental costs under control. It's now illegal for tourists to rent apartments on the island, while houses or villas can be rented only if property owners obtain a licence. Island exodus? Despite the changes, pressure is building for more to be done. A local group called Prou! - Catalan for "Enough!" - has 8,000 Facebook members. The group aims to "defend and protect" Ibiza from over-tourism and the crime, illegal construction and environmental damage it says comes with it. Yet some locals are running out of patience. Taxi driver Carlos says some of Ibiza's 140,000 permanent residents are considering leaving the island for good. "Many local people who've lived here for the last 40 years, we're thinking about leaving because we don't like this Ibiza for our children," he says. In the last 10 years, many have left Ibiza to start new lives on Majorca or the Spanish mainland, he adds. The changes to music venues, bar opening hours and caps on accommodation do seem to be having an effect - tourist numbers were down 4% for the month of July and 3% in August, compared with last year. San Antonio businessman Martin Makepeace says the island is grappling with the age-old problem of how to balance the needs of residents and tourists. "It's a chicken and egg situation. Without the residents you haven't got the tourists; without tourists, you haven't got the residents. We've got to find a compromise." Listen to Vivienne's full report from Ibiza on Business Daily.

सा ट्रिन्क्सा बीच बार उस तरह के सफेद रेतीले समुद्र तट पर स्थित है जिसके लिए इबिज़ा प्रसिद्ध है। गर्मियों के मौसम में, छत से ताड़ के पेड़ लटकते हैं, वक्ताओं से संगीत की दालें नृत्य करते हैं और युवा समुद्र तट पर दोपहर के भोजन और ठंडे स्पेनिश बीयर के लिए आते हैं।


We should have listened to the broken teenagers

Summary: Child sexual abuse has never been a higher police priority. But too many rapists avoid justice, argues former detective Margaret Oliver. As her role in prosecuting the Rochdale grooming gang is marked in a new TV drama, she says police must do more to win the trust of victims

I'll never forget the day I arrested Shabir. The light had begun to fade as we knocked on the door of his terraced house in Oldham one early evening back in 2011. As the safety chain rattled and the door opened, the man standing before us seemed anything but the evil predator leading a Rochdale grooming gang he was about to be exposed as. He came quietly as we arrested him and there was no sign of the defiance and abusive outbursts that would later be seen in court. He still had the look of someone who thought he was going to get away with it. And well he might, as many rapists like Shabir had been getting away with it for years. I'd worked with too many young victims of horrific rapes and seen cases go nowhere - even when there was solid evidence. I'd lost count of the times I had to look in the eyes of broken teenagers and explain that there was nothing I could do. The rapists who'd destroyed their lives were about to get off scot-free. But not this time. Getting Shabir off the street was a big breakthrough and I was convinced he was going to be the first of many. We were close to uncovering an epidemic of child sexual abuse and there were scores of men we knew had been violently raping underage girls that were in our sights. That we'd come this far owed a lot to the huge resources now being allocated to tackling grooming gangs (Operation Span was the biggest inquiry Greater Manchester Police were running). But, more importantly, it was down to the hard-won trust we'd managed to establish with the girls these vile rapists were targeting. Without that trust, it didn't matter if 10,000 officers were assigned to the case. We had to get girls to give evidence in court and I knew only too well that Greater Manchester Police did not have a particularly sophisticated approach to winning vulnerable hearts and minds when trying to prosecute rapists. Even though an awareness of child grooming was starting to sweep through the country, the police were still relying on an outdated, approach that didn't work. Joining the police as a mum of four in 1997, I'd spent years learning how to build trust as a detective and family liaison officer working on major murders. I knew that good policing could not function without it. But the hard work of building up trust wasn't especially valued by the top brass. I wasn't breaking down doors or wrestling violent drug dealers to the ground. I was going to a cemetery to help a mother pick a plot to bury her son and supporting people who were prepared to give up everything and go on to the witness protection programme to put away murderers. It wasn't long before I was working on rapes, domestic abuse and child protection jobs - the kind of cases that other officers working in Moss Side generally didn't want to do. And I was good at them. But if you won the trust of vulnerable girls who'd been through hell, you had to deliver - and that was heavily dependent on the appetite of people at the top to investigate these crimes. Years before I worked on a scoping exercise - a full-blown major incident team investigation which had identified considerable numbers of child abusers in south Manchester. I'd listened to girls who had been drugged so they couldn't move before they were violently raped - but the investigation was closed down. A few people were warned under the Child Abduction Act but no-one was charged. I was sickened then and still feel angry now when I think back to that case. Vulnerable people were reaching out, desperate to secure justice, and we were letting them down. I'd sworn an oath to uphold the law and ensure "equal respect to all people" when I joined the police. Those words seemed meaningless now. Unless we started showing respect to young girls from poorer areas, we were never going to win their trust. When Greater Manchester Police's failings in dealing with child abuse were later laid bare in a series of damning reports, one police officer gave a radio interview in which he admitted that officers referred to the girls as "scrubbers" and child prostitutes. That was putting it lightly. I'd heard worse from other officers. There was no real effort to win their trust and a staggering lack of empathy. Some police officers wouldn't even come into the houses where the girls lived. They'd sit in the car eating sandwiches waiting for me to come back. When we drove girls to the station and they asked to put Radio 1 on, officers would switch to Radio 4. There was no attempt to make them feel comfortable. But it's these little things that often count, and which help to build bridges. I saw myself as a person first and police officer second, but many of my colleagues could only see themselves as police officers first and foremost. Empathy had been trained out of them. The pressures of modern policing and a target-driven culture was driving humanity out of our profession. I couldn't do the job if I didn't care, but to show a human face was a sign of weakness to some. "You've become emotionally involved," they'd say. We had to maintain too big a distance from everyone. As a result, there were many estates where the police were hated. The people who lived there suffered disproportionately from crime, but had given up on the police. They didn't trust us because we showed them no respect. It's this failure to win the trust of victims of appalling crimes that's at the heart of the BBC drama about the Rochdale grooming scandal. It shows a desperately real side of policing that's rarely ever dramatised and the general public know little about. In the end Shabir and 11 other men were convicted for child abuse in 2012. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. There were many, many more who got away with it and I was left with the sense that this was a box the police didn't really want to open. But they couldn't keep the lid down for long and now the secret is out. A crime that had been contained and swept under the carpet for years can no longer be ignored. For me, the end of the road was when they betrayed the trust I'd earned from a key witness and I couldn't get assurances on how vulnerable witnesses would be treated in the future. I knew men who'd violently abused girls were still walking the streets and we had the power to stop them. I couldn't do a job I loved as long as I knew rapists were getting away with it because police viewed the girls they preyed upon as unreliable witnesses. The criminals knew this and they were emboldened by it. "No one will believe you," they'd laugh at sobbing girls, as they left them crushed in a heap on the floor. Barely a week goes by these days without a headline referring to a crisis in the police. But the crisis no-one's talking about is the crisis of trust, particularly where young people are concerned. A few years ago, an all-party group of MPs found that a significant proportion of children and young people have a profound lack of trust in the police. It should have acted as a wake-up call, but I don't believe things are getting any better. When the human side of the police is shown, we always break down barriers and there are plenty of shining examples of brilliant police officers who do this week in week out. But we need more and we need leaders who set a culture in place who insist the values of empathy, honesty and integrity are always upheld in our dealings with vulnerable victims. If we can't reach out to vulnerable witnesses, all the announcements from Westminster won't mean a thing. Criminals will keep getting away with it. Watch Three Girls at 9pm on Tuesday 16 May 2017 on BBC One Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

बाल यौन शोषण कभी भी पुलिस की उच्च प्राथमिकता नहीं रही है। लेकिन बहुत सारे बलात्कारी न्याय से बचते हैं, पूर्व जासूस मार्गरेट ओलिवर का तर्क है। रोचडेल ग्रूमिंग गिरोह पर मुकदमा चलाने में उनकी भूमिका एक नए टीवी नाटक में चिह्नित है, वह कहती है कि पुलिस को पीड़ितों का विश्वास जीतने के लिए और अधिक करना चाहिए।


The meaning of Labour's tax rise

Summary: People often moan that politics and politicians never change, but there has been a big shift in the attitude of the Labour Party in its attitude to big businesses and high earners, from the period when Tony Blair led the Labour party in opposition in the mid-1990s to today's opposition Labour Party.

Robert PestonEconomics editor When Blair was in charge, I was the FT's political editor. Therefore, I took a particularly close interest in Blair's relations with the big-cheese bosses and plutocrats. His calculation was that Labour could not win if it was seen to be opposed to what he defined as aspiration and wealth creation. So most of his waking minutes were devoted to wooing business, especially big business, and creating the impression that a Labour government would raise neither the top rate nor basic rate of income tax. The epitome of this policy was his burning ambition - which was only ever half fulfilled - to secure the endorsement of Richard Branson (before the election, the great brander created the impression he was on New Labour's side without actually saying anything explicit). New Labour's determination to impose a windfall tax on the privatised utilities might have looked in some way anti-business. But in practice the remuneration and pricing policies of these companies had so alienated most "proper" private-sector business folk that they just about gave the party the benefit of the doubt. And, by the way, it is reasonable to conclude today that this was conviction politics on the part of Blair, given the colossal amount of money he has made from advising big businesses and multinationals since stepping down as Labour's leader. All of which does seem a world away from today's Labour party under Ed Miliband. He would and does say that he wants to support the growth and proliferation of smaller businesses. But his plans to impose a price freeze on energy companies, to break up the biggest banks and to raise the top rate of tax from 45p to 50p is angering the boss class, to the extent that quite a few are breaking the habits of a lifetime and making critical public statements. So what's changed between 1996 and 2014? Well to state perhaps the most obvious and least interesting distinction, in the spectrum of views that constitute the Labour Party, Miliband appears to be slightly to the left of Blair. But so much else has changed of an arguably more fundamental sort. In an economic sense, the UK was four years into a strong recovery in 1996 and living standards were rising sharply - which may have helped to curb popular resentment, to an extent, of higher earners. And in the zone of ideology, Thatcherism was still massively in the ascendant - Margaret Thatcher had shifted the middle ground of politics and converted Blair and the top of New Labour to the idea that economic growth and prosperity were best secured by the unleashing of market forces. How different from today. We are in the early months of a recovery and living standards for most people have been squeezed for many years and are not yet improving. Also the banking crisis of 2008, which triggered the long dark years of recession and economic stagnation, has made respectable again the idea that the private sector cannot always be trusted to deliver optimal economic outcomes for all of us (ahem). Then there are two other things. Newspapers, which have a tendency to be hostile to tax rises and intervening in markets, had much bigger circulations in the 1990s than today. And Labour now has the ability through social media to go round them. But perhaps for me what is most striking is that Labour seems to have calculated that it can win the election by hanging on to the support of LibDem refuseniks, or those marginally to the left of the centre who voted LibDem last time but have been alienated by its participation in the coalition. He does not seem interested in eroding the Tories' residual support. Or to put it another way, Miliband seems to believe he can win the election by standing largely on the left, which is so different from Blair's strategy (and tactics). Which means that the dividing lines between the two bigger parties do feel much more as they did in the 1970s, rather than in the 1990s. What about the actual costs or benefits of raising the top rate of tax, to the Exchequer and the economy? Well if I haven't dwelled on these, it is because the evidence is murky. After Labour introduced the 50p tax rate just before the last election, there was a huge amount of what is known as income shifting and income converting: bonuses, for example, were brought forward and paid before the new tax bit; income was converted into capital, so that it could avoid income tax; and various other devices were employed to dodge the higher rate, sometimes permanently, sometimes temporarily. As for whether it drove wealth creators from the UK, there the facts are even harder to find - a few hedge fund superstars have moved to Switzerland (which not everyone weeps about), and lots of French capitalists have moved to London, to escape President Hollande's even higher taxes. There might be a good deal of income shifting and converting again, if the rate went from 45p to 50p, which would reduce the take from the imposition of the higher rate. But the amounts of money gained or lost from the tax rise, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said, may be pretty trivial, probably less than a percentage point of the annual hole or deficit in the government's finances. Which is why what is more interesting about the planned tax rise is what it says about battle lines in politics, and the parties' attitudes to high earners and businesses.

लोग अक्सर कहते हैं कि राजनीति और राजनेता कभी नहीं बदलते हैं, लेकिन बड़े व्यवसायों और उच्च कमाई करने वालों के प्रति लेबर पार्टी के रवैये में एक बड़ा बदलाव आया है, उस अवधि से जब टोनी ब्लेयर ने 1990 के दशक के मध्य में विपक्ष में लेबर पार्टी का नेतृत्व किया था।


World Sight Day: My life as a blind 'Luddite'

Summary: The majority of Wales' 107,000 visually impaired people do not have access to the internet at home, according to research for World Sight Day. That is despite access to the internet at home being seen as key to reducing levels of social and financial inequality. Neil Prior, a BBC journalist of 18 years, has been totally blind since the age of 13. He is a self-confessed Luddite.

I clearly remember the day I fell out of love with technology. I'd been working as a researcher for BBC Radio Wales for around six months and had already made quite a reputation for myself as a demon editor of packages on quarter-inch tape. Editing on tape was a highly tactile process; feeling the reel spool past the playing heads and your fingertips, nudging the speed control, and…bang! That's the point your razorblade needs to make the cut. It was a thoroughly intuitive skill and one of the few things in life where a blind person is at a distinct advantage over sighted people. Then came the day when our boss excitedly drew us into his office and revealed that quarter-inch tape was soon to be a thing of the past; we'd be editing on a computer package. "No more razor-sliced fingers and shirts stained with chinagraph pencil", he enthused, "we'll edit in half the time at double the quality". I was the only person to leave that office glum, as I knew that moment marked the point in my life from which I'd forever be playing catch-up. Yet my pessimism is as much a product of my generation as it is one of my disability. I wouldn't say I grew up before the computer age - despite appearances, I'm not quite that old - but my youth was one of Windows 95 and dial-up. I know full well that blind people in their 20s are using smart phones for everything from controlling their heating to reading their post, but I'd rather chisel my meter-readings into granite with my bare teeth than have to contemplate submitting them online. For those who jumped aboard the digital bus at the right time it has been nothing short of a revolution for blind people. For those of us who dithered finding our tickets, the relentless march of technology is a barrier not a gateway to social and professional inclusion. Yet for once I feel unashamed to be a curmudgeon, as my feelings are for the first time borne out by bona fide academic research. Dr Yan Wu, who led the study on behalf of Swansea University's Colleges of Arts and Humanities and Science, told me that while digital lag can be a problem for all men of a certain age like me, the problems faced by blind people are more acute. "Blind people do have more digital opportunities than ever before - the British standard code of practice ensures web products have to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010," Dr Wu told me. "The problem is that if you're blind you have to be much more digitally literate to access them. "People who can see don't have to try and be technically savvy, the technology is designed to be visually intuitive. It's not at all intuitive if you're using the same applications with speech software. "Imagine coming to work, and before you can start your job, you have to know how to set up your computer from scratch; these are the sort of issues which are putting off blind users." That last point rings painfully true for me. I remember the first time I was handed a smart phone, and told: "Apparently it has speech software on it, so just play around and figure it out." You might as well have handed me a copy of War and Peace in the original Russian, and told me to figure that out. 'Expensive' Which leads on to Dr Wu's next finding: digital training for blind people is extremely difficult to find, far less afford. "There is excellent training out there, from our partners in the RNIB in particular, but because they're dealing with such specialised software, and the training has to be delivered one-to-one, it can be very costly indeed, and waiting lists can be massive," he added. "Software itself can cost over £800 to purchase, and when you consider that only 25% of blind people are in full-time employment, the boundaries to digital inclusion soon mount up." According to Dr Wu the answer lies in moving away from adapting sighted applications to work for blind people, to making software and hardware which is accessible to everyone from the outset. "We're already starting to see the way forward with voice-activated equipment and the way blind people use them is exactly the same as sighted, so there's no adaptation or training necessary. "Apple and some Android phones are making devices with accessible software built in, and I think increasingly you'll find that expensive third-party applications will become a thing of the past." So there you have it: 'Alexa, drag me into the 21st Century!'

विश्व दृष्टि दिवस के शोध के अनुसार, वेल्स के 107,000 दृष्टिबाधित लोगों में से अधिकांश के पास घर पर इंटरनेट तक पहुंच नहीं है। इसके बावजूद कि घर पर इंटरनेट तक पहुंच को सामाजिक और वित्तीय असमानता के स्तर को कम करने की कुंजी के रूप में देखा जा रहा है। 18 साल के बीबीसी पत्रकार नील प्रायर, 13 साल की उम्र से पूरी तरह से अंधे हैं। वह एक आत्म-कबूल लुड्डाइट हैं।


Obituary: Comedian Mel Smith

Summary: Comic star Mel Smith, who has died aged 60, became a household name during the 1980s when TV sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones were at the height of their success.

But he was also a writer, actor and acclaimed director whose love of performing started at an early age. The son of a bookmaker from Chiswick, west London, Smith was directing plays with friends at the age of six. After school he studied experimental psychology at New College, Oxford. He chose that particular college because of the lure of its dramatic society, and went on to become the drama group's president. Smith directed productions at the Oxford Playhouse and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival while he was an undergraduate. After leaving university he pursued directing, working at the Royal Court in London, before moving on to the Bristol Old Vic and the Sheffield Crucible. But Smith was a solo act until he was introduced to Griff Rhys Jones by TV producer John Lloyd, who invited them to join the Not the Nine O'Clock News cast, along with Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson. Their hugely successful show, which was billed as an alternative to watching the BBC's flagship news bulletin, was a series of sketches, skits and musical parodies. Smith, Rhys Jones and Atkinson also wrote for the show, with the former two going on to set up Talkback Productions in 1981. It became a highly successful independent production company and talent agency, responsible for hits including Da Ali G Show and Alan Partridge's Knowing Me Knowing You. The firm was sold in 2000. The pair also found even more success with their 1984 hit sketch show, Alas Smith and Jones - its name was taken from US Western series Alias Smith and Jones. Sketches included their trademark deadpan head-to-head chats, shot in close-up, which went on to be compared with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Dagenham Dialogues. Smith played a know-it-all while Rhys Jones took on a dim-witted persona while they engaged in discussions on a myriad of topics. Over the next 14 years, there were a total of 10 series of the show. The pair also made films and radio programmes together, and performed in plays, clip shows and Christmas specials. Their charity work included introducing Queen at 1985's Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium. Although the last series of the eventually renamed Smith and Jones series aired in 1998, the pair continued to work together, and in 2005 they collaborated on The Alas Smith and Jones Sketchbook, a showcase of their past shows. Smith's directing work was also a key part of his career, and his work included Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie, which starred Atkinson, and Richard Curtis' romantic comedy The Tall Guy, starring Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum. Acting roles included Babylon in 1980, the 1987 hit The Princess Bride and Sir Toby Belch in Trevor Nunn's 1996 production of Twelfth Night. He drew headlines in 2006 when he threatened to flout the ban on smoking in enclosed spaces in order to play a cigar-puffing Winston Churchill at the Edinburgh Fringe. In the end, Smith didn't light his cigar after a visit to the theatre from an environmental health officer. Smith became known to a whole new generation in Raymond Briggs' animated Father Christmas in 1991, in which he sang the song Another Bloomin' Christmas in the title role. He also teamed up with singer Kim Wilde in 1987 for the Comic Relief song Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, which reached the top five in the singles' chart. And his vocal talents had an outing in 1981 with the single Mel Smith's Greatest Hits, produced by Queen's Roger Taylor, who featured on instrumentation and backing vocals. Smith went on to sing and act on stage in 2007, making his West End debut in the hit musical Hairspray as Wilbur Turnblad, alongside Michael Ball as Edna Turnblad. Last year Smith worked with Rhys Jones once more on a sketch show for BBC One. He leaves wife, Pam, with whom he lived in north west London.

कॉमेडियन स्टार मेल स्मिथ, जिनका 60 वर्ष की आयु में निधन हो गया है, 1980 के दशक के दौरान एक घरेलू नाम बन गए जब टीवी स्केच शो नॉट द नाइन ओ 'क्लॉक न्यूज और अलास स्मिथ और जोन्स अपनी सफलता के चरम पर थे।


Finnish phoenix: The start-ups rising from Nokia's ashes

Summary: For many, Finland and Nokia were synonymous.

By Padraig BeltonBusiness reporter And when in 2012 and 2013, Nokia shed 24,500 employees and sold Nokia House (and its mobile phone division to Microsoft), they called it the "Elopcalypse" after then-chief executive Stephen Elop. But the sinking of Nokia has led to an explosion of start-ups, as a skilled workforce jumps ship and begin businesses. And the coolest pitching in the world now takes place in a cut-out ice hole in the northern city of Oulu in February, where you can speak about your company for as long as you like - so long as you remain standing in freezing water. "I am willing to say that the Elopcalypse was the best thing to happen to Finnish ICT," says Mika Bostrom, vice president of peer-to-peer betting market Smarkets. Nokia era Finnished The first two years post-Elopcalypse in Finland involved painful readjustment. But profitable exits and eye-watering funding infusions have drawn attention to the sparkling northern lights of the tech sector. This shopping spree included Google's purchase of Helsinki-based mobile 3D graphics venture drawElements last July for an eight-figure sum. Facebook bought Pryte last summer, a Finnish start-up developing passes to let mobile customers in the developing world use mobile apps without a data plan. Japan's SoftBank paid $1.5bn (£990m; €1.3bn) for a 51% stake in mobile game developer Supercell, after its Clash of Clans and Hay Day attracted 8.5 million daily plays and revenues of $892m. And in three years, Helsinki's Slush tech start-up conference has grown from 300 participants to more than 10,000. "Slush 2012 was a small venue. Slush 2013 was larger. Slush 2014 was huge by anything outside US or UK standards," says Mr Bostrom. Norse code Not surprisingly, many of these start-ups have involved mobile phone technology. Jolla is one lifeboat which launched from Nokia, with Sailfish, a partly open sourced operating system created from a spiked Nokia project, Meego. Sailfish debuted at Slush 2012, with all the company's then-60 employees taking the stage. Co-founder Marc Dillon, who spent 11 years at Nokia, says it offers easier multitasking than existing mobile operating systems. "You have the ability to see all your applications at once, and interact with them at the same time without going deeply into one, then taking several steps back to go into another," he says. A second key aspect of Sailfish, says Mr Dylan, is it is open source. "If 80% of the world is running Android phones, then all the companies and ecosystems and devices are basically tied to one company strategy." He says the operating system has native apps "in the thousands" but can also run Android ones. Mr Dylan sees Sailfish's next steps as working with chiefly Asian original design manufacturers, who make the modules mobile companies use. "You create devices now with modules and other companies do the integration," he says. The sauna side Jolla is a poster boy for the Nokia Bridge programme, the company's start-up seed funding for departing employees. Public funding of research and development is another part of Finland's tech start-up success. It is third in equity financing in Europe, after the UK and France. Tekes, a public R&D funding body, has a €550m (£423m; $637m) annual budget. There are tech incubators such as Aalto University's Startup Sauna in Helsinki, modelled on Google labs with, yes, saunas. Some 126 start-ups have graduated since 2010. And the well-reviewed Vigo accelerator, launched by Finland's Ministry of Employment and Economy, follows an Israeli and Singaporean model by giving mentors financial stakes in the companies. One beneficiary from Tekes was Helsinki wallpaper start-up Feathr.com, started by husband and wife duo Anne and Tom Puukko. She is Finnish and ex-Nokia, he English. "The investment gives you a stamp of approval. If you start a business with your own money, even if you're going well, people say no-one else has looked at you and said it's a good idea," says Mrs Puukko. The couple have gathered wallpaper designs from roughly 300 artists, "everything from tattooists, surfware designers, photographers, fine artists," says Mrs Puukko, and will focus initially on the UK market. She says wallpaper still largely uses Victorian printing techniques, and digital printing in the sector has not yet been explored. "We're going back to William Morris," she says. "He saw wallpaper as a way of bringing beauty into people's lives. Everyone has this amazing canvas in the wall - you've got four of them surrounding you." Robot wasteland Another bright spark in the wintry Finnish night is robotics. ZenRobotics' Recycler robot sorts bits from a conveyor belt of rubbish, and uses artificial intelligence technology to learn to identify different waste objects. Timo Taalas, the company's chief executive, says the capital's two universities, University of Helsinki and Aalto University, are quite strong in artificial intelligence and machine learning. "The background of the founders was in artificial intelligence and robotics. We had to find a complex enough problem that could be solved with the combination of those," he says. More than 200 gaming start-ups have followed the example of Angry Birds, created in 2009 by Rovio Entertainment in Finland's second largest city of Espoo. One, Best Fiends, the debut title of Seriously, founded by former Rovio executives, had a million downloads in the week after its October release. Petri Jarvilehto, Seriously's co-founder, says Nokia invested heavily in mobile gaming from 2003. "We're kind of a talent pool here that's been already working on mobile games for 10 years," he says. He describes Angry Birds as the first game created from the start for touch. "In today's world you have mobile games that are reaching 100 million players every single day - there's never been any media, television, movies, where you could have that sort of reach," he says. Rovio, though, let a fifth of its Finnish employees go in October, saying they had hired "on assumptions of faster growth than have materialised". Some might call this counting their chickens before they hatched. While Finland's strong secondary and university education and skilled workforce have attracted investors from Silicon Valley and Japan, some wonder whether Finland isn't too awash with investment money. Tomi Kaukinen, chief executive of Sportacam, a photograph-sharing site for sports, cites the example of the founders of a start-up he met last year who had raised €1.7m. When he met them again a couple of months ago, they were once again fundraising. "I was like, you need money again?" he says. "They said, no, we don't really need it, but it's so easy to get - and they raised a couple more million." Nokia's heyday might be over. But the tech sector here is not Finnished - it's only beginning.

कई लोगों के लिए फिनलैंड और नोकिया समानार्थी थे।