Kenya-Somalia abductions: Profiles

Summary: Kenya's foreign minister has told the BBC his country has sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to target the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab. It follows the kidnapping last week of two Spanish aid workers employed by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at the Dadaab refugee camp, 80km (50 miles) from the border with Somalia.

A British man and a Frenchwoman have also died during abductions in Kenya in recent weeks and a British woman remains missing - she is believed to be held by al-Shabab. This is a summary of what is known about them. Judith Tebbutt Judith Tebbutt, 56, was on holiday with her husband David at the remote Kiwayu Safari Village resort when armed men burst into their cottage on 11 September. They had only arrived the previous day; they were the only guests at the resort. Kiwayu is an exclusive resort on a deserted stretch of coastline with uninterrupted ocean views. Its website has now been taken down, but had stated that the resort was protected by six police officers and 22 private guards. The resort consists of simple thatched cottages dotted along the beach. The cottages have no solid doors, just cloth curtains hung across entrances. Police told the BBC six gunmen had burst into the couple's room. Mr Tebbutt was shot dead, while his wife was taken away in a speedboat, possibly by Somali pirates. Police commissioner Mathew Iteere speculated that David Tebbutt may have been shot because he was resisting the gunmen. Mrs Tebbutt is believed to have been taken across the border into Somalia, about 45km (28 miles) from the resort. The Tebbutts' home is in Bishop's Stortford, in Hertfordshire. Mrs Tebbutt, a social worker, is believed to be deaf and to wear a double hearing aid. Her husband worked in publishing and sat on the board of a book charity. Two men have appeared in court in connection with the attack on the Tebbutts. Both have pleaded not guilty. One of them, Ali Babitu Kololo, told the court he was forced at gunpoint to lead a group of men to the hotel and was not a willing accomplice. The Foreign Office continues to advise against all but essential travel to within 30km (18 miles) of Kenya's border with Somalia. There have been previous attacks by Somali militia into Kenya, it says. Marie Dedieu, 66 years old and disabled, had been spending seven or eight months a year in Kenya since the mid-1990s. In the late 1960s, she was seriously injured in a car accident and was confined to a wheelchair. A journalist and feminist activist in France, she worked at a feminist magazine in the 1970s and campaigned for the liberalisation of abortion laws. Initially, Mrs Dedieu lived on the island of Lamu, in the archipelago of the same name. Although Lamu derives up to 90% of its income from tourism, it is still off the beaten track. Lamu Old Town has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UN cultural organisation Unesco, which describes it as "the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa... built in coral stone and mangrove timber". About seven years ago, Mrs Dedieu rented a patch of land on the island of Manda, opposite Lamu island. She built a small house there, in a traditional Swahili style, with a turf roof. She called it her "little corner of paradise". Residents of Lamu and Manda told the French newspaper Le Figaro that Mrs Dedieu was popular in the community, a familiar figure at weddings and local events. "Frankly, she is an extraordinary woman and we are very sorry about what has happened, especially that it has happened to her," deputy mayor Ajar Ali told the paper. In the early hours of 1 October, Mrs Dedieu was abducted by a gang of armed men. She had only returned three days earlier from a visit to France, arousing suspicions that her abduction had been planned with the help of local informants. She was on medication, which she had to take every four hours. Her kidnappers did not take her wheelchair or medication with them. The French foreign ministry has established that Mrs Dedieu was taken to the Somali coast. A Kenyan man was arrested on 3 October and questioned by local police but has since been released. On 19 October, the French foreign ministry said it had heard from its contacts that Mrs Dedieu had died, saying that her poor health and lack of medication meant that "tragic outcome was unfortunately most likely". Officials condemned the "total lack of humanity and the cruelty" shown by the kidnappers, and demanded they be brought to justice. Montserrat Serra y Ridao, 40, was abducted from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya on 13 October, along with her colleague, Blanca Thiebaut. Their Kenyan driver, Mohamed Hassan Borle was injured in the attack and is recovering in hospital. At the time of her abduction, Miss Serra had been in Kenya for two months. She was working as a logistician for MSF in Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp. It houses around 450,000 people who have fled famine and conflict in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia. Miss Serra qualified as a teacher before taking a master's degree in co-operation and development. She was working as a teacher in the technology department of a secondary school in Girona but took a leave of absence to go to Kenya. Before she came to Dadaab, Miss Serra had worked on aid projects in Latin America and Yemen. MSF Spain says it has set up a crisis committee to handle the incident. However, it is releasing few details. "Any publicity given to this incident does not help us and can only jeopardise the effort to free our colleagues and harm the family," said Jose Antonio Bastos, president of MSF Spain. At first, the municipal council in Palafrugell, the Catalonian town where Miss Serra grew up, planned to hold a demonstration of solidarity to demand her release. However, at the request of her family, the demonstration has now been cancelled. Blanca Thiebaut, age 30, from Madrid, was also working as a logistician for MSF at Dadaab. She is an agricultural engineer by training and until recently was living in Barcelona. She recently studied for a degree through the London School of Economics, and has also studied in Australia. Her father has refused to speak to the media. However, a neighbour in Barcelona told El Pais newspaper that it was Miss Thiebaut's second stint working in Africa for MSF. Her French boyfriend is also reported to be working for MSF in a different part of the continent. Following the abduction of its two staff members, MSF suspended some of its operations at Dadaab. It is continuing essential feeding operations, but has stopped work for now on some medical services. MSF says assistance to thousands of people in urgent need has been jeopardised as a result

केन्या के विदेश मंत्री ने बीबीसी को बताया है कि उनके देश ने इस्लामी विद्रोही समूह अल-शबाब को निशाना बनाने के लिए पड़ोसी सोमालिया में सैनिक भेजे हैं। यह पिछले सप्ताह सोमालिया की सीमा से 80 किलोमीटर (50 मील) दूर दादाब शरणार्थी शिविर में मेडिकल चैरिटी मेडिसिन्स सैन्स फ्रंटियर्स (एमएसएफ) द्वारा नियोजित दो स्पेनिश सहायता कर्मचारियों के अपहरण के बाद हुआ है।


German TV under fire over 'environmental pig' song

Summary: Over 40 TV comedy writers in Germany have written an open letter asking for a satirical children's song about climate change to be put back on the internet after it was taken down following a public row over its content.

By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring The "solidarity declaration" strongly criticises Tom Buhrow, the director of the public broadcaster WDR that commissioned and broadcast the song, for apologising for it after the initial backlash. "A media boss whose handling of right-wing propaganda shows so much naivety and ineptitude, and who is unable to face his employees on the simplest questions of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, endangers these freedoms. He should face the consequences," the statement says. 'Old environmental pig' The controversy that ignited #Grandmagate was sparked by a satirical re-make of the children's song My Grandmother Rides a Motorcycle in the Hen Coop, which went viral over the Christmas period. The parody version, sang by a children's choir, seeks to expose a fictional grandmother's environmentally unfriendly habits - she drives an SUV and fries cheap cutlets every day. Each verse is punctuated with the refrain "My grandma is an old environmental pig", and the song is wrapped up by a quote from teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg "We will not let you get away with this." Generation wars The lyrics, perceived to be assigning bad eco credentials to the baby boomer generation, hit a nerve and inflamed culture wars in Germany, according to the Deutsche Welle international broadcaster. A heated debate followed on social media, which generated thousands of comments. Many tweets lamented the "instrumentalising of children" and the "disrespect for the older generation" while others made disparaging comments about publically-funded media. WDR journalist Danny Holleck experienced the wrath of Twitter after he wrote that "grandma isn't an environmental pig, but a Nazi pig". He withdrew his "rash" remark in a tweet of apology which, he specified, excluded those who flooded him with threats of violence and death. Following the outcry, WDR director Tom Buhrow apologised for the video, saying it was a mistake. He wrote that WDR will do its best to protect its employees who've been receiving death threats. "What is going on in our country, I wonder, if an unsuccessful video can lead to death threats", he asked. You may also be interested in: WDR deleted the video and apologised to anyone who was offended, saying "We regret that the satire has hurt the feelings of part of our audience. This was not our intention. Rather, it was about tackling the generational conflict... through satire." The director of the Dortmund children's choir Zeljo Davutovic addressed concerns that children had been used as tools to drive the climate change agenda. "There was no compulsion", he said. "The children who took part were told what the parody was meant to do - to target the conflict between the generations with exaggeration and humour." 'Right-wing trolling' Analysis published by Spiegel magazine on how the debate picked up speed on social media suggests that spontaneous anger by the public was amplified by "controlled outrage" driven by right-wing groups. On 4 January, the online outrage spilled onto the streets. A group of demonstrators gathered outside WDR's headquarters in Cologne to express their anger with the broadcaster. A counter-protest was held at the same time. A Cologne police spokesman told Spiegel that out of the 200 demonstrators, 25 were members of the far-right German Brotherhood group, and that investigations are currently under way to determine whether the demonstration was organised or influenced by right-wing extremists. The TV comedy writers said in their open letter that the scandal was not the song itself, but way it was turned into a scandal through the "familiar pattern of right-wing trolling." "The fictional grandma does not discriminate against an entire generation any more than the alcoholic father from Papa Was a Rollin' Stone declares that all men are unfit," the letter concludes. Reporting by Krassi Twigg Next story: Christmas tree returns to Chernobyl 'ghost town' Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

जर्मनी में 40 से अधिक टीवी कॉमेडी लेखकों ने एक खुला पत्र लिखा है जिसमें जलवायु परिवर्तन के बारे में बच्चों के एक व्यंग्यात्मक गीत को इंटरनेट पर वापस लाने की मांग की गई है, क्योंकि इसकी सामग्री पर सार्वजनिक विवाद के बाद इसे हटा दिया गया था।


Stephen Crabb is the new Welsh Affairs Committee chairman

Summary: Stephen Crabb has been elected as the new chairman of Westminster's Welsh Affairs Committee.

Its role is to examine policies of the UK government that have an impact on Wales. Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Mr Crabb takes over from Monmouth's David TC Davies, who is now a junior minister in the Wales Office. Mr Crabb was first elected in 2005 and has sat in cabinet as Welsh secretary and work and pensions secretary.

स्टीफन क्रेब को वेस्टमिंस्टर की वेल्श मामलों की समिति का नया अध्यक्ष चुना गया है।


Union meeting refuses Aberdeen City Council pay offer

Summary: A mass meeting of Aberdeen council workers rejected a proposal to settle a dispute over pay.

Workers have been offered a 1.5% increase in pay, in lieu of a salary increment rise the authority wants to put off until next April. It is designed to save the council about £4.5m. A full ballot of members will now recommend rejection, after the meeting was held at the city's Beach Ballroom on Tuesday.

एबरडीन परिषद के कार्यकर्ताओं की एक सामूहिक बैठक ने वेतन पर विवाद को निपटाने के प्रस्ताव को खारिज कर दिया।


South Tyneside NHS Trust admits storing samples from miscarried babies

Summary: A health trust being investigated for storing dozens of human tissue samples without the relatives' knowledge says it is in contact with a further five families following the discovery of samples from miscarried babies.

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust said the "samples of non-viable foetal tissue" had been stored since 2012. The families were told at the time the remains had been cremated. The trust said it "wholeheartedly" apologised. The trust, along with Northumbria and Cleveland police forces, began contacting families in March 2017 after samples, taken from post-mortem examinations following unexplained deaths, were found stored at South Tyneside District Hospital in South Shields. Samples relating to the miscarried foetuses were subsequently also found. Analysis: Richard Moss, correspondent BBC Look North South Tyneside Hospital's review highlights four years where it inexplicably failed to begin the process of dealing with the tissues and organs that had been stored on behalf of the police and coroner. A process of contacting relatives should have begun in 2010, but for many of those families there will still be deeper questions about the removal and storage of organs which dated back to the 1990s. In some cases, families buried loved ones without knowing their bodies were not intact. Laws in place now would prevent this happening again, but that's scant consolation. The investigation also discovered that the remains of five miscarried foetuses had been stored since 2012 rather than being cremated. The hospital says they were returned from a crematorium when the parents did not attend the service. But under established procedures, the cremations should have gone ahead. For those five families then, there is the potential trauma of discovering that the cremation and closure they had adjusted to had not happened. The cost of these mistakes then will be borne by the 46 families who have to live through their grief and pain once more. Dr Shahid Wahid, the trust's executive medical director said: "We reviewed our processes and found there were five holdings, termed non-viable foetus holdings, which were in our possession where our policies and regulations had not been rigorously followed. "It is our responsibility and we wholeheartedly apologise. "We'll meet with the families if they want to for a face-to-face discussion and, importantly, come up with a plan to deal with the situation." In a statement, the trust said it fully acknowledged "a failure to appropriately follow national guidance on the disposal of tissue samples issued by the Human Tissue Authority" and added it had taken a "number of steps to review its internal processes".

रिश्तेदारों की जानकारी के बिना दर्जनों मानव ऊतक के नमूनों को संग्रहीत करने के लिए जांच की जा रही एक स्वास्थ्य ट्रस्ट का कहना है कि गर्भपात वाले शिशुओं के नमूनों की खोज के बाद वह और पांच परिवारों के संपर्क में है।


You cheated not only the game, but you became a meme

Summary: Nobody expects to see themselves trending online.

By Tom GerkenBBC UGC & Social News But when one person waded into a debate about difficulty in video games, his somewhat hyperbolic tweet united both sides of the argument. His words have been re-posted thousands of times on Twitter alone, spawning spoofs and parodies created by everyone from regular gamers to Sega of America. And all of this came from a response to a gaming journalist who admitted he had cheated to beat a video game. It all started with FromSoftware's 2019 game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which has such a steep difficulty curve that PC Gamer's James Davenport admitted he used cheats to finish the game. This fact did not sit right with Crunch, a Twitter user who probably had his tongue planted somewhat in his cheek when he told Mr Davenport in no uncertain terms what he thought of his accomplishment. Over the next few days, the words reappeared in popular posts as gamers poked fun at the hyperbolic statement, using it to call out well-known cheats in popular games such as Persona 5, Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64. It was soon labelled the latest "copypasta" - a term to mean a block of text that is "copied and pasted" frequently online. More and more gamers were posting the wall of text with famous ways to cheat, ranging from in-game level select screens to using an "action replay" cheating device. The meme developed further, with technically skilled gamers modifying some of their favourite games to include the text within them, including clever edits of Animal Crossing and Link's Awakening. And one video featuring a literal shortcut in Super Mario 64 was viewed more than 1.65 million times. And at this point, it was so popular that even Sega of America tweeted its own parody on the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account - which Sega often uses to engage in internet culture with memes and jokes. You might be forgiven for thinking that the original tweeter would be upset by the way his words were twisted for humour - but Crunch has embraced his new-found fame. "When this all jumped off," he told the BBC, "I was a bit upset that people weren't understanding my point, but as I saw it I had two options. "I could try to fight it... or I could lean into it, have fun, and see where it takes me. It's a matter of perspective. "I absolutely love that I got to create a new meme that's part of the internet tapestry." His positive attitude has seen him receive plaudits online, to the extent that a meme he made parodying himself with Metal Gear Solid character Liquid Snake was professionally recorded by the character's original voice actor. Crunch called this recording his "favourite part of the past week". "It really blew me away," he added, "and I was genuinely moved to tears."

कोई भी खुद को ऑनलाइन ट्रेंड होते देखने की उम्मीद नहीं करता है।


Funds to be sought for new Inverness Royal Academy

Summary: Highland Council is to seek funding to pay for the construction of a new £33.3m secondary school.

The building would be a replacement for the city's ageing Inverness Royal Academy. The local authority will make a bid for funds from the Scottish government's Scotland's Schools for the Future programme. Highland Council's adult and children's services committee agreed to push ahead with the bid for money.

हाईलैंड काउंसिल को एक नए £ 33.3m माध्यमिक विद्यालय के निर्माण के लिए धन की मांग करनी है।


In pictures: Hong Kong 'parallel trade' protests

Summary: Angry protests have taken place in a shopping centre in Hong Kong against mainlanders who visit the territory to shop.

Hong Kong residents have long complained about mainlanders buying up goods at lower tax rates and then selling them on at home at a profit, so-called parallel trading. They say this leaves Hong Kongers with a shortage of basic supplies and pushes up the cost of goods, while also accusing the mainlanders of bad behaviour.

हांगकांग के एक शॉपिंग सेंटर में खरीदारी करने के लिए क्षेत्र में आने वाले मुख्य भूमि के लोगों के खिलाफ गुस्साए विरोध प्रदर्शन हुए हैं।


First stage of Fraserburgh harbour death probe complete

Summary: Marine accident inspectors have completed the first stage of the investigation into the death of a man on board a vessel at Fraserburgh harbour.

William Ironside, 52, who was from the Aberdeenshire town, was one of five men who fell ill on the Sunbeam last week. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) sent a team of inspectors to the harbour the following day. They left the site on Tuesday, but the investigation continues. The MAIB said it could not predict the length of an investigation, but that a full report was normally published within a year. It said family members of Mr Ironside would be kept updated in the meantime.

समुद्री दुर्घटना निरीक्षकों ने फ्रेजरबर्ग बंदरगाह पर एक जहाज पर सवार एक व्यक्ति की मौत की जांच का पहला चरण पूरा कर लिया है।


Ronald Reagan: 30 years since assassination attempt

Summary: On 30 March 1981, just 69 days into his presidency, Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded outside the Washington Hilton by John Hinckley Jr in an assassination attempt. President Reagan suffered a punctured lung in the shooting, but survived. Three others were also wounded.

By Jonny DymondBBC News, Washington DC That day, 30 years ago, two actions saved Reagan's life. The president's reaction to the attack which almost killed him may have made his presidency. For Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, it started as a pretty regular day. "Rawhide" - the codename the Service gave this 40th president of the United States - was giving a speech at the Washington Hilton, a venue that was just a few minutes' drive from the White House, and had been used dozens of times by presidents past. After the speech, Reagan walked out of the VIP entrance and toward his car. To his left there were gathered a few reporters, some camera crews, some bystanders. By today's standard the security was astonishingly lax; anyone, it seemed, could get within metres of the president. One of those who did was John Hinckley Jr, armed and with a desire to make an impression that would last. 'Get him out' A short distance from his car, Reagan turned to his left, raised his arm and waved to the small crowd. "When we get about five or six feet from the car," remembers Jerry Parr, "I hear two shots, quick, bang bang, and then bang, bang, bang, bang." Mr Parr did not stop to think, he just reacted to the sound, almost throwing the president into the car and landing heavily on top of him, covering Reagan with his body in case there was a second gunman waiting to take another shot through the open car door. On the tape of the shooting, which was caught on film by the waiting news crews, you can hear voices shouting "Get him out! Go! Go! Get him out!" amongst the mayhem. Reagan's bullet-proof car sped off. Inside, Mr Parr ran his hands around Reagan's body but failed to find any wound. The president complained of chest pain and said that perhaps he had bruised or broken a rib when Mr Parr had landed on him in the car immediately after the shooting. Over the Secret Service radio, the word went out: "Rawhide is OK, Rawhide is OK." And the decision was made to take the president back to the White House - the safest place in Washington. But Mr Parr, with Reagan in the back of the car, started having doubts. At the city's Dupont Circle he asked the president how he was feeling. "He said he was doing OK, 'but I think I've cut the inside of my mouth'. And he started spitting up this bright red blood, real frothy, and I took one look at it and I looked at his mouth and I saw that it was ashen grey, little bit of blue around the lips. "And I just took a quick decision, I'm taking you to the hospital, and he said 'OK'." Entry wound That act probably saved the president's life. Reagan managed to walk unaided from the car into George Washington University Hospital but then collapsed. After several examinations, an entry wound was found: a bullet had ricocheted off the road, slipped between the body of his car and its open door, and slipped into him 6in (15cm) below his left armpit. It came to rest in his left lung. White House press secretary James Brady, a secret service agent and a District of Columbia police officer were also wounded, leaving Mr Brady permanently disabled. Outside the hospital all was confusion. On a live news broadcast, ABC's Frank Reynolds assured viewers that Reagan had not been shot, only to be told that he had been hit. "My God!" he cried out on air. "The president was hit… he is in stable condition… all this information… The president WAS hit." In hospital, Reagan's blood pressure was lifted and stabilised, but blood kept filling his lung, suggesting heavy internal bleeding. An operation was planned. His wife, Nancy came to see him. "Honey," quipped Reagan, "I forgot to duck." 'Genuine moments' The surgical team assembled, but before they started the president looked at them. "I hope you are all Republicans," he said, mock-gravely. After the surgery the gags kept coming. And this, believes Del Quentin Wilber, who has written a minute-by-minute chronicle of the day, is what lifted Reagan's presidency out of the mere normal. "The last four presidents who have been shot have all died, and here he is cracking jokes and laughing at death. The American people love that. "Those kinds of things, they don't get cemented in a person's mind through polling or slick advertising or message management. It's through the genuine moments that the public experiences with the leader. "And this was the moment for Ronald Reagan. The American people had separated the man from his politics." Reagan went on to serve two full terms - the first president in almost three difficult decades to do so - and when he left office, he did so with sky-high approval ratings. Just a few weeks ago, what would have been Reagan's 100th birthday was commemorated with a slew of rosy retrospectives. But the legend that was celebrated was arguably born 30 years ago today.

30 मार्च 1981 को, अपने राष्ट्रपति पद के 69 दिनों में, रोनाल्ड रीगन को हत्या के प्रयास में जॉन हिंकले जूनियर द्वारा वाशिंगटन हिल्टन के बाहर गोली मारकर घायल कर दिया गया था। राष्ट्रपति रीगन को गोलीबारी में फेफड़े में चोट लगी थी, लेकिन वे बच गए थे। तीन अन्य भी घायल हो गए थे।


County Lines: Seizing trainers 'won't deter drug runners'

Summary: A police force has announced a new tactic to tackle drug runners: confiscate their expensive trainers and designer clothes. Officers hope it "will have an impact", but a former gang member says it will do nothing to deter offenders.

By Laura LeaBBC News The move is part of work tackling county lines - the drug dealing networks connecting urban and rural areas across the UK through dedicated phone lines. Designer trainers and clothes are seized by officers under the Proceeds of Crime Act and offenders are given a cheap pair of plimsolls to go home in. Jermaine Lawlor, a former drug dealer, says the move, will "sabotage" the relationship between police and vulnerable young adults. Wiltshire Police - which has seized more than 90 pairs of trainers since the beginning of the year, from some as young as 16 - say it is "hitting offenders hard". But Mr Lawlor, who now works with young people through Voice 4 Youth Against Violence, says all this serves to do is "upset" the offender. "If prison doesn't deter them, taking their trainers away from them definitely isn't going to," he tells the BBC. This will only add to frustration felt against the police and will not solve the problem of young people being exploited by drug gangs, he adds. "All the kids I'm working with have £500, £200-pairs of shoes. They're spending hundreds of pounds on t-shirts." This - he says - actually shows their vulnerability: "It's a culture. These kids are dying to fit in. "When I dealt and got money, I would spend it on clothes. 'Cause I never had anything. "I remember getting my first £150 trainers. I remember the feeling it gave me. When you've come from poverty... it's about having that feeling of respect." Wiltshire Police believes taking away the profits of offenders' work will make a difference. "It's sad, but often we will see young people arrested, released under investigation while enquiries continue, and then continue to work as runners," detective constable George Booth says. "Being arrested doesn't seem to have any affect on them. "These trainers or designer clothes can be seen as a status symbol, and so losing that is pretty difficult for them to deal with." But Mr Lawlor wants to see greater focus on supporting, not punishing, young drug runners. "The same effort it takes to take trainers away - they can sit these kids down and talk to them about support services or apprenticeships in the area. "They're still kids." Police say seizing goods does not stop officers building rapport and helping those who need it.

एक पुलिस बल ने नशीली दवाओं के तस्करों से निपटने के लिए एक नई रणनीति की घोषणा की हैः उनके महंगे प्रशिक्षकों और डिजाइनर कपड़ों को जब्त कर लें। अधिकारियों को उम्मीद है कि इसका "प्रभाव पड़ेगा", लेकिन गिरोह के एक पूर्व सदस्य का कहना है कि यह अपराधियों को रोकने के लिए कुछ नहीं करेगा।


Coronavirus: Met Police staff member dies after diagnosis

Summary: A member of Metropolitan Police staff has died after contracting coronavirus, the force has confirmed.

In a statement, it said a member of staff in its contact centre, who had pre-existing health conditions, died after testing positive for COVID-19. Scotland Yard said it would not be releasing a name in line with the wishes of their family. It is believed to be the first coronavirus-related death within the Met Police.

मेट्रोपॉलिटन पुलिस कर्मचारी के एक सदस्य की कोरोनावायरस से संक्रमित होने के बाद मृत्यु हो गई है, बल ने पुष्टि की है।


What does purge say about North Korea's stability?

Summary: North Korea's second most powerful figure has been executed, days after being purged from the country's ruling elite. State media said Chang Song-thaek had pleaded guilty to challenging the leadership of Kim Jong-un and forming a rival faction within the Workers' Party. He had already been stripped of all his official positions and expelled from the party, but what does his very public expulsion say about the stability of North Korea's opaque political machine, asks the BBC's Lucy Williamson.

Few countries choreograph their political drama quite like North Korea. And after surviving for months on scraps of news and hearsay about the regime, analysts of the country's politics have been thrown a juicy steak. Almost overnight, Chang Song-thaek morphed from uncle and mentor to North Korea's young leader to "anti-revolutionary" criminal outcast. He was stripped of all official positions, edited out of official documentary footage, and his forcible removal from a party meeting, as well as his long list of alleged misdeeds and character faults, were broadcast on state media. The detail of those charges alone startled many people; the report on North Korea's state news agency ran to several pages. "It's unique," an official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said. "We haven't seen this kind of official announcement in the past - the very detailed explanation seems like an attempt to provide legitimacy for its decision." 'John the Baptist' Chief among Mr Chang's charges: that he had challenged his country's leadership, arrogated control of economic, judicial and security affairs to himself, and tried to form his own rival faction within the ruling Workers' Party. It is the biggest political shake-up since the death of the country's former ruler Kim Jong-il two years ago. But North Korea's political reporting of itself is rarely transparent, so what might this unusual glimpse through the looking glass actually mean? Some analysts believe it could signal restlessness within the ruling elite. As news first surfaced of Mr Chang's purge, Professor Victor Cha of Georgetown University warned that "there is a great deal more churn inside the North Korean system than is popularly depicted in the media, even though Kim appears in control". "If you have to take out the top people," he says, "that's usually a sign that things are quite dynamic, because if they were going well, you wouldn't need to." South Korea's online news site DailyNK, which has sources inside North Korea, believes Mr Chang's removal highlights a rift over how to boost growth in the country, perhaps sparked by China's successful economic reform process. It quotes an unnamed source as saying that Chang Song-thaek "had been pushing for Chinese-style 'reform and opening', not a partial opening" as wanted by Kim Jong-un. "What started with conflict between the two," the source says, "ended in Chang's downfall." Others, though, believe there is little policy difference among the top levels of government. Dr Paik Haksoon, of Seoul's Sejong Institute, says that if divisions among Pyongyang's elite were serious, the regime would not have publicised them in this way, nor resolved them as quickly. Instead, he says, Mr Chang's expulsion is more a sign that the young Kim Jong-un has outgrown his tutor. "Chang Song-thaek had finished his role as a bridge between the past and the future," he said. "You can compare him to John the Baptist in the Bible - the man of the Old Testament who played a bridging role for the new era of Jesus Christ." But that role, in shepherding North Korea's young leader through the transition of power, had unexpected consequences. "The more people Chang attracted, the more powerful he became, and that was the challenge to Kim Jong-un," says Dr Paik. "Chang Song-thaek was such a big figure in North Korean politics that his removal demanded a long and detailed explanation on why he had to be expelled." Even so, what is surprising, says Dr John Delury of Yonsei University, is the acknowledgement by North Korea that "there are members of the Party, and the Kim family - people at the highest levels of government - who are deeply corrupt and disloyal. This level of admission about someone who until a month ago was right next to the leader - it is startling. And also a warning to others." Read this way, Mr Chang's removal is another sign of Kim Jong-un's authority: the latest in a series of carefully calibrated moves to demonstrate his control, and his independence - from the former army chief, whom he purged last year; from China's leaders, whom he snubbed soon after taking power; and now from his closest advisor and confidante. And that authority is being demonstrated, not just to a domestic audience, but an international one as well. 'Important barometer' What is striking, says John Delury, is the speed with which North Korea got control of the story. "They very quickly went public with their version of what's happened to Chang Song-thaek," he said. "In some ways, we can link this to new developments in North Korea's relationship with the world: they have a Twitter account, they put out videos on YouTube, they're much more integrated into the global conversation, and when they become the centre of that conversation, they pro-actively get their side of the story told." But even with such a rare level of official detail around Mr Chang's removal from power, it is never easy to pin down the truth of what is actually going on. "North Korea's official announcements are a very important barometer for us," an official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said, "and there are certain keywords within them that we pay particular attention to. But we also have other channels - official and unofficial - that we try to gather information from." Other sources, though, can be equally problematic. "The study of North Korea tends to be dominated by political organisations, governments, intelligence organisations, think-tanks," says John Delury. "And the North Korean sources themselves - whether government or defectors - tend to have very intense agendas." He says that as a result of this lack of clear information, experts "tend to come up with a framework - you sort of have to. You start to fit facts to your framework and it becomes very hard to let go of it, and then you start missing things." Haksoon Paik agrees that context is everything. And taking a stance - for example, by writing a newspaper column - is a risky business. "It could improve my image or destroy it!" he says. But in the end, "when there are conflicting interpretations, you have to use your judgement". And the long years of watching North Korea's state media do gradually bestow a cumulative kind of insight, he says. One of the reasons Dr Paik believes Kim Jong-un is so firmly entrenched in his position is the experience of watching him on television, from the moment of his accession until now. "At first he wasn't very natural," he says. "He was quite awkward sometimes. But as time passed by, he was clearly enjoying his status. I remember one occasion, a few months after he took power, when he was delivering some 'on-the-spot guidance', with Chang Song-thaek beside him. Kim Jong-un turned suddenly towards his uncle, and Chang stiffened immediately in response, just like soldiers do with their generals. It was such a natural reaction, and I was rather shocked." Rare moments like these are perhaps the closest we'll come, at least for now, to observing directly the workings of the North Korean state. Glimpses through the curtain of North Korean propaganda; fingered lovingly like prayer-beads, year after year, by those watching from outside.

उत्तर कोरिया के दूसरे सबसे शक्तिशाली व्यक्ति को देश के सत्तारूढ़ अभिजात वर्ग से मुक्त किए जाने के कुछ दिनों बाद फांसी दे दी गई है। राज्य मीडिया ने कहा कि चांग सोंग-थैक ने किम जोंग-उन के नेतृत्व को चुनौती देने और वर्कर पार्टी के भीतर एक प्रतिद्वंद्वी गुट बनाने के लिए दोषी ठहराया था। उन्हें पहले ही उनके सभी आधिकारिक पदों से हटा दिया गया था और पार्टी से निष्कासित कर दिया गया था, लेकिन उनका सार्वजनिक निष्कासन उत्तर कोरिया की अपारदर्शी राजनीतिक मशीन की स्थिरता के बारे में क्या कहता है, बीबीसी की लुसी विलियमसन पूछती हैं।


'It's a real shame all the deli counters are shutting'

Summary: Janet says it's a "real shame" that Sainsbury's plans to close all of its meat, fish and deli counters permanently. Before the pandemic she'd used them for years so she could buy just the amount of fresh meat she needed.

By Daniel Thomas & Philippa GoodrichBBC business reporters "I think it's something they should be encouraging rather than getting rid of," she tells the BBC at the Sydenham branch in South London. "You could bring your own containers and they'd put the food in them. It saved on all this packaging and the waste it creates." But the supermarket giant's decision doesn't bother everyone, particularly at a time when people are doing more shopping locally and independent delis have become a fixture on many high streets. There's the convenience factor too. "You can get the meat you need, the cheese you need on the shelves and it is a quicker experience than waiting in a queue to get the item from the deli counter," says Alex Johnson, who also shops at Sainsbury's in Sydenham. "When you've got kids it's much more about getting your shopping done quickly." Sainsbury's closed its meat, fish and deli counters back in March, saying it was focusing its efforts on "feeding the nation". And while its decision this week not to re-open them is part of a big cost-cutting exercise in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the company appears to be following a trend that was developing even before the virus struck. Rival supermarket Tesco said early in 2019 that it planned to close fish, meat and deli counters in 90 of its stores and to operate them on reduced hours in others. It blamed falling demand and changing customer habits for the move. During the pandemic it too closed its remaining meat and fish counters, but most are open again now. Asda followed suit at the beginning of 2020 with its proposal to replace its fresh meat and fish counters with "food for now" stalls - selling ready-to-eat food such as hot pies or sushi - in 150 of its shops. Alone out of the "big four", Morrisons says it currently has no plans to close its meat and fish stalls. Retail expert, Kate Hardcastle, thinks Sainsbury's decision is not only a sign of the difficult trading environment, but is also part of a strategy to "re-engineer" the supermarket for a future where shoppers no longer want to linger over a huge range of products. "Those counters were really important, they brought what we call retail theatre into the mix and retail theatre's so important, but only when people are shopping with the senses available to them. So, you can't smell things with a face mask," she says. "People are shopping with military precision, it isn't about stopping and dwelling now, it's about efficiently getting on." Kate also points out that the German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, don't have an in-store butcher, and yet they've still won awards for their meat. "And so what the competitors like Sainsbury's have seen is actually, 'oh maybe we don't need the theatre of a man or a woman stood there with the blue and white striped apron, maybe actually it's all about the value proposition instead,'" she says. Not all shoppers agree though. Anna Dovey from Farnham in Surrey enjoyed the slower pace that choosing food at the deli counters brought. "You have that one-to-one interaction," she says. "You can say, 'can I have a slice of this or a slice of that?'" But for Anna the main driver for going to the fresh food counters was that it was a very convenient means of shopping in an environmentally friendly way. Like Janet, before the pandemic hit she'd been taking her own plastic containers along to her local Sainsbury's for the staff to put her purchases into them, whether it was chicken breasts, steak or cheese. "I had planned on continuing that once this is over," she says. "This move just exacerbates the plastic problem. And no, recycling is not the solution." Sainsbury's says it is committed to reducing its plastic use, as it works towards a target of becoming "net zero" by 2040. The news that the meat, fish and deli counters will close permanently has come as a "smack in the teeth" for the people who work on them, says Bev Carson, the national officer for the food industry at the Unite union. "Sainsbury's workers take pride in their work. They're really proud, or they were really proud, to work for Sainsbury's," she says. Since March staff from the fresh food counters have been absorbed into the rest of the workforce in their stores. Announcing the cuts, Sainsbury's boss Simon Roberts said it would do "everything possible" to find alternative roles for those whose jobs are at risk, but Bev is concerned about how many workers the company will actually be able to redeploy. Moreover, she says, these are specialist staff, in some cases with knowledge "second to none" of the products they were selling. "So they're losing skills, they're basically losing skills. It's just another decline in this industry that's going to fast foods."

जेनेट का कहना है कि यह एक "वास्तविक शर्म की बात" है कि सेंसबरी की अपने सभी मांस, मछली और डेली काउंटरों को स्थायी रूप से बंद करने की योजना है। महामारी से पहले वह वर्षों तक उनका उपयोग करती थी ताकि वह उतना ही ताजा मांस खरीद सके जितना उसे चाहिए था।


We are Stoke-on-Trent: 'Buses are so bad, going out is pointless'

Summary: Buses in Stoke-on-Trent do not run late enough into the evening, offer an unpredictable service and are too expensive to use, passengers have told the BBC. So, how bad is it, and what can be done?

As part of the BBC's We Are Stoke-on-Trent project, residents have been speaking about the issues that matter to them, and one issue that keeps coming up is those single and double-deckers. Some passengers say they have regular problems getting to work and college on time, while others say reduced services make them feel isolated. Waiting all day for a bus and two turning up at once seems to be the least of the difficulties. The people having the problems For 17-year-old college student Grace Smith, the services are not fit for purpose and cost "an arm and a leg". Her mum, Claire, pays for her weekly bus pass which costs £15, and also covers an additional, daily charge of £4.40 as the teenager relies on two different providers for the two legs of her journey to Stoke-on-Trent College from her home in Cheddleton. It amounts to a total monthly charge of about £140. On top of that, Miss Smith says the journey can sometimes take up to two hours - despite only living about 10 miles away. Stephanie Mountford, 58, works at a Sainsbury's in the city and often cannot get a bus back to her home in Norton Green, even if she finishes at 17:30. "It's just useless," she said. Other passengers say they have seen services stopped entirely. Adrian Tooth, 49, a course leader at Staffordshire University, used to catch the number 21 bus from Trentham to Hanley to go out on Tuesday evenings. "The service was stopped out of the blue and people were just stripped of their independence," he said. John Housley, 71, a joiner from the Staffordshire Moorlands, had a similar experience. He said: "In the last two years I've seen the last bus from Leek go from being 22:30 to 19:30. "It makes going out in an evening pointless - by the time you get there you've got to catch the last bus back." What do passengers want? Passengers say they want to see more coordinated services for different groups of users. Grace Smith says there should be more support for young people through the restoration of the under-18 bus pass. It was scrapped by Staffordshire County Council over the summer. The authority said the decision was due to an 80% drop in the uptake of passes since 2014/15. You may also like: Mr Tooth said operators should consider the impact of services on older people, while Mrs Mountford said she would like services to be run better for commuters. Darren Shirley, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, says the government needs to create a national strategy to ensure communities such as those in Stoke-on-Trent are not left disconnected. What do the bus companies say? Bus services in Stoke-on-Trent are delivered by three operators. One of the companies, D&G, says it recognises cutting back a service can prompt a "vicious cycle" of putting people off travelling, which may "lead to further journeys being withdrawn over time". Operator First Potteries says its services are frequent, flexible and "90% run on time". It recently announced a raft of changes to its services, due to come into force from 29 September. The BBC has approached the third operator, Arriva, for comment. A Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesperson says the authority is "in the process of creating a plan to deliver a better public transport provision, working with bus operators". This article was created as part of We are Stoke-on-Trent, a BBC project with the people of the city to tell us the stories which matter to them.

यात्रियों ने बीबीसी को बताया है कि स्टोक-ऑन-ट्रेंट में बसें शाम तक देर से नहीं चलती हैं, एक अप्रत्याशित सेवा प्रदान करती हैं और उपयोग करने के लिए बहुत महंगी होती हैं। तो, यह कितना बुरा है, और क्या किया जा सकता है?


Welsh Labour leadership election voting closes

Summary: Voting in the Welsh Labour leadership election has ended.

Three candidates - Eluned Morgan, Vaughan Gething and Mark Drakeford - are in the running to succeed Carwyn Jones, who steps down next week. Around 175,000 people have been given the right to vote in the election through their membership of the party or affiliated trade unions. The winner, who will be set to become Wales's next first minister, will be announced in Cardiff on Thursday. Voting ended at midday - most ballots are expected to have been cast online. About 25,000 Welsh Labour members got a vote, while an approximate 150,000 took take part through affiliated trade unions. Carwyn Jones, who has led Welsh Labour and the Welsh Government for nine years, announced his intention to stand down at the Welsh Labour conference in April. His final First Minister's Questions is expected to take place on Tuesday 11 December. He will tender his resignation to the Queen via email later that afternoon. That comes into effect whenever the palace replies. It is likely that could be overnight on the Tuesday, but there is no set timeframe. His successor as Welsh Labour leader would then be nominated and likely to be endorsed as the new first minister by the Senedd on Wednesday 12 December. It is expected that two opposition parties will nominate their own leaders for the position. Plaid Cymru has said it will nominate Adam Price, while a spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives confirmed the Tory group would also nominate Paul Davies. However, this would largely be symbolic, as the Labour-led Welsh Government holds a majority in the assembly with the support of Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams and independent AM Lord Elis-Thomas.

वेल्श लेबर नेतृत्व चुनाव में मतदान समाप्त हो गया है।


Q&A: Plans to simplify energy tariffs

Summary: The energy regulator, Ofgem, has proposed some big changes to the way gas and electricity companies sell to customers.

Ofgem has previously suggested the market is run on the basis of "complex tariffs, poor supplier behaviour and a lack of transparency". Now the government wants to follow these plans with new legislation to make bills simpler for consumers. Its proposals include an element of compulsion, ensuring customers are put on the cheapest deal in the price plan that they choose.

ऊर्जा नियामक, ओ. एफ. जी. एम. ने गैस और बिजली कंपनियों द्वारा ग्राहकों को बेचने के तरीके में कुछ बड़े बदलावों का प्रस्ताव दिया है।


Recycling facility resumes in Guernsey's St Martin

Summary: Recycling has resumed at a site in Guernsey after bins were removed to make way for more car parking space.

The bins at Manor stores in St Martin were taken away on Tuesday to allow additional car parking space for the new Iceland store. They were to be sent to other sites but some have been reinstated by landowner, Sandpiper CI, until planning permission for another location is granted. The decision was made after a number of locals voiced their concerns. Tina Norman-Ross, public services recycling officer, said the response after the bins were removed "demonstrated people's passion for recycling in the island".

अधिक कार पार्किंग स्थान के लिए रास्ता बनाने के लिए डिब्बे हटाए जाने के बाद ग्वेर्नसे में एक स्थल पर पुनर्चक्रण फिर से शुरू हो गया है।


Funeral held for Penistone fire death brothers

Summary: Hundreds of people have attended the funeral of two brothers who died after a fire was started deliberately at their South Yorkshire home.

Paul Sykes, nine, died at Tennyson Close, Penistone, on 22 October. His brother Jack, 12, died six days later. Their father, Darren, 44, also died. Police say the fire was started deliberately and are not looking for anyone in connection with the deaths. The funeral took place at St John's Church, Penistone. Paying tribute to the two boys, Andrew Platt, headteacher at Paul's school Springvale Primary, said: "Both Paul and Jack packed a great deal in to their time that they had. "They brought joy and happiness to others."

सैकड़ों लोग उन दो भाइयों के अंतिम संस्कार में शामिल हुए हैं जिनकी मृत्यु उनके दक्षिण यॉर्कशायर के घर में जानबूझकर आग लगने से हुई थी।


Are birds of prey back?

Summary: People are used to stories of conservational doom-and-gloom with fragile species threatened by creeping urbanisation, but recent reports suggest some birds of prey are booming in the UK. So why does the prospect of a soaring hawk or eagle leave some people worried?

By Tom de CastellaJournalist Birds of prey are admired. Their powerful talons and soaring flight impresses. People relish the suspense that comes from watching them hover before making a kill. Britain's biggest, the white-tailed (or sea) eagle - the fourth largest eagle in the world - has a wingspan of eight feet. But during Victorian times many birds of prey were hunted ruthlessly. Four species - the osprey, white-tailed eagle, goshawk and marsh harrier - were virtually extinct in Britain during most of the 20th Century. And some of their emotional resonance comes precisely because of their perilous decline during the period of intensive industrialisation in the UK. During the 1950s and 1960s organochlorine pesticides were widely used, seriously inhibiting top predators like the golden eagle's ability to breed. But at the end of the 1960s these chemicals were banned. That together with reintroduction schemes and a new ethos of protecting birds of prey - culminating in the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act - has turned the tide, says Grahame Madge, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' conservation spokesman. The white tailed eagle, after a successful reintroduction scheme during the 1970s on the island of Rum is now well established in the west coast of Scotland. The red kite is now up to 1,800 breeding pairs - a "staggering turn around", says Madge - while there are thought to be around 40,000 buzzards soaring over the UK. Everyone from hikers to motorway drivers can now expect to see birds of prey regularly. But, it's neither a story of unbridled success or acceptance. "It's a sweeping generalisation to say that birds of prey have bounced back," says Madge. "It may be fitting for some of the 15 species but not all." Several species - notably the hen harrier, golden eagle and goshawk - are still at risk. In England there is only one breeding pair of golden eagles and 12 pairs of hen harriers when there should be many more, Madge says. There's plenty of food and territory, the problem is persecution, particularly poisoned bait, he says. "Persecution was rife during the reign of Victoria. And we still see that mindset now with birds of prey being illegally persecuted in upland areas where you have grouse shooting, such as the Pennines and southern Scotland. " A newspaper ran a spectacular photograph earlier this week of a golden eagle plucking a lamb from a field. Local farmers claimed the photograph was evidence that eagles - which have been reintroduced back into parts of Scotland - are now out of control. The Scottish Crofting Federation is complaining that the reintroduction of the white-tailed eagle has been too successful. Donald Murdie, a crofter on the Isle of Skye and SCF consultant, says the bird has spread from its initial reintroduction to the west of the mainland, and the islands of Skye, Lewis and Harris. "They're magnificent to behold. But whereas people were initially happy to see them, these birds are now causing serious problems to sheep producers." Murdie says that the most seriously affected crofters complain they are losing 10 lambs a year. It's now time for a rethink, he argues. "It would be fine if the reintroduction was kept to one discrete area but the fact is they're continuing to reintroduce in other areas like the East Coast and potentially Suffolk." Others even allege that birds of prey are hoovering up the UK's songbirds. Keith McDougall, policy director of pressure group Songbird Survival, reels off a long list of species whose numbers are declining - the skylark down 51%, the song thrush down 48%, the tree sparrow down 89%. The reason is threefold, he says - intensive farming, a drier climate and an increasing number of predators. This last category includes cats, crows, foxes but also birds of prey. "In this country we're in the business of species balance - this is not the Serengeti plain, the Amazon or Antarctica. We're in a highly farmed environment so Songbird Survival believes that the management of species is important," says McDougall. In the future that might mean extending its experimental cull of crows to birds of prey, he argues, a move that would require a change in the law. "If things are going wrong for some birds it's the duty of those in charge to help species that are in trouble," he says. But the RSPB says there is no evidence that birds of prey are to blame. Prof Ian Newton, visiting professor of ornithology at Oxford University, criticises Songbird Survival's claims. "There's not a single piece of evidence to support the view that raptors are depressing songbird numbers," he says. "All the evidence points to changes in agricultural land use for the decline in songbird numbers." Four factors - disappearance of weeds from fields, more efficient land drainage, intensive cutting of grass for silage and the loss of hedgerows - are to blame, Prof Newton says. The awe that birds of prey inspire will continue to be a driver for conservation efforts. "The golden eagle is pretty beautiful, the hen harrier stunning," says journalist Rod Liddle, who presented a radio programme this week on birds of prey. "But my favourite memory is seeing an osprey at six o'clock in the morning one summer in Wiltshire. It was flying south, a big, black, white and brown bird. It was a magnificent sight."

लोग शहरीकरण से खतरे में पड़ रही नाजुक प्रजातियों के साथ रूढ़िवादी कयामत और उदासी की कहानियों के आदी हैं, लेकिन हाल की रिपोर्टों से पता चलता है कि ब्रिटेन में कुछ शिकार पक्षी उभर रहे हैं। तो फिर एक उड़ते हुए बाज या चील की संभावना कुछ लोगों को चिंतित क्यों करती है?


Ludwig the otter rescued from Swansea nickel refinery

Summary: An otter has been rescued after getting himself trapped beneath a fast moving conveyor belt at a Swansea nickel refinery.

RSPCA officers were called to Vale Europe Ltd's refinery in Clydach on Tuesday after staff spotted him. The adult otter - named Ludwig after refinery founder Ludwig Mond - was quickly cornered and rescued. After a visit to the vet he was taken to the RSPCA's specialist wildlife centre in Somerset for rehabilitation.

स्वानसी निकल रिफाइनरी में तेजी से चलने वाले कन्वेयर बेल्ट के नीचे फंसने के बाद एक ऊदबिलाव को बचाया गया है।


What the French really think about The Artist

Summary: One of the curious things about The Artist - which with its five Oscars and a host of other awards is now the most decorated piece of cinema in French history - is that in France itself the film has not been a massive success.

By Hugh SchofieldBBC News, Paris When it was released in the autumn, there was already some buzz because Jean Dujardin had taken the best actor title at the Cannes festival in May. But still the film had only a moderately decent run, and certainly didn't figure in the top 10 films - judged by audience - of 2011. Indeed, so lacklustre was the national reaction, that when The Artist started making serious waves around the world in January this year, they re-released it in France (just three months after the first release) in the hope of surfing the sudden popularity. Again, the reaction was hardly euphoric. Raised profile And still today - despite its Oscars and its Golden Globes, its Baftas and its Cesars - only three million French people have been to see The Artist. Compare that to the 19 million who have been to see the real French movie hit of last year, the comedy Les Intouchables. So when people say that The Artist shows the depth and originality of French cinema - how it may even come to symbolise a new golden age of French cinema - caution is advised. According to Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, president of UniFrance which promotes French films abroad, the success of The Artist will "certainly have repercussions for the French industry - simply because it raises our profile. "Foreign buyers can see that every year in France films of quality are being made in all the different genres: comedy, drama, action and animation." But even he agrees that The Artist has to be seen as something of an exception. For a start, there is the obvious fact that by virtue of being silent The Artist at one fell swoop overcomes the biggest single hurdle to selling French films abroad; they are in French. Second, The Artist is about as un-French a film as a French film can be. It is set in Hollywood, made in Hollywood, and a tribute to Hollywood. Asked who his inspirations were, director Michel Hazanavicius gave three names: "Billy Wilder, Billy Wilder and Billy Wilder." And third, there are arguments over how far The Artist can really be regarded as a product of the French cinema system. 'No help from France' Most French films enjoy lavish state aid, handed out via the National Centre for French Cinema (CNC) which distributes some 250m euros every year. Financed via a tax on ticket sales and levies on television companies, these subsidies arguably make French cinema what it is: prolific, capable of occasional brilliance - but above all, simply there. Where other countries have a few pet producers, France at least has a genuine industry. But Thomas Langmann - who produced and part-financed The Artist - has famously said the film cannot be called entirely French because "we got no help from France". What angered Mr Langmann was that the CNC refused to fund the film via one of its principal systems of subsidy, known as an "advance on receipts". This system, which is worth on average 400,000 euros each for 50 or so French films a year, is intended to promote original French films outside the mainstream - criteria which a silent black-and-white film starring a Frenchman might reasonably be construed as fulfilling. However according to Mr Langmann, the CNC turned down The Artist because they thought it was too "bling-bling". And he castigated the deciding committee as a "group of buddies handing out money to their friends." His point is the best cinema is made when talented individuals bring together the right combination of passion, daring, originality and hard work. Pure French product But he is wrong to imply that The Artist was made in spite of the French system. In fact more than a third of its 11.3m euro budget came from the French television channels Canal Plus and France 3 (which are obliged by their licences to pump money into film). And more than 2m euros came in the CNC's so-called 'automatic aid' - which is based on the takings of the makers' previous films. As the Les Echos financial daily put it, The Artist is in fact a pure French product. Still, that doesn't detract from the fact that the film has received greater acclaim abroad than it ever did at home, partly because it appeals so much to an American audience. The story - fame, heartbreak, resurrection - is one of the great American myths, as well as its silent film-era US setting. But another reason for The Artist's success in the United States is the extraordinarily effective marketing operation conducted by Harvey Weinstein, whose TWC company bought the rights at Cannes. One-off success? Weinstein coached Dujardin, co-star Berenice Bejo, Mr Langmann and Hazanavicius through weeks of interviews on the US circuit, putting the focus as much on the story behind the film as on the film itself, and making Oscar success appear inevitable. Weinstein was in France last month, receiving the Legion d'Honneur from a grateful President Sarkozy. The Hollywood mogul appears to be in love with French film at the moment, claiming in one interview that "today your films are having the same impact in the world as in the New Wave. It's a new golden age." But it is how his next French venture fares which may be more telling; in May Les Intouchables gets its American release. The film is about a wealthy quadraplegic who is looked after by a lovable black kid from the banlieues (French housing estates). It has become one of the most popular films ever in France - as well as in continental Europe - but the omens across the pond are poor. Several US reviewers have described the film as condescending and even racist. Variety said it was "offensive" and "cringe-worthy" and that the black character (played by Omar Sy) was barely changed from the "jolly house slave of yore". Weinstein has laughed off these criticisms as misunderstandings, but he may be rattled. He's about to discover the joys of promoting a real French film.

द आर्टिस्ट के बारे में एक दिलचस्प बात-जो अपने पांच ऑस्कर और कई अन्य पुरस्कारों के साथ अब फ्रांसीसी इतिहास में सिनेमा का सबसे सुशोभित टुकड़ा है-यह है कि फ्रांस में ही फिल्म को भारी सफलता नहीं मिली है।


When Trump met Kim: What happened next?

Summary: Throughout this week, we will be looking back at some of the BBC website's most-read stories of the year and asking: what happened after the news moved on? Today, our Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker looks at what, if anything, changed after historic talks between Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un in June.

I've lost track of the number of firsts on the Korean peninsula this year. The most obvious was the first US-North Korean summit in Singapore in June. Historic was the word most of us used on the day Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to shake the hand of a North Korean leader. Mr Trump went a bit further. They fell in love, he announced at a political rally. The summit held so many possibilities. Did Donald Trump succeed where others, for decades, had failed and get North Korea to give up its arms? The short answer is no. We were told in a tweet by the president that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat. Lately he has said everything with North Korea is "just fine" and that there's "no hurry" to push for a deal to get rid of the regime's nuclear weapons. That's fine. Problem solved. Errrm...not quite. Let's remind ourselves about the overall objective: North Korea has nuclear weapons which many believe are capable of threatening the United States. Mr Trump made it one of his key foreign policy aims to end the era of "strategic patience" that the Obama administration had favoured with North Korea. His policy was "maximum pressure". Strict economic sanctions to isolate the regime. There seems to be a belief in parts of Washington that Kim Jong-un came to Singapore because of those sanctions and Mr Trump's threat of "fire and fury". But North Korea came to that meeting in a position of strength. Pyongyang's view may be that its nuclear capabilities won them a summit with the US president. And while Mr Trump boasts about his relationship with Mr Kim, Pyongyang and Washington have not been brought closer by the summit. They've grown further apart. The short statement agreed between the two leaders was incredibly vague, which has meant the two sides have argued over its interpretation. To North Korea, the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula does not mean that it alone gives up its arms. The regime wants reciprocal action from the United States and so far there is no sign they are going to get it. North Korea also seems to believe that it was given an assurance by Mr Trump that the US would agree to sign a formal declaration ending the Korean War by the end of this year. However, many in Washington oppose this idea as they believe it would be far too great a concession at this stage. Very few face-to-face talks have taken place since the Singapore summit. The North Koreans cancelled a planned meeting in New York in November with the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Just hours before the announcement, Mr Pompeo had said he hoped he could make "real progress". The US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, has yet to even meet his counterpart, the North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Sun Hui, despite several attempts. Pyongyang has also issued a number of blistering statements condemning the sanctions imposed by the United States. The latest came after the US placed sanctions on three top North Korean officials, one of whom is a close aide to Kim Jong-un. A statement from the foreign ministry warned that the move could block the path to denuclearisation forever. It's worth noting that in this series of statements, the focus of the attacks is the US state department and not Mr Trump himself. North Korea knows how to flatter the US president and to separate his foreign policy decisions from those of his state department. So despite the first US-North Korean summit and hopes of a second in 2019, no nuclear weapons have changed hands, no inspectors have been allowed into North Korea and no weapons facilities have been destroyed. Satellite images throughout the year have shown that work has not stopped at North Korean missile facilities and one study suggests that a key long-range missile base may have been expanded. North Korea, however, has ramped up its foreign policy firsts. Kim Jong-un didn't just court the US president in 2018. In fact, before he met any other world leader, Mr Kim's first trip out of North Korea as leader was to Beijing to meet President Xi. He also held his first summit with the South Korean leader Moon Jae-in. And a second and a third in Pyongyang, which was the first visit north by a South Korean president in a decade. Soldiers from the two Koreas have entered one another's territory for the first time since the country was divided. They shook hands, swapped cigarettes. Both countries have destroyed guard posts along the heavily fortified demilitarised zone. This, of course, is not denuclearisation. But it is trust building. The Moon administration hopes that this new relationship will make it more difficult for relations to sour again. On New Year's Day, Kim Jong-un will address his nation and outline his priorities for 2019. Seoul and Washington will be watching closely. Many analysts believe that both countries will at some point have to come to terms with a nuclear North Korea, that despite the sanctions and the summits, Pyongyang's nuclear programme isn't going anywhere. But I doubt that President Moon or President Trump will want to be the first leader to admit that.

इस पूरे सप्ताह के दौरान, हम बीबीसी वेबसाइट की वर्ष की कुछ सबसे अधिक पढ़ी जाने वाली कहानियों को देखेंगे और पूछेंगेः इस खबर के आगे बढ़ने के बाद क्या हुआ? आज, हमारे सियोल संवाददाता लौरा बिकर देखते हैं कि जून में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प और उत्तर कोरिया के किम जोंग-उन के बीच ऐतिहासिक बातचीत के बाद क्या, यदि कुछ भी, बदल गया।


Not just Potter's house - ordinary homes for showbiz fans

Summary: If you've ever fancied owning a home made famous by film or television, now could be the time to invest. Not only is Harry Potter's house - where he slept under the stairs - up for sale, but the family home of his clever friend Hermione Granger is also on the market.

By Bethan BellBBC News And there have been multiple opportunities to move into a house that has been populated by fictional characters ranging from The Young Ones to multitudes of spotted dogs. Here are some. For more stories on quirky homes and buildings follow our Pinterest board Harry and Hermione So, owls at the ready as we start with the unassuming brick building used in the films as the Dursley family home in "Little Whinging" - actually Martins Heron, in Bracknell, Berkshire. According to estate agents, it's situated in a quiet cul-de-sac location and has undergone complete renovation. Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs is included. It is up for £475,000. The Granger household in Hampstead Garden Suburb, in north London, requires deeper pockets (maybe magic ones) and has an asking price of £2.4m. It featured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and was where the teenage witch removed her parents' memories of her before she set off to help save the world from He Who Must Not Be Named. The Young Ones The group of four students - aggressive punk Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), conceited wannabe anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall), oppressed paranoid hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), and the suave, charming Mike (Christopher Ryan) - were ostensibly attending Scumbag College, but really just causing havoc in a squalid setting. Underneath the insanity however, classic sitcom rules worked. Neil was a put-upon housewife in all but name, Rick and Vyvyan wayward teenagers with a penchant for fatuous semi-Marxism and hitting people, with Mike the father figure whose plans for making money resemble an even-less-competent Del Trotter. Although the series, which ran between 1982 and 1984, was set in North London, the house itself is on the corner of Codrington Road and Broadway in Bristol. It's been converted into flats which rent for about £600 per month. Obviously they'd be perfect for students. Peep Show Zodiac Court in Croydon is where the two hapless protagonists lived together in the award-winning Peep Show. Originally it was filmed in an actual apartment in the building, but after filming permission was withdrawn the flat was painstakingly recreated in a former carpet factory in Neasden. Centred around socially awkward Mark and juvenile slacker Jeremy, the show lasted for nine seasons, becoming Channel 4's longest-running comedy. A studio flat in Zodiac Court with wooden floors, a balcony and underground parking would set you back about £149,950. A two-bedroom flat on the ninth floor was recently sold for £185,000. Being Human Annie the ghost, Mitchell the vampire and George the werewolf shacked up together in this five-bedroom house in Totterdown, Bristol, in the BBC supernatural drama Being Human. In the programme, the distinctive pink corner-property was owned by Annie's good-for-nothing boyfriend - who pushed her down the stairs leading to her death and subsequent ghostliness. In real life, the building last sold in 1999 at the price of £70,000. Its current estimated market value is £223,268 - supernatural creatures are clearly good for the property market. Bridget Jones's Diary Clink Wharf, on Clink Street facing directly onto the River Thames, was used as the exterior of Daniel Cleaver's flat in Bridget Jones's Diary. A two-bedroom warehouse-style apartment in the building sold in 2013 for £899,950. It's featured on the screen as more than the location of the revelation of Bridget's big pants, though. A chase scene in the David Lean directed Oliver Twist was filmed outside, as was a Doctor Who episode, as was the final sequence in the 1981 John Landis film An American Werewolf in London. Butterflies Carla Lane's bittersweet comedy was set in Cheltenham - the very house the Parkinsons lived in was 30 Bournside Road in the suburb of Up Hatherley. The four-bedroom detached property last sold in 2008 for the price of £530,000. The nearby Hatherley Park is where Ria would meet her admirer Leonard. It's in a discussion with Leonard the show's title is explained. She says: "We are all kids chasing butterflies. You see it, you want it, you grab it, and there it is, all squashed in your hand." She adds: "I am one of the few lucky ones, I have a pleasant house, a pleasant man and two pleasant sons. My butterfly didn't get squashed." So people wanting to buy the house on Bournside Road - now valued at £591,000 - can at least be assured it's "pleasant". The houses in another of Lane's sitcoms, Bread, are in Elswick Street, Liverpool. They'd now sell for about £90,000. Outnumbered Pete and Sue Brockman reign over a chaotic home on the fictional Keely Road in Chiswick in the BBC's award-winning sitcom. The real-life house used for exterior scenes is a five-bedroom semi-detached on Dempster Road in Wandsworth. The Victorian family homes on the road will set you back more than £1m - or flat within a converted building could be yours for £300,000. The Good Life Self-sufficient Tom and Barbara Good lived in leafy Surbiton next to their bemused neighbours the Leadbetters. The house featured in the 1970s sitcom was actually on Kewferry Road in Northwood, Middlesex, and sold in 2001 for £570,000, complete with vegetable patch and bee colony. If it came up on the market today, Tom and Barbara's home would have an asking price of about £1.5m. 101 Dalmatians - and more This former butchery has been used in films and TV shows. The house is in the quaint village of Hambleden, which is popular with filmmakers due to its closeness to Pinewood Studios. The cottage has appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 101 Dalmatians, The Avengers, and Band of Brothers. It sold in 2013 for £1.5m. Alan Partridge If you fancy living like the famous - but can't afford to buy a house, why not stay in the Linton Travel Tavern? It's where Alan Partridge once spent an impressive 182 days. In real life it's the Hilton Hotel in Watford, off the M1. Rooms start at about £60 for a night. According to Alan, "there's a cracking owl sanctuary" nearby. Which, magically, takes us right back to Harry Potter.

यदि आपने कभी फिल्म या टेलीविजन द्वारा प्रसिद्ध घर के मालिक होने की कल्पना की है, तो अब निवेश करने का समय हो सकता है। न केवल हैरी पॉटर का घर-जहाँ वह सीढ़ियों के नीचे सोता था-बिक्री के लिए है, बल्कि उसकी चतुर दोस्त हर्मियॉन ग्रेंजर का पारिवारिक घर भी बाजार में है।


Shetland Gas Plant strike plans postponed

Summary: A planned strike by contractors at the giant Shetland Gas Plant in a dispute over wages and holiday pay has been postponed.

The Unite union had said more than 80 staff employed by Aker Solutions at the Total-operated site would stage strikes every Monday and Wednesday, starting on 20 November. Talks are to take place next week at the conciliation service Acas. It is hoped the talks can settle the long-running row. It was claimed that the terminal could have been forced to shut down as a result of the planned action. However, Total had said it would be able to continue to operate the plant safely. The plant processes about 10% of the UK's gas supply.

वेतन और अवकाश वेतन को लेकर विवाद में विशाल शेटलैंड गैस संयंत्र में ठेकेदारों द्वारा नियोजित हड़ताल को स्थगित कर दिया गया है।


Q&A: Meredith Kercher murder court case

Summary: Italy's top appeals court has overturned the convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher in 2007. The decision is the final ruling in the long-running case. The pair were found guilty in 2009, then freed in 2011 after a successful appeal. A retrial was ordered in 2013 and their original guilty verdicts had been reinstated in 2014.

What are the facts of the case? British exchange student Meredith Kercher was found with her throat cut at the flat she shared in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007. Three people were tried for her murder. US student Amanda Knox and her Italian student boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murder and sexual violence in December 2009. The former was jailed for 26 years, the latter for 25. Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted and jailed for 30 years, later reduced to 16 on appeal. In October 2011, a jury freed Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito on appeal, largely over doubts raised about the forensic evidence against them. In March 2013 an appeal by prosecutors was upheld and a new hearing ordered. In January 2014 their guilty verdicts were reinstated by a court in Florence. Ms Knox was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail, while Sollecito received 25 years. Then in March 2015, Italy's top appeals court overturned the convictions again, ending the long legal battle. Why have Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito been acquitted? We don't know the reasons for the ruling yet. Italy's supreme court, the Court of Cassation, will publish its reasoning in late June - 90 days after the 27 March ruling. So who killed Meredith Kercher? Guede's conviction still stands - but the court's ruling against him stated that he did not act alone. The 2014 verdicts against Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito said they wielded knives, Guede held the victim down and committed a sexual assault and Ms Knox "delivered the only mortal blow". That 2014 ruling has now been overturned - so no-one now stands convicted of acting with Guede to kill Ms Kercher. Why were guilty verdicts reinstated in January 2014? Prosecutors successfully argued in the Court of Cassation that the 2011 appeal hearing for Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito had disregarded important DNA evidence. The court's judges sharply criticised the appeals court for the acquittals, saying it had ignored some evidence, considered other evidence insufficiently and undervalued the fact that Knox had originally accused local bar owner Patrick Diya Lumumba - who was later proved to be innocent. The appeal judges were also criticised for not taking into account the judgement that Guede had not acted alone. How could they be tried twice for the same crime? A Court of Cassation ruling meant the 2013-14 case was technically not a new trial but a continuation of the original one. What forensic evidence was presented? Prosecutors pointed to a bra clasp belonging to Meredith Kercher where Mr Sollecito's DNA was reportedly found. They maintained that Ms Knox's DNA was on the handle of a kitchen knife used in the attack, with Ms Kercher's DNA on the blade. In addition, traces of Ms Knox's blood and footprints were found in the flat. How did the pair plead at the 2013-14 trial? Ms Knox was tried in absentia because Italy had no power to summon her to the hearing. She sent a five-page email to the court maintaining her innocence and expressing her fear that the "vehemence of the prosecution" would "blind" the court. Mr Sollecito, who attended the trial, said it made "no real sense" for him to have committed "such an atrocious act". How did the second trial differ from previous proceedings? Correspondents said the prosecutor in Florence, Alessandro Crini, redefined the motive of the crime. He moved away from the drug-fuelled erotic game described by his colleagues in earlier proceedings and instead contended that the outburst of violence was rooted in arguments between roommates Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher about cleanliness - triggered by a toilet left unflushed by Rudy Guede. Why has the case generated so much publicity? The case has generated global headlines as well as a number of books about the case. The young age of both victim and defendants, the attractive appearance of Ms Knox and Ms Kercher, and the alleged sexual nature of Ms Kercher's death have all played a part in fuelling interest. "I don't remember any case which has been as highly publicised and where the countries have taken sides,'' the noted defence attorney Alan Dershowitz told the AP news agency. "I think it's fair to say that the vast number of Americans think she is innocent and a substantial number of Italians think she is guilty."

इटली की शीर्ष अपील अदालत ने 2007 में ब्रिटेन के छात्र मेरेडिथ केर्चर की हत्या के लिए अमांडा नॉक्स और राफेल सोलेसिटो की दोषसिद्धि को पलट दिया है। यह निर्णय लंबे समय से चल रहे मामले में अंतिम निर्णय है। इस जोड़ी को 2009 में दोषी पाया गया था, फिर एक सफल अपील के बाद 2011 में रिहा कर दिया गया था। 2013 में एक पुनः मुकदमे का आदेश दिया गया था और 2014 में उनके मूल दोषी फैसलों को बहाल कर दिया गया था।


New Guernsey Water headquarters opens

Summary: Guernsey Water has opened a new headquarters in St Andrew's quarry.

Staff from three different sites will be based at the new £5m facility, which the firm says will cut costs and improve communication. The company, which bought the quarry site for £2m in 2003, is selling assets including its now empty St Peter Port offices, to fund the build. Work on the new headquarters, named Brickfield House, began in February 2010.

ग्वेर्नसे वाटर ने सेंट एंड्रयूज खदान में एक नया मुख्यालय खोला है।


Reliving The Beatles' Cavern debut

Summary: It was 50 years ago today that The Beatles played their first gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool - the venue where the band built their reputation and where Beatlemania was born. Alex McKechnie, then 16, was in the crowd for that first show and went on to be a regular at the club:

"I saw The Beatles a few times in the north end of Liverpool and was working in Liverpool city centre as a messenger boy in a printing works when I heard that they were on at the Cavern in a lunchtime session. "The Cavern was in the basement of a three or four storey warehouse. The public went down one flight of stone stairs and then there were three long arches. "At the end of one of the long arches was a little tiny stage. That's where the Beatles performed 292 times. "I remember it being very highly charged with excitement. The music sounded even more exciting [than the previous gigs] because The Cavern was this little squashed space so the music sounded a bit louder, a bit more exciting and a bit more vital. About 20 to 30 people were there. "The Beatles were the complete package - they didn't just have a great singer, they had two great singers. They always did harmonies right from the very first time I saw them. "They could probably only afford two microphones, and so when one was doing the lead singing the other two were facing each other on the mic, and it was quite charismatic, it was nice to look at. They had a camaraderie about them. "I never heard them singing one of their own songs because they were just a straight covers band at that time, as was everybody else in Liverpool. "The standard songs that they sang - them and the other bands in Liverpool - were [by] Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly. The sound that I very clearly remember the Beatles playing in the Cavern was a Chuck Berry riff. "As well as doing the stock standards, the Beatles were a bit different because they were better at playing complicated chords. The Beatles were a bit more adventurous. "It wasn't just the music and the singing, it was their lack of respect for the audience. At the Cavern for those first few gigs, they were quite irreverent to the audience and other people. They were sort of the first punk band. The Beatles were a law unto themselves on the stage. "They were still doing that when they went to America - if someone asked them a question they didn't give a serious answer, and that's how they behaved on stage in the Cavern, and that's why I think they liked it in the Cavern. "They were the epitome of rebellion in Liverpool because they weren't trying to imitate Cliff Richard and the Shadows doing little in time steps. They would dance out of step on purpose. "That was their purpose in life - to upset the apple cart. They were so cheeky and so entertaining all around. They were a little bit of a voice for us against authority. I think they were rebels. We were mini rebels supporting them. "Of course when I went back to work I used to stand gazing out of the window thinking about the Beatles and the girls at the Cavern. I couldn't really concentrate on doing any work. "Just in a few weeks they'd gained a bigger following. When word went around, the crowd grew and people kept coming back. Once you'd seen them, not many people didn't go to see them again. "They had big long queues, right down the length of the street and even round the corner at the bottom. But at that stage I'd dumped them. "They started talking about going to London and making records and things like that. Betrayal. "I wasn't the only one. I think the ones who thought that they'd discovered them were a little clique and really did give up on them when the masses found them. It was only when I heard Love Me Do on the radio that I started getting interested in them again. My wife subsequently bought all the LPs but that first era of The Beatles was over for me." Alex McKechnie was speaking to BBC News entertainment reporter Ian Youngs. The Cavern is celebrating the anniversary with a series of tribute events on Wednesday. A documentary about the first gig will be broadcast on ITV1 at 2240 GMT on Wednesday.

आज से 50 साल पहले द बीटल्स ने लिवरपूल के कैवर्न क्लब में अपना पहला कार्यक्रम खेला था-वह स्थान जहाँ बैंड ने अपनी प्रतिष्ठा बनाई थी और जहाँ बीटलमैनिया का जन्म हुआ था। एलेक्स मैककेनी, तब 16, उस पहले शो के लिए भीड़ में थे और क्लब में नियमित रूप से काम करते थेः


Climate change and coronavirus: Five charts about the biggest carbon crash

Summary: We're living through the biggest carbon crash ever recorded.

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent No war, no recession, no previous pandemic has had such a dramatic impact on emissions of CO2 over the past century as Covid-19 has in a few short months. Multiple sources indicate we are now living through an unrivalled drop in carbon output. But even though we will see a massive fall this year, the concentrations of CO2 that are in the atmosphere and warming our planet won't stabilise until the world reaches net-zero. As our chart shows, since the Spanish flu killed millions over 100 years ago, the global expansion of emissions of CO2, from the use of oil, gas and coal has risen massively. While these energy sources have transformed the world, the carbon seeping into our atmosphere has driven up global temperatures by just over 1C since the mid-1850s. They could rise by 3-4C by the end of this century if CO2 levels aren't savagely reduced. Over the past 100 years, as indicated on the graphic, a number of events have shown that dramatic falls in carbon are possible. Much is made of the financial crash in 2008-2009, but in reality, carbon emissions only fell by around 450 million tonnes between 2008 and 2009. This is much smaller than the fall in CO2 in the aftermath of World War II, which saw a drop of around 800 million tonnes. It is also smaller than the global recession in the early 1980s that followed the oil crisis of the late 1970s. During this period, CO2 went down by around one billion tonnes. But the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 dwarves all of these previous shocks by some distance. In a few months, demand for energy globally has fallen off a cliff. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that the world will use 6% less this year - equivalent to losing the entire energy demand of India. This will feed through to large falls in CO2. A number of different analyses, including this one from Carbon Brief, show that emissions this year will fall by 4-8%, somewhere between 2 and 3 billion tonnes of the warming gas. That's between six and ten times larger than during the last global recession. We're travelling less By air and on roads, the world has cut back heavily on travel. Full lockdowns have also pushed global electricity demand down by 20% or more, says the IEA. Across the full year, the need for electricity will fall by 5% - the biggest drop since the Great Depression of the 1930s. "This is an historic shock to the entire energy world," says Dr Fatih Birol, IEA executive director. The changes in energy demand will have a knock-on effect on global coal demand, which is set to fall 8% this year. With China the first country to stall its economy in response to the virus, coal use dropped sharply at first, though it is now rebounding and the expectation among energy analysts is that production this year will be down by just over 1%. Researchers say the biggest thing hitting CO2 emissions right now is the reduction in road transport. According to the IEA global average road transport activity fell to 50% of the 2019 level by the end of March 2020. As can be seen in our chart, almost every country has seen a huge drop in road use. This has resulted in a massive fall in the use of oil. "Back in the 2009 recession, average oil demand dropped by 1.3 million barrels per day versus 2008. And now 2020 is set to average 10 million barrels per day less than 2019." said Erik Holm Reiso, from Rystad Energy, an independent research firm. "It's a much more severe cycle." Similarly, air travel has dropped hugely, but by different amounts in different regions. In Europe, the number of flights is down around 90%, whereas in the US it has been more resilient with around half the number of planes taking off compared to last year. Globally, though, the demand for jet fuel is down 65% year-on-year to April. "What we're seeing is that the largest relative reduction is in air traffic," said Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research (Cicero). "But air emissions are only about 3% of global total. So while the relative reductions in land transport are lower than air transport, the absolute reductions there are much more significant." It's not the same everywhere While the lockdown might feel rather uniform across the world, there have been huge variations in emissions reductions from different cities. If we take Paris and New York as examples, the contrast, as shown on our chart, is huge. Paris saw a CO2 drop of 72% (+/-15%) in the month of March compared to normal. New York in the same period, saw a CO2 fall of around 10%. So why the big difference? "In the Paris area, there are no large fossil fuel power plants, or industrial sites," said Philippe Ciais, from the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris. "Another difference is whether buildings are heated with fuels or with electricity. In France, around 70% of electricity comes from nuclear." Much of New York's CO2 comes from emissions related to the heating of buildings. But significant emissions come from fossil fuel plants based within the city limits. Cars make up a much smaller proportion of overall energy use. "I guess something to think about is that we shut down the entire city and got a reduction of 10% in the CO2 emissions," said Prof Róisín Commane from Columbia University in New York. "We are still emitting more than 80% of our previous CO2 emissions. That is a massive number. So personal behaviour really isn't going to fix the carbon emission problem. We need a systematic change in how energy is generated and transmitted." Have CO2 emissions already peaked? Back in 2008, the European electricity industry was hit badly by the global financial recession and demand for power fell sharply. But when that demand picked up again, it was solar and wind that were by then large enough to supply all the growth. Europe's use of fossil fuels to produce electricity never returned to the level it had been at before the crash. Experts now believe something similar could happen with the coronavirus pandemic. "In about half of the world, we've already seen peak demand for fossil fuels," said Kingsmill Bond, from independent financial think tank Carbon Tracker. "In Europe it was 2005, in the USA 2007." This means that the trend in demand has been downhill ever since. He added: "There has been a global coal demand peak in 2013. If you look at car demand, it is increasingly accepted that you saw peak conventional car demand in 2017." So will the pandemic's big hit on carbon mean that last year, 2019, becomes the year the world reached a turning point? Not so fast. The carbon emissions drop that followed the recession in 2009 was followed by a sharp rise of almost 6% in 2010. Something similar could happen over the next couple of years. "At this point, we do not see any clear signs that the pandemic and our societal response to it will lead to significant and permanent changes in the path of future global emissions," said Robbie Andrew from Cicero. "Right at the moment what we're seeing are immediate emissions responses, and following most previous crises, global emissions have returned to their pre-crisis trajectory." What if CO2 was cut like this each year? To keep the world on track to stay under 1.5C this century, the world needs similar cuts for the foreseeable future to keep this target in view. "If Covid-19 leads to a drop in emissions of around 5% in 2020, then that is the sort of reduction we need every year until net-zero emissions are reached around 2050," said Glen Peters, also from Cicero. "Such emissions reductions will not happen via lockdowns and restrictions, but by climate policies that lead to the deployment of clean technologies and reductions in demand for energy." Energy experts believe there will be a bounce back next year, but that, long term, the world will move to greener fuels. But it may not be enough to keep temperatures down to safer levels. "That downward slope will accelerate over time beyond peak fossil energy," said Erik Holm Reiso, from Rystad Energy. "That doesn't chime with 1.5C, but maybe 1.8-1.9C degrees could be within reach and this situation right now could help achieve that, I think." Lessons learnt? Many climate researchers are optimistic that this deadly pandemic has taught governments some critical lessons that they can apply to the problem of rising temperatures. The big challenge is to ensure the recovery has a green focus. According to Prof Gail Whiteman from Lancaster University, UK, it was almost impossible to believe that governments around the world, when faced with a health emergency, would put humanity ahead of the economy. But they did. "We can recover from an existential, complex threat and emerge much stronger and more resilient," she says. "Which strengthens the idea that we can do things differently on climate, that we can tackle this one. "I think it gives us huge energy." Follow Matt on Twitter.

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Partington man charged with murder of baby

Summary: A man has appeared in court accused of murdering a four-month-old baby.

Samuel Gildea, 29, of Partington, Greater Manchester had initially been charged with assault after the baby was found unconscious on 12 September. The child was taken to hospital but died two days later. Mr Gildea was remanded in custody at Manchester Crown Court ahead of a hearing on 25 September. A 25-year-old woman who was arrested over the death has been released without charge.

चार महीने के बच्चे की हत्या के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है।