Temples of stone: In the footsteps of George Rodger

Summary: Photographers rarely work in a vacuum, their work is usually inspired by - or a reflection of - what has come before. At times that trigger is hard to define, but some projects use an existing body of work as the start point. Magnum Retold is one such series, where photographers take their cue from work by early members of Magnum Photos.

Phil CoomesPicture editor@philcoomeson Twitter One of those is Temples of Stone, by Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin, who travelled to Egypt and Morocco in the footsteps of one of the founders of the agency, Briton George Rodger, who made the journey through north Africa 60 years ago. "I have a huge respect for and memory of George's work: from his powerful wartime images of Bergen-Belsen to his monumental take on the Nuba," says Franklin. "But I was drawn emphatically to his north African landscapes because they said so much about George, about his restlessness, his curiosity, and his search for some understanding of how nature and society functioned in Africa." The four founders of Magnum Photos, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour, divided the world so they had their own patch to cover, with Rodger focusing on Africa. He made many trips to the continent, including one in 1957 where he crossed the Sahara with his wife Jinx, covering 4,000 miles in three months. The resulting pictures show the beauty of the landscape, historic monuments and of course the people he met on the way. The world has inevitably moved on, yet the landscapes of today are much the same as those the Rodgers crossed by Land Rover all those years ago. "George Rodger loved the desert, Africa, the open road, the unexplored in landscape, and people untouched by modernity," says Franklin. "This last feature has gone, but I found the rest much as he'd left them in the 1950s. "Starting points are wonderful opportunities for photographers and artists. A path has been cleared but the road is unmade. This allows for the creative possibility to build something new." "I've always been interested in landscape and especially the interface between nature and society. The joy is in the way everything overlaps: weathered statues and rock buttresses, human and natural forms, each chiselled out of the desert and stone outcrops in a union of dream-world archaeology. "This eventually became the focus, the road ahead for me. It led to this project and tribute to George Rodger." Rodger was working at a time when photographers would vanish for months on end, returning from assignments with bags of film which would be edited and crafted into shape to run in magazines and newspapers. Today, of course, for many it's all instant uploads and social sharing. "I grew up in that world of waiting weeks and sometimes months to see the photographs I'd shot - especially when working for National Geographic," says Franklin. "Then there was a long wait for publication, so a lot more tweaking, checking and even reshooting would take place. The faster turnaround of images presents challenges as well as opportunities. "A lack of depth and context in the world of instant uploads is a serious issue, but one that is widely recognised in the industry. The opportunity is there to work on longer-form stories, on photo-books, but again this demands more financial opportunities for photographers to work in this way." Photographs are about recording traces of things, many of which pass in an instant; others, like these stone formations and statues, last far longer. So why is it important to record these objects that may well outlive the images made of them? "Photography - images - help us to understand what's going on in different parts of the world in a way that's a struggle sometimes for text. "Documentary photography, done with sensitivity, helps us to engage socially, politically and environmentally with human and planetary issues from the smallest story about life in a suburban-edge town to the largest story of conflict, various forms of abuse or species extinction." Temples of Stone, by Stuart Franklin can be seen at the Leica Studio Mayfair, 17 January - 16 February 2018. You can see more of George Rodger's photographs from his trip in 1957 on the Magnum Photos website. Photographs © Stuart Franklin / Magnum Photos and © George Rodger / Magnum Photos

फोटोग्राफर शायद ही कभी निर्वात में काम करते हैं, उनका काम आमतौर पर पहले की चीज़ों से प्रेरित होता है-या उनका प्रतिबिंब। कभी-कभी उस ट्रिगर को परिभाषित करना मुश्किल होता है, लेकिन कुछ परियोजनाओं में शुरुआती बिंदु के रूप में काम के मौजूदा हिस्से का उपयोग किया जाता है। मैगनम रिटोल्ड एक ऐसी श्रृंखला है, जहां फोटोग्राफर मैगनम फ़ोटो के शुरुआती सदस्यों द्वारा काम से अपना संकेत लेते हैं।


Man and woman arrested over Huddersfield 'gunshots'

Summary: A man and a woman have been arrested following reports of gunshots in Huddersfield.

Armed police surrounded a business on Lockwood Road, and the main road was closed for several hours, following emergency calls at 10:45 GMT. No-one was hurt and police said evidence of a firearm being discharged was yet to be confirmed. Extra patrols are in place and witnesses are being asked to contact West Yorkshire Police. The two have been arrested in connection with the discharge of a firearm, the force added.

हडर्सफील्ड में गोलियों की सूचना के बाद एक पुरुष और एक महिला को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Husband and wife's uninsured cars seized

Summary: Police officers have joked about getting a "buy one get one free" offer after seizing two cars belonging to a husband and wife.

A Nissan was stopped by Derbyshire Police in Bolsover after registering as uninsured. The driver was also found to only have a provisional licence. When his "helpful wife" came to pick him up from the roadside officers said they found her Citroen was also uninsured and seized that as well. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

पुलिस अधिकारियों ने एक पति और पत्नी की दो कारों को जब्त करने के बाद "एक मुफ्त में एक खरीदें" प्रस्ताव प्राप्त करने के बारे में मजाक किया है।


The multimillionaire's plan to reinvent a town

Summary: Clarks in Bishop Auckland was once a place where tiny feet were squeezed into their first pair of school shoes. Now, half-packed cardboard boxes are strewn across the deserted shop floor.

By Harriet Agerholm, Emma Simpson & Daniele PalumboBBC News "This isn't goodbye," the notice in the window reassures passers-by. You can still buy Clarks shoes online - or drive 20 minutes to Durham. Clarks is just the latest shop to close its doors in the north-eastern English town. More than one in five properties lie vacant, almost double the national average of 12%. The deteriorating centre - its shop windows smeared with white paint - tells a similar story to many high streets across the country, which have struggled with the rise of online shopping. Bishop Auckland, with its 25,000 residents, used to be the heart of coal-mining country. The gradual demise of the industry in the latter half of the last century brought with it decades of economic decline. But the fortunes of the town may be about to change. It has something that others don't: a multimillionaire willing to pour his own money into its revival. Former stockbroker Jonathan Ruffer's interest in Bishop Auckland isn't immediately clear - the 68-year-old had no connection to Bishop Auckland until a decade ago. But the avid art collector decided to intervene when the Church of England chose to sell the town's most famous paintings that hung in Auckland Castle. He bought the set of portraits by the Spanish master Francisco de Zurbaran. Then he bought the castle. "My original intention was to buy the paintings as a way of saying 'I am on your side' to the community," says Mr Ruffer. "I was on the lookout for some way to engage with somewhere in the North East. I'm not the slightest bit interested in visitor attractions, I'm only interested in regeneration." After three years of extensive renovations, the 900-year-old castle re-opened to the public last year. So how much money is the businessman willing to spend? "I'm very shy when it comes to talking about the amount of expenditure," he says. "I'm a drain-pipe - whatever comes in at the top, leaves the bottom," he adds cryptically. Mr Ruffer grew up in Stokesley, near Middlesbrough, before heading south to study at Cambridge University. He went on to become one of the City's most successful fund managers, co-founding a London-based investment company. There he served wealthy clients and managed billions of pounds' worth of assets. It made him rich, too. Then Mr Ruffer, who describes himself as "quite Goddy", decided to give most of his fortune away. Philanthropy is a "vomit-inducing word", the devout Christian says, but he can't find another way to describe what he is doing. Seven years ago, Mr Ruffer started a charity to reinvigorate Bishop Auckland. Out of it has come an art museum documenting life in the coal mines, and from next year, tourists will be able to visit a Spanish art gallery which will house the masterpieces he bought 10 years earlier. A glass-domed restaurant in the walled gardens of the castle will open, and there is a plan to renovate several derelict hotels. The Auckland Project has also been buying up empty shops, but its proposals for them are still under wraps. Although Mr Ruffer is vague about the exact amount he's spending, the scale of the project is clear. He hopes the tourist attractions, which are just off the main shopping artery, Newgate Street, will help the "circulation of blood" to the town centre. But what do the locals make of it? David Little, who works in a shop on the High Street selling electrical appliances, says the castle is "beautiful", but its custom "doesn't trickle down to day-to-day business". "People go to the castle and go home," he says. "Tourists don't see Bishop - they see a car park." Mr Little, who has worked in the shop for 24 years, says old-fashioned customer service and a loyal following has helped the business survive, but he has seen a decline over the years. "The footfall just isn't what it used to be," he says. "There's businesses going all the time." One of the things sucking trade away from the high street is a new out-of-town retail park. In a heavy blow, Marks & Spencer upped sticks and moved to the complex in 2013, despite a petition signed by thousands of locals. By 2017, the big names were stampeding to the exit. Dorothy Perkins and Beales were among 20 chains that shut up shop. 'Too much emphasis' on regenerating cities The dramatic changes over the last ten years are illustrated by interactive map below, which uses figures on openings and closures collected by the Local Data Company. There are now 61 vacant units - more than half of which have sat empty for more than three years. Bishop Auckland: How one High Street has changed in 10 years Source: Local Data Company, map built using Carto Carl Marshall, who is responsible for economic regeneration at Durham County Council, insists the retail park is not solely to blame for the high street's decay. "Consumer habits have changed," he says. "If they weren't accessing out-of-town retail in Bishop Auckland they would just be travelling into Durham city, just up the road." So instead of trying to hang on to the big national retailers, the council is counting on Bishop Auckland attracting tourists who will visit local independent shops. Some new businesses have opened in recent years, with the number of cafes increasing. The new shops are not hipster boutiques - one of the cafes is a '50s-themed coffee shop which sells cream teas. While the council has bid for a £25m slice of a government fund to help struggling high streets, it's aware that Mr Ruffer's investment is on a scale that no local authority could match. Mr Ruffer is a "visionary" who has given Bishop Auckland a "unique opportunity" to become a tourist attraction, the councillor says. For a family-run business that was set up more than 50 years ago, Mr Ruffer's investment offers hope. Luca Rea-Dobson - a scaffolder who helps his mother Anna run the "proper cafe" - says the businessman's presence is a "blessing". He laughs as he says the former stockbroker "could have gone anywhere". But Mr Rea-Dobson says the businessman's investment has "split the town", with some locals becoming impatient. "You get a lot of people complaining that it's not happened overnight," he says. One of the multimillionaire's first projects was Kynren, an annual outdoor show on a farm near the castle that started in 2016. The performance tells the history of England with a 1,000-strong cast and crew made up of local volunteers. "I laughed when I first heard about it," says Mr Rea-Dobson. But he volunteered to take part anyway. "I had sleepless nights - I put scaffolding up for a living. I'd never wielded a sword before," he says. "But after the first show, the whole town was buzzing." Kynren is now a top UK attraction on TripAdvisor. Despite such successes, Mr Ruffer is aware that regenerating Bishop Auckland will take time. "We always felt this was a 25 year project," he says. "We're not quite half way through." In the meantime, Mr Rea-Dobson's mum, Anna, says she is seeing fewer and fewer people come through her cafe's door, although a loyal base of older regulars is keeping her going. She finds the promise of future trade from Mr Ruffer's tourist attractions encouraging. "It's what I hang on to, really," she says. She pauses, then adds: "How long I can hang on is another thing." Bishop Auckland's high street faces significant challenges. Like other towns, it's going to have to adapt to survive, though it's lucky to have a rich heritage and historical assets to make the most of. Its past is its future, in many ways, but saving a town isn't a quick fix. Still, could this town be at a tipping point? BBC News will be following the progress of Bishop Auckland's town centre this year as part of the #BBCMyHighStreet project. Do you have a story about your local high street which we should cover? Email myhighstreet@bbc.co.uk

बिशप ऑकलैंड में क्लार्क्स कभी एक ऐसी जगह थी जहाँ छोटे पैर उनके स्कूल के जूतों की पहली जोड़ी में दबाए जाते थे। अब, आधे पैक किए गए कार्डबोर्ड बॉक्स सुनसान दुकान के फर्श पर बिखरे हुए हैं।


Undercover with badger baiters as network infiltrated

Summary: An investigation by BBC Wales Investigates has exposed a secretive network of illegal hunters in south Wales. The programme team went undercover with two badger-baiting gangs as part of a six-month investigation . Wearing a hidden camera "John", a former special operations soldier, infiltrated one group to reveal the criminal activity of badger digging and lamping, where wild animals are torn apart and the hunters' own dogs are often abused.

I've had some experiences in the military that I thought would prepare me for dealing with this and I knew there was going to be some violence towards these animals but what I saw was shocking. To these people, killing animals is a sport - the more brutal, the better. The BBC team was able infiltrate the gangs using social media. They had discovered that convicted badger baiter Christian Latcham from the Rhondda Valleys, south Wales, was active in online groups for legal hunting with dogs. He then put them in touch with another man - Tomas Young, 25, from the Gwent Valleys - who invited us out on what turned out to be illegal hunting trips. The gangs are mostly working-class guys in their twenties. They use social media like Snapchat to organise digs and share pictures. These people are very suspicious and guarded. There were a number of occasions where I was questioned quite heavily about my background. They asked if I was an undercover police officer or if I was wearing recording equipment and I had to use my skills to try and persuade them that that wasn't the case. I didn't feel afraid as such but I got the feeling that if I'd have been found out, it might have turned nasty. I feared they might have used the dogs to intimidate me. I went with them three times to try to capture evidence. The first time Tomas invited me "lamping" - hunting at night with high-powered torches - in the Forest of Dean. I didn't know at the time that this would be illegal hunting. But on the way there, they started talking about the types of animals we were going to see - deer, boar, possibly some foxes and maybe even some badgers if they were out. They said there would be "loads of guys" out hunting that night and that they knew of gangs that came from as far away as Newcastle to go lamping in the Forest. Tomas and another man - Ryan Harrison - had three dogs with them - one which was big, quite aggressive-looking, with a pit bull sort of setting and two lurcher-type dogs. We went into a field and Ryan shone the lamp at some deer - I could see about six to eight pairs of eyes in the dark. The dogs immediately started chasing them down and the two men were getting really, really excited. One deer ran straight into a fence and got trapped. One of the lurchers had it by the back legs and was trying to drag it back through the fence. There was an awful noise, the sound of the deer screaming, trying to get away. At this point, Ryan jumped on it, and started to struggle with it but the deer kicked him in the face and at that point he let go. The deer ran off and managed to escape from the dogs but without doubt it was injured and was in awful pain. Ryan had been injured - he had damage to his mouth where the deer had kicked him and his hands were also hurt but to him it was all part of the sport and the injuries were badges of honour. The night was about to get even worse. We drove to another area, where we spotted some wild boar. Very, very quickly, the two guys and their dogs were out of the vehicle and ran off chasing the boar. I chased after them and when I caught up with them, the scene in front of me was horrific. One lurcher was on the back end of the boar and the bull cross dog had latched onto its snout. There were horrendous screams. Ryan was trying to drag the boar down and the animal was really strong, kicking out, fighting for its life. Tomas then pulled out a large knife and started stabbing the boar. It died in front of me. It seemed to make the men quite frenzied. Tomas even filmed himself stabbing the boar on his phone and played it back in the car afterwards. I'd never seen anything like it before; somebody hunting down and killing a wild animal like that, just to see how tough and violent their dogs could be. It's a badge of pride to have an injured dog which carries on fighting. The boar's carcass was hidden in undergrowth and Tomas told me that "one of the boys" would pick it up later. I also went out with Tomas and some other men on a couple of badger digs, which is where they send a terrier into a badger sett wearing a transmitter collar so they locate it in the sett from above ground. Once they hear that it's found a badger, they will dig down into the sett so the other dogs can pull it out and fight it to the death. The first time, they didn't get anything, despite them digging for around eight hours. Tomas got frustrated with his dog because although it seemed to have found a badger, it hadn't latched onto it and let it get away. He was getting quite a lot of ribbing from the other guys in the group, saying his dog wasn't tough enough. That's what really gets to these guys, if their dog isn't aggressive enough and doesn't immediately go down and attack the badger - they think that's a reflection of them as a handler. What they want is to see the dog come back out with injuries on it because that's a sign of a tough dog. They then photograph these dogs - with their injuries - and share the photos with other illegal hunters with a view to breeding them. On the way home, Tomas told me he was disappointed with his dog's performance. Then he told me he'd shot dogs before when they hadn't worked in the way he'd wanted them to. The litters of prized working dogs can go for quite a bit of money - a few hundred pounds a pup. The second time, I went with Tomas and Ryan up towards the Forest of Dean area again, and quite quickly they found a sett. You could hear some growling from the dog that was underground so they started digging down and they could see the black and white fur of the badger. They thought this was an adult so sent one of the bigger lurcher dogs into the ground to pull it out. Two dogs eventually dragged it out but it was a cub. It had no chance and within seconds it was torn apart. Ryan took it off the dogs and threw it on the side. They weren't happy it was a cub because they don't put up much of a fight and the whole aim of this exercise for the badger baiters is for their dogs to have some credible combat; a proper fight with an adult badger who could do some damage to the dogs. They were going to leave this cub, but I saw it was still alive, it was still breathing and I had to tell them to put it out of its misery. I thought I was going to blow my cover then because that could have been something that alerted them that I wasn't 100% the way there were, as much as I was trying to act like I was. It was difficult to see how these men treat their dogs; some of them were kicked or dragged and there was a lot of abuse thrown at them. You could see the dogs cowering at times, it appeared they were afraid of their owners. It's very common to have the bottom part of a dog's jaw being damaged or ripped away in a fight with a badger. But when dogs come out of the setts on the digs I filmed they would turn them around and push them straight back in to carry on looking for the badger. Generally badger baiters don't take them to vets with their injuries because that would be recorded and reported so they stitch up their wounds themselves. They are valuable dogs for hunting and breeding so they're a commodity to them and they'll protect the commodity but they don't have any concern about the feelings of the animal. And they're quite happy to dispose of them once they're no longer a useful commodity. Tomas told me he had shot dogs before which hadn't performed properly on hunts. My lasting feeling after being undercover with these people is that what they are doing is just horrific. It was far, far worse than what I expected to see. They don't care if the animals they kill suffer; they're just killing them for sport. Exposed: The Secret World of Badger Baiters on BBC One Wales at 22:35 and on BBC iPlayer.

बीबीसी वेल्स इन्वेस्टिगेट्स द्वारा की गई एक जाँच ने दक्षिण वेल्स में अवैध शिकारियों के एक गुप्त नेटवर्क का खुलासा किया है। कार्यक्रम दल छह महीने की जाँच के हिस्से के रूप में दो बैजर-बाइटिंग गिरोहों के साथ गुप्त रूप से चला गया। एक गुप्त कैमरा पहने हुए "जॉन", एक पूर्व विशेष अभियान सैनिक, बैजर खोदने और लैंप करने की आपराधिक गतिविधि का खुलासा करने के लिए एक समूह में घुसपैठ कर गया, जहाँ जंगली जानवरों को फाड़ दिया जाता है और शिकारियों के अपने कुत्तों के साथ अक्सर दुर्व्यवहार किया जाता है।


'Knackered and confused.' That's just the parents

Summary: Home schooling can be tough. It's difficult to concentrate, there's emotional exhaustion, boredom, a lack of motivation and it's really hard not going out to see friends. And that's just the parents.

By Sean CoughlanBBC News family and education correspondent This winter lockdown is taking its toll on families, now struggling even more on the black ice of uncertainty as no-one can say when schools in England are going to reopen for most pupils again. "There's a sense of fatigue," says Jacqueline Smallwood, who is at home with three secondary-school children. She says her own "concentration levels have fallen dramatically". "It's so repetitive that it just makes you feel tired," she says of the latest lockdown and the "silent struggle" facing both parents and their children to try to get motivated. There might have been some guilty enjoyment at the start of the year when the school term was initially delayed, not having to get up and out on cold January mornings. Until it dawned on them that this was becoming something much longer than a few weeks. It's morphed from early January to half term in mid-February and now maybe Easter in early April or even later. And Jacqueline says, as a matter of "respect", parents need to know what's happening about schools. The confusion over a return date seems to have further frayed the nerves of parents. 'Stuck at home' The mother, who lives outside Canterbury in Kent, says she worries about the pressures building up on young people. For teenagers like her sons, she says this "should be a pivotal time in their lives," when they're beginning to get some independence and when social lives are hugely important - but instead they're stuck inside with their parents. "We can't live like the Waltons forever," she says, referencing the US TV series of a folksy family relying on each other. The first lockdown created an unexpected sense of togetherness, an "enforced bonding" that she says turned out to be a "massive positive". But Jacqueline, who works as a writer, sees no such upside to the latest lockdown. There is a collective frustration - and she says it has been made even worse by the confusion about when schools will go back. The online home-schooling seems to be working, she says, with teachers trying to boost the enthusiasm levels, but it's no real substitute for being in school. And she wants much more clarity about when they will go back. 'Uncertainty' "I've tried not to be political about decisions being made, but you can't help but feel disappointed. They don't seem to understand how real people are living," she says. She says when politicians say maybe schools will or won't be back by Easter, they don't realise how much that uncertainty affects families trying to plan for what comes next. Educational psychologist Dan O'Hare says the "key word is 'uncertainty'". Not knowing what is coming next adds to the pressure, he says, and children out of school are already facing big unknowns such as what's going to happen about exams or when will they see their friends and teachers. "It's really stressful for children and their families," says Dr O'Hare, who is co-chair of the British Psychological Society's division for educational and child psychology. "They need a sense of a plan." Missing friends This lockdown is also in the depths of winter - and he says employers need to think about making sure staff working from home are able to take a break in daylight hours, so that families can get outside. It's no use asking parents to answer work emails all day and expect them to go out when it's dark. For some families it has got very difficult. "It's affected her emotionally a lot," says Dave in Bolton, who is worrying about his six-year-old daughter, who has been crying because she misses her friends. "It's awful, you can't put a positive spin on it. She's at that age where she's enjoying her friends, becoming more socialised," he told BBC 5 Live. "She's quite a confident little girl and I can't help worry that being stuck at home is going to impact her in the longer term." The father says many of her classmates are still going into school - and that makes it even harder when she sees her friends on school Zoom calls. Jen Locke in Newcastle makes the point that women can often be "the most adversely affected by the decision to keep schools closed". She says home schooling has "fallen squarely on my shoulders", helping her children in the day and then shifting her work with an IT company into the evening, so it's an early start through to a very late finish. "It's a huge mental strain… I'm knackered from it all," she says, right down to trying to get children to bed who aren't tired because they're not going out. A lockdown weariness seems to be out there, despite the best efforts of schools. Simon Armstrong in Bristol, whose son is in secondary school, says: "Virtual lessons, no matter how well delivered, are a woeful substitute for real lessons." "I am at the end of my tether," he says. The Department for Education said: "We are committed to reopening schools as soon as the public health picture allows, and will inform schools, parents and pupils of plans ahead of February half term." But Labour has accused the government of causing "chaos and confusion" for parents and schools. The National Association of Head Teachers said: "Now is the moment for calm heads to decide on a sustainable return to school, not another chaotic and last-minute set of decisions that could easily result in a yo-yo return to lockdown."

होम स्कूलिंग मुश्किल हो सकती है। ध्यान केंद्रित करना मुश्किल है, भावनात्मक थकावट, ऊब, प्रेरणा की कमी है और दोस्तों से मिलने के लिए बाहर नहीं जाना वास्तव में मुश्किल है। और यह सिर्फ माता-पिता हैं।


'We can't go out to Nando's': How England cricketers pass the time on tour

Summary: Touring the world and experiencing different cultures sounds glamorous.

Interview by Steffan Powell, words by Vikki BlakeNewsbeat reporters For England's cricketers however, the pandemic has seen them largely confined to the inside of hotel rooms during their winter tour of Sri Lanka and India. The trip has been difficult both on the pitch and off it too. Some of the squad's most senior members have been telling BBC Sounds podcast Press X to Continue that online gaming has been "vital" for their wellbeing. Usually on a long tour abroad England's cricketers would keep connected by sharing rooms, sightseeing and eating out at new places. This winter though, they can't do any of those things. "Touring with these biosecure bubbles has made everything so different," Stuart Broad tells Press X to Continue. "Because our touring life has gone from being able to experience different things in countries to experiencing a hotel room. "That's why gaming has become such an influence in the past year because it's the way you socialise with the guys outside of cricket. "We can't go out to Nando's or anything and grab a bite to eat. "So you say, 'right, Call of Duty 7pm?' And you might get fifteen or sixteen of us playing and you get to chat and get to know different guys through it." The team played their first match of the tour at the beginning of January, and while the Test matches have come to an end, one-day games continue until the end of March. The players are grateful to have been able to go on tour and keep playing in the pandemic, but it's a long time away from home confined to hotels. All-rounder Ben Stokes tells the podcast: "When you have something taken away from you - like going out for dinner and stuff like that you have to find something else to occupy that time, to help keep in good spirits. "Gaming's had such a huge role in keeping everyone's mental side of touring in as good a place as it possibly can be." Playing online has become such an important part of the team's routine that sourcing good internet has is now an essential part of the tour. Ben says he's never seen a "grumpier group of cricketers" that when they got to Ahmedabad and the wifi was not good enough to play on. "Gaming, for me mentally, has been vital," Stuart adds. "It's sort of taken over the banter in the changing room. "It used to be: how did you play at golf the other day? You'd be talking about what you've been up to. "But because there's not much to do, gaming's taken over. "Now it's: 'How good was that snipe the other day!' Stokesy and I have got terrible at downloading our clips on our phone and going around the bus in the morning: 'Look at that lads!'" "If you just want to catch up with your mates that play, then turn on and say 'Hey, jump in the lobby' - it's probably the easiest way to do it," agrees fast bowler Jofra Archer, who says it also helps him connect with players he sees less often. The team have been streaming their games to interact with fans too. 'There's no abuse' "It's actually really refreshing, because everyone's who's watching either loves gaming or loves cricket," Stuart says. "There's no abuse. There's no agenda. It's never: 'Oh, you were rubbish last week'. "It's all just really positive chat about gaming and good fun, which I've really enjoyed. It's quite rare for social media, to be honest.". "People enjoy watching average players play for a change!" Ben Stokes laughs. "They can relate to what we're doing and the emotions - you know, like shouting at the screen, or shouting at each other - because that's what people do at home." "I guess it's probably a welcome change to some people because you can get a sense of someone's actual personality a bit more this way," agrees Jofra. And if you thought that the online sessions were just a little fun and relaxation in between tense cricket matches? Well, think again. "I'd love to say that we don't take it that seriously and we're not that competitive," admits Stuart. "But it's actually outrageous. You can hear guys on different games down the corridor! "I spoke with Rory Burns the other night and he's next 7 door to Jofra, and I could hear Jofra through Rory's own headphones, screaming. That's how seriously we're taking it!" More from Press X to continue Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

दुनिया की यात्रा करना और विभिन्न संस्कृतियों का अनुभव करना आकर्षक लगता है।


Princess Alice disaster: The Thames' 650 forgotten dead

Summary: The Princess Alice sank in the River Thames on 3 September 1878, killing hundreds of ordinary Londoners returning home from a day trip to the seaside. The tragedy, now largely forgotten, dominated newspaper headlines and led to changes to the shipping industry.

By Alice EvansBBC News A boatman hooks another body out of the foul-smelling Thames, a grisly prize that will earn him five shillings. A few days before, the Princess Alice had been smashed in two as it returned to London packed with men, women and children who had been on a trip to Kent. About 650 lives were lost and for weeks bodies decayed in the polluted water or washed up on the riverbank. On the morning of the disaster, the weather was bright and the passengers were excited as the pleasure steamer set off from London and headed out to catch the end of the summer sun and the fresh sea air of Sheerness. It was an inexpensive trip - tickets were about two shillings, depending on which stop passengers travelled to. Most of the approximately 700 people on board were upper working-class or lower middle-class families. The children were tired but happy after their day at the famous Rosherville Pleasure Gardens in Northfleet, playing on the promenade at Sheerness or wandering around the popular resort of Gravesend. As the evening drew in, many families took the decision to retreat inside the saloon or to their cabins below. It was a move that sealed their fates. Alfred Thomas Merryman, a chef, had been asked at the last minute to work on the ship. The 30-year-old father of four from Bow, east London, was no doubt grateful for the extra cash, as well as the rare opportunity to escape the dirty streets of the capital. At about 7:40pm, as the Princess Alice neared North Woolwich Pier, he was standing on the deck by the saloon door. Just as he was saying how "splendid" the voyage had been, he saw a huge collier (a coal-carrying ship) bearing down on the smaller vessel. The Bywell Castle ploughed straight into the starboard side of the Princess Alice, which weighed less than a third of the 890-ton collier. The vessel sliced the Princess Alice in two with a sickening crash. "The panic on board was terrible, the women and children screaming and rushing to the bridge for safety," Merryman's witness account reads. "I at once rushed to the captain and asked what was to be done and he exclaimed: 'We are sinking fast, do your best.' "Those were the last words he said. At that moment, down she went." As a model held by the National Maritime Museum shows, the ends of the ship rose into the air as the middle sank, sending people on deck hurtling into the watery chasm between. Merryman and others on deck were pitched into the churning river, while the unfortunate passengers below deck were trapped. Tons of untreated sewage spewed from outlets near where the boats collided. The water bubbled with raw detritus, giving out a stench strong enough to leave even the hardiest boatman gagging. The men, women and children thrashing about in the water breathed in lungfuls of toxic waste. Despite crew members of the Bywell Castle throwing down planks of wood, lifebuoys and even chicken coops for people to cling to, the heavy Victorian clothes of those in the water dragged them down. For many, death was inevitable. Deafened by the screams of his doomed fellow passengers, Merryman clung to a piece of wreckage to stay afloat. But when about 20 desperate people grabbed hold too, it sank. He started swimming - one of the lucky few who could - and lunged for a rope hanging over the side of the Bywell Castle. He was hauled to safety along with four others. Other survivors described being overwhelmed by an instinct for survival. One man told the Illustrated Police News - a somewhat sensationalist tabloid - how he had to push drowning people off him to reach safety. Claude Hamilton Wiele said: "I found my brother swimming about. We are both good swimmers, and we made for the screw steamer." The 20-year-old clerk added: "The water was full of people... we had great difficulty in avoiding them. "A woman clutched me, but I got away, and I saw her go down like a stone." Merryman was taken to South Woolwich Pier after he was retrieved from the water. "There were others also rescued but few recovered," he said. "One boy died on my lap." You might also like: The chef was one of about 130 people pulled from the river alive - several of whom died in the following days and weeks, in part from complications from swallowing the putrid water, The Times reported. Robert Haines, a musician in the Princess Alice band, was also saved. The double bass player was fond of ships and had noticed the Bywell Castle a couple of minutes before the collision. It looked to him as though the collier was heading straight for the smaller boat but he thought little of it, having faith the Bywell Castle would alter its path. The musician was about to follow his fellow band members downstairs for a break. He was only about 3ft from the bow of the Bywell Castle when it struck. For a split second, Haines was frozen in his tracks, not knowing what to do with his bulky instrument. But he then dropped the double bass and ran up on to the saloon deck. "In one instant I might say, the fore part severed from the stern and I saw them all go down like a band box," he said. "Everybody went down except myself." Haines could not swim, but managed to grab hold of a lifebuoy. He was pulled on to a boat that had been launched from the Bywell Castle. The men on board dragged a few more survivors from the water - as well as dead bodies - before rowing to safety. Other small boats on the river came to the aid of drowning passengers, but the rescue mission soon became a morbid effort to recover as many bodies as possible. In a matter of minutes children had been orphaned, husbands and wives widowed, and whole families wiped out. Bodies washed up from Limehouse to Erith for days after the crash. The dead were laid down in their hundreds in temporary mortuaries that popped up across east London - including at Beckton Gas Works, Woolwich Dockyard, the office of the London Steamboat Company and Woolwich Town Hall. As the terrible shock of the tragedy turned to anger, bereaved family members and local politicians demanded answers. Why did the ships collide? Who was to blame? Was the Princess Alice overcrowded? Why were more people not saved by lifeboats? Is sewage deadly? Was it true that the captain of the Bywell Castle was drunk? The day after the disaster, coroner Charles Carttar opened an inquest, while the Board of Trade launched a separate inquiry a few weeks later. For two gruelling weeks, all the inquest jury could do was observe as a steady stream of bodies and thousands of worried family members filled the streets of Woolwich, gazing at the corpses with feelings of both dread and hope as they searched for a face they recognised. The coroner eventually accepted that because there was no passenger list, the exact number of people on board the ship, and therefore a precise death toll, would never be known. Over the next two months, the 19 men on the jury heard hours of evidence, the written version of which was about 5,000 pages long. On 13 November, the coroner shut them in a room and refused to let them leave without returning a verdict. At one point, a Times correspondent said 11 jury members wanted to bring a manslaughter charge for the lives lost against those in charge of the Bywell Castle, but 12 votes were needed for a verdict to be accepted. The next morning, the men had finally made up their minds. Their main findings were: However, the simultaneous Board of Trade inquiry came to different conclusions - despite many of the same witnesses giving evidence. Instead of arguing that both vessels were to blame, it postulated that the Princess Alice had not followed waterway regulations and was entirely at fault. Concerns were raised in Parliament for years after the disaster to ensure that positive change came out of the tragedy. From who was responsible for paying for the burials of identified people, to how to clean up the river, Londoners were impassioned about what kind of legacy the sinking would have. Improvements to the sewage system, the adoption of emergency signalling lights on boats across the globe and the new Royal Albert Dock, which helped to separate heavy goods traffic from the smaller boats, all came as a result of what happened. Despite the huge loss of life and changes brought about as a result of the sinking of the Princess Alice, today there are few clues as to what happened on that fateful evening. The bank near where the steamer met its end is quiet; the silence occasionally broken by gulls cawing as they wheel through the sky, and the grating clang of machinery from the scrap yards in Barking. A memorial plaque was unveiled in Creekmouth after a community group secured a National Lottery grant in 2008. Across the river, the only reminder at Tripcock Point, close to where the tragedy happened, is a faded and graffiti-marked information board. Thanks to Joan Lock, author of The Princess Alice Disaster, for her help with this article.

राजकुमारी एलिस 3 सितंबर 1878 को थेम्स नदी में डूब गई, जिसमें समुद्र तट की एक दिन की यात्रा से घर लौट रहे सैकड़ों आम लंदनवासियों की मौत हो गई। त्रासदी, जिसे अब काफी हद तक भुला दिया गया है, समाचार पत्रों की सुर्खियों में हावी हो गई और जहाजरानी उद्योग में बदलाव आया।


Ex-archbishop's Shakespeare play hits the Swansea stage

Summary: Not many debutant playwrights can sell out a theatre.

By Neil PriorBBC News But then again, not many debutant playwrights used to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Set in 1581, Dr Rowan Williams' first play, Shakeshafte, opens this week at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Theatre. The work, which deals with the so-called lost years of William Shakespeare's life, imagines he was a Catholic fleeing Elizabeth I's Protestant spies. It depicts a meeting between Shakespeare - posing as a schoolmaster under the pseudonym Will Shakeshafte - and martyred Jesuit priest St Edmund Campion. Swansea-born Dr Williams was Archbishop of Canterbury between 2002 and 2012, and since stepping down has spent four years as master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, studying the life of the Bard. Reluctant church-goer Although it was written in 2014, this week will be the first time the play has been performed in public, to coincide with the 400th anniversary celebrations of Shakespeare's death. Speaking on its completion, Dr Williams said: "Shakespeare knows exactly where he does, and doesn't, want to go, in matters of church and state. "He deliberately puts some of his plays right outside the Christian, Tudor/Jacobean framework. "King Lear takes place in a pre-Christian Britain. Some people argue that Cymbeline is about a rupture with Rome, leading to a reconciliation. "I think Shakespeare did have a recusant Catholic background. My own hunch though is that he didn't go to church much." The lost years Although a fictional account, Shakeshafte draws on known historical events. While there is relatively abundant information on Shakespeare's early life and family background, during his 20s in the 1580s, virtually no documentary evidence can be found of his existence. In 1985 literary academic E. A. J. Honigmann unearthed a will, which he claimed showed that in 1581 a 'Will Shakeshafte' was acting as a schoolmaster for a Catholic family in Houghton Tower, Lancashire. Mr Shakeshafte had been recommended for the post by John Cottam, who is reputed to have been Shakespeare's last schoolmaster in Stratford. Edmund Campion is also known to have visited Houghton Tower around the same time as part of the Jesuits' campaign to re-catholicise England, although the meeting between the two is purely Dr Williams' conjecture. He added: "We know they both stayed at the same house in Lancashire. I found this a wonderful idea to play with: what might a Jesuit martyr and Shakespeare have said to each other at a time when Queen Elizabeth I was spearheading a brutal repression of the Catholic faith?" 'Spectacular' Shakeshafte is being performed by the Swansea Little Theatre - Swansea's oldest company - for which Dr Williams himself was an actor in the late 1960s. Swansea Little Theatre chairman, Dreena Morgan Harvey explained: "I read an article a couple of years ago about Rowan's research into Shakespeare, and we thought at the time, what better way to mark the 400th anniversary than to bring the play to life back home in Swansea. "We wrote to Rowan, and he was delighted that we'd like to put it on. "I hope we've done it justice. I think it will look spectacular, with specially-commissioned Elizabethan music and dancing, and wonderful costumes and scenery."

बहुत से नवोदित नाटककार एक रंगमंच को नहीं बेच सकते हैं।


First South Yorkshire strikes called off after pay offer

Summary: Two planned strikes by hundreds of bus drivers in South Yorkshire have been called off after a new pay offer.

About 900 drivers were due to stage walkouts on 27 July and 3 August. But Unite said the strikes had been suspended and after further talks with management the drivers would now vote on "an improved offer" on 30 July. First South Yorkshire said planned strikes in Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham and part of the Derbyshire Dales had been cancelled. Phil Brown, of Unite, said the union had recommended its members accepted the new package. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

दक्षिण यॉर्कशायर में सैकड़ों बस चालकों द्वारा दो नियोजित हड़तालों को एक नए वेतन प्रस्ताव के बाद रद्द कर दिया गया है।


Nigeria election 2019: The challenges waiting for Buhari

Summary: Muhammadu Buhari has been re-elected for a second four-year term as president of Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation, which faces a range of problems including corruption, an economic slowdown and security threats. BBC Africa Editor Fergal Keane examines the challenges.

This was never an election that promised the possibility of a new era. The 76-year-old president and his defeated rival, Atiku Abubakar, 72, have been around the Nigerian political scene for decades and represent two parties often associated with cronyism and corruption. Indeed Mr Buhari's victory may in part have to do with public mistrust of his opponent who had to reject allegations of corruption during the campaign. The president did make some efforts in his first term to counter the graft which has seen tens of billions drain out of the exchequer. His personal financial integrity has never been questioned. But he has been widely criticised for not going fast or far enough. Will he be more vigorous in his second term? 'Baba Go Slow' A dose of realism is needed: the breadth and depth of corruption is so great, it affects so many aspects of public life that making serious inroads into the problem would require a focus, energy and application that was lacking in President Buhari's first term. His absence from the country for long periods due to ill-health - he sought treatment in London for a still undisclosed illness - gave the impression of an administration that often crawled rather than strode. President Buhari has been lucky in his choice of deputy. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo showed himself to be dynamic and brave when he stood in as acting president, notably reining in the security services and acting to stabilise the naira, the local currency, at a time of deep economic uncertainty. By contrast Mr Buhari has been nicknamed "Baba Go Slow". It took him six months to appoint his cabinet first time around. More on Nigeria's vote Can he end looting? The second problem he faces in fighting corruption is having the necessary political support. There is undoubted public backing but Mr Buhari's party is compromised by senior members suspected of enriching themselves through graft. The fear is that across the board the looters will carry on pretty much as normal, undermining economic development. Determined disciplinarian Economically, the country remains dependent on oil prices for 70% of government revenues - a long-term vulnerability that helped pull Nigeria into recession between 2016-17. The World Bank has predicted sluggish economic growth: 2.2% for the coming year in a country with unemployment of more than 20% and nearly half the population living in extreme poverty. Ending the dependency on oil revenues needs to happen at a much faster pace. President Buhari also faces an array of security threats from clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the Middle Belt, continuing instability in the oil-producing Niger Delta and - most worrying of all - a revived threat from Islamist extremists in the north of the country. There, the Boko Haram offshoot - Islamic State West Africa Provice (ISWAP) - used the elections period to stage a series of high-profile attacks including an attempt to fire rockets into the city of Maiduguri on polling day. Militant muscle Low turnout concern For a president at the height of his powers these would be a formidable array of challenges. But Mr Buhari is in his seventies with a history of health problems. It may be that he is rejuvenated by victory and his second term is more dynamic than the first. If not the danger is that Nigeria succumbs to the politics of drift with growing frustration among the young who make up more than half the population. For faith in democracy to endure those elected need to be seen to bringing tangible gains. This might - at least partially - explain why voter turnout was a record low of just under 35%, down from 44% in 2015. This is the statistic that should worry all political parties in Nigeria.

मुहम्मदु बुहारी को नाइजीरिया के राष्ट्रपति के रूप में दूसरे चार साल के कार्यकाल के लिए फिर से चुना गया है-अफ्रीका का सबसे अधिक आबादी वाला देश, जो भ्रष्टाचार, आर्थिक मंदी और सुरक्षा खतरों सहित कई समस्याओं का सामना कर रहा है। बीबीसी अफ्रीका के संपादक फर्गल कीन चुनौतियों की जांच करते हैं।


The ageing game: Could we all be 95-year-old athletes?

Summary: People in rich countries are getting older. But is a longer life always a better life? In the first of a series about the ageing population, Smitha Mundasad looks at whether we can influence the rate at which we age.

At 95 years old, Olga Kotelko could be forgiven for sitting on the sidelines as people 60 years her junior jump over poles and hurl javelins into the distance. But this sprightly 5ft-tall Canadian joins in - in a big way. This year she became the oldest recorded female indoor sprinter, high jumper, long jumper and triple jumper at the World Masters Athletics Championships. Olga now has more than 30 world records to her name and has won more than 750 gold medals. But she says she sees herself as nothing special, describing herself as just a plain Jane. Olga took to the athletics track at the age of 77. As one of 11 siblings brought up on a farm, she has always been active - there were always cows to milk and chores to be done. She has now outlived all her siblings and most of her friends but when asked what her secret is, she says there isn't one. "I think your age is just a number. It's not your birthday, it's how you age which makes the difference. "It's your attitude to all the things that happen in your life that plays the biggest part." Extra time So is it really in our gift to transform ourselves into nonagenarian superheroes? Or are we much more likely to face a grim process of decline and decay? For people living in wealthy countries, there is some cheering news. Data from Newcastle University suggests that as every 24 hours pass, on average we add an extra five hours to our lives - that's over 2 months each year and at least two years more per decade - due partly to improving living conditions and medical advances. And in the UK the number of people who are living into their 100th year has nearly quadrupled since the 1980s, meaning nearly one in five people in the UK will now live to see their 100th birthday. So ageing is not an immovable beast - at least to some extent. While Olga's genes might help her, we are not all prisoner to our own. Research increasingly suggests that for most of us the genetic hand we are dealt at birth account for only a quarter of what determines how long we live. This means 75% of our later lives could be down to the lifestyle we choose to lead. And while the well-known prescription of a good diet and regular exercise is key - there are other less well-known things that help people to live healthier lives in old age. Eight lesser-known effects of ageing Dr Lynne Corner of Newcastle University says while getting chronologically older is inevitable, declining with age doesn't have to be. "The truth is there is no simple way or single answer to ageing well. It really is a complex combination of lifestyle factors and of course good diet and exercise." Scientists hope to find more clues to the elixir of long life by closely observing Japan. With the highest proportion of elderly citizens in the world, the country is often held up as the poster boy of healthy ageing. "Broadly speaking unpicking the Japanese lifestyle - a diet with plenty of fish and vegetables, a focus on yoga and other strengthening exercises, less smoking and drinking than the Western world - seems to do the trick," Prof Corner says. Friends against frailty It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the younger you are when you take on this healthy life, the better your odds in later years. But there are other things that work too. Dr Carol Holland, director of Aston University's research centre for healthy ageing, says one of the most surprising findings in recent years is that time spent with friends has a huge impact on ageing well. And nurturing friendships in mid-life may offer some protection against frailty in old age. Dr Holland says: "More and more research on ageing shows the more friends you have when you are 50-60 years old, the less likely you are to be isolated in later life. And the less isolated you are, the less likely you are to be frail as the years go by. " And one of England's largest studies on ageing found that people who were socially isolated were less likely to survive over a period of seven years than those with good social networks. There may be many reasons behind this - friends may notice warning signs of ill health and persuade their companions to seek help. And the simple act of being sociable may involve people in more activity-based pursuits than those who have no social contacts. But Prof Andrew Steptoe of University College London who was involved in the research says there may even be a more direct relationship with the biology of the human body and isolation which we don't yet fully understand. And the type of social contact might count too. When it comes to preventing depression studies suggest time with friends matters even more than time spent with family. As Olga readily attests, just thinking differently could also have a big impact. In research from Yale University, Dr Becca Levy found older people with positive views of ageing tended to live longer than individuals with negative beliefs. Data from 9,000 people in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing suggests that those who reported the most enjoyment of life live longer - even after accounting for health and wealth. Thinking time People often fear that their memories will inevitably get worse with age, but Prof Ian Deary of Edinburgh University who has spent years studying the normal ageing brain, says that is not always the case. Some parts of our memory can get better with age - our memory banks for general knowledge and vocabulary can improve over time. Prof Deary says: "So, on average in old age, be prepared to know more than younger people, but not to be as fast in working out new stuff quickly." And Dr Corner says though many younger people tend to worry that old age is about decline and dependence research in the UK simply doesn't show that - the majority of older people are living happy, independent lives. In a recent Newcastle University study of 85-year-olds, the majority rated their health as ''good to excellent'' - despite having at least three medical conditions and taking 10 different pills a day. Prof James Goodwin, head of research at the charity Age UK, says: "This really highlights the way we think about old age is changing significantly. "Lots of people over 85 are telling us that despite their chronic conditions they are still able to see their families and friends and life is fine." Even England's official statisticians suggest we are happiest between the ages of 65 and 80. But in Olga's tenth decade she says there's no stopping her. "There's no limit. Who says you are supposed to stop at a certain point? "I just want to keep on going until I drop. I guess that's when I'll have to stop."

अमीर देशों में लोग बूढ़े हो रहे हैं। लेकिन क्या लंबा जीवन हमेशा एक बेहतर जीवन है? उम्र बढ़ने वाली आबादी के बारे में एक श्रृंखला के पहले भाग में, स्मिता मुंडसाद ने देखा कि क्या हम अपनी उम्र की दर को प्रभावित कर सकते हैं।


Skelmersdale boa constrictor reported missing

Summary: An 8ft (2.4m) snake, believed to be a boa constrictor, is on the loose in a Lancashire town.

Lancashire Police said the snake was reported missing by its owners in Skelmersdale at 09:30 BST on Tuesday. Insp Mark Porter said: "While we do not believe the snake is aggressive or would attack anybody there is the potential for risk to small children or pets from the animal seeking warmth." Experts have told police the snake may have found somewhere to sleep.

एक 8 फीट (2.4 मीटर) का सांप, जिसे बोआ कन्स्ट्रिक्टर माना जाता है, लंकाशायर शहर में खुला है।


Manmohan Singh: India’s ‘accidental PM’ biopic causes stir

Summary: Manmohan Singh was one of India's longest serving prime ministers and widely regarded as the architect of the country's economic reforms. But critics say a new Bollywood biopic months before a general election reduces him to a caricature. Sudha G Tilak reports.

In The Accidental Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh sits in a garishly decorated office. He looks befuddled when he takes orders from Sonia Gandhi, then president of the Congress party which was in power at the time. The film, critics say, could have been an engaging exploration of the career of one of India's most enigmatic leaders. Instead, many see it as a hatchet job on Mr Singh and Congress. One called it a "bad propaganda film". According to veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who plays Mr Singh, the filmmakers "worked hard to make a big epic homage to a man, scholar and politician, who is misunderstood, or rather hardly understood". That evaluation of Mr Singh as barely understood isn't wide of the mark. But few agree the film, based on the memoirs of Mr Singh's media adviser Sanjaya Baru, does him justice. Mr Singh - who is now 86 - served two terms as PM from 2004-2014. A former academic and bureaucrat, he kept a low profile and rarely gave interviews. His surprise appointment capped a long and illustrious career - a master's degree at Cambridge University and a DPhil in Oxford; stints with the UN and Asian Development Bank; chief of India's central bank; and finance minister. But oratory and political savvy were never his strong points. In fact he never had to win an election - he was a member of India's upper house of parliament, whose members are elected indirectly. Many believe that in the end, Mr Singh was undermined by his own party. The film is so-named because he was catapulted into the PM's job in 2004 when Sonia Gandhi turned down the post, despite having won the election. She did so apparently to protect the party from damaging attacks over her Italian origin. But Mr Singh was never able to fully shake off the perception that it was Mrs Gandhi who was in charge, not him. Mr Baru wrote in his memoirs that the famous "Delhi diarchy" - Mr Singh running the government and Mrs Gandhi managing the party - failed during the government's second term, and stifled Mr Singh's independence. Although he earned a reputation as a man of great personal integrity, Mr Singh's second term was marred by a string of corruption scandals. That, say many, was partially responsible for the crushing electoral defeat by the BJP in 2014. It's not that the biopic doesn't appear to hold promise. It has a brisk, documentary-like feel and it has drawn audiences. But unimpressed critics have been lining up to pan it. One found the film "shockingly bad and shoddy… There is a complete absence of any art or craft in its making". Another wrote that Singh is "portrayed as a spineless cry-baby and his many achievements as prime minister go unacknowledged, except for the Indo-US nuclear deal". Columnist Vir Sanghvi wrote that the film is a "convenient peg on which to hang the anti-Congress narrative which was already current when Manmohan Singh was the PM". Critic Shubhra Gupta agreed, saying it was no accident the film was out now, with polls "around the corner". Even some Sikh leaders have had a go - Mr Singh, after all, was the first Sikh to hold the country's top post. One community leader spoke out against the "facetious portrayal" of a prime minister who made the "community and the country proud". BJP leader RP Singh then defended the depiction, saying Mr Singh never really took a stand for the community. Political biopics are rare in India and its politicians rarely countenance candid portrayals: a film critical of the Emergency, imposed by Mr Singh's party in 1975, was banned for example. The strongest defence of The Accidental Prime Minister has come from Akshaye Khanna, who plays the pivotal role of journalist-turned-media adviser Sanjaya Baru. "If you make an authentic political film, which talks of real people and real events, in a politically conscious country like India, it is but natural that people will react to it in different ways and there will be a collage of opinions. "That's to be expected and if it didn't happen, I would have been disappointed," he said in an interview. "But at the end of the day, it's just a film, not an earthquake or a tsunami, so let us not get too carried away."

मनमोहन सिंह भारत के सबसे लंबे समय तक सेवा करने वाले प्रधानमंत्रियों में से एक थे और व्यापक रूप से देश के आर्थिक सुधारों के वास्तुकार के रूप में माने जाते थे। लेकिन आलोचकों का कहना है कि आम चुनाव से महीनों पहले एक नई बॉलीवुड बायोपिक उन्हें एक कैरिकेचर तक सीमित कर देती है। सुधा जी तिलक की रिपोर्ट।


Local elections 2017: Tory smiles and Labour grimaces

Summary: It's early, early days. But so far there will be grimaces at Labour HQ, beaming smiles at the Tory's CCHQ, and a slightly frazzled atmosphere at Lib Dem homes this morning - and don't be surprised if you see Nigel Farage at his favourite boozer by lunchtime.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter There are lots and lots of results still to come in. But with a general election only a month away, this barometer of real votes looks grim for the Labour Party. Senior sources say that it is national share that will matter, and they want to compare it with the election in 2015. But it is more accurate to look at the last time these seats were fought, which was in 2013. In comparison with that, Labour is so far falling back badly, despite holding on in some parts of Wales. And we've just seen the first big blast at the Labour leadership from Stephen Kinnock, calling the picture "disastrous", and urging voters to do what I expect we'll hear other candidates do repeatedly in the next few weeks - making a pitch for a strong opposition, rather than Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister. The victims in most pain so far from voters' decisions yesterday are UKIP. Their vote has been collapsing, with, it seems, swathes switching straight over to the Tories. That is a political trick that Theresa May wants to repeat around the country in a few weeks' time. UPDATE: A senior Labour figure has just described the party's local election results as "catastrophic". As the counts continue, this set of results is proving to be very disappointing for Jeremy Corbyn's party. Officially the party is of course not as admitting as much, with sources suggesting in fact the result are not as bad as they had expected. Yet another senior Labour politician, not one of Corbyn's prominent critics says, this is the "third time in a row we have gone backwards. There is no metric under which these results are not very bad." I can't say enough that we need to be cautious about translating the results directly across to the General Election next month. Yet they are a useful barometer of real votes, that set a depressing backdrop for Labour's prospects in June. Sorry, your browser cannot display this map Find an election See results and latest news in your area See all results: EnglandScotlandWalesCymru

यह शुरुआती दिन हैं। लेकिन अब तक लेबर मुख्यालय में गुस्सा होगा, टोरी के सी. सी. एच. क्यू. पर मुस्कुराहट होगी, और आज सुबह लिब डेम के घरों में थोड़ा परेशान माहौल होगा-और अगर आप नाइजल फराज को दोपहर के भोजन के समय तक अपने पसंदीदा बूज़र पर देखते हैं तो आश्चर्यचकित न हों।


Walney wind farm: Seabed survey ahead of expansion

Summary: The seabed off the Cumbria coast will be scoured for unexploded bombs as part of plans to double in size one of the world's largest offshore wind farms.

The Walney facility has 102 turbines and Danish owner Dong Energy intends to add 90 more. Once completed, it will cover about 55 sq miles (145 sq km), Dong said. Programme director Andrew Cotterell said the geophysical survey was "an important step before we can safely begin offshore construction". Portsmouth marine environmental services company Fugro EMU will start surveying this month, Dong said. The firm will be looking for any seabed obstructions, including unexploded World War Two ordnance. The expanded wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned by 2019. It is one of four in the area.

दुनिया के सबसे बड़े अपतटीय पवन खेतों में से एक के आकार को दोगुना करने की योजना के हिस्से के रूप में कंब्रिया तट से दूर समुद्र तल को बिना फटे बमों के लिए खंगाला जाएगा।


Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election: Candidates list

Summary: Voters go to the polls in Stoke-on-Trent Central on Thursday, 23 February to choose their next MP.

A by-election was triggered by the resignation of Labour Tristram Hunt, who had represented the seat since 2010. Labour, which had a 5,179 majority in 2015, is fielding Gareth Snell as its candidate. UKIP leader Paul Nuttall is running for his party, which came second last time around. Polls open at 07:00 GMT and close at 22:00 GMT. Here is a list of the candidates, in alphabetical order by surname:

मतदाता अपना अगला सांसद चुनने के लिए गुरुवार, 23 फरवरी को स्टोक-ऑन-ट्रेंट सेंट्रल में मतदान करने जाते हैं।


Lookahead 2015: The personalised data-driven future is here

Summary: So the holidays are finally, definitely over.

By Fiona GrahamTechnology of business reporter, BBC News Cast away the post-return to work gloom and cheer yourself in front of the white heat of technology predictions by our experts, in the second part of the annual Technology of business lookahead. Personalisation, data breaches, the internet of things, citizen coders and smart car parks are a few of the trends we've got to look forward to. Although you probably want to change your password. Everywhere. You can catch up on part one here. Stephen Prentice, vice president and fellow, Gartner 2014 saw an explosion of connected devices as smartphones and tablets gave way to a proliferation of wearable devices and the growing internet of things burst into prominence. But even as some individuals appear to live their life in the digital world of social media and online everything, more than one in seven of the UK population have yet to go online at all. As William Gibson commented, "the future is already here, it's just not very evenly distributed." We love our devices, but the next few years will see rising numbers of "invisible" wearable devices, from contact lenses to clothing, jewellery to ingestible smart pills. Technology is giving devices a digital voice, and they will be talking about us - what we eat, where we are, how far we walk, how fast our hearts beat - which taken in their entirety, with a judicious application of cloud services and pervasive analytics, will reveal our most intimate details. Forget your concerns over the security of online transactions, or revealing too much on Facebook - the "system" knows and we are become data! Computing will be everywhere, in the cloud, in smart factories, in our cars and our homes, in drones overhead and the city beneath our feet. Smart machines will digest big data with advanced analytics and become ever more involved in the material decisions which affect our everyday lives. "The Computer says No!" will become reality rather than a running joke. Like it or not, we need to start learning to live alongside our new, smarter, digital "friend". The growth of the sharing economy, this harnesses the power of the social, local and mobile web to allow people to share their assets. From cars to cleaners, driveways to dogs and hotel rooms to handbags, all can be rented by the hour. Companies like AirBnB, ZipCar, Task Rabbit and the now notorious Uber are all starting to gain in popularity with consumers. The "ego system" (as Brian Solis puts it) will become more prolific as more products, services and experiences are tailored to our individual preferences. This trend is being fuelled by the vapour trail of data that we leave behind us, geolocation technologies, the rise of big data analytics and the ability to create mass-customised products and services at lower cost. The rise of voice. It's good to talk, apparently, but our interaction with technologies has been largely through our fingers until now. For wearable technologies to work effectively, we need new ways of interacting with these devices and voice will be the primary candidate. "Omni-channel" service will become more than marketing hype. Autonomous, social, app and mobile consumers are using more and more channels to contact organisations and, finally, organisations are starting to respond to this in a far more connected and co-ordinated way. Baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. The youngest baby boomers reach 50 this year and the oldest are starting to retire in their hundreds of thousands, leaving a skills gap in many key professions and an economic time-bomb that stretches from pensions to productivity. This year we've seen an unprecedented shopping frenzy around the Christmas period, with massive surges in online buying. What's become apparent is that our existing infrastructure is not up to speed. The convenience of online shopping has become a victim of its own success, so next year I think we'll see massive changes. Firstly, retailers will need to closely examine the backbones of their websites and apps to make sure they have the capacity to meet peak demand, while also protecting transaction and customer information (avoiding Target and Home Depot-style cyber-attacks). Secondly, search becomes super-powered. The internet had made shopping cheaper - but we expect more, a better experience. New technologies will make it easier to combine information about our preferences, purchases and search history, the time of year, the weather, general buying patterns - and deliver personalised, accurate results in split seconds. Finally, we'll see the physical shopping experience become more digitally-enabled. Think high street stores with beacon technology that identifies when you're in the shop and gives you information on special offers based on what you've bought before, or even are likely to be interested in. At the checkout, there'll be no need to get cash or cards out, because you will pay with your mobile phone, or watch for that matter. 2014 has really been the year of code, as computer programming gained widespread attention - even David Cameron tried his hand at it during the Hour of Code in early December. In 2015 we will see the rise of the citizen coder as more people recognise that app development isn't just for professional programmers anymore. Spurred on by easy-to-use development platforms we'll see more individuals and businesses creating their own bespoke apps particularly for mobile devices. The stage is set for wearable technology to become one of the hottest trends of 2015, following the high-profile launches of devices including the iWatch and Will.I.am's Puls adding to more familiar wearables such as FitBit and Jawbone. I think we'll see increased uptake of wearables in 2015 as this technology makes the leap from the consumer to the business world, and becomes more industrialised in feature and function. Some are calling 2014 the year of the data breach. Unfortunately, we can expect 2015 to be worse for companies as well as consumers. People have long believed tighter controls will slow employees down and make them less productive, and the tendency has been to invest in stronger security after you've suffered an embarrassing public breach. In 2015, more institutions will implement automated preventive and detective controls around their data. The Sony Pictures data breach in December brought some sunlight to an aspect of companies' vulnerability that has never received the attention it deserves, the need to protect data itself instead of just obsessing over how cybercriminals enter companies to begin with. A lot of good can come from this unfortunate episode if organisations take the right lessons from it. Think of it this way: a thief breaks into a bank, and when he gets inside he finds the vault door was left open, there's no security guard on duty and no camera recording video of who's walking out with money. That's essentially what happened to Sony Pictures and so much of its confidential data, but they shouldn't be singled out. Most organisations today are candidates for the same kind of crime. It's understandable how we got here - technology that was introduced to make it easier to create and share data took off. But not much time was spent thinking about what would happen ten or 15 years after it took off, when the data volumes became terabytes and petabytes and we all grew so dependent on it. And now, we're facing the consequences. Next year the internet of things will enter the mainstream. And by the mainstream, I mean the car park, that most mundane of environments. Car parks that guide you to the nearest space, automate payment, save you time and headaches, and make the entire operation more efficient, will start popping up all over the country. As with car parks, so with cars - fitted with sensors and connected to the internet or other networks wirelessly or via smartphones and other mobile devices. Such 'smart' cars can tell you where you are and how well you're driving. Some are smart enough to drive themselves - even find you a car park and park in it. The increased use of data in the delivery of personalised treatment plans brings increased security risks, and the IDC predicts healthcare organisations will typically have experienced between one and five cyber-attacks by the end of the year. Health tech suppliers will be pressured into providing robust data security commitments, and we are likely to see an increase in risk sharing, consequently growing the cyber insurance market and litigation surrounding the area. Clear and robust contracts with a fair allocation of risk will be key to medicating the situation and protecting suppliers in the sector. Follow Fiona Graham on Twitter at @FionaGraham

इसलिए छुट्टियाँ आखिरकार, निश्चित रूप से समाप्त हो गई हैं।


Prime Minister's Questions: a few Welsh angles

Summary: Something extraordinary happened during Prime Minister's Questions today.

David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales David Cameron was asked a question about the NHS in England and forgot to mention Wales in his reply. Labour's Natascha Engel complained there were too few GPs and it was no surprise people couldn't get an appointment. David Cameron said the coalition had increased spending on the NHS, which now had 7,000 more doctors. No cross-border comparison with Wales, prime minister? I thought initially I had been mistaken and, despite years of training, missed the Welsh angle. But then it happened again, in response to a question about hospital closures from Labour MP Nick Raynsford. David Cameron said that poor service had to be turned around. He added that the average wait in A and E used to be 77 minutes (under Labour) but was now 30 minutes. Again, no mention of life west of Offa's Dyke. Labour former cabinet minister Nick Brown had a go, asking about the causes of a projected £2bn deficit for English NHS trusts next year. Mr Cameron told him the forecasts included efficiency targets - which had been met. After 17 minutes, and three questions about the NHS in England, he prime minister could resist the temptation no longer: "The great question for the NHS in British politics today, I would argue, is why is it in Wales where Labour are under control (sic) where 8 % cuts have been made in the NHS budget." Cue mock yawning from Labour MPs. The prime minister had a final go: "Well, they might be yawning opposite, they're not yawning in Wales because they're stuck on waiting lists waiting for treatment." The Cameron attacks on Welsh NHS performance have become so routine they are less and less newsworthy. Perhaps the prime minister should change his routine first answer at question time to something along these lines "This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today. I shall also be having a go at the Welsh Labour government's handling of the NHS." It would at least save time.

आज प्रधानमंत्री के प्रश्नों के दौरान कुछ असाधारण हुआ।


Sickness bug norovirus affects Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Summary: An outbreak of a sickness bug has had an impact on planned surgery and added pressure on Wrexham Maelor Hospital's emergency unit, bosses have said.

People were admitted with diarrhoea and vomiting over the weekend and some have been confirmed as cases of norovirus. Managers have stopped the admission of patients into rooms where people have the illness to stop it from spreading. They said that move has slowed admissions from the emergency unit into the wider hospital. Admissions to four wards have been stopped as a precautionary measure, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said.

मालिकों ने कहा है कि एक बीमारी बग के प्रकोप का नियोजित सर्जरी पर प्रभाव पड़ा है और रेक्सम मेलोर अस्पताल की आपातकालीन इकाई पर दबाव बढ़ा है।


Met Police helicopter spots London marriage proposal

Summary: A police helicopter crew witnessed a marriage proposal after seeing the words "will you marry me?" spelt out in a north-west London park.

The officers were searching for a stolen car when they saw the pair, one of whom was on bended knee, on Saturday evening in Gladstone Park, Dollis Hill. The crew saw the proposal take place but did not know what the answer was. The MPSinthesky Twitter account tweeted: "We think we have just seen the most romantic guy in north London." Images of the pair were shared with the account's 95,500 followers and the officers tweeted if anyone knew the engaged couple they had some great photos to share with them. Officers believe the message had been spelt out using lit candles to stand out against the night sky.

एक पुलिस हेलीकॉप्टर चालक दल ने उत्तर-पश्चिम लंदन के एक पार्क में "क्या तुम मुझसे शादी करोगी?" शब्दों को देखने के बाद एक शादी के प्रस्ताव को देखा।


Sailor from Antigua becomes the oldest man to row across the Atlantic

Summary: A freak hurricane, debilitating seasickness, encounters with whales and sharks and the loss of a rudder. Those were just some of the challenges faced by four Antiguan men who returned to a heroes' welcome after becoming the oldest team to ever row across the Atlantic.

By Gemma HandyEnglish Harbour, Antigua The intrepid quartet were greeted by a flotilla and thousands of well-wishers brandishing national flags, blowing conch horns and whistles as they made their entry into Nelson's Dockyard on Antigua's south coast on Wednesday, bringing their gruelling 3,000 nautical mile journey to a close. The feat is a double world record for one of the men - 74-year-old sailor Peter Smith. He became the oldest person to complete what is dubbed the world's toughest rowing race. Team Wadadli claimed 14th place out of 26 boats taking part in the annual Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, which set off from the Canary Islands on December 21. Headed by captain Dr Nick Fuller, a 67-year-old GP, the foursome also included professional seamen Archie Bailey, 50, and John Hall, 29. Around halfway through their 52-day adventure, the team battled Hurricane Alex - the first Atlantic tropical cyclone to form in January in 78 years - in their 8.64 metre (28ft) boat Wa'omoni, setting them back nine nautical miles. Mr Smith described the 10 metre (33ft) waves as "pretty horrific". They forced the men to abandon their oars and confine themselves to the tiny cabin. "In a boat that small the noise was tremendous," he told the BBC, "and it felt endless. We couldn't lie down in our bunks - we were bouncing up and down like ping pong balls." Mr Smith, originally from Penzance, Cornwall, continued: "It feels terrific to have broken the record. I've sailed across the Atlantic three times so I knew what to expect but this was a real challenge - particularly at my age. "It's a long time to be at sea. There was a lot of hardship, both on the water and the boat itself as it's very small and very bouncy; in 52 days we were never once still." Mr Smith's wife Elizabeth said she thought her husband was joking when he announced his intention to take part. "I didn't think he was serious. And then I thought he was crazy. "I am a sailor myself and sailing across oceans in a boat designed precisely for that is one thing; I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it in a rowing boat." She added: "It wasn't until we were flying round and round in a helicopter looking for them when they were 20 miles from the finishing line that you really see quite how small and vulnerable they are." After just 14 days at sea, Wa'omoni lost her steering, meaning the men were forced to steer manually for the remainder of the journey. Christmas was another arduous time with Mr Hall suffering intense seasickness and Dr Fuller struck down with flu. The team also related tales of passing pilot whales, sharks and marlin - and a breathtaking display by a pod of dolphins. Age may not have been on the team's side but maritime experience was. While other competitors were forced to subsist solely on freeze-dried food, the Antiguans - all keen fishermen - supplemented theirs with freshly caught mahi mahi and tuna. Still, the punishing regime saw the men shed a collective 60 pounds (27 kg) in weight - almost half by Dr Fuller alone. In addition to a thunderous reception from supporters and dignitaries, a steak meal awaited the rowers upon their arrival shortly after lunchtime on February 10. Surveying the throng who had turned out to welcome them home, a beaming Dr Fuller said: "Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would end like this. It started out as a personal endeavour; I was 66 and thought if I don't do it now, it will never happen." There was laughter from onlookers as he recalled his struggle to gather a willing team together. The resulting four are long-time friends and seafaring associates. "The conditions were difficult and we'd been advised we would hit rock bottom at times but there was not a word of anger between us. It feels incredible to have done it," Dr Fuller added. The family physician credited the remarkable accomplishment to 20% physical strength and 80% willpower. At the time of signing up for the race he joked he had "no muscles and little physical ability." Team Wadadli raised more than $80,000 (£55,000) for a local cause, St John's Hospice. Tourism Minister Asot Michael paid tribute to an "historic display of courage and tenacity, endurance and determination." Prime Minister Gaston Browne said: "They have brought international attention to Antigua & Barbuda - and pride to this country."

एक अजीब तूफान, कमजोर करने वाला समुद्री रोग, व्हेल और शार्क के साथ सामना और एक पतवार का नुकसान। ये केवल चार एंटीगुआ पुरुषों द्वारा सामना की जाने वाली कुछ चुनौतियों में से थे जो अटलांटिक को पार करने वाली अब तक की सबसे पुरानी टीम बनने के बाद नायकों के स्वागत के लिए लौट आए।


US mid-terms: How election results just got worse for Trump

Summary: It's taken almost two weeks, but most of the dust has finally settled from the 2018 mid-term elections. What initially appeared to be a mixed picture for Donald Trump and the Republicans has grown darker - but there is a Sunshine State silver lining.

Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter On the morning after polling, Mr Trump said the results showed almost a "complete victory". Even at the time that was difficult to square with the reality that his party had lost control of the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years. There was the prospect that the Republicans were going to make historic gains in the Senate, however. The president boasted of the possibility of a four-seat pick-up - which would build the largest majority for his party in more than a century. Such a historic win was not to be. Here's a look at some of the most significant developments since the first round of election-night instant analyses, many of which were written when it was challenging to spot the Democratic wave among the evening's early returns. Orange (County) is the new blue It became clear near midnight on election day that Democrats would take control of the House of Representatives. The only question was the size of their majority. Much of that depended on the outcome of very close races and the slow trickle of results from California mail-in balloting. What could have been only a tenuous Democratic hold on power has slowly grown to a more robust advantage - and California is a big reason why. In Orange County, the heavily populated suburbs south of Los Angeles, Republicans were routed. What used to be the backbone of conservatism in the state - the home of Richard Nixon, a place Ronald Reagan once referred to as "Republican heaven" - turned Democratic blue. Four Republican-held districts in the county fell, marking the first time since 1940 that all seven of its House seats will be represented by Democrats. Add another two seats that have been called for the Democrats elsewhere in California and one that appears poised to go blue, and there could be only seven Republicans left in the state's 53-seat congressional delegation. There's still plenty of Republican red on the California map, but it's all in the relatively unpopulated eastern portion of the state. Most Californians live on the coast. In fact, except for a small Republican-held slice of southern Washington, the entire Pacific coast of the continental US will now be represented in the House by Democrats. Orange County was expected to be a battleground in 2018. Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Mr Trump throughout the area in 2016, and the president remains largely unpopular there. The scope of the rout, however, was remarkable. Combined with post-election-day victories for Democrats in New Jersey, Washington, Georgia and Maine (and more on that in a minute), the Democratic House majority will have at least a 14-seat cushion with five races left to be decided. Although the size of the victory in terms of seats is dwarfed by the Republican waves of 2010 and 1994, it is the largest Democratic House gain since the post-Watergate election of 1974. A more modest Senate swing If the House results were good news for the Democrats, the Senate appeared to be another story. Midway through election night, a flurry of embattled Democratic Senate incumbents were toppled. Joe Donnelly, despite pre-election polls showing he might hang on to his seat in conservative Indiana, was quickly defeated. Claire McCaskill, who seemed to be living a charmed political life, saw her luck run out in Missouri. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, a state that Mr Trump won by more than 30% in 2016, was buried. Yes, Democratic incumbents won surprisingly easy victories in Trump-carried states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and across the Midwest, but the losses were mounting. Later in the evening, it became clear that Democrats would pick up a seat in Nevada - beating the one Republican running in a state Mrs Clinton carried - but it still seemed like the Republicans were on a roll. Instead, Democrats stopped the bleeding. Jon Tester held on in Montana, another very Trump-friendly state. And Kyrsten Sinema defeated Martha McSally to pick up a Republican-held seat in Arizona. After a week of recounting battles, Rick Scott upended Democratic Senator Bill Nelson in Florida, which - along with governor wins in Georgia and Florida - gave Mr Trump a bit of late good news. It's hard to over-estimate the value of Florida to the president - some might say it's his real home. There's still a Mississippi run-off scheduled in a week, but the chances are that the Republicans will hold that seat. Add in the Democratic win in an Alabama special election last year, and Trump will probably enter the second half of his first term with one more seat in the Senate than he had when he started, 53 to 47. It provides a bit of breathing room for his party, but it also means the chamber is decidedly in play in 2020, when more Republicans will have to defend their seats in battleground states. Mr Trump, in a Friday tweet, called his party's two-seat gain in the Senate an "epic victory" and downplayed the Democratic pickup in the Senate. The Senate gains are indeed somewhat rare for a president, although that has much more to do with the idiosyncrasies of the 2018 seats up for election than larger trends. As FiveThirtyEight's Geoffrey Skelley explains, in state after state Democratic Senate candidates in 2018 outperformed the "partisan lean" (compared to the national average) of the states they were running in. Meanwhile, in the House, only five of the last 15 mid-terms had larger gains for the out-of-power party. If this was an epic victory, Republicans probably shudder when thinking what defeat might have looked like. Mia gets love from voters, not Trump One of the more unusual portions of Mr Trump's post-election press conference was when he began listing names of Republican candidates he felt had not adequately supported him - and went on to lose. "I'm not sure that I should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it," he said. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Mike Coffman in Colorado, Barbara Comstock in Virginia and Illinois' Peter Roskam. None of them wanted the Trump "embrace", the president said, and all paid the price. "Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost," he noted of the only black Republican congresswoman, who was trailing her opponent on election night. "Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia." The thing is, Ms Love, running for re-election, is in a back-and-forth fight for her northern Utah seat. Since the president's remarks, she pulled ahead by more than 1,000 votes and is currently trailing by around 700. Victory is far from assured, but it's going to be close. 21 NOV UPDATE: In final tabulations, Democrat Ben McAdams defeated Ms Love by 694 votes. The Democrats pick up another House seat, and Trump gets a bit of costly vindication." And one for the political nerds... Maine As mentioned, that Maine election was a bit unusual. The Second Congressional District race was the first test of the state's new "ranked choice" voting system. Because of it, a Democrat unseated an incumbent Republican who would have been re-elected under the old system. When Maine residents headed to the polls two weeks ago, they voted for their first choice - and then marked who their second preference would be if their first pick didn't end up in the top two and no one received a majority of the vote. On election day, Republican Bruce Poliquin received 46.2% of the vote, while Democrat Jared Golden tallied 45.5%. After the second choices of those who opted for independent and third-party candidates were tabulated last Thursday, however, Mr Golden pulled ahead and won the seat. "Instant runoff" systems like this have been cited by electoral reform advocates as a means to avoid third-party spoiler candidates and ensure that elected officials enter office with a majority of support. The Republican is already challenging the legality of the process, but if it's upheld, other states may give the system a look.

इसे लगभग दो सप्ताह लग गए हैं, लेकिन 2018 के मध्यावधि चुनावों से अधिकांश धूल आखिरकार शांत हो गई है। जो शुरुआत में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प और रिपब्लिकन के लिए एक मिश्रित तस्वीर प्रतीत होती थी वह गहरी हो गई है-लेकिन एक सनशाइन स्टेट सिल्वर लाइनिंग है।


Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner candidates 2021

Summary: Elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will be held across England and Wales, including the Dyfed-Powys force area, on 6 May 2021.

PCCs are elected representatives who work to ensure police forces are run effectively and efficiently. They replaced police authorities in 2012 and are intended to bring a public voice to policing. PCC elections are supposed to be held every four years but were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic Here is the list of candidates for Dyfed-Powys, in alphabetical order by surname: A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. More information about these elections Who can I vote for in my area? Enter your postcode, or the name of your English council or Scottish or Welsh constituency to find out. Eg 'W1A 1AA' or 'Westminster'

पुलिस और अपराध आयुक्तों (पी. सी. सी.) के लिए चुनाव 6 मई 2021 को डैफेड-पॉव्स बल क्षेत्र सहित पूरे इंग्लैंड और वेल्स में आयोजित किए जाएंगे।


Junipero Serra: Saint or sinner?

Summary: Pope Francis is the fourth pontiff to visit the US, but he'll perform the first canonisation ever on US soil. So was 18th Century missionary Junipero Serra a champion of Catholicism or a brutal instrument of colonisation?

Born in 1713 on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Serra was a Franciscan friar who spent much of his life spreading the Catholic faith in the western part of what is today the United States. It was his work there that has generated controversy. While Serra enjoys popularity among many and was beatified by John Paul II in 1988, the missionary remains highly controversial with some groups, especially Native Americans in California. They claim that Serra was instrumental in the obliteration of indigenous populations, as well as several human rights abuses including enslavement. Descendents of these original Californians have asked the Pope not to canonise the friar, claiming he acted more like a religious conqueror than a saint. Still others say that Serra, like Pope Francis, was a champion of the poor and downtrodden, and that Christianity in much of California could be largely attributed to his work. Marching aside the Spanish conquistadors, Serra established eight of the state's 21 missions. His proponents - including the Vatican - say that it was during this time he worked as a moderating force on the colonial conquerors and defended the rights of the Native Americans. Despite the controversy, in January, the Pope announced that Serra would become a saint, after bypassing the standard requirement that two miracles could be attributed to the missionary. Since then the Pope has worked to ameliorate some of the concerns. During a South American tour in July, Pope Francis apologised for the crimes committed against indigenous peoples at the hands of the church, but he did not mention Serra by name. The canonisation is slated to take place in front of an audience of 25,000 people in Washington. Notably, in a sign of the shifting demographics of the Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere, the Mass will be celebrated in Spanish. Read a profile of Junipero Serra in Spanish (BBC Mundo) Many of those in attendance will be Hispanic, which Washington's archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, said would give the Argentine-born pope a chance to pay homage to the contributions of Hispanics to the US and to the Catholic church. At the Carmel mission in California, the site of Serra's death, as many as 400 worshippers are planning to watch the mass via video stream. But at the same site, members of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation were planning a silent protest and prayer service for ancestors buried on the mission's grounds.

पोप फ्रांसिस अमेरिका की यात्रा करने वाले चौथे पोप हैं, लेकिन वे अमेरिकी धरती पर पहली बार संत की उपाधि से सम्मानित होंगे। तो क्या 18वीं शताब्दी के मिशनरी जुनिपेरो सेरा कैथोलिक धर्म के समर्थक थे या उपनिवेशवाद का एक क्रूर साधन?


Airbus Broughton: Farnborough orders 'good news' for staff

Summary: A multi-billion-pounds order for new aircraft will sustain jobs for workers in Flintshire, plane-maker Airbus says.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding with American firm Air Lease Corp on Monday, for 25 of its re-vamped A330 models. Air Lease also ordered 60 A321neo aircraft, in a deal worth $14.1bn (£8.2m) at the Farnborough Air Show. The wings are made at Broughton and an Airbus spokesman said the orders were "good news" for the Flintshire plant. The company said on Monday it had orders for 155 aircraft so far at the show.

विमान निर्माता एयरबस का कहना है कि नए विमानों के लिए अरबों पाउंड का ऑर्डर फ्लिंटशायर में श्रमिकों के लिए नौकरियों को बनाए रखेगा।