Can Serb mayor ease Bosnia's Srebrenica pain?

Summary: Even by the standards of 2016, Mladen Grujicic's election as mayor of Srebrenica was far from straightforward. Because Srebrenica will forever be linked to the Bosnian Serb forces' massacre of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995. And Mr Grujicic is the first ethnic Serb to be mayor of this ethnically mixed town in almost 20 years.

By Guy DelauneyBBC News, Srebrenica, Bosnia The previous holder of the post, Camil Durakovic, may not literally have been dragged kicking and screaming from office. But he did protest to Bosnia's election commission and triggered a recount. After a lengthy appeal, Mr Grujicic was eventually confirmed as mayor and his achievement caused significant disquiet locally and internationally. The ethnic question His ethnic background alone would have been enough to raise concern in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country divided by the 1995 Dayton peace agreement into two "entities". The Federation is home to most of the country's Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and ethnic Croats, while in Republika Srpska (RS) the majority of the population is ethnic Serb. Regardless of ethnicity, Bosnians believe many of their public officials use the politics of fear and allegations of corruption are rife, while they struggle to get by in a deeply dysfunctional country. But there were very different reasons for the kerfuffle surrounding Mr Grujicic's rise to power in Srebrenica. The mayor and the genocide Srebrenica is in Republika Srpska. And during the election campaign Bosniaks here were alarmed when he refused to use the word "genocide" to describe the 1995 massacre. Then a photograph emerged of Mr Grujicic posing in a cap similar to those worn by the Chetniks, a World War Two resistance movement, whose name was adopted by ultra-nationalist Serb paramilitaries in the 1990s. Since taking office, Mr Grujicic has been keen to tone down the controversial rhetoric, at least when international visitors are in town. He told the BBC that he was committed to representing all the people of Srebrenica, regardless of ethnicity. "It's media hype that people are worried that I'm Serb and the mayor," he said. "The most important thing now is to boost the economy. Because we used to have 15,000 people living here - and now we have 5,000. We have to stop people leaving. The easiest way is if you have a person who does not discriminate against anyone and gives equal opportunities to everyone." Asked about his sympathies for ultra-nationalist groups, Mr Grujicic insists that donning the Chetnik-style cap was a youthful indiscretion, which does not reflect his views today. "We all have some private pictures taken at certain points in our lives. When it was taken I wasn't even contemplating becoming mayor of Srebrenica." "In any case, the cap is part of the folklore, the traditional outfit of people here. When it comes to the insignia in the photo, that wasn't the Chetnik insignia - this badge was worn by the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the one in which Bosniaks served as well." Locals may be heartened by Mr Grujicic's promise to work for everyone. "He's a new hope, he's young; we expect some changes for the better," says Dzeneta, a Bosniak woman. But for Bosnia as a whole, the signs are not encouraging. More on Srebrenica and the Bosnian war After a couple of years in which it seemed that political leaders were at least starting to work in the common interest at the national level, divisions are widening again. The Bosniak member of the country's three-person presidency is trying to revive genocide charges against Serbia at the International Court of Justice. This has angered his Serb counterpart, who has warned that the country could be destabilised. Meanwhile, Republika Srpska's president is dangling the threat of a secession referendum. And Bosnia's Croatian National Assembly has renewed its demand for a third, mainly ethnic Croat, entity, separate from the Federation. Zoran Ivancic, the founder of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre think tank, says the recent focus on the economy is dangerous when grievances from the conflict of the 1990s remain unresolved. The EU's reform agenda in Bosnia intentionally sweeps justice and reconciliation under the carpet, he argues. "Instead, everyone talks about employment and GDP, like that will reduce the ethnic hate and potential for future conflicts." The people of Srebrenica in 1995 suffered the most harrowing consequences of Bosnia's divisive politics. And there is little tolerance now among people on its drab, near-empty streets for either the leaders in Sarajevo or the RS capital, Banja Luka. "I am not interested in politics or politicians; I cannot even bear the sight of them," says one woman. "No-one lives here, that's the problem. Srebrenica was always governed by people from the outside," adds a man. The election of an ethnic-Serb mayor may have raised eyebrows well beyond Srebrenica, but many of its population believe they have bigger problems than that. Asking them to choose between economic revival and reconciliation seems artificial, when they - like the rest of Bosnia - desperately need both.

2016 के मानकों के अनुसार भी, स्रेब्रेनिसा के महापौर के रूप में म्लाडेन ग्रुजिसिक का चुनाव सीधा नहीं था। क्योंकि स्रेब्रेनिसा हमेशा के लिए 1995 में लगभग 8,000 मुस्लिम पुरुषों और लड़कों के बोस्नियाई सर्ब बलों के नरसंहार से जुड़ा रहेगा। और श्री ग्रुजिसिक लगभग 20 वर्षों में इस जातीय रूप से मिश्रित शहर के महापौर बनने वाले पहले जातीय सर्ब हैं।


Casquets lighthouse off Alderney may go green

Summary: The Casquets lighthouse, off Alderney, may soon be shining less brightly if a project to make the site more environmentally friendly goes ahead.

Trinity House, which maintains lighthouses in the British Isles, may replace the diesel generators with a battery charged by a solar panel. A team from Trinity House visited the site to investigate the feasibility. Ian Tutt said: "We are reducing the range slightly of these lights, but not so much as to affect safety." A lighthouse was first built on the Casquets rocks, infamous among mariners as the site of many shipwrecks, 13km north-west of Alderney in 1724.

यदि साइट को अधिक पर्यावरण के अनुकूल बनाने की परियोजना आगे बढ़ती है, तो एल्डर्नी से दूर कैस्केट्स लाइटहाउस जल्द ही कम चमकीला हो सकता है।


How Patio cola changed the world of fizzy drinks

Summary: Fifty years ago Diet Pepsi was first marketed, trying to fix a link in consumers' minds between sugar-free fizzy drinks and weight loss. But today, the very term "diet" on food and drink almost seems a little retro, writes Chris Stokel-Walker.

Fans of Mad Men may recognise Patio Diet Cola. The product featured in the first few episodes of series three of the advertising agency drama, and is a point of dispute between Sterling Cooper staff members when PepsiCo reject a television commercial based on the film Bye Bye Birdie. Patio was a real product and the year after its introduction in 1963 it was rebranded as Diet Pepsi. But Pepsi's move into diet drinks was inspired by an unusual source. A soft drink produced for diabetic patients at New York's Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Disease in the early 1950s called No-Cal ballooned in popularity, far beyond the customer base its maker expected. It turned out more than half the people buying No-Cal weren't diabetic - they were just watching their weight. This caught the attention of Royal Crown, a cola maker, which introduced Diet Rite Cola in 1962. Their product was marketed towards the calorie-conscious as a dietetic product. The strategy worked - in three years, sales of diet drinks increased fivefold. Pepsi was forced to act. But PepsiCo was not sure there was a big enough market for their diet drink, or that it would be successful. So they hedged their bets. They released the drink, but avoided connecting it to their main Pepsi brand, worried a potential failure could tarnish the brand they had spent years building. When they recognised the fad for diet food and drink wasn't disappearing, they renamed Patio. But the creation of Diet Pepsi, and Diet Coke in the early 1980s, have not led to the proliferation of the term "diet" across lower-calorie food and drinks. Diet foods are plentiful - the industry is worth £1.8bn in the UK, according to analyst Mintel, - but their branding is subtle. Wander a grocery aisle in today's supermarkets and there are plenty of reduced-calorie ready meals, prepared foods and canned and bottled drinks - but almost none of them use the word "diet". The brand names are fuzzier and warmer than simply slapping "diet" on the label. In the UK, Tesco's reduced calorie and fat products are sold under the "Healthy Living" brand - previously this was called "Light Choices". Marks & Spencer use the "Fuller Longer" and "Count on us" brands to market their reduced calorie and fat foods. Sainsbury's healthier fare is emblazoned with the message "Be good to yourself". In the US, Wal-Mart has the "Great for you" tag, and both it and Target sell third party products under the "Healthy Choice" banner. There's a particular reason the supermarkets go down this route, says Marc David, a nutritional psychologist and founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. "Health is a long-term proposition: if I'm eating junk food, I'm not thinking about the long-term. But if I'm sitting down at a meal, I'm thinking about my long-term health. There's a sense of empowerment to that - I can make choices and eat food that will make me feel healthier." Modern consumers prefer to be inspired rather than chided. "Diet" has negative connotations. "People make decisions, especially in a supermarket environment, you're talking three to seven seconds, and they might only read six words on a weekly shop," says Simon Forster of branding agency Robot Food. Communication has to be very direct, and being aspirational sells. "In many sectors the word 'diet' has evolved to 'light'," Forster says. "Some people could see 'diet' as off-putting." David agrees: "Ironically, one might think of the term 'diet' as something heavy." Pepsi and Coca-Cola have stuck with "diet", having built up brands, but they've experimented with other terms. In 1993, PepsiCo introduced Pepsi MAX, a sugar-free carbonated soft drink that targets a similar audience to those who drink Diet Pepsi. Combined, PepsiCo's sugar-free alternatives account for 68% of the company's total sales in the cola category. Coca-Cola produces Coke Zero alongside Diet Coke, with the two drinks aimed at different markets - the Coke company found young men were unwilling to buy Diet Coke, feeling the word "diet" was too nagging and feminine. PepsiCo's advertising for its low- or no-calorie drinks is often geared specifically towards an enviable figure. One of its earliest slogans in the 1960s was "The girls girl-watchers watch, drink Diet Pepsi". The implication was that drinking Diet Pepsi would keep a woman slim and desirable. Even more recent adverts toe this line - a 1996 Brazilian Diet Pepsi billboard accentuates a model's slim waist with the tagline: "You drink and get nothing." A 2004 US advert portrayed a two-litre bottle of Diet Pepsi slinking off its label, so stick-thin is its figure. The avoidance of the dreaded d-word can "strike a chord with a more demanding 'lifestyle-driven' consumer", believes Forster. PepsiCo introduced Pepsi Next, a drink with fewer calories than its regular cola, in 2012. Coca-Cola this month unveiled Coke Life, a drink that contains sugar and new natural sweetener stevia and has 89 calories per can, compared to 139 in normal Coke. The green cans, aimed at calorie and health-conscious consumers, will be on British shelves this autumn following trials in South America last year. "Consumers demand additional benefit from products and if the product evokes an active lifestyle, along with the inherent benefit of having no sugar it's a win for sales, leaving 'diet' as a bland and slightly dated alternative," says Forster. A quarter of the carbonated drink industry's US revenue comes from diet options, according to analysts IBISWorld. The average annual intake of fizzy drinks is dropping, with the average American drinking nearly a fifth less than a decade ago. And while standard versions of soft drinks have retained roughly the same market share in the past decade, according to data collated by Beverage Digest, an industry magazine, diet drinks have lost ground. Diet Pepsi had a 5.8% market share in 2003, which had dropped to 4.5% 10 years later. Despite the burgeoning concern over sugar in drinks, few will be pushing diet fizzy drinks as a healthy alternative. They damage your teeth and have even been associated with weight gain. But the two big diet colas will long remain powerful brands. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

पचास साल पहले डाइट पेप्सी का पहली बार विपणन किया गया था, जो उपभोक्ताओं के दिमाग में चीनी मुक्त फ़िज़ी पेय और वजन घटाने के बीच एक कड़ी को ठीक करने की कोशिश कर रहा था। लेकिन आज, भोजन और पेय पर "आहार" शब्द लगभग थोड़ा पुराना लगता है, क्रिस स्टोकेल-वॉकर लिखते हैं।


Scottish independence: how competitive is the economy?

Summary: I've been in conversation about the implications for business of Scotland's independence options. The resulting half-hour radio programme shed rather more light than heat on the subject, so it may not get as much attention as some debates I could mention.

Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland The debate on the Business Scotland radio programme took me back to the white paper on 'Scotland's Future', to remind myself what the offer is for independence as it affects business. It suggests supporting investment, improved skills, access to finance, streamlining regulation and better consumer protection. What struck me is that these are either devolved powers or already policies of the UK government. So would independence involve much change? One distinctive policy offered up in the white paper is an inbuilt competitive corporation tax rate, cutting (over time) to sit 3 pence in the pound lower than the UK rate. That's been a moving target, as Westminster Budgets have sharply cut the UK rate to 20 pence, which not long ago was the target set by the SNP government. Reverse tax raid To Ian Blackford, a former investment manager representing the 'yes' side of our debate, the white paper is just a starting point for how taxation could be altered to suit Scottish circumstances. It was understandable that Standard Life took the action it did earlier this month, he said. It's protecting its interests by creating new companies outside Scotland to which it could transfer business, if that were to become necessary. The question he asked, then, is what tax regime Scotland would put in place to make Scotland a more attractive place to retain the pensions giant in Edinburgh, and to attract others in. Ian Blackford suggested a reversal of the notorious pension raid carried out by Gordon Brown in his early days as Labour Chancellor. That, he argued, could give Scotland's asset managers a competitive advantage. Fashion victims? To Tessa Hartman, whose consultancy is in the fashion industry and speaking for the pro-union side, a cut in corporation tax rate misses the point of all the uncertainty and negotiation required before the Holyrood budget could get there. She raised the prospect of cutting off Scottish designers from the opportunities they get to play on a global stage through the British Fashion Council. That would be one of those side-effects from independence that loses the advantage of "having the best of both worlds", goes the argument. From Mure Dickie, our impartial observer, as Scotland correspondent for the Financial Times, the uncertainty extends to Britain's economic future, and much of this comes down to what choices are made after independence, rather than the 'yes' or 'no' vote itself. He also raised the interesting question of whether small countries, for all their flexibility, can also be more vulnerable to the pressures of capture by big business interests. Ireland and Iceland might say so. Of course, the points they made are much more nuanced than that. You can listen for yourself on iPlayer, or there's a free download. Borrowing costs Meanwhile, six months out from the referendum, analysis of the business and economic environment continues to pile up. Standard & Poor's set out lots of reasons why Scotland already has economic strengths comparable to other developed nations, which it could take into an independent future. As I've noted before, it balances that with a number of concerns about the transition. In setting out the criteria for a credit rating (while not yet setting one), the ratings agency raised concerns about the level of dependence on oil revenue and the exposure to risk from what appears to be a disproportionately large financial sector. Citi followed up with a rather more sceptical analysis. It summarised the considerations for a credit rating thus: Citi suggested a premium on borrowing of 1.25 percentage points above the UK rate (currently just below 3%). That could be less if Scotland gets a deal on having the protection and joint control of the Bank of England, and higher if Scotland is perceived by the markets as having walked away from its debt responsibilities. With Westminster's main parties saying 'no deal' and the Scottish government saying 'a deal is inevitable', Citi's assessment is that a deal is "unlikely". And it says that Scotland's credit rating would fall short of the AAA gold standard, being more "likely" to start out in the upper single-A bracket. That's below New Zealand, while above Slovenia and Chile. "Fast-growing track" And there's more. The Fraser of Allander Institute, at Strathclyde University, gets noticed for its forecasts, raising this year's expectation to 2.3% and the same next year. Alongside that forecast, it publishes a commentary on the state of the economy, with learned articles. Arguments for and against independence are included with last week's publication, written by Scottish finance minister John Swinney and Professor Jim Gallagher, adviser to the Better Together campaign. If, like me, you like this sort of thing, they're both well worth a read. This month's publication also has an interesting take on Scotland's competitiveness. A team from the Bakbasel economic consultancy in Switzerland have offered their assessment of Scotland's current position and what it would have to address if it became independent. Through comparison with similar nations and regions within Europe, it supports the positives in the Standard & Poor and the Citi reports, and emphasises that Scotland has significant advantages in its competitiveness. Viewed from Basel, Scotland's had a good decade to 2012: "It's on a fast-growing track, and about to catch up with the leaders". (In this debate, that can cut either way; a sign of things going well inside the UK, or a sign of the strength on which to build outside it.) 'Mediocre prospects' This analysis says Scotland has shown strong growth in productivity. This sounds odd, as we've been told the precise opposite about the UK economy more widely. It's a challenge that may be one of the focuses of George Osborne's Budget this week. The catch is that the areas where Scotland has the strongest competitiveness are not in sectors that offer the best prospects for growth. Textiles, for instance: "Industries with mediocre prospects play important roles". Business services represent a large part of Scotland's competitiveness, and that includes much of the finance sector. It can also compete in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The Swiss team highlights Scotland's strong university research, but points out there's a weakness in translating it into patents and commercial benefit. Scotland has comparatively weak links to the European market, and that's inevitable because of where it is. But being close to Heathrow, it has strong links to the global market. So a priority is to keep that link into the London hub. Scotland's economic attractiveness is "near or above the western European average in most areas. However, to attract and to hold on to foreign capital and highly qualified people, its level of attractiveness should be well above the western European average". Top rate tax How to get there if it were independent, ask Martin Eichler, Rebekka Rufer and Andrea Wagner? They argue Scotland should strive to retain the UK advantages of favourable regulation and flexible labour markets. Business in Scotland benefits from the UK's political conditions, and it could potentially strengthen that further, notably by decentralising. Holyrood could cut taxes on business profits, though there's doubt cast on whether the advantage that might give the economy would be enough to offset the loss in revenue. The more significant tax problem being highlighted is how much the UK taxes highly-skilled people. The SNP isn't showing any sign of wanting to cut those rates. On the contrary, it has a lot of spending pledges. And the indications coming from the Labour Party this weekend are that Johann Lamont would like to use more taxation powers (within the UK) to make those top tax rates higher still. To anyone watching rugby this weekend, talk of Scotland's competitiveness may touch a raw nerve. But in economic terms, all this evidence piling up serves as a reminder that the key decisions for business are not going to be made at the referendum on 18 September, but in the decisions on taxation, spending and regulation that follow. UPDATE 17 MARCH On the Standard & Poor's report into Scotland's potential credit rating, much has been made of one sentence saying that Scotland would qualify for "our highest economic assessment". This has been interpreted by some as meaning Scotland would have a AAA credit rating. It was quoted by Alex Salmond at First Minister's Questions last week. And the convener of Holyrood's economy committee wanted to know, when questioning senior BBC journalists last week, why this particular sentence was not reported by the BBC. So to clarify, the "economic assessment" by Standard & Poor's is one of five assessments. To quote its own guidance: "The five factors that form the foundation of our sovereign credit analysis are: It goes on to say that the economic assessment covers "our view of the country's income levels, growth prospects, and its economic diversity and volatility". So the ratings agency gives high marks to Scotland for those factors. It's not saying that about the other four factors, except to say that together, they would ensure Scottish sovereign bonds would be "investment grade". That ranges from BBB- up to AAA. Standard & Poor's hasn't said, yet, which rating it would give an independent Scotland. It did summarise its analysis by saying Scotland's challenge would be "significant, but not unsurpassable". And that's what the BBC reported.

मैं स्कॉटलैंड के स्वतंत्रता विकल्पों के व्यापार के लिए निहितार्थ के बारे में बातचीत कर रहा हूं। परिणामस्वरूप आधे घंटे का रेडियो कार्यक्रम इस विषय पर गर्मी की तुलना में अधिक प्रकाश डालता है, इसलिए हो सकता है कि इसे उतना ध्यान न मिले जितना कि कुछ बहसों का मैं उल्लेख कर सकता हूं।


London bombings: unsung heroes of 7 July

Summary: As the final witnesses are heard at the inquests into the deaths of those killed in the 7 July attacks, amid the harrowing accounts of tragedy and terror recounted in 19 weeks of evidence, tales have emerged of great courage.

By Marie JacksonBBC News Indeed, coroner Lady Justice Hallett said: "One of the most impressive things we've learnt is how fellow passengers went to see what they could do to answer those cries for help and... went into a war zone." Passengers swung from handrails into wrecked carriages and cradled the injured as they took their last breath, while trained medics, off and on duty, put their own horror aside to help save lives. Their courage is all the more remarkable as it goes against what psychologists call "bystander apathy" - a reaction which leads many of us to walk away from extreme situations. Astonishing response The men and women who stepped up after four suicide bombers blew up Tube trains and a bus on 7 July 2005 were the exceptions. They were the medically trained whose expertise made them feel competent enough to be of use, but also the empathetic and altruistic who, without first aid knowledge, walked into the unknown. There was the astonishing response of passengers aboard a train that pulled up alongside the bombed Tube carriage at Edgware Road station. Three men, maybe more, alerted by cries of anguish, smashed through their carriage window and swung from handrails on to the wreckage. They had no idea what had happened, nor whether there was worse to come, yet they jumped in to help total strangers. One of them, an RAF wing commander, helped wounded John Tulloch, whose head injuries were making him desperately want to go to sleep. Gp Capt Craig Staniforth kept him awake by chatting about their children. To this day, Prof Tulloch, whose bloodied face became one of the most memorable images from the terror attacks, can recall which universities the captain's daughter was applying to at the time. "The scenario itself didn't faze me, but that's not because I'm being blase," the RAF medical support officer said. "That's because I was used to seeing that scenario. What I couldn't relate to was reality at this particular time." Usually he would be supported by paramedics, doctors and nurses, he said. But in reality, there was not even a medical kit, only an apple in his briefcase. "It was at that time that I started to think, 'How do I cope with this?'" At the inquest, the coroner told him that Mr Tulloch and others had "every reason to be very grateful" his military training kicked in and he was brave enough to climb though the broken window. Mouth-to-mouth Suhel Boodi, without any first aid training to draw on, went from the safety of his carriage into the wrecked remains of the one in front of him. "We heard cries of help. It was instinctive to go and see what was happening and see if there was anything we can do," he said. There, he attempted to save 29-year-old Laura Webb, by following the instructions of a commuter trapped in another carriage. "I saw people banging on the window, making mouth-to-mouth kind of signs. I have never done first aid in my life but I had seen it on TV." Another who stayed to help was Steven Desborough, the last surviving civilian to leave the underground after the Aldgate attack. He cradled and comforted young Carrie Taylor in her final minutes. At the same time, he was waving and calling out words of encouragement to others with serious injuries and two stricken passengers trapped beneath a body and debris. Later, he joked with one of the injured about the state of her hair and how he was gasping for a cup of coffee to try to distract her from the horrors of the day. A modest man, Mr Desborough put his response down to instinct and first aid training. "I don't think I could have walked on. I don't think it would have been in my nature. And if I was put in the same scenario again, I'd do it again," he said. "There were people that walked on and I don't blame them. Someone up there that day said: 'Steve, you're going to have a bit of a bad day today, however, we think that you're going to be one of the best ones to try and deal with it. So just roll up your sleeves and get on with it.'" Human chain Although emergencies are part of their everyday working life, off-duty medics also showed considerable courage by defying warnings to leave the tunnel in case of a second device. Gerardine Quaghebeur, a consultant neurologist, had been sitting in the same carriage as Aldgate bomber Shehzad Tanweer, but held her nerve to give life-saving assistance to others. She was about to be evacuated from the train when she looked around to see for the first time the dead and dying passengers in her carriage. One asked: "You can't be leaving us - you're not going to leave us?" The doctor replied, "No, no, I'll stay," and asked if she could remain. On-duty paramedics, already widely considered society's unsung heroes, were also recognised at the inquests for their role. It was emergency technician David Tompkins' job to make sure no-one alive was left behind at Russell Square. This meant checking every body on the train, including a pile of them, to make sure they were dead. The coroner described it as "an apparently thankless task". Train driver Timothy Batkin, despite no first aid training, also showed great composure to shut off the power in the tunnel by touching together two copper wires running along the wall. Then, together with four station staff, he went into the dark to form a human chain rescuing hundreds of passengers from the Aldgate disaster. Asked why he did that rather than help the injured, he said "I don't know if I was blinkered in any way, but it just seemed to be the best thing that I could do." The coroner told him: "You personally obviously acted with great presence of mind and courage." In the years that followed the bombings, honours were awarded to survivors, medics and transport workers, but the inquests, nearly six years on, have put on record the heroic acts of many who missed out. For those who did get an invitation to the palace, the recognition has not always sat comfortably. Tim Coulson, made an MBE in 2008, was another who smashed his way out of a carriage at Edgware Road to try to save father-of-two Michael Brewster. The coroner called him "an extraordinary man". Away from court, he reflected on the tribute: "I do appear to have done things in such a way and cared in such a way that perhaps not many others were able to do. "I sometimes wish, though, I wasn't just known for being a survivor or a hero or an extraordinary man because of 7/7. My wife and my children will tell you in no uncertain terms I already was extraordinary."

जैसा कि 7 जुलाई के हमलों में मारे गए लोगों की मौत की जांच में अंतिम गवाहों को सुना जाता है, 19 सप्ताह के साक्ष्यों में वर्णित त्रासदी और आतंक के कष्टप्रद विवरणों के बीच, महान साहस की कहानियाँ सामने आई हैं।


St Mary's Church in Lydiard Tregoze gets funding

Summary: A 13th Century church has been awarded £50,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage for repairs to its walls, roof and wall paintings.

St Mary's Church, in Lydiard Tregoze, near Swindon, is one of eight in the South West to receive money. Paintings from the 13th to the 19th Century were discovered at the church during restoration in the early 1900s. The Church of St James the Great in South Gloucestershire received £161,000 for porch and roof repairs.

13वीं सदी के एक चर्च को इसकी दीवारों, छत और दीवार चित्रों की मरम्मत के लिए हेरिटेज लॉटरी फंड और इंग्लिश हेरिटेज द्वारा £50,000 से सम्मानित किया गया है।


Medway campus to be powered by algae fuel

Summary: A power plant using algae fuel is to be built by scientists at the University of Greenwich in Medway with the aim of solving the world's energy problems.

Algae occurs naturally in seawater and is high in glycerol which can be burned to generate electricity once extracted. It is bio-degradable, non toxic, has no odour, and produces virtually no smoke. With the help of a grant of four million euros, the university hopes to become the first in the world to power a campus with glycerol by next year. It will be using waste glycerol from the bio-diesel industry, but scientists say the idea in the future is to harvest the algae. Prof Pat Harvey, head of bioenergy research at the university, said the "game-plan was ultimately to get enough glycerol to be able to supply mankind with all the fuel that it needs on a renewable basis".

दुनिया की ऊर्जा समस्याओं को हल करने के उद्देश्य से मेडवे में ग्रीनविच विश्वविद्यालय के वैज्ञानिकों द्वारा शैवाल ईंधन का उपयोग करके एक बिजली संयंत्र का निर्माण किया जाना है।


Recycling by four councils in £3m cash boost

Summary: Recycling efforts by four Welsh councils will be boosted by an extra £3m to help them meet higher targets.

Flintshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport and Wrexham won their bids for cash for new vehicles, depots and equipment. Of the four, only Newport failed to hit the target of recycling 52% of rubbish in 2014 but the target is now 58%. Natural Resources Minister Carl Sargeant said the aim was to achieve a "more consistent universal service across Wales". Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taff were the worst performers in 2013-14, both recycling less than half of all rubbish they collected.

चार वेल्श परिषदों द्वारा पुनर्चक्रण प्रयासों को उच्च लक्ष्यों को पूरा करने में मदद करने के लिए अतिरिक्त £3 मिलियन से बढ़ावा दिया जाएगा।


SAIS begins daily avalanche information reports

Summary: Daily avalanche information reports for some of Scotland's most popular areas for hillwalkers and climbers have begun.

The Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS) has been providing the service for several years. It assesses avalanche hazard in six areas - Lochaber, Glen Coe, Creag Meagaidh, Southern Cairngorms , Northern Cairngorms and Torridon. The reports are usually issued until mid-April. Members of the service also regularly blog on conditions in the hills and mountains in these areas.

पहाड़ी पर चलने वालों और पर्वतारोहियों के लिए स्कॉटलैंड के कुछ सबसे लोकप्रिय क्षेत्रों के लिए दैनिक हिमस्खलन सूचना रिपोर्ट शुरू हो गई है।


Harry Styles' Gucci advert chip shop in St Albans destroyed by fire

Summary: A fire that destroyed a fish and chip shop used by pop star Harry Styles in an advert for Gucci was "accidental", the fire service has said.

About 30 firefighters were called to The Camp Fish Shop in Sutton Road, St Albans at about 20:25 BST on Saturday. Both floors of the two-storey building were "well alight" on arrival and the fire spread to the roof and an adjacent property. It was put out by 22:15 but crews remained at the scene to dampen down. One Direction star Harry Styles spent a day at the Hertfordshire shop in March 2018 to film the advert for the fashion house by Glen Luchford. It featured him wearing a dressing gown and holding a chicken. Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire had been "logged as accidental" and there were no further details about its suspected cause at the moment.

अग्निशमन सेवा ने कहा है कि पॉप स्टार हैरी स्टाइल्स द्वारा गुच्ची के लिए एक विज्ञापन में इस्तेमाल की गई मछली और चिप की दुकान में लगी आग "आकस्मिक" थी।


'Europe's last dictator' Belarus' Lukashenko opens up

Summary: The question came out of nowhere - and it caught the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, off guard.

By Natalia AntelavaBBC Newsnight "So, what's your opinion on group sex?" asked Evgeny Lebedev, Britain's youngest newspaper proprietor, who had flown to Minsk to interview the Belarusian leader. The question, prompted by comments about the merits of group sex made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a discussion about jailed punk band Pussy Riot, caused Mr Lukashenko to pause for just a fraction of a second, before he shrugged his shoulders and said matter of factly: "I really don't have an opinion on group sex." It felt as if the room, full of political advisers and camera operators, sighed with relief as the conversation moved to the apparently less awkward issue of human rights abuses. But the brief exchange on group sex was hardly the only surreal moment in the conversation between the son of a Russian oligarch, once labelled London's latest "It boy", and the man whose iron rule has earned him the title of Europe's last dictator. Seated in ornate chairs in front of a faux fireplace, slim Mr Lebedev, dressed in fashionable tight grey jeans and the bulky, plain-speaking president in a dark grey suit made an odd pair. The four-hour interview touched on many subjects, from democracy and economy, to the fall of the USSR and the war in Iraq, from Mr Lukashenko's friendship with the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - "I told Muammar 'beware of Europe!'" the Belarusian president recalled. Also on the agenda were his seven-year-old son Kolya - who often attends official meeting with him, something Mr Lukashenko claimed was because the boy was so attached to his father that he will not go to sleep without him, not because, as has been claimed, he is being groomed for succession and the human rights abuses that Mr Lukashenko is accused of. There was even a brief toast with the specially brewed "presidential vodka", although Mr Lukashenko took only a tiny sip, saying he does not handle alcohol well. BBC as observers Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power for 18 years, is banned from travelling to the United States and Western Europe. He has been accused of torture and human rights abuses - he has thrown his opponents in prison, banned protests and restricted freedom of expression. Western journalists rarely get a chance to hold him to account, but Mr Lebedev managed to get the rare opportunity through his personal connections. BBC Newsnight was invited along, but as observers not interviewers. Mr Lebedev, who hates being called an oligarch, went to Belarus as a journalist for the Independent, the British newspaper, which along with London's Evening Standard newspaper, his father Alexander Lebedev bought for him. Speaking the night before the interview, Mr Lebedev had said he was determined to ask tough questions, adding: "I am told that apparently the president is ready for a fight". But the interview never became much of a fight and from his very first answer Mr Lukashenko took firm charge of it. 'Anarchy averted' Mr Lebedev's father made his billions after the break-up of the Soviet Union, in the chaotic, rapid privatisation of state monopolies that made a handful of Russians rich and left millions in poverty. Mr Lukashenko never allowed this to happen in Belarus, and he dismissed Mr Lebedev's first question asking whether in the early 1990s Russia chose democracy over fairness, while Belarus went the opposite route: "The sort of question you ask makes me wonder: but isn't fairness the very essence of democracy?" Mr Lukashenko said. "I have always believed that genuine democracy is fairness. The basis of my politics is first of all fairness and honesty." "I would not say what happened in Russia in the 1990s was democracy, it was anarchy, and here you are right, we managed to nip these anarchic tendencies in the bud, we saved the country," he said. Time and again through the interview, Mr Lukashenko referred to the stability he had brought to the people of Belarus. "Look outside the window. Do you see the fence outside the palace? Do you see any guards? This is a country where everyone is safe," he said. But the relative stability of Belarus comes at a price. There is no presidential term limit here and the 1996 referendum consolidated Mr Lukashenko's power. Not a single election in Belarus has been deemed as free or fair by the West. Not a single opposition candidate won a seat in the recent, parliamentary vote. Protests have been violently supressed. Saudi Arabia comparison But every time Mr Lebedev pointed at deficiencies of the Belarusian political system, Mr Lukashenko came back with an articulate and colourful attack on what he described as hypocrisy inherent within Western democracies: "Americans want to democratise us. OK, but why not go and democratise Saudi Arabia. Are we anything like Saudi Arabia? No we are far from that. So why aren't they democratising Saudi Arabia? Because they are bastards but they are their bastards," Mr Lukashenko said at one point - adapting Franklin D Roosevelt's famous description of Nicaraguan leader Anastasio Somoza. "Don't you think you have too much power?" Mr Lebedev asked him. "Yes it is a lot of power," Mr Lukashenko readily conceded, "but I believed then (in 1996), and many believed then, that we had no choice. We had to save the country, unite around something or someone to survive," "Isn't it time to open up now?" Mr Lebedev countered. "If there wasn't for this insane pressure from you maybe we would, this unnecessary pressure which is trying to separate us from Russia for example. You are having the opposite effect, you are pushing us away from that very process. You don't want any democracy here," Mr Lukashenko replied. The West's real agenda, the president said, was to open up Belarus' state controlled economy, which would make it vulnerable to the economic problems of the rest of Europe. Benefits of power But many disagree with this assessment. Irina Khalip is a Belarusian opposition journalist for Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper also owned by Mr Lebedev's father. In 2010 Irina and her husband - opposition leader and former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikova - were jailed for organising protests. International pressure got Irina out of jail and from under house arrest, but she is not allowed to leave the city, is visited regularly by the police, often in the middle of the night, and has another trial pending. Several people have asked Mr Lukashenko about the fate of Irina Khalip before, and yet he looked surprised when Mr Lebedev broached the subject. Mr Lukashenka said he thought Ms Khalip was already out of the country. He then turned to his aides and told them to send her to Moscow with Mr Lebedev. "Don't bother bringing her back" he added. Minutes later a memo to that effect arrived. "You see, being dictator isn't such a bad thing," Mr Lukashenko joked handing the memo over to Mr Lebedev. Later that day Mr Lebedev brought Ms Khalip the news that she could travel again. Irina was visibly grateful, but also sceptical. Mr Lukashenko's Belarus, she explained, can be a dark, secretive place where what is said in public does not necessarily correspond to reality. Bomb verdict controversy Take for example the case of the Minsk metro bombing, an explosion that killed 15 people in April of 2011. Within 48 hours, police arrested two young men. Within weeks they were convicted and executed. A BBC Newsnight investigation in July into the attack raised the possibility that security services were involved in the bombing, and the mother of one of the men said confessions were extracted under torture. Mr Lebedev asked the president whether he had any doubts about the verdict. "Not a single one," Mr Lukashenko answered firmly. He said that allegations that confessions were extracted under torture were not true. He spoke at length about how international criminologists, including teams from Israel, France and Interpol, backed the result of the investigation, which he said was under his personal control. "All were unanimous that these were the people who had committed these acts of terrorism," he said. Although we, the BBC, were present only as observers I told the president about the findings of the Newsnight investigation and Mr Lebedev's own Independent newspaper, which covered the trial extensively, and asked him why the verdict was so rushed. In response Mr Lukashenko suggested that I watch the footage of the entire trial myself before "jumping to conclusions". "Are you trying to convince me that I blew myself up?" he said "We have an image of a calm, stable Belarus, which we don't want to lose. The worst thing for us is to lose that. Are we such idiots that we would have planted and detonated the bomb ourselves?" Ongoing fight After the interview, the president put his arm through Mr Lebedev's and the two men disappeared for a private meeting. Mr Lebedev later told me he came to Minsk with a message from somebody in Europe, but refused to elaborate. When I caught up with him afterwards Mr Lebedev sounded pleased with the interview, and seemed genuinely surprised when I asked him why he spent so much time debating with Mr Lukashenko on the perils of Western democracy instead of challenging him on problems in Belarus. Or why he chose to grill him on failure to rename the KGB, but not on torture that it is accused of. "I did challenge him," Mr Lebedev replied,"... and I managed to get Irina Khalip out". But back at her house Ms Khalip said she has nothing to celebrate yet: "Lukashenko made a promise to Yevgeny Lebedev, he didn't say it to the criminal police who are looking after me. Words don't have legal meaning. We need a piece of paper with a signature and a stamp - even in a totalitarian state," she said. And even if Mr Lukashenko keeps his promise, she does not want to leave Minsk. This is her home. Like so many others, Ms Khalip wants to find her freedom in Belarus.

सवाल कहीं से भी नहीं आया-और इसने बेलारूस के राष्ट्रपति अलेक्जेंडर लुकाशेंको को चौकन्ना कर दिया।


Alias Grace: Will Gompertz reviews Netflix's latest drama ★★★☆☆

Summary: Stranger Things. Riverdale. 13 Reasons Why. Netflix certainly hasn't been short of gripping dramas this year. But is their latest one, released this weekend, up to the same standard? Will Gompertz finds out.

Margaret Atwood's books have been catnip for TV producers in 2017. First there was the sublime Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, then Wandering Wenda on CBC, and now Sarah Polley's small screen adaptation of Alias Grace for Netflix, directed by Mary Harron. We're in dense, complex territory with this one. Alias Grace is one of those multi-layered, deeply textured stories that keep English professors in business. There's symbolism aplenty, psychological game playing, shaggy dog stories, and a couple of contested Murders Most Horrid on which a lecturer can chew semester after semester. And that's before we get onto the main narrator, the eponymous Grace Marks, who is about as reliable as a 4G phone signal in rural Ireland (which also happens to be where her life started). Not that she had a smartphone - we're in mid-19th Century here. The set-up is as clear as her story is opaque. We meet Grace in her early thirties. For the past 15 years she has been an inmate at a penitentiary in Canada having been found guilty of taking part in a double killing. She is a "celebrated murderess", which she considers a notch up from being simply a celebrated murderer. The vibe is gothic psychodrama - think Twin Peaks meets Jane Eyre. Grace tells us her tale through a series of fireside chats she has with Dr Simon Jordan. He is a young, earnest psychiatrist hired by the local worthies (led by Reverend Verringer, played by a mutton-chopped David Cronenberg) to produce a favourable assessment of Grace's mental state so she can be pardoned and set free. He is a decent man (up to a point), but boring. He is played with great restraint by Edward Holcroft who succeeds in communicating Jordan's intensity and professionalism in a performance so dialled down you fear he might nod off between sentences. Not so the inscrutable Grace, played with assurance as both a naïve teenager and marked woman by Sarah Gadon. She has the focus of a look-out on a street corner, playing mind games with her inquisitor whom she effortlessly wraps around her fingers like the thread she uses to endlessly stitch together quilts. To be honest, she does bang on a bit, but then who can blame her when the alternative is a beating at the hands of the brutal prison guards who "take pleasure in the distress of a fellow mortal". And so, over the course of six slow-burn episodes, we hear how a quiet Irish girl found herself locked up behind bars in a brutal prison in Canada. Predatory men play a part, which is very topical of course, but only because some things never change. As one female servant notes after the death of a jilted housemaid following a back-street abortion: "It is the curse of Eve we [women] must all bear." Sarah Polley's script of Atwood's masterful book is not so much a literal adaptation, as a literary one. I hope she was paid by the word, for she uses many (as one of her characters might say). Which is fine, it works, but there were moments when I wondered what exactly the show was adding by taking the text from page to screen. But that would be to discount Mary Harron's painterly eye and the tonal harmony she creates in each scene, which is an added bonus. As the show progresses you realise that Grace's predicament is not really the story at all. She is the story. This is a portrait of a young woman who has a lot in common with Shakespeare's Ophelia or Tennyson's Lady of Shalott: A tortured soul whose outer beauty becomes sublime because of - not despite of - her tragic circumstances. Rebecca Liddiard is terrific as Grace's mischievous mate Mary Whitney. She puts in the sort of screen-grabbing turn that suggests stardom is but a role or two away. Zachary Levi also delivers an eye-catching performance as Jeremiah Pontelli, a travelling salesman with a shaman's soul. Alias Grace is a solid, well-made piece of television that doesn't hide its intelligence under a bonnet, as costume dramas can do. Nor does it attempt to keep your attention with soap opera style cliff-hangers. It is better than that. But is it better than simply reading the book? I'm not so sure.

स्ट्रेंजर थिंग्स. रिवरडेल. 13 कारण क्यों. नेटफ्लिक्स में निश्चित रूप से इस साल मनोरंजक नाटकों की कमी नहीं है। लेकिन क्या उनका नवीनतम, जो इस सप्ताह के अंत में रिलीज़ हुआ है, उसी मानक तक है? क्या गोम्पर्ट्ज़ को पता चलेगा।


Venezuela crisis: The political battle and the people caught in the middle

Summary: Violence has once again broken out on the streets of Venezuela. But just what has happened to the country, politically and economically, to cause such anger and division?

By Will GrantBBC News The sun hadn't yet risen but Venezuelans were wide awake. A little before 6am, Juan Guaidó went live via social media from outside La Carlota military base in Caracas to call the country to action.  "The moment is now," said the opposition leader, flanked by members of the security forces and his political mentor, Leopoldo López, who had evidently escaped from house arrest. "I invite you to come out on to the streets. The first of May begins now," referring to a large anti-government demonstration planned for the following day. It was a risky move. If this was indeed the "final phase" of his effort to oust President Maduro, Mr Guaidó would need more than the handful of troops around him. He'd need the entire country to react. And historically in Venezuela, such moments tend to result in bloodshed. In the end, it was neither one thing nor the other. The uprising didn't unseat Mr Maduro or necessarily weaken his grip on power. Thankfully, there wasn't the degree of deadly violence that many had expected at the start of the day - notwithstanding dozens injured by pellets and rubber bullets and the shocking images of protesters outside La Carlota being run over by an armoured car. Leopoldo López ended the day inside the Spanish Embassy in Caracas and Juan Guaidó insisted the uprising had not been a coup attempt but an act of "peaceful rebellion". Whatever Mr Guaidó hoped the day would bring clearly didn't happen. Yet it was another sign that President Maduro can still expect moments of resistance and conflict from an opposition determined to see the back of him and a population exhausted with a collapsing economy and a lack of basic services. Amid the political brinksmanship, I was reminded of that collective exhaustion at the status quo, specifically of a few precious hours, a few weeks before the latest crisis, when running water returned to a handful of homes in La Vega. As the news spread around the sprawling shantytown in western Caracas, residents made their way down from distant corners to the fortunate few brick shacks - plastic bottles and buckets in hand - to fill up before it was shut off again. One neighbour, Ramelia Silva, struggling to carry her load as she corralled her grandchildren up the steep hillsides, showed me water which was yellowish and smelled foul. "It's not fit for human consumption," Ramelia acknowledged. "We should only use it for washing and in the bathroom." However, in the middle of a water crisis, she said that just wasn't realistic. "How long will it go on?" she asked angrily. "We can't keep living like this." La Vega has been without a dependable water supply for over a year, explains community leader, Jairo Perez. "I have warned the government, I've sent reports to NGOs that we work with and I keep repeating: an epidemic is on its way. We're on the verge of a secondary public health epidemic because this water should not be consumed. A couple of days later, I put Ramelia's basic point to Mr Guaidó between parliamentary sessions at the National Assembly: how long before anything changes in Venezuela? "I hope very soon," was his reply, denying the opposition had either miscalculated or squandered its momentum. Beyond his enigmatic remark, though, there was little sign of the dramatic twist to come. At that point, the idea of him commanding rebel troops in clashes with their loyalist counterparts seemed unlikely. But Venezuela, especially at present, specialises in the unexpected. After declaring himself president in January, Guaidó was immediately recognised by the United States and more than 50 other nations. Washington extended its sanctions from the Maduro inner circle to the all-important energy industry. By early March, people in Guaidó's team spoke confidently of being close to victory, of having passed the halfway point in a three- or four-month process to reach the presidential palace, Miraflores. "He'll be gone any day now," was their prevailing sentiment. By mid-April, those same advisers had radically revised that view. They spoke instead in more conservative terms of "something" happening "before the end of the year". It's still not clear if this latest uprising was the sum total of that "something" or if there is more to come. Given the story so far, most Venezuelans expect further drama ahead. In essence, Guaidó has two options to taking power: via the streets or the military. Or some kind of simultaneous combination of the two, the elusive "civic-military pact" which Maduro's predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez, so prided himself on. At Guaidó rallies, his supporters still turn out and make their anti-Maduro feelings heard despite the passing of the weeks and months. But it's becoming increasingly tough for people to keep taking to the streets when they have so much else to deal with, as thousands of communities like La Vega struggle to overcome the challenges of daily life in Venezuela. Then there are the threats and intimidation from radical pro-government motorbike gangs called "colectivos" - in essence, armed paramilitary groups - and many are understandably too frightened to risk participating in demonstrations. After scores of young demonstrators and some police officers were killed in clashes in 2014 and 2017, there's limited appetite for more pitched battles. "I'm not going," Carmela tells me at a kids' football match a few hours before another protest. She lives in La Candelaria, a part of the capital where "everything is controlled by the colectivos: the supermarkets, the streets, everything." "I'm too scared of them to protest," Carmela explains, unwilling to give her full name. "They're capable of killing people who take part. I have a six-year-old boy and can't risk leaving him with no mother." Beyond street protests the other main actor in the Venezuelan conflict is the military. This wasn't the first time Guaidó made a direct plea to the Venezuelan military to switch sides. At the height of the tension in late February, with a convoy of humanitarian aid poised at the border with Colombia, a few hundred soldiers did jump ship in a number of much-publicised defections. Yet the vast majority of rank-and-file troops stayed loyal, as did the top brass. That happened again on this latest occasion and both times, it has undoubtedly been a disappointment to the opposition. Furthermore, if recent Venezuelan history has taught anything, it's that the military is key to owning the keys to Miraflores. Without them, taking power is virtually impossible. So, if things reach a breaking point in Venezuela, always a difficult thing to measure, where would the military's ultimate loyalty lie? With Maduro personally, with the "Bolivarian Revolution" begun by Hugo Chávez or with the people calling for change? "With Benjamin Franklin," quips economist and opposition deputy, Angel Alvarado, referring to the US founding father whose face appears on the $100 bill. "The army doesn't have any ideology. There are some soldiers whose heart is to the left or the right, of course. But I think on the whole the army just wants to maximise their profits." In Venezuela, the military has control of many key sectors of the economy. "Food production, mining, the oil sector, agriculture, anywhere there is money and rents to be made, you will find the military," claims Alvarado. Maintaining that monopoly is paramount to them, he argues. "The problem is not hyperinflation and it's not the humanitarian emergency," argues Alvarado. "It's the collapse of the economy which started in 2007." He accuses Hugo Chávez of having indebted the country by billions of dollars which was only covered by a high oil price. Once that price began to drop in 2009, and a policy of nationalisation and expropriation damaged crucial sectors like agriculture, the dependence on oil-exports worsened. Today, with far fewer dollars available for imports, the economic situation is unsustainable. "I think we are in a tipping point right now," he says, and that after the electricity outage, oil production has dropped to about 500,000 barrels per day. With fewer countries to export Venezuela's oil to, Alvarado adds: "I think Maduro is out of money." At a bar popular with Maduro loyalists in the town of Charallave, employees and union representatives of the state-owned cement company are sat at plastic tables drinking cold beer after work. The bar is one of the few with lights on, running off a generator during one of the town's scheduled power cuts. The workers don't hold President Maduro responsible for the chaos, sticking to the party-line about sabotage of the electrical grid and co-ordinated attacks by Washington and Juan Guaidó. "We're being punished because we're not a servile government to US interests," said one member of the group. "If a change comes it must be for better, not for worse. Not to allow the opposition to take everything we've built over the years," echoed another, amid clapping and shouts of "Viva Maduro!". Political loyalties aside, they're right to identify the clear international dimension to the situation in Venezuela. Washington has repeatedly said that "all options are on the table" when it comes to Venezuela, including the military one. Barring the most radical, few welcome the idea of foreign troops on Venezuelan soil. The US is putting the squeeze on three main socialist allies: Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. "The Troika of Tyranny" as National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has dubbed them. President Donald Trump has accused Cuba of placing troops into Venezuela, something robustly denied by Havana. Whatever happens next, Venezuela and Cuba know to expect nothing but hostility while Mr Trump is in the White House. In April, Venezuela's foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, called a news conference after a trip to several nations sympathetic to the Maduro government, including Turkey and Syria, where he heard from Bashar al-Assad about his experience of "resistance". And, in a very deliberate message to Washington, Mr Arreaza underlined that Venezuela "will continue military-technical cooperation with Russia". With Russia vocally backing President Maduro at every turn, Venezuela is being drawn into a battle between the superpowers, a proxy conflict more reminiscent of the 1980s than 2019. Before leaving La Vega, community leader Jairo Perez, took me to a vantage point high above the shantytown, pointing out each of the smaller neighbourhoods below by name. He knows this poor district of Caracas intimately. It's where he grew up, where his family is and, as far as he's concerned, where he'll die. Yet even long-standing residents like Jairo have never seen it like this. The shortages and dire needs of his community remind him of images he's only seen on television about post-conflict nations. "We're like a country at war but there's no war," he reflects. Not, at least, a conventional one.

वेनेजुएला की सड़कों पर एक बार फिर हिंसा भड़क उठी है। लेकिन देश में राजनीतिक और आर्थिक रूप से ऐसा क्या हुआ है जिससे इतना गुस्सा और विभाजन हुआ है?


Tynemouth service marks shipwrecks' 150th anniversary

Summary: A remembrance service is being held on Tyneside to mark the 150th anniversary of two notorious shipwrecks.

On 24 November 1864, the Stanley and the Friendship were caught in a storm and driven on to the Black Middens rocks near the mouth of the Tyne. Thirty two people died, in sight of a crowd on land which was unable to rescue them. This led to the formation of the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade which is hosting the service. The names of all those who died when the passenger steamer and the schooner were wrecked are being read out at the ceremony at Holy Saviour's Church in Tynemouth.

दो कुख्यात जहाज के टूटने की 150वीं वर्षगांठ को चिह्नित करने के लिए टाइनसाइड पर एक स्मरण सेवा आयोजित की जा रही है।


Woman found stabbed at Coventry church

Summary: A woman is critically ill after being found stabbed at a church.

Police said the victim, in her 30s, was stabbed in the abdomen at about 03:15 BST on Sunday and was found at St Margaret's Church in Coventry. Part of the church, on Walgrave Road, remains shut while forensic examinations are carried out. Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101.

एक चर्च में चाकू से हमला किए जाने के बाद एक महिला गंभीर रूप से बीमार है।


Glyn Baines, 84, is oldest Eisteddfod fine art award winner

Summary: An 84-year-old from Gwynedd has become the oldest winner of the National Eisteddfod's Gold Medal for Fine Art.

Glyn Baines, from Bala,was presented with the award for his collection of abstract collages on Saturday at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Meifod, Powys. He also received a cheque for £5,000. Mr Baines left his family's farming business in his 30s to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He said: "I like to describe my work as a celebration of colour and life. "There are seven pieces in total and they all mean a lot to me." This year's National Eisteddfod runs from from 1-8 August.

ग्वेनेड का एक 84 वर्षीय व्यक्ति ललित कला के लिए राष्ट्रीय आइस्टेडफॉड के स्वर्ण पदक का सबसे उम्रदराज विजेता बन गया है।


China social media: WeChat and the Surveillance State

Summary: China's WeChat is a site for social interaction, a form of currency, a dating app, a tool for sporting teams and deliverer of news: Twitter, Facebook, Googlemaps, Tinder and Apple Pay all rolled into one. But it is also an ever more powerful weapon of social control for the Chinese government.

By Stephen McDonellBBC News, Beijing I've just been locked out of WeChat (or Weixin 微信 as it is known in Chinese) and, to get back on, have had to pass through some pretty Orwellian steps - steps which have led others to question why I went along with it. One reason is that life in Beijing would be extremely difficult without WeChat. The other is that I could not have written this piece without experiencing the stages which have now clearly put my image, and even my voice, on some sort of biometric database of troublemakers. I was in Hong Kong to cover the enormous candlelight vigil marking 30 years since the People's Liberation Army was ordered to open fire on its own people to remove the mostly student protesters who'd been gathering in and around Tiananmen Square for months in June 1989. This moment in history has been all but erased from public discourse on mainland China but in Hong Kong, with its special status in the Chinese-speaking world, people turn out every year to remember the bloody crackdown. This time round the crowd was particularly huge, with estimates ranging up to 180,000. Naturally I took photos of the sea of people holding candles and singing, and posted some of these on my WeChat "moments". The post contained no words - just photos. Chinese friends started asking on WeChat what the event was? Why were people gathering? Where was it? That such questions were coming from young professionals here shows the extent to which knowledge of Tiananmen 1989 has been made to disappear in China. I answered a few of them, rather cryptically, then suddenly I was locked out of WeChat. "Your login has been declined due to account exceptions. Try to log in again and proceed as instructed," came the message on the screen. Then, when I tried to log back in, a new message appeared: "This WeChat account has been suspected of spreading malicious rumours and has been temporarily blocked…" It seems posting photos of an actual event taking place, without commentary, amounts to "spreading malicious rumours" in China. I was given time to try and log in again the next day after my penalty had been served. When I did I had to push "agree and unblock" under the stated reason of "spread malicious rumours". So this rumour-monger clicked on "agree". Then came a stage I was not prepared for. "Faceprint is required for security purposes," it said. I was instructed to hold my phone up - to "face front camera straight on" - looking directly at the image of a human head. Then told to "Read numbers aloud in Mandarin Chinese". My voice was captured by the App at the same time it scanned my face. Afterwards a big green tick: "Approved" Apart from being creepy you can only imagine the potential use of this type of data. No doubt I have now joined some list of suspicious individuals in the hands of goodness knows which Chinese government agencies. In China pretty much everyone has WeChat. I don't know a single person without it. Developed by tech giant Tencent it is an incredible app. It's convenient. It works. It's fun. It was ahead of the game on the global stage and it has found its way into all corners of people's existence. It could deliver to the Communist Party a life map of pretty much everybody in this country, citizens and foreigners alike. Capturing the face and voice image of everyone who was suspended for mentioning the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary in recent days would be considered very useful for those who want to monitor anyone who might potentially cause problems. When I placed details of this entire process on Twitter others were asking: why cave in to such a Big Brother intrusion on your privacy? They've probably not lived in China. It is hard to imagine a life here without it. When you meet somebody in a work context they don't given you a name card any more, they share their WeChat; if you play for a football team training details are on WeChat; children's school arrangements, WeChat; Tinder-style dates, WeChat; movie tickets, WeChat; news stream, WeChat; restaurant locations, WeChat; paying for absolutely everything from a bowl of noodles to clothes to a dining room table… WeChat. People wouldn't be able to speak to their friends or family without it. So the censors who can lock you out of Wechat hold real power over you. The app - thought by Western intelligence agencies to be the least secure of its type in the world - has essentially got you over a barrel. If you want to have a normal life in China, you had better not say anything controversial about the Communist Party and especially not about its leader, Xi Jinping. This is China 2019.

चीन का वीचैट सामाजिक संपर्क के लिए एक साइट है, मुद्रा का एक रूप है, एक डेटिंग ऐप है, खेल टीमों के लिए एक उपकरण है और समाचार देने वाला हैः ट्विटर, फेसबुक, गूगलमैप्स, टिंडर और ऐप्पल पे सभी एक में शामिल हैं। लेकिन यह चीनी सरकार के लिए सामाजिक नियंत्रण का एक और अधिक शक्तिशाली हथियार भी है।


Man is wounded in shooting in Openshaw

Summary: A 26-year-old man has been shot and wounded in Manchester.

He was attacked at about 20:25 GMT on Monday in Bob Massey Close, Openshaw. Greater Manchester Police said the man had received a gunshot wound to the chest. He was said to be in a stable condition in hospital. A man has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering. Police said a police cordon was at the scene and enquiries were continuing. They appealed for witnesses to get in touch.

मैनचेस्टर में एक 26 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को गोली मारकर घायल कर दिया गया है।


Priti Patel walks UK aid budget tightrope

Summary: Priti Patel is standing in the control tower of Mombasa port on the east coast of Kenya. Outside the windows she has a bird's eye view of the sprawling seaway, gateway for much of east Africa's trade.

James LandaleDiplomatic correspondent@BBCJLandaleon Twitter And the international development secretary is doing something that belies her reputation: she is nodding approvingly as she hears how British taxpayers' money is being spent helping a foreign country boost its economy. For this is the kind of aid that Ms Patel likes: bilateral, targeted and above all, easily measurable. You can count the freshly tarmaced roads, the newly built quays, the brand new scanners that her department are paying for to make it easier for goods to flow in and out of this port. And the aim is clear: to help support Kenya's economic development so that one day it can alleviate its own poverty without outside help. Yet there is another agenda here too. And it is very explicit. Ms Patel wants to use Britain's development muscle more explicitly in the UK's national interest. So she wants to use aid to try to slow the flow of African migrants to Europe. She wants to use aid to leverage post-Brexit trade deals and butter up potential allies in the World Trade Organization. And she wants British aid to be used specifically to foster stability and security where it can to stop bad people ending up on Britain's streets. Longstanding critic On one level this is a continuation of David Cameron's aid strategy that he published last year, committing to ensure that half of Britain's £12bn aid budget is spent on fragile states. On another level, it reflects Theresa May's foreign policy priorities to focus on Britain's domestic national interests. But it also reflects Ms Patel's own agenda. She is a longstanding critic of parts of Britain's aid budget. In the last Parliament she suggested that the Department for International Development should be abolished and subsumed into a new trade department. In the months since her appointment, she has told the Daily Mail and its weekend sister the Mail on Sunday about how she is planning to ferret out the waste in the system that infuriates her so much. In Kenya, she told me of her plans to cut multilateral aid projects if they did not achieve what they promised. But in Parliament and in private, Ms Patel has been walking a less controversial, less dogmatic path. MPs and aid experts say she is listening and learning. As we toured Kenya over the last few days, I watched as she took diligent notes during meetings and was genuinely moved and excited by the various aid projects she was visiting. The aid professionals she met in Nairobi were curious to get to know a minister whose parents were refugees themselves from east Africa in the 1970s. There was no hostility among those I spoke to, just an interest to see how they could help shape the thinking of a woman whose decisions will affect their lives. Harder edge For Priti Patel is walking a tightrope. On one side, she is there to defend Britain's commitment to spend 0.7% of its national income on development aid. This has become a totem of the government's post-Brexit commitment to stay engaged with the world. When the prime minister speaks about what the Foreign Office rather clumsily calls "hashtag global Britain" she often lists the 0.7% figure before Britain's membership of Nato, the UN Security Council and the Commonwealth. When a botched media briefing led to headlines recently suggesting a weakening of this commitment, Ms Patel was quickly out of the blocks to correct the misunderstanding. And yet on the other hand, the prime minister was fully aware of Ms Patel's past critiques of the aid budget when she appointed her to the post. The government wants to bring a harder edge to its aid spending, ensuring more punch for its pound. And the forthcoming reviews of both the multilateral and bilateral spending programmes are expected to be robust, unnerving non-governmental organisations and charities whose lifeblood they are. The political risk for Ms Patel is that she falls between the two stools. She might keep railing at the undeniable waste that exists in some aid organisations. But the international rules defining aid spending, the 0.7% spending commitment and the UK law banning any direct link between aid and trade may tie her hands and make genuine change hard to achieve. Like many international development secretaries before her, she might go a touch native and lose her reforming zeal. And if that happened, the Daily Mail may rescind its declaration of "victory over aid waste" and turn its fire on Ms Patel instead.

प्रीति पटेल केन्या के पूर्वी तट पर मोम्बासा बंदरगाह के नियंत्रण टावर में खड़ी हैं। खिड़कियों के बाहर उन्हें पूर्वी अफ्रीका के अधिकांश व्यापार के लिए प्रवेश द्वार, विशाल समुद्री मार्ग का विहंगम दृश्य दिखाई देता है।


Sheffield murder arrest after man found injured in street dies

Summary: A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of another man who was found seriously injured in a Sheffield street.

Emergency services were called to Club Garden Road in the Highfield area of the city at about 02:15 GMT, where they found the victim lying on the ground. The 28-year-old was taken to hospital but died a short time later. A 30-year-old man remains in custody and officers were conducting inquiries, South Yorkshire Police said. A post-mortem examination is expected to take place later.

शेफ़ील्ड स्ट्रीट में गंभीर रूप से घायल एक अन्य व्यक्ति की मौत के बाद हत्या के संदेह में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Stagecoach on financial track

Summary: Perth-based Stagecoach group has unveiled strong growth in its UK rail division and North American operations, putting it on track to hit financial targets.

In the twelve weeks to 21 July, there was a 6.5% increase in sales in its UK rail division. Its operations in the US recorded a 5.7% growth is sales and is "on track to deliver a significant step up in its operating profit". The firm said trading was "good". Stagecoach said its Megabus service in the US was the fastest growing part of the group, increasing revenue by 21.8% in the three months to the end of July. The British bus operations saw a 4.5% rise in sales while the London division reported a small fall - although it said it was set to reverse that in the second half of the financial year as it benefited from new contracts.

पर्थ स्थित स्टेजकोच समूह ने अपने यूके रेल डिवीजन और उत्तरी अमेरिकी संचालन में मजबूत वृद्धि का खुलासा किया है, जिससे यह वित्तीय लक्ष्यों को प्राप्त करने के लिए पटरी पर आ गया है।


Grenfell: Seven key points from the report

Summary: The report of the first phase of the Grenfell Tower fire reveals how the fire began, spread and became a disaster. These are some of the key findings which will influence the deeper investigation of the inquiry's second phase - into how it could happen in the first place.

Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter There was swift action by the resident of the flat where it began The first 999 call came from Behailu Kebede at 00:54 BST, who lived in Flat 16. His smoke alarm woke him up and he saw what was in all probability an electrical fire at the back of his fridge freezer. He called for help, alerted neighbours and waited for the London Fire Brigade to arrive. Sir Martin Moore-Bick's report found Mr Kebede blameless. He turned off his electricity and closed the flat door to keep others safe. In normal circumstances that would have been enough because Grenfell's original solid concrete structure meant each flat was "compartmented" - meaning a minimal chance of a fire spreading. But his efforts were in vain because of how the building had been refurbished on the outside. The first firefighters into the flat realised something was wrong Crew manager Charles Batterbee and firefighter Daniel Brown entered Flat 16 at 01:14 BST. They blasted the fire with a jet of water and then saw the fire had already spread from the kitchen to the outside. This is the first evidence that Grenfell's refurbishment was contributing to the unfolding disaster. Hot material deformed the uPVC window and that created a cavity through which hot gases escaped. They blasted water at the cladding flames to no avail. The polyethylene material in the rain-proof cladding panels was melting and burning. "It then became clear that the fire was going up the building," said Mr Brown. "I remember the intensity of the flame - what I can only describe as huge balls of flame falling down along with debris. It didn't stop, we kept hitting it but again, it was having no bearing on the fire." The significance of calls from some residents was missed Sir Martin is in no doubt that Grenfell Tower's refurbished exterior walls were not compliant with building regulations "because they did not adequately resist the spread of fire over them. On the contrary they promoted it." Once the fire escaped from Flat 16, the flammable nature of the cladding panels allowed it to spread to the top storey in less than half an hour - but also around the sides. The fire reached the "crown" of the building at 01:27 BST and the top cladding spread flames horizontally and eventually back down. And that's why the 999 call three minutes later from Mariem Elghwahry, who lived on Floor 22, is important. She was the first to report fire penetrating her flat. Within half an hour of firefighters' arrival, there was evidence that Grenfell's compartmentation was failing. Control room staff couldn't cope with the calls When a fire service receives multiple emergency calls from the same incident, control room operators tend to class the additional ones as "Fire Survival Guidance" calls (FSG) in which they give the individual information about the fire and what they need to do to stay safe. The report makes clear that the control room supervisors appeared not to have received any specific training to manage the volume of calls in relation to Grenfell. Operations manager Alexandra Norman told the inquiry that staff would normally stay on the phone to FSG callers until they were safe - but they were overwhelmed. Sir Martin said: "When the flow of FSG calls became a flood around 01:30 to 01:40 OM Norman should have stood back and decided how to manage the collation and transmission of FSG information to [teams on the ground] in a way that ensured that clear lines of communication were established. "OM Norman failed to ensure that [call handlers] obtained from callers all the information required." And teams on the ground struggled too Watch manager Michael Dowden - among the first at the scene - had received no training on how the materials used to refurbish Grenfell Tower would behave in a fire. Sir Martin said Mr Dowden, who broke down in tears at the inquiry, could not be blamed for not knowing how to respond to what he was witnessing. Mr Dowden lacked critical information from the control room - that meant that he was doubly blinded to what was unfolding. In short, said the chairman, a relatively junior officer "had little or no support from more senior officers" and was let down by institutional failings. He went on: "The behaviour of the fire was outside his experience and nothing he had done appeared to be having any effect. He was at a loss to understand what was happening or to know how to respond." Nobody had an overall full understanding of how to prioritise rescues This is illustrated by the death of 12-year-old of Jessica Urbano Ramirez. No information from her 999 call at 01:29 BST made it to the crews. A team only went to her home on floor 20 after receiving information from Jessica's sister. By this time, she had fled three stories higher with 10 others. In the meantime, control room officer (CRO) Sarah Russell stayed on the phone to Jessica for 55 minutes. It was clear she was in terrible danger. Jessica stopped responding but CRO Russell could still hear the sound of breathing for some time. She only ended the call when the line went silent Jessica's call for help was the first FSG call that CRO Russell had taken. In her witness statement, she told the inquiry: "Reflecting on that call, I felt completely helpless." Sir Martin praised her courage and calm professionalism amid the traumatic circumstances of trying to help a 12-year-old survive. The "stay put" strategy should have been abandoned sooner Sir Martin says in the report that LFB failed to revoke the "stay put" advice at a time when the stairs remained passable. Had it done so, "more lives could have been saved". "The evidence taken as a whole strongly suggests that the "stay put" concept had become an article of faith within the LFB so powerful that to depart from it was to all intents and purposes unthinkable," he wrote. "The fact that the commissioner [Dany Cotton] was compelled to ask the rhetorical question: 'It's all very well saying, get everybody out, but then how do you get them all out?' emphasises that the LFB had never itself sought to answer that question in its preparations and training and had not equipped itself to carry out a total evacuation of such a building. "Quite apart from its remarkable insensitivity to the families of the deceased and to those who had escaped from their burning homes with their lives, the commissioner's evidence that she would not change anything about the response of the LFB on the night, even with the benefit of hindsight, only serves to demonstrate that the LFB is an institution at risk of not learning the lessons of the Grenfell Tower fire."

ग्रेनफेल टावर आग के पहले चरण की रिपोर्ट से पता चलता है कि आग कैसे शुरू हुई, फैल गई और एक आपदा बन गई। ये कुछ प्रमुख निष्कर्ष हैं जो जांच के दूसरे चरण की गहरी जांच को प्रभावित करेंगे-कि यह पहली जगह में कैसे हो सकता है।


Arrest after man's body found in bushes near motorway in Hunslet

Summary: A man has been arrested after the body of a man was found in bushes near a motorway footbridge in Leeds.

A member of the public discovered the body close to the M621 at Burton Row in Hunslet just after 16:20 BST on Tuesday. West Yorkshire Police said a 29-year-old man was in custody in connection with the incident. The death is being treated as unexplained and inquiries are ongoing, police said. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk

लीड्स में एक मोटरवे फुटब्रिज के पास झाड़ियों में एक व्यक्ति का शव मिलने के बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है।


Man dies after 'wall collapse' in Rugby

Summary: A man has died in an "industrial incident" after a wall collapsed, police have said.

Building work was being carried out at an address in Rugby Lane, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire. Warwickshire Police said they were called at 15:50 BST to the address where "for reasons yet to be established a wall collapsed". The man, in his late 40s, was taken to hospital by air ambulance and later died. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been informed and police will remain at the scene overnight.

पुलिस ने कहा है कि दीवार गिरने के बाद एक "औद्योगिक घटना" में एक व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।


The islands that want tourists as well as fish

Summary: Hundreds of miles from its nearest neighbour, the remote Faroe Islands are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Fishing has always been a way of life, and fish accounts for 90% of all exported goods. But coronavirus is hitting efforts to increase tourism.

By Adrienne MurrayBusiness reporter, Faroe Islands The drive to the village of Glyvrar is nothing less than dramatic. The road from the airport winds past mountains and fjords, and passes through tunnels cut into hillsides and burrowed under the sea. Glyvrar is home to the Faroe Islands' largest firm, Bakkafrost - which farms salmon. At its state-of-art plant almost 60,000 tonnes of salmon is processed annually. The operation is highly mechanised, with conveyor belts carrying the fish through a series of machines until the finished product is packaged. Then robotic arms sort boxes ready for shipping. From hatcheries breeding juvenile salmon to a facility making fish feed, Bakkafrost has a foot in almost every tier of the industry. Even the company's branded Styrofoam boxes are manufactured on site, characteristic of the Faroe islanders' self-sufficiency. "We were one of the first operations here in the early '80s," says chief executive, Regin Jacobsen. "We saw that being in the middle of North Atlantic, the supplies and logistics to get our products to market were quite difficult." But there was also opportunity, he says. "[We can] differentiate ourselves… and create high values." Globally, farming of Atlantic salmon has soared from 1.4m to 2.6m tonnes in a decade. Norway and Chile are the biggest producers by far, but Faroese salmon commands a premium price. The Faroe Islands are located approximately 200 miles (320km) north of Scotland, and are an autonomous territory of Denmark. There are 18 main islands, and the population is just 52,000. Its salmon typically sells for 10% more than average market price because of a number of factors. These include the use of quality fishmeal, high farming standards, sustainability and avoidance of antibiotics. Mr Jacobsen says 15 years ago most of the country's salmon exports went to the European Union, but today it's sold around the world. Russia and the US are the biggest buyers. In 2014 Russia banned food imports from the EU, in retaliation to sanctions against it over Ukraine. However, the Faroe Islands is not in the EU, unlike Denmark, and saw its exports to Russia grow. Mr Jacobsen adds that sales have been boosted in recent years by the growing popularity of salmon sushi, and wider healthy eating trends. But as the coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves around the world they have been felt in the Faroe Islands. Total Faroese exports fell 7% in the first quarter of this year, with sales to China falling a whopping 65% as Beijing temporarily froze many food imports. "The Chinese market has been becoming a more and more important market," says Mr Jacobsen. "For Bakkafrost it's even more important. Around 20% of our sales are in China in recent years." Conversely though, lockdown restrictions elsewhere have actually boosted business. "We have very good growth both in the US and the European markets," says Mr Jacobsen. "The supermarkets have had much higher sales than normal, because people are eating more at home." To protect its population and economy from coronavirus, the Faroe Islands has one of the highest testing rates worldwide, with a strong track and trace and quarantine strategy. And every person is tested on arrival in the country. This preparedness was partly thanks to its fisheries. A veterinary laboratory established years ago to monitor disease, was adapted early in January, ready to help test human samples. This has no doubt contributed to the fact that the territory has reported not a single death from Covid-19. And it has seen only 227 confirmed cases in total. Global Trade More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade: With the Faroe Islands' economy in good shape, it's well-placed to weather any coronavirus headwinds, thinks Heri a Rogvi, chairman of the Faroe Islands' Economic Council. "Corona has upset the economy a bit," says Mr Rogvi. "But at the present time, we have an unemployment rate of 1.7%, which is extremely low. I think we're probably the economy in Europe that's doing the best." Led by its fish sector, which accounts for 20% of economic output, the Faroese economy has prospered. The most recent statistics show that its gross domestic product per capita (a country's economic output per person) totalled $58,950 (£45,102) in 2017. That is almost as high as the US ($59,958), and more than both the UK ($40,361) and France ($40,109). The territory also receives an annual subsidy from Denmark of about $100m. Keen to diversify their economy the Faroese have been targeting tourists in recent years, but visitor numbers are down sharply this year due to Covid-19. "This is the only tour we do today. There's 14 people on the boat," says Gunnar Skuvadal, as he steers his motorboat, Froyur, towards the seabird cliffs near the town of Vestamanna. He usually runs tours from April, but the Faroe Islands only opened its borders in mid-June this year. "On a normal day in June, we would have probably done three tours with fairly full boats, meaning about 40 people on each." Germans, Danes and "staycationing" locals are among the passengers on-board snapping pictures of sea-caves and nesting puffins. "If I can get through the summer without doing a minus [making a loss], I think we should be satisfied," says Mr Skuvadal. In recent years tourism has thrived, attracting record visitors. Viral marketing campaigns like Google Sheepview, and 2019's "Closed for maintenance" campaign have put the Faroes on the tourist map. Last year the country saw 130,000 visitors. New air routes from New York and London were set to launch this year. "We will probably only have 20-30% of the annual visitors we were supposed to have in 2020," says Gudrid Hoejgaard, director of Visit Faroe Islands. So it will really be a horrible year. But I'm quite positive for 2021." She adds: "Tourism is still a small industry here [2% of the economy]. But it's broadening the labour market. It's created jobs in the service sector and creative area." The hope is that this economic diversification will encourage young islanders to stay rather than move abroad. A deep recession in the early 1990s saw thousands of people leave. Then in the early 2000s, unemployment rose sharply again when disease rocked the salmon industry. Of the dozens of salmon companies at the time, most went out of business. "We're [still] quite vulnerable, but compared to where we were 15-20 years ago, it's much, much stronger at this time," says Mr Rogvi. "There has been an ongoing struggle for, I think, at least 50 years to get the younger people to stay here." Many go to university abroad, and often don't return. But with improved job and education prospects that's begun to turnaround. Meanwhile, rising immigration, coupled with Europe's highest fertility rate, has seen the population climb to the already mentioned 52,000. "For us that's an enormously high number," says Mr Rogvi.

अपने निकटतम पड़ोसी से सैकड़ों मील की दूरी पर, सुदूर फरो द्वीप अटलांटिक महासागर से घिरे हुए हैं। मछली पकड़ना हमेशा जीवन का एक तरीका रहा है, और सभी निर्यातित वस्तुओं में मछली का हिस्सा 90 प्रतिशत है। लेकिन कोरोनावायरस पर्यटन को बढ़ाने के प्रयासों को प्रभावित कर रहा है।


RBS reboot is a crashing symbol

Summary: Royal Bank of Scotland today loses its brand status, to become merely a part of NatWest Group plc Customers will notice little change, but the symbolism is big, in repairing the reputational damage from the 2008 crash It's not the only one to have lost either corporate clout or its brand. Clydesdale Bank has only a few months left, as it becomes Virgin Money

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland It's been headquartered in Edinburgh since 1727, but from today, there will no longer be a company called Royal Bank of Scotland plc headquartered in the capital. If you're a customer, you shouldn't see much change. The name will remain on Scottish branches, on banknotes and on your chequebook, if you still have such a thing. If you're an investor, you'll notice that RBS plc has disappeared. As of today, with a name change at Companies House in Edinburgh, it will be NatWest Group plc. This is part of the process of rebooting the brand, after a long struggle to get it out from under the long shadow of the Fred Goodwin era, and the catastrophe of 2008. Now the brand is being booted out of view, except for viewers in Scotland. The practical effects may be small, but the symbolism is not. It's partly to do with the arrival of a new chief executive last November. Alison Rose's two predecessors had the task of turning around the bank's financial performance. Her job is to continue that, adapting to rapid change in the market, and to repair the continued reputational damage from 2008 and much that followed from that. That has been evident from the Net Promoter Scores used by banks to see how they are viewed by customers. The survey asks customers if they would recommend their bank to others. The answer from individual and business customers of RBS has been much more negative than positive. NatWest's net promoter scores have been positive, and it's the brand that's recognised by the vast majority of customers, in England and Wales. To Alison Rose, it's a matter of alignment with that majority of customers, and she's playing down the link between rebranding and residual harm from the association with the collapse and bailout. As chief executive, she says the name is important, that the heritage remains part of what NatWest will be, but it is how NatWest Group plc does business that defines it. And through the Covid-19 crisis, with more than £10bn pushed out in government-backed loans through 50,000 staff swiftly shifted to home-working (until next year, we learned this week), she's got a good story to tell. Corporate clout For a bit more heritage, National Westminster Bank plc was taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland, in a transformational move that put then boss Sir George Mathewson and his acolyte Fred Goodwin on the fast track to becoming, briefly and disastrously, the world's biggest bank. NatWest was notoriously inefficient, and Goodwin earned his reputation by shredding its then operations, and bringing them rapidly into line with RBS. The success of that was what persuaded him, and RBS investors, to chase ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that turned out to be loaded with toxic assets. The rest is history, and not a happy tale. For a bit more context, Bank of Scotland has been in a similar position to RBS since Halifax Bank of Scotland was taken over by Lloyds during the 2008 crisis. It instantly lost the corporate clout at its HQ on the Mound in Edinburgh, with ownership by Lloyds Banking Group in London. At RBS, likewise, corporate power shifted to London, but its HQ remained in Gogarburn, to the west of Edinburgh. In further symbolism, much of Fred Goodwin's executive suite has been turned into an entrepreneurs' incubator and financial technology lab. The Clydesdale Bank is also going through a rebranding. Although delayed by the health crisis, it is on track to rebadge by January all its branches and signage as Virgin Money. So too with its Yorkshire Bank brand. As Virgin Money, it remains headquartered in Glasgow, with a new HQ under construction. It will continue to print Clydesdale Bank notes, though they will appear to be issued by a bank, or at least a heritage brand, that no longer exists.

रॉयल बैंक ऑफ स्कॉटलैंड आज अपना ब्रांड का दर्जा खो देता है, केवल नेटवेस्ट ग्रुप पीएलसी का एक हिस्सा बनने के लिए ग्राहकों को थोड़ा बदलाव दिखाई देगा, लेकिन प्रतीकवाद बड़ा है, 2008 की दुर्घटना से प्रतिष्ठा को हुए नुकसान की मरम्मत में यह एकमात्र ऐसा नहीं है जिसने कॉर्पोरेट प्रभाव या अपने ब्रांड को खो दिया है। क्लाइडेसडेल बैंक के पास केवल कुछ महीने बचे हैं, क्योंकि यह वर्जिन मनी बन जाता है।


Royal Mail stock market flotation likely in autumn

Summary: Today's announcement that Royal Mail is likely to be privatised by being floated on the stock market, probably in the autumn, and not by being sold to a private-sector rival, may be viewed as a harking back to what some see as the glory days of privatisation under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Robert PestonEconomics editor That is because it would be the first time in about two decades that a household name nationalised industry will have been sold to investment institutions and retail shareholders. However unlike the great privatisations of the past, of the gas, electricity and telecoms industry, there will be no aggressive attempt to sell the shares to individuals - there will be no campaign such as the famous "Tell Sid" adverts of the 1980s for the flotation of British Gas. Risks Ordinary people will be able to buy shares, on a special internet site or via a stockbroker. But they won't be urged to do so. And the reason is that Royal Mail is a business not without risks for retail investors - not least of which is that the CWU union, with more than 100,000 members in the Royal Mail, is against the privatisation and is capable of disrupting the business. Nor will Royal Mail be especially big. With a market value of perhaps £3bn-ish, this famous name is not certain to be a member of the blue chip FTSE 100 share index. But putting the clash between union and management to one side, Royal Mail is a business with better prospects than many in the UK. Under its Canadian chief executive, Moya Greene, letter sorting has been automated, postmen and postwomen are walking longer routes pushing trollies laden with parcels, and growth has been generated by Royal Mail's large share of deliveries for booming online retailers. Paradox There has been a strong recovery in profits over the past three years - from a loss of £165m in 2011 to a profit of £324m before tax last year. And here is the paradox. All of that has been achieved while Royal Mail was in public ownership, and yet Royal Mail's directors and the government yearn for the company to flee the embrace of the state. They believe Royal Mail's recovery can only be sustained by escaping control by ministers - and becoming freed of the constraints imposed by the Treasury on capital spending. For them, the ability to borrow at will as a private-sector business, to finance further modernisation, is one of the main attractions of privatisation. But the CWU would make the opposite case, that Royal Mail's rehabilitation has taken place thanks to the stability provided by government ownership - even stewardship by a coalition whose ideology is not that of a typical trade unionist.

आज की घोषणा कि रॉयल मेल का निजीकरण शेयर बाजार में किया जा सकता है, शायद शरद ऋतु में, और किसी निजी क्षेत्र के प्रतिद्वंद्वी को बेचे जाने से नहीं, जिसे कुछ लोग मार्गरेट थैचर और जॉन मेजर के तहत निजीकरण के गौरवशाली दिनों के रूप में देखते हैं।


Kilgetty crash: Motorcyclist dies at roundabout

Summary: A 68-year-old man has died in a motorbike crash in Pembrokeshire.

The motorbike was the only vehicle involved in the crash, which happened on the A477 Kilgetty roundabout at about 12:30 BST. The road was closed for several hours but reopened at about 17:00. The man was confirmed dead at the scene after the ambulance and fire services were sent to the roundabout and Dyfed-Powys Police is appealing for information.

पेम्ब्रोकेशायर में एक मोटरबाइक दुर्घटना में एक 68 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की मौत हो गई है।