Bristol Colston row: A city’s unease with its slave-built history

Summary: The toppling of the statue of Edward Colston during anti-racism protests at the weekend has focused attention on Bristol's past as a slave port. The modern city portrays itself as progressive and is proud of its cultural diversity. However, many Bristolians still have an uneasy relationship with its past.

The statue of Edward Colston - who made a fortune out of the transatlantic slave trade in the 17th Century - has been a source of controversy in the city for decades. For much of the city's black population, the symbolic act of pulling it down and throwing it in the harbour was a welcome sight. Yet while his statue may no longer gaze over Colston Avenue, the legacy of slavery is still visible across much of the city. Actor Scott Bayliss was born and raised in Bristol. As a child he always felt the Colston statue was paying tribute to a "special man". "You would pass these statues and you would think that it's positive," he said. "It's only when you look into these things you realise the negatives, the evil aspect which a lot of England and a lot of the world really has been built on." Colston was a member of the Royal African Company, which transported about 100,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas. Some 20,000 of them died on the ships and were thrown overboard. "When people say, is England racist? It's all been built upon racism and it's all been built upon racist acts," he adds. "It makes me sick that this city that I love is championing and celebrating a man who was responsible for taking 100,000 people from Africa to the Caribbean as slaves, including women and children who were branded with "RAC", the Royal Africa Company, on their chests." On his death in 1721, Colston bequeathed his wealth to charities in the city. As a result, many of the city's street names and landmarks bear his name. Colston Hall, an arts venue in the city centre, plans to change its name later this year. But there are several references to the city's slavery links elsewhere; Exchange Hall, where slaves were bought and sold, and Guinea Street, to name but a few. Bayliss is calling for all of the UK's street names and places to be renamed as a "commitment to equality" but has become frustrated by the attitude of the various authorities. "It's so hypocritical - how can it be so terrible when you celebrate slavery with statues?," he says. Many people in the city believe Colston's legacy should be preserved, however. In 2018 a petition against efforts to rename Colston Hall attracted 5,000 signatures with its organiser saying it was "time to educate" people about him rather than "eliminate" him from history. Will Taylor, an arts producer who has lived in Bristol for 10 years, said both sides of Bristol's past should be reflected in its place names and landmarks. "It's about paying due respect and due diligence to both parties involved in the histories behind people being named as streets and monuments," he said. He said those objecting to calls for place name changes should consider their motivations. "I ask those people what their idea of Britain really is? Because if they require those contentious and oppressive memories to remain then my mere existence and the fact that I was born in this country as a black man is an affront to their idea of what it means to be British." Bristol's population is estimated at about 463,000, with 16% from a black, or minority ethnic group. The city council says there are now at least 45 religions, at least 187 countries of birth represented and at least 91 main languages spoken by people living in Bristol. Psychology graduate, Saharla Ismail, 23, was born and raised in the city. "Bristol does pride itself on being an inclusive city, a green city and all of these amazing things," she said. "But all of those things elude meaning when you have slave traders' names placed everywhere - roads, statues. "It empties meaning of Bristol being an open and safe space for everyone. "Bristol is a segregated city, just look at different areas of how class and race intersect with each other. "A lot more needs to be done to support black people and other people of colour," she added. Caine Tayo Lewin-Turner, a 20-year-old history student from the city, said he wanted the school curriculum to be changed to reflect black history. "I'm happy this symbol of white supremacy has been toppled as Colston was responsible for misery causing tens of thousands of deaths," he said. "There is so much more to do and I hope the way we confront the legacy is more democratic with a black-led focus."

सप्ताहांत में नस्लवाद विरोधी प्रदर्शनों के दौरान एडवर्ड कोलस्टन की प्रतिमा को गिराए जाने से ब्रिस्टल के अतीत पर एक गुलाम बंदरगाह के रूप में ध्यान केंद्रित किया गया है। आधुनिक शहर खुद को प्रगतिशील के रूप में चित्रित करता है और अपनी सांस्कृतिक विविधता पर गर्व करता है। हालाँकि, कई ब्रिस्टलवासियों का अभी भी अपने अतीत के साथ एक असहज संबंध है।


NI Prison officers agree to reforms

Summary: NI Justice Minister David Ford has welcomed a decision by the Prison Officers' Association (POA) to sign up to an agreement on new working practices.

Mr Ford said the move marked a new era of industrial relations in prisons. The agreement includes the recruitment of hundreds of staff for new roles on lower salaries. They will replace prison officers leaving as part of a voluntary redundancy scheme. The new arrangements were agreed in principle between prison management and union leaders in March and the POA then asked its members to vote on the proposed package. It was announced on Monday that two-thirds of prison officers voted in favour of accepting the proposals. Welcoming the decision, the justice minister said the agreement would help quicken the pace of reform across the prison service.

एन. आई. न्याय मंत्री डेविड फोर्ड ने जेल अधिकारी संघ (पी. ओ. ए.) द्वारा नई कार्य प्रथाओं पर एक समझौते पर हस्ताक्षर करने के निर्णय का स्वागत किया है।


Profile: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Summary: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is facing a US military tribunal on charges he helped plan the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, was regarded as one of the most senior operatives in Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The Pentagon says he has admitted to being responsible "from A to Z" for the attacks in New York and Washington. At a 2008 hearing to determine whether he was an "enemy combatant" who should remain in detention at Guantanamo Bay, he also reportedly said he had personally decapitated kidnapped US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. He was also said to have admitted to a role in 30 plots. He is being tried at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, along with four other defendants accused of helping plan the 11 September attacks. The trial is expected to take years. In 2009 US Attorney General Eric Holder recommended that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four others be tried in a federal court in New York City. But that plan prompted a public outcry, and the Obama administration backed away. Planning 9/11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in March 2003 and sent to the US detention centre in Cuba in 2006. He had been indicted in 1996 with plotting to blow up 11 or 12 American airliners flying from South-East Asia to the United States the year before. According to interrogation transcripts, the self-proclaimed head of al-Qaeda's military committee admitted to: He said he had used his own "blessed right hand" to behead Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, according to Pentagon papers. Four men were convicted of kidnapping and killing Pearl, including British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, though subsequent investigation has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the murder convictions. Official documents have shown that Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding - or simulated drowning - 183 times in 2003, before this interrogation technique was banned. That could potentially complicate his prosecution, if testimony or evidence is deemed to have been obtained by coercion. US university Mohammed is believed to have been born in either 1964 or 1965 in Kuwait into a family originally from the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan. He is said to be fluent in Arabic, English, Urdu and Baluchi. He graduated in 1986 from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the US, with a degree in mechanical engineering. Later, he moved to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. In the late 1980s he moved to Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, where he met Bin Laden. Mohammed first achieved notoriety with the discovery of the plot to blow up US airliners over the Pacific in 1995 - known as Operation Bojinka. The plan was reportedly foiled when police found incriminating computer files during their investigation into a separate plot to assassinate the Pope. In 1999, Mohammed persuaded Bin Laden to back the plan that culminated in the 9/11 attacks, the US says. 'Experienced organiser' After the 9/11 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people, US officials raised the reward on his head. They believe Mohammed co-ordinated the attacks and transferred money that was used to pay for the hijackings. Mohammed is the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in 1997 of bombing the World Trade Center four years earlier. Mohammed's arrest marked one of the most important breakthroughs in the fight against al-Qaeda. Terrorism and al-Qaeda expert Rohan Gunaratna described him as a "highly experienced organiser of terrorist attacks across international borders, one of an elite group capable of such events". It is not just the Americans and the Pakistanis who wanted information from him. French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a suicide bomb attack on a synagogue in the Tunisian resort island of Djerba in 2002. And the Australians have been interested, because of their investigation into the Bali bombing in 2002 in which 202 people died. Recently, he has been held with his co-defendants in an ultra-high security wing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay known as Camp Seven. But a lawyer for Ramzi Binalshibh, a co-defendant, has indicated the men all would fight the charges. At a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo Bay in December 2008, Mohammed said he wanted to plead guilty to all charges against him and said he would welcome the death penalty.

खालिद शेख मोहम्मद, जो अमेरिका में 11 सितंबर 2001 के हमलों की योजना बनाने में मदद करने के आरोप में अमेरिकी सैन्य न्यायाधिकरण का सामना कर रहे हैं, को ओसामा बिन लादेन के अल-कायदा नेटवर्क के सबसे वरिष्ठ संचालकों में से एक माना जाता था।


Millennium Coastal Park: Toad deaths blamed on otters

Summary: An investigation into the deaths of hundreds of toads along the Millennium Coastal Park in Carmarthenshire has been traced to a family of otters.

Environment Agency officials were called in after body parts of toads were found around ponds in the park which runs from Llanelli to Burry Port. Wildlife experts have ruled out poisoning, the weather and water temperature, instead blaming otters. Park rangers have found otter droppings and bite marks on the toad remains. And now a Carmarthenshire Wildlife Watch member has captured images of the animals. It is not the first time the cute but rapacious carnivores have proved controversial this year. Last month a Gwynedd fish farmer sued the Environment Agency for £2m claiming that otters had eaten his entire stock of carp. The High Court threw out the case.

कार्मार्थेनशायर में मिलेनियम कोस्टल पार्क के साथ सैकड़ों टोड्स की मौत की जांच में ऊदबिलाव के एक परिवार का पता चला है।


Village life for homeless families

Summary: Children are at greater risk of being taken in to care when a family is made homeless, a terrifying thought for many struggling parents. But for some, help is at hand, in the form of a purpose-built village in north Wales, which aims to keep loved ones together.

"I've done that much crying I can't shed tears any more." That was 18-year-old Vicky's reaction when she arrived at Save The Family's hostel in Northop, Flintshire, with her eight-month-old son Rhys. Vicky has been homeless since she was 15, when she had to leave her family home after falling out with her mother. "I was never angry, I got a bit wild, then depressed and that's when self-harming came into it." She admitted: "I've lost count of what number hostel this is." Vicky had been referred to Save The Family by her social workers, who were worried about her lifestyle and mental health. They felt the charity could provide her with a safe and stable environment, with extra support she could not get at other hostels. Most residents have been referred by their local council's housing department or social services because of the extra support the hostel gives. Many turn up with just a bin bag of belongings. They were often "very broken, damaged, hurt, frightened people," said 75-year-old Edna Speed, who is in charge. She explained Save The Family, which has been running for 30 years, saw itself as an alternative to the care system. "We have to look at statistics of care and say, 'So it works does it?' "It jolly well doesn't. The statistics are frightening and I am rubbing shoulders with the outcomes of care every day. "I believe that families are the ultimate, they are the anchor. There is much work to be done on how we keep more families together." Success stories Residents are offered support in all aspects of their lives including housing, debt, relationship and parenting problems, their addictions and how to live with their past. The staff are either ex-residents themselves or have gone through similar traumatic experiences which they believe is the key to truly identifying with the residents. "You put on your make-up but the scars are still there underneath," said 32-year-old Celia. After becoming homeless at 18 she became addicted to prescription drugs. She had four children that were taken away from her and adopted by others which devastated her. But she has gone on to have another two children - four-year-old McKenzie and two-year-old Cruz - with her partner Kevin. This time, with the help of Save The Family, she is making a success of motherhood. She said the support and lessons in parenting skills and budgeting she received at the village had enabled her to get her life back on track. She, Kevin and the boys have recently moved to a terraced house 15 miles away that is also run and supported by the charity. It is the family's first step towards living on their own. Edna said she was convinced that if Celia had had more "substantial support in the right atmosphere, that wasn't threatening," she would have kept her first four children. "I'll never heal but I've got to go on haven't I?," said Celia. She is working towards the day when she can be reunited with her adopted children, when they are adults. "When they come back they will want to see a good person who is doing well, they won't want to see me if I'm a down and out. I'm proving I can be a good mum." Rule breakers The village, made up of 24 cottages, is funded by grants, charity donations and the benefits that the residents receive. "It's not a boot camp but it's not a holiday camp either," said Edna. Residents have to sign a contract to say they will abide by the rules, which includes being up and dressed by 0900 BST. If they break the rules they have straight-talking Edna to answer to. Tensions can rise in the village. During Vicky's stay she said she had been threatened. Helen Walsh, head of family services at the village, said however they were quick to nip things in the bud but she was not surprised how quickly tensions spilled over into real aggression. "I think that's how they are in the community and I think that's how some of them have got themselves in the predicaments they're in. "That's why you have to get them together to see if they can resolve the conflict themselves. "It means when they go back into the community they know how to handle conflict without it blowing up and escalating." Edna acknowledged her team could not sort out every resident and has been criticised for making the residents too dependent. "We've been criticised for being a community but people only become dependent if there isn't an alternative," said Edna. "If the communities they go back into have not got the community structure, then yes they are dependent because it's going to happen again." "But we never turn them away if it's ten years, twenty years, two months, two weeks." Save The Family is a Christian charity but it is not compulsory to attend their church services, although most do. Support worker Lindsay defended the religious aspect: "A lot of people would say, 'You've got vulnerable families, vulnerable children you shouldn't be encouraging them to believe in god'. "Why not? It's the one thing that I know within this place makes a difference." Edna said there was no pressure on residents: "If we don't pray together we still love you, we're still equal." Vicky's stay at the hostel had many ups and downs. She ended her volatile relationship with Rhys's father Mark, who would then not give him back after a visit. She started missing curfews and admitted to drinking and taking drugs. Staff urged Vicky to fight for Rhys and she eventually was given visitation rights. "I will get him back," said Vicky. "If Save the Family hadn't taken us in god knows where I'd be now, I'd probably be dead or in a gutter." Helen Walsh summed up the aim at the village: "If someone can say they feel safe now and they're not running or their windows haven't been smashed in. "Or they haven't seen their mum beaten up and they can sleep on a clean bed for the first time and without being harassed, that is brilliant and that's why we're here." The charity is due to open its second homeless village in Chester in summer 2011. Fix My Family is on BBC Two on Monday 18 April at 2100 BST or online via iPlayer at the above link.

जब एक परिवार बेघर हो जाता है तो बच्चों की देखभाल करने का अधिक खतरा होता है, जो कई संघर्षरत माता-पिता के लिए एक भयानक विचार है। लेकिन कुछ लोगों के लिए, उत्तरी वेल्स में एक उद्देश्य-निर्मित गाँव के रूप में मदद हाथ में है, जिसका उद्देश्य प्रियजनों को एक साथ रखना है।


£30m work programme for long-term unemployed announced

Summary: A £30m work programme has been launched to help long-term unemployed people find jobs.

Announcing the scheme on Thursday, Communities Minister Lesley Griffiths said the scheme would support 35,000 adults over three years. More than 200 specialists will help people who struggle to find work because of issues with childcare, qualifications or health. The Communities 4 Work scheme is available to people aged over 25.

दीर्घकालिक बेरोजगार लोगों को नौकरी खोजने में मदद करने के लिए 30 मिलियन पाउंड का कार्य कार्यक्रम शुरू किया गया है।


Man charged with murder after woman's body found in Hackney flat

Summary: A man has been charged with murder after the body of a woman was found in her east London home.

The body of Sandra Samuels, 44, was found in her flat in Herrick House, Hackney, following a welfare check on Saturday, police said. A post-mortem examination proved inconclusive but her death is being treated as suspicious. Gavin Shane Carl Lewis, 40, of no fixed abode, will appear at the Old Bailey on 9 September charged with murder. A 47-year-old man also arrested on suspicion of murder was released under investigation.

पूर्वी लंदन में एक महिला का शव उसके घर में मिलने के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Cameron Kasky: How being a student gun control activist took its toll

Summary: After surviving the Parkland school massacre in Florida in February 2018 Cameron Kasky helped lead a youth campaign for gun control. But the strain of his experiences - in the school, and in the media spotlight - left him anxious and depressed. A year later, writes the BBC's Tom Gillett, his focus is on dialogue with his former opponents.

On 14 February 2018 a former pupil entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. After six minutes and 20 seconds of carnage, three teachers and 14 of Cameron Kasky's fellow students lay dead. The geography teacher Scott Biegel, whom Kasky had known well, died protecting his students from gunfire. When the shooting broke out, Kasky had been rushing to pick up his younger brother from a special needs class. Hustled into the nearest classroom, the brothers spent the remainder of the attack hiding in the dark, not knowing if the door would be opened by the shooter or a rescuer. There he stayed in touch with events outside via his mobile phone. "I saw videos, when we were in the room, of people being killed. They were going round Snapchat," he says. "It was very familiar to me. I grew up with these. I was born in 2000 - that was not long at all after Columbine," he says, referring to the Columbine school massacre the previous year, where 12 schoolchildren and a teacher were murdered by two teenage gunmen, who then killed themselves. As Kasky was to tweet after the attack: "I am part of the Mass Shooting Generation, and it's an ugly club to be in." It was the reaction of the teenage Parkland pupils immediately after the events of that day that made the response to this attack unique. An outraged determination set in among Kasky and a small group of his friends. "That day I said, 'We need to flip this narrative.' After all these shootings, you see such similar things. You see crying mothers talking about their children. You see people talking about how the shooter was just a nice boy - misunderstood. With only a few exceptions, so much of these shootings had the same exact response. A couple of lawmakers would get kids from the shooting to stand next to them, they'd sign some bill that did nothing and we'd be done. I said, 'We can't have Parkland be that city.' "I wanted it to be that 20 years after the shooting when people thought of Parkland they didn't think of people crying, they thought of people in the worst possible situation standing up and standing for something that was bigger than them." Starting the night of the attack, Kasky and a handful of his classmates took to social media, demanding stricter gun control laws and the right to be able to go to school without the fear of being killed. As they typed and posted, the hashtag #NeverAgain went viral. "I found myself frantically Facebook posting. It was what I knew how to do," he says. "The next morning I was getting all these calls from reporters." The same thing happened to his friends. Find out more Cameron Kasky talks to Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk on BBC World Service radio on Wednesday 13 February and on BBC World News television on Thursday 14 February (click for transmission times) UK viewers can watch on the BBC News Channel or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer As well as doing broadcast interviews, Kasky wrote online comment pieces and - a week after the attack - he took part in a televised town-hall event. Standing in front of a large crowd of his peers and neighbours, he confronted Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio over the money he had received from the National Rifle Association. "Senator Rubio can you tell me right now that you would not accept a single NRA donation in the future?" he demanded. The room exploded into chants and cheers. Kasky looked stunned and overwhelmed. He had just put one of the nation's most prominent politicians on the spot, live on national television. As momentum gathered behind the young campaigners, Kasky co-founded the group March For Our Lives and set about organising a demonstration in the nation's capital. Six weeks after the attack, on 24 March 2018, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC for the March For Our Lives protest. The Parkland students demanded a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and stricter background checks for those wishing to buy guns. The organisers estimated that 800,000 people attended the rally that day. Kasky's Twitter following rose to more than 400,000. But while the students succeeded in attracting popular support and media attention, the concrete legislative steps that they demanded have not materialised. In the month after the attack, Florida governor Rick Scott signed a bill that placed stricter age restrictions on gun purchases and provided funding for mental health services in the state. On a federal level, the so called "bump stock" which enables a rifle to be fired more rapidly has been banned. But their other demands have been resisted. As the first anniversary of the Parkland massacre approaches, Cameron is, despite this, sanguine about the movement's achievements. "Whilst we haven't got all the legislative victories we want with gun control… at the end of the day, there is a victory in the sense that Parkland is not the city that you think of and you instantly think of people mourning and people running away from a problem," he says. "I think when people hear of Parkland they think of something larger and stronger than the shooter." But he is also critical of himself, and the decisions he made in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Sitting in the living room of his suburban home near Miami, Cameron says he now feels that he was too confrontational. "I think it showed that sometimes how we feel about things can get in the way of our objective thinking," he says. There is one statement he particularly regrets, a remark to Marco Rubio in the town hall debate: "Senator Rubio, it's hard to look at you and not look down the barrel on an AR-15 and not look at…" and here he named the shooter - something that the young campaigners quickly decided they would not do, to deny him the fame, or infamy, he may have sought. "I regretted saying the name of the shooter to Senator Rubio and telling him I can't look at him without seeing the shooter. That's not true," he says. "In many ways my confrontation with Senator Rubio was very positive, in a sense that it reminded a lot of people my age that politicians are just like anybody else - they are not these deities that you need to look up to as if they are our supreme leaders. "But going about it… I did it in such a vitriolic way that I don't find it to have been very meaningful and productive." The activism that he and others threw themselves into in the days after the shooting was a way of dealing with the pain, he says, and the sense of helplessness. But the intense media spotlight also exacted a psychological toll. "After the shooting, I found myself on television almost 24/7 for a month or two and I found myself sky-rocketed to this position where so many people were looking at what I had to say and were listening to me," he says. "I think the concept that I could make gun control happen was seductive. And I started to see myself as the person that could make gun control happen. As if it was me. Not as if it was a large push for legislative change in this country. I had this messiah-like concept that I could do this. And I got so high off of that." When all this was happening, Kasky was only 17, and he found it hard to deal with. "I spent so long in front of cameras that I forgot how to be a person," he says. "I spent so long feeling like I was an avatar. Feeling like my body was saying things and doing things - my mind was just cut off." And eventually, he says, everything caught up with him - and it was compounded, he says, by the mistakes he felt he made along the way. He struggles with depression and anxiety, he says. In the summer of 2018, Kasky embarked on a road trip to Texas where, in a change of direction, he actively sought the opinions of those who disagreed with him on gun control. "I think the more you think about how right you are and how wrong everybody else is, the less you'll learn. A lot of people in this country get stuck in bubbles - especially because of social media. "I'm very pro gun control… and when I'm with other people who are pro gun control I start to think, 'If you don't think this you must be a really bad person.' And then I met these people and I said, 'These people are not bad people.' "If I vilify half the people in this country where is that going to bring me? I think there is so much that we can do if we all look at each other and say, 'Where can we agree?' Because that's normally where the most progress is made." Subsequently, last September, Kasky announced he was leaving the March For Our Lives group to focus on bipartisan dialogue. He is currently applying for college and plans to revive a podcast series, Cameron Kasky Knows Nothing - "my journey towards understanding folks who disagree with me" as he put it in the trailer. But what does he hope the legacy of the movement he co-founded will be? "I think the thing that March For Our Lives did for this country was, we told a whole generation of kids, 'We need to start working together, we need to start thinking. And just because we are little, does not mean we are inadequate when it comes to being part of the conversation.'" You may also be interested in: A photo of a student partying in blackface caused days of tension on the campus of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. Protests erupted, the university authorities walked a tightrope defending free speech, and racist graffiti sprang up. Student journalist Megan Schellong was in the thick of it and tells the story. 'The blackface scandal that rocked my campus' Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

फरवरी 2018 में फ्लोरिडा में पार्कलैंड स्कूल नरसंहार से बचने के बाद कैमरून कास्की ने बंदूक नियंत्रण के लिए एक युवा अभियान का नेतृत्व करने में मदद की। लेकिन स्कूल में और मीडिया की सुर्खियों में अपने अनुभवों के तनाव ने उन्हें चिंतित और उदास कर दिया। एक साल बाद, बीबीसी के टॉम गिलेट लिखते हैं, उनका ध्यान अपने पूर्व विरोधियों के साथ बातचीत पर है।


Lagos lockdown over coronavirus: 'How will my children survive?'

Summary: As more than 25 million people are placed on a two-week lockdown in parts of Nigeria in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus, poor people in congested neighbourhoods are worried about how they will cope, writes the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo from the commercial capital Lagos.

"From where do we get the extra water to wash the hands you are talking about," asked Debby Ogunsola, 36, as she led me down a dark corridor towards her room in the Alapere area of Lagos state. A lockdown in Lagos - the commercial hub of Nigeria, as well as the neighbouring state of Ogun and the capital Abuja - came into force on Monday night, following an announcement by President Muhammadu Buhari that the fight against the virus was a "matter of life and death". For Ms Ogunsola it will be difficult to remain indoors. She and her family live in one room in a block of 20, locally called Face-me-I-face-you because of their close proximity to each other. There is no electricity, and when I visited, light was coming in through where a door should have been standing. Outside there were two toilets and bathrooms shared by all the families living in the 20 rooms. 'Fearing hunger, not the virus' There is no pipe-borne water either in Alapere, and Ms Ogunsola is forced to walk more than 50 metres to a broken public water pipe for her supply. "It's my children I am worried about," she said. All four of them were lying on the floor as it rained outside. A single window was the only source of air into the room and it could get very hot at night. "If I am not able to go out and sell, how will they [children] survive?'' asked Ms Ogunsola, who earns money by selling fruit and vegetables by the roadside. Her husband works at an oil rig in the southern city of Warri and is due to come home in a month. But several states - including Rivers, Delta, Kano and Bayelsa - have closed their borders, prohibiting inter-state movement. So if the lockdown is extended, it could be a while before she is reunited with her husband. "It is hunger I am worried about, not a virus. I even heard it doesn't kill young people," Ms Ogunsola told the BBC. Though there is a higher mortality rate among the old and those with underlying health conditions, young people are also dying of the virus - and they can transmit it if they do not act responsibly. No money to stockpile Across an open drain from Ms Ogunsola's residence are more rows of similar apartments. One has an expansive veranda where two old women were sitting and talking. It is not uncommon for urban Nigerian families to live with older relatives, who also double up as nannies. And the concern is that these old people could be at risk if the virus spreads. "They are at home and they are still gathering in crowded conditions. If you were to have someone who has the virus there, the chances of spreading it is high," said Dr Oyewale Odubanjo, a public health expert. In Italy, many multi-generational families also live together and this is one reason why it has seen more coronavirus deaths than any other country. All non-essential travel has been banned in most states and many workers, including civil servants, have been told to work from home. But with a lack of reliable electricity supplies and poor internet connections, it is hard to see how most people will get any work done. There were long queues at supermarkets after President Buhari announced the lockdown, with people rushing to stock up on essentials. But many Nigerians live hand-to-mouth, often on less than $1 (£0.80) and they cannot stock up on food or other essentials. Many workers are also yet to be paid their wages for March so there are deep concerns about the financial implications of a lockdown. Mr Buhari outlined some measures to ease the hardship, including a one-month advance payment of the monthly $13 given to the poorest of the poor, but most people feel that millions of self-employed Nigerians have been left without financial aid. "It's only those who have money that can buy now. If you do not have what can you do?" said a taxi driver parked outside a supermarket. You may also be interested in: There are also fears that if things get worse in the urban areas, people would ignore the ban on travel and start moving to rural areas - where they are guaranteed food from family farms but where there is a higher population of vulnerable older people and more limited health services. "That would be bedlam, total madness, if people begin to move to their villages," said town planner Ayobami Bamidele. "Whatever happens, people should remain where they are. We will survive this," he said. Early March now seems like a long time ago, when the World Health Organization praised Nigeria for its handling of coronavirus after the first case was reported in the country. Officials had swiftly identified, traced and quarantined contacts of the Italian man they referred to as the index case. But now there is growing concern that Nigeria has not done enough to curb the spread of the virus, and its health system is ill-equipped to cope with a major outbreak. 'We shall survive' Nigeria has few testing kits, but many asymptomatic government officials and music stars are being tested, raising questions about the fairness of the process. Despite Mr Buhari's promise when he took office to put an end to medical tourism, he and other government officials still go abroad for treatment. However, this is unlikely to happen if any official gets Covid-19. "Even if you are wealthy, you will have to use the same health facilities with others, whether good or bad - nobody is going to accept a patient from abroad to treat," Dr Odubanjo said. Lagos and some other states introduced restrictions on large gatherings about a fortnight ago, but many people - including some pastors - are ignoring calls to adhere to social distancing. Meanwhile, back at a crowded bus stop in Alapere, hawkers competed for every inch of available space to sell their wares, ignoring any thought of social distancing. Most were not concerned about the virus. "All death is death," a woman selling smoked fish on a tray said in Pidgin, as she nipped between two yellow buses. "If I stay home, I will die of hunger, if I come out to hustle you say I will die of coronavirus. "There is nothing we have not seen and we are still here, we shall survive this one," she said, smacking her lips.

वाणिज्यिक राजधानी लागोस से बीबीसी के एनडुका ओरजिनमो लिखते हैं कि कोरोनावायरस के प्रसार को रोकने के लिए नाइजीरिया के कुछ हिस्सों में 2 करोड़ 50 लाख से अधिक लोगों को दो सप्ताह के लॉकडाउन पर रखा गया है, भीड़भाड़ वाले पड़ोस के गरीब लोग इस बात से चिंतित हैं कि वे इसका सामना कैसे करेंगे।


US drones strain on Yemeni's dual loyalties

Summary: Farea al-Muslimi was born and raised in the poor Yemeni village of Wessab, the son of a farmer. He received his primary school education underneath a tree in a town that was bereft of electricity and paved roads.

By Abubakr Al-Shamahi BBC Arabic Yet on 23 April, Mr Muslimi appeared in front of a US Senate Judiciary Committee, delivering passionate testimony denouncing a US drone strike that had hit Wessab only days before, killing five suspected members of al-Qaeda. Farea al-Muslimi's path from Wessab to speaking at the US Senate was largely thanks to American aid; he won various scholarships first enabling him to learn English at a school in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and then to spend a year studying at a secondary school in California. Mr Muslimi is now an activist and an increasingly prominent writer. He is also torn. "It is as if your left hand has slapped your right cheek," says Mr Muslimi. "I'm not just concerned about the reaction of my villagers, but also about my own safety from the drones my buddies are remotely piloting. It's a complex dilemma." During George W Bush's presidency, American drone strikes largely targeted al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with only one strike in Yemen. However, the number of drone attacks there has dramatically increased under President Barack Obama. In 2012 there were more drone strikes in Yemen than anywhere else. Pro-drones The increased is in response to the growing threat the US feels from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), widely believed to be the most powerful of the various al-Qaeda affiliated groups. The drone strikes are also seen as a reaction to the absence of central government authority in many rural parts of Yemen, which came with the popular uprising that eventually led the country's longstanding ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step down in late 2011. Mr Saleh largely refrained from publically supporting American drone strikes, for fear of angering Yemenis, some of whom are opposed to any American military presence in Yemen. This even led to his government claiming public responsibility for some drone strikes, such as an attack in 2009 that resulted in civilian deaths. "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Mr Saleh apparently told the former commander of US forces in the Middle East, Gen David Petreaus, according to a cable released by the Wikileaks website. Mr Saleh's successor, President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, is much more openly pro-drones, even going as far as saying that he personally signs off all US drone strikes in Yemen himself. Speaking to BBC Arabic, Yemen's Interior Minister, Abdul Qader Qahtan, defended his government's security ties with the United States. "Yemen has suffered a lot from terrorism," he said. "The problem is that this organisation targets everyone, foreigners and Yemenis. This causes the Yemeni citizen to be afraid." 'Counterproductive' The Senate hearing on drone attacks comes at a time of growing questions over whether the policy is in fact counter-productive in fighting al-Qaeda. Although the targets of the drone strikes are figures linked to al-Qaeda, civilians have also been killed, leading to increased criticism of the tactic. Joshua Foust, PBS's National Security Columnist, and a regular writer on the issue, believes that US policymakers choose drones because it is the best current option on the table when it comes to dealing with Yemen. "They [the US] cannot solve the problem of the [secessionist] Southern Movement or the [insurgent] Houthis or even AQAP… but they can disrupt AQAP to where it can't organise another attack on the US," he said. Mr Foust said drones must be seen as part of a wider strategy. "Drones can be an effective tool if they're part of a larger strategy to counter and marginalise terror groups," he added. "But if drone strikes are the entirety of the strategy, or the only publicly visible part of that strategy, then they will not work." On the other hand, Ghada Eldemellawy, of the British charity Reprieve, which works on the ground in Yemen campaigning against drone attacks, said the strikes are deadly and counterproductive. "The harm goes far beyond those killed or physically maimed in attacks," she said. "The psychological impact of drones hovering constantly over villages devastates local populations." She added that Reprieve's anti-drone campaign is gathering support. "Families of those killed have been very receptive to our efforts and we hope to see President Hadi withdraw his original unconditional consent to the strikes - no government is allowed to permit the slaughter of its people." Meanwhile, the people of Wessab are the latest in Yemen to experience a drone strike. They are fearful and angry, according to Farea al-Muslimi. The drone strikes policy of the country he loves - the United States - has now arrived at the homes of his family, and it is leaving him in a precarious position. "I don't even know if it safe for me to go back to Wessab, because I am someone who people in my village associate with America and its values."

फरेआ अल-मुस्लिमी का जन्म और पालन-पोषण यमन के गरीब गाँव वेसब में हुआ था, जो एक किसान का बेटा था। उन्होंने अपनी प्राथमिक स्कूली शिक्षा एक ऐसे शहर में एक पेड़ के नीचे प्राप्त की जो बिजली और पक्की सड़कों से वंचित था।


Crossing Divides: Brazil Amazon - Old enemies unite to save their land

Summary: While the world's attention has been focused on the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, indigenous people living there have warned that the policies of President Jair Bolsonaro pose a bigger threat to their existence. Rival groups have now come together to fight the government's plans for the region that is their home, as BBC News Brasil's João Fellet reports from the Amazon village of Kubenkokre.

Dozens of indigenous people gathered in this remote part of northern Brazil last month after travelling for days by bus and boat. The meeting brought together formerly sworn enemies such as the Kayapó and the Panará. The two groups were at war for decades, raiding each other's villages in tit-for-tat attacks. The warring came to a brutal end in 1968, when an attack by the Kayapó, who came armed with guns, left 26 Panará, who only had arrows to defend themselves, dead. Tensions remained high for years but according to those gathered in Kubenkokre, the two sides have now overcome their animosity for a greater goal. "Today, we have only one enemy, the government of Brazil, the president of Brazil, and those invading [indigenous territories]," Kayapó leader Mudjire explained. "We have internal fights but we've come together to fight this government." His words were echoed by Panará leader Sinku: "We've killed the Kayapó and the Kayapó have killed us, we've reconciled and will no longer fight." "We've got a shared interest to stand together so the non-indigenous people don't kill all of us," he said, referring to the threats posed by the arrival of miners and loggers carrying out illegal activities in their area. '69,000 football fields lost' More than 800,000 indigenous people live in 450 demarcated indigenous territories across Brazil, about 12% of Brazil's total territory. Most are located in the Amazon region and some groups still live completely isolated and without outside contact. President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in January, has repeatedly questioned whether these demarcated territories - which are enshrined in Brazil's constitution - should continue to exist, arguing that their size is disproportionate to the number of indigenous people living there. His plans to open up these territories for mining, logging and agriculture are controversial, and any change to their status would need to be passed by the Brazilian Congress. But it is something that worries the indigenous leaders gathered in Kubenkokre. "Other presidents had more concern for our land. [Mr Bolsonaro] isn't concerned about this, he wants to put an end to what our people have and to how we live," explains Panará leader Sinku. "That's why I have a heavy heart and that's why we're here talking to each other." In some demarcated areas, loggers and miners are already at work after some local indigenous leaders granted them permission. Indigenous leader Bepto Xikrin told the gathering how some 400 miners and loggers had illegally entered the Bacajá territory since the start of the year. He said that members of his indigenous group were scared and did not know what to do. And according to a network of 24 environmental and indigenous groups, Rede Xingu+, an area equivalent to 69,000 football fields was destroyed between January and June of this year alone in the Xingu river region. Heavy machinery has caused major damage and the Fresco and Branco rivers that run through the region have been contaminated with mercury. Kayapó leader Doto Takakire said illegal mining had been further encouraged by the fact that it often goes unpunished. Analysis by BBC Brasil shows the number of fines handed out by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) for environmental violations has dropped significantly since President Bolsonaro took office on 1 January. Mr Bolsonaro has in the past pledged to limit the fines imposed for damaging the Amazon and many blame the president for Ibama's current weak position. 'We won't repeat the past' At the meeting - which was held in both Portuguese and Kayapó - participants discussed projects for their region's economic developments which do not contribute to deforestation, such as handicrafts and the processing of native fruits. "[I'm concerned] about the trees, water, fish, the non-indigenous people who want to enter our land," explained Sinku. "I don't want to contaminate the water with [toxic products from] mining... That's why I'm here." Indigenous groups which have allowed miners on to their land were not invited, an omission which some of those attending described as a missed opportunity. "There's no-one here who wants agribusiness or mining in their villages, so are we just going to talk amongst ourselves?" Kayapó leader Oé asked. The fires which have been burning across the Amazon were not a big topic of debate at the gathering, in part because they have mainly happened outside protected indigenous reserves but also because those gathered consider illegal mining and logging as more pressing threats. "We won't repeat the past," Kayapó leader Kadkure concluded. "From now on, we'll be united." BBC Crossing Divides A season of stories about bringing people together in a fragmented world.

जबकि दुनिया का ध्यान ब्राजील के अमेज़न वर्षावन में लगी आग पर केंद्रित रहा है, वहाँ रहने वाले स्वदेशी लोगों ने चेतावनी दी है कि राष्ट्रपति जायर बोल्सोनारो की नीतियां उनके अस्तित्व के लिए एक बड़ा खतरा हैं। प्रतिद्वंद्वी समूह अब उस क्षेत्र के लिए सरकार की योजनाओं से लड़ने के लिए एक साथ आए हैं जो उनका घर है, जैसा कि बीबीसी न्यूज़ ब्राज़ील के जोआओ फेललेट ने अमेज़न गाँव कुबेनकोकरे से रिपोर्ट किया है।


Italy's Calabria has two pandemics: Covid and the mafia

Summary: "Until half an hour ago, 12 of our 18 Covid intensive care beds were occupied," says Demetrio Labate, fastening his protective clothing. "But now we're down to 11. We just lost another patient - he was 82."

By Mark LowenBBC News, Calabria, Italy The ICU doctor gives us our fourth layer of surgical gloves, checks that our overalls leaves no part of our body exposed - and with that, we follow him into the coronavirus ward of the Grande Ospedale Metropolitano, the largest hospital in Calabria. This region in Italy's southern toe was quickly declared a "red zone" in early November as the virus wreaked its destruction. "The second wave has hit us much harder than the first," he says, as he guides us between beds of patients on assisted breathing. "We are lacking staff - and the limited ones we have are doing several extra shifts." One of the female patients is conscious, in a ventilation helmet. She manages a brief wave of her hand: a small gesture to lift the spirits of the exhausted doctors. "We are fighting this like lions so as not to keel over", says Iole Fantozzi, the hospital's director. "This wave was predictable because we felt free over the summer when cases were very low and people came in and out of Calabria." Italy was the first country in the West to be crushed by the pandemic and was for some time its global epicentre. With the eighth highest number of cases in the world, this month it became the second in Europe to surpass 50,000 deaths. In July, when daily infections dropped to just over 100, a false sense of security set in as Italy threw open its doors to tourists and restrictions were rolled back. It is now paying the price, battling a lethal second wave - and once again its death figures are some of the highest in Europe. But unlike March, when the pandemic centred on the wealthy northern region of Lombardy, the second wave is pummelling the impoverished south as well. Calabria is Italy's, and one of Western Europe's, poorest regions. And while its infection rate and intensive care numbers are lower than northern Italy, its fragile health system is buckling - hence it was put into the highest risk category. Why the south is suffering Calabria has been left behind by decades of political mismanagement and plunder by its mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, which infiltrated the healthcare system. Criminal gangs seized resources and ran up massive debts, leading to 18 of its public hospitals being closed and savage cuts to beds and staff. Just days ago, a top local politician was arrested, charged with laundering money through 'Ndrangheta-controlled pharmacies in exchange for mafia support. Corruption exacerbated serial political failings: two health commissioners for the region were fired within the past month. One was sacked after he called face masks useless and said the only way to catch the virus was to kiss an infected person with a tongue for 15 minutes. Two other candidates nominated by the government refused the job. "Calabria found itself without the appropriate hospitals to meet even the minimum requirements of coronavirus - so the whole system went into meltdown," says Santo Gioffrè, a gynaecologist who, as head of a local health authority, exposed fraud five years ago - but says he was silenced by the authorities. That emergency is crippling Calabria's economy, the "red zone" designation closing businesses for a second time this year. Mafia and Covid a double pandemic At Filippo Cogliandro's restaurant L'A Gourmet the chairs are stacked on empty tables beneath glass chandeliers and the kitchen is silent. "A restaurant is like an orchestra", he tells me, describing the sounds of cooks at work and plates clattering. "And it's very hard to see it mute," he adds, tears welling up. For the award-winning chef, the situation has echoes of 12 years ago, when he refused to pay 'Ndrangheta extortion money and the mafia's threats kept customers away. But he built his way back up then - and says he can do it again. "The 'Ndrangheta and Covid are both pandemics," he says, the afternoon sun glinting through the windows of the elegant hundred-year-old palazzo housing his restaurant. "We'll destroy the virus with a vaccine - but the fight against the mafia will take longer." Italy is starting to flatten the curve again and the 'R" value - the reproduction rate of the virus - has dropped below 1 in several regions, including Calabria, which has now been moved from being a red zone to orange as a result, allowing greater movement locally. But in this scarred corner of Italy, the virus has exposed its fragile heart.

"आधे घंटे पहले तक, हमारे 18 कोविड गहन देखभाल बिस्तरों में से 12 भरे हुए थे", डेमेट्रियो लैबेट अपने सुरक्षात्मक कपड़ों को बांधते हुए कहते हैं। "लेकिन अब हम 11 तक कम हो गए हैं। हमने एक और मरीज को खो दिया-वह 82 वर्ष का था।"


Tour de France Grand Depart diary

Summary: With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo. TOP STORIES

News of the Windsor clan's northern excursion continues to spread throughout the worldwide web, which must present something of a quandary for cycling fans and Yorkshire folk who happen to be ardent republicans. They would not normally give two hoots about the leisure plans of Harry, Kate and Wills, but even they must admit the fact those plans include a trip to see the big bike race will guarantee even more media attention on the event and region, which is kind of the whole point. The anti-monarchist lobby will surely be more comfortable with this item from cycling's court circular: five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault will be the official starter for the Otley Cycles Races on 2 July. One of England's most prestigious town-centre race evenings, the event will also have the world's biggest ice cream van. Full story: The Ilkley Gazette Big names and big ice creams are all part of what makes Le Tour so attractive to towns, cities and regions eager to boost their international profile. The Grand Depart organisers' most recent polling suggested there was still a significant minority in Yorkshire who remain unconvinced the temporary disruption over the race weekend will be worth the hassle. Ultimately, this is a very personal judgement, and the disruption/benefit equation is not the same for everybody. But how many other Yorkshire events are being broadcast live in dozens of countries around the globe? Australia's public service broadcaster SBS will be showing every minute again this year: a golden opportunity for Yorkshire's natural beauty to shine. Full story: SBS Before you can have a Grand Departy, you have got to have a Big Clean. Well, that is what Calderdale Council is calling for in the weeks ahead of the region's moment in the spotlight. A voluntary army clad in yellow bibs, gardening gloves and sturdy boots will be rooting through the undergrowth in Brighouse, Elland, Halifax and so on, clearing away any unsightly rubbish. Full story: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner CYCLING ROUND-UP The big story on Wednesday was the big bump on Mark Cavendish's head after a high-speed crash in the finale of the Tour of Switzerland's fifth stage. He revealed later that he had just backed off the pace a tad because he was worried there might be a crash - he was right to worry, as moments later Danny Van Poppel took out Matt Goss and he took out Cavendish. It looked spectacular and very painful. But the Manx Missile has proved many times before that he is an amateur stuntman, either that or he really is part cannonball, and he tweeted later that he was sore but wanted to carry on in the race. This crash left only a few riders to contest the sprint to the line, with the chief beneficiaries being Sacha Modolo and Peter Sagan. Italy's Modolo won the dash to the line pretty easily in the end, with Sagan second and John Degenkolb third. Cavendish will be pleased he is not more badly hurt, but he will be annoyed at missing out on a chance to claim another victory. Elsewhere, Alex Dowsett, who Cavendish often trains with in Essex, has been named in Movistar's 13-man long list for Le Tour. The English time-trial specialist won a stage at the Giro d'Italia last year, but has made no secret of the fact that Tour selection is his prime goal this year. TWEET OF THE DAY "Ice spray is like a wonder spray. It helps so much for the football players after they get hit. #WorldCup2014 #BigShow" Cycling hard man Fabian Cancellara does not sound convinced that some of the injuries on show in Brazil are as serious as they look at first. TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA Cancellara, whose nickname is Spartacus, is renowned for his time-trialling ability and phenomenal record in the sport's biggest one-day races. But the Swiss star also has the distinction of being the active rider who has worn the most yellow jerseys, 28. Sadly, that also makes him the rider with the most yellow jerseys who has never actually won the Tour. He has won eight stages, though, as well as seven "Monuments" (one of the five most prestigious one-day races), four world titles and an Olympic time trial title. Not bad, then. THE COUNTDOWN - 16 DAYS TO GO Sweet 16 is the number of Tour starts Dutch legend Joop Zoetemelk made between 1970 and 1986, and it is also the number he finished. He only missed the 1974 Tour during that run, and that was only because he almost died when he crashed into a car at the finish of a race in France. Zoetemelk returned from that injury - a cracked skull - to eventually win the Tour in 1980, but he is perhaps best remembered for his six second-place finishes and pale skin. The old joke was that this was because he was in Eddy Merckx's shadow.

5 जुलाई को लीड्स में शुरू होने वाली दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी बाइक दौड़ के साथ, बीबीसी यॉर्कशायर के टूर डी फ्रांस संवाददाता मैट स्लेटर बाइक के अंदर और बाहर गपशप, राय और कहानियों का सबसे अच्छा दौर पेश करते हैं, और साइकिल चलाने की कुछ अनूठी भाषा को समझाने की भी कोशिश करते हैं।


Norah Jones goes back to basics

Summary: After experimenting with hip-hop and rock, Norah Jones returns to her signature sound on her seventh album, Day Breaks. She tells the BBC how she rediscovered the piano and why her early success took her by surprise.

By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter "I have a kitchen in my piano," declares Norah Jones, somewhat improbably. She pauses. Her eyes roll. "Sorry, I'm so jet-lagged. I mean... I have a piano in my kitchen." It's lunchtime in London, and Jones is at Ronnie Scott's to preview songs from her new album, Day Breaks, for members of the press. She's explaining that the bulk of the record was written on a small upright piano next to the pots and pans during "late-night feeding sessions" with her first son, born in July 2014. "It has tons of bills on top, and mail that hasn't been opened," she tells the BBC later. "It's a breeding ground for clutter. "I have two pianos in my music room [but] the kitchen is sort of the heart of the house, so the upright gets played much more." Back at Ronnie Scott's the star swivels on her stool and eases into Carry On, one of those self-same kitchen compositions. Jet lag may have muddled her words, but it hasn't affected her dusky voice, which skims like a warm breeze over the song's languorous, open chords. The song and the album mark a noticeable return to the twilight jazz of Jones's debut, Come Away With Me. Again, that upright piano, bought on a whim while walking past a New York music store, is responsible. "I just was inspired to play," she says. "I love the piano but I moved away from it. It's nice to break your patterns by playing other instruments, and just be inspired by other things. "I find when I do write on piano, the songs tend to go more towards this direction - you know, whatever the feel of this record is." Released in 2002, Come Away With Me was an instant success, selling 18 million copies and winning eight Grammy awards (a trophy for every category it was nominated in). Jones was just 23 at the time, and says it took "a few years" to gain perspective. "It's funny how that works," she says. "You're in this amazing moment that you've fantasised about for your whole life but you don't get to enjoy it. All of a sudden you're like, 'Blargh! I don't know what's going on but this is stressing me out.'" Things came to a head in the summer of 2002, shortly after the album went platinum. Jones marched into the office of Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note Records, and blurted out: "Haven't I sold enough records yet?" "That was just because I wanted to stop doing interviews!" she laughs. "For me, it was just too much work and I wanted to chill for a minute. "I look back on that time and it definitely seems like a whole other world." Come Away With Me was followed by Feels Like Home (2004) and Not Too Late (2007), both of which topped the charts in the US and UK - but as the star's soft-focus jazz became over-familiar, sales started to fall and critics cruelly dubbed her "Snorah Jones". What turned things around was an instinct for collaboration and experimentation. Jones recorded tracks with Outkast, Foo Fighters and Jack White, and supported Neil Young on tour with her alt-country band Puss N Boots. A partnership with producer Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, saw her dabble with spaghetti Western guitars and swampy electronic grooves on the albums Rome (2011) and Little Broken Hearts (2012). Jones's interest in jazz was reignited in Washington DC two years ago, when she took part in a concert celebrating the 75th anniversary of the legendary Blue Note record label. On stage, she got to play with one of her idols, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and all-star rhythm section John Patitucci (bass) and Brian Blade (drums). Thrilled by the experience, Jones arranged to get the band into the studio with her - but things didn't go to plan. "I had all these songs I wanted to record for the album, and they sounded great," she explains. "Then we had the Wayne session and we kind of ran out of songs. "I had a specific idea in my mind for the kind of thing I wanted to do with him - something very modal, without a lot of chord changes, and I wanted to be able to float over the top with the vocal, but nothing quite felt right." With the recording session looming, Jones's friend Sarah Oda pulled an all-nighter, performing emergency surgery on one of the songs. "And so I get a voice memo in the morning, and she's basically slashed the song down to a small set of lyrics that can flow better - but there were still too many chord changes. "So I took her lyrics and I went into the studio before everyone came in and I was like, 'OK, I gotta figure this out before they get here.' "All of a sudden Wayne comes in and I'm like, 'I'm not ready yet!' But John Patitucci starts playing this bassline, and I started playing the chords under it, and it sort of all happened so fast." The song was Burn - a sparse, sleepy number with come hither eyes - that eventually became the album's opening track. Recalling the session, Jones says: "I wasn't as nervous as I should have been, considering I didn't know what the material was going to be. "The thing I was nervous about, more than anything, was just playing piano with those incredible musicians. Because I basically hired Wayne's quartet without his piano player, who's incredible. "I'm a bit rusty - but it's my record, and I wanted it to sound like me and that is me." Days Break finds Jones in a contented state of mind after two consecutive break-up albums; but she sticks her head above the parapet on Flipside, a quietly insistent song that tackles America's gun problem. "People are getting shot in so many situations now," she says. "It's terrifying, it's sad, and it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that we can't find a way to help. "Just a certain small amount of gun control seems the least we can do. It's like the world has gone mad." It's a rare political statement from Jones, one of music's more modest megastars. When she won all those Grammy Awards, she simply felt bad for her fellow nominees. "I felt like I went to somebody else's birthday party and I ate all their cake," she claimed. So whose bright idea was it to hand out goodie bags featuring Norah Jones-branded stationery at her London gig? "I've never been a pencil before," she cringes. "It's pretty weird. I hope you enjoy your pencils." Day Breaks is out on Virgin / EMI on 7 October. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

हिप-हॉप और रॉक के साथ प्रयोग करने के बाद, नोरा जोन्स अपने सातवें एल्बम, डे ब्रेक्स पर अपनी सिग्नेचर साउंड पर लौटती हैं। वह बीबीसी को बताती हैं कि कैसे उन्होंने पियानो की फिर से खोज की और उनकी शुरुआती सफलता ने उन्हें आश्चर्यचकित कर दिया।


Police name dead HMP Hewell inmate

Summary: A prisoner who died after being attacked at HMP Hewell in Worcestershire has been named by police.

Luke Derriman, 39, died at the Alexander Hospital in Redditch on Tuesday, West Mercia Police said. A 38-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and has since been charged with manslaughter. Mr Derriman's family had been informed of his death, police said. Midlands Live: Former policeman found not guilty of cell attack; Sandeep Samra: Terror accused teen jailed

वॉरसेस्टरशायर में एच. एम. पी. हेवेल में हमले के बाद मारे गए एक कैदी का नाम पुलिस ने लिया है।


Freezing cold v sizzling heat: Which is worse?

Summary: There has been a lot of interesting news coming out of the great polar vortex of 2014. A Michigan lighthouse encased in ice . People throwing pots of boiling water into the sub-freezing air. People scalding themselves by throwing pots of boiling water into the air.

By Anthony ZurcherEditor, Echo Chambers Perhaps most importantly, however, the cold weather has set off a regional boasting match not seen since the great East Coast-West Coast hip-hop showdown of the 1990s. On Tuesday, Slate's Matthew Yglesias wrote that he greatly preferred extreme cold weather to high heat: The crucial issue is clothing and adaptability. I went out today wearing a warm hat and warm gloves and a scarf. I had four layers on my torso. I wore some corduroy pants, a warm pair of socks and some boots. All things considered, I was pretty comfortable. Don't get me wrong, not as comfortable as I am on a nice 72 degree day. I am very glad that DC winters don't normally get this cold. Still, I survived. Contrast that with a very hot and humid day of the sort that we regularly experience in the summertime here and elsewhere in much of the country. You just can't take off enough clothes to be comfortable, the New York-raised Yglesias writes. And sometimes you have to dress up, and then you just swelter in your nice suit or gown. That's bunk, replied the Washington Post's resident Heat Miser, Ezra Klein. In true Wonkblog fashion, the native Californian provided a list of five points supporting his assertion that cold-lovers are woefully misguided. Cold kills more people than heat. More people move from cold states to warm ones because of climate than vice versa. You're more likely to fall and hurt yourself in icy cold weather. Staying warm is more expensive, both in clothing and home heating costs. And as for the bundling-up-easier-than-taking-off issue? The problem with cold is that you have to put on layers and layers of clothing to do anything at all. Weddings and fancy dinners are a lot rarer than walking the dog or getting groceries. But in real cold, any excursion into the outdoors, no matter how minor, requires you to layer on shirts, sweaters, jackets, gloves, scarves, hats. And then, if you have small kids, you have to suit them up in all that, too. It's a nightmare. The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner (another product of temperate California) scoffed at Yglesias's suggestion that four layers of clothing were enough to survive the recent outbreak of sub-freezing temperatures. "It is beyond my comprehension how people can be warm if the temperature is beneath 20 degrees and they only have, as Yglesias says, four layers on their torso," he writes. "I had seven on Tuesday." Meanwhile, Jonathan Chait of New York magazine worries about the plight of the blue collar worker, as he speaks out in favor of the Northern climes in which his employer resides. "Lots of jobs involve physical activity, which makes you hot," he writes. "If it's freezing, you can easily wear long underwear or a warm hat to make up the difference in body heat. But if it's too hot, you're going to hit the zero clothing bound, or whatever the professional dress standard is in your chosen field." There's also the fact that New York City smells much more tolerable during the winter - a point that Chait somehow neglects to make in support of his argument. But this California-born, Texas-raised product of the Sun Belt still tends to agree with his warm-weather compatriots. While walking to work Tuesday morning, the cold-induced pain in my face slowly turning to dull numbness, I couldn't help but think that there is a reason why the deepest level of Hell in Dante's Inferno is a frozen cave.

2014 के महान ध्रुवीय भंवर से बहुत सारी दिलचस्प खबरें सामने आई हैं। बर्फ से घिरा मिशिगन का एक प्रकाशस्तंभ। लोग उबलते पानी के बर्तनों को उप-जमने वाली हवा में फेंक रहे हैं। लोग उबलते पानी के बर्तनों को हवा में फेंक रहे हैं।


Ireland confronts past treatment of unmarried mothers

Summary: The Republic of Ireland is to investigate the homes for children born outside marriage and their mothers, run by religious institutions for most of the last century. It follows concerns over the deaths of almost 800 children at a convent-run mother-and-baby home in Galway over several decades and controversy about whether they were given proper burials. The BBC's Fergal Keane considers what the inquiry might mean for survivors, and for Ireland.

Growing up in Cork, I was acutely aware of the stigma attached to unmarried motherhood. What teenager in Ireland could avoid the shame attached to pregnancy outside marriage? It was the dreaded scenario in all our minds, but for girls it could mean banishment and anguish. In 1973, the same year that I moved to the Cork suburb of Blackrock, a young Dublin woman was driven through the gates of a large house about 10 minutes from where I lived. Teri Harrison was 18 years old and arrived at Bessborough House heavily pregnant. In the language of the time her child was "illegitimate". The choice for an unmarried mother usually fell between giving the child up for adoption or taking the boat to England for an abortion. Secrecy was paramount. Teri says that at Bessborough, and in another church home where she finally gave birth, she was stigmatised. "Do you know the one thing that got to most of us, was the times they would say to you: 'You're here because nobody wants you. You're here because nobody cares about you. You're here because you have sinned.'" 'Black pit' Thousands of babies were adopted over the decades from the network of mother-and-baby homes operated by the Catholic religious orders. A much smaller number of Protestant-run homes may also come under the focus of the inquiry. From the Catholic homes, hundreds of babies were sent to America, with allegations of children being trafficked to wealthy Catholic families seeking white children. In Teri's case, her son was adopted at three months by an Irish family. She claims that she did not give her permission . "He vanished into a black pit. Just a black pit. It's like… it's like his life was stolen and mine… I had three beautiful children after him. They are all adults now with their own children. And I look at them and I say: 'He should be here.' His birthday is every October on the 15th. He was born at 6.30 in the morning, he weighed 6lb 6oz (2.9kg) and he was beautiful. He was beautiful." After decades of silence around the issue of unmarried mothers, Ireland is confronting the pain that touches families across the country. Helen Murphy was adopted from Bessborough in 1962 and spent years trying to find her birth mother. Her own childhood was happy but she was conscious of an untold narrative in her past. After finally discovering the identity of her birth mother, she found out that the woman had died three weeks previously. Her birth sister told her how her mother had wandered the streets of Cork trying to find her. Helen explained: "There was this yearning in her to find her child. So I suppose she always knew she wasn't going to find me, somewhere deep inside. But she was looking for somebody who looked like the baby she had given up. I don't know because I've never been able to ask her: 'Did you really believe that you'd see me?'" Some of the issues the commission of inquiry may look at include: Among defenders of the Catholic institutions, there is a feeling that the good work done by religious orders has been forgotten in a rush to expose and condemn. A former Mother Superior at Bessborough, Sister Sarto Harney, said there had been good staff at the home who had done their best to help the girls who came there. "I don't think it's fair… I think it's sad that is has come to this. We gave our lives to looking after the girls and we're certainly not appreciated for doing it." Ireland has seen a plethora of inquiries over the last two decades from political corruption to sexual abuse in church run institutions. There is a certain weariness among the public at the prospect of more revelations. However, human rights campaigners, as well as the survivors of the institutions, believe the past cannot simply be pushed away. Mairead Enright of the Faculty of Law at the University of Kent said the inquiry could help to create a new Ireland in which the attitudes of shame and exclusion could never again be fostered. "There are plenty people in Ireland not much older than me who remember girls who were sitting next to them in school who weren't there the next day because they'd gotten pregnant and they'd been shipped off somewhere," she said. "These homes were still operating in the 80s and 90s and it is faintly ridiculous to talk about the whole operation of the mother-and-baby homes in the past. That continues. "It has had influence in families, it has had influence in how parents raised their daughters, in how women were perceived and how women conducted themselves, and it's also a set of issues that needs to be addressed in the present."

आयरलैंड गणराज्य शादी से बाहर पैदा हुए बच्चों और उनकी माताओं के लिए घरों की जांच करेगा, जो पिछली शताब्दी के अधिकांश समय से धार्मिक संस्थानों द्वारा संचालित हैं। यह कई दशकों से गैलवे में एक कॉन्वेंट द्वारा संचालित माँ और बच्चे के घर में लगभग 800 बच्चों की मौत पर चिंताओं का अनुसरण करता है और इस बारे में विवाद है कि क्या उन्हें उचित रूप से दफनाया गया था। बीबीसी के फर्गल कीन का मानना है कि जीवित बचे लोगों के लिए और आयरलैंड के लिए जांच का क्या अर्थ हो सकता है।


How Vietnam became a coffee giant

Summary: Think of coffee and you will probably think of Brazil, Colombia, or maybe Ethiopia. But the world's second largest exporter today is Vietnam. How did its market share jump from 0.1% to 20% in just 30 years, and how has this rapid change affected the country?

By Chris SummersBBC News When the Vietnam war ended in 1975 the country was on its knees, and economic policies copied from the Soviet union did nothing to help. Collectivising agriculture proved to be a disaster, so in 1986 the Communist Party carried out a U-turn - placing a big bet, at the same time, on coffee. Coffee production then grew by 20%-30% every year in the 1990s. The industry now employs about 2.6 million people, with beans grown on half a million smallholdings of two to three acres each. This has helped transform the Vietnamese economy. In 1994 some 60% of Vietnamese lived under the poverty line, now less than 10% do. "The Vietnamese traditionally drank tea, like the Chinese, and still do," says Vietnam-based coffee consultant Will Frith. Vietnamese people do drink it - sometimes with condensed milk, or in a cappuccino made with egg - but it's mainly grown as an export crop. Coffee was introduced to Vietnam by the French in the 19th Century and a processing plant manufacturing instant coffee was functioning by 1950. This is how most Vietnamese coffee is consumed, and is partly why about a quarter of coffee drunk in the UK comes from Vietnam. British consumers still drink a lot more of that than of fancy coffees, such as espressos, lattes and cappuccinos. High-end coffee shops mainly buy Arabica coffee beans, whereas Vietnam grows the hardier Robusta bean. Arabica beans contain between 1% to 1.5% caffeine while Robusta has between 1.6% to 2.7% caffeine, making it taste more bitter. There is a lot more to coffee, though, than caffeine. "Complex flavour chemistry works to make up the flavours inherent in coffee," says Frith. "Caffeine is such a small percentage of total content, especially compared to other alkaloids, that it has a very minute effect on flavour." Some companies, like Nestle, have processing plants in Vietnam, which roast the beans and pack it. But Thomas Copple, an economist at the International Coffee Organization in London, says most is exported as green beans and then processed elsewhere, in Germany for example. While large numbers of Vietnamese have made a living from coffee, a few have become very rich. Take for example multi-millionaire Dang Le Nguyen Vu. His company, Trung Nguyen Corporation, is based in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon - but his wealth is based in the Central Highlands around Buon Ma Thuot, the country's coffee capital. Chairman Vu, as he is nicknamed, owns five Bentleys and 10 Ferraris and Forbes magazine assessed him to be worth $100m (£60m). That's in a country where the average annual income is $1,300 (£790). The expansion of coffee has also had downsides, however. Agricultural activity of any kind holds hidden dangers in Vietnam, because of the huge numbers of unexploded ordnance remaining in the ground after the Vietnam War. In one province, Quang Tri, 83% of fields are thought to contain bombs. Environmentalists also warn that catastrophe is looming. WWF estimates that 40,000 square miles of forest have been cut down since 1973, some of it for coffee farms, and experts say much of the land used for coffee cultivation is steadily being exhausted. Vietnamese farmers are using too much water and fertiliser, says Dr Dave D'Haeze, a Belgian soil expert. "There's this traditional belief that you need to do that and nobody has really been trained on how to produce coffee," he says. "Every farmer in Vietnam is the researcher of his own plot." Some people from Vietnam's many ethnic minorities also say they have been forced off their land. But Chairman Vu says coffee has been good for Vietnam. He is now planning to set up an international chain of Vietnamese-style coffee shops. "We want to bring Vietnamese coffee culture to the world. It isn't going to be easy but in the next year we want to compete with the big brands like Starbucks," he says. "If we can take on and win over the US market we can conquer the whole world." Watch The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve on BBC Two at 20:00 GMT on Sunday or later on the iPlayer.

कॉफी के बारे में सोचिए और आप शायद ब्राजील, कोलंबिया, या शायद इथियोपिया के बारे में सोचेंगे। लेकिन आज दुनिया का दूसरा सबसे बड़ा निर्यातक वियतनाम है। केवल 30 वर्षों में इसकी बाजार हिस्सेदारी 0.1 प्रतिशत से बढ़कर 20 प्रतिशत कैसे हो गई, और इस तेजी से बदलाव ने देश को कैसे प्रभावित किया है?


Congolese migrants describe horrific abuse in Angola

Summary: In the Democratic Republic of Congo town of Kamako, seven kilometres (four miles) from the Angolan border, 10 women sit on sofas arranged in a circle by a local non-governmental organisation which helps distressed migrants.

By Thomas HubertBBC News, Kinshasa Therese Tshanga is one of them. This 38-year-old Congolese woman is among hundreds of thousands of migrants expelled from Angola since 2003. She cradles a toddler in her arms and has a fresh scar on her forehead. Ms Tshanga says she was looking for a job in Angola when men in uniform arrested her on 28 September and took her into the bush. "Three soldiers came to rape me. The first two had their way, then I resisted against the third one and he gave me this wound to the face with his teeth," she says, pointing to the scar. After being held for three days in the bush and another three days in a prison near the Angolan border town of Dundu, Ms Tshanga says she was finally deported to her native DR Congo with her nephew. She has lost contact with his mother. No hope Kamako is full of deportees with similar stories. Jacquie Kasokome says she was raped by five Angolan soldiers. Another woman reported being stripped and searched for money and diamonds by border guards, who inserted their fingers in each of her body cavities, then stole her clothes and shoes before kicking her out of the country. As for the men, most of them admit to crossing into Angola illegally to work as diamond miners. They report severe beatings if they are caught by Angolan security services. "I was beaten up a lot. My ear hasn't been working properly because of a blow I took here," said Mubikay Mupani, as he pointed to the side of his head. When I asked Ms Tshanga if her attackers explained why they were raping her, she replied: "They said: 'We don't want the Congolese to come to Angola but you don't want to understand, so we're raping you so that you don't come back'." But Mr Mupani, a young father, says he has no hope of sustaining his family in DR Congo and he plans to return to Angola, despite the risk of being deported again. Mass deportations Congolese officials and charity workers say that violent deportations started in late 2003, when the Luanda government asserted control over its territory after the end of the Angolan civil war and banned foreigners from diamond mines. This happened around the time the conflict in DR Congo was also ending, as a new transitional government - led by President Joseph Kabila, and including former rebels - took office. It enacted legislation allowing rich individuals or companies to buy exclusive mining concessions, leaving thousands of small miners without an income. This forced many of them to emigrate to Angola and other countries. Together DR Congo's immigration authorities, the International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP), an Italian aid agency, has been monitoring the crisis along the border. Since 1 April, they have recorded 38,000 deportations. More than 2000 of the deportees said they had suffered sexual violence, and 7,000 reported other forms of physical abuse. Nearly half said all their belongings had been stolen during their deportation. The expulsions have never been high on the diplomatic agenda between Angola and DR Congo, though Kinshasa lodged an official complaint last May, when a man was reported to have had his penis cut off after he was arrested by Angola's security forces. While Angola transports the deportees to the border in batches of a dozen to a few hundred, reports coming in from the Kandjaji border post in the past week point to something bigger. "On 5 October, according to several sources reporting to us, the military attacked a village inhabited by Congolese in Angola," said CISP's protection coordinator Antonion Mangia. He added that more than 3,400 people fled the attack into DR Congo. "Many of them told us a lot of people died crossing a river. More than 300 women claimed they had been raped, and many people said they had been beaten up." An Angolan embassy spokesman in Kinshasa, Joao Gomes, dismissed the accusations against his country's security services. He insisted that Angola had a right to protect strategic diamond mining areas. "In Angola, as well as in [DR] Congo and other countries, there are laws that must be respected, especially in state reserves such as diamond mining areas. But saying that Angolan troops commit atrocities is not true," Mr Gomes said.

अंगोला की सीमा से सात किलोमीटर (चार मील) दूर कांगो लोकतांत्रिक गणराज्य के शहर कामाको में, 10 महिलाएं एक स्थानीय गैर-सरकारी संगठन द्वारा एक घेरे में व्यवस्थित सोफे पर बैठती हैं जो व्यथित प्रवासियों की मदद करती है।


Bath's famous Pulteney Weir could be extended

Summary: Bath's famous Pulteney horseshoe weir could be extended as part of a new flood defence scheme on the River Avon.

The plan is among options suggested by Bath and North East Somerset Council and the Environment Agency. Engineers say the 43-year-old Pulteney sluice gate is outdated and needs replacing. Other options include infilling the eastern river channel below Pulteney Bridge, or building an additional weir on the east side of the river. Proposals also include replacing Twerton sluice gates with new ones and raising walls of existing flood defences. The current V-shaped Pulteney weir and sluice gate were opened in 1972. A public consultation into the plans is due to be launched in September. Related Internet Links Bath & North East Somerset Council Environment Agency Pulteney Weir

बाथ के प्रसिद्ध पुल्टेनी हॉर्सशू वियर को एवन नदी पर एक नई बाढ़ रक्षा योजना के हिस्से के रूप में बढ़ाया जा सकता है।


US mid-term elections: You choose what happens

Summary: On 6 November, American voters get to decide the direction of their country once more in the mid-term elections.

There are local races, and 36 states will choose their governors. But the key races are for members of both chambers of Congress, that help push through laws in the US. Mid-terms: You choose what happens Share this chatbot Produced by Roland Hughes and Paul Sargeant

6 नवंबर को अमेरिकी मतदाताओं को मध्यावधि चुनावों में एक बार फिर अपने देश की दिशा तय करने का मौका मिलता है।


Covid-19: EU warns UK over vaccine exports

Summary: Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has said that if Covid vaccine supplies in Europe do not improve, the EU "will reflect whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates than us are still proportionate".

By Chris MorrisReality Check Correspondent Post-Brexit disagreements between the EU and the UK have been heightened by the diplomatic row over the export of the vaccines. The European Council president, Charles Michel, claimed last week that the UK had imposed an "outright ban" on the export of vaccines and their components - there is no ban though, and his claim was dismissed by the government as "completely false". But Mrs von der Leyen says the EU is still waiting for exports from the UK, and it wants reciprocity. How much vaccine has the EU been exporting? The issue of vaccine exports from the EU - and a potential ban - is being raised because the EU is struggling to get sufficient supplies to accelerate its own vaccination programme. And the number one export destination for vaccines manufactured in the EU is the UK. Mrs von der Leyen says 41 million vaccine doses have been exported from the EU to 33 countries in six weeks. More than 10 million of them have gone to the UK. That is more than the total number of vaccines administered in the UK in the month of February, and (as of 17 March) more than a third of the total number of UK vaccinations so far. It is worth emphasising that vaccine exports are not organised by the EU itself, but by companies such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which use its territory as a global manufacturing base. As of 11 March, 3.9 million doses had also been exported from the EU to Canada, and 3.1 million to Mexico. One million doses have been sent to the US, even though it is a major manufacturer in its own right and has not exported any vaccines to the EU. The US is using export controls under the Defense Production Act, first introduced during the Korean War in the 1950s, to prevent companies exporting vaccine doses or ingredients without federal government authorisation. What about UK exports to the EU? There has been no public announcement of any vaccine exports from the UK, and no evidence that any have taken place. The Department of Health said it didn't know whether there had been any, and AstraZeneca did not respond to a request for a comment. "Let me be clear, we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine or vaccine components," Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons on 8 March. The government is keen to highlight that the UK has donated £548m to the Covax initiative, set up to distribute vaccines around the world. But that doesn't mean there have been exports of vaccines themselves. "The British prime minister has made it clear to me that obviously his first priority is to vaccinate his people," Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said on 9 March. "Until then he won't be in a position to give vaccines to anybody, and he has made that point to me." No official ban So, there is no export ban, but publicly available information suggests vaccines are not being exported from the UK. The government argues that is driven by the contractual obligations which vaccine suppliers have to their customers, rather than by the demands of politicians. In January, the head of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot said of his company's contract with the UK that it was a case of "you supply us first". And after the UK rejected Charles Michel's claim of an outright ban, he said there were "different ways of imposing bans or restrictions on vaccines/medicines". In an interview with news website Politico, he challenged the UK to release its vaccine export data. Now, Mrs von der Leyen has stepped up the warnings. "If the situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness," she said. In response, the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had legally signed a contract for the delivery of the first 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and added that "the supply of vaccines from EU production facilities to the UK is fulfilling contractual responsibilities and we fully expect those contracts to be delivered on". EU's vaccine rollout The EU has faced a series of problems with its vaccine rollout and has controls on exports, requiring manufacturers to seek permission from national governments for planned sales. Earlier this month, Italy blocked a shipment of 250,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia. But it is the only one of more than 300 vaccine export authorisations that has been refused. The crunch could come in the second quarter of 2021 when supply problems may intensify. Then, as Mrs von der Leyen indicated, the EU may have to decide whether to block other shipments, including to the UK, to protect its own interests. One possibility being discussed is to use Article 122 of the EU treaty, which allows measures to be taken "if severe difficulties arise in the supply of certain products". Those measures could in theory include export bans and the waiving of patent and intellectual property rights on vaccines. What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch Read more from Reality Check

यूरोपीय आयोग की अध्यक्ष उर्सुला वॉन डेर लेयेन ने कहा है कि अगर यूरोप में कोविड वैक्सीन की आपूर्ति में सुधार नहीं होता है, तो यूरोपीय संघ "यह प्रतिबिंबित करेगा कि जिन देशों में टीकाकरण की दर हमसे अधिक है, उन्हें निर्यात अभी भी आनुपातिक है या नहीं।"


Shell has made a costly call to abandon Alaska

Summary: It could have been Hillary Clinton's tweet that did it.

Kamal AhmedBusiness editor@bbckamalon Twitter Just after the US government had given the go-ahead for Shell to restart its exploration in Alaska, the Democratic presidential candidate took to the social media site. "The Arctic is a unique treasure," Mrs Clinton said on Twitter. "Given what we know now, it's not worth the risk of drilling." Which seemed to ignore the fact that drilling has been taking place in the Arctic for decades - for example oil was first discovered in one of the main basins, Prudhoe Bay, in 1968. The area is still producing around 250,000 barrels per day and is one of America's largest producing fields. Shell knows that its every move in the Arctic is scrutinised commercially, politically and environmentally. Quite rightly, of course, when it comes to exploration in one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the world. Surprise move Shell's original position on the Arctic was that exploration of the vast area - much of it untapped - was important. The oil major argued that demand for fossil fuels was increasing as the world developed, exploration had to continue despite the low oil price and that the Arctic had long been a source of oil and gas. Monday's announcement that Shell was pulling out of the Chukchi Sea therefore comes as a surprise. Particularly given it will cost Shell £2.6bn to execute the withdrawal. And that the company has already spent the thick end of £5bn getting to this point. Earlier this year, I interviewed Shell's chief executive Ben van Beurden - and he was certainly bullish on Alaska. "The potential in the Arctic is very, very significant," he told me, saying that "the Arctic probably holds the largest yet to be discovered resource base". Shell's investors were regular recipients of long and detailed presentations on the potential for the region. So, what changed? Certainly, the first findings from the Burger J exploration well 150 miles off the Alaskan coast were not promising. Second, although President Barack Obama had given the necessary permissions for drilling to start again following the problems of rig fires in 2012, Mrs Clinton's tweet revealed that political risks were still substantial. Mr van Beurden also has plenty of other issues weighing on his in-tray. Not least the £55bn takeover of BG Group. And the halving on the oil price over the past 18 months which has led to a rapid reduction in capital expenditure for all the oil majors. Share prices have been under pressure, with Shell's dropping over 30% in the last 12 months. Given that background, the Arctic appears to be one major project too far, for Shell's management as well as investors. And, frankly, there are easier places to explore for oil and gas, technically and politically. 'High risk' That was very much the opinion of Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP who is now chairman of the oil and gas business, L1 Energy. "The Arctic is a very high risk place to explore, and even if you find something, a very expensive place to develop in," he told me. "The last very big field is Prudhoe Bay, and it's been a very difficult place to find oil and gas. "There'll be better places, more easy places, to go and explore." But, with demand for fossil fuels expected to rise over the next decade as emerging market growth continues, Lord Browne says exploration in the area off Alaska could return. "We should always keep an eye on it, just in case."

यह हिलेरी क्लिंटन का ट्वीट हो सकता है जिसने ऐसा किया।


Uber and Grab: When Goliath stands to lose every time

Summary: First China, then Russia, now South East Asia.

Karishma VaswaniAsia business correspondent@BBCKarishmaon Twitter It is starting to sound like a familiar story. Global taxi-hailing giant Uber enters a new market, with all the brashness and bravado of a bigger, more powerful invader, only to find itself waging a fierce battle on the streets with a home-grown rival, and then ultimately - losing the war. We had the first inkling that Uber's global strategy of "barging in" was going awry when it lost the Chinese market to Didi Chuxing back in 2016. At the time, as I wrote the explanation Uber gave for the China retreat was that it made sense for it to pull out of a market that was obviously so well served by Didi, and that it wasn't defeat when you end up with a stake in the company. But remember, the then boss of Uber Travis Kalanick once famously said success in China meant being number one there. Words he had to swallow evidently, especially as Uber was reportedly losing something like a billion dollars a year in China. Bad news Here, in South East Asia, emerges a similar tale. Grab and Uber have been fighting to the death for market share on the mean streets of the region. It's not just the ride hailing business for cars that they're competing in - in countries like Indonesia, motorcycle taxi rides are big business too. By some estimates, Uber has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year in South East Asia - along with its rivals. All bad news for a company looking to go public in 2019. "Uber is now under pressure to move towards making money for a 2019 IPO, which has been promised to shareholders," writes John Colley, of Warwick Business School. "In China, Russia and now South East Asia it has been out-flanked by local competition with better local knowledge and connections." That local competition in South East Asia has come in the form of Malaysian business tycoon Anthony Tan. He's not your usual startup kind of guy, hailing from a family business with a well established network to tap into. Having grown up in the region he understands the different and diverse nature of South East Asian markets. Motorbike passengers - or Ojek passengers - in Jakarta for instance, are quite different from taxi-hailing Singaporeans. Customers in Bangkok have starkly differing travelling needs to commuters in Kuala Lumpur. Mr Tan says being based in South East Asia gives him the advantage in solving regional problems. Mr Tan has also got bigger plans for the young startup, a company that has also managed to attract investment from the likes of Japan's Softbank, which also owns 15% of Uber. In Singapore last month, the young and ambitious boss of what has now effectively become South East Asia's most powerful ride hailing app, told me how he wants Grab to be everything to everyone - across this market of 600 million people. "We want to be that app that allows you to buy your coffee, earn rewards, then after that you want to buy your lunch and… have your food delivered so you don't have to go through the traffic jam," he said. "When you're that relevant, that real to every customer across the 600 million base, then you create huge value." Soul searching But Mr Tan can't afford to be complacent. Even though he's managed to push Uber out of this market, he's got a hungrier, leaner upstart to face in the form Go-Jek, Indonesia's Google and Temasek-backed ride hailing app. Right now, it's stuck to home ground, but there are rumours that it might head to the Philippines shortly. For Uber though, there's sure to be some soul searching ahead. This is the third market it's pulled out of in the last couple of years. The company has been keen to stress that this deal with Grab is a merger of equals - a partnership of sorts. But the internal email from Uber's boss Dara Khosrowshahi reveals just how much of a detour the firm may have made in its global strategy. "One of the potential dangers, of our global strategy," he writes, "is that we take on too many battles across too many fronts with too many competitors." Uber has been quick to stress that there is no more consolidation on the cards - in fact, Uber's chief says that's out of the question. But in the Asian markets Uber is still operating in - Japan, South Korea, and India - it is facing local competition. And if the experience it's had out on these streets with homegrown competitors is anything to go by, Uber may be in for a bumpy ride ahead.

पहले चीन, फिर रूस, अब दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया।