How disconnecting the internet could help our identity

Summary: As the internet has developed and social media has grown, people's online identity has shifted increasingly away from their real-life personas. But how has this online influence changed us?

By David BakerTechnology journalist In 1993, in the early days of the world wide web, a cartoon appeared in The New Yorker. It showed a dog, sitting at a computer, turning to another dog and saying: "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." The cartoon by Peter Steiner and one of the magazine's most reproduced ever, captures the thrill of those early days when the internet, then a matter of slow dial-up connections and clunky text-only "bulletin boards", provided a way for people to reengineer their identity online. Men could pose as women, the young as old, amateurs as experts, country loners as sophisticated urbanites. Last year, 22 years on, The New Yorker published another cartoon on the subject, drawn by Kaamran Hafeez. This time, two dogs are watching their owner surf the web. The caption: "Remember when, on the internet, nobody knew who you were?" The internet has had a huge impact on our sense of identity since its explosion into popular use about 25 years ago. It has brought into our lives people, ideas, viewpoints and cultures that, otherwise, we would never have met or heard of. And that has forced us to reconsider our identities in comparison with theirs. It has allowed us to ally with people with a similar outlook and become part of their group, even if they live thousands of miles away. And, above all, it has given us a way to re-engineer our identity almost continually and discover what it is like to be someone very different from our "real" selves. This is not new, of course. Through make-up, clothing, the music we like, the books we read, the opinions we express, the people we vote for, and so on for ever, we have always been busy defining and redefining our identity. But, before the internet, that busy-ness took place in the small arena of our friends, family and colleagues - and indeed, much of it was about developing separate identities to show to each group. Now the potential audience for our identity - and so much of identity is about performance - has increased to levels that, a quarter of a century ago, we would have had only if we were a film star or a rock musician. If we have 300 friends on Facebook and each of them has 300 friends - and many people, of course, have more - that's 90,000 people who are two degrees of separation away. And even if 90% of those are duplicates (people who are also friends with our friends), that leaves 9,000 people observing our life, Like-ing, or not, our opinions and commenting on our photos. That's an audience that would have been almost impossible, for someone not working in the arts, politics or the media, to reach in pre-internet times. Now it's commonplace. Is it surprising that many of us spend a huge amount of time managing our online identity? Not only has the internet given us these vastly bigger audiences for our identity, it has changed the way we understand how other people see us, from a (usually) private and intimate process to a very public scrutiny of who we are. Through Likes, comments, ratings and so on, we receive almost instantaneous feedback on the adjustments we make to our identity, and these then become part of our identity itself, as other people can see them. This is not quiet feedback from close friends - the traditional way that we understand how our identity is perceived. This is the opinion of the masses, viewed by the masses. Social media has, in part, become a huge exercise in public judgement. And, as anyone who has been shamed or bullied online knows, it can be incredibly powerful. In small groups of individuals who know each other, the clash between how we see our identity and how others see it can be managed. Managing our identity on the internet takes much more work. A man called "Jack" told the Guardian recently that he checks his social media profiles tens of times a day and how that takes him away from the physical world around him. "I'll often see moments as 'good content' for my social media followers," he said. "It's almost like the photographing and sharing of a cool time is more important than actually appreciating it in real life." This ability to comment on others, often from a distance, has given us a significant power without much corresponding responsibility. Online, we regularly rate and comment on people and services in ways that, if we are British at least, we wouldn't think of doing face to face - and that changes our own identities too, from, to put it crudely, being reasonable human beings to acting as cowardly bullies. The internet is heralded as being about connection. But in many ways it has given us the opportunity to disconnect our acts from their effects. How often do we, for example, consider the consequences of giving an Uber driver a low rating because we didn't like the way they spoke to us? Yet falling below an average score of 4.5 stars puts Uber drivers at serious risk of being thrown off the network. Is that really what we had in mind when we tapped out our rating on the way out of the cab? As well being a world of huge numbers, the internet is also about very high speeds - churning big numbers very quickly is about the only thing computers are good at. And we humans are in danger of trying to keep up with it - a race we can never win. This means that the world feels much faster than it did even a quarter of a century ago. The same effect was felt in the early days of the industrial revolution in the late 18th Century. We fret about replying quickly to emails and WhatsApp messages, we worry about not having instant answers to problems we face in life - the illusion created by Google - and we also flit very quickly between identities. A good example of this is online activism. There are many organisations online that bring about significant change in the world by amassing the power of large numbers of people. And the internet gives us a way of expressing our opinions on geopolitical developments even from a long way away. But, encouraged, I think, by the speed of the internet, we are also very fickle in the campaigns we support, because they require almost no effort to get involved. Is it still the case that #weareallCharlieHebdo? Or that we are desperately concerned about the fate of the 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria in 2014? Or was it just too easy to send a tweet or sign a petition and then move on? In one sense, of course, the world has (sadly) long been like this, with the news-cycle's intrinsic short attention span feeding our own. But identity is just as much about purpose and a cause as it is about appearance and opinion, and it is about our actions too. And when those actions stop at clicking on a link and entering our email address, it makes our identity, at the very least, dangerously superficial and fragile. But, for me, the biggest threat to our identities comes from the internet's noise. I teach at The School of Life, which was set up by the philosopher Alain de Botton to help people think better about the lives they live. About the author David Baker is a journalist and broadcaster with a special interest in technology's impact on humanity. He was the founding managing editor of Wired in the UK and teaches at The School of Life in London and Brazil. Many of the people who come to our classes complain of the difficulty of finding their "true" identity in amongst all the conflicting messages and demands of the world around them. This idea, that, somewhere deep down, is the "real" us, is as old as philosophy itself. And it is probably the bedrock of our identity, because it involves things like our values, our sense of purpose, the beliefs that make us who we are. This is a long way from identity as defined by our culture or ethnicity, or as defined by the things we buy and Like. It is more intimate than that, the part of us that keeps us understanding who we are when the rest of the world becomes overwhelming and confusing. At the School we often pose the question, "Are you living the life you want to be living, or the life other people want you to live?" (It comes from Socrates.) The internet has brought the opinions of others flooding into our own lives as never before, and it is threatening our ability to understand who we really are. To discover our true selves, maybe it's time to disconnect. Not for ever, that would be throwing away the baby with the bathwater, but for significant periods of our days, weeks, months. Because, with disconnection comes quiet and with quiet comes the ability to reflect. In researching my World Service documentary Default World, for the BBC's season on identity, I spoke to a lot of people about their experience of technology. Many said they were trying to spend less time online, taking a break from Facebook, connecting only when they needed to. And they spoke with pleasure of rediscovering the physical world around them and the world of human-to-human interaction, unmediated by computers. I think this is encouraging. We are still learning how to be on the internet, what effect this huge network of computers, server farms, fibre-optic cables and radio signals - a network we have built ourselves - has on our sense of self. We are at the moment, as Thoreau said of people in the industrial revolution, "tools of our tools". Disconnecting gives us a chance turn the tables - to see the internet not as something that overwhelms us but as a tool, which we use as and when we need it. Only then can we really understand who we are and what we can give the world. And that, deep down, is the real root of our identity. As people become increasingly connected and more mobile, the BBC is exploring how identities are changing. Catch up with programmes, downloads and clips from the season. Where are you going? - The surprising answers to a simple question Default World - The morals of the technical elite Why I'm Not Just Blind - Must blind people be either inspirational or deserving pity? Learn more about the BBC's Identity season, find all the programmes or join the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #BBCIdentity. Default World is broadcast on the BBC World Service at 18:00 GMT on Saturday 2 April and at 11:00 GMT on Sunday 3 April - catch up on BBC iPlayer Radio Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

जैसे-जैसे इंटरनेट का विकास हुआ है और सोशल मीडिया का विकास हुआ है, लोगों की ऑनलाइन पहचान उनके वास्तविक जीवन के व्यक्तित्व से तेजी से दूर हो गई है। लेकिन इस ऑनलाइन प्रभाव ने हमें कैसे बदल दिया है?


Bristol hosts Gay Pride festival

Summary: About 20,000 people have been taking part in a Gay Pride festival in the centre of Bristol.

The free event was the culmination of a week of local activities which included films, talks and sports. The festival began with a colourful parade through the city to Castle Park where two stages were set up for musical entertainment. Organiser Anna Rutherford described the event as "amazing" and said the numbers who attended were higher than expected.

ब्रिस्टल के केंद्र में एक समलैंगिक गौरव उत्सव में लगभग 20,000 लोग भाग ले रहे हैं।


Conker fights: Is it the end for the playground game?

Summary: Small, shiny and glowing with the promise of autumn, conkers were once irresistible to generations of children who baked them in ovens, dipped them in vinegar and put them on strings to enjoy playground conker fights. But, as record numbers of conkers fall from trees, the trend appears to be falling from fashion. BBC News Online asks why.

By Jennifer ScottBBC News, England As Aileen Francis and her two sons make one of their regular trips to their local sports centre, in Nottingham, they pass a line of horse chestnut trees. Aileen's sons - aged 10 and 12 - dart forward and fill their bags and pockets with conkers. "They love collecting them - we come home with massive bagfuls," said Mrs Francis. "But they don't have conker fights any more. I don't know anybody that does." Children's disdain for conkers is something of a mystery. "When I was at school, people would put them on string. But lately, there's not one child I have seen play with a conker on a string," said Mrs Francis. "I'm not sure if they would be banned in schools because of health and safety. I don't think schools would want parents complaining if their children got hurt in a conker fight. "I also think parents have less time to supervise their children baking conkers in ovens and then drilling holes in them - I wouldn't want mine doing that unsupervised. There's less time for old-fashioned play - particularly when children have tablets and computer games to entertain them." In the early 2000s, a myth sprang up that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had banned conker fights. The HSE was even forced to put a denial on its website, describing the story as, "an old chestnut". Some schools took to allowing their children to take part in fights provided they were wearing protective goggles - Cummersdale Primary School, in Cumbria, was one such school. The school's current head teacher, Gareth Jones, says he would not object if children wanted to play with conkers - and the protective goggles would not be necessary - but many do not. "It's hard to know why - they just don't seem very interested in conkers any more," he said. One school - Cleve House in Knowle, Bristol - has sought to revive the tradition by staging conker tournaments for the past two years with a trophy for the winner. Joint head Elaine Lawson said the idea was prompted by children bringing conkers into school and asking how to play. "I think they had heard about conker fights at home and were keen to do something like that, so we made it into a bit of a tournament with a trophy," she said. Mrs Lawson said it was "a pity" the school probably would not be able to leave children to play with conkers outside of a tournament, "for safety's sake". "There has always been a risk attached to conkers, but more people seem more aware of it now," she said. "Also, children are much less used to playing with them. Twenty years ago, children were playing conkers all the time - down the park, or on the street with their friends. Today, they don't know how to play as much." Mrs Lawson added she had noticed today's children had fewer play skills than their predecessors - which is why it was important to keep traditional games like conkers alive. "Games today either have to be organised, or sometimes children will copy something they have seen on TV, but they are rarely spontaneous," she said. "What we call 'old-fashioned games' is, in fact, just something children have always done for sheer pleasure." All the more pity because the time is ripe for conkers, with more of the seeds in abundance than experts have seen for a long time. "It has been an exceptional year," said David Knott, curator at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens. "We had a very mild winter, while spring was excellent for pollinating insects which has led to a very good fruiting year for trees. They have also ripened marginally earlier. "Horse chestnut trees are actually native to Northern Greece and Albania, so the conditions we have seen this year are more akin to their natural environment." The organisers of the World Conker Championships, which are being held in Oundle, Northamptonshire, on Sunday, agreed there had been a "bumper crop". In 2012, the Scottish Conker Championships were cancelled because of a lack of conkers. This year however, the organisers of both competitions say conkers are bigger and better than ever. Nicola Hunt, who judges the Scottish championships - being held in Peebles this year - says the crop is "outstanding". "We are just out gathering them at the moment," she said. "We possibly do have less children taking part, but there is the great joy of foraging conkers - I don't think kids ever get tired of that. It's just they're not going on to play games as much as they used to." And while children's interest may be diminishing, Mrs Hunt says their parents' love of the game is as strong as ever - in fact, it may be growing. "In the seven years we have been running the competition, we have seen more and more adults taking part - they're just big kids," she said. So, can she imagine conker fights continuing to grow as a niche interest but maybe led by adults, rather than children? "Possibly," she said. "It's a really fun game that just epitomises autumn."

शरद ऋतु के वादे के साथ छोटे, चमकदार और चमकते, कांकर कभी बच्चों की पीढ़ियों के लिए अप्रतिरोध्य थे जो उन्हें ओवन में पकाते थे, उन्हें सिरके में डुबोते थे और खेल के मैदान में कांकर लड़ाइयों का आनंद लेने के लिए उन्हें तार पर डालते थे। लेकिन, जैसे-जैसे रिकॉर्ड संख्या में कांकर पेड़ों से गिरते हैं, यह प्रवृत्ति फैशन से गिरती दिखाई देती है। बीबीसी न्यूज ऑनलाइन पूछता है कि क्यों।


Northern Ireland Assembly members get attendance letter

Summary: The speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly has written letters to all MLAs advising them of the importance of turning up to ask questions.

William Hay said he had issued the letters after seven questions were not asked in the assembly last Tuesday. The questions were either withdrawn at the last minute or the MLAs who submitted them were not present. The lack of attendance provoked criticism from both the first minister and deputy first minister at the time. "I want to avoid a repeat of the situation last week," Mr Hay said. He added he wanted members to recognise the "seriousness of the situation" and said he would reintroduce sanctions on members if the conduct continued. The TUV's Jim Allister said he would like the warning extended to ministers as questions he had submitted in writing were still unanswered after 16 months.

उत्तरी आयरलैंड विधानसभा के अध्यक्ष ने सभी विधायकों को पत्र लिखकर उन्हें सवाल पूछने के लिए आने के महत्व की सलाह दी है।


Chanel apologises over Mati Ventrillon Shetland knitwear designs

Summary: Fashion house Chanel has apologised to a Shetland knitwear designer over similar garments at their 2016 preview show that she was not credited for.

Buyers visited Mati Ventrillon in Fair Isle earlier this year and said anything they purchased would be for research purposes only. However, near identical sweaters then appeared in a recent Chanel show. Chanel said it resulted from a dysfunctionality within its teams and apologised. The company said it would also now credit Ms Ventrillon's work to recognise her as the source of inspiration for the knitwear. The Fair Isle designer said she had a "great respect" for Chanel and hoped luxury labels and craft designers could continue to work together.

फैशन हाउस चैनल ने अपने 2016 के पूर्वावलोकन शो में एक शेटलैंड बुने हुए कपड़ों के डिजाइनर से इसी तरह के कपड़ों के लिए माफी मांगी है, जिसके लिए उन्हें श्रेय नहीं दिया गया था।


'Too frightened to leave and hating to stay'

Summary: For more than 30 years, cult leader Aravindan Balakrishnan convinced his victims he was "all powerful and all-seeing" - a master manipulator who used violence, fear and sexual degradation to control the women he held captive in communes across London.

By Tom Symonds & Lauren PottsBBC News His daughter was one of them. Born into her father's Communist "collective", she spent her childhood almost entirely isolated from the outside world. She never went to school or played with a friend her own age, but spent years cooped up in the various houses occupied by the group. Southwark Crown Court heard how, as a child, she was so painfully alone she spoke to the taps and toilet for company - hugging them for being "nice" to her. On one occasion, she was so desperate to see an unfamiliar face she fabricated a water leak in an airing cupboard in the hope someone would come to fix it. This was the sad picture painted in the diaries of a girl who was kept in captivity most of her life. But how did this happen? At Aravindan Balakrishnan's trial, jurors heard how the cult leader likened himself to God and believed himself to be the "centre of the natural world". Through a brutal regime of violence and sexual degradation, he sought to mould his followers into a "cadre of women soldiers" he believed could help him overthrow "the fascist state". There were rapes and victims were beaten and told "bad ideas could burn you to death". He made it, the prosecution said, so they were "too frightened to leave but hated to stay". To those with the luxury of free will, the fact these women stayed might seem baffling. But Graham Baldwin, manager of Catalyst Counselling, which supports victims of cults, said those caught up in Balakrishnan's web would have been taught to believe their lives were "satisfying". "What normally happens is a leader says: 'I've got special knowledge, I know how to make your life better and the world better but you've got to do what I say'," he explained. "Then it becomes a process of breaking down a person's ego, so that he is incompetent. They are told they are the new world order and this is their great moment... [and] if they leave the group or betray it then God is going to punish them." Jurors heard Balakrishnan's political views were influenced by what he saw as post-war British mistreatment of the people of Malaysia and Singapore, where he lived from 1949. He moved to London in the 1960s and began giving political speeches, earning a reputation as a "charismatic man" whose ideals struck a chord. It was the height of the Cold War and a period when the UK had a plethora of small left-wing collectives and communes. The many empty houses of south London in particular were targeted by left-wing groups for the purpose of collective living. "It had been a worrying and oppressing time and finding someone a bit like you, who has the same idea about the world you want to live in, living with them was not so unusual," said historian Dr Lucy Robinson. "It was a time when all sort of ideas were up for grabs. People did go out and make their own politics. "[But] this [case] is not a lesson about communes and counter-culture, but a lesson about abuse, because you could normally just leave a commune." Balakrishnan and his wife Chandra ran a bookshop and commune from a large building in Brixton, where he started his so-called "Workers Institute" in 1974. He initially claimed his teachings were based on those of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong but by 1980 the "collective" had evolved into a "Cult of Bala", far removed from its original ideals. Only a handful of women remained and were kept under Balakrishnan's strict control - prevented from seeing family members and governed by a strict rota of work and chores. Regular beatings eventually evolved into the sexual abuse of at least two women, who Balakrishnan claimed were being "purified" or "cleansed" by the acts he forced upon them. Stephen Chang attended a number of political talks given by Balakrishnan between 1968 and 1971 His appearance [now] does not reflect in any way who he was. In the early days he was well groomed, he was smart, he took great care of his hair, the way he wore his glasses, the way he conducted himself. He was extremely knowledgeable and a great orator... but in his environment, we began to realise you didn't have a choice, you had to listen to what he said. That's when my relationship broke up with him. He's definitely a psychopath, I have no doubts about that. He has all the characteristics of a psychopath - they have no remorse, no guilt, they're manipulative, they have a great sense of self-grandeur, they have objectives that are totally unrealistic. He meets people, he impresses them with his knowledge and storytelling skills, he gleans info about their private lives and uses that to create doubts within that individual and their capabilities and makes them emotionally dependent on him, like a cult leader. Balakrishnan's daughter was born into the collective after one of its earliest members, Sian Davies, became pregnant. But the girl's status as the youngest member of the commune did not save her from physical punishment and she lived in perpetual fear of incurring the wrath of "Jackie", a mind control machine the defendant claimed had the power to torture her. She lived in fear of her father's "Jekyll and Hyde" character: "When he was nice, he could be very nice, but when he was not he was frightening," the court heard. Speaking to the BBC, she recalled an incident in which the defendant took away her balloon when she was 10 years old. "He punctured it because I liked it. He said: 'This is really good because I can use the stick to whip you'." It was against this backdrop that Balakrishnan, now 75, was able to oppress his victims for so long. The court heard his views were "so deeply instilled in them all they were too scared to oppose him". Mr Baldwin said that, far from being unintelligent, the kind of person often caught up in a cult tends to be bright but idealistic. He said some fall victim very quickly and, in one case the charity dealt with, a gap-year student was recruited into a cult during a 12-hour flight stopover in New York. But, he warned, it can take much longer to leave. Yvonne Hall and Gerard Stocks of the Palm Cove Society, which rescued the women "We have spent a lot of time working with them and the progress has been outstanding; [the daughter] is very competent and is looking at moving to independent living and she's studying at college," said Ms Hall. "They were all told the outside world was a very hostile place and if they went out bad things would happen to them: they would get killed or raped or disappear. The youngest one was told if she left the property she would spontaneously combust. "[When the daughter came out] she wasn't able to navigate from A to B, she wasn't able to use public transport or go shopping independently, or do day-to-day activities that a normal 30-year-old could do." Mr Stocks added: "She couldn't cross the road. It took us two-and-a-half weeks to teach her how to do that herself and now she can get about just fine, but when she came out it was very different. "We're looking at a man who manipulated and controlled people to a height none of us can really imagine." For Balakrishnan's daughter, it was only when she reached her 20s that she began to realise the extent of her confinement. She started fantasising about men and developed a crush on a neighbour. Though she never spoke to him, she was devastated when the commune moved to another estate, writing in her diary: "I was cruelly wrenched away from my beloved darling, I have never [had] anything to look forward to." An infatuation with a second neighbour turned into a sexual relationship - he would climb through a window to visit her - but this ended when Balakrishnan caught them and beat her. She believes she suffered a miscarriage a few weeks later. Fed up with being "a non-person", in 2005 she plucked up the courage to flee the commune. Ill-equipped to cope in the outside world, she went to a police station - where she was told to go back to the collective or risk being reported as a missing person. It would be another eight years before she finally managed to escape for good - by that point seriously ill with diabetes - setting off the chain of events that would lead to her father's arrest. Now 32, she is no longer at the mercy of the man who for years she knew only as Comrade Bala, and the note she left him the day she left suggests a woman determined to make up for lost time: "I may have no wealth, no property, but I do have my dignity and I will defend it with my life," she wrote. But she also hopes to build bridges with her father. "I forgive him and I would like to reconcile with him in the future, because hatred does no good to anyone," she told the BBC. "Nelson Mandela said if you leave a place with anger and hatred and bitterness, then you are still in prison and I don't want to be in prison that way." Additional reporting: Beth Rose

30 से अधिक वर्षों तक, पंथ के नेता अरविंदन बालकृष्णन ने अपने पीड़ितों को आश्वस्त किया कि वह "सभी शक्तिशाली और सभी को देखने वाले" थे-एक कुशल हेरफेर करने वाले जिन्होंने पूरे लंदन में कम्यूनों में बंदी महिलाओं को नियंत्रित करने के लिए हिंसा, भय और यौन अपमान का इस्तेमाल किया।


Eight things Will Ferrell's Eurovision movie gets wrong (and two it gets right)

Summary: Will Ferrell's Eurovision movie, The Story of Fire Saga, was only released on Friday, but it's already leapt to number one on Netflix's most-watched movies chart.

By Mark SavageBBC music reporter The comedy follows the fortunes of an inept Icelandic band, Fire Saga - Lars Erickssong (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams) - who get the chance to fulfil a lifelong dream when they're selected to enter the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. Written with obvious affection by Ferrell, the film is crammed full of Easter eggs and cameos for long-time fans. It features a band called Moon Fang, whose horrific masks are a call-back to 2006's Eurovision winners Lordi, while a sing-off in the middle of the film features guest appearances from real-life contestants Alexander Rybak, Conchita Wurst and Netta. Ferrell's character even performs inside a giant hamster wheel - just like Ukraine's entrant in 2014. Despite US publications having to explain Eurovision to confused viewers, and reviewers turning up their noses, the film has already picked up a legion of fans. On review aggregator Metacritic, viewers have rated it 7.8 out of 10, compared to 4.9 from critics. But as with all films "based on true events", The Story of Fire Saga takes a certain amount of dramatic licence with the facts. Just for fun, here are a few moments where the film gets it wrong... And two where it is surprisingly accurate. 1) The first scene instantly raises questions... Every film needs an inciting incident that sets the plot wheels turning - and Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga doesn't waste any time in that respect. The opening scene finds Lars and Sigrit as children, watching Abba performing Waterloo at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. Lars immediately (and correctly) falls in love with the band's glam rock ode to the Napoleonic wars, and sets his sights on winning Eurovision himself one day. But at that time, Iceland didn't take part in Eurovision. In fact, they didn't even broadcast the contest live until 1983, and only entered for the first time in 1986. The adults are also seen drinking beer as they watch the contest - but Iceland had strict prohibition laws outlawing full-strength beer until 1989. Another by-product of using Abba's victory as a framing device is that Fire Saga are in their 50s by the time they finally get to perform at Eurovision (although Sigrit appears to have aged a lot slower than Lars). That's perfectly feasible, though: Eurovision's oldest-ever singer was Natalya Pugacheva from Russia's Buravno Grannies, who was 77 when she took part in 2012. An honourable mention also goes to Emil Ramsauer, who played double bass for the Swiss entry, Takasa, in 2013 at the age of 95. 2) The Netherlands won Eurovision in 2019, but the contest is being held in Scotland... Fire Saga meet their competition for the first time at a party hosted by Russian entrant Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens, chewing up the scenery like a particularly hungry sex kitten). "This Julia Jay," he purrs, introducing the UK contender in broken English. "She come number one in England's Got Talent four years ago, so she quite good - but everyone hates UK, so zero points." It's a well-observed gag - except that the 2020 contest is being held in Scotland meaning that... er, the UK won Eurovision last year. There are two ways to explain this one away: First of all, the UK could have stepped in as host if the real winners (The Netherlands) had declined to stage the competition. This has happened six times in the past, although not since 1980. Alternatively, Fire Saga are competing in an alternate timeline where Scotland has devolved from the rest of the UK, and seen their Eurovision chances recover as a result. They probably sent The Proclaimers. 3) The performers keep breaking the rules Eurovision has a lot of archaic rules, mostly designed to keep an incredibly complex live TV show from going off the rails. Unencumbered by those constraints, the film takes a few minor liberties when it recreates the contest. Sweden's act, Johnny John John, has seven performers on stage when the maximum is six (gasp!). Lars's piano is actually wired up and plugged in, so he can play live - which is actually forbidden (double gasp!). And most egregiously of all, Fire Saga's song Double Trouble lasts three minutes and 22 seconds, exceeding the maximum permissible length by almost half-a-minute. (Mér er ofboðið!) 4) The scoring is all wonky As Eurovision fans know, the contest actually stretches over five days, with two semi-finals preceding the grand finale. From each of those heats, 10 acts stay in the competition, and the rest are unceremoniously sent home. In the film, Fire Saga's semi-final performance goes disastrously wrong - and they retreat to the backstage area, certain that their dreams are over, to watch the scores coming in. But in real life, the scores aren't revealed during the semi-final. Instead, they're kept secret until the entire contest has ended, to ensure there are no clear favourites going into the final. In the film-makers' defence, the voting sequence serves a dramatic purpose - ramping up the tension and raising the stakes for Fire Saga as the film enters its third act. But there's a continuity error that's illogical at best, and careless at worst... 5) Iceland's score keeps resetting Every time a country awards points to Iceland, their score is shown to be zero. But Eurovision points are cumulative, so you would expect to see their total rise as more votes were cast. What's more, the scoreboard shows Germany, Spain and the UK taking part in the semi-final when, in reality, all three qualify automatically for the finale as part of the "big five" financial contributors. In the screenshot above, you might also notice that The Netherlands appear to have entered the contest twice. Is that what's known as "double Dutch"? 6) Edinburgh's geography makes no sense Films often take liberties with the layout of a city, but Fire Saga really takes the biscuit (or in this case the Highland Shortbread). For a start, Dan Stevens' character owns a lavish Scottish mansion that offers sweeping, panoramic views of Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh Castle. To get those views in real life, the castle would have to be located at the top of Calton Hill in the city centre - which would mean he'd built his house on a world heritage site, over the top of the Nelson Monument. (In reality, the mansion was Knebworth House, 367 miles away in Stevenage, and the backdrops were added in post-production.) Causing more confusion for cartographers everywhere, the film's performance segments were clearly filmed at Glasgow's Hydro Arena - which has somehow been picked up and deposited at the end of Edinburgh's George IV Bridge. It's almost as bad as the time Thor caught the London Underground. 7) Graham Norton keeps interrupting the songs When Terry Wogan stood down from the commentary box in 2008, after 35 years, few expected that Graham Norton would fit so snugly into his shoes. Yet over the last 12 years, the presenter has proved wonderfully adept at guiding us through the night, with his eyebrows permanently set to, "oh, really?" "If you're going to get someone to dress as a gorilla," he commented on Italy's 2017 performance, "at least get a decent outfit. That looks like couple of old car seats sewn together." But no matter how dire a performance gets, Norton never talks over it, allowing viewers to absorb every excruciating moment. The film throws that rule out the window, however, and has Norton providing commentary for every act while they're on stage. He even swears, which would get him into all sorts of trouble with Ofcom. 8) The hosts aren't from the host country Each year, the host country chooses two (or more) presenters to helm the four-hour Eurovision extravaganza. Traditionally they are awkward, stilted, cursed with the worst script known to mankind, and completely unknown outside their home country - although honourable exceptions include A-Ha's Morten Harket, Boyzone's Ronan Keating and Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli. So it seems unlikely that the BBC would choose the heavily-accented "Corin Ladvitch" and "Sasha More" to helm the show if it took place in Scotland. For reference, the last time the UK hosted Eurovision in (unravels scroll of parchment) 1998, the presenters were Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. These days, we'd probably see Graham Norton, Mel Giedroyc or Dermot O'Leary helming the show for the Beeb. ...And two things it gets right In an early scene, Lars and Sigrit are standing on the docks of their hometown of Húsavík in North Iceland, when two humpback whales breach the surface of the Greenland Sea and soar into the air. While they're clearly CGI (the water would be too shallow), humpback and orca whales are common visitors to the area, and regular whale watching trips set sail from the nearby Skjálfandi bay. You can see footage of humpbacks in Húsavík here and some amazing stills on photographer Daniel Enchev's Flickr stream. You might also be surprised to learn that the film's sub-plot about Elves who assist Fire Saga in their journey to Eurovision has some basis in fact. According to a 2007 study by the University of Iceland, more than 60% of the nation believes in the existence of Huldufólk, or hidden people, who occasionally lend a helping hand to humans. You can read more about the phenomenon on the BBC Travel website. Or maybe you'd just prefer to watch Ja Ja Ding Dong for the 90th time. Today. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

विल फेरेल की यूरोविज़न फ़िल्म, द स्टोरी ऑफ़ फ़ायर सागा, केवल शुक्रवार को रिलीज़ हुई थी, लेकिन यह पहले से ही नेटफ्लिक्स की सबसे अधिक देखी जाने वाली फ़िल्मों के चार्ट पर नंबर एक पर पहुँच गई है।


Who, what, why: What's it like to be a prisoner of the Vatican?

Summary: Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict's former butler, begins an 18-month prison sentence today inside the Vatican walls, after being found guilty by a Vatican City court of stealing sensitive documents from the Pope's desk. What will life be like for the only prisoner inside the world's smallest sovereign state?

By David WilleyBBC News, Rome The Pope's former butler is being treated "leniently and justly" according to Vatican authorities, and may even benefit from a papal pardon before the end of his prison term, if he shows repentance and apologises to Pope Benedict and all the other people who work for the Holy See for the scandal he caused. But for the moment he has exchanged his modest "grace and favour" three-bedroom apartment just inside the walls of the Vatican for a sparsely furnished detention room inside the headquarters of the Pope's private police force, the Vatican Gendarmerie. Not only has he been sacked, but he now risks losing his home as well, situated almost next door to his former workplace, the Papal apartments on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace. Vatican City has a railway station - with only one train a week bringing in bonded duty-free goods, a Post Office, a radio station, a pharmacy, a supermarket, a fire brigade, a five-star hotel, and one of the world's most visited museums, but it has no prison - and no dungeons. Its only crime problem is normally to catch and prosecute the pesky thieves and pickpockets who frequently relieve pilgrims and tourists of their wallets and handbags during crowded church ceremonies inside Saint Peter's Basilica or while walking through the Vatican museums. They are normally handed over to Italian police for processing and trial if necessary. Law and order inside the tiny territory is in the hands of the 130-strong Vatican Gendarmerie staffed almost entirely by ex-members of the Italian Carabinieri and State police. In charge is Inspector-General Domenico Giani, who formerly worked for the Italian Secret Services. While the 120 members of the Pope's Swiss Guard carry out ceremonial and guard duties inside the mini-state, the blue-uniformed police are responsible for traffic and border control, and criminal investigations. The Vatican police came under criticism from Paolo Gabriele during his trial. He accused them of putting him in a cramped detention cell inside police headquarters where he was held for 15 days with the light switched on day and night and with scarcely room to raise his arms. The Gendarmerie explained that this was done to prevent Gabriele from harming himself, and that he himself had asked for the light to be left on at night and was given a sleeping mask. The butler has now been given a larger detention cell. He will be allowed regular visits by his family - he has three children - and will receive spiritual counselling from a priest. He will also be allowed to attend Sunday mass under police escort. The tortures inflicted on victims of the Holy Inquisition for heresy from the Middle Ages onwards are legendary. Visitors to Rome can still see some of the dungeons into which prisoners of the Church used to be thrown. The dungeons of the Castel Sant'Angelo, a papal fortress just near the Vatican, inspired the 18th Century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi to create his famous series of imaginary etchings of Roman prisons - I Carceri. But the Vatican Gendarmes insist that the conditions under which Gabriele will be held fully respect the Geneva Convention on torture and "conform to the detention standards applicable to other countries in analogous circumstances". Gabriele, a Vatican citizen, has already spent five months since his arrest last May in detention or under house arrest, so in theory he has another 13 months to serve. His case has caused huge embarrassment to the Vatican authorities and to Pope Benedict in person. They fear he might spill further secrets if he were to serve his term in an Italian prison, which under present treaty arrangements between the Holy See and Italy, he should do. Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul ll in 1981 was tried and sentenced by an Italian court after his capture in Saint Peter's Square, over which jurisdiction is shared between the Italy and the Vatican. He spent 19 years in an Italian jail before being deported to Turkey.

पोप बेनेडिक्ट के पूर्व बटलर पाओलो गैब्रिएल को वेटिकन सिटी की एक अदालत द्वारा पोप की मेज से संवेदनशील दस्तावेज चुराने का दोषी पाए जाने के बाद आज वेटिकन की दीवारों के अंदर 18 महीने की जेल की सजा शुरू हो गई है। दुनिया के सबसे छोटे संप्रभु राज्य के अंदर एकमात्र कैदी का जीवन कैसा होगा?


Davos 2017: Can Xi Jinping be star of the show?

Summary: China's President Xi Jinping heads to Davos this week.

Karishma VaswaniAsia business correspondent@BBCKarishmaon Twitter It's the first time a Chinese head of state is attending the global forum and he'll be star of the show. But besides the allure of snow-capped alpine peaks and tasty cups of hot chocolate, why is he doing this? And why now? First off, let's not kid ourselves. Davos is a venue where little meaningful gets done. It has struggled to shake its reputation as a very expensive talking shop that sees the rich and powerful of global business, politics, arts and society meet every year to sip cocktails and connect. Along the way they're supposed to think big thoughts about how to improve the world economy. But given that their wealth and lifestyles are precisely what many parts of the developed world is seeing a backlash against right now, it's not clear how much their solutions will help. Davos: Are the global elite in retreat? Globalisation and free trade are being attacked in the US and Europe. And with a new president about to enter the White House, President Xi's speech will be watched very carefully. According to Jiang Jianguo, a minister in China's State Council Information office, President Xi will be "offering Chinese remedies for the world's economic ailments". So what might he say, and why is this important? Here are three things I'll be watching for: 1) Free trade is good trade Globalisation has arguably benefited China more than any other country in the world. As the US pulls out of free trade agreements, President Xi is likely to laud its merits, and position China as the world's newest and friendliest trading partner. Of course, there's always the criticism that China only opens up its economy just enough to benefit itself. But President Xi is likely to tackle that too. Chinese leaders tend to make big announcements in speeches abroad, so watch out for any further possible access to China's economy. 2) China as a force for peace, not war It's part of China's public diplomacy to convince the world that China's rise is a good thing for everyone. President Xi will be likely to present an image of China to the world "as a friend to everyone, a big wonderful panda that everyone should hug, and that everyone should just relax," says Prof Kerry Brown of the Lau China Institute at King's College London. But this may be a hard sell, especially given the lingering concerns about China's growing military might in the South China Sea. Davos is a good opportunity to challenge these perceptions, says Jia Xiudong, at the China Institute of International Affairs in Beijing. "Other countries may see China as an aggressive, assertive country. But this is a misunderstanding. That's why it's such a good opportunity for the president to communicate his message." Oh, and that no-one will be unfurling Free Tibet flags or heckling him (at least not inside the venue) will probably be an added benefit. 3) It's all about symbolism, silly President Xi's speech comes just three days before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. "America is downgraded slightly in the eyes of the world because of the election," says Prof Brown. "And China is more prominent - so it's quite significant." Vanity is also a factor. President Xi enjoys massive popularity at home, and, as you might expect, would like to see that level of respect paid to him on the international stage. What better way to do that than to praise the virtues of China's economic wisdom to a receptive crowd, at a time when faith in the US's ability as the de facto superpower is being questioned and dissatisfaction for the free market system - and the inequality it has created - is rising. But while President Xi may enjoy being thrust into the spotlight on the Davos stage, it won't erase some of the hard truths he has to deal with back home. China's economy is slowing down and its currency, the yuan, is weakening to lows not seen since 2008. All of this has Beijing extremely concerned. China knows better than most that a growing gap between the haves and the have nots is devastating for social stability.

चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग इस सप्ताह दावोस जा रहे हैं।


Manchester Dogs Home: Why is the fundraising so successful?

Summary: The story of the fire at the Manchester Dogs' Home has seen animal-lovers flock to donate more than £750,000 and raise awareness by posting "selfies" of themselves and their dog. But why do some tragedies provoke such outpourings when others do not?

By Jenny ScottBBC News The corner of Kaylea Brough's beauty salon, in Bolton, is crammed with donations. Gifts of dog beds, blankets and pet food have been left all morning by passers-by, eager to try to help more than 150 dogs down the road in Manchester who are homeless at the second time of asking, thanks to a fire in which many died. Kaylea herself has three dogs - two shih tzus and a Chihuahua - named Patrick, Millie and Daisy and says she instantly identified with the tragedy. She put out a call on social media on Friday morning, asking for customers and passers-by to drop off items to help the animals. "I'm known as the 'Crazy Dog Lady' so people wouldn't have expected anything less of me," she said. "I'm a massive dog lover and I could instantly imagine how scared those poor animals will be." On social media, the story has also sparked a huge response. Celebrities, such as Ricky Gervais, have led the fundraising charge, along with papers like the Manchester Evening News. A craze for dog selfies has also taken off on social media, with people showing their support for the campaign by taking photographs of themselves and their pets. When asked why he had taken part, animal-lover Regan Shepherd said: "I am a pet lover. I have Barney, who is a pug, and my mum has two dogs as well." "I'm a massive animal fan in general and like to give to charity but dogs really pull at my heartstrings," added Chloe Rivers, who has posted a selfie with her dog, Miso. "People want to prove they have a genuine connection to a cause and a legitimate reason for supporting it, so proving you have a loved pet is a way of saying 'this is my thing'," said Dr Beth Breeze, the director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent. According to a study by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Charities Aid Foundation, we give markedly more to charities related to medical research - mainly cancer, hospitals, children and animals than we do to groups supporting religious, disabled, overseas and homeless causes. "It's not that we dismiss those other causes," said Dr Breeze. "It's just what people identify with. "Nobody is saying a dog is more important than somebody dying in a famine - they're just saying, 'This is what I know about and care about.'" She says there is often no rhyme or reason as to why some campaigns - such as Staffordshire teenager Stephen Sutton's extraordinary fundraising efforts for the teenage cancer trust, and Claire Squires, the Leicestershire runner who died during the 2012 London Marathon - enjoy such meteoric success. Often, she says, the emotional grip of a particular story is something that is beyond a charity's control. The Manchester Dogs' Home campaign is, in some ways, the perfect example of a story that is likely to resonate in a very personal way, she says. "Animals are a very British concern," she said. "You don't find the same support for animal charities in other countries. There is something very specific about animal causes that expresses how passionately we feel towards our pets."

मैनचेस्टर डॉग्स होम में लगी आग की कहानी में देखा गया है कि पशु-प्रेमी £750,000 से अधिक दान करने के लिए झुंड में आते हैं और अपनी और अपने कुत्ते की "सेल्फी" पोस्ट करके जागरूकता बढ़ाते हैं। लेकिन कुछ त्रासदियाँ इस तरह के प्रकोप को क्यों उकसाती हैं जब अन्य नहीं करते हैं?


RHI Inquiry told of limited paper trail between DUP advisers

Summary: There is a limited paper-trail between DUP special advisers during a key phase of the RHI debacle when it was alleged they were thwarting attempts to delay the introduction of cost controls, the public inquiry has been told.

By Conor MacauleyBBC NI Agriculture & Environment Correspondent Most of their communications were over the phone or in meetings which were not minuted, RHI Inquiry counsel David Scoffield QC told the panel. The inquiry has begun to look at the summer of 2015 when the scheme was running out of control and attempts were made to stem the flow of money. A central allegation made by former DUP minister Jonathan Bell is that he was thwarted in attempts to close the scheme by a number of DUP special advisers (spads), including Timothy Johnston and Andrew Crawford. 'Highly contentious' At the time, Mr Johnston was adviser to the then First Minister Peter Robinson. Mr Crawford was working in finance with the then minister Arlene Foster. Both men have denied the allegation and Mr Scoffield said much of Mr Bell's evidence in respect of this period was "highly contentious". The inquiry has checked personal email accounts of key participants in this period and, where available, had mobile phones analysed. But in most cases, Mr Scoffield said, the information did not go as far back as 2015. He said in some cases this was because people had cleaned out their inbox. They may also have handed back departmental phones which were wiped and passed to other civil servants. "I think it's fair to say that there's less of a paper-trail in terms of relevant communications between spads than this inquiry would have liked to have seen," Mr Scoffield said. He said as a result of the lack of supporting paperwork the inquiry would be heavily reliant on the witness statements and oral evidence of the special advisers who would be called to give evidence and its assessment of what it heard. Mr Scoffield said if special advisers or others had been engaged in "anything improper or on the fringes of what they knew to be permissible" and which might be embarrassing for them or their parties, that might provide an incentive to ensure "that less rather than more was recorded in recoverable form". He said the inquiry might want to consider whether among special advisers and civil servants there might have been a practice to ensure that "embarrassing or controversial material" was not placed on the formal record. Restaurant row Later the inquiry was told of a row in a London restaurant in June 2015 involving former enterprise minister Jonathan Bell and his adviser Timothy Cairns. The inquiry heard there was some evidence that emerging problems in the RHI scheme were "in the mix". Both men were part of a departmental delegation to meet with Amber Rudd, the then minister with responsibility for energy and climate change. David Scoffield told the inquiry that Mr Bell and Mr Cairns had a sometimes "difficult" relationship. The two fell out in an Indian restaurant the night before the meeting over the extent to which Mr Bell was able, as minister, to take his own decisions without recourse to the wider DUP. The row continued at breakfast the next day and several officials were asked to leave the table. Mr Bell told Mr Cairns he would not be coming to the meeting with Amber Rudd and Mr Cairns flew home without attending. Mr Bell has told the inquiry he believed his adviser was acting at the behest of other DUP spads to delay the introduction of cost controls to the controversial scheme. DUP spad Andrew Crawford, who had moved on from the enterprise department to finance, was still providing advice to Timothy Cairns about the RHI scheme because he had a detailed knowledge of it from his own time in enterprise. Mr Cairns said the arrangement had been set up by Timothy Johnston, then adviser to First Minister Peter Robinson. 'Evidential dispute' Mr Cairns said he understood the purpose of it was that the DUP could reach a party position on RHI. Mr Scoffield said Mr Cairns' evidence was that Mr Crawford suggested cost controls "should be delayed to the latest date that officials would recommend". He said this whole area was the subject of an "evidential dispute". Mr Scoffield said the inquiry would also want to try and establish why it had taken so long to get ministerial sign off for a proposal for cost controls in the RHI scheme. It was provided by officials on July 8th, but wasn't signed off by Mr Bell until September.

आर. एच. आई. पराजय के एक महत्वपूर्ण चरण के दौरान डीयूपी के विशेष सलाहकारों के बीच एक सीमित पेपर-ट्रेल है जब यह आरोप लगाया गया था कि वे लागत नियंत्रण की शुरुआत में देरी करने के प्रयासों को विफल कर रहे थे, सार्वजनिक जांच को बताया गया है।


The sex slaves of al-Shabab

Summary: When Salama Ali started investigating the disappearance of two younger brothers last year she made an awful discovery - not only were radicalised young Kenyan men leaving to join the al-Shabab militants in neighbouring Somalia, but women were being seized and trafficked by the group as sex slaves.

By Charlotte AttwoodBBC News, Mombasa Salama's search for information about her brothers had to be carried out quietly and confidentially, as any hint of a connection with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab can arouse the suspicion of the security forces. So she met discreetly with other women in Mombasa and the surrounding area, sharing stories and seeking information about male relatives who had vanished. "We discovered there were lots of us," Salama says. But Salama also uncovered something very different - stories of women who had been taken to Somalia against their will. The women were both young and old, from Christian and Muslim communities, from Mombasa and other parts of Kenya's coastal region. They were usually promised high-paid work in another town or abroad, and then kidnapped. Last September Salama trained as a counsellor and set up a secret support group for returning women. Word spread and soon women began seeking her out and asking to join the group. Some arrived with babies, she says, some with HIV, and some with mental illness caused by their experiences. All are terrified to speak openly, because of the risk of being mistakenly identified as an al-Shabab sympathiser. In a dark room with the curtains drawn, I meet this extraordinary group of women, who have a story that has never been told. "Men used to come and have sex with me - I can't tell you the number," says one, shaking her head as she recounts her ordeal. "For those three years, every man was coming to sleep with me." "They'd bring two or three men for each woman every night," says another. "We would be raped repeatedly." Some women were forced to become the "wives" of al-Shabab militants, it appears, while others were held as slaves in a brothel. Find out more Al-Shabab is fighting to create a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia and has launched attacks on neighbouring countries, which have all sent troops to fight them as part of an African Union force. Kenya has borne the brunt of al-Shabab's counter-attacks, and the Kenyan army is hunting fighters in the thick Boni Forest that straddles the border with Somalia. Flying over it, you can see lines cut through it - narrow pathways that militants apparently use for transport. The BBC has spoken to more than 20 women and all talk of being held in a thick forest or transported through it. This is most likely to be Boni. One new member of Salama's group, Faith, has only recently escaped captivity. She was 16 when she was approached by an elderly couple and offered a job in Malindi, further up the coast. Desperate for work, the next day she boarded a bus with 14 other passengers and all were given drugged water to drink. "When we regained consciousness, there were two men inside the room," Faith says. "They blindfolded us with black scarves. They raped us in that room." Drugged again, Faith woke up in a small clearing in a dark forest and was told she would be killed if she tried to escape. Terrified, she spent the next three years alone cooking for a group of Somali men "with long long beards". She had also become pregnant, as a result of being raped, and had to deliver her own child alone in the forest. "My grandmother was a traditional midwife, so I had a little bit of knowledge," she says. "Everything I was doing in that forest was alone, so I just had to get out this baby alone." Faith finally managed to escape with her daughter when a traditional healer foraging for medicinal roots in the forest came across her and showed her the way out. Her child, who grew up naked in the forest, now finds it hard to adapt to city life and struggles to fall asleep at night unless she is outside in her mother's arms. She grew accustomed to "living like we were animals in the forest", Faith says. A number of the women who spoke to the BBC had given birth in captivity. Sarah, the wife of a former al-Shabab fighter, says this is no coincidence. There is an organised programme to breed the next generation of fighters, she says, as it's hard to recruit people to live in camps in Somalia, and children are easy to indoctrinate. "In my camp, there [were] women who are sent to come and recruit other women," Sarah says. "They want to multiply so they just want women to give birth." Most of the 300 women in her camp were Kenyan, she says. Salama also provides support to those who have lost family members, including Elizabeth, who last saw her sister two years ago, before she left for what she thought was a job in Saudi Arabia. A month later, she called. "She told us she was in a dangerous and bad place in Somalia, in an al-Shabab camp," says Elizabeth. The line broke - and her sister has not been heard from since. The Kenyan government acknowledges there is a problem but Evans Achoki, the county commissioner in Mombasa, says it's hard to judge the scale of it, because the women won't come forward. While there is an amnesty programme for fighters returning from Somalia, and some have been rehabilitated, there are also reports of men who have suddenly disappeared, or been shot dead. "People fear the government," says Sureya Hersi of Sisters Without Borders, a network of Kenyan organisations working to counter radical extremism in Kenya's coastal region. "Those who went there willingly and unwillingly are both looked at as guilty." The names of all women in this story have been changed for their security

जब सलामा अली ने पिछले साल दो छोटे भाइयों के लापता होने की जांच शुरू की तो उसने एक भयानक खोज की-न केवल कट्टरपंथी युवा केन्याई पुरुष पड़ोसी सोमालिया में अल-शबाब आतंकवादियों में शामिल होने के लिए जा रहे थे, बल्कि महिलाओं को समूह द्वारा यौन दासों के रूप में जब्त और तस्करी की जा रही थी।


Cats, crisps and cereal: The country's quirky cafes

Summary: We are a nation known for enjoying a cup of tea and a nice slice of cake - but it seems the modern-day cafe-goer increasingly has a taste for more unusual fare. From feline fun to cereal thrillers, quirky cafes are popping up around the country to serve the needs of the 21st Century gastronome.

By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News Cereal capers Cereal cafes have gone serial. It started with the Cereal Killer Cafe on London's Brick Lane but now they are popping up around the nation. Black Milk Cereal Dive opened five months ago in Manchester's Affleck's Palace. It sells 150 types of cereal from across the world served with a variety of milks in bowls made from chocolate. Customers are looking for that kind of novelty so they can tell their friends about it on social media, claims founder Oliver Lloyd-Taylor. "People want to try something new and I think a lot of that is driven by social media" he said. "They are looking for eccentric things to share." Building breakfasts with an unusual twist is also the order of the day at 26 Grains, a porridge bar that opened in Covent Garden two months ago. Alex Hely-Hutchinson was inspired to specialise in savoury and sweet porridge after living in Denmark. "Eating breakfast out is done a lot more there." And the rise in specialist eateries is unsurprising, she said. "The attitude of customers is changing but so is that of the producers; our understanding of the different options is growing so we are offering people more. "We have also seen some health scares around food in recent years so people are suddenly much more aware of what they are eating. By going to specialists they know what they are getting and their questions can be answered." Mugs and moggies As well as being tea-drinkers the English are animal lovers - the RSPCA was formed 60 years before children's protection charity the NSPCC. So it stands to reason that we would enjoy cuddling cats while supping cuppas. Cat cafes have cropped up around the country, from Lady Dinah's in London to Newcastle's Mog on the Tyne and Maison de Moggy in Edinburgh. The Kitty Cafe in Nottingham opened in March. "You will still get the traditional coffee shop where people go with their laptops, that won't change, but you do see more people now wanting something a bit different," says director Elliot Reed. "They want to spend their money on different things so there is a huge place for niche cafes." Kitty Cafe also acts as a rehoming centre and Mr Reed says it is proving highly successful at finding its feline stars new families. "People can see the cats chilling out, they can see how they are with children and other animals, they get a much better idea of how the cats would be at home than they do at a normal rescue centre." Snack shacks Once the preserve of hard-up, hungry students, crisp sandwiches are now apparently a permissible meal. Andrew McMenamin created a storm in a crisp packet when he opened a temporary stall selling maize snacks betwixt bread in Belfast in January, but now West Yorkshire has a permanent eating establishment dedicated to the treat. Mr Crisp in Keighley offers 50 varieties of crisp ranging from the traditional potato chip to the more modern Monster Munch. Mark Pearson said: "I saw the sandwich shop in Belfast and being the biggest crisp monster myself decided to take on the idea myself. "I would love to expand, it is England's first and I am quite sure it won't be the last." Crisps, cereal and cheese toasties are for some the taste of childhood, snacks we enjoyed in our early years. And nostalgia is a huge part of the success of cafes based on such foodstuffs according to Gugu Ndhlovu, general manager of the Meltroom in Soho in Central London, which specialises in grilled cheese sandwiches. "We play 90s music as well so people come in and get excited because it reminds them of being younger," she said. "These are the sorts of things people ate and enjoyed when they were children, it's fun for them to try those foods again." Rubbish food There are dozens of restaurants selling rubbish meals - food saved from going to waste. The Real Junk Food Project was launched in 2013 and now consists of 65 cafes and restaurants selling only recycled food. Perfectly fine food that would have otherwise been sent to landfill, animal feed or anaerobic digestion is now served to diners. Project founder Adam Smith of Armley Junk-tion in Leeds says they are rejecting legislation in favour of common sense. "We are taking food that is past its expiry date, has suffered accidental damage or is just surplus, and feeding it to people," Mr Smith said. "We have fed 75,000 bellies with 102 tonnes of food in the last two months, it has grown so much quicker than we thought it would - and not one person has reported feeling sick because of what they have been served. "People are now questioning the ethics and responsibility of food outlets and are being a lot more responsible themselves in the way they eat." The cafes all sell their food on a pay-what-you-want basis. Hobby holes As well as indulging our penchant for delicious delicacies, an increasing number of cafes are geared up towards supporting our hobbies. Dan Pye and Lindsey Brown based a whole business on their passion - comic books. The Dark Matter Cafe in Durham is a place for comic fans, gamers and lovers of all thing nerd. "It's been a longstanding ambition for both of us to open a cafe and we both share a love for comics and games," said Mr Pye. "We know how cluttered the world is with cafes, especially Durham, so we thought, 'why don't we put these two together?' and they can support each other. "Business is great, it's growing all the time." Customers at Thirsty Meeples in Oxford can choose from more than 2,000 board games to play while they enjoy their refreshments. While some restaurants have a sommelier to help people find the perfect wine, Thirsty Meeples, which opened two years ago, has a team of gurus to help guide visitors through their gaming choices. "Cafe culture has grown in the last 15 to 20 years; just walking around Oxford you will find all sorts from high street names to small artisan coffee sellers," said manager Simon Read. "A lot of people have an idea of what they are looking for because they know what they like. "They are asking for very specific things, and the growing number of cafes are answering that."

हम एक ऐसा देश हैं जो एक कप चाय और केक के एक अच्छे टुकड़े का आनंद लेने के लिए जाना जाता है-लेकिन ऐसा लगता है कि आधुनिक समय के कैफे जाने वालों को अधिक असामान्य किराए का स्वाद बढ़ता जा रहा है। बिल्ली की मस्ती से लेकर अनाज थ्रिलर तक, 21वीं सदी के भोजन की जरूरतों को पूरा करने के लिए देश भर में विचित्र कैफे उभर रहे हैं।


What is Labour really fighting over?

Summary: What are they really fighting over? Are Labour's two rival establishments - Corbyn's backers and the rest, really spending hours and hours and hours discussing the merits and drawbacks of elections to the shadow cabinet?

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter Did it actually take six-and-a-half hours to agree that the Scottish and Welsh representatives on the National Executive Committee should get full voting rights? (This may in time become important, as those representatives are less likely to back Corbyn than other newly elected members). How long will they argue over the seating at the party's conference next week, after the expected victory of Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday? Frankly, it's not the details of today's tortuous discussions that matter, but a much bigger question that to many in the party seems almost impossible to answer. How on earth do the factions in the Labour Party come together now, or even co-exist? Growing party It's easy to forget how extraordinary the situation really is. Last summer, Jeremy Corbyn pulled off an extraordinary political feat, expanding the Labour electorate, bringing in thousands of new members to the party. In a few short months he went from a total outsider, treated almost as a mascot for the left, to the victor in the contest, to the astonishment of most of the party's MPs. Month after month after month, MPs became more and more critical of his performance until ultimately more than 170 of them expressed no confidence in him, including MPs from all wings of the party. With some on the left, like Lisa Nandy, or those who campaigned alongside Mr Corbyn on some issues, like Andy Slaughter, withdrawing their support, more in sadness than in anger, the brutal truth for his team is that the vast majority of his MPs just don't think he is up to the job. But in that same period of time, he has repeated that same political feat, attracting more, and more and more members to the party, very often explicitly to support him, growing the Labour Party to become one of the largest in Europe. That's likely to see him land a very comfortable majority when the leadership result is announced in Liverpool on Saturday. Healing process Indeed in a revealing answer in an interview earlier today, the man who has tried to oust him, Owen Smith, almost seemed to concede that his efforts have failed. He warned: "We can choose to pull ourselves together, to unite the party to get back to being seen as a credible alternative to the Tories or we can do what we did in the 1980s - continue to be divided, fall apart and give the Tories a free run for 18 years or more." "That's been my deepest concern both before, during and I fear after this contest." He won't quite admit it, but his words and body language suggest he knows it is over. Minds are therefore turning to how things will be different under Corbyn the second time around. When the link between the leader and the vast bulk of the parliamentary party is broken, how to fix it to create an effective opposition? When so many MPs feel under attack from the leader's supporters, how can they reconcile? What will it take to soothe the anger of many particularly new Labour supporters who feel MPs have betrayed them and Mr Corbyn? Today's meeting at the NEC was an attempt, particularly through deputy leader Tom Watson's proposals, to find a formal way to start the healing process. But after eight hours of talks the committee had agreed only to hold more talks. If that's a sign of how hard Labour will find it to come to together after Mr Corbyn's expected victory it doesn't look good.

वे वास्तव में किस बात पर लड़ रहे हैं? क्या लेबर के दो प्रतिद्वंद्वी प्रतिष्ठान-कॉर्बिन के समर्थक और बाकी, वास्तव में छाया मंत्रिमंडल के चुनावों के गुण और कमियों पर चर्चा करने में घंटों और घंटों बिताते हैं?


Bid to improve rural broadband in East Sussex

Summary: A bid for more than £10m to improve broadband services in East Sussex has been submitted by the county council.

East Sussex County Council's plan, which aims to improve services in rural areas, has been sent to the government. The county council will be investing £15m in the plan which will also help those living in areas where broadband is not commercially viable. Peter Jones, leader of the council, said he wanted everyone in East Sussex to have access to reliable broadband. He said: "Making this technology available throughout East Sussex is absolutely vital for all our residents and small businesses."

काउंटी परिषद द्वारा ईस्ट ससेक्स में ब्रॉडबैंड सेवाओं में सुधार के लिए 10 मिलियन पाउंड से अधिक की बोली प्रस्तुत की गई है।


Newport man charged over Xana Doyle's death crash

Summary: A 22-year-old man has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after a woman died in a crash in Newport on Friday.

The Newport man faces other charges, including theft of a vehicle and driving with excess alcohol. Xana Doyle, 19, from Newport, died after a silver Toyota Avensis ended up on its roof on Usk Way just after 07:00 GMT. A 15-year-old girl was also hurt. The man is due appear before Newport magistrates on Monday. A 21-year-old man, who was also arrested in connection with the incident, has been released with no further action, said Gwent Police. Related Internet Links Gwent Police

न्यूपोर्ट में शुक्रवार को एक दुर्घटना में एक महिला की मौत के बाद एक 22 वर्षीय व्यक्ति पर खतरनाक ड्राइविंग से मौत का आरोप लगाया गया है।


Man remanded over Sheffield gunsmiths burglary

Summary: A man has been remanded in custody charged with four offences after a burglary at a gun shop in Sheffield.

Andrew Coy, 33, of Eldon Court, Sheffield, faces charges of aggravated burglary, burglary, possession of a shotgun and possession of a firearm. A 38-year-old man and a woman, 31, arrested over the break-in at Hardy's Gunsmiths on Alderson Road on Friday have been released under investigation. Sheffield magistrates remanded Mr Coy to appear at the crown court on 4 May. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.

शेफ़ील्ड में एक बंदूक की दुकान में चोरी के बाद चार अपराधों के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति को हिरासत में भेज दिया गया है।


Whaley Bridge: How safe are Britain's dams?

Summary: Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge after part of a dam collapsed. So what has happened at Toddbrook Reservoir, and how safe are Britain's dams?

By Caroline LowbridgeBBC News How does the dam work? Toddbrook Reservoir has what is known as an earth dam. Richard Coackley, former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, said the structures, also referred to as earthfill or embankment dams, feature: What went wrong at Toddbrook? Heavy rainfall caused water levels in the reservoir to rise and start flowing over the auxiliary - or emergency - spillway. The structure failed and was partly eroded away by water flowing over it. Alan Warren, chairman of the British Dam Society, said the cause was unclear. "We don't know whether the concrete was inadequate or whether there was some problem underneath those concrete slabs which means the slabs fell into a void that had been forming underneath," he said. "Maybe the joints in the slabs weren't properly sealed, and water was getting in through the joints." Mr Coackley said photos suggested water had washed away soil beneath the slabs but the clay core was still intact. "That's why the dam is still secure there at this stage," he said. How many dams do we have? There are about 2,000 dams in England and Wales and about 800 in Scotland, according to Mr Coackley. They have various owners and serve a range of purposes, he said. "Water companies providing drinking water are major ones, then there are reservoirs providing water supplies to the original canal system. "There are other dams just for fishing and there are other dams just for sailing and water sports. Other dams are to provide water for agriculture." Toddbrook's dam was built in the 1830s to create the reservoir, providing hydraulic power and water for the canal system. It still provides that water and is owned by the Canal and River Trust. Mr Coackley said Toddbrook helped to create wealth for Whaley Bridge before goods could be transported by road, and was still important for tourism and the local economy. Who makes sure dams are safe? All reservoirs in England and Wales with a capacity above 25,000 cubic metres above ground level must comply with the Reservoirs Act. Every dam must have a supervising civil engineer and an inspecting civil engineer to file annual safety reports to Defra, Mr Coackley said. "That's part of an Act of Parliament that goes back 100 years." The Canal and River Trust said the annual inspection of Toddbrook Reservoir in November was "absolutely fine". This coincided with an independent inspection taking place every 10 years, and this was fine, too. "Our engineers also inspect the reservoir twice-weekly and this is how we picked up the problem," said a spokeswoman. Scotland has its own, separate Reservoirs Act, which requires owners to file safety reports with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. How often do dams fail? Mr Coackley said failures were "very unusual indeed". Prof Nigel Wright, a civil engineer and expert in flood risk management, said the last such evacuation in the UK was in 2007, when cracks appeared in the dam at Ulley Reservoir, near Rotherham, following heavy rain. A new spillway was later built to replace the original which collapsed during the floods. "Since that, the government has insisted that a lot of dams have been reanalysed to check what the danger is and come up with plans for evacuation if necessary," said Prof Wright, of Nottingham Trent University. According to an Environment Agency report, the last time anyone died due to a dam disaster in the UK was in 1925, when two dams burst, killing 16 people in the north Wales village of Dolgarrog. That led to improved construction requirements under the Reservoirs Act, introduced in 1930 and updated in 1975. The UK's worst-ever dam disaster was the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864, which claimed at least 240 lives. Elsewhere in the world, dam disasters still lead to major loss of life. In January, 300 people died in a mudslide after a dam collapsed near Brumadinho in Brazil. Mr Warren, of the British Dam Society, said the Whaley Bridge incident was similar to one at Oroville in California in 2017. "A spillway was damaged, then the auxiliary spillway came into operation and there was erosion on the auxiliary spillway which meant they had to evacuate people downstream," he said. How safe are people living near dams? While the failure of a dam could potentially kill hundreds or thousands of people, Mr Coackley said regular checks and maintenance, together with emergency plans, should prevent this. "There are lots of people living below these dams and they are as safe as you can get," he said. "It's not a disaster yet. Everything has gone according to plan with the Environment Agency and the emergency services all working with the inspecting engineer on what will be a pre-arranged plan. "Every reservoir and dam has one of these plans in case of an emergency." Prof Wright said the evacuation was a precaution, but the right thing to do. "There's always a chance that you will move people and then nothing will happen, but that's much better than not moving them and then something happens," he said. Mr Coackley said engineers elsewhere would be looking at the implications of Toddbrook. "There will be more checks. Dam engineers will be noting what's going on," he said. "It's really important as an engineer to analyse why this has happened and make sure all of the other dams are safe."

बांध का एक हिस्सा गिरने के बाद डर्बीशायर शहर के व्हेली ब्रिज से सैकड़ों लोगों को निकाला गया है। तो टॉडब्रुक जलाशय में क्या हुआ है, और ब्रिटेन के बांध कितने सुरक्षित हैं?


Queensferry Crossing: How do you stop ice falling?

Summary: The Queensferry Crossing between Edinburgh and Fife had to be closed because of the danger of falling ice. Bridge authorities blamed a "unique set of weather conditions". So, does this problem have a solution?

By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland News Bridges around the world have struggled with snow and ice falling from the towers for years but the modern cable-stayed bridges give more opportunity for ice to accumulate and then fall on to vehicles below. In Denmark, the Oresund Bridge has had to close numerous times under similar circumstances to the ones that shut Scotland's £1.35bn Queensferry Crossing. Does Canada have the answer? The Uddevalla Bridge in Sweden and the second Severn Crossing in south-west England have had similar problems. In Canada, the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver developed its own solution. It releases "collars" or metal chains down the length of the suspension cables to clear ice accumulations. The system is said to be largely successful but it relies on the collars being correctly operated and manually released at the right time. Mark Arndt, of Queensferry Crossing operators Amey, said he would be concerned that the chain method from Canada could damage the 70km of cables on the Scottish bridge. Transport Scotland, the government agency responsible for the crossing, said they had been looking at solutions from around the world but the problems they were experiencing were specific to the weather conditions and the particular design of the crossing. They insisted "best practice from international experts is that human monitoring is the best available resource for this issue". Is heating the cables a problem solver? Prof Christos Georgakis, from the department of engineering at Aarhus University in Denmark told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "Ice is a very difficult problem to deal with." He explained: "We have tried in the past many different solutions, coatings on cables, heating systems, even helicopters to come and try to blow all the snow and ice off with downwash, but it is a very difficult problem." Prof Georgakis has done extensive research into the phenomenon of ice forming at the top of bridges. He said that recently a solution which may be a little "counter-intuitive" had been suggested. The idea was to create a cable system that would "retain" the ice instead of pushing it away. The professor said that putting steel mesh or small plastic fingers on the outside of the bridge cables would help "grip" the ice and keep it for longer. "The purpose of that is to help the ice to melt," he said. "The sun's rays will come out and the ice will melt and when it falls it will fall as water or as small pieces of ice, it won't be dangerous." Prof Georgakis said there was a sharing of information among bridge operators around the world but it was a very slow process. "And, of course, everyone within the field wants to find their own solution, the one that fits them best," he said. His own research was at the point where he understood what works and what does not, Prof Georgakis said, but everyone wanted to try to find their own solution. Did bridge designers not realise ice would be an issue? Asked why he thought the bridge designers did not anticipate the ice problem, he said he would assume they thought the probability was very low and there was not the need for any kind of comprehensive solution. Earlier this week, eight vehicles suffered damage to windscreens as a result of chunks of ice falling from the suspension cables, forcing the authorities to close the bridge. Scotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said sensors would be installed on the bridge to act as an early warning of ice accumulations. Mr Matheson said it was worth keeping in mind that the bridge had only closed once in two-and-a-half years and was much more resilient than the old Forth Road Bridge, which was frequently closed by high winds. Ice build-up of this kind has not been an issue on the other Scottish cable-stayed bridges, Erskine on the Clyde and Kessock, near Inverness. Mr Matheson also pointed out that the ice accumulation was not a problem during the so-called Beast from The East, one of the worst weather events to hit the country in years. He said it was a very "limited set of circumstances" that led to the problem.

एडिनबर्ग और फाइफ के बीच क्वींसफ़ेरी क्रॉसिंग को बर्फ गिरने के खतरे के कारण बंद करना पड़ा। पुल के अधिकारियों ने "मौसम की अनूठी स्थितियों" को दोषी ठहराया। तो, क्या इस समस्या का कोई समाधान है?


The Cameroonian waging war against a French war hero’s statue

Summary: Cameroonian activist Andre Blaise Essama has been on a decades-long mission to purge his country of colonial-era symbols, long before the issue came to international prominence in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

By Dickens OleweBBC News His main target has been French World War Two hero Gen Philippe Leclerc in the country's biggest city, Douala. "I have decapitated Leclerc's head seven times and toppled the statue at least 20 times," Mr Essama told the BBC. "I use my bare hands... but I make an incantation to the ancestors first," he said. His aim is to replace them with Cameroonian and other African heroes, but he will make an exception for those who campaigned for "the good of humanity". He is especially keen on erecting a statue of Diana, the late Princess of Wales. "Diana was against racism and she stood for humanity. We loved her here in Cameroon," Mr Essama said. Mr Essama has also targeted a statue of Gustav Nachtigal, who arrived in Cameroon in 1884 to establish a German empire. During World War One, British and French troops forced the Germans out, later splitting the German-occupied territory between them. Seven heads restored The authorities see his activities as vandalism, arguing that African heroes can be celebrated without removing colonial symbols. Mr Essama has been imprisoned several times for cutting the head off Gen Leclerc's statue - serving up to six months at a time. Sometimes he has avoided a jail term by paying fines, with the money mostly raised by his supporters in Cameroon and in the diaspora. Each time he has damaged Gen Leclerc's statue in the main square in Douala, the authorities have restored it. With one hand on hip, the other holding a walking stick, the French hero stands on a plinth in front of a curved stone relief depicting the French World War Two military arsenal, including tanks and planes. It was erected by the French colonisers in 1948, long before Cameroon became independent in 1960. 'Seen as a god in France' In France, Gen Leclerc is celebrated for his role in rallying troops in the 1940s in France's then-colonies to fight the German occupation. "Leclerc is the great hero who helped liberate France... so the French regard him as a god," a history professor at the UK's Oxford University, Robert Gildea, told the BBC. But he was unpopular in Cameroon, retired Cameroonian academic Prof Valere Epee said. "Cameroonians didn't like him because he seemed not to care for the people. "He was not like French President Charles de Gaulle, who visited Cameroon twice, and whom people seem to have an affection for." Gen Leclerc died in a plane crash in Algeria in 1947, three years after the liberation of Paris. Thousands of people lined the streets in the French capital to pay tribute to him. Several memorial plaques have been installed in his honour in France, two streets in Paris have been named after him and a military tank, still in service, bears his name. 'Our heroes first' His venerated status does not impress Mr Essama. "He is not our hero," says the 44-year-old activist, who is a computer science graduate. "Gen Leclerc has come to represent the erasure of Cameroonian colonial memory and replacing it with a French one." Mr Essama has collected seven heads of Gen Leclerc over the years, and has occasionally taken them on to the streets to "sensitise Cameroonians about the country's history". He says he was inspired by Cameroonian nationalist Mboua Massock, who once graffitied the general's statue with the words: "Our own heroes and martyrs first." "We sing in our anthem, 'Oh Cameroon land of our ancestors.' How is it that our ancestors are not represented in public spaces?" In 1991, Cameroon's President Paul Biya signed a declaration to rehabilitate the memory of the country's heroes who had been denigrated because of their role during the fight for independence. "Not much has been done since the law was signed," Mr Essama said. French hero 'now behind bars' A history professor at the University of South Africa, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, says that statues and monuments "have become soft targets in the struggle against decolonisation". "The Europeans were thinking they were the only people on earth and, therefore, there was emptiness outside Europe, which was waiting to be discovered," he told the BBC, quoting the late American anthropologist James Blaut's views on Eurocentrism. "If you follow that logic: you discover a place, you name it, eliminate what you find there, then you conquer, then you own it, and statues are symbols of ownership," he said. "In the former colonies, the statues mean that the colonisers have not repented for the sins they committed against the local people but their presence in the home country means that this is the conqueror of the world, this is our hero." He dismisses the argument that statues should be protected because of their historical significance. "If your statue is history, the indigenous people are saying: 'But you wrote your history on top of my history. It is overshadowing our own histories.'" You may also be interested in: Prof Ndlovu-Gatsheni said the targeting of statues was part of a multifaceted campaign by Africans. "There are those who topple statues, others want to stop the use of West Africa's CFA currency [which is pegged to the euro], others are pushing for reparations, all these are part of the struggle against the empire." As for Mr Essama, he is now less focussed on decapitating statues, turning his attention to fundraising to build statues of Cameroonian heroes and calling for reparations for colonial-era crimes. So far his advocacy group, Essama Hoo Haa, has helped install two statues. One is of Samuel Mbappé Léppé, considered Cameroon's best ever footballer, "better than Roger Milla and Samuel Eto'o", Mr Essama says. The other is of John Ngu Foncha, a former prime minister who championed the cause of greater autonomy for Cameroon's mainly English-speaking regions. Gen Leclerc's statue does still occupy Mr Essama's mind, though it has become more difficult to target because it is now sealed off and has guards protecting it. "He is in prison," Mr Essama said with a wry chuckle.

कैमरून के कार्यकर्ता आंद्रे ब्लेज़ एसामा अपने देश को औपनिवेशिक युग के प्रतीकों से शुद्ध करने के लिए दशकों से लंबे मिशन पर हैं, इससे बहुत पहले कि यह मुद्दा ब्लैक लाइव्स मैटर विरोध के मद्देनजर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय प्रमुखता में आया था।


More gas, fewer guzzlers

Summary: Heating your home with gas is getting cheaper, because there has been a rapid shift to multiple supply sources. The UK has neglected to invest in storage, and with demand exceptionally low, it is running out of export options. Older North Sea fields could be shut down permanently, except that the decommissioning costs make that an unattractive option.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The squealing sound you may be able to hear is from energy suppliers, as their regulator screws down profits with a tighter cap on default prices. Ofgem says they should pass on an average £84 per year in cuts to their standard variable tariff, which is the limbo where inert customers go, and which used to be highly profitable. It cites the wholesale price of gas as having fallen. And how!? So what's been going on? We've heard a lot about oil, since the market tanked at the start of March. Having gone from the $50+ range to below $20, it's now back in the mid-40s, having caused corporate carnage on the way. Oil, and the benchmark Brent crude price, is treated as a proxy for the state of the world economy. It gets attention because it lubricates the economic machinery It's movable and tradable anywhere. Some of those who own it have become filthy rich: some have frittered away their wealth: others have been broken by "the resource curse" in which it crowds out other sectors. Controlling the taps Gas isn't like that. It has long been the commodity tied in to the pipeline network, putting customers at the mercy of suppliers, and anyone along the pipeline who controls a tap. For many, that supplier has been Russia. It has used its control over supply to play power politics with its dependent neighbours. That has driven the gas industry to diversify. Pipelines now criss-cross Europe and the Mediterranean. Algeria, Norway and the waters west of Shetland are substitutes for Siberia. The ones linking Britain across the North Sea flow in both directions depending on UK needs: recently they've been outbound from Britain. Russia continues to be an important supplier, and Germany's support for a new pipeline has caused friction with Americans, who would prefer to reduce dependency further. America, which used to supply gas only to its own people and neighbours, is now a major world gas supplier, pumping liquified natural gas onto ocean-going tankers, rendering the gas market, ironically, much more liquid. Britain also gets much of its gas from Qatar, where Asia also sources LNG. The ocean-going tanker option has opened up possibilities for huge new reserves discovered off the coast of Africa. Powered down So there are abundant new sources of supply, and for much of the year, demand is falling a long way short of that. Milder European winters have reduced the need for heating, and over the next few years, there should be a big shift to renewable heat. Covid-19 shut down much of industry, and with the lights out on commercial buildings from offices to shops, the electricity-generating sector had far less need of gas. One answer to this should be storage. Other countries have invested in giant tanks, to ensure security of supply. The UK, with one of the biggest gas markets in Europe, has not seen the need. It had storage, in vast urban gasometers, built to store the "town gas" derived from coal before the North Sea began supplying in 1970. But many have been dismantled. Security of supply is assured by having production offshore. In the Irish Sea, some old, non-producing fields have been used to flex the system, pumping gas under the seabed and extracting it when required. But the main facility, called Rough, was closed three years ago. According to gas market analyst Hadrien Collineau, of energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, Britain runs close to being full up. So is Ireland. With inventories high across Europe, the lack of demand could force cutbacks in production. Texan scrubland While much gas is supplied through forward contracts, the spot price shows how unbalanced the market has become, and why storage has become more important. In winter, the price can be around $4 per million thermal units, but as summer approached, it fell close to $1. Earlier this year, it meant American cargoes were crossing the Atlantic to supply Europe at a loss. Qatari cargoes were offloading into European markets. That supply could have been re-directed into the Pacific market, and supplied to Japan, a big customer for natural gas. But Covid-19 had hit the Asian economy, and demand had fallen away there too. So as tankers were tied up, so too the number of gas rigs in the scrubland of Texas fell sharply as well. That is one of the ways the market balances itself - with a cull of US investment, for which lenders had become over-exposed. Fossil fuelled Could it also mean an impact for the UK's offshore gas production? Hadrien Collineau reckons the impact could be limited, as production costs are not high, even in ageing fields, compared with the cost of decommissioning them when capital is scarce. The impact of low gas prices seems to be more likely to be felt in exploration. Gas and oil majors BP and Shell have written down the value of reserves by many billions of dollars, and exploratory drilling is down. This is largely a recognition that fossil fuels are being replaced as an energy source, and 'integrated energy' companies need to shift in that direction. Gas will continue to have a role in transition, and is now firmly established as the most efficient baseload supplier of power when the wind drops and the sun doesn't shine. At such low prices, it's helping to knock out much dirtier coal and lignite burning in central Europe. But while many of us continue to depend on it for domestic heating, with bills falling, the transition from gas to electric or other, greener forms of heating will be hard to achieve through price signalling alone.

अपने घर को गैस से गर्म करना सस्ता होता जा रहा है, क्योंकि कई आपूर्ति स्रोतों की ओर तेजी से बदलाव हुआ है। ब्रिटेन ने भंडारण में निवेश करने की उपेक्षा की है, और मांग असाधारण रूप से कम होने के कारण, यह निर्यात विकल्पों से बाहर चल रहा है। पुराने उत्तरी सागर क्षेत्रों को स्थायी रूप से बंद किया जा सकता है, सिवाय इसके कि सेवामुक्त करने की लागत इसे एक अनाकर्षक विकल्प बनाती है।


Sir Paul Smith to unveil Nottingham lace firm plaque

Summary: Fashion designer Sir Paul Smith will unveil a blue plaque to one of the last firms making lace knitted scarves and shawls in the East Midlands.

G.H Hurt & Son, based in Chilwell, Nottingham, are celebrating 100 years of trading. The plaque commemorates George Henry Hurt and will be placed on the building he opened in 1912. Nottingham was synonymous with lace and once had more than 130 lace factories, employing about 25,000 people. Managing director Henry Hurt MBE said it was special celebrating the centenary during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. The Mayor of Broxtowe, Margaret Handley, and Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry, will also attend the unveiling of the plaque at 14:00 BST.

फैशन डिजाइनर सर पॉल स्मिथ ईस्ट मिडलैंड्स में फीता बुने हुए स्कार्फ और शॉल बनाने वाली अंतिम फर्मों में से एक के लिए एक नीली पट्टिका का अनावरण करेंगे।


Suffolk County Council: Cuts of £24m agreed by councillors

Summary: Plans to save about £24m and increase council tax by almost 5% have been approved by councillors.

The £490m budget was backed by a full meeting of the Conservative-controlled Suffolk County Council by 45 votes to 17. The rise breaks down as a 2.99% increase in general tax, with an additional 2% for adult social care. It means an average band D council tax property owner will have to pay £1,242 a year. Savings of £1.7m will also be made from resource management, as well as £240,000 from fire and public safety budgets. The fire service savings would be achieved by the sharing of facilities with the police and ambulance services, the council said.

लगभग 24 मिलियन पाउंड बचाने और परिषद कर में लगभग 5 प्रतिशत की वृद्धि करने की योजनाओं को पार्षदों द्वारा अनुमोदित किया गया है।