Hacking probes: What happens next?

Summary: What happens now? The conviction of Andy Coulson - and acquittal of Rebekah Brooks and others - is by no means the end of the road for the investigations into criminality - actual or alleged - inside newspapers.

Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter Although The Sun has declared, in a smart, punning headline, that Rebekah Brooks' acquittal was a "great day for red tops", the full picture is rather more complex. The scale of the investigation remains enormous and it could take another two years, if not longer, for all the potential cases to come to conclusion. The investigations Scotland Yard has run 11 linked operations since it relaunched its inquiry into hacking in 2011. Detectives have arrested 210 people and interviewed others under caution. Scotland Yard's investigations The investigations began with Operation Weeting - examining hacking at the News of the World - and then branched out into Operation Elveden - looking at allegations of corrupt payments to public officials. Police then launched a third plank to look at computer hacking and misuse of data. Operation Pinetree is now looking at allegations of a second conspiracy to hack phones at the News of the World. Then there is Operation Golding which is investigating Mirror Group Newspapers There have been eight convictions relating to hacking since 2006, when private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and royal editor Clive Goodman were first jailed. Ahead of the 2013-14 hacking trial, five people pleaded guilty: Glenn Mulcaire for a second time, reporters Dan Evans and Neville Thurlbeck, and news editors Greg Miskiw and James Weatherup. Andy Coulson was then found guilty. In Operation Elveden there have been 14 convictions of public officials for taking or seeking payments - seven of them police officers. Future cases and decisions Ian Edmondson, a former News of the World news editor, will be tried at a later date for alleged conspiracy to hack. He was excused from the Coulson trial due to ill health. There are 59 people from Elveden still to face trial - plus potentially a retrial of Andy Coulson and Clive Goodman after the jury at the hacking trial could not reach verdicts on the corruption allegations they faced. One of the big trials in the pipeline concerns alleged activity at The Sun and involves Bettina Jordan-Barber, a former Ministry of Defence official who was paid close to £100,000 for stories. Trials are also due to continue throughout the autumn and well into the New Year. Some 31 people are on police bail waiting to find out whether they will be charged under Operation Elveden. A further 20 are waiting for decisions relating to the various hacking strands. Some of the journalists held under Elveden have waited for more than a year to find out whether they will have to answer criminal charges. One person arrested on allegations of computer hacking has been waiting for a decision since July 2012. Corporate prosecution? On top of all that, the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service are looking at a possible corporate prosecution. A company can face trial if illegal acts were carried out by senior figures who acted as the controlling mind of the organisation. So prosecutors would have to prove that Andy Coulson's criminality, as editor, represented the will of the newspaper's parent company. News International's former chief executive, Les Hinton, has been interviewed under caution. He worked for NI for almost 50 years and was Rupert Murdoch's right hand man. Scotland Yard also want to question Rupert Murdoch himself. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is also co-operating with parallel investigations by the US Department of Justice. The costs So far, News International/News UK has settled 718 claims for compensation for hacking with the pay-outs plus legal costs topping $400m. Those pay-outs represent less than 15% of the suspected 5,500 victims of hacking. Scotland Yard has traced and alerted 3,500 of them and any of these people could apply to the formal compensation scheme the company is running to avoid more costly court action. Hacking costs to News Corp Approximately 30 damages claims - as yet unproven - are also being prepared against Mirror Group Newspapers, including claims by football manager Sven Goran Erikson and David and Victoria Beckham's former nanny. The police investigations have so far cost £33m - and Scotland Yard said it had required an "unprecedented level of resources" to sift the evidence. "The scale of the material that needed to be searched included millions of emails, tens of thousands of documents, complex communications data and trails of financial transactions that required painstaking analysis as evidence gradually emerged," it said. The entire affair has cost Rupert Murdoch's News Corp more than £500m - including settlements, legal fees, loss of profits from closing the News of the World and a huge sum on restructuring the business to deal with the crisis. Those costs will rise further. The hacking trial has cost the Crown Prosecution Service a further £1.7m - most of that obviously relating to fees for a large team of barristers.

अब क्या होता है? एंडी कॉल्सन की दोषसिद्धि-और रेबेका ब्रूक्स और अन्य को बरी करना-किसी भी तरह से समाचार पत्रों के भीतर आपराधिकता-वास्तविक या कथित-की जांच के लिए मार्ग का अंत नहीं है।


Flight to Sumburgh turns back to Aberdeen due to landing gear warning

Summary: A flight from Aberdeen to Shetland had to return to Aberdeen due to a cockpit warning indication about the nose landing gear.

Eastern Airways said the Sumburgh-bound Saab 2000 had 19 passengers and three crew on board. It landed safely just after 10:25. Engineers will inspect the plane. Eastern Airways said: "We apologise to passengers for the inconvenience, but the safety of our passengers and crew is our number one priority."

एबरडीन से शेटलैंड के लिए एक उड़ान को नाक लैंडिंग गियर के बारे में कॉकपिट चेतावनी संकेत के कारण एबरडीन लौटना पड़ा।


The Bob Iger method

Summary: It is customary in most examinations of a CEO's tenure to highlight errors and missed opportunities, find competitors who will bad mouth said individual, and, when it comes to those who lead global corporate giants, question whether any financial successes have been justly shared, within the company and across wider society.

Amol RajanMedia editor@amolrajanon Twitter To immerse yourself in coverage of Bob Iger is to find journalists struggling and generally failing on all three fronts. Mr Iger's reign at The Walt Disney Company does present challenges to even the most sceptical of journalists. He has overseen a series of blockbuster acquisitions; Disney's growth has been consistent, vast (and record-breaking, for instance when it comes to the latest box office success of his Marvel franchise); and scandal has for the most part been absent. Mr Iger, who isn't yet done with running Disney, but says he has ruled out running for US President, is widely lauded as both the most powerful man in Hollywood/global media outside of Big Tech (delete as appropriate), and a reassuring, modern personification of the American dream. Such adulation demands that anyone scrutinising him put extra emphasis on missteps and failings. In his only recent UK interview, I sat down with him for over an hour for BBC Radio 4's The Media Show, and put four criticisms to him. First, why the delay in launching a direct-to-consumer streaming service? Second, was Martin Scorsese right about the creative homogeneity of Marvel productions? Third, does the differential in pay between him and junior staff (or "cast members") at Disney undermine the case for capitalism? Fourth, are he and Disney compromised by doing business in China? He had answers to all, of course. Before getting into them, it's worth elucidating the method and strategy that has made him undoubtedly one of the most effective CEOs in media history. I call it Igerism. To my mind, Igerism is strategic simplicity, exceptional charm, and shameless ambition. Riding into the future That's the short version. There is a much longer version in Iger's book, The Ride of a Lifetime, which I hesitate to admit is actually very interesting. Most leadership manuals by self-appointed corporate moral crusaders are unreadable tosh; the Iger book has several news lines, including about his relationships with Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch, and plenty of mischief, including quite cutting detail on Hollywood egos such as the super-agent Michael Ovitz, who once stood between Iger and the top job at Disney. Iger's shameless ambition pertains to both his own career and his company's. As a boy done good from the East Coast, he rose to become one of America's top TV executives in his 30s (his book is full of praise for key mentors). He then faced a challenge: how to replace the legendary Michael Eisner as boss, when what Disney needed was major overhaul and he had been Eisner's deputy for five years. Iger had to cast himself as an agent of change despite being a consummate insider. He did it by explaining the changes he wanted to make. Crucially, as someone from an ordinary background, he never felt he needed to apologise for wanting to get on in life, a sentiment I wish I could have included in a documentary I made about social mobility. After getting the job, strategic simplicity kicked in. It really is remarkable how uncomplicated Iger's approach to business growth is. He identifies weaknesses and neutralises them. And then he pursues scale and power to squash competitors, often by buying them. He looks at the underlying trends in a sector, and rides them. In several blogs on this page I have written about how modern media is shaped by the marriage of content with frictionless distribution. For the past 15 years, Iger's strategy has been to acquire more and more and more content. He distinguishes Disney's forthcoming streaming service from Netflix by casting the latter as a volume player. They have loads and loads and loads of content, and have tried to become your entire viewing companion, with something for all the family such that you don't need to bother with other services. Disney+ (or Iger+, as I call it) will be different, because of its assortment of mega brands - what Iger calls high-quality, branded entertainment. Owning those brands is the content side; getting them to consumers in the most frictionless and convenient way possible is the other side of it. I put to Iger that he, and Disney, were late to the game with a streaming service. You can make your own mind up on his answer, in which he broadly says you need both the content and the technology, and that takes time. The other trend in media is globalisation, of course. If you own the IP on some TV or film, you want to sell that in as many places as possible. It helps if they are world-famous brands (Marvel, Star Wars, Mickey Mouse); and it also helps if the nature of their stories is universal rather than local (superheroes, sci-fi, kid's cartoon characters, in those three cases). So with Disney+, which will provide something like the culmination of Iger's career, you see the unification of these three trends: a vast library of content, the frictionless-ish distribution of a direct-to-consumer offer, and story-telling with appeal from Boston to Beijing. Protect the brand Of all the brands that Iger has sought to nurture, none matter to him more than Disney itself. Here again his strategy was simple. When he took over, Disney's animation division was weak. He stripped Disney to its basics: what did the company traditionally do best? Answer: stories kids love. So he presented, in stark terms, the crisis in the animation division to his board. This persuaded them to loosen the purse strings and go for Pixar. Next, what are companies like Disney in the business of doing, ultimately? Providing joy through stories. They're not alone in this, of course: when I interviewed Ted Sarandos of Netflix, he distinguished his company from the BBC not only through reference to the regulation faced by the latter, but by saying that the reason Netflix doesn't do news is that it's basically a joyful place. And news isn't. This is also why Iger chose not to buy Twitter. He had gone a long way down the line with Jack Dorsey of Twitter, who used to be on Disney's board. But as he explained to me, the complexity of the deal would have been distracting; and as he has said in other interviews, the "nastiness is extraordinary" According to Igerism, when nurturing brands, distil them to their essence, and to the extent possible allow nothing to damage that essence. It is obvious in retrospect that Twitter does not fit with a company whose aim is to provide joy through stories. Despite this, he has done business in China. This was clearly a sensitive subject during the interview (and after it). The theme park he opened in Shanghai, after several dozen long-haul flights, was clearly a huge commercial gambit and, now success. Disney has obligations to its staff, known as cast members, which may at some point become impossible to reconcile with certain working practices in a country ruled according to socialism with Chinese characteristics. For now, the commercial gain has outweighed any reputational damage. But constant vigilance is the price. His own price - the salary he takes from Disney - has been the subject of controversy. Abigail Disney, a relation of Walt who has no direct involvement in the company, was outspoken about it, while praising Iger's leadership. In crude arithmetic terms, the board of Disney believe he has more than earned his salary, $66m in a recent year. The broader question, of whether such a differential between the boss and those starting out at the bottom, as he once did, undermines the case for capitalism, is one I put to him. You can make up your own mind about his answer. Charm (in)offensives Much has been said and written by other interviewers, not least Oprah Winfrey, about Iger's integrity and reputation for decency. The quotes in Maureen Dowd's New York Times interview, from some of Hollywood's biggest names (David Geffen, Barry Diller), are gushing. As corporate strategy, his inter-personal skills have been exceptionally valuable. Steve Jobs had a toxic relationship with Eisner, and Disney; Iger charmed him, then bought his company. George Lucas was quite understandably very protective of his blockbuster creations. Iger charmed him, then bought his company. Ike Perlmutter of Marvel was notoriously one of the most eccentric and inaccessible CEOs on the West Coast. Iger charmed him, then bought his company. And very, very few people knew or thought Rupert Murdoch was prepared to sell the entertainment behemoth he spent decades building. Iger charmed him, then bought his company. In any reflection on Iger's leadership of Disney, it would be remiss to overlook the fact that his personal relations with a series of titanic egos - who between them had very different dispositions and politics - has been highly effective. Succession Talking of which, when I spoke to him, Iger had just started watching Succession, the American drama about a media mogul's family that is one of the greatest TV shows ever made. He was very into it, and having put off his own retirement several times, will know that a succession plan for Disney will be high on his priority list, once Disney+ has rolled out. It is a tough act to follow. Iger's career has connected two very different golden ages in our screen culture. Igerism offers a template for how to make a mouse roar. The full-length interview with Bob Iger is available via The Media Show on BBC Sounds: Making the Mouse Roar. A shorter TV version for BBC News and BBC World will be broadcast over the weekend of 8th November and then available on the BBC iPlayer.

सी. ई. ओ. के कार्यकाल की अधिकांश परीक्षाओं में त्रुटियों और चूक गए अवसरों को उजागर करने, ऐसे प्रतियोगियों को खोजने की प्रथा है जो व्यक्तिगत रूप से खराब बोलेंगे, और जब वैश्विक कॉर्पोरेट दिग्गजों का नेतृत्व करने वालों की बात आती है, तो सवाल किया जाता है कि क्या किसी भी वित्तीय सफलता को कंपनी के भीतर और व्यापक समाज में उचित रूप से साझा किया गया है।


Q&A: Voting on executive pay

Summary: David Cameron wants to let shareholders decide how much top executives should get paid.

He says it is wrong for executive pay "to keep going up and up and up" when the companies have not been very successful. He told Andrew Marr that such awards were "frankly ripping off the shareholders". What is the situation currently and how might the government change it?

डेविड कैमरन शेयरधारकों को यह तय करने देना चाहते हैं कि शीर्ष अधिकारियों को कितना भुगतान किया जाना चाहिए।


Housing for HM Stanley hospital site is approved

Summary: The redevelopment of the HM Stanley Hospital site has been approved by councillors in Denbighshire.

Officers recommended the 85-home development should go ahead at the former Victorian workhouse in St Asaph. The hospital closed in 2012 when the ophthalmic unit moved to Glan Clwyd. Pure Residential plans to create a mix of ordinary and assisted living units in the hospital buildings and build houses in the grounds.

डेनबिघशायर में पार्षदों द्वारा एच. एम. स्टेनली अस्पताल स्थल के पुनर्विकास को मंजूरी दी गई है।


Three released after girl, 16, killed in Barnsley crash

Summary: Three people arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a 16-year-old girl was killed in a crash have been released.

The girl, who has not been named, died when the Vauxhall Astra she was a passenger in hit a tree on Broadway, Barnsley, in the early hours of Sunday. A man, 18, has been released on bail while a girl, 17 and a man, 19, have been released under investigation. South Yorkshire Police has appealed for witnesses to the crash to come forward. More news and stories from across Yorkshire

एक दुर्घटना में 16 वर्षीय लड़की की मौत के बाद खतरनाक तरीके से गाड़ी चलाकर मौत के संदेह में गिरफ्तार किए गए तीन लोगों को रिहा कर दिया गया है।


Musician Paul Cheese records song of the UK's sounds

Summary: From the cries of curlews sweeping the Scottish skies to the crunching crashes of a Cornish scrapyard, Paul Cheese has heard it all. He spent his summer recording a song made up of the sounds of the UK.

By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News The clickety-clack of skateboards in Newcastle. The bass-like throb of a barge chugging beneath Birmingham's canal bridges. The thumping of flags buffeted by winds in Hartlepool. These are just some of the thousands of noises that Mr Cheese encountered while creating The Big Record. On 26 May, armed only with overnight supplies and 48kg of recording equipment, he set out on his bicycle from his home in Folkestone. Staying overnight at hotels, hostels and with friends, the 44-year-old worked his way west to Wales then north to Northern Ireland and Scotland, before zigzagging down to the Channel Islands. "I quickly found it was better not to have a plan," he says, adding: "I just went where people told me." He appeared on BBC radio stations across the country to ask for suggestions of sounds he should record, and followed the advice of people he met on his journey. "I did a 450-mile detour in Scotland because someone suggested I record the sounds of the birds on the beaches of Sutherland," he says. Mr Cheese recorded thousands of sounds, returning with 5.6 terabytes of recordings (enough space to hold about 1,400 movies). During his three-month mission he cycled almost 5,000 miles (8,000km). He says chance encounters led to more sounds. "I was cycling in Cambridge and saw a man with a metal walking stick that made a brilliant 'kerchunk-click' noise as he walked. "Next to him was his wife in a wheelchair, and she had a pebble caught in her wheel which made a 'blipple blipple' noise. "The two of them together was extraordinary." At the end of a long day's riding and recording in Suffolk, Mr Cheese chanced upon a fire station where firefighters were performing drills. A short introduction later and their chief was playing him the various sirens from the service's engine. Operators of an indoor snow centre let him get up close to the sound of skiers slashing down the slope and the grinding gears of the lift returning them to the top. There were barking dogs in Birmingham and litter-pickers in Stourbridge; the soothing sway of a barley field in Shropshire; the buzz of electricity pylons, and the echoes of claps in old railway tunnels. Mr Cheese has also been sent hundreds of sounds by the public, from hissing swans to thwacking bin lids and the whining swoop of Spitfires. All of his sounds have been meshed together, musically entwined into a four-and-a half-minute song of the UK. The idea started two years ago when he went on a BBC Radio Kent show to ask listeners for the noises of their lives. Mr Cheese noticed an intriguing pattern in the sounds he was sent. "About 70% were in the key of D major and 80% were 96 beats per minute," he says. "It was like music and made me think, 'what would a song of the country sound like?'" The result is an orchestra with the bass part provided by electricity substations and diesel engines, a string section comprising dozens of lawnmowers and strimmers and a literal wind section made up of a storm on Bodmin Moor and the whirring buzz of barbed wire fences. The choir is provided by birds, from skylarks in Manchester to the "especially loud sparrows" of Jersey and Norfolk. "The sound I heard the most was the blackbirds," he says. "They serenaded me around the country. "It's a cliché but on an evening after rain, the sound of the blackbirds is just phenomenal and it is in all corners of the country." Of course Mr Cheese also got to see the country as well as hear it, and he says he has a new appreciation for the UK. Buttermere in the Lake District is "just wow, what a place", while the canals of Stoke-on-Trent are somewhere "I definitely want to go back to". The whole of England's north-east coast was bristling with beauty and people who "invite you for a chat". "There was nowhere I didn't like," the cycling musician says. "I'm not just being diplomatic; everywhere has its own quirks and peculiarities and everywhere I went led me to the next place - a stepping stone into the next location - so you could not have one without the other." He started to record voices too and now has an archive of almost 160 regional accents. Hearing the voices and sounds transports him back in his mind to the places he captured them. "I have got an audio-graphic memory of the UK now," Mr Cheese says. "It could drive you a bit crazy, but when you are on your bike out on a long ride you have a lot of time to think things through." Mr Cheese has made his song available for everyone to hear online and also hopes to have it played on BBC local radio stations. "It's been fantastic chatting and meeting people and hearing all their ideas," he says. "This is a piece of music created by the sounds suggested by the people so, really, everyone should hear it."

स्कॉटलैंड के आसमान में घूमते कर्ल्यू के रोने से लेकर कॉर्निश स्क्रैपयार्ड के क्रंचिंग क्रैश तक, पॉल चीज़ ने यह सब सुना है। उन्होंने अपनी गर्मियों में यूके की आवाज़ों से बना एक गीत रिकॉर्ड किया।


Ramniklal Jogiya death: Two men admit kidnap and robbery

Summary: Two men have admitted taking part in the kidnap and robbery of a city jeweller who was later found dead.

Callan Reeve, 20, of Leicester, and Thomas Jervis, 24, of Whetstone, denied manslaughter and murder but pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court to robbery and kidnap. Ramniklal Jogiya, 74, left his shop on 24 January and his body was found the next morning in Stoughton. Javon Roach, 30, from Leicester, pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Charlie Ward, 20, from Leicester, will appear at a later date charged with murder, unlawful act manslaughter, kidnap and robbery.

दो लोगों ने शहर के एक जौहरी के अपहरण और डकैती में भाग लेने की बात स्वीकार की है, जो बाद में मृत पाया गया था।


A mystery illness kills four seagulls in Guernsey

Summary: A mystery illness is being blamed for the deaths of five seagulls in Guernsey.

Steve Byrne, of the Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said 18 birds were extremely weak and barely able to stand. He said they may have eaten something poisonous or come in to contact with a hazardous substance at sea. Mr Byrne said the charity would monitoring the situation and appealed to look out for ill birds. Related Internet Links GSPCA

ग्वेर्नसे में पाँच सीगल की मौत के लिए एक रहस्यमय बीमारी को जिम्मेदार ठहराया जा रहा है।


Joseph McKeever murder: Charged after Belfast arrest

Summary: A man arrested in Belfast has been charged with the murder of a 54-year-old found dead in a burnt-out car three years ago.

Joseph McKeever's body was discovered in Whitehaven Road the Everton area of Liverpool on 15 June 2017. Lee Knox, 42, was arrested in Belfast on Saturday after a joint operation by Merseyside Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Mr Knox, of no fixed abode, appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court on Monday. He was remanded in custody and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service

बेलफास्ट में गिरफ्तार एक व्यक्ति पर तीन साल पहले एक जली हुई कार में मृत पाए गए 54 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है।


How do you convince people to have babies?

Summary: In the past two weeks two global superpowers have had to face an unsettling reality - census results in the US and in China indicate that both countries are likely to start shrinking in population much sooner than they thought.

By Stephanie HegartyPopulation correspondent That's because fertility rates are falling fast. As that happens, the population gets older, which can stand in the way of economic growth. It's something governments are usually keen to avoid. China and the US are not at that point yet. But they could learn from other countries that are already thinking about how to boost fertility. It's a thorny problem with no easy solutions. Some, like Russia, have tried throwing money at it, offering parents generous cash incentives to have children. But policies like this rarely work in a vacuum - parents need a system that offers much more. So, how can a government convince people to have babies? 1. Give parents affordable childcare The small town of Nagi-cho is a happy outlier from Japan's shrinking population. Over nine years it managed to double its birth rate - from 1.4 to 2.8 children per woman with an extensive scheme of family friendly policies. Families get baby bonuses and children allowances but it also costs half the national average to send a child to nursery. Its success has been extraordinary but it's a small, rural town. In the rest of East Asia, crippling work culture makes it difficult for mothers or fathers to balance the needs of work and family. South Korea has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world and has spent more than $130bn (£92bn) on incentives for families. Some of these sound pretty obvious - free childcare, housing benefits or support for IVF. And some, like the holidays offered to civil servants so they can go home and make babies, are more creative. But none of them seem to be working. Kim Ji-ye has a busy job in sales and marketing in Seoul. She had no interest in having a child but relented to pressure from her parents - her son is now three. Though she receives "infant support care" money from the government she doesn't believe cash incentives made a difference to her decision. Public childcare places in big cities are limited - some have years-long waiting lists - and private childcare is expensive. "I never want to have another child," she says. "It is just too hard to raise even one, so I just want to focus on him." None of these government initiatives have managed to tackle a working culture across East Asia that tends to be hostile to family life. "In Korea we have legal working hours and maternal and paternal leave policies," says Erin Hye Won Kim, an assistant professor at the University of Seoul who studies fertility in the region. "But the take-up levels are really low, especially for paternal leave. It's a matter of enforcement really." 2. Make work more flexible South Korea, China and Japan are extremes but in most developed countries work culture is in conflict with family life. One option available to governments is to try to make part-time work more available. Countries with a higher prevalence of part-time positions do tend to have higher fertility rates. But more often than not it is women who take up these part-time roles. That inhibits gender equity and is not ideal for a country with an ageing population because it reduces the workforce even further. It is possible to keep women in work and raise fertility. Sweden is often celebrated for its family friendly practices, not just in government but in business too. "We have an understanding that during some part of their life women and men have small children and sometimes they have to go home early from work," says Professor Gunnar Andersson, head of Stockholm University's Demography Unit. And there are other ways to make work flexible without reducing hours. A study in 2017 showed that increased access to broadband in Germany correlated with higher birth rates in highly educated women. Working from home women found they could spend more time with their children and they choose to have more. The same effect wasn't found in women with lower levels of education or with men. A similar dynamic might be playing out in Finland now, says Prof Anna Rotkirch, who advises the Finnish government on fertility. The country bucked an overwhelming trend of falling birth rates last year by increasing its birth rate slightly during the pandemic. Prof Rotkirch believes Finland's education system had a part to play as it switched to online learning very smoothly. But she also noticed something else - a big difference in how women in different parts of Europe were discussing the experience of working from home with children. "What I got from the UK is that women were really desperate with home-schooling and husbands not helping and all this kind of backlash to equality." Though she has children herself it wasn't a conversation she had heard so acutely in Finland 3. Put men to work - at home In every country studied, survey data finds women have less free time than men because they are doing more unpaid work at home. Erin Hye Won Kim at the University of Seoul found that fertility rates increased when men helped out more at home. She studied families with one child and found that when men did one more hour a week of domestic work at home it was related to a significant increase in the chances that that family would have a second child. That reflects results from years of practice in Scandinavia. In Sweden fertility rates increased in the 2000s thanks, in part, to heavily subsidised childcare. But mother and fathers are also offered generous leave after having a baby. Fathers now take about 30% of the number of days of parental leave that mothers do. "They are heavily involved, it's not just a little marginal thing," says Prof Gunnar Andersson. "They take the main responsibility for the child for a time in that first year and a half." And the patterns of childcare or housework that have been set in a child's early life tend to continue as they get older. In Sweden, 73% of women do housework or cook for at least one hour every day and 56% of men, the European average is 74% of women and 34% of men. "I think the signals you send are important", says Prof Rotkirch. "The social signals and the political signals that we are there to support you, you will not be alone, you know, you will manage." For many years Nordic countries seemed to be sending the right signals - but not anymore. Over the past decade fertility in Scandinavia has plummeted. In Sweden it's been a steady decline but in Norway and Finland it has been drastic. "Since we are among the happiest, family-friendliest countries on earth, it is very perplexing," says Prof Rotkirch. Does it really matter? "From a demographic point of view, none of this actually needs to be a problem," says Prof George Leeson of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. Fertility rates in western Europe have been below replacement level since the 1970s but populations have continued to grow. "The population has just been refreshed and replenished by migration," he says. A shrinking workforce can be offset by allowing older people to stay in work - if they want to. And falling populations can have positive effects in terms of climate change. "At the moment the fact that we're not having as many children as our parents and grandparents did is giving the global village a bit of a breathing space," says Prof Leeson. There can also be surprising benefits to governments looking at fertility issues in a holistic way. When South Korea brought in working-hours legislation, reducing the working week from 44 to 40 hours, Erin Hye Won Kim found that men took more time to visit and support their elderly parents. Ultimately policies should be about helping people to have the number of children they would like, says Prof Rotkirch. "They influence child well-being and the well-being of people who have children. And that's maybe the most important thing, that the children who are born have good lives." You may be interested in:

पिछले दो हफ्तों में दो वैश्विक महाशक्तियों को एक परेशान करने वाली वास्तविकता का सामना करना पड़ा है-अमेरिका और चीन में जनगणना के परिणाम इंगित करते हैं कि दोनों देशों की जनसंख्या में उनके विचार से बहुत जल्दी सिकुड़ना शुरू होने की संभावना है।


Trouble in Paradise

Summary: You don't normally get advance warning of an attempt to topple a government. Efforts to oust leaders are risky undertakings and plotters usually keep their underhand schemes very secret. So I was very surprised when a colleague said she'd got the inside track on just such a plot in the Maldives.

Justin RowlattSouth Asia correspondent Graham Greene would have immediately recognised the Maldives as the perfect setting for an exotic tale of tropical intrigue. It consists of 26 coral atolls - 1,192 individual islands - stretching hundreds of miles into the blue vastness of the Indian Ocean like - and let me apologise in advance for this, because it is impossible not to sound like a holiday brochure - like "a string of pearls". It is justifiably famous for its breathtakingly beautiful, and breathtakingly expensive, luxury hotels. And while we are on the holiday theme, yes, it is a wonderful place for a romantic getaway. But not a great place to be a journalist. A number of foreign reporters have been deported recently and for covering much less sensitive subjects than well-sourced claims of an impending attempt to depose the government. That's why we arrived on tourist visas. And I know what you are thinking: that did not mean carte blanche to book ourselves into a super-lux holiday hideaway. All important decisions in the Maldives are made in the islands' claustrophobic capital, Male. This is on a distinctly unlovely island a couple of miles square and covered in concrete, not white sand beaches. Male contains all the country's key institutions, and a good chunk of its 400,000-strong population. It is also where my colleague Olivia Lang honed her impressive journalistic skills, working for the Maldives Independent, one of the few sources of objective news on the islands. She was here in 2008 when more than thirty years of corrupt autocracy finally gave way to democracy. A young progressive, Mohammed Nasheed, swept to power in the country's first free elections, while the former strongman, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, slunk away to scheme in the shadows. Olivia reported as President Nasheed rolled back repressive laws, bolstered democratic institutions and captured the world's imagination with an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the risks of rising sea levels. The Maldives' brief moment as a model Islamic democracy was not to last, however. The water on the coral reefs may be crystal clear, but politics in the so-called "island paradise" has always been very murky. Within four years, Nasheed had been ousted in what he calls a coup. He now lives in self-imposed exile in the UK, while the Maldives is in the hands of the former strongman's half brother, a man called Abdullah Yameen. Under President Yameen, the Maldives is becoming increasingly authoritarian, claim his opponents. In just the last few weeks - and in spite of harsh criticism from the UN, the EU and the US - his government has brought in legislation restricting freedom of speech and protest, and has also moved to reintroduce the death penalty. Not the actions of a confident leader. We had to be careful. "Beware anyone loitering suspiciously," Olivia warned. We had been told Male is full of spies and government informers but loitering appears to be the Maldivian national pastime. The congested streets are full of men in mirror shades lounging idly and smoking cigarettes. We scuttled between surreptitious appointments in cafes and apartment buildings, and, crouching on the second floor of a derelict building, watched as police scuffled with an opposition rally. What became increasingly clear was that president Yameen is indeed vulnerable. His half-brother, former president Gayoom, has recently withdrawn his support - I told you Maldivian politics is murky - and Yameen is now struggling to rally even his own MPs. But however well-sourced your story is, reporting something as destabilising as an imminent attempt to unseat a president is a big deal, and our editors in London were keen to get more evidence that a conspiracy was under way. Now that is a tall order. Secret plots don't often have independent observers who can vouchsafe their intrigues. I drafted an email to the president's office requesting his response to the claims of corruption and repression we planned to make. I asked whether President Yameen was worried there might be an attempt to oust him from office. Find out more The administration is aware that an attempt to "overthrow the government" is being planned, thundered the reply. This is "in clear breach of international legal norms," it continued, the people should decide who governs the Maldives at the ballot box. After our reports were broadcast, the government insisted it was "steadfast" and organised a mass gathering for the Maldives National Defence Force - its army -to promote what it called "patriotism and love of nation"; stirring songs were sung. At the same time, former president Nasheed and his key allies were arriving in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, a short flight from the Maldives. Back at my desk in Delhi, the birds caw in the frangipani tree outside as a message pings into my inbox. The Maldivian authorities have just announced new restrictions on foreign journalists operating in the country, it says. It looks like I won't be welcome back until there's a change of government. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

आपको आम तौर पर किसी सरकार को गिराने के प्रयास की अग्रिम चेतावनी नहीं मिलती है। नेताओं को हटाने के प्रयास जोखिम भरे उपक्रम हैं और साजिशकर्ता आमतौर पर अपनी गुप्त योजनाओं को बहुत गुप्त रखते हैं। इसलिए मुझे बहुत आश्चर्य हुआ जब एक सहयोगी ने कहा कि उसे मालदीव में इस तरह की साजिश का अंदरूनी रास्ता मिल गया है।


Jersey planners pressed on national park in St Ouen

Summary: Jersey Water has asked for a reservoir to be excluded from a planned national park amid fears supplies could fall short in the future.

Val de la Mare reservoir is inside the proposed park boundary at St Ouen's Bay. Jersey Water fears that protected status could make it more difficult to increase the volume of water there. Jersey States says being part of a coastal park is unlikely to prevent the reservoir being extended.

जर्सी वाटर ने भविष्य में आपूर्ति कम होने की आशंका के बीच एक जलाशय को एक नियोजित राष्ट्रीय उद्यान से बाहर रखने के लिए कहा है।


Pink Vigilante's poll fight for Indian women's rights

Summary: Indian elections often throw up quirky candidates. The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder profiles one highly unusual hopeful in the local elections in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most politically influential and populous state.

Driving through a country highway for the better part of four hours, west of the holy city of Allahabad, brings you to Bundelkhand. It's an arid region, with forests, hills and ravines - one of India's poorest and least-developed areas where only the toughest survive. As we arrive in Barghar, a small town in the Manikpur constituency, we notice a large crowd of women gathered by the side of the road. All of them are dressed in pink. They have surrounded a wiry woman in her 50s who is beaming and talking into a mobile phone. This is Sampat Pal, the candidate fielded from these parts by the country's ruling Congress Party and head of the quaintly named Gulabi Gang or Pink Vigilantes. Formidable But there is nothing quaint about Sampat Pal. This formidable woman has built her reputation as the head of a group of women who over the past few years have targeted corrupt policemen, wife-beaters and men who abuse or assault women. They often, quite literally, take the law into their own hands as they beat the wrongdoers with wooden clubs. So why has Sampat Pal made the transition to electoral politics and seemingly joined hands with those she has targeted in the past? "We realise we are not strong enough to carry out our plans of emancipating women and getting rid of poverty", says her close aide, Suman Singh Chauhan. "We don't have money or power. So we need to get one of our own into politics. If we get one person elected, we'll become powerful." Sampat Pal agrees. "We have tremendous support on the ground because of our reputation. Women make up half of the population and yet have so little political power. "That's why I need to get elected and set things right." The irony that someone who often took the law into her own hands could now become a lawmaker is something she quickly brushes aside. 'Dangerous area' But despite the obvious admiration from the women around her, there are some who privately question her motives and her credentials. Locals talk about how it is the media who have helped build up her image. There are others who are not entirely convinced. We meet Maya Devi, a young woman who had attended Sampat Pal's political rally. "We were brought in this morning from our village by members of the Pink Vigilantes and told to attend her rally and show our support," she says. "I'm not sure she's going to help us at all. Whenever I've asked for anything she says 'first get me elected, then I'll help you'." But Sampat Pal dismisses such fears. "I'll continue working for the poor women of this area as I've always done", she says. "Our society has always exploited women. We need to change that." As the sun comes down, people begin to scurry home. "This is a dangerous area after dusk," says one local journalist. "There are armed gangs and criminals who come in from the jungles. No-one steps out." Little surprise then that the leader of the Pink Vigilantes is such a draw in an area that's often described as the badlands of India.

भारतीय चुनाव अक्सर विचित्र उम्मीदवारों को सामने लाते हैं। बी. बी. सी. के संजय मजूमदार ने देश के सबसे राजनीतिक रूप से प्रभावशाली और आबादी वाले राज्य उत्तर प्रदेश में स्थानीय चुनावों में एक अत्यधिक असामान्य उम्मीदवारी का वर्णन किया है।


The cornucopia of comics

Summary: Comics Unmasked can be seen at the British Library, London, until 19 August 2014. Parental guidance advised.

Colourful and creative - but also subversive and disturbing at times - the diverse world of comic books is being celebrated at the British Library this summer. Comics Unmasked looks at mainstream and underground creations - from early British pioneers to more recent favourites. Take a tour with guest curators - Paul Gravett and John Harris Dunning. All images subject to copyright. Photofilm by Paul Kerley. More photofilms: Island stories: 300 miles across post-war Sri Lanka The town thronged with old people The place where Chelsea Pensioners live

कॉमिक्स अनमास्केड को ब्रिटिश लाइब्रेरी, लंदन में 19 अगस्त 2014 तक देखा जा सकता है। माता-पिता के मार्गदर्शन ने सलाह दी।


Iron Age broch recreated in Lego

Summary: An Iron Age broch has been recreated in Lego.

At a height of 40cm and covering an area of about 1.2 m sq, the roundhouse and a surrounding landscape are made of 10,000 pieces. Brick to the Past, a team specialising in historically-themed Lego models, built it for the Caithness Broch Project. The ruins of what were some of Scotland's oldest and most formidable structures can be found in the Highlands and Orkney. Caithness has more broch sites than anywhere else in Scotland. Caithness Broch Project was set up to raise awareness of the ancient buildings. There are also impressive ruins of brochs in Glenelg in the north west Highlands, while evidence of what is thought to be a rare example of a broch in an urban setting has been uncovered in Stirling. The stone-built houses have been excavated by archaeologists at Thrumster, near Wick, and near Dunning in Perthshire. The Lego model is to be put on public display later this summer. Dan Harris and James Pegrum, of Brick to the Past, worked on the project. Mr Harris said: "I built the broch itself, while James built the landscape. "Brick to the Past specialise in creating massive, detailed and meticulously-researched, historically-themed Lego models and we have a large and growing portfolio covering important periods of British history. "We love history and believe that Lego offers a great way of engaging both young and old in the subject. "So when Caithness Broch Project approached us we jumped at the chance to work with them. "Because of the broch's round but tapered shape, this is undoubtedly the most challenging model I have ever built, but it's been a fascinating subject and great fun to make." A mini version of the Lego broch has also been designed and instructions on how to build it made available online. All images are copyrighted.

लेगो में एक लौह युग ब्रोच को फिर से बनाया गया है।


Nudes wear masks in Spencer Tunick installation

Summary: How's this for a cheeky piece of art?

Volunteers have stripped naked, apart from their face masks, in Spencer Tunick's socially distanced art installation at Alexandra Palace. More than 200 people took part in the gathering at the famous London venue in the early hours of Saturday morning. US photographer Tunick said creating the eye-catching piece was "liberating and life-affirming"; and it was all about "breaking down barriers". "The reality of masses of people close together - shoulder to shoulder, skin touching skin - may be something of the past for now, but still the desire is there for that natural connectivity, perhaps more so now than ever," said Tunick. Entitled Everyone Together, the piece - supported by Sky Arts - is thought to be the UK's first major collective piece of artwork during the coronavirus pandemic. "To celebrate Sky Arts becoming free for everyone, we wanted to create a landmark cultural moment that invited participation in a Covid-safe fashion, and demonstrated to the wider public that art is at its most essential when it is for - and about - everybody," added Sky Arts director Phil Edgar Jones. "While the pandemic has presented challenges to the cultural sector, we've also seen a great deal of innovation in the arts, and thousands of people have created their own artworks or reconnected with their artistic abilities." He added: "The sense that the arts is for a self-selecting group of people is disappearing, and that can only be a good thing." Tunick is famous for his images of mass nudes, and has previously produced work in Folkestone, Kent, for the George's House Gallery. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

कला के एक चुटीले टुकड़े के लिए यह कैसा है?


Media workers demand justice

Summary: Sri Lankan journalists and activists joined for a protest organised by Alliance of Media Organisations on Tuesday to draw attention to what they called the government's failure to pursue justice against the perpetrators of crimes against media workers.

Over one hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Fort railway station in Colombo to protest that no one has been arrested in connection with the killing of a prominent newspaper editor two years ago, the disappearance of another last year and an attack on a popular television station. Still waiting for justice Editor of Sunday Leader newspaper Lasantha Wickrematunge, was shot dead in his car by assailants on Jan. 8, 2009. His newspaper had been critical of the government's conduct in the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels and reported on government corruption. Two days before his killing, armed men attacked Sirasa television station studios in the suburbs of Colombo with hand grenades and gunfire. The attack caused heavy damage to its studios. Rule of law "Government should prove that the rule of law is still alive in this country by punishing the people responsible for these crimes. Failing to do that means that there may be some elements within the establishment who are obstructing the investigations". Said Seetha Ranjani the convenor of the Alliance of Media Organizations. Paris based Reporters Without Borders has accused the government of hindering an investigation into Wickrematunge's killing. 100 unsolved abductions Prageeth Ekneligoda, a political columnist and cartoonist was reported missing in January 2010, and is believed to have been abducted while on his way home from work. "I still believe Prageeth is alive. That is what keeps me going". Prageeth's wife Sandhya Eknaligoda told Sandeshaya. Human rights groups say there are at least 100 unsolved cases of politically motivated disappearance in Sri Lanka since 2008 The government has repeatedly denied any cover-ups and said that it continues to investigate the crimes. Amnesty International says at least 14 Sri Lankan media workers have been killed since the beginning of 2006. President not happy with media The authorities say they are doing their best to solve the cases of attacks on the media. In remarks to editors last week, President Mahinda Rajapaksa implied that he was not completely happy with the media’s behaviour. An official report said he “decried efforts by some sections of the media to exaggerate some of the problems of the country” while also saying their right to criticise the government should be protected. International rights groups place Sri Lanka very low on their surveys of media freedom.

श्रीलंकाई पत्रकार और कार्यकर्ता मंगलवार को एलायंस ऑफ मीडिया ऑर्गनाइजेशन द्वारा आयोजित एक विरोध प्रदर्शन में शामिल हुए, ताकि वे मीडिया कर्मचारियों के खिलाफ अपराधों के अपराधियों के खिलाफ न्याय का पीछा करने में सरकार की विफलता की ओर ध्यान आकर्षित कर सकें।


Will Gompertz reviews Cats starring Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson ★★☆☆☆

Summary: First things first, I want you to know this is a safe space, free from feline puns. There'll be no talk of fur-from-purrfect performances that don't scratch the character's surface or give you paws for thought. That's not happening, not in this review - not a cat-in-hell's chance.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter Onward! We all know about the social media hoo-ha the trailer caused when it was released in the summer. "Urgh!" was the general reaction. "Cats with furry breasts, that's gross! And the scaling, that's rubbish." Well, those issues remain in the finished, full-length feature, although the director - Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables) - has spoken about throwing a large chunk of cash at fixing the more glaring problems made evident to him by the Twitterstorm. Money has been spent. You can see that. Cats the movie is a slick, computer-enhanced celeb-fest with meticulously choreographed set-pieces taking place in a version of London that sits somewhere between Dickensian squalor and Soho glamour. It is a shiny, colourful, sung-through piece with luxury hotel production values. That the cats are still gendered and sexualised is not such a big deal. The geriatric bodies of the de-aged stars in Scorsese's film The Irishman are far more disconcerting and off-putting. Anyway, the figure-hugging outfits allow Francesca Hayward - a Principal Ballerina at the Royal Ballet - to treat us to her best moves playing Victoria, the white cat. She is not exactly verbose, but her eyes talk plenty, wearing a nonplussed expression throughout as she tries to figure out what in the name of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is going on. Not much, is the answer. This is a thin tale (see, I can resist) about a gang of feral cats called the Jellicles, who gather once a year to see which of their number will be given the opportunity to ascend to the Heaviside layer. Dame Judi Dench, who plays wise Old Deuteronomy, has the task of making the Jellicle choice under heavy lobbying from pantomime baddie cat Macavity (Idris Elba). That's it, basically. A simple story based on the poems of T.S. Eliot, which Andrew Lloyd Webber illustrated with some very catchy numbers in his hit 1981 musical Cats. I saw that original production as a Clash-mad teenager and surprised my grumpy self by loving every single second. I really do have the T-shirt. Brian Blessed was wonderful as Old Deuteronomy. More recently, I saw Nicole Scherzinger as Grizabella knock it out of the park in a 2014 revival, where she left absolutely everything in the auditorium with an unforgettable rendition of Memory. That job falls to Jennifer Hudson in the film, who is convincing as the ostracised Grizabella, and - more importantly - nails the famous song with aplomb, as you would expect from such a talented individual. It is a reflection of the singing throughout, which rarely dips below excellent, although both Dame Judi and Elba are clearly primarily actors not singers. That's fine, they know how to sell a song. As does Taylor Swift, who has a welcome cameo playing the mischievous Bombalurina. Sir Ian McKellen rocks up for a turn as Gus the Theatre Cat, while Rebel Wilson and James Corden pitch in to bring a little light-hearted comedy to proceedings. Oh, and Ray Winstone makes an appearance too, just like he does in those betting ads. It is a roll-call of stars that's a testament to Hooper's well-deserved standing as a top-notch, Oscar-winning director. But you can't always hit the bullseye, and the helmsman has missed the spot with Cats. The sum is a great deal less than the parts, however famous and gifted the people playing them happen to be. The story takes forever to get going, and when it does - eventually - it lacks any real conviction or emotion. The harsh truth is the film feels plastic, it has no heart or soul. That might well be a problem with the source material and its suitability for a transfer from stage to screen. Notwithstanding notable successes, the fact is not everything that is a hit in one medium works in another. It's not terrible, it's certainly got more going for it than the trailer, but it is some way short of Lord Lloyd-Webber's original. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz

सबसे पहले, मैं चाहता हूं कि आप यह जान लें कि यह एक सुरक्षित स्थान है, जो बिल्ली के श्लेषों से मुक्त है। ऐसे परिपूर्ण प्रदर्शनों के बारे में कोई बात नहीं होगी जो चरित्र की सतह को खरोंच न दें या आपको सोचने के लिए पंजे न दें। ऐसा नहीं हो रहा है, इस समीक्षा में नहीं-बिल्ली-इन-हेल का मौका नहीं।


High school's lifeline for Crickhowell town library

Summary: A Powys high school has offered to take over a town library to secure its future.

Crickhowell High School approached Powys council offering to manage the town's library to benefit pupils and the community. It would mean the service can meet its local savings target. The library would stay in its Silver Street location, and the council said the handover would be seamless with no disruption to the public.

एक पॉव्स हाई स्कूल ने अपने भविष्य को सुरक्षित करने के लिए एक शहर के पुस्तकालय को लेने की पेशकश की है।


Police attacked helping person 'in distress'

Summary: Police officers were attacked while attending to a person in distress in west Belfast on Saturday evening.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said young people threw stones at the officers while they were responding to the call in Falls Park. "No officers were injured as a result of the incident and the person in distress was located and tended to until the arrival of paramedics a short time later," they said.

शनिवार शाम को पश्चिम बेलफास्ट में संकटग्रस्त एक व्यक्ति की देखभाल करते समय पुलिस अधिकारियों पर हमला किया गया।


Hawick whisky distillery plans lodged

Summary: A planning application has been lodged to build a whisky distillery - the first in the Borders for nearly 180 years - on a former industrial site.

The Three Stills Company announced last year it had secured funding of £10m to support its plans in Hawick. It has now submitted a planning application to Scottish Borders Council for the Commercial Road scheme. The company said the distillery and visitor centre could create 20 jobs. The firm is one of a number to have shown an interest in establishing a distillery in the region - the first since 1837. Mossburn Distillers unveiled plans for a £40m distillery south of Jedburgh in 2014. Last year a competition by R&B Distillers saw the public pick Peebles as their preferred site for a distillery.

एक पूर्व औद्योगिक स्थल पर एक व्हिस्की डिस्टिलरी-लगभग 180 वर्षों के लिए सीमाओं में पहली-बनाने के लिए एक योजना आवेदन दायर किया गया है।


Nepal earthquake: The challenges of disaster relief

Summary: Logistics, averting the bottlenecks, co-ordinating the efforts of governments and aid organisations big and small - they quickly become the preoccupations of those overseeing disaster relief operations, like the one following the Nepal earthquake now.

By Mike WooldridgeBBC World Affairs correspondent The large-scale sudden disasters of recent decades have taken place amid rapid change in global communications and the development of more systematic strategies for responding to such emergencies. But, as I have seen covering a number of earthquakes in different parts of the world, each disaster tests the response in new ways. Access problems - the 2005 quake in Kashmir The urgent appeals from Nepal's government for more helicopters for the rescue and relief operations echo an impassioned appeal made a few days after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and north-west Pakistan in October 2005. I was among the journalists covering the visit of the then UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, to the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad. The 7.6-magnitude earthquake six days earlier had caused massive damage in the city and elsewhere smaller towns and villages had been wiped out. As in Nepal today, landslides had compounded the impact of the earthquake and blocked and destroyed roads in the mountainous terrain. As Mr Egeland assessed the progress of the relief operations that day, it was already estimated that at least 23,000 people were dead. Eventually, the disaster was to claim about 80,000 lives. He told us at the end of the visit that he had never witnessed such devastation before. He called it "a complete nightmare". Identifying the biggest challenge as reaching outlying areas, Mr Egeland called for a rapid tripling of the number of helicopters - and said that he did not believe or accept that this would be impossible. At the same time, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, talked about the threat of "a second massive wave of death" if efforts were not stepped up. It was hardly an exaggeration, with the onset of winter imminent. Increasing numbers of helicopters were committed to the relief operation. Some of the crucial heavy lifting was carried out by military helicopters brought in from neighbouring Afghanistan. Despite this and all the other efforts that were being made to get aid out to the more isolated communities, 18 days after the earthquake Pakistan's then Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, appealed to survivors to try to make their own way down to valleys and to larger centres if they could. Spontaneous response - the 2001 India quake In India in January 2001, a 7.7-magnitude quake flattened towns and villages in the Kutch region of Gujarat and also brought down multi-storey buildings in Gujarat's state capital, Ahmedabad. That disaster claimed around 20,000 lives. Among the many structures destroyed in Bhuj, the main town in Kutch and near the earthquake's epicentre, were historic buildings, as in Kathmandu today. The narrow streets and alleyways of Bhuj's oldest quarter were piled so high with rubble and debris that it made the task of search and rescue teams all the harder - though some people were pulled out after several days. But there was a factor in the Gujarat earthquake response that often gets little attention in the way we perceive disasters and relief operations. India tends to handle its own natural disasters where possible rather than immediately appeal for outside aid, and its civil society organisations and ordinary citizens will invariably respond spontaneously. After first seeing the impact of the earthquake in Ahmedabad - and watching friends and neighbours joining rescuers in trying to dig into the ruins of the collapsed apartment blocks - we navigated our way around the gaping cracks in the road to Bhuj. Already people were turning up from far away in packed cars and pickups and just dropping off food, water and clothing, sometimes leaving it literally by the roadside. Government destroyed - the 2010 Haiti quake In the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 the challenge was not just the enormity of it but the deadly blow that it struck to the administration of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. More than 200,000 people were killed, according to the Haiti government, and huge numbers were made homeless. More than half of the government and administrative buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were destroyed or damaged, one civil servant in four in the capital died, and the headquarters of the UN mission collapsed. Communications and air and port access were disrupted. Delays in distributing aid became a growing problem and led to protests. In that disaster, the military of several nations played a key role in overcoming the bottlenecks. Within a few days, the American carrier, USS Carl Vinson, arrived with 600,000 emergency food rations and other supplies. A hospital ship was sent too. And at stadiums and other distribution points I watched as helicopters ferried aid back and forth. Whether in response to earthquakes or hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons or floods or other natural disasters, humanitarian assistance has become much more professionalised and structured. Fuelling discontent - the 1978 Iran quake Compare with 1978, when I covered my first earthquake in Tabas in eastern Iran. The 7.4-magnitude quake killed more than 15,000 people, and one eyewitness said that the town of collapsed mud-walled and brick houses had "turned into a graveyard". We were just a handful of journalists flown in some 48 hours after the earthquake by the Iranian air force, and flown out again a few hours later with the plane full of the injured and homeless. The handling of the earthquake fuelled discontent with the Shah's government, with the Iranian revolution just a year away, but international attention seemed to wane rapidly. The complex challenges of responding to the Nepal earthquake continue under intense scrutiny. And that is before work begins on the ambition with every such disaster today - to "build back better".

रसद, अड़चनों को दूर करना, बड़ी और छोटी सरकारों और सहायता संगठनों के प्रयासों का समन्वय करना-वे जल्दी से आपदा राहत कार्यों की देखरेख करने वालों की व्यस्तता बन जाते हैं, जैसे कि अब नेपाल भूकंप के बाद।


Edinburgh Fringe ticket sales down 1%

Summary: Ticket sales for the Edinburgh Fringe are down by about 1%.

It is thought the London Olympics - which clashed with the first nine days of the Fringe - was a major factor in the fall in sales. The Fringe remains the world's largest arts festival, with 2,695 shows performed in 279 venues. Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said it was "in fantastic health", with more than 1.8 million tickets sold. She said there were also more than 800 free shows at which attendance could not be measured. However, it is only the second time in more than a decade that ticket sales have fallen from the previous year. Sales fell in 2008 due to the disastrous implementation of a new ticketing system. Ms Mainland said: "The Fringe has shown its resilience in responding so positively to the unique challenges of 2012." Tommy Shepherd, who runs the newly-refurbished Assembly Rooms venue, said ticket sales showed a 20% increase towards the end of the festival, which he put down to the "Olympic effect". He said his venue sold 98,836 of the 151,000 available tickets being issued, equating to a 66% capacity. Top sellers included Stewart Lee and La Clique Royale, which sold out for 20 days in a row. Meanwhile, the Edinburgh International Book Festival had about 225,000 visits - the most in its history. Ticket sales were up 3% on 2011 and sales of books held steady. Festival director Nick Barley said: "I think it's important to look beyond the statistics and acknowledge the overall impact of the book festival, and indeed all the festivals."

एडिनबर्ग फ्रिंज की टिकट बिक्री में लगभग 1 प्रतिशत की कमी आई है।


Athens property boom: Greeks left out as prices rise

Summary: Geraldine Hynes is panicking about the future.

By Jessica BatemanAthens The 63-year-old has been been trying to buy an apartment ever since she was evicted from the home she rented for 32 years – when it was bought by Chinese investors two years ago. "I want some security in case the same thing happens again," says Ms Hynes, originally from Ireland. She earns a modest salary as an English teacher, while her Greek husband's monthly pension was cut from €1,500 (£1,315; $1,690) to €500 during the country's economic crisis, which began in 2010. "When we were evicted there were still apartments selling nearby for €100,000. Now I can't find anything under €250,000. These are Chinese and Russian prices. Not Greek." Greece's financial crisis a decade ago shrank the country's economy by more than 25% in the following years, but there are finally signs of improvement. The property market, once completely dead, is on the rise - house prices in Athens rose 3.7% last year. But this news is causing unease. The boom appears to be driven by a controversial "golden visa" scheme, in which non-EU citizens receive residency and free movement in the EU's Schengen zone, in exchange for investing in property. The worry is that foreign investors are benefiting while ordinary Greeks miss out. What are golden visas? Many EU countries including the UK, Portugal and Spain, have golden visa schemes, but Greece has the lowest threshold. Investors receive five-year residency after purchasing €250,000 of property, making the country a new hotspot for foreign buyers. According to Enterprise Greece - a business promotion body - 9,756 residence permits for investors and their families were issued in 2018 up to the end of November - up from 6,205 in 2017 and 3,695 in 2016. The biggest market was Chinese buyers, followed by Russians and Turks, with hundreds arriving at Athens airport every week to be driven around by real estate agents. "There are a lot of companies buying properties from Greeks and reselling to the Chinese," says Lefteris Potamianos, president of the Athens Real Estate Association, who estimates at least one-third of property sales in the city now go to golden visa investors. "It affects local people trying to rent properties, who see the prices going up. A lot of properties are going from Greek hands to foreign hands. We can't control this." How is this linked to Airbnb? Because prices in central Athens fell so much during the crisis - down to €1,000 per square metre or less - Mr Potamianos explains that investors will typically purchase three or four apartments in popular tourist spots and rent them out on Airbnb. This has caused rents to rise - by 17% last year, according to Greek rental site Spitogatos. Residents who have benefited from tourist cash, despite Greece's general economic malaise, are now starting to feel the negative effects. "Every year I've had an increase in visitors, which is good," says Spyros Bellas, who owns a cafe in Koukaki, a neighbourhood named by Airbnb as one of its top growth areas globally in 2016. "But now I think it's gone too far. Rents have doubled to €600, sometimes they're as much as €1,000. I do not think this reflects the Greek reality. Half of my staff have had to move away." His friend George Lafe says his landlord recently increased the rent on his studio apartment from €220 to €400 a month. "If you work in a bar or restaurant here, your salary is only €600-700," he explains. Who is benefiting? Some Athens residents, such as Iro Christodoulaki, have worked the situation to their advantage. The 31-year-old and her boyfriend have bought and renovated three apartments for Airbnb. One recently sold to a Chinese investor for €58,000 - eight times what they paid for it two years ago. The couple targeted foreign buyers "because they pay more than Greeks" and sold through a Chinese management company to a buyer who has never viewed the apartment. "During the crisis there were so many abandoned flats that people did not have the money to renovate," Ms Christodoulaki says. "All our apartments were unliveable when we bought them." "We have not taken them off the rental market - we created something new." What might happen next? It's not just Greeks who are concerned about the volume of golden visas being issued. The EU Commission has warned that the scheme may facilitate organised crime and money-laundering. The Greek government has introduced tighter controls, yet still plans to expand the scheme to include bonds and shares. On the streets of Athens, many are calling for far tighter regulation. "There's too much freedom right now," says Mr Bellas. "We need someone to bring rules in, otherwise everything is going to change."

गेराल्डिन हाइन्स भविष्य को लेकर घबरा रही हैं।


Woman in court accused of Fountainbridge murder

Summary: A 34-year old woman has appeared in court charged with the murder of a man in Edinburgh.

Kathleen Downey made a brief appearance in private before Sheriff Thomas Welsh at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. No plea was made and the case was continued for further inquiry. Ms Downey was remanded in custody. Her appearance in court follows the death of 41-year-old Colin Skilbeck at Gibson Terrace in the Fountainbridge area of the city, on Sunday, 12 March. Related Internet Links Scottish Courts Police Scotland

एडिनबर्ग में एक आदमी की हत्या के आरोप में एक 34 वर्षीय महिला अदालत में पेश हुई है।


The mega-machines helping China link the world

Summary: China is creating a network of ambitious land- and sea-based transport links to connect its booming economy with those of Europe and Africa. And it's wasting no time - designing incredible bespoke construction machines to get the job done fast.

By Tom CalverBBC News President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, aims to connect two-thirds of the world's population across 70 countries through a network of land links (the "belt") and sea routes (the "road"). Officials talk about lifetime investments worth trillions of dollars, sourced from banks, participating countries and the Chinese government. The scheme is not without controversy. Critics point out that it burdens poor countries with billions of dollars of Chinese debt, and dismiss it as a projection of Chinese foreign policy. Nevertheless, evidence of the Belt and Road can already be seen in China and beyond, where a fleet of new machines is building railways at considerable speed. Building bridges How do you build high-speed railways quickly where large sections of the route must be suspended over valleys and canyons to avoid bends? Enter bridge-building machine SLJ900/32 - locally nicknamed the Iron Monster. The SLJ is an all-in-one machine capable of carrying, lifting and placing sections of track, connecting pillar with pillar by heavy stone blocks. This is how it works: After laying each section, the 92m (300ft) vehicle - with the help of its 64 wheels - returns to collect another block. It then rolls forward over the part it has just laid to place another section. Each wheel is in a fully rotating block of 16, meaning it can also move sideways. Even with a full load, it can move at 5km/h (3mph), ensuring that the whole process is much quicker than traditional methods, which needed enormous cranes to be built on the ground. At 580 tonnes, it is also much heavier than any of the railway traffic that will pass over the track it lays, meaning its bridges are made far stronger than necessary for rail traffic. It has already contributed towards several high-speed rail projects, including a new link between Inner Mongolia and the rest of the country, propelling China towards its goal of 30,000km of high-speed rail by 2020. Digging tunnels Further south, the Su'ai Highway project in Shantou, not far from Hong Kong, presents the ambitious task of drilling 5km of underground six-lane motorway through an earthquake zone. When the tunnel opens in 2019, officials hope it will modernise Shantou's transport connections in time for it to become one of the designated 15 key ports along the maritime Silk Road. Previously, the machinery needed for the Su'ai Highway project would have been made overseas, but China has recently begun manufacturing its own tunnel boring machines (TBM) under license. The result is this 15.3m slurry TBM, built by the China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Company, with help from freelance German engineers and unveiled in October 2017. Like its German counterparts, it has a gigantic spinning disc at the front, capable of cutting into earth and rock. Weighing 4,000 tonnes, it has 100m of trailing infrastructure that enables workers to install the tunnel walls as the cutting head inches forward powered by hydraulic rams. As with other "slurry" machines, debris from the cutting head is mixed with a Bentonite (a type of clay) solution within the chamber, before being pumped away in pipes. It is not the widest TBM in the world - that accolade goes to Bertha, a 17.4m TBM built for use in Seattle's Alaskan Way viaduct. However, machines such as this one underline China's intention to become a key player in tunnel construction: Laying tracks While the foundations of the BRI are laid across China, vast Chinese-funded infrastructure projects are already in progress thousands of miles away. The Mombasa-Nairobi railway in Kenya received international attention when it was completed in May 2017, not least because it was 18 months ahead of schedule. The 480km railway is the first new line for Kenya since independence. With 90% of its funding coming from China's Exim bank, it is the first railway outside China built to Chinese construction standards with Chinese machinery. To understand how the railway was built at a pace of 700m a day, look no further than the machine that laid the tracks. Here it is in action: The track-layer transports prefabricated lengths of track along a railway line, sets one down, then rolls along the newly positioned track to set down the next one. Once these pieces of track are in place, the short rails attached to each section are replaced with longer ones that will give trains serving the route a smoother ride. It takes just four minutes to install each section of track. This is not a new idea - the principle has been put into practice in many parts of the world for decades - but China does it fast, building the machines quickly and cheaply, and making them capable of carrying larger sections of track. For all their technical wizardry, these machines still require an enormous amount of manpower. Local workers - supervised by Chinese engineers - toil to create sections of track in temporary factories along the route of the railway. They must then painstakingly ensure that the track section is secured in just the right place, with a margin of error of less than 2cm (0.8in). There are concerns over their safety. Last year a senior Chinese engineer working on the Mombasa-Nairobi line told Xinhua news agency: "On-site accidents are commonplace. "When they happen, they are almost always severe and often fatal." For now, though, around a million passengers have taken the route, which cuts the journey time along the old British colonial route from more than 10 hours to about four. Meanwhile, work has already begun to extend the line further west into Kisumu thanks to another $1.5bn (£1.1bn) loan from China's Exim Bank. Eventually, it will link Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. If all goes to plan - given the speed of construction made possible by these mega-machines - it will not be long before Kenya finds itself at the heart of a Chinese-funded East African rail network. Update, 23/07/18: the drill graphic incorrectly featured an Earth Pressure Balanced TBM. This has been corrected to show a Slurry TBM. Additional reporting by Yuwen Wu. Design by Prina Shah. Development by Joe Reed and Josh Rayman.

चीन अपनी तेजी से बढ़ती अर्थव्यवस्था को यूरोप और अफ्रीका से जोड़ने के लिए महत्वाकांक्षी भूमि और समुद्र आधारित परिवहन संपर्कों का एक नेटवर्क बना रहा है। और यह कोई समय बर्बाद नहीं कर रहा है-काम को तेजी से पूरा करने के लिए अविश्वसनीय बेस्पोक निर्माण मशीनों को डिजाइन करना।


Grammar schools: Is selection good for social mobility?

Summary: As the government reiterates its pledge to provide £50m to expand existing grammar schools in England, Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has criticised the plans as "absurd". She said that the evidence was "clear they do nothing to improve social mobility".

By Reality Check teamBBC News The Department for Education said grammar schools will only get a share of this money if they can show they are taking steps to admit more disadvantaged pupils. This is a comparatively small pot of money - 0.1% of the total schools budget and funding less than 0.1% of all school places. There are currently 163 grammar schools in England, out of about 3,500 state-funded secondary schools. Who ends up at grammar school? Children receiving free school meals (a common measure of low family income), are far less likely to attend a grammar school. On average 2.6% of grammar school children received free school meals compared with 13.4% of children across all state secondary schools, according to the latest school census. There is also evidence that grammars are selecting better-off students over their peers, even when exam results are comparably good. The Sutton Trust notes that in selective local authorities - in other words those that still operate the grammar system, such as Kent and Buckinghamshire - 66% of non-free school meals children who achieve top English and Maths marks at the end of primary school go on to a grammar school. In contrast, 40% of similarly high-achieving children who are eligible for free school meals go on to grammar school. And grammar school children at the moment are more likely than their peers to have been educated outside the state system at primary school. Do poor children do better at grammars? Children from more deprived backgrounds on average do better at grammar schools than in the comprehensive system, but these schools select a disproportionate number of children from wealthy families. And those poorer children who live in selective areas - but don't get into grammar school - do worse than those in areas which mainly operate the comprehensive school system. Research from the University of Durham published in March suggested that grammar schools perform no better than non-selective state schools once their pupils' higher ability and wealth is taken into account. Do grammar schools make an effort to admit children from lower income families? At the moment, grammar school intakes are heavily skewed towards children from better-off backgrounds. In 2016, BBC research looking at the admissions policies of all 163 existing grammar schools in England revealed that fewer than half were doing anything at all to prioritise children on free school meals. Fewer than 20% were using free school meals as their top priority over other criteria like religious observance, having a sibling at the school or how close they lived. However, schools review their admissions policies each year and since this investigation was conducted, several have updated them. The government says the idea is that schools must prove they are taking steps to ensure their intakes are more diverse before they can expand. One way of doing this is having quotas that mean poorer children who pass the test are prioritised above higher-scoring peers. But they still have to pass and will most likely be up against children who have received extra tuition. Another way is to have lower pass marks for lower-income children. In 2016, no grammar school weighted test scores in favour of poorer children, although three schools did still consider for admittance children receiving free school meals who scored up to 10 points below the pass mark. And they still have to encourage poorer children to sit the exam in the first place. Are grammars just playing catch-up? Under the current law, new grammar schools cannot open but existing ones can expand. Education Secretary Damian Hinds said the new expansion would simply allow grammar schools to do what other schools have already been allowed to do - create new places where there is demand. He said the expansion would "give parents greater choice in looking at schools that are right for their family - and give children of all backgrounds access to a world-class education". England's grammar schools have already been growing. A BBC analysis in January found that the number of pupils aged 11-15 in England's grammar schools had gone from 110,600 in 2009-10 to 118,200 in 2016-17 - a 7% growth at a time when the number of 11 to 15-year-olds in the areas with grammar schools fell by 2.5%. Pupils tend to travel further to attend grammar schools than they do to attend comprehensives. And they are often not in areas most in need of more secondary places. Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter

जैसा कि सरकार इंग्लैंड में मौजूदा व्याकरण विद्यालयों का विस्तार करने के लिए 50 मिलियन पाउंड प्रदान करने की अपनी प्रतिज्ञा को दोहराती है, लेबर की छाया शिक्षा सचिव एंजेला रेनर ने योजनाओं की "बेतुकी" के रूप में आलोचना की है। उन्होंने कहा कि सबूत "स्पष्ट थे कि वे सामाजिक गतिशीलता में सुधार के लिए कुछ नहीं करते हैं।"


Miss Fa'afafine: Behind Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant

Summary: Bright lights, glittering dresses and dazzling smiles are a feature of every beauty pageant, but Samoa's Miss Fa'afafine is a pageant with a difference - an annual celebration of the island nation's third gender tradition.

By Yvette TanBBC News "I believe I was born a fa'afafine. Though originally I was born male, my feminine side is much stronger", says Velda Collins. "A woman trapped in a man's body", is how she describes herself. "We are unique from the lesbian and gay community around the world, we have our own identity." Despite the fa'afafine being an accepted part of Samoan culture for generations, she says life was hard growing up, as her parents never quite accepted her. They were afraid her identity would close doors for her in life. So taking part in Miss Fa'afafine 2007 was one of the "most liberating experiences" of her life. She went on to win that pageant, and is now one of the contest organisers. The fa'afafine tradition This year, Miss Fa'afafine celebrates its 10th anniversary, and will see nine contestants from various countries and across all ages gather in front of a thousand-strong crowd on Friday. The Samoa Fa'afafine Association (SFA), which organises the pageant, uses it to generate funds for their community work, but also to raise awareness of various human rights issues, especially their push for Samoan laws banning homosexuality to be repealed. Ymania Brown, 53 and an SFA founder, says she has identified as a girl "since about the age of three", and remembers "having a crush on this particular boy in kindergarten". But she says being fa'afafine is not the same as being gay. "When you try to fit cultural idioms into Western boxes, what you end up doing is trying to find the nearest fit," she says. "It's a very painful life to lead because of all the stigma and negative connotations," she said. Her mother was accepting of her identity, though her father resisted. "No parent would wish it upon their child, but once they see it's a losing battle they usually embrace it." There is added weight to the contest this year, as the community feels their identity, traditionally accepted or tolerated in society, is coming under increasing pressure from religious conservatism in strongly Christian Samoa. In June, a national newspaper caused outrage by publishing an uncensored image of the body of Jeanine Tuivaiki on its front page, a fa'afafine who was found dead, possibly by suicide, inside a church. The prime minister said he was "appalled" by the front page, while the SFA said it had "robbed what last dignity and humanity Ms Tuivaiki had". The newspaper apologised, but the SFA said it was a sign that fa'afafine "can never be fully functional free and equal citizens of Samoa" while anti-gay laws exist. But Ymania says she sees a positive "change in the way acceptance is flowing". "You see kids in primary school acting and talking as fa'afafines publicly," she added. Many people attending conservative churches "are growing up and having children, who sometimes end up being fa'afafine so how can they go and discriminate against them?" she asks. Ymania herself is a mother to two adopted boys. "The first time I saw my name on my children's birth certificate listing me as their mother, I broke down," she said. "Even growing up, all I ever wanted to be was somebody's mum. And the fact that my country has deemed me to be listed as the mother of my children on their birth certificate, it doesn't get any better than that." Children are also one of the reasons why Ymania, and the SFA are fighting for greater LGBT rights in Samoa. "If one of my kids turn out to be fa'afafine or have fa'afafine children - not only them but so many children across Samoa - I want them to grow up in a world that is tolerant," she said. "It's probably not going to happen in my lifetime but I have to try to leave this world a better place than when I found it - for every citizen, including fa'afafines."

चमकीली रोशनी, चमकते कपड़े और चमकदार मुस्कान हर सौंदर्य प्रतियोगिता की एक विशेषता है, लेकिन समोआ की मिस फाफाइन एक अंतर के साथ एक प्रतियोगिता है-द्वीप राष्ट्र की तीसरी लिंग परंपरा का एक वार्षिक उत्सव।


Can Fed chief dig himself out of a (Jackson) Hole?

Summary: Jerome Powell may be "clueless" according to US President Donald Trump. But when the Federal Reserve head takes centre stage at a gathering of the banking elite this weekend there'll be plenty of people watching for his clues on restoring global economic balance.

By Russell HottenBBC News, New York It's the annual symposium of central bankers from around the world, held in the picturesque Wyoming mountain village of Jackson Hole. Mr Powell's keynote speech is the much-anticipated highlight. According to Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities: "The whole point [of Jackson Hole] is to get away, take a step back from what we are currently seeing in the economy, and talk about some of the longer term issues." But will Mr Powell have that luxury? Such is the anxiety gripping financial markets, there's an expectation he needs to address immediate issues: interest rate direction, conflicting signals on Wall Street, the China trade row, stimulus, perhaps even Mr Trump's constant sniping. Mr Powell faces a balancing act: Calm jittery financial markets without antagonising further a hostile president who only this week called him a "golfer who can't putt". Many think it's a no-win situation. For Ms House, it's not even as if the US economy is in particularly bad shape. She told the BBC that Mr Trump perhaps has a point when he insists in his Twitter outpourings that the economy is in rude health. She said: "The consumer sector is very strong right now. The labour market is hot - we've got close to the lowest unemployment rate in about 50 years… Savings rates are quite high." Should the economy turn sour, "there's a lot of cushion to fall back on". It's in China and Europe, specifically Germany, where many of the big economic problems lay, she said. And yet, there are fears the US economy, which has expanded each year for more than a decade, is at risk of stalling - perhaps even tipping into recession. Such is Wall Street's unease that share markets plunged 3% one day last week, only to recover almost as quickly. But it is in the bond markets - basically, the area that deals with loans to governments and companies - where recession signals have been flashing brightest. This month it became more expensive for the US government to borrow money over two years than 10. Usually, investors want a higher rate of return for locking up money for 10 years - compensation for unforeseeable risks. When the reverse is the case - a so-called bond yield inversion - it suggests investors think the short-term economic picture is gloomy. What's more, an inversion has proved a reliable (though by no means conclusive) indicator that recession is on its way. 'A little odd' The president has dismissed recession warnings. Yet on Tuesday, he touted tax cuts to boost the economy - only to dismiss the idea on Wednesday. Many asked, if Mr Trump thinks the economy is in good health, why contemplate a tax stimulus? There is, then, a mass of conflicting signals that analysts would like Mr Powell to cut through and clear up. As Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell points out, when the jobs and consumer markets are healthy, you would normally expect pressure for interest rate rises, not cuts. It's "just a little odd", he told the BBC. Minutes released this week from the last Fed meeting, in July, underlined the confusion. Rates were cut 25 basis points, but the minutes show some policymakers wanted to go further, while others were against a cut. At the very least, the Jackson Hole elite should "send a signal to markets that they are attuned to the risks and at least doing what they can", Mr Mould said. A big problem for the Fed chief, however, is that Mr Trump has painted him as an economic threat, and few people have come to the central banker's support. Populists side with the president, while Democrats and progressives think the Fed is just out to protect Wall Street and don't want to be seen as defenders. Karen Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, says Mr Trump has set up Mr Powell for blame if, or when, things go wrong. For all the president's contradictions, he's a master of political reality, she says. Anti-climax? "Mr Trump doesn't care what rates are. He cares about who voters think is to blame for slower growth and market turmoil, and he is determined to be sure it isn't him," she said. "What's an astute politician to do? Find a fall guy distrusted by Republicans, Democrats, independents, populists, and progressives." Some experts think it's time Mr Powell gave a more forceful response to pressure coming from the White House. Central bankers have emerged from the shadows since the global financial crisis, to be seen as economic saviours with a more powerful public voice. Joseph Song, senior economist at Bank of America, thinks Mr Powell and other Fed policymakers will at the very least defend the Fed's independence. "They are going to try to hammer home that message again and again, and make sure that they preserve their independence," he told the BBC. But the Fed's task is pretty straightforward (if difficult): keep the labour market strong without causing inflation. It means the central bank alone cannot deliver what Mr Trump ultimately wants - sustained economic growth and financial stability - and Mr Powell should perhaps stand up and say so, says Mohamed El-Erian, former head of bond trading giant Pimco. But, as Mr El-Erian wrote this week in an article for Bloomberg, any push back against the president "risks fuelling immediate market instability and aggravating White House anger". Perhaps it would be better to say nothing at all, he ponders. "No wonder a growing number of observers wonder whether central banks should revisit the mantra that more communication and policy transparency are always better - a traditional wisdom that led Powell to increase the frequency of press conferences," he said. But after all the expectation, if the Fed chief does opt for diplomacy and prudence, it could end up making Jackson Hole something an anti-climax.

अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प के अनुसार जेरोम पॉवेल "अनजान" हो सकते हैं। लेकिन जब फेडरल रिजर्व के प्रमुख इस सप्ताह के अंत में बैंकिंग अभिजात वर्ग की एक सभा में केंद्र में होंगे, तो बहुत से लोग वैश्विक आर्थिक संतुलन को बहाल करने पर उनके संकेतों को देख रहे होंगे।