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uk-england-devon-23390543 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-23390543 | Man rescued after catamaran capsizes off Wembury | A man has been rescued from rocks after a catamaran he was onboard capsized off the south Devon coast. | The man, who was in his 50s, swam a "short distance" from the craft to rocks at Wembury, a spokesman for Brixham Coastguards said. He was rescued by the RNLI Plymouth lifeboat following a number of emergency calls on Saturday morning. The man was unhurt and the craft, which was no longer than 20ft (6m) long, was taken to Wembury, the spokesman added. | दक्षिण डेवोन तट पर एक कटमरैन के पलट जाने के बाद एक व्यक्ति को चट्टानों से बचाया गया है। |
uk-scotland-south-scotland-29804319 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-29804319 | River Ettrick salmon tagged in order to test 'fish pass' | Salmon tagging has been carried on a tributary of the River Tweed in order to test the efficiency of a new "fish pass". | It has been installed at Murray's Cauld on the Philiphaugh Estate near Selkirk. The fish pass is part of a wider upgrade of the area, which includes a hydro-electric station. Salmon have traditionally leapt up the cauld - or weir - as they swim upstream from the Atlantic to spawn but they are now able to take the alternative route. Kenny Galt and James Hunt from the Tweed Foundation and Tommy Heard, water bailiff for the River Tweed Commission, helped to carry out the tagging operation. | एक नए "फिश पास" की दक्षता का परीक्षण करने के लिए ट्वीड नदी की एक सहायक नदी पर सैल्मन टैगिंग की गई है। |
newsbeat-10003716 | https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-10003716 | Artists choose their albums of the decade | To celebrate the end of a decade of music Newsbeat speaks to the biggest artists in Radio 1's world, to find out their favourite album of the last ten years. In part two check out who Leona Lewis, Biffy Clyro, Chipmunk and Jay Sean have chosen... | Jay Sean Ne-Yo - In My Own Words I'm a big Ne-Yo fan. I do love his first album, it's only because I was heavily inspired by him and what he changed. He brought melody back into RnB music. He almost formed a new genre of pop RnB and that's what I do. I'm very inspired by him. Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro) At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command We saw them live twice - the first time at T In The Park they were without doubt the best live band you will ever see, or that I'll ever see. Absolutely the best gig and band ever. It's a damn shame that they broke up when they were just coming into their own. If you look at the music that came after At The Drive-In, rock music really moved in that direction. They opened up a whole new generation's eyes to a ferocity that no-one had seen. Any band can learn from that. Relationship Of Command - it was the one which introduced everyone to them. Leona Lewis Alicia Keys - Songs In A Minor When Alicia first came out I think she was very different. It's all very piano based. At the time I was really into getting my piano skills down, she was quite an inspiration. Her song writing is great and I can just really relate to her. Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips) Radiohead - Hail To The Thief When Radiohead did their weird records they were really perched in a way where they could have said 'we're going to take over the world' and we're going to play with Beyonce and play stadiums. They chose not to. I was just powerless to it, this is the way groups should just be. They go for it, a lot of things they do could have failed, could have been too weird. Felix White (The Maccabees) Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights It was a proper magic record. For a band to make a first record and understand how beautiful, dark, understated music could be. Music which works from an egoless perspective. Music that doesn't come and get you, you have to give a bit of yourself to it and let it wrap you up. Embed itself in your mind, suddenly when that happens you get so much out of it. I listened to the record again and I was just stunned at how incredible it is. It's incredibly beautiful and incredibly sinister and aggressive and the songs are just wonderful. It was one of the records which set our band in place, uniting on a particular thing. Chipmunk Jay-Z - Blueprint III The production is amazing, the flows are amazing and it has inspirational words. Matt Cocksedge - Delphic Sigur Ros - () That's soundtracked any kind of panoramic moment I've had since then, that's an important record. It wouldn't be so important in terms of the public eye. There's one particular moment. I mean the whole album just works perfectly. This is one of the great things about that album, from the start to the end - it's just a constant flow. It only really kicks in terms of huge massive cymbals right in the last song, or the second to last song, the whole album is a huge peak towards that. It's unbelievable, so understated, simple and devastatingly effective. Artists choose their albums of the decade - part one | संगीत के एक दशक के अंत का जश्न मनाने के लिए न्यूज़बीट पिछले दस वर्षों के अपने पसंदीदा एल्बम का पता लगाने के लिए रेडियो 1 की दुनिया के सबसे बड़े कलाकारों से बात करता है। भाग दो में देखें कि लियोना लुईस, बिफी क्लाइरो, चिपमंक और जे सीन ने किसे चुना है... |
world-australia-32460676 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32460676 | My relative remembered at Gallipoli | Like many Australians, I have ancestors who served in World War One. The stories of their military service are well known by my relatives and their diaries, letters and medals are precious family relics. | By Wendy FrewAustralia editor, BBC News Online One of those letters - written by my great-great-uncle, Benjamin Bennett Leane - was read by Prince Charles to the crowd gathered in the cold dawn at Anzac Cove. With his brother (my great-grandfather) and three other brothers, Benjamin served at Gallipoli. The 26-year-old kept a diary during the war which he addressed to his young wife Phyllis. They had been married less than three years and his battlefield missives were his way of talking to her. Two days before the fateful morning when the Anzacs landed on the shores of Gallipoli, Benjamin, then a captain in the Australian army, wrote a letter to Phyllis that he feared would be his last. "In case the worst happens and I am unable to make any more entries I will take this opportunity to bid you 'goodbye,' dear girl," he told Phyllis. "Know that I died loving you with my whole heart and soul, dearest wife that a man ever had. Kiss little Gwen and our new baby, who perhaps I may never see, and never let them forget Daddy." He asked Phyllis to be patient with his mother, told his wife she must eventually consider remarrying, and said he was not afraid to die. But in his later diary entries the horrors of the war are clear. He records seeing men "weeping like babies" and "cowering at every explosion". One incident he recalls is particularly poignant. A young message runner returns from the fighting "looking like a maniac," calling for Captain Leane but unable to recognise the officer. The boy has dug himself out of the earth following several explosions that kill the other six runners with him. Not all Australians think the disastrous Gallipoli campaign should be at the heart of the nation's founding myth but it is hard not to be moved by the accounts of what happened to the troops. Like Erich Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front and the experiences of the Turkish troops, the stories of the Anzacs are often heart-breaking. Benjamin, along with his brothers, and some cousins and nephews, survived the horrors of Gallipoli. He died two years later at Bullecourt in France, killed by an artillery shell. His tombstone is surrounded by thousands of graves of unidentified soldiers. | कई ऑस्ट्रेलियाई लोगों की तरह, मेरे भी पूर्वज हैं जिन्होंने प्रथम विश्व युद्ध में सेवा की। उनकी सैन्य सेवा की कहानियों को मेरे रिश्तेदार अच्छी तरह से जानते हैं और उनकी डायरी, पत्र और पदक बहुमूल्य पारिवारिक अवशेष हैं। |
uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53111179 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53111179 | Woman in hospital after being hit by car in North Ayrshire | A woman has been taken to hospital after she was hit by a car in North Ayrshire. | Emergency services were called to Crawfords Lodge access road, Ardrossan, at about 14:20 on Friday. The woman was taken to Crosshouse Hospital near Kilmarnock for treatment. Her condition was unknown. The A78 between the Montfode roundabout and West Kilbride was closed, and diversions were in place. | उत्तरी आयरशायर में एक कार की चपेट में आने के बाद एक महिला को अस्पताल ले जाया गया है। |
uk-wales-56243190 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-56243190 | Cardiff Co-op cash machine blast: Man arrested | A man has been arrested in connection with a burglary at a shop in Cardiff which involved the shop door and cash machine being blown off. | Forty people were evacuated on Friday from flats above the Co-op store in Countisbury Avenue, Llanrumney, when acetylene cylinders were used to break into it. The 20-year-old man, from Llanrumney, was arrested on suspicion of burglary. He has since been released on police bail pending further inquiries. South Wales Police said they were still investigating what had happened. Related Internet Links South Wales Police | कार्डिफ में एक दुकान में चोरी के मामले में एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है, जिसमें दुकान का दरवाजा और नकदी मशीन को उड़ा दिया गया था। |
world-asia-india-46436829 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46436829 | The Mumbai 'toxic hell' where poor are forced to live | Tens of thousands of people are fighting to leave Mahul, a heavily industrialised neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Mumbai, saying the toxic pollution there is adversely impacting their health. BBC Marathi's Mayuresh Konnur and Janhavee Moole report on the residents' battle to be relocated. | Anita Dhole, 38, was forced to move to a "transit camp" set up by the civic authorities in Mahul in May 2017 after the illegal slum she was living in was demolished. Since then, she says, she has been suffering. "I have breathing trouble and high blood pressure, and the pollution has also affected my eyesight," she says. Hers was one of more than 5,000 families - estimated to be between 30,000 and 50,000 people - that lost their homes in the demolition drive and were offered temporary housing in Mahul. They were told they would be given homes in another Mumbai suburb later but, residents say, Mahul is not fit for living, even for a short time. A former fishing village, it's now close to oil and petroleum refineries, chemical factories and fertiliser plants. A report in 2013 by the King Edward Memorial Hospital said that around 67% of people living in Mahul complained of breathlessness several times a month and around 84% of them complained of eye-irritation. In 2015, India's environment court National Green Tribunal said there was "a perceptible threat to [the] health of residents" in Mahul because of the "prevailing air quality in the area". But local municipal authorities say three different surveys by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board show "that the pollution levels in Mahul are not different from other areas of Mumbai". Yet residents blame breathing issues, asthma, skin diseases, tuberculosis and blood pressure-related problems on poor local conditions. Ms Dhole says her parents fell so sick in Mahul that they soon left for their village. Shamdas Salve, who also moved to Mahul last year, says his two-year-old son has had a persistent skin infection for the past five months. "He doesn't sleep the whole night and keeps scratching. I've consulted several skin specialists and changed his medication but he has had no relief. He cries and keeps scratching. He now has marks on his face too." His words are echoed by many of his neighbours - 10-year-old Sahil suffers from TB and so does 17-month-old Anshul Tusambad; Maya Goswami, 55, struggles with asthma; and 18-year-old Kavita Subramanyan has low BP and breathing problems. Besides pollution, residents say they have no access to clean water and sewage facilities and that electricity supply is far from regular. There are also no hospitals or schools nearby. The area is poorly connected with other parts of the city and, as a result, many women have been forced to quit their jobs and stay home. The transit camp where Ms Dhole lives is actually a block of apartments that goes by the official name of Eversmile layout. It has dozens of buildings and each is home to 300 congested one-room apartments. The complex is filthy - sewage pipes are broken, gutters are overflowing; electric wires are dangling everywhere; the air is stuffy, mosquitoes abound and rats scurry past us as we walk around the neighbourhood. Most of these low-cost homes are meant for families who have been relocated because of demolition of unauthorised slums. Every year, tens of thousands migrate from rural India to Mumbai in search of livelihood and most end up living in illegal shanty towns that often encroach on roads or other city infrastructure. Most of those who were relocated to Mahul, including Ms Dhole, used to live in a slum along the Tansa pipeline - the 160km (99 miles) long water pipeline that runs through Mumbai, carrying water from Lake Tansa. It's a major source of water for the city. Just over half of the pipeline is overground and, over the years, unauthorised houses came up alongside it and, in some places, on top of it. In 2006, a petition was filed in the high court in Mumbai asking the court to order the government to relocate those living in the slums to "ensure that the water, which is used by the citizens of Mumbai, is safe, and that these pipelines do not become a target for persons to attack the citizens of Mumbai". Read more stories about pollution and the environment: In 2009, the court ruled that there must be a 10-metre gap between the pipeline and the nearest home, which meant that thousands of families had to move out. Their homes were subsequently demolished and they were told to relocate to Mahul. Many initially refused because of the pollution, but were forced to move as the demolitions continued. The fight to leave Ms Dhole has started an online petition demanding that they be moved out of Mahul. She and other residents have also petitioned the high court. In August, the court said the civic authorities could not force people to move to Mahul and that they must find alternative housing for them or pay rent for those families that did move out. The protests have intensified in the past two months with many residents of Mahul's transit camp demonstrating at the site where their homes once stood. They have also launched a campaign on social media with the hashtag and Twitter handle MumbaisToxicHell - demanding that they are relocated again, this time to a safer and healthier environment. | दसियों हज़ार लोग पश्चिमी भारतीय शहर मुंबई में एक भारी औद्योगिक पड़ोस माहुल को छोड़ने के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे हैं, यह कहते हुए कि वहाँ के विषाक्त प्रदूषण से उनके स्वास्थ्य पर प्रतिकूल प्रभाव पड़ रहा है। बीबीसी मराठी के मयूरेश कोन्नूर और जानहवी मूले ने निवासियों की लड़ाई को स्थानांतरित करने पर रिपोर्ट दी। |
uk-scotland-56044800 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-56044800 | Your pictures of Scotland 12 - 19 February | A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 12 and 19 February. Send your photos to [email protected]. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here. | Please also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly. Conditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions. Please ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice). In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide. However, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News. At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law. You can find more information here. All photos are subject to copyright. | 12 और 19 फरवरी के बीच भेजी गई स्कॉटलैंड की अपनी तस्वीरों का चयन करें। अपनी तस्वीरें [email protected] पर भेजें। कृपया सुनिश्चित करें कि आप यहाँ पाई जाने वाली तस्वीरों के संबंध में बीबीसी के नियमों का पालन करते हैं। |
uk-england-cumbria-20338849 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-20338849 | Sellafield accused of disposing of waste at landfill | Sellafield nuclear plant is to be prosecuted over allegations that it sent low-level radioactive waste to a landfill site. | Sellafield Limited is accused of sending and disposing of four bags from the plant to Lillyhall landfill site in Workington in April 2010. It is facing eight charges brought by the Environment Agency and one brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation. The case is due before Workington Magistrates' Court in December. | सेलाफील्ड परमाणु संयंत्र पर इन आरोपों के लिए मुकदमा चलाया जाना है कि उसने एक लैंडफिल साइट पर निम्न-स्तरीय रेडियोधर्मी अपशिष्ट भेजा था। |
world-us-canada-13101814 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13101814 | Postal Service in Statue of Liberty stamp photo mix-up | The US Postal Service regrets issuing a stamp featuring a photo of a Las Vegas casino's replica Statue of Liberty rather than the original in New York harbour, a spokesman has said. | But the postal service printed three billion of the first-class stamps and will continue to sell them, he said. And the agency would have selected the photograph anyway, he said. A stamp collector discovered the mix-up after noting discrepancies between the stamp image and the copper original. The mix-up was first reported by Linn's Stamp News, a publication for philatelists. It points out that the photo used on the stamp shows a rectangular patch on the crown that is present on the 14-year-old statue at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, but not on the 305ft (93m) copper statue in New York. In addition, the facial features on the Las Vegas replica are more sharply defined than on the original. The image was taken from a stock photography service, the New York Times reported. Designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue - entitled Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World - was given to the US by the French and dedicated in 1886. | एक प्रवक्ता ने कहा है कि अमेरिकी डाक सेवा को न्यूयॉर्क बंदरगाह में मूल के बजाय लास वेगास कैसिनो की प्रतिकृति स्टैच्यू ऑफ लिबर्टी की तस्वीर वाली डाक टिकट जारी करने पर खेद है। |
uk-england-tyne-54842438 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-54842438 | Van life: Durham couple's six years on the road (and counting) | The idea of packing up your possessions to live life on the open road has its appeal, but the practicalities put a lot of people off actually doing it. Six years ago, after one of them nearly died and both were diagnosed with depression, Dan Colegate, 38, and Esther Dingley, 37, swapped their careers and a permanent home for motoring through the mountains, valleys and coastlines of Europe. | By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News In January 2014, Dan and Esther appeared to have a good life. They had a nice flat in the picturesque cathedral city of Durham, multiple degrees from universities including Oxford and Cambridge, flourishing careers and were three weeks away from getting married. But beneath the surface, both felt hollow inside, like "zombies sleepwalking through life", Esther recalls. Dan, a business development manager, was getting counselling for depression while Esther, who ran her own personal training firm, battled with chronic fatigue sparked by her own mental health struggles. And then Dan nearly died. Doctors had told Esther to say her final goodbye to her partner of 11 years just in case they were unable to halt the "flesh-eating" bacteria threatening to devour his insides; the necrotising fasciitis he had was an infection that followed surgery to ease a bowel incontinence-causing defect he had endured since birth. They could not have known it on that fretful night, but the moment Dan nearly died proved to be the moment his and Esther's life together really started. "It was the kick up the backside we needed," says Dan, chatting six years later via video-call from an idyllic vineyard in Gascony, France, where he is house-sitting. In the on-screen box beside Dan, Esther, who is broadcasting live from the pair's parked-up campervan, nods. "People say every cloud has a silver lining but when you're in the cloud it does not look like it," she says. The couple are currently several hundred miles apart, Dan opting to stay still for a time while Esther prefers to keep mobile. "We've got the best of both worlds, really," Esther says. "We get a home bug and a travel bug. Travelling takes you to some beautiful places but it feels a bit unsettled at times, so then we house-sit somewhere to get a bit of stability. "We realised that during the coronavirus we had not been apart from each other for a year so decided to each just do our own thing for a bit. This whole thing has been really good for us individually and our relationship; we are genuinely happy now." The seeds of that happiness first started to be sown in the weeks after Dan's operation, when he was lying on the sofa eating chunks of discounted Christmas cake they had bought for their wedding. The nuptials had to be cancelled because of his health scare, and they've still not got around to becoming husband and wife. "We really loved to travel and we kept saying one day we would do it, but there was always another project, another job to help pay for the future we wanted that we should do first," Esther says. "We were always just chasing the next objective, always chasing something bigger so we could do something in the future. Then all of a sudden someone turns around and says the person I love and was planning to do it all with could be gone by the morning. "It was time for us to think again about our lives." Dan nods, adding simply: "We were taking our future for granted." With Dan recovering, they decided to start travelling almost immediately, and within three weeks they were on the road. They found a campervan - quickly nicknamed Homer - a tenant for their flat and a buyer for their car. Initially they put most of their possessions in a friend's attic, but have since given most away to friends and charities. "Everything we own and consider personal possessions fits in the van," Dan says. They reckoned with their savings and rental income from their Durham home they could head off for a year-long adventure. The two fitness fanatics were keen to hike and cycle in some of Europe's most beautiful spots. One year has become six and counting, with the couple living off a combination of savings, rental income and money earned doing odd jobs. "When you are sitting on your sofa in Durham trying to decide if you can take the financial risk, with people asking you 'what about your pension?' or 'what about this or that?', you are pretty risk averse," Esther says. "It was not until on the road and finding out how inexpensive it could be, and interacting with people living on the road for 10 or 20 years, that we started to see we did not have to go back to the careers that we had. "We could have done this years earlier." They have never really had a plan but instead have just been "searching for a feeling", Dan says. They've lived in France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Liechtenstein, enjoying summers in the altitudes of the Alps and Pyrenees, and have spent winters in the warmer climes of Spain. They have biked and hiked thousands of miles, sometimes apart but most of it together; both recognise they were in a fortunate financial position that's certainly not shared by everyone. No matter how hard they had worked to put themselves in that situation, there was still an element of luck to get there. And they say luck has accompanied them throughout. "The overriding experience for me is that something always comes up," Dan says. "Every time we said 'we needed to do this or that', something happened that made that possible." There was the time they broke down in Italy on a national holiday with the garages closed, and a chance encounter with an expat Mancunian walking her dog led to them being offered a place to stay. Or when they quickly found farm work or house-sitting jobs when they needed some extra cash or a stable base for a while. And then there was the arrival of Leela. In January 2017, Dan and Esther found themselves in San José, a small fishing village of pristine white houses beside the dazzling blue Alboran Sea in southern Spain, enjoying lunch at a cafe with Esther's parents, who had flown out to see how the pair were getting on. It was the cheese and ham toastie that caught Leela's attention. The eight-month-old was a stray, a not uncommon sight in Spain. This one day found Leela on the cafe's terrace, where Esther and Dan slipped her the remnants of their lunch. After some deliberation, Dan and Esther decided to give Leela a home - but what they didn't know until they took her to the vet to be checked over was that their new friend was pregnant. They soon rented a house in the town, where Leela could give birth to her six puppies, and helped the inexperienced mother raise them: Dan and Esther bottle-fed the pups every three hours for several weeks. Two of the dogs found new homes in Spain, while the other four and their mother joined Dan and Esther on their travels. This was the inspiration for what became a series of children's books written by the couple, to add to several travel books Dan has authored. One campervan, two people and five dogs, and there are no plans to end the adventure, no matter how much they miss friends, family and the weekend trips they used to take to the beaches of Northumberland and hills of the Lake District. They might currently be in separate countries but they are of one mind when asked what they plan to do next. "We haven't got a clue," Dan smiles, and Esther nods enthusiastically. All pictures are subject to copyright | खुली सड़क पर जीवन जीने के लिए अपनी संपत्ति को पैक करने का विचार अपनी अपील रखता है, लेकिन व्यावहारिकताओं ने बहुत से लोगों को वास्तव में ऐसा करने से रोक दिया। छह साल पहले, जब उनमें से एक की लगभग मृत्यु हो गई थी और दोनों को अवसाद का पता चला था, 38 वर्षीय डैन कोलेगेट और 37 वर्षीय एस्थर डिंगले ने अपने करियर और यूरोप के पहाड़ों, घाटियों और तटरेखाओं के माध्यम से मोटर चलाने के लिए एक स्थायी घर की अदला-बदली की। |
uk-england-leicestershire-21240160 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21240160 | Leicester under-15s football match disorder suspect charged | A man has been charged following a disorder at an under-15s football match in Leicester. | The man, aged 50, is accused of a public order offence at a match between Blaby and Whetstone FC and Leicester Nirvana FC on 21 October, last year. The match was being played at the home of Blaby and Whetstone FC in Warwick Road, Whetstone. The man, who has not been named, is due to appear at Leicester Magistrates' Court on 25 February. | लीसेस्टर में एक अंडर-15 फुटबॉल मैच में विकार के बाद एक व्यक्ति पर आरोप लगाया गया है। |
uk-england-lincolnshire-17968406 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-17968406 | Flooding damages bird breeding sites in Lincolnshire | Heavy rain and flooding has affected bird numbers in Lincolnshire, according to the RSPB. | The organisation said rising water levels had damaged nests and breeding grounds. Laura Harpham from the RSPB, at Frampton Marsh, near Boston, said wading birds were most at risk, including ground-nesting avocets. In March, nature reserves in the county suffered from dry conditions which put the same birds at risk from predators. | आर. एस. पी. बी. के अनुसार, भारी बारिश और बाढ़ ने लिंकनशायर में पक्षियों की संख्या को प्रभावित किया है। |
uk-england-18727100 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-18727100 | Goole building evacuated after lightning causes fire | A building in an East Yorkshire town had to be evacuated after being hit by lightning and catching fire. | Humberside Fire and Rescue Service sent five fire engines to Aire Street in Goole, where the roof of the building was ablaze. The property houses council offices and unoccupied flats. The fire service said it had also attended a number of flooding incidents across Goole after heavy rain hit the town. Matt Smith from the service said the lightning strike caused a fire in the roof void. "It was relatively bad," he said. "We eventually got on top with a turntable ladder and two jets." | पूर्वी यॉर्कशायर शहर में एक इमारत को बिजली गिरने और आग लगने के बाद खाली कराना पड़ा। |
science-environment-22339191 | https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22339191 | Scientific opinions differ on bee pesticide ban | When the first neonicotinoid insecticide was introduced in 1991, there was a general welcome from scientists because it provided an improved method of tackling some of the world's most destructive crop pests while being safer for humans and the general environment. | By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent, BBC News Neonicotinoid chemicals are usually applied to seeds, entering every part of a growing plant so all of it becomes poisonous to threats like beetles and aphids. And they are widely used around the world - In the US it's estimated that 94% of corn seed is treated with these chemicals. Given their prevalence in farming it is little wonder that scientists have sought to establish if they have played a role in the decline of bee populations widely seen around the world over the last 10 years. But the studies carried out to date have not reached a clear conclusion on the impacts of neonicotinoid chemicals. Some have shown significant effects. Others have not. "We're not making this stuff up, we have reason to think this is a problem," Dr Geraldine Wright from Newcastle University told BBC News. "I think there is an effect of neonicotinoids and I think that based on research I've done in my own lab. Before that I was fairly doubtful, but I do actually think there is an influence." There are far more research papers that show an effect than don't, says Dr Wright. However, Dr Julian Little from Bayer in the UK draws a big distinction between studies conducted in the laboratory and those carried out in the field. "We have never argued about the science, what we have been upset about is how that research has been put into policy. Because when you repeat it with real bees, real colonies in real fields, you don't see any effect." But Dr Wright says it is wrong to dismiss the research carried out in the laboratory. She says the work is done there precisely because it is possible to control the variables such as the doses of the chemicals the animals are exposed to, and thereby establish cause and effect. "I think it is incorrect to outright dismiss the work that has been done in the lab on neonicotinoids because it is clearly indicative there is an effect of these pesticides on the bees brain, their behaviour, and I have unpublished data which shows a strong effect on their physiology - the effect we saw we didn't expect and its quite a strong effect." Dr Wright says that the ban is justified. While the field studies might be unclear, the chemicals do have subtle effects on bees, she says. "If you feed this stuff to honeybees and you give them a measured dose, they don't just curl up and die, their behaviour changes subtly. They are dependant on their abilities to learn and remember things in order to find food. If the workers can't do that they are not as efficient and that's a problem for the whole colony." Bayer believe that the a ban on neonicotinoids will not improve the health of bees. Dr Julian Little says that politicians are drawing the wrong conclusions from the research that has been carried out. "We have two controls for all of this. One is France; we've had massive restrictions on these products for over 10 years, have we seen any improvement in bee health? No. "The other control is Australia where neonicotinoids are used in exactly the same way as in the UK, same formula same crops and they have the healthiest bees on the planet. The difference there is they don't have varroa." Varroa is a parasitic mite that has also played a role in the decline of bees over the past decade. They help spread a range of viral infections that are lethal to the animals. "The varroa mite is key," says Dr Little. "If you don't have varroa you have healthy bees regardless of whether neonicotinoids are used. Varroa and bee health are inextricably linked." Other researchers in the field have concerns over the field data that has been published so far. They are also concerned that focussing too much on the impact of neonicotinoids doesn't fully address the problem. Dr Adam Vanbergen from the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology says he doesn't support the EU ban. Neonicotinoids, he says, are not a smoking gun. "We are beginning to see some evidence that if our pollinators are not malnourished, they are in a better position to buffer themselves against diseases and indeed pesticide effects. That's the root of it really. Neonicotinoids are part of that, but they are not the whole story. "If you ban the neonicotinoids, farmers are going to be compelled to use products that are much more harmful to the environment and to a wider range of animals. "There is a tender balance between protecting the environment and securing the food supply. I still err on the side of not banning, to be honest," he added. | जब 1991 में पहला नियोनिकोटिनॉइड कीटनाशक पेश किया गया था, तो वैज्ञानिकों ने इसका स्वागत किया क्योंकि इसने मनुष्यों और सामान्य पर्यावरण के लिए सुरक्षित होने के साथ-साथ दुनिया के कुछ सबसे विनाशकारी फसल कीटों से निपटने का एक बेहतर तरीका प्रदान किया। |
world-47446243 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-47446243 | International Women's Day: History, strikes and celebrations | You might have seen International Women's Day mentioned in the media or heard friends talking about it. But what is it for? When is it? Is it a celebration or a protest? And is there an equivalent International Men's Day? | For more than a century people around the world have been marking 8 March as a special day for women. Read on to find out why. 1. When did it all start? International Women's Day grew out of the labour movement to become a UN-recognised annual event. The seeds of it were planted in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. It was the Socialist Party of America who declared the first National Woman's Day, a year later. The idea to make the day international came from a woman called Clara Zetkin. She suggested the idea in 1910 at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. There were 100 women there, from 17 countries, and they agreed on her suggestion unanimously. It was first celebrated in 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The centenary was celebrated in 2011, so this year we're technically celebrating the 108th International Women's Day. Things were made official in 1975 when the United Nations (UN) started celebrating the day and setting an annual theme. The first one (in 1996) was "Celebrating the past, Planning for the Future". This year's focuses on ""Think equal, build smart, innovate for change" - UN figures show that only half of working age women are represented in the labour force globally. International Women's Day has become a date to celebrate how far women have come in society, in politics and in economics, while the political roots of the day mean strikes and protests are organised to raise awareness of continued inequality. 2. When is it? 8 March. Clara's idea for an International Women's Day had no fixed date. It wasn't formalised until a war-time strike in 1917 when Russian women demanded "bread and peace" - and four days into the women's strike the Tsar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. The date when the women's strike commenced on the Julian calendar, which was then in use in Russia, was Sunday 23 February. This day in the Gregorian calendar was 8 March - and that's when it's celebrated today. 3. Is there an International Men's Day? There is indeed, on 19 November. But it has only been marked since the 1990s and isn't recognised by the UN. People celebrate it in more than 60 countries, including the UK. The objectives of the day are "to focus attention on men's and boys' health, improve gender relations, promote gender equality and highlight positive male role models". The theme for 2018 was "Positive Male Role Models". 4. How is Women's Day celebrated around the world? International Women's Day is a national holiday in many countries, including Russia where the sales of flowers doubles during the three or four days around 8 March. In China, many women are given a half-day off work on 8 March, as advised by the State Council, although many employers don't always pass the half day on to their female employees. In Italy, International Women's Day, or la Festa della Donna, is celebrated by the giving of mimosa blossom. The origin of this tradition is unclear but it is believed to have started in Rome after World War II. In the US, the month of March is Women's History Month. A presidential proclamation issued every year honours the achievements of American women. 5. What is happening this year? This year's International Women's Day campaign has chosen the theme #BalanceforBetter, which encourages people around the world to take action towards accelerating gender balance. The past 18 months have seen the women's movement reach an unprecedented scale. In October 2017, millions began using the hashtag #MeToo on social media to speak out against experiences of harassment and sexual assault, and to denounce their widespread prevalence. In 2018, the #MeToo conversation grew to a global scale, with countries such as India, France, China, and South Korea joining in the conversation to demand change. In the US a record number of women were elected in the midterm elections. In Ireland, citizens voted to repeal the eighth amendment of the constitution, paving the way for legalised abortion. What is 100 women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. We create documentaries, features and interviews about their lives, giving more space for stories that put women at the centre. On 8 March, BBC 100 Women will be showcasing inspirational stories from women in the UK and across the world: from India's first school for grandmothers to comedians showing you how to respond to sexist banter. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook and join the conversation. | आपने मीडिया में अंतर्राष्ट्रीय महिला दिवस का उल्लेख देखा होगा या दोस्तों को इसके बारे में बात करते हुए सुना होगा। लेकिन यह किस लिए है? यह कब है? यह एक उत्सव है या विरोध? और क्या इसके बराबर कोई अंतर्राष्ट्रीय पुरुष दिवस है? |
uk-scotland-51581054 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-51581054 | The Brexit trade-off with the economy is under way | The British economy has embarked on a historic change, involving at least some pain, some opportunities and an uncertain destination. The immigration policy changes will have far reaching consequences. Business has been served notice that the economy will take a lower priority than 'getting Brexit done'. The rupture with Europe is supposed to be followed with a cosier US relationship, but the hotline to the Oval Office has turned frosty. | Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The history books will record 31 January as the day Britain exited the European Union. But historians should give at least as much status to 19 February - the day the Brexit rubber hit the road. It's been a long time coming and businesses can't say they weren't warned. Perhaps they thought, until December's election, that Brexit wouldn't happen, or that the interests of the economy would prevail in the end. But the new plans for a points-based immigration system confirmed their fears - that in the trade-off between 'getting Brexit done' and economic performance, the latter will be the loser. In charge of this policy, Priti Patel continues the approach taken by Theresa May when she was home secretary - setting out policy in bold, stark, uncompromising terms, presumably because that's what Leave voters expect and understand. It may yet be that the policy is softened at the margins, as exceptions are made for the care sector, and perhaps a bit more for farming. But for now, this is immigration policy in high-contrast monochrome. The war zone Some form of exception may also have to be found to save Scottish Tory faces. Jackson Carlaw's party made an election commitment in December to have an immigration policy that works for Scotland's demographics and economy, and it's not clear that message has yet reached the Home Office. Going out to explain the policy and how it will work for Scottish employers seemed to be beyond every rank of Tory contacted by BBC colleagues. It seems they were all too busy on Wednesday. Forced to comment by Holyrood journalists on Thursday, the Scottish Tory leader fell some way short of enthusiastic support for Ms Patel's plans, instead suggesting that elements of the SNP government's approach are worthy of consideration. Let's see how that plays when Mr Carlaw's memo is lobbed into the Whitehall war zone that is, we're told, Priti Patel's private office. Points mean prizes For Scottish business, there were elements of the Patel proposals to be welcomed, in that they were less bad than the previous draft. There is a four-fold rise, to 10,000 across Britain, in the visas for farm workers. And the £30,000 threshold for getting a visa has been lowered, on the advice of the UK government's migration advisory committee. No longer was there to be a cap on skilled workers coming into the UK. But that's where business's diplomatic welcome ended. The vague talk of "an Australian-style points system" which featured in the election campaign, had meant next to nothing. But it became less vague when points were set out for salary, job offer, qualifications, more for a doctorate, and more still for a science and technology PhD - "the best and the brightest". Throw in English language skills, and you might get the 70 points for entry into the UK jobs market. Employers already used to the visa regulations for non-EU migrants find it "notoriously complex and costly", according to the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland. So once applied to every foreigner, including the high proportion of small firms in Scotland that have got used to European recruitment, it's a daunting prospect. Activating the 'inactive' That's the way it's meant to be, argues Ms Patel. Firms are going to have to adapt, and train up British workers. But which British workers are these? There's an exceptionally low level of unemployment across the UK these days - statistics which sit oddly with the lack of growth or confidence to be found in other data. So the home secretary has pointed to the 20%-plus who are designated "economically inactive". If anyone in her private office had explained to her that these people include those who stay at home to care for their children or for elderly parents (including, one imagines, quite a lot of bedrock Tory voters), plus those who are full-time students or suffering from long-term illness, then the briefing hadn't sunk in. In other words, the economically inactive are not sitting idly at home, available to be sparked into activity as care home workers through the gently persuasive powers of a Home Office taser. Or even a rise in starting pay. Call for flexibility The CBI was more polite than most business groups, arguing that the choice should not be between training up British workers or recruiting from abroad. Instead, it requires a bit of both. Scottish farmers' leader, talking to ITV Borders, sounded dismayed, and rebellious. He's thinking again about the potential for Scotland running its own migrant worker policy. The CBI hasn't ruled that out either, if the UK system fails the flexibility test. The construction industry pointed out that shutting off access to Europe's skilled workforce will mean higher pay. That's a plus, for those who had to wait until this week to find their average pay had finally caught up with the spending power they had before the descent into banking crisis 12 years ago. (That's a factor that probably had a lot to do with the Leave vote in 2016.) Trade unions don't like to look anti-foreigner, but they have seemed uncharacteristically quiet about this, public sector Unison being an exception. In the private sector, they won't be complaining if skill shortages give them pay bargaining leverage. However, the construction industry's representative pointed to the further consequence of pay inflation - that government priorities of building more housing and tackling climate change will become more expensive. That goes for the household shopping basket too. The visa plans' airy dismissal of migrant workers with 'low skills' no longer being allowed in to Britain offered a strange sort of opportunity, at least for the care sector. Donald Macaskill, who speaks and negotiates on behalf of Scotland's private care homes, offered up a blistering denunciation of those who think caring for those with dementia have 'low skills'. He was visibly angered. And this was a chance to point out that demographics and labour shortages require us to think very differently about the lower-paid care workers with superhuman levels of patience and devotion to the care of elderly people. 'A change is gonna come' It would be hard to overstate the significance of the change that is now under way. In the past forty-plus years, there have been waves of massive and sometimes painful change in the British economy, including the clear out of heavy industries and mining, and later of the electronics assembly of Silicon Glen. With each wave of closures, there was a re-orientation of the economy, adjusting to the seamless supply chains and markets of the growing and integrating European market, and ever more dependent for labour on the skills and flexibility that the vast European labour pool offered. With the labour market plans set out on 19 February 2020, all that is set to change. The future economy may see British-born workers on higher pay, with more skills and at the cutting edge of automation, breaking free of petty regulations to occupy the sunny uplands of the 21st century global economy. That's the theory, but it's far from guaranteed. Meanwhile, the only certainty about the transition, wherever it takes us, is that it will take time and it will involve some painful dislocation. Trump card Around the plans to end 'low-skilled' migration have been the pre-talks positioning and posturing of UK and EU negotiators. These should together serve warning that links to those EU supply chains and European customers are going form seamless to sticky, and perhaps increasingly costly. Brexiteers have told us to look beyond Europe, starting with the landmark trade deal to be struck with Donald Trump. Reports from Westminster suggest these Atlanticists are increasingly concerned that the personal chemistry between President and British Prime Minister has turned into a volatile compound when exposed to heat. A visit by Boris Johnson to Washington had to be postponed five days ago, rather than face a snub over the Huawei issue. A terse, details-free 'read-out' from a phone call between Downing Street and Oval Office on Thursday evening did nothing to reassure. Their previous call is said to have ended with President Trump abruptly and angrily hanging up on his British chum. On Thursday, we're told the leaders signed off their call with reference to their next meeting, at the G7 summit, in June. That's right - not until June. And this is now Britain's most important trading and diplomatic relationship. | ब्रिटिश अर्थव्यवस्था ने एक ऐतिहासिक बदलाव की शुरुआत की है, जिसमें कम से कम कुछ दर्द, कुछ अवसर और एक अनिश्चित गंतव्य शामिल है। आप्रवासन नीति में बदलाव के दूरगामी परिणाम होंगे। व्यवसाय को यह नोटिस दिया गया है कि अर्थव्यवस्था 'ब्रेक्सिट पूरा करने' की तुलना में कम प्राथमिकता लेगी। यूरोप के साथ टूटने के बाद एक आरामदायक अमेरिकी संबंध होने की उम्मीद है, लेकिन ओवल ऑफिस की हॉटलाइन ठंडी हो गई है। |
uk-scotland-highlands-islands-54117187 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-54117187 | Covid cluster on Norwegian ship docked at Invergordon | The crew of a Norwegian ship berthed at a Highland port have been told not to leave the vessel after a number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 on board. | Normand Energy docked at Invergordon on Wednesday morning after arriving from the port of Kristiansand in Norway. Cromarty Port Authority has informed the ship's captain all crew must stay on board. NHS Highland said it was working with Highland Council to deal with the cluster. Dr Tim Allison, the health board's director of public health, said there was no risk of the infection spreading in the local community. Any work on the ship, which is used for laying pipes, involving harbour staff has been cancelled. Dr Allison said: "NHS Highland is aware of a vessel docked in Invergordon in which a small number of crew have tested positive for Covid-19. "NHS Highland's health protection team is working with environmental health officers in Highland Council and all relevant partner agencies to ensure the safety of all the crew on-board. "There is no risk to the wider community." | हाईलैंड बंदरगाह पर खड़े नॉर्वे के एक जहाज के चालक दल को जहाज पर कोविड-19 के कई पुष्ट मामलों के बाद जहाज को नहीं छोड़ने के लिए कहा गया है। |
uk-england-hampshire-10673893 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-10673893 | Mela organisers want place in Southampton art complex | The organisers of one of Southampton's largest cultural events has launched a campaign to ensure their presence in the city's planned new Arts Complex. | About 20,000 people attended the Mela festival in Hoglands Park on Saturday to experience Asian music and culture. Art Asia has spent 10 years and £750,000 to help realise plans for a new arts venue at Guildhall Square. However, it said it had been told by the council and the Arts Council that it would no longer be an anchor tenant. Councillor John Hannides, of Southampton City Council, said he could not comment specifically on Art Asia's concerns because the plans for the Arts Complex had not yet been approved. The Arts Council England will decide next week whether it is going to support the project. If the city council gets Arts Council England's backing it will move the plans forward, Mr Hannides said. | साउथेम्प्टन के सबसे बड़े सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमों में से एक के आयोजकों ने शहर के नियोजित नए कला परिसर में अपनी उपस्थिति सुनिश्चित करने के लिए एक अभियान शुरू किया है। |
uk-england-tyne-29660391 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-29660391 | Nirvana: 25 years since first UK gig in Newcastle | They became one of the biggest bands of the 1990s and defined the "grunge" sound coming out of Seattle, but Nirvana's first UK gig was at a half-empty venue in Newcastle. Twenty-five years on, two fans recall a chaotic but thrilling show. | By Simon ArmstrongBBC News "They looked like what they were - a scruffy, penniless American punk-influenced band," says Carl Taylor, a then-23-year-old Riverside regular. "Nirvana made a really strong impression, but they were very much in their infancy and at the start of their journey. We didn't get a sense they would be a group the whole world would hear about." While the buzz among the UK music press was steadily building, Nirvana were very far away from the multimillion-selling machine they would become in the wake of 1991's Nevermind. Signed to small independent Seattle-based record label Sub Pop, debut album Bleach had hit American shelves in June of 1989 with a UK release following two months later. In a time before Smells Like Teen Spirit would command round-the-clock airplay on MTV and turn Nirvana into the world's hottest band, Bleach showcased a much blunter approach. Still to refine the quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamic that would become such a key part of their songwriting, songs such as Blew, Floyd the Barber and Paper Cuts showcased a heavy, rougher-edged sound. The three-piece arrived on British shores for the start of the 37-show Heavier Than Heaven tour which would be crammed into 42 days. Having recently parted ways with guitarist Jason Everman; Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Chad Channing would travel across the UK and Europe with fellow Seattle rockers Tad, rotating the headlining slot from show to show. A long time stopping-off point for up-and-coming acts, the Riverside was one of Newcastle's most-cherished venues. For Tad-fan Carl, Nirvana were not even the main attraction - but they would make a lasting impression. After picking up Tad's debut album, God's Balls, earlier that year, he bought a gig ticket from Volume Records, a small independent record shop in the city centre. "The gig was a Monday night and I remember it being pretty cold. There would have been 100-150 people there. The Riverside held 400 or so people at that time, so it was about one-third full. "I can remember seeing Kurt and his straggly blonde hair around the bar before Nirvana's set. He was shaking hands with people and talking to them after coming out of the backstage area. "He looked like everyone else there - scruffily dressed with ripped jeans. There was a certain uniform among the Riverside crowd." Taking to the stage after a short opening blast by Scottish support band The Cateran, Nirvana's ferocious power quickly won him over. "They had a lot of pent-up anger to let out," says Carl. "They were exorcising their demons. "Some of the punk music coming out of America's east coast was political, but there was no sense of that with the Sub Pop bands and Nirvana were in that tradition. They were rooted a little bit more in Americana. It was pretty chaotic. The music was loud and fast and people were responding." Among the set list, he recalls, was Negative Creep and Polly - a song which would later see the light of day on Nevermind. "They came on and played about 13 songs. They clearly had quite strong character and attitude. I thought they sounded a little bit like Husker Du, but their songs were not quite as structured." Also there that night with friends was 23-year-old Jim Mawdsley. A one-time Riverside doorman, he was by then a gig promoter and publisher of local music and style magazine Boiling Point. He too remembers a small but enthusiastic audience. "It wasn't 150 kids jumping around in front of the stage, but people were into it. It was a real music fans' gig. "Sub Pop was a very cool American indie label. It had Mudhoney, who had been over and were playing to about 1,000 people, which was a lot in those days because at the time that sort of stuff was very niche." Nirvana - and especially Cobain - impressed. "I remember thinking it was something special. They were just amazing," says Jim, who today is chief executive of North East-based music development agency Generator and responsible for Tyneside's Evolution Festival. "It had been a while since I'd seen a gig where someone put so much energy into it." The band earned an excited thumbs-up from Boiling Point. The magazine's review read: "The first few songs made it clear they needed to warm up and also suggested they were missing their recently departed guitarist. "By about the sixth song of a pretty long set, though, they were ripping away with their awesomely heavy guitar of theirs - good job as well as bass monster Krist wrecked his instrument in song three, smashing the head clean off and ripping his speaker casing. "If things hadn't improved I think he may have bitten someone's leg off." Novoselic's rage, seemingly, was sparked by being hit on the head with a beer bottle. For Carl, co-author of Riverside: Newcastle's Legendary Alternative Music Venue and producer of an upcoming documentary about the club, the Nirvana gig remains among his most memorable. "It was always a fantastic place to watch live music. With its low ceiling and sweaty walls, it was quite an intimate venue. The barrier between the artists and the audience was broken down. You always felt you were a real part of any particular show." Few of those watching that night could have imagined the maelstrom that would engulf the band within 18 months. The tour would take them to far-from-glamorous stopping-off points including Manchester Polytechnic, Leeds' Duchess of York pub and Norwich Arts Centre. Audience numbers remained small but the band's signature songs - Come As You Are, Lithium and the aforementioned Teen Spirit - would see Nirvana propelled into the mainstream as their follow-up album, 1991's Nevermind, topped the American Billboard chart. By the time the band returned to Newcastle in December of that year for a gig at the larger Mayfair, they had been thrust firmly into the spotlight. Once again, Carl was there to see them. "Melody Maker and the NME were all over them, and I had difficulty getting a ticket. The Mayfair was packed. They were a different band. There was a clear sense with that show they had moved on and shed their support role. "Dave Grohl was playing drums for them by then and they were probably the biggest band in the world at that point." Like Carl, Jim Mawdsley was shocked by the band's sudden ascent. "It was a surprise for me when they crossed over into the mainstream in the way they did because they'd been on a really cool little label. The speed of the journey was so fast - they were headlining Reading [Festival] by '92." Often railing against the ensuing fame, Cobain would be dogged by drug addiction, depression and rumours surrounding his marriage to fellow musician Courtney Love. Third album In Utero followed in September 1993, but a star that had burned so brightly would soon be no more. On 8 April, 1994, he was found dead at his Seattle home from a gunshot wound to the head. His suicide brought to an end a five-year rollercoaster ride which had seen the band go from rags to riches and bring the underground scene kicking and screaming into the mainstream consciousness. The band's music, though, lives on with every new generation - helped a little by those who were in Newcastle that chilly October evening. "My daughter was born in 1995 and has grown up to be a Nirvana fan," says Carl. "She asks me constantly about that Riverside gig, and I always tell her how amazing it was." | वे 1990 के दशक के सबसे बड़े बैंडों में से एक बन गए और सिएटल से निकलने वाली "ग्रंज" ध्वनि को परिभाषित किया, लेकिन निर्वाण का पहला यूके गिग न्यूकैसल में आधे खाली स्थान पर था। पच्चीस साल बाद, दो प्रशंसकों को एक अराजक लेकिन रोमांचक शो याद आता है। |
magazine-35934658 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35934658 | World T20: How do the lights on cricket stumps work? | The England men's team has qualified for the World Twenty20 cricket final. Throughout the tournament, the flashing stumps have drawn plenty of interest from spectators. But how do they actually work, ask Harry Low and Hannah Sander. | By Who, What WhyThe Magazine answers the questions behind the news Those watching this year's World Twenty20 cricket tournament will probably have noticed that the stumps and the bails, known as a wicket, sometimes start flashing a luminous red. Traditionally stumps and bails are made from wood, but the new flashing wickets are made from a composite plastic, which are embedded with LED lights. The use of flashing wickets in international matches was approved by the International Cricket Council in July 2013, and since then they have been used in hundreds of domestic and international matches. Flashing stumps add to the excitement of one-day cricket but they also have a practical use. The rules of cricket say that a batsman is out if they are beyond their batting crease when the stumps are "broken" - that is, when the bails are knocked off the stumps. Both ends of the bail have to come apart from the stumps. However, it can be hard for an umpire to detect this in real time. However, with the new equipment, known as the Zing wicket system, the stumps and bails will flash the moment contact is broken. It was developed by Bronte Eckermann, a former Australian grade cricketer who was inspired by one of his daughter's toys, which was roughly the size of a cricket bail and contained LED lights. The bails are powered by hidden low voltage batteries. They each contain a microprocessor that detects when contact between the bails and the stumps has been broken. The bails are illuminated within 1/1000th of a second. "They can be vibrated, knocked, rained upon, but will only flash when both ends are completely dislodged from the stumps," explains Eckermann. The microprocessors then send a radio signal to the stumps which also light up. Flashing bails might have reprieved Indian captain MS Dhoni in a Test against England in 2006. He was given out because it was unclear to the umpires whether he had been safely behind the crease at the moment the ball hit the wicket, knocking the stumps to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars have been spent developing the technology, turning the humble wooden stumps and bails into an expensive set of equipment. This means that the sight of players clutching stumps after victory could become a thing of the past. Follow Harry Low @harrylow49 and Hannah Sander @hsander365 on Twitter Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | इंग्लैंड की पुरुष टीम ने विश्व ट्वेंटी-20 क्रिकेट फाइनल के लिए क्वालीफाई कर लिया है। पूरे टूर्नामेंट के दौरान, चमकते स्टंप ने दर्शकों की काफी रुचि खींची है। लेकिन वे वास्तव में कैसे काम करते हैं, हैरी लो और हन्ना सैंडर से पूछें। |
entertainment-arts-55985236 | https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55985236 | West Side Story's Rita Moreno: 'J-Lo can't be sole representative' of Latinos | Rita Moreno, the first Hispanic actress to win an Oscar, has said that "Jennifer Lopez can't be the sole representative" of the Hispanic community when it comes to having a meaningful onscreen presence. | By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter A documentary about Moreno, who won her best supporting actress Oscar for West Side Story in 1962, premiered last week at the Sundance Film Festival. Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It, looks back at the Puerto Rican performer's life, and her future - the 89-year-old also stars in Steven Spielberg's delayed new big screen version of the hit musical. Lopez sang her song Let's Get Loud in Spanish during her performance at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden last month. But although Moreno welcomes greater equality and diversity within the film industry, she argues that the Hispanic community still isn't as visible as it should be. "The Hispanic community in America has barely moved. And I'm really upset about that," she says. "And because it's barely moved, I'm thinking that at my age, I'm not going to see a real change. We can't just let Jennifer Lopez be the sole representative of the Hispanic community. "I'm probably going to be quoted and inundated with phone calls of people saying, 'You don't like her.' No, I love her. She's brilliant, she's wonderful, she's gorgeous, and her part in the inauguration was touching, but we can't make her the sole representative of what we are. "I love her, I admire her spunk, I admire her talent, and her talent for business. She's fantastic, but... it's like saying that any one of the great black actors is the representative of that community. It's not enough, we can't still be playing the same role over and over." 'Stereotypical roles' Produced by Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda, the documentary examines the sexual assault and on-screen stereotyping that Moreno suffered when she first went to Hollywood. Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria recounts how Moreno was required to produce a standard "foreign" accent for the early parts she played, no matter what country the characters were from. The film's Puerto Rican director, Mariem Pérez Riera, says Longoria could relate to Moreno's experiences, as stereotyping was still a problem for actresses of colour. "I think Eva Longoria has had to struggle so much, and she is almost 50 years younger than Rita, so yes, it's incredible how so many women today are still fighting fights that Rita had back then," says the director. "I think it's part of the fact that for so long also, the black community has been also pushed down into only one stereotypical role. And it's the same with the Latin American community. "I mean, I'm from Puerto Rico, I live in the United States, I have an accent, I can speak two languages, and I'm a film director. But there's not a role in a movie or in a TV show like me, because this is not supposed to be a Latina woman. It's supposed to be the one who crossed the border and cleaned houses and is suffering all the time." Directing debuts However, in a historic week that saw three female film directors nominated at the Golden Globes, two of which - Regina King and Chloe Zhao - are women of colour, the Sundance Film Festival also announced it had achieved gender parity across the event, and of those female film-makers, nearly half were women of colour. The winner of the US Grand Jury prize, Coda, about a teenage girl who is the only hearing person in her family, is directed by Sian Heder, who was a writer on Orange is the New Black. The film sparked a bidding war and was bought by Apple TV + for $25m (£18m). Two high profile actresses, Robin Wright from House of Cards, and British star Rebecca Hall, launched their directing debuts at the festival. Wright also stars in her film, Land, about a woman attempting to survive in the American wilderness. Hall's film, Passing, which she co-wrote, stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, and explores black women "passing" as white because of their light skin in 1920s New York. But even Wright and Hall have recounted how their films struggled to get funding. Passing producer Margot Hand said in conversation with movie website Indiewire that having two black leading actresses and a first-time female film-maker proved "challenging" when trying to get it made. Welsh director Prano Bailey-Bond, whose first feature horror film, Censor, also premiered at Sundance, thinks women are still facing obstacles when trying to reach the highest level of some areas of film production. "It's interesting that a lot of A-list actresses are moving into directing, and I think that's brilliant, but it can be harder for women not coming up through the acting route," she says. "If you want to move up working on the 'craft' side, it's about people trusting you with more money. So, women in different film departments get more opportunities at a certain level, but when it comes to trusting, say, a female composer with more money, we're not quite breaking through on those levels yet. "However, from where I'm sitting now, it's looking very hopeful, and it's very important for young women to see it's possible." Bailey-Bond's film Censor is set in the 1980s world of "video nasties", with a heroine, Enid, who works in film censorship and is forced to watch violent acts on screen. She says that both she and Rose Glass, the director of St Maud, a British horror film that has 17 nominations at this year's Bifa independent film awards, have benefited from changes in attitudes towards women making horror films. "I definitely had a period of making short films where horror and female directors weren't appealing," she remembers. "Luckily when we were writing Censor a couple of years ago, that all changed - films like Julia Ducornau's Raw, and The Babadook, were released. The people who took chances on those directors changed things for directors like me down the line." Meanwhile Karen Cinorre, another first-time feature film maker, agrees that it's "heartening" to know female-directed and themed movies are no longer so rare. Her film, Mayday, starring Juliette Lewis and Mia Goth in an ensemble cast of women, is a play on the Greek "Siren" myth - creatures whose beautiful voices lure warriors to their death. Set on an island seemingly frozen in time, the young women, with Goth playing their leader, lure male soldiers to their death with their "damsel in distress" calls. "We know that films by women and about women have always been made," says New York-based Cinorre. "They're my heroines and I've sought out those films my whole life. But in a more mainstream way, they've been rare. "Now the idea of an all-female ensemble cast of women seems to be thriving, and it didn't used to be. And that's also why I find those Golden Globe nominations heartening, but not actually surprising." The BBC Talking Movies Sundance special is available on BBC iPlayer. BBC World News viewers can find the latest show times at bbc.com/talkingmovies. | ऑस्कर जीतने वाली पहली हिस्पैनिक अभिनेत्री रीटा मोरेनो ने कहा है कि जब एक सार्थक ऑनस्क्रीन उपस्थिति की बात आती है तो "जेनिफर लोपेज हिस्पैनिक समुदाय की एकमात्र प्रतिनिधि नहीं हो सकती हैं"। |
newsbeat-30736888 | https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-30736888 | Newsbeat meets the Broadchurch 'killer' | **SPOILER ALERT: If you are not up-to-date with Broadchurch series one, don't read on.** Two years ago you could be forgiven for not knowing who Matthew Gravelle was, even Broadchurch fans might have struggled to recognise him. | By Anna CollinsonNewsbeat reporter Until the final episode of series one. Gasps reverberated around the UK when it was revealed that Joe Miller, the seemingly kind and caring on-screen husband of Olivia Colman, was the Broadchurch resident who had killed Danny Latimer. At the very end of series one, ITV confirmed the drama would return but Matthew has spent nearly two years pretending he wasn't part of any of it. The 38-year-old told Newsbeat: "I had to deny that I was doing the second series since filming started, if not before. "That's a good year of technically being 'unemployed', even though I wasn't. "Only a very close-knit group knew the truth; my wife, my dad and my sisters, and that was it." But surely isn't it that the beauty of Broadchurch? Producers are so desperate to keep the audience guessing that they even put special measures in place during filming to stop leaks. "The secrecy certainly helps," said Matthew. "It's the anticipation and the excitement; nobody knows what's going on or is able to spoil it for anyone else." Nearly eight million tuned into the first episode of the new series. By uttering the words 'not guilty' to a crime fans are sure he committed, Joe Miller fast became one of the most hated men on TV. With so many people emotionally involved in the story, we asked Matthew if anyone has ever confused him with his on-screen character? "I haven't had anyone throwing things or wagging their fingers at me on the street, so at the moment I'm safe," he said. The dad-of-two says that although he has concerns that some viewers may see him as a villain in real-life because of who his character is, he was desperate to take on the role. "From the beginning, there was a massive part of me that wanted to be the killer," he admitted. "For most of series one I really didn't think I would be, I only found out ahead of the filming of the final episode. I thought it would shatter Olivia's character, and it did." So far in series two, Matthew has spent much of his time stuck in a glass box in a court room, and he told us there were two things he missed, the seaside and his cast mates, particularly one. "Olivia's brilliant," he told us. "Nobody's got a bad word to say about her, she's just very good and it makes you better. "We all get on really well which made the second series more frustrating because I couldn't mess about, I was stuck away from them." Before Broadchurch aired, Matthew had no idea how big it would become, but he said he did have an inkling during the first read-through with the rest of the cast. "When I was sitting around the table for the first time and I saw all these brilliant people, I did think, 'oooh, this could be quite good,' but I had no idea of the scale until the first episode went out." But don't even bother asking Matthew about what happens in episode two or three. "Wouldn't you like to know..." Ok, will there will be a third series? Will he be in it? "Who knows?" We reckon he has a better idea than most, but Matthew is wise to the questions, he also believes that deep down none of us actually want him to let anything slip. He said: "People ask, 'who did it?' or 'where's it going to go?', but nobody really wants to know. It's all part of the fun of it, it's just a wry question." And you know what? He's probably right. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | * * स्पॉइलर अलर्टः यदि आप ब्रॉडचर्च श्रृंखला एक के साथ अद्यतित नहीं हैं, तो आगे न पढ़ें। * * दो साल पहले आपको मैथ्यू ग्रेवेल को न जानने के लिए माफ किया जा सकता था, यहां तक कि ब्रॉडचर्च के प्रशंसकों को भी उन्हें पहचानने के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ सकता था। |
uk-northern-ireland-39488302 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-39488302 | Police investigate sudden deaths of three men in Belfast | Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the sudden deaths of three men in Belfast. | They all happened on Monday 3 April, the PSNI has confirmed. Two men died in west Belfast and one died in the south of the city. A police spokesperson said they are not investigating any link between the deaths. Post-mortem examinations will take place to determine the causes. The deaths are not being treated as suspicious at this stage. | पुलिस बेलफास्ट में तीन लोगों की अचानक मौत के आसपास की परिस्थितियों की जांच कर रही है। |
uk-wales-politics-39656285 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-39656285 | General election: All Welsh MPs to defend their seats | All of the current MPs in Wales will defend their seats in the snap general election, it has emerged. | Wales has 40 MPs - 25 from Labour, 11 Welsh Conservative, three Plaid Cymru and one Welsh Liberal Democrat. None of them are expected to stand aside ahead of the early general election. MPs overwhelmingly voted to trigger an early election on Wednesday. The poll will take place on 8 June. Parliament is set to be dissolved on 3 May, at which point the 40 MPs will become candidates. | यह सामने आया है कि वेल्स के सभी वर्तमान सांसद आम चुनाव में अपनी सीटों की रक्षा करेंगे। |
uk-northern-ireland-11876797 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-11876797 | New details revealed on Belfast Troubles killing | New details are expected to emerge later relating to an investigation into a controversial killing by the Army during the Troubles. | Michael McLarnon, 22, was fatally wounded in Etna Drive in Ardoyne, north Belfast, on 28 October 1971. The Committee on the Administration of Justice is due to publish a report by the Historical Enquiries Team. It is expected to show that the killing was not carried out by the man who admitted it. Mr McLarnon's death was the subject of a BBC programme in 2006. | ट्रबल्स के दौरान सेना द्वारा की गई एक विवादास्पद हत्या की जांच के संबंध में बाद में नए विवरण सामने आने की उम्मीद है। |
uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27669597 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-27669597 | Fuel poverty among older people 'highest in isles' | Almost 60% of people aged over 60 and living in rural parts of Scotland are living in fuel poverty, according to a new report. | The study by Scotland's Rural College said that the figure compared with 45% of over 60s in urban areas. According to the report, Rural Scotland in Focus 2014, the highest levels of fuel poverty were found in Orkney and the Western Isles. The study suggested 75% and 76% of older people there were affected. People in fuel poverty include those who spend a high amount of their income on heating their homes. | एक नई रिपोर्ट के अनुसार, 60 वर्ष से अधिक आयु के और स्कॉटलैंड के ग्रामीण हिस्सों में रहने वाले लगभग 60 प्रतिशत लोग ईंधन की गरीबी में जी रहे हैं। |
world-europe-jersey-17687393 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-17687393 | Jersey dairy farmers warned about Schmallenberg virus in cows | Dairy farmers have been warned their cows could give birth to deformed calves next month after Schmallenberg virus was found in two sheep flocks. | The virus causes deformed or stillborn livestock and is thought to spread through midges. States Vet Linda Lowseck said farmers would not know if cattle were affected until calving begins next month. Last month tests confirmed the virus after five lambs were born dead and badly deformed at a farm. Mrs Lowseck said the virus could lead to the suspension of the export trade, particularly concerning bovine embryos. There have been dozens of reports of the Schmallenberg virus across England and cases have been reported in Normandy, France. | दो भेड़ के झुंडों में स्मालेनबर्ग वायरस पाए जाने के बाद डेयरी किसानों को चेतावनी दी गई है कि उनकी गायें अगले महीने विकृत बछड़ों को जन्म दे सकती हैं। |
magazine-14845528 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14845528 | Mexico avocado price sparks fears of unrest | Recently, it's felt as if the whole country has been talking about the same thing - and for once it's not football or the latest hit telenovela. Around dinner tables, in street markets and at work, it's the price of avocados that has been on everyone's mind. | By Julian MiglieriniBBC News, Mexico City From costing a couple of dollars per kilo earlier this year, avocados went on a constant price climb which appeared to know no end - rising all the way up to $5-6 per kilo. I heard of sightings of a kilo of avocados for more than $8. In a country that takes its food seriously, this was a recipe for disaster. Soft as butter and slightly sweet, avocado was first grown around 12,000 years ago in the south of Mexico. It's now a delicacy prized the world over. But the origins of its name are not so elegant. The word avocado comes from "aguacate" in Spanish, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl Mexican native language "ahuacatl", referring to a certain intimate part of the male anatomy. ** In Mexico - where 40% of the world's avocado crop is grown - this fruit is sacrosanct. In fact, Mexicans are estimated to eat up to 8kg of avocado each, every year. Avocados go with everything: they are a key additive to the delicious tortilla soup, a layer in the Mexican multi-level sandwiches known as tortas and - last but not least - they are the basis of that most famous of Mexican dips - guacamole. And you don't want to mess with Mexicans and their food. Back in 2007, the rising price of tortillas - the flat-corn bread that is a key source of calories for the poor - sparked a series of protests around the country known as the "tortilla wars". So, with prices through the roof, was I about to witness an "avocado war"? If I was, I had to find out the reasons for the price hikes. And here I discovered that there is something else aside from food that Mexicans seem to enjoy - urban legends. Anger brewing I talked to a security expert who claimed he knew the reason for the spiralling price. The great majority of Mexican avocados come from the state of Michoacan, in the west, a region badly affected by the presence of drug cartels. The cartels, the expert told me, are expanding into the business of extortion, and are targeting avocado growers. The criminals demand a fee for every kilo that is transported through the dangerous roads of Michoacan, and that fee forced up the final consumer price. Nonsense, the head of the local avocado producers' association told me. The cause of the price increase is simply a bad harvest. Carmen, our cleaning lady, had her own conspiracy theory. "I blame the gringos," she told me. "Americans have taken a liking to guacamole, so all our avocados are heading north." Social networks were brimming with comments about how "aguacates" were quickly vanishing from Mexican dinner tables - and the anger seemed to be brewing. But then, an epiphany. I was sitting in the back of a cab, silently hating Mexico City traffic, when an ad burst on to the radio - from a local supermarket, promoting a kilo of avocados for just over $2. Was it over? At my local food market, I confirmed it. At most stands, avocados now are around $3 per kilo, and the prices still seem to be falling. But if there's something I learned over the last few months, it's that I can't always be sure that I'll be able to have my avocado - and eat it. ** The testicle. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 1130. Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only). Listen online or download the podcast BBC World Service: Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online. Read more or explore the archive at the programme website. | हाल ही में, ऐसा महसूस किया गया जैसे कि पूरा देश एक ही बात के बारे में बात कर रहा है-और एक बार के लिए यह फुटबॉल या नवीनतम हिट टेलीनोवेला नहीं है। रात के खाने की मेज के आसपास, सड़क के बाजारों में और काम पर, यह एवोकैडो की कीमत है जो हर किसी के दिमाग में रही है। |
world-africa-19802372 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-19802372 | On the trail of South Africa's missing textbooks | South Africa's Basic Education Department has been in court this week, accused of failing to deliver textbooks to schoolchildren in the northern Limpopo province. The issue has developed into an embarrassing scandal for the governing African National Congress, involving allegations of mismanagement and corruption, as the BBC's Rob Walker reports. | Mrs Manaka's maths class are struggling with a problem - how to calculate daily profits from a busy car wash. She jots down a formula on the board and pupils begin to shout out their answers. Since lessons started in January, students at Tlakulani Secondary School have also been wrestling with another, much bigger problem - how to study without the new textbooks the government was supposed to provide. "Many times, we ordered the books but they didn't deliver. We reminded them, we keep on ordering the textbooks, and they still didn't deliver," says Mrs Manaka. She fears results will nose-dive in the fast approaching end-of-year exams. Limpopo province, one of the poorest in South Africa, already has some of the worst performing schools in the country. Yet despite an education budget of 22bn rand ($2.6bn; £1.6bn), the ANC-led provincial government has failed to provide any textbooks for this year. Many parents are furious, particularly because some grades are studying a new curriculum this year. "They promised us better education. They campaigned and told us your vote is your voice. Now there is nothing," said Tondani Lydia Masiphephethu, who has three children in Limpopo state schools. Earlier this year, she joined forces with Section 27, a South African NGO, and took the national Department of Basic Education to court to demand it provide textbooks. "In the speech of the president, he announced billions to the department of education. Where is the money?" she asks. The answer to that question shines a light on a problem much wider than Limpopo. Two years ago, Limpopo's education department decided to contract out the procurement and distribution of textbooks. A company called EduSolutions, which operates large state contracts in other provinces, won the bid. But it was soon clear that privatisation meant books would cost the state much more than before. "They wanted a way to corrupt the system, and the only way is when you bring in a middle-man," said Solly Tshitangano, a senior education official at the time of the deal. He says politicians and officials decided to outsource textbook supply solely in order to find a new way to defraud the taxpayer. "This was just the tip of the iceberg. It was not the only deal that was taking money away from the government." Mr Tshitangano was sacked by Limpopo's government last year for gross insubordination and gross negligence. He says it was because he had blown the whistle on the EduSolutions deal and other questionable tenders. By the end of last year, Limpopo's education department had run out of money, before it had ordered any textbooks for 2012. It had racked up an astonishing $250m in unauthorised expenditure and was no longer able to pay salaries. In December, the central government was forced to intervene, taking over education, and four other departments. Once the National Treasury got a look at the books, information began to emerge about tenders which had been awarded without competition, and which appeared to have been manipulated to increase their value. 'Tenderpreneurs' Details of the EduSolutions deal were particularly disturbing. "Having EduSolutions there you had inflated pricing and we didn't have control over the procurement of those books, and we couldn't negotiate discounts," says Kenneth Brown, deputy director general in the National Treasury. Central government cancelled the contract with EduSolutions earlier this year, and Mr Brown says, saved a huge amount of money in the process. "We procured the same amount of books at just 10% of what government would have paid [to EduSolutions]," he says. The Special Investigating Unit - the state body responsible for fighting corruption - is now examining the textbook deal. EduSolutions told the BBC it prides itself on good governance. It said the tender had followed government procurement procedures and that book prices were set by the education department and the publishers. "It is therefore baseless and far from the truth to suggest that the deal with EduSolutions meant inflated prices/ pricing," the company said in a statement. Pat Kgomo, the spokesman for Limpopo's education department, maintained that correct procedure had been followed in awarding the contract to EduSolutions and said in a statement that the allegation the tender was designed to benefit politicians and officials was "false and malicious". The national Department of Basic Education took over the functions of the provincial department in December. Its spokesman, Panyaza Lesufi, accepts there have been serious failings in Limpopo, but says that these are now being addressed by the national government. "You've got bad apples that are doing things that are not correct in terms of tenders, but that does not mean the entire system has collapsed - that's a wrong, misleading view." But government critics say the problems go much wider than the failure to deliver textbooks. "Senior political leaders in the province in their majority are 'tenderpreneurs'," is the blunt assessment of Dan Sebabi, the head of Limpopo's branch of Cosatu, the coalition of trade unions that is in alliance with the ANC. "They are doing business with the same government institutions they are leading. They are awarding themselves tenders." Mr Sebabi believes the ANC politicians who run Limpopo have betrayed the people they are supposed to represent. "They are spitting in the faces of the poor. Our people see these things and their anger is growing by the day." Many other local governments have faced similar accusations. According to South Africa's auditor general, only seven out of 237 South African cities received clean audit reports for 2010. As end-of-year exams approach, some schools in Limpopo are still waiting for books. Parent Tondani Lydia Masiphephethu is furious. "They're just eating money, and my problem is the politicians' children are not in our schools. Most of them send their children outside the country, to study in foreign schools." Rob Walker's Assignment will be broadcast on the BBC World Service on 4 October 2012. Listen to the Assignment via iplayer or browse the documentary podcast archive. | दक्षिण अफ्रीका के बुनियादी शिक्षा विभाग पर इस सप्ताह अदालत में उत्तरी लिम्पोपो प्रांत में स्कूली बच्चों को पाठ्यपुस्तकें देने में विफल रहने का आरोप लगाया गया है। यह मुद्दा सत्तारूढ़ अफ्रीकी राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस के लिए एक शर्मनाक घोटाले में बदल गया है, जिसमें कुप्रबंधन और भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप शामिल हैं, जैसा कि बीबीसी के रॉब वॉकर ने बताया है। |
uk-england-humber-46177192 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-46177192 | HMP Hull prisoner released in error back in custody | A prisoner who was mistakenly released from jail has been found, Humberside Police has said. | Michael Kavanagh was released from HMP Hull in error on Friday. A police spokesman said Mr Kavanagh was located on Sunday and taken into police custody. No details as to how he was found have been released. He is on remand awaiting trial for allegedly carrying an offensive weapon and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, in June. Hull Prison is a Category B men's jail that originally opened in 1870 to hold both men and women. It has capacity for 1,044 prisoners. | हंबरसाइड पुलिस ने कहा है कि एक कैदी जिसे गलती से जेल से रिहा कर दिया गया था, वह मिल गया है। |
stories-49908096 | https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49908096 | 'Should I dump my girlfriend before uni?' | Nineteen-year-old Anoushka Dougherty finished school earlier this year and spent the summer months thinking about her next big step - leaving home in Kent and heading to university in Manchester. One of the major questions her friends were grappling with, she noticed, was what to do about their existing boyfriends and girlfriends. To dump, or not to dump? | JULY 2019 It's the summer before the start of university, results are around the corner and the time of home-cooked meals and laundry that appears to do itself is finally ending. But despite the fact that we should be fussing over budgeting and acquiring culinary skills beyond the realms of pasta and Pot Noodle, one of the most stressful decisions surrounding uni for a lot of people is whether or not to remain in their secondary-school relationships. Speaking to my friends, I've found that some are opting to keep relationships going despite the pressures of distance while others are finishing things before the start of term. And then there's a third group who have decided to go to the same city as their partners so that they can study - and stay - together. I'm curious about those who are planning to keep their existing partners. Will their relationships survive, or will the romantic possibilities in their new environments be too exciting to turn down? Luke will soon be leaving Kent to start a degree in geography at Southampton. Although uni is a welcome change, the worry over what will become of him and his girlfriend, who will be studying three hours away, is intensifying. They've been together for a few months and Luke credits the relationship with helping him stay sane through his exams and overcome his struggles with anxiety. Although he's aware of the potential difficulties to come, Luke doesn't want to break off the relationship prematurely. Instead, he hopes that regular visits, social media and a lot of commitment will help keep it going. He knows there won't be the same level of intimacy between them and says he's worried that temptation at uni may become an issue. "Trust is maybe the one thing that I am worried about going forward. I trust my girlfriend 100%, unequivocally," he says. "But we're going to both be in large cities making new friends every single day. The chances of either one of us finding someone that we perhaps like more, get on with more, find more attractive, are quite high. "With flatmates, say, you'll be spending every day with them, rather than the five hours at a weekend you'll get with your partner. There could be problems." Even so, he thinks that maybe he and his girlfriend can make it work. Find out more Listen to Degrees of Love, featuring Anoushka Dougherty and her friends, on BBC Sounds Although the separation will be hard, he reflects, it could help test the relationship and allow them both to see if it is really worth pursuing further. "If you go to uni and it all works out, then you know then you've got some solid foundations to work on and a relationship that could last for life. If you get past the first two years or so then you'll know that the relationship is going to work - and if you don't, then that's a good indication that it was never going to work." Our friend Tom thinks this may be misguided. University changes people, he says, so he urges Luke to end things before term starts. He's influenced by his older brother, who went to university single and fell in love there. And he notes that at university, you get to pick from a much larger pool of people. "There will be loads of opportunities there and so much more chance of meeting the right person," he says. Relationship therapist Dee Holmes, who works for the counselling service, Relate, tells me these different views are shaped in part by how people respond to new challenges. "I think for some people starting university brings a lot of excitement and they can shed all that's gone before. For them, it's a new start. And yet for others, it's quite important to have the security that they've got at the moment." She adds that while social media may make it easier to stay in relationships, it can also put a strain on them. This is particularly the case if one person becomes isolated and suspicious. "If you're spending every night in your room on a Skype call with your girlfriend or boyfriend miles away, then actually you are going to be probably making that loneliness and insecurity greater. Especially if they're having fun with flatmates and going out, while you're left wondering what's going on." One way round this might be to go to university in the same city as your partner - which is exactly what Thea and Lola have chosen to do. They're starting at Leeds Uni and their boyfriends will be at Leeds Beckett, right next door. Thea, who has been with her boyfriend, Jack, for two years, says it's a perfect solution. "You have that sense of support while you're in the same place, but you have the separation which you kind of need, so you can find your feet and do your own thing," she says. She notes, though, that neither her parents or Lola's are fully on board with the decision. They seem to fear that their daughters will be cut off from the full uni experience. "I think they're quite sceptical about it because if your child's going to university you don't want to be paying £9,000 a year for them to be hanging out with their boyfriend, or staying in bed together. They say that university is the best time of your life and they don't want their kid to waste it being with their boyfriend or girlfriend." It's not you... Every year freelance journalist Justin Myers posts a darkly humorous tweet on A-level results day, pointing out that all the good news could be the kiss of death for relationships. "I've been wheeling this out in various incarnations for the last eight years or so. It's instantly relatable to anyone who went to university. We've all seen it happen! Most of the lovebirds in my first-year halls consciously uncoupled by Halloween," he says. "Most people love the tweet and laugh along, but in recent years I've noticed an increasing backlash, mostly from couples who stayed together and are anxious to assert their monogamy, or those claiming new students might be upset by the tweet. I'd argue teenagers aren't humourless and are smart enough to know how things might turn out. And if you bucked the trend, congratulations!" When it comes to advice on practical steps to make long-distance relationships work there are blog posts on how often to call, how to build up trust and deal with difficult situations. One is written by travel-blogger Absolutely Lucy, who stayed with her boyfriend from home all the way through uni, only to drift apart once they settled into the world of work. As students, they dedicated certain weekends to couple time and sent thoughtful texts and even flowers to help keep the relationship going. They both made an effort and Lucy thinks this was the key. "Temptation is the biggest question of all about having a boyfriend at university. There is a lot of temptation, if you like sweaty blokes wearing too much aftershave daring mates to down pints without being sick! Some might feel left out of all the drunken snogging and sleeping around that comes with freshers' [week], but you're not really missing anything! It's possible to go to university and not sleep with everyone. It's possible to go on a night out and go home with your girls and a greasy burger!" Katie Broadbent has also written a survival guide for students separated from their partners, which includes sharing problems with close friends and keeping as busy as possible while apart. She'd been with her boyfriend, Sam, for two years before they started at different universities and they're still together now that they've graduated. It was hard, but worth the effort, she says. "I know that many of my friends and family were doubtful about whether we'd stay together, but our relationship is stronger than ever. "We've both matured a lot and been through so much. Now we're looking forward to the future together. I believe that if you really are committed to your partner, you will always find a way to make things work." SEPTEMBER 2019 In Leeds, freshers' week is already over. Thea says she has hardly seen her boyfriend over the last few days because they agreed to use the time to make new friends. Lola tells me she wonders whether spending more time together away from home and their school friends might mean she and her boyfriend clash more, but she's philosophical about it. "I'd be surprised if we were still together in a year - pleasantly surprised, but I just don't think we will be. I don't think it's going to be anything sad, or like some emotional break-up," she says. And Thea also recognises there is no guarantee that her "perfect solution" will work. "If you do split up and you're both in the same city, or both at university, it is gonna be harder. But it's always hard if you split up with someone, isn't it? It's never really going to be that easy. "And if you've spent time making an effort with new people, then you're going to be dealing with splitting up with friends around you. You'll be forced to socialise with people rather than lie in your bed all day playing sad songs!" But two of my friends, Luke and Tom, have both made 180-degree turns. What a difference two months makes. Tom, whose advice was to split up before going to university, is now thinking it's worth giving it a try with his girlfriend, Jenny. Luke, on the other hand, who wanted to make his relationship work, has just been told by his girlfriend that she's changed her mind. He's been dumped. But amazingly, he doesn't seem too disappointed. "She said it would be hard. Even though it would've been a struggle I was prepared to do it. But now she's ended it and I think that's left me more excited to start uni," he says. "It means I can go without having to worry about anything at all!" You may also be interested in: Anoushka Dougherty was offered a place at Cambridge University, but she's mixed-race and from a state school - and only 3% of students who started at Cambridge in 2017 were black, or mixed-race with black heritage. So is it the best place for her? At this point, she's not sure. READ: 'I'm mixed-race, is Cambridge University right for me?' (January 2019) | उन्नीस साल की अनुष्का डौघर्टी ने इस साल की शुरुआत में स्कूल की पढ़ाई पूरी की और गर्मियों के महीनों में अपने अगले बड़े कदम के बारे में सोचती रही-केंट में घर छोड़कर मैनचेस्टर में विश्वविद्यालय जा रही थी। उसके दोस्तों के सामने एक बड़ा सवाल था कि उनके मौजूदा प्रेमी और प्रेमिकाओं के बारे में क्या करना है। छोड़ देना है या नहीं? |
uk-england-derbyshire-56715038 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-56715038 | Covid: 'Getting the vaccine in Ramadan helps others' | A series of pop-up vaccination centres in mosques have been set up to support Muslims to get a Covid vaccination during Ramadan, after concerns from Islamic scholars and NHS leaders that the fasting period may discourage some. BBC News meets people who are welcoming the new services. | By Sandish ShokerBBC News, East Midlands The start of Ramadan means millions of Muslims will begin fasting during daylight hours for a month. But there have been concerns among health bosses that some may delay getting their vaccines as a result. During Ramadan, many Muslims abstain from allowing anything to enter their body, such as food and drink, between sunrise and sunset. Senior NHS workers who are Muslims and the British Islamic Medical Association have issued assurances having the vaccination will not break the fast and the NHS has set up pop-up vaccination centres at mosques, workplaces and community centres, with options such as out-of-hours and women-only clinics being considered. Erum Suleman, from Derby, said she thought the comfortable and familiar settings would encourage other Muslims to get their jabs. Mrs Suleman, who had her vaccination on Friday - just before Ramadan began this week - said: "Some local people might feel more comfortable going to the community centre, because they know the people there, and they can walk there, and I think these things are a big help." The 43-year-old, who founded the charity Erum's Helping Hand, said there had been hesitancy among some Muslims in her community about taking up the vaccine. She added: "I have heard people talking about whether they are going to get the vaccine or not and I would say to people that sooner or later we all need to get it, so just go as soon as you are invited... and then we can see our parents and families again. "A lot of people in the community know me through my charity work so I thought if people saw me getting the jab done then they might book theirs too." Mrs Suleman added she felt having the vaccination was, in fact, in keeping with the aims of Ramadan. "Whatever we do for good in those 30 days of Ramadan, this is a good step for the future, for our children and for our families," she said. "By doing this we are showing that we care for others, our community, for everybody, and we are helping others - which is what Ramadan is about." Yunas Naroo from West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, is due to have his second vaccination during Ramadan. The 83-year-old said he had sought advice on having the vaccine during the holy month and was confident it was safe to do so. "I enquired about it, but I've not been worried," he said. "I had my first vaccine and didn't feel any side effects at all so I wasn't worried about the second dose. "I have been fasting for a long time, since I was young, so my body is used to it." Mr Naroo, who is the vice chairman of the Jamia Masjid Sultania mosque in Sneinton, Nottingham, said he was aware of some concerns within the community. "I know some people are worried about having the vaccine and everyone has their own opinions, but I don't see any problem with it," he said. "I recommend everybody should have it when they are asked to book, just to be on the safe side." Leicester Imam Dr Ather Hussain said he had been telling worshippers having the vaccination is "a form of worship". "Worship is anything that brings kindness and unity to the people around you," he said. "Walking around and refusing to take the vaccine or any precaution is irresponsible and selfish. "Anything which reverses that trend and protects you and your neighbours - that's a form of worship." He added he believed the timing of Ramadan this year was "just so important". "It opens your eyes to our responsibilities and who and what matters in your life, and in the pandemic, everyone matters," he said. "This virus has taken everyone from society - of every race and religion - and we have all got to be careful and responsible." Dr Shehla Imtiaz-Umer, a Derby GP and representative of the British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA), believed it was important not to delay the vaccination programme. "As Muslims we have a duty to preserve life and getting vaccinated is the most effective way to prevent illness and loss of life from Covid-19," she said. "We must now stand together and not allow this progress to halt during Ramadan." Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. Related Internet Links Derby and Derbyshire CCG | इस्लामी विद्वानों और एन. एच. एस. नेताओं की चिंताओं के बाद कि उपवास की अवधि कुछ लोगों को हतोत्साहित कर सकती है, रमजान के दौरान मुसलमानों को कोविड टीकाकरण प्राप्त करने में सहायता के लिए मस्जिदों में पॉप-अप टीकाकरण केंद्रों की एक श्रृंखला स्थापित की गई है। बीबीसी समाचार उन लोगों से मिलता है जो नई सेवाओं का स्वागत कर रहे हैं। |
uk-england-bristol-14144011 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-14144011 | Bristol Free School plans are given council approval | Bristol Free School has been given the green light to create temporary facilities at Westbury-on-Trym. | Plans to re-use the former site of the Environment Agency and Defra on Burghill Road were approved by a planning committee on Wednesday. The temporary site - which could be used until December 2012 - will include facilities for ICT, science and technology, sport and extra classrooms. Bristol Free School is set to be the largest of its kind in England. | ब्रिस्टल फ्री स्कूल को वेस्टबरी-ऑन-ट्रिम में अस्थायी सुविधाएं बनाने के लिए हरी झंडी दे दी गई है। |
sinhala.051202_chandrikamansion | https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2005/12/051202_chandrikamansion | Chandrika denies mansion story | "Is Prince Andrew's Southyork mansion going to Sri Lanka?" President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has categorically rejected that she has bought a mansion in the UK as reported by the Evening Standard of December 1st, 2005 published in the UK. | The article appeared in the column 'Londoner's Diary' under the caption, "Is Prince Andrew's Southyork mansion going to Sri Lanka?" It says President Chandrika Kumaratunge has bought the Sunninhill Park mansion belonging to Prince Andrew, the second son of the Queen. The article says, "Has the Duke of York finally sold his country mansion, Sunninghill Park? One well-placed source tells me the property - dubbedSouthyork after the Ewing ranch in the 1980s TV series Dallas - has been bought by former Sri lankan Presidnet Chandrika Kumaratunge. The article says that the Prince Andrew has been desperate to sell the mansion since divorcing Sarah, Duchess of York in 1992. Worth £10 million Stating that the mansion has been on the market for more than three years for ten million pounds, says it is not known how much Mrs.Kumaratunge might have paid for the white elephant on the Berkshire-Surrey border. The article also alleges that two flats in Paris have also been bought by President Kumaratunge. The Evening Standard further says that President Kumaratunge is known to have been keen in buying a house in the UK nearer to her son who is qualified recently as a veterinary surgeon from the Bristol University and her daughter who is a doctor in the UK. The office of the President Kumaratunge says that it, ".......wishes to categorically reject the references to her in the said article which are baseless, as she does not, nor propose to, own property abroad." Denial Considering the extreme damage the said article has done to the reputation of President Kumaratunge, office of the pesident requests the Evening Standard publish the statement issued by them. It also says that legal action will be taken by President Kumaratunge against the newspaper for publishing defamatory article. However, a member of the editorial of the paaper told Sandeshaya that they stand by their report. "We have not received any denial or a formal letter of litigation", the editorial member said. Palace declines to comment When we contacted the Buckingham Palace to verify this information the media unit in the palace said they would not comment on private transactions. The Unit said they reject the article appeared in the Evening Standard. | "क्या प्रिंस एंड्रयू की साउथ यॉर्क हवेली श्रीलंका जा रही है?" राष्ट्रपति चंद्रिका भंडारनायके कुमारतुंगा ने स्पष्ट रूप से खारिज कर दिया है कि उन्होंने यूके में एक हवेली खरीदी है जैसा कि यूके में प्रकाशित 1 दिसंबर, 2005 के इवनिंग स्टैंडर्ड द्वारा बताया गया है। |
uk-england-shropshire-51876295 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-51876295 | Coventry half marathon postponed due to coronavirus | Coventry Half Marathon is to be postponed due to coronavirus. | In a statement, organisers said current circumstances would prevent bringing the "best atmosphere and event to runners and spectators" on 5 April. It said it took the decision after government advice to be mindful how events could be a burden on public services. Organiser Matt Wall said the event team were left with "little option" other than to move it to later in the year. In a statement, published on the event website, organisers said the team were "excited about delivering a fantastic event" but had to prioritise the "wellbeing of all runners, spectators and crew". Organisers said those who had a place would have it automatically moved to a new date, which they hoped to confirm in the coming weeks. Latest news from the West Midlands Speaking to BBC CWR, Mr Wall said organisers had been "working like mad" behind the scenes, but "ultimately we are a community event and our biggest focus was about ensuring the community could be safe and that we weren't going to be a drain on other resources". There have been 798 confirmed cases of the virus across the UK as of 09:00 GMT on Friday., including three in Coventry. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. Related Internet Links Coventry Half Marathon | कोरोनावायरस के कारण कोवेंट्री हाफ मैराथन को स्थगित किया जाना है। |
blogs-echochambers-26791865 | https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-26791865 | A Twitter war on Stephen Colbert | Satire can be a dangerous game. Making jokes about racists is safe. Making a joke about racism by pretending to be a racist is the kind of subversive humour that can get you in a lot of trouble. | By Anthony ZurcherEditor, Echo Chambers Just ask Stephen Colbert, who is both a master of the art and its latest victim. The first thing to understand is that the Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report is not really Stephen Colbert. The show's "Stephen Colbert" is a caricature, a cardboard version of a right-wing pundit used to poke satirical fun at right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. On Wednesday night, Colbert mocked the attempt by the owner of the Washington Redskins US football franchise to defuse allegations that the team's name is a racist slur on Native Americans. Earlier this week, Dan Snyder said he was starting an "Original Americans Foundation" to provide support to impoverished Native American communities. On his show, Colbert announced that he was going to "show the Asian-American community I care by starting the 'Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever'". It was a reference to previous instances on the show where Colbert pretended to be a stereotypical Asian and then didn't understand why his behaviour might be offensive. The following day, the network-run @ColbertReport Twitter account - over which Colbert and his show have no editorial control - sent out a tweet to its one million followers with that quote, devoid of any context or reference to the Redskins. The message caught the attention of 23-year-old social media activist Suey Park, who gained fame in 2013 by creating the #NotYourAsianSidekick Twitter trend. On Thursday night, she tweeted to her 18,000 followers: "The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals has decided to call for #CancelColbert. Trend it." She followed it up with a concerted campaign to rally support for her cause. When supporters of the show pushed back, pointing out that Colbert's routine was satire, Ms Park pressed on: "Dear white people, we're not stupid. We know what satire is and what it isn't." "I shouldn't have to interrupt my work/social life to respond to every act of racism. The left is just as complicit." "I'm sick of liberals hiding behind assumed 'progressiveness.'" That last tweet was picked up by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, who called on her 700,000 followers to "co-sign", giving the trend additional momentum. The Twitter war quickly caught the attention of the mainstream media, as columnists and commentators weighed in on the matter. Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams admits that she is "a full-time, professional offended feminist", but adds: I've got to say that we all undercut the serious points we may be trying to make about changing the conversation when the response to something that we deem inappropriate is a full-on demand for somebody's head. Colbert's humour succeeds by "cranking offensiveness up so far as to be inherently unbelievable", writes the Wire's Brian Feldman. "React however you choose, but this sort of thing is Colbert's bread and butter." Slate's David Weigel wonders if Ms Park's "hashtag activism" will have an effect: Any time a public figure or group of people is blitzed and told not to say something offensive, no matter how prideful they are, the instinct is to never say that again. He says that just because Colbert has tried to mock someone else's racism, that's not enough for people like Ms Park: As they explained in 140-character bursts, when a white comedian like Colbert joked about racism by playing a racist, he was still telling his audience to laugh at a racist joke. Anyone who disputed this was trying to "whitesplain" satire - an argument that can never be debunked. He also notes that the entire episode exposes how difficult it is to win Twitter outrage wars: The weaponised hashtag also takes power from the people who are trying to mock it - Twitter doesn't discriminate between earnestness and parody. People making fun of the humorlessness and bad faith of the hashtag end up keeping it in the "trending" column. The Daily Banter's Chez Pazienza calls Ms Park a "human umbrage machine", saying he hopes the episode will "serve as the breaking point for progressive pop culture, when it finally decides that the constant ridiculous outrage has become nothing more than self-parody". Meanwhile, those on the right revelled in a liberal icon like Colbert taking fire from the left. Twitchy, a social media watchdog site founded by Malkin, took particular delight, collecting tweets from outraged liberals and liberals outraged at the outrage. Douglas Ernst of the Washington Times blogs that Colbert's situation "highlighted quite nicely where you end up when you follow that worldview to its logical conclusion: the land of livid thought police". "Sadly, Mr Colbert, for some weird reason, still doesn't understand that his own ideology breeds intellectual cannibals," he adds. Comedy Central has since deleted the offending message, and Colbert tweeted from his personal account that he had nothing to do with it: "#CancelColbert - I agree! Just saw @ColbertReport tweet. I share your rage. Who is that, though?" As regular viewers of The Colbert Report will attest, the show's guests and interview subjects often act as though they're oblivious to being the target of subtle derision. It's part of the show's insidious charm. Ms Park, on the other hand, professes to be well aware of Colbert's style of humour and contends that pretending to be racist is just as bad as being racist. If Colbert had used a racial epithet - say, the "n" word, for instance - to make fun of a Klan member, would that have been acceptable? Is "ching-chong ding-dong" any less inflammatory? At what point does humour cross over into offensiveness? As I wrote, satire is dangerous business. That danger, walking the line between laugher and shock, is part of what makes it so compelling - and Colbert so popular. | व्यंग्य एक खतरनाक खेल हो सकता है। नस्लवादियों के बारे में मजाक करना सुरक्षित है। नस्लवादी होने का नाटक करके नस्लवाद के बारे में मजाक करना एक प्रकार का विध्वंसक हास्य है जो आपको बहुत परेशानी में डाल सकता है। |
uk-46260729 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46260729 | How I set out to catch a romance scammer | It's a tough conversation to listen to. | By Athar AhmadBBC Panorama The woman on the phone thinks she has a fiancé in the US. But the romantic emails she's been receiving are really coming from a small town in Nigeria. Laura Lyons has to break the bad news. She's a private investigator who specialises in tracking down online romance fraudsters, otherwise known as "catfish". "When you have to go back to individuals and explain to them that this person doesn't exist, they're not real, that is really hard to do," she says. The catfish are often based in Africa and work from pre-written romantic scripts in internet cafes. Their stories are designed to tug at the heart strings and to empty bank accounts. More than a quarter of new relationships now start through a dating website or app, so there's no shortage of potential victims. Most victims are too embarrassed to go to the police, but there are still 10 catfish crimes a day reported in the UK. Those affected by such scams lose on average around £15,000. The mark: A victim who is targeted by romance fraudsters Roy Twiggs shows me the stream of email conversations he had with someone who pretended to be a US woman called Donna. Roy thought they were in love and were going to get married. Then she started asking for money to help with a building project in Malaysia. "The money seemed to be for plausible things. When you're sending £3,000, £4,000, it sort of all adds up. "After I'd worked everything out I'd actually paid her the best part of £100,000." The 67-year-old from Doncaster should be enjoying a comfortable retirement. Instead he's paying off creditors each month using his pension. "I'm broke. You're whitewashed, you're totally devastated, you're finished, you just don't want to be bothered anymore." While we are filming we spot a worrying entry on Roy's calendar. He has written "$500" next to the name Sherry. Sherry is Roy's new American girlfriend. He met her online. When I check the messages Sherry has sent, it's clear she's using the same language and methods as the original catfish. It's far from unusual, as catfish are ruthless with their victims. If you have been hooked once, you are more likely to be targeted again. The bait: A fake profile used to hook someone online I want to catch a catfish by setting up my own fake dating profile. Nearly two-thirds of reported victims are women, so I have become Kathryn Hunter - a wealthy divorcee looking for love. It's not long before the catfish begin to bite. Four men approach me online and they all claim to be US soldiers. It's an immediate red flag. The military profile is a commonly used cover story which gives catfish an excuse not to meet in person, as well as providing a seemingly legitimate reason to ask for money to be sent overseas. One of the soldiers, who calls himself Paul Richard, comes on strong. On day two, he tells Kathryn he's in love. On day three, he wants to marry her. He takes the conversation away from the dating site and bombards me with texts. There are messages late into the night and more waiting for me in the morning. After a week, Paul Richard says he wants to speak on the phone. My producer takes on the role of Kathryn for the call. The number he rings from has a Nigerian dialling code. After a brief silence, a man with a thick African accent comes on the line. He doesn't sound like the American soldier whose picture he is using. But Paul explains away his accent by saying he has a cold. The easiest way to prove someone is a catfish is to find the real person whose pictures they are using. An online reverse image search can show where the pictures came from on the internet. The first three photos Paul sends us don't work, because the meta data has been stripped from the picture. But we get a result on the fourth, a selfie Paul claims is him in his army uniform. It leads us to the Instagram page of Juan Avalos, a real life marine whose page features the same pictures sent to us by Paul. He has uploaded a warning about catfish because so many fraudsters have been using his photos to scam people. Juan told us: "These guys will say anything to anybody and lie. I run into so many messages, even if I show them it's not me they still don't believe it because they are so deeply in love." For the next few weeks, my producer continues to speak to Paul Richard on the phone as I listen in. Paul talks gushingly about their future life together and his plans to move to the UK to be with Kathryn once his army service finishes. The conversations grow longer and more frequent, punctuated with kisses, flirtatious comments and a regular request for pictures. There's just one thing standing in the way of our future happiness - Paul's son is sick and desperately needs medical attention. He asks for $800 (£620) to pay for young Rick's treatment. Paul says we should pay the cash to his nanny in the US, a woman called Marcy Krovak. It's a breakthrough because, unlike Paul Richard, Marcy Krovak is a real person. Mule: Someone who transfers money or goods for the catfish Catfish need real people to pick up cash for them as some form of identification has to be shown when collecting transactions. Some of these money mules are innocent victims tricked into forwarding on cash, others are in on the scam. We don't know whether Marcy is in on it or not, so we head to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, where she lives. We send her a small amount of cash to see if she will pick it up. The next three days are spent sitting in a blacked out van outside Marcy's local Western Union. We spot a number of women who look like her going inside but each time it's a false alarm.. Then, just as we think our sting has failed, we receive a notification telling us the cash has been picked up using Marcy's ID. But it's been collected 400 miles away - in New York. When we ask Marcy what's going on, she claims she's also a victim of our catfish: "I never was going to go to Western Union and pick that money up but now somebody's used my info and gone and picked it up. It was not me, I did not do it. Please find this person." The reveal: Unmasking the catfish It seems like we have hit another dead end, but then our catfish makes a mistake. Paul Richard accidentally leaves a name tag - Dan Coolman - on one of his WhatsApp pictures. We search through all the Dan Coolmans in Nigeria and we find one who runs a barbershop in Ibadan. He's using the same number that our catfish has been calling us from. Dan Coolman is another false name, but we discover the phone is registered to Daniel Joseph Okechkwu. We then find a Twitter account with that name and the same profile picture as the one used by Dan Coolman. We have finally uncovered the real identity of our catfish. We head for Ibadan, but by the time we get there he's gone. The doors to the barber shop are locked and locals say it's been closed for weeks. There is a photo of our catfish posing with a customer on the side of the building, but no-one seems to know where Daniel Joseph Okechkwu has gone. After three months of talking to our catfish, we decide to call him and tell him who we really are. Surprisingly, he doesn't hang up straight away. He sticks to his story about being a US soldier and insists his name is Paul Richard. He denies scamming anybody and then ends the call. It feels like a disappointing end to our search, but later that night he calls back. This time, Daniel Joseph Okechkwu confesses. He claims it's the first romance scam he's ever pulled and that he has been forced to do it because of the closure of his barber shop. He sounds sincere and he apologises for the way he has treated us. Our catfish says he wants to stop being a romance fraudster. But he needs us to give him money, so that he can afford to stop tricking other people out of their cash. It's a classic catfish twist. They never give up on the scam even when they have been rumbled. You can watch BBC Panorama's Billion-Pound Romance Scam on Monday 19th November at 8:30pm on BBC One, or afterwards on BBCiPlayer. | यह सुनने के लिए एक कठिन बातचीत है। |
uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-43948431 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-43948431 | Plastic litter at Hazlehead Park pitches in Aberdeen to be tackled | Talks are to be held about the amount of plastic litter left at popular Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen. | It is claimed that plastic bottles are regularly strewn across the pitches following football games. Local councillor Jennifer Stewart said it was "ruining a gorgeous space" and said she would raise the issue at a meeting with sports body Sport Aberdeen. Sport Aberdeen has been contacted for comment. | एबरडीन के लोकप्रिय हेजलहेड पार्क में बचे प्लास्टिक कचरे की मात्रा के बारे में बातचीत होनी है। |
uk-england-bristol-55734052 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-55734052 | Lockdown win: How learning to read at 54 transformed my life | Tim Davies was one of millions of adults in England who struggled to read and write. For a long time he tried to hide this fact, but a brush with cancer caused him to re-evaluate his life and not even lockdown could stop his progress. | Previously shopping or dealing with bills was a daunting task, he said. Now Tim, 54, is learning to drive and hopes to start his own business as a tree surgeon. "It's changed my life," he said. 'Thought nobody cared' About seven million adults in England have very poor literacy skills, the Literacy Trust charity estimates. Tim said his problems began as a nine-year-old when he was left at a boys' home. "From that point I thought nobody cared about me so why should I care? "So I never concentrated at school." Tim, who lives in Bristol, said he managed to cope with life by hiding his skills gap and took a job as a tree surgeon and landscape gardener because it did not require him to read. "I was scared to tell people. I kept it quiet." 'I've got to learn' Despite being employed, life as a non-reader was a struggle. "I would go into a supermarket and not understand the signs, or bills would come through the door and I couldn't read them. "Then I got throat cancer in 2004 which made it hard to speak. "It got to the point where I thought 'I've had enough now, I've got to learn to read'." If you know someone who needs help After trying some group sessions, which he said gave him panic attacks, he met volunteer Jill Johnston. They have been meeting up twice a week, for the past year, when restrictions allow. Their sessions involve the phonics method, which teaches pupils to recognise which sounds are associated with which letters. "Tim has many attributes," said Ms Johnston. "He listens well, and has a good memory." Thanks to their time together, Tim - who has never travelled abroad - has applied for a passport, learned to drive and is enjoying books. Next he plans to buy a van to set himself up as a self-employed tree surgeon. 'Cannot overestimate the courage' Graham Bottrill, chairman of the charity Read Easy in Bristol, said people who cannot read can feel a deep sense of shame. "They often keep their problems with reading secret, which makes life incredibly hard. "Sometimes even their own families don't know." Mr Bottrill said he had known adults feel a "tremendous release" when they were able to read. "But you cannot overestimate the courage making that step takes," he said. Covid-19 impact Jason Vit, from charity The National Literacy Trust, said lockdown had created extra challenges for adults learning to read. "Regular, in-person support is so important to help with motivation and confidence," he said. While online learning could be "fantastic" for those who struggled to read, finding the resources online was a challenge in itself, he continued. "At the same time, the impact of Covid-19 is highlighting the critical importance of good literacy skills in adapting to new ways of working." Related Internet Links Read Easy | टिम डेविस इंग्लैंड के उन लाखों वयस्कों में से एक थे जिन्होंने पढ़ने और लिखने के लिए संघर्ष किया। लंबे समय तक उन्होंने इस तथ्य को छिपाने की कोशिश की, लेकिन कैंसर के कारण उन्हें अपने जीवन का पुनर्मूल्यांकन करना पड़ा और लॉकडाउन भी उनकी प्रगति को रोक नहीं सका। |
business-12047666 | https://www.bbc.com/news/business-12047666 | AstraZeneca halts work on Motavizumab drug | AstraZeneca has warned that it will have to write-down $445m (£286m) after discontinuing a key development programme for one of its newest drugs. | The UK group has cancelled further development of its antibody Motavizumab for the prevention of a respiratory virus. It said it would take the $445m charge in its fourth quarter 2010 results. The news comes just four days after US regulators further delayed approval of the company's heart drug Brilinta. AstraZeneca said it would no longer develop Motavizumab for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and as a result was withdrawing its licence application to the US Food and Drug Administration. However, it added that it would continue to develop Motavizumab for other treatments of RSV. | एस्ट्राजेनेका ने चेतावनी दी है कि उसे अपनी नवीनतम दवाओं में से एक के लिए एक प्रमुख विकास कार्यक्रम को बंद करने के बाद 445 मिलियन डॉलर (286 मिलियन पाउंड) लिखना होगा। |
science-environment-30746650 | https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30746650 | 'Planet' Pluto comes into view | There are three letters you need to know this year: BTH. | Jonathan AmosScience correspondent@BBCAmoson Twitter They stand for "Better Than Hubble"; and in the next few months, we're going to witness two remarkable BTH events. The first will come on 26 January when the Dawn spacecraft starts to return our best views yet of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The second - and the one I'm most looking forward to - will occur from May onwards as the New Horizons probe bears down on Pluto, and we get its pictures back. As awesome as Hubble's capabilities are, the venerable telescope has given us only a blobby perspective on these worlds, and in the case of Pluto even the word "blob" describes way more detail than we actually have. Both, of course, carry this relatively new classification of "dwarf planet". And if 2014 was the "year of the comet" with duck-shaped Comet 67P, then 2015 is very definitely the year when we get up-close and personal with the Solar System's smallest planets. I'll return to Ceres soon, but I want this posting to highlight the very special circumstances of New Horizons at Pluto. I think this really is a major event. For those of us who grew up with the idea that there were "nine planets", it's the moment when we finally get to complete the set. We've been to all the others, even the distant Uranus and Neptune, which we encountered with Voyager 2 in the late 1980s. But at a distance of 5bn km, Pluto is a whole other challenge. Like the Rosetta satellite, which took 10 years to reach Comet 67P, New Horizons has also been travelling for more than nine years to get to Pluto - and it had to break the record for the fastest-flying satellite at launch to do so. And, again, just as with Rosetta, we expect the pictures and science data from this latest mission to blow us away. "This is a return to the kind of space exploration in the 60s and 70s when everything was completely new - the first mission to Venus, the first mission to Mars, the first mission to everywhere," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern told me. "People talk about re-writing the textbook. Well, this is a case where we won't re-write it; we're going to write that textbook for the first time. It's that new. "It's like we've plucked a mission out of the 60s and 70s, a bold first-time exploration, but we're doing it with 21st Century technology." Granted, the 14 July rendezvous is going to be just a flyby. New Horizons is going too fast (at 13km/s at encounter) and Pluto's gravity is too small to think about going into orbit around the 2,300km-wide body. But the probe's seven instruments will capture such a blaze of data that I don't think we'll be disappointed. And here's the interesting thing. At a distance of 5bn km and with a 15-watt transmitter, New Horizons will downlink its information at 3,000 bits per second - at best. If you can bear to recall the bad old days of dial-up internet, you'll realise this is painfully slow. It'll take an hour to send back one compressed picture; it will take a full 16 MONTHS to return every bit of information gathered during the flyby. But what that means is that New Horizons will actually feel like an orbiter mission because we'll get "updates" from the encounter right through the second half of this year and most of 2016. So, what do we know about Pluto right now? Very little is the truthful answer. It's about two-thirds rock enveloped by a lot of ice. Remarkably, even though the surface of the world is a frigid minus 230C, geophysical models suggest there could be a warm ocean hiding down below. Those surface ices feed a wispy nitrogen atmosphere, sublimating to bulk it up or frosting out to thin it down - all depending on where Pluto is in its orbit around the Sun. And it's got five moons. Four of these were only discovered after Nasa green-lit the mission. The one we did know about previously, and the biggest, is called Charon. Like Earth's Moon, it was very probably formed out of the debris that resulted when something else hit Pluto in the past. Indeed, that wreckage likely also spawned all the other moons - Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. And who knows, we may even find in the next few months that this collisional history has given Pluto some rings. When New Horizons has gone through the system on 14 July, it will fly on, into the domain of the Solar System referred to as the Kuiper Belt. It's a region of space that should contain many thousands of icy bodies, and Hubble has found a couple of candidates that the spacecraft can quite easily reach for another flyby event in 2019. In some senses, you should think of New Horizons as a sentinel, because over the course of the next 10-15 years we're going to get some colossal telescopes that will be able to probe the Kuiper Belt properly for the first time. New Horizons is the scout. And, finally, no discussion of Pluto can omit a reference to that controversial day in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union, the keeper of space nomenclature, "demoted" the world from full planet status to mere dwarf planet. Alan Stern is still riled by that decision - "You wouldn't go to a podiatrist if you needed brain surgery, and I don't recommend you ask astronomers to do the job of planetary scientists and planet classification" - but he is actually now more interested in talking about the burgeoning science of dwarf planets. "I think historically Pluto will always be considered the ninth planet, but from a technical standpoint it's obviously one of a very large class of planets - the best known in that class, because it was the first to be discovered, and so far it's the largest and apparently the most complex in the class, with the richest satellite system, the most interesting atmosphere, etc. "But people need to understand that this is a time of change in the field as we get used to a new paradigm with large numbers of small planets." Closest approach (13,000km) to Pluto is set for about 11:50 GMT on 14 July. With pictures that have a best resolution of 70m per pixel, Pluto will be a blob no more. | इस वर्ष आपको तीन अक्षरों को जानने की आवश्यकता हैः बी. टी. एच.। |
world-europe-guernsey-30056644 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-30056644 | Nearly 80 World War Two landmines found in Sark | Landmines from World War Two have been exploded in Sark. | Nearly 80 explosives, brought to the island by the occupying German forces, were discovered in a field on the west of the island on Thursday. The bomb disposal unit from Guernsey Police travelled to the island to examine the explosives. Officers said 28 of the 78 landmines were still live. The mines were detonated in controlled explosions. | सार्क में द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध की बारूदी सुरंगों में विस्फोट किया गया है। |
entertainment-arts-53141138 | https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53141138 | Denise Welch shares her mental health survival tips | Denise Welch is worried about our collective mental health. | By Helen BushbyEntertainment and arts reporter "Mental health services are going to be on their knees," says the actress and Loose Women star, amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. "We're talking about a possible second wave - it's going to include mental health, and undiagnosed mental illnesses of other kinds." Psychiatrists warned last month of a "tsunami" of mental illness from problems stored up during lockdown. Welch, 62, is no stranger to mental illness, calling it her "unwelcome visitor". Her first depressive episode was sparked in 1989 by the birth of her son Matthew (now the frontman of The 1975), and she's spoken out about her debilitating mental health struggles and addictions ever since. She's also said she wished there was more information and medical help available during the early years of her illness. Three marriages, two children and one viral video later, she has written a book documenting the pain she's experienced, and how she and her family have survived. The book was prompted by the massive response she got after she "very impulsively" tweeted a video of herself during an episode of clinical depression. "I was overwhelmed, blindsided by the response, because I've talked out about this for 31 years, so it was actually a shock to me that so many people seem to be desperate to hear what I have to say about my illness," she tells BBC News. Welch, whose acting roles include Waterloo Road, Coronation Street and Soldier Soldier, admits she's "somebody who is very sensitive and tends to take on the worries of the world". She says of the coronavirus pandemic: "It's been a very frightening time for everybody, and some people have dealt with that better than others." She's quick to add that "obviously, I don't come at this as any kind of medical person", but having chatted with friends, young people and mental health charities, she's seen people with anxiety fall into two camps during lockdown. "There were people who went into massive anxiety early on because of lockdown - people were unsure about their jobs, but mostly because of health anxiety," she says. "But I was also talking to a lot of young people, and they found a solace in it, because of a lack of status anxiety in lockdown. "A lot of young people live their lives in a 'compare and despair' world, and [suddenly] that didn't exist." "Other people can't work, or they find it very difficult to, so the fact that many people weren't able to work has given some people a little comfort bubble." "With lockdown starting to ease a little bit, we're now dealing with massive strains on the mental health service, because those people are now getting anxiety." She worries for her many friends in the theatre industry, saying: "They are not just losing their jobs, they're losing their careers. And I've found that I've got a bit overwhelmed by that." So, given her own history of anxiety and depression, what advice does she offer to people dealing with similar feelings? Denise Welch's mental health survival tips 1. Allow yourself to be overwhelmed "What I've found that for my own sanity, is that I've had to take some time in the day to allow myself to become overwhelmed with the worries of the world. It's not just the worries about family, it's the whole globe. " 2. See what you can do to help others "I do what I can in little bits, whether that's making a video for somebody or just checking in on somebody, or tweeting. There's a hashtag #ExcludedUK on Twitter and it's about all of those freelancers who haven't got any money. "So if you have got a job, maybe take a little bit of time each day to see what you can do to help others, even if it's just social media awareness." 3. Be a bit selfish "I think that we have to protect our own mental health and be a bit selfish "I have to look after my family and make sure that they're okay... but if I want to go upstairs and take some time out and have three hours watching The Real Housewives of anywhere in the world, I'm not going to feel guilty about it. "I think that self care and retreating into your little bubble - it's not to be pooh-poohed. That's basically how I've managed to survive." Welch has also spoken many times on the panel of ITV's Loose Women about mental health, and discussed her post-natal depression on breakfast TV with Lorraine Kelly. She writes in her book: "Post-natal depression is the cruellest, most unforgiving and isolating condition, because not only are you submerged in a pitch-black nightmare of mental illness, but you also have a totally dependent child who can't survive without you." She adds that when she first got ill, "I would have given anything to see a woman come on the television and talk about having my illness. "Someone who was well, who had a couple of children and could smile and say, 'I've been where you are right now. But look at me now. Yes, I still have it, but in between I live this great life with my two children. You will get better." But despite having spoken publicly about her condition in the past, it was still a "big decision" to write the book, which spares no details on her life. "Much as I was frightened about writing it, because I knew it would be triggering, I knew I would have to really invest in order to write a really good book, something I was proud of." She was also wary of press interest in some of the book's revelations, saying: "Anything to do with alcohol and drug use always creates a tabloid headline dream for them, you know?" But she went ahead because: "I wanted to write the book that I needed throughout my illness. "And that's what I feel that I've written. If I die tomorrow, I feel that this is my legacy and I'm happy with that. "I honestly feel that this book is the book that I would have given anything to read when I needed it." The actress is keenly aware that her writing might reach a different audience than other memoirs that tackle mental health. "I think it's important there's different types of people, so for example, people like Stephen Fry and Ruby Wax have done wonders for the mental health world. "But my audience tends to be a bit more 'Betty from Bolton', who wouldn't necessarily look to people who they see as being Oxford-educated people, because they feel that they wouldn't relate to them. "So I am more relatable to a certain group of people, because of the type of TV I do, and I'm a Loose Woman. It's important that there's somebody for everybody." She adds that a chapter in the book is written by "my husband, my dad, my sister, my sons and my best friends - because the people who live with those with depression are very under-represented". "I always used to say that if the shoe had been on the other foot, and I was living with me, I don't know how tolerant I would have been. And so I'm very, very grateful for the people in my life." Despite aspects of her life being having been blighted by depression, the star remains upbeat. "I still say that if all the world's problems were in my front room in piles, I would still pick my pile, because my life outside of my depressive episodes is wonderful." The Unwelcome Visitor: Depression and How I Survive It by Denise Welch is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 25 June. Information and advice If you or someone you know is struggling with issues raised by this story, find support through BBC Action Line. | डेनिस वेल्च हमारे सामूहिक मानसिक स्वास्थ्य के बारे में चिंतित हैं। |
uk-scotland-scotland-business-51938219 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-51938219 | Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces £330bn financial package | £330bn seems a lot of money - so what does it mean, and how much time does it buy? Scottish ministers have opted to use £2.2bn of crisis funding in similar ways to England. The support is for business, and particularly helpful for small and medium-sized ones. Will it help big manufacturers, as car plants shut down, and what will it do for the most insecure and low-paid workers? That's yet to become clear. | Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland There's a lot about the current crisis that challenges the wirings of the brain. For many of us, the scale of the global challenge and the changes to life, work and family just don't compute. The £330bn, announced on Tuesday by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, fits that same pattern of incomprehensibly big numbers. In the US, they're going for over a trillion dollars. That much moola surely ought to overwhelm a mere microbe? So how to explain it, and the other measures set out by Rishi Sunak six days after his last big bazooka fell well short of meeting the challenge? Well, it's not real money. It's a guarantee that stands behind real money. A bank may not wish to lend to your business if you are at heightened risk of default through the next few months. Or if it does, it'll price in a lot of risk. But if the government is guaranteeing that money to the bank, then it's taking on the risk, and the cost of borrowing is closer to the very low rates of interest at which banks can access funds from the Bank of England. As a result, we - the taxpayers - could be on the hook for a third of a trillion pounds, to add to the two trillion or so that now make up Britain's government debt. But to run up that extra debt would require all the lenders to collapse and all that debt to turn sour. And if things got all that bad, the economy would be in such dire straits anyway that we'd be contemplating government default. On the rebound The reckoning is that such money will provide a bridge from here to the point at which the restrictions on socialising and travel are withdrawn, and we come out of our Covid-19 hibernation spending with wild abandon - frolicking like cows being put out to spring pastures. At that point, the businesses would still be there to ramp up operations and get back to business as usual. But they'd be carrying more debt, and this looks like it's based on a one-year loan, so it would have to be refinanced. Will a year be enough? An alarming academic paper was published on Monday evening by public health statisticians in London, suggesting that the new strategy for suppressing coronavirus may get over a peak of activity this summer, but it may not be sorted out until a vaccination is available, and the best estimates for that are 18 months of frantic development and production. Taking a loan to keep a cash-strapped business solvent until August or September is one thing if you can be confident of growth roaring back thereafter, but that may not be the case until well into next year. Meanwhile, for airlines and perhaps airports, which are to have another support package worked out, there's the awkward question of how much capacity there should be. Should this be used as an opportunity to scale back the sector, as part of the drive to reduce climate-changing emissions? Gig economy The Rishi Mark 2 economic support package went back to the retail, leisure and hospitality sector, a day after it was torpedoed with the request that people should not go out to restaurants, bars and clubs. There's a big wedge of money to give it a business rates holiday for a year - not just the smaller premises, but all of them. That was announced for England, and matched by Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish economy secretary, when she announced how the £1.9bn of funding that comes to Holyrood from the chancellor's crisis splurge on Tuesday. There will be a £10,000 grant for those businesses that fall beneath the threshold of the existing small business rates relief scheme. And for mid-sized businesses in those targeted sectors in shops, pubs, restaurants, clubs, hotels, etc, there will be a £25,000 grant. That is real money. And those are real grants. Will they get anywhere close to persuading owners to shutter their businesses and lay off their staff? The new governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, hopes so. He wants firms to think hard before they sack workers, to get in touch and see what is on offer. But it's money splurged without any strings attached to employment, or incentives to retain workers. There is still a big gap where business says it needs big wage subsidies, of as much as 75%, as used in European countries. Payroll and other taxes could be delayed or abandoned for months or a year, starting with VAT this month. Companies also want regulations relaxed. The Scottish Tourism Alliance, for instance, wants a temporary dropping of the requirement on tour operators to repatriate customers, as that could prove a big obstacle to getting foreign bookings restarted. The speed of the response, and of getting those grants and loans into business bank accounts, is vital. Customers stayed away, because they were told to, restaurants are closing, staff are being laid off. Earlier today, I was in a fishmonger who supplies high-end restaurants in Glasgow. With one such closure, he had 400 oysters and no market. I could have taken a pack in return for a charity donation - if only I liked oysters. Stephen Leckie, of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, who runs the Crieff Hydro group of 11 hotels, gave an example of his financial challenge. Crieff Hydro costs £60,000 a day in fixed costs, "just to open the doors". Peebles Hydro is nearly £40,000 more. Some 46% of his costs are in pay. Yet he says - and he was talking about the industry rather than his own business - hotels are going for a typical 80% occupancy in April and May to 30% or even 10%. This is the time of year when finance is running low and when bookings and trade should be picking up sharply. But instead of serving customers, office staff are busy taking cancellations. "That's catastrophic," Mr Leckie told John Beattie on Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme. "It's unheard of for one night, let alone a prolonged period." There was a small part of Rishi Sunak's announcement addressed to helping individuals and families, with a mortgage holiday of three months. If you get on well with your bank, you might have got such a break from payments anyway. And if you rent? An appeal by the Scottish government to landlords to go easy on arrears, while doubling the length of time - from three to six months - before arrears can lead to an eviction. For the self-employed and gig economy workers, there was a promise of an employment support package. It's yet to be thrashed out. Unions and employers are working with government, and it's likely to require another humongously mind-boggling sum of money. | 330 बिलियन पाउंड बहुत पैसा लगता है-तो इसका क्या मतलब है, और यह कितना समय खरीदता है? स्कॉटलैंड के मंत्रियों ने इंग्लैंड की तरह ही संकट वित्त पोषण का उपयोग करने का विकल्प चुना है। समर्थन व्यवसाय के लिए है, और विशेष रूप से छोटे और मध्यम आकार के लोगों के लिए सहायक है। क्या यह बड़े निर्माताओं की मदद करेगा, क्योंकि कार संयंत्र बंद हो गए हैं, और यह सबसे असुरक्षित और कम वेतन वाले श्रमिकों के लिए क्या करेगा? यह अभी तक स्पष्ट नहीं हुआ है। |
world-asia-51454107 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51454107 | At least 14 dead as Rohingya boat sinks in Bangladesh | At least 14 people have drowned when a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank off the south coast of Bangladesh, officials say. | The boat was destined for Malaysia and included Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh, local authorities told the BBC. All of the dead bodies recovered are reportedly of women and children. An official told the AFP news agency that 70 people were rescued. Many are still missing. The boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal near Saint Martin's island. In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. Most have been placed in refugee camps and some have tried to flee in boats to Malaysia. | बांग्लादेश के दक्षिणी तट पर रोहिंग्या शरणार्थियों को ले जा रही एक नाव के डूबने से कम से कम 14 लोगों की डूबने से मौत हो गई। |
magazine-40669239 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239 | Norway: The country where no salaries are secret | This week the British papers revelled in news about how much the BBC's on-air stars get paid, though the salaries of their counterparts in commercial TV remain under wraps. In Norway, there are no such secrets. Anyone can find out how much anyone else is paid - and it rarely causes problems. | By Lars BevangerBBC News, Oslo In the past, your salary was published in a book. A list of everyone's income, assets and the tax they had paid, could be found on a shelf in the public library. These days, the information is online, just a few keystrokes away. The change happened in 2001, and it had an instant impact. "It became pure entertainment for many," says Tom Staavi, a former economics editor at the national daily, VG. "At one stage you would automatically be told what your Facebook friends had earned, simply by logging on to Facebook. It was getting ridiculous." Transparency is important, Staavi says, partly because Norwegians pay high levels of income tax - an average of 40.2% compared to 33.3% in the UK, according to Eurostat, while the EU average is just 30.1%. "When you pay that much you have to know that everyone else is doing it, and you have to know that the money goes to something reasonable," he says. "We [need to] have trust and confidence in both the tax system and in the social security system." This is considered to far outweigh any problems that may be caused by envy. In fact, in most workplaces, people have a fairly good idea how much their colleagues are earning, without having to look it up. Wages in many sectors are set through collective agreements, and pay gaps are relatively narrow. The gender pay gap is also narrow, by international standards. The World Economic Forum ranks Norway third out of 144 countries in terms of wage equality for similar work. So the figures that flashed up on Facebook may not have taken many people by surprise. But at a certain point Tom Staavi and others lobbied the government to introduce measures that would encourage people to think twice before snooping on the salary details of a friend, neighbour or colleague. People now have to log in using their national ID number in order to access the data on the tax authority's website, and for the last three years it has been impossible to search anonymously. "Since 2014 it has been possible to find out who has been doing searches on your information," explains Hans Christian Holte, the head of Norway's tax authority. "We saw a significant drop to about a 10th of the volume that was before. I think it has taken out the Peeping Tom mentality." There are some three million taxpayers in Norway, out of a total population of 5.2 million. The tax authority logged 16.5 million searches in the year before restrictions were put into place. Today there are around two million searches per year. In a recent survey 92% of people said they did not look up friends, family or acquaintances. "Earlier I did do searches, but now it's visible if you do it, so I don't do it any more," says a woman I meet on the streets of Oslo, Nelly Bjorge. "I was curious about some neighbours, and also about celebrities and royalty. It could be good to know if very rich people are cheating, but you don't always know. Because they have many ways of reducing their income." The tax lists only tell you people's net income, net assets and tax paid. Someone with a vast property portfolio, for instance, would probably be worth far more than the figure found in the lists, because the taxable property value is often far less than the current market value. Hege Glad, a teacher from Fredrikstad south of Oslo, remembers that when she was young, adults used to queue up to examine the "enormous, thick" books of income and tax data, published once a year. "I know my father was one of those looking. When he came home he was in a bad mood because our well-to-do neighbour was listed with little income, no assets and, most of all, a very small amount of tax paid," she says. While she approves of Norway's transparency in this area, she notes that it can have negative effects. She has seen this in school. "I remember once coming into school and a group of boys were very keen to tell me about the massive amounts of money the dad of one of the others in the class was making. "I noticed a couple of other boys who usually were part of this gang had pulled back, saying little. The mood was not very nice," she says. There have been other stories about children from low-income families who have been bullied in school, by classmates who looked up their parents' financial situation. BBC pay But Hans Christian Holte thinks the government currently has the balance about right. The fact that anonymous searches are no longer permitted discourages criminals from searching for wealthy people to target. And yet, the restrictions introduced in 2014 have not stopped whistleblowers reporting things they find suspicious. "We like people to do searches which could help us in investigating tax evasion and the amount of tips that we get has not gone down," he says. "Maybe the Peeping Tom part has more or less vanished, but you still have the legitimate reasons for searching and also some good effects of that openness." Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | इस सप्ताह ब्रिटिश समाचार पत्रों में खबर आई कि बीबीसी के ऑन-एयर सितारों को कितना भुगतान किया जाता है, हालांकि वाणिज्यिक टीवी में उनके समकक्षों का वेतन गुप्त रहता है। नॉर्वे में, ऐसा कोई रहस्य नहीं है। कोई भी यह पता लगा सकता है कि किसी और को कितना भुगतान किया जाता है-और यह शायद ही कभी समस्याओं का कारण बनता है। |
uk-wales-mid-wales-39998804 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-39998804 | Stranded pony winched up 80ft cliff in Gwbert rescue | A stranded pony has been winched up an 80ft (24m) cliff edge after becoming stranded on a shingle bed in Ceredigion. | RSPCA Cymru said the animal, believed to have been trapped for a week, was rescued in Gwbert on Thursday. The pony was reached by boat and sedated before being lifted to safety by a team of 13 officers. A veterinary inspection found the animal to be fit and well despite being weak from the ordeal. Animal welfare officer Andrew Harris said: "This pony was in a hopeless situation and was facing certain death.. it was amazing to be involved in such a happy ending." | सेरेडिगियन में एक शिंगल बेड पर फंसे होने के बाद एक फंसे हुए टट्टू को 80 फीट (24 मीटर) चट्टान के किनारे पर रखा गया है। |
uk-england-leeds-33738856 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-33738856 | Bradford man in court over fatal bypass crash | A man has appeared in court charged with causing the death of a 25-year-old man by dangerous driving. | James Gilbey, from Bramely, died after he was hit by a car, which allegedly failed to stop, while crossing Stanningley Bypass on 13 July. Majid Malik appeared at Leeds Crown Court charged with causing his death. Mr Malik, of Silverhill Avenue, Bradford, did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody to appear at the same court on 2 October. Eight other men arrested in connection with Mr Gilbey's death have been released on police bail. | खतरनाक तरीके से गाड़ी चलाकर 25 वर्षीय व्यक्ति की मौत के आरोप में एक व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है। |
entertainment-arts-17029562 | https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-17029562 | De La Soul duo return as First Serve | Two-thirds of rap legends De La Soul have returned after a long absence on a new concept album which sees them performing in the alter egos of a young band aiming for the big time. In 1989, De La Soul's Posdnous, Dave and Maseo rewrote the rules of rap music with their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising. Now, Pos and Dave have returned with French producers Chokolate and Khalid in the form of First Serve, a fictional band making a break for the big time. | By Kev GeogheganEntertainment reporter, BBC News It was the Frenchmen, Paris-based Chokolate and Khalid, who approached the American rappers with the concept. Having worked with UK dance artists Gorillaz on their 2006 single Feel Good Inc and more recently on their Plastic Beach album, Pos - whose real name is Kelvin Mercer - says he and Dave were keen on the idea of another music collaboration. "Me and Dave thought what they were suggesting sounded cool," explains Pos. "That's what we and even Maseo have always been interested in - in terms of De La Soul, is the project itself. "If it draws us in and if we have the time, we will do it." The album's story follows wannabe rappers Jacob and Deen, from their daydreams in the basement of Deen's mum's house, through their meteoric rise and fall, to their jubilant reunion. The name First Serve comes from the band's ethos "First come, first serve. Get what you deserve." "Everyone loved it," said Pos. Pos insists that rather than struggling to fit lyrics into the narrative arc, the tracks "unfolded naturally". "At first they wanted maybe a black exploitation thing but then we settled on the story and from there it was just so simple." Disco samples The album itself is unapologetically retro and upbeat with Pos and Dave's rhymes laid over old school samples and disco and funk beats. It sounds, in comparison with the current crop of dark, truncated urban beat and electronic-sampled hip hop, a little old-fashioned. Not necessarily a bad thing, as hip-hop fans will hear shades of classic 90s rap like the Jungle Brothers, Jurassic 5 and The Pharcyde. But a concept album? Is there a worry that some fans will dismiss the album as a novelty? "Not really," says Pos. "I think that when people heard about the project, if they know De La Soul, I hope they would think Del La are known for putting as much quality into what they do, regardless of whether its something serious like (1996 album) Stakes Is High or fun like 3 Feet High and Rising." The rap concept album is, in of itself nothing new, the past couple of years has seen releases like Lupe Fiasco's The Cool and The Roots' Undun following rough narrative arcs. "Even before that there was Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves," agrees Pos. "There's nothing new to it but I think it's still fresh, from a lyrical standpoint I think the content we gave each song, it still comes off a little refreshing." Now more two decades separate the fictional characters of First Serve with De La Soul's debut in the music industry. During that time, the world has seen the rise of the internet and social networking and a year-on-year fall in music sales, matched by the rise of digital music piracy. "Would I want to be an artist today starting out, knowing what I know now?" says Pos. "Not necessarily because it's a lot harder. "There's so much more technology that allows so many more people to be involved and the dream of getting signed by a label is no different than when we were coming up, but it's a little more bloody to be honest." He adds: "With technology, a lot of music has to be free and labels want a share of merchandise, so it means a lot of artists sign up to 360 music deals. "When we were coming up, they took a piece of the music but whatever we generated outside of that, that's what we got." It has been nearly 25 years since the release of De La Soul's debut album. Dropping in the middle of the rise of the gangsta-rap of Ice T and NWA, 3 Feet High and Rising was a landmark, an oddity even, with its self-effacing humour and positivity - which even saw them unfairly labelled "hippies". Their second album De La Soul Is Dead featured a smashed flowerpot on its cover. With an eighth studio album ready for later in the year - their first for eight years - their legacy can be heard through bands and artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Arrested Development, Outkast and Common. "It's great to hear," says Pos. "People will say, 'Your words and your music made me feel like I can do this and can do it this way. This is who I am, I'm not a person who stands in the street, I'm not always a person who's got to be bad, I want to tell jokes, I want to make music of all types. 'De La has done it, maybe I can do it.'" De La Soul's Plug 1 & Plug 2 present... First Serve is released on 2 April. | दो-तिहाई रैप दिग्गज डी ला सोल एक नए कॉन्सेप्ट एल्बम में लंबे समय तक अनुपस्थित रहने के बाद लौटे हैं, जिसमें वे एक युवा बैंड के अहंकार में प्रदर्शन करते हुए बड़े समय का लक्ष्य रखते हैं। 1989 में, डी ला सोल के पॉस्डनस, डेव और मैसिओ ने अपने पहले एल्बम 3 फीट हाई एंड राइजिंग के साथ रैप संगीत के नियमों को फिर से लिखा। अब, पॉस और डेव फ्रांसीसी निर्माता चोकोलेट और खालिद के साथ फर्स्ट सर्व के रूप में लौटे हैं, जो एक काल्पनिक बैंड है जो बड़े समय के लिए एक ब्रेक बना रहा है। |
uk-wales-13381429 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-13381429 | Literature Wales also aims to aid tourism through books | You've read the book about Wales, now see the country. | That is the message from Literature Wales, as it launches a series of tours to showcase the locations made famous by best-selling authors. It believes one key to tourism is to kindle the imagination for places and people celebrated by iconic writers. Eight summer excursions include a mix of walking and bus tours in English and Welsh dealing with the backdrops of authors like Hedd Wyn and JRR Tolkien. The star attraction this year is a personal guide by Owen Sheers around the setting to Resistance, his 2007 World War II novel which is also in production as a film. It is based on an alternate history following the failure of the Normandy landings, and a successful counter-attack and invasion by Nazi Germany. It centres around Sheers' home town of Abergavenny, and even though it describes fictional events, it draws heavily on the sights and sounds of the area. Peter Finch, chief executive of Literature Wales - formerly Academi - said: "Our main motivation is to promote the literature of Wales and to inspire new writers; but our interests are shared with so many others. "If we can bring in tourists and boost the local economies while we're at it, then all the better." 'Extremely nervous' He believes the combination of actual places and imaginary circumstances has helped to popularise the tours. "Last year I was extremely nervous when we ran a tour based on Raymond Williams' novel, Border Country, taking tourists to an empty piece of countryside which was the setting for a fictional signal box," he said. "But I'm happy to say that I was totally wrong. "I'd completely under-estimated the power to inspire of the Welsh countryside, the writings of our authors and the imaginations of the readers." "I think often Welsh people hide our lights under a bushel, valuing our own literature, but ignoring how important it also is to people from outside Wales. "Our tours have been taken up by people from all over the world; some who are serious critics, but others who know virtually nothing and go away with a thirst to read more." Tours run from May until the end of September, and also include a look at the Black Mountain landscape which inspired Tolkien's Middle Earth, Chris Meredith's guide to the Table Mountain of his poetry, and a look at the Rhymney Valley through the eyes of Idris Davies. | आपने वेल्स के बारे में किताब पढ़ी है, अब देश देखें। |
uk-scotland-south-scotland-11541313 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-11541313 | Bill McLaren's crib sheets put up for sale | A charity has put copies of the late Bill McLaren's famous rugby commentary crib sheets up for sale in order to raise funds. | The A3 size documents contain up to 1,000 detailed facts and figures for each of the many matches he covered. Copies of the "Big Sheets" are being sold by the Bill McLaren Foundation set up in his honour. The first document available is from the 1993 match between the Barbarians and the All Blacks. The charitable foundation was set up after the commentator's death in January. It was set up to support the development of rugby and its values, and to recognise his contribution to the game. | एक दान संस्था ने धन जुटाने के लिए दिवंगत बिल मैकलारेन की प्रसिद्ध रग्बी कमेंट्री क्रिब शीट की प्रतियां बिक्री के लिए रखी हैं। |
32549706 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/32549706 | Nepal quake: Why are some tremors so deadly? | On 1 April, 2014, a Magnitude 8.2 earthquake rocked northern Chile. Six people died, 2,500 homes were damaged and 80,000 people were displaced. Just over one year later, a M7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal. Over 6,200 people (and counting) have been killed, entire towns and villages flattened and millions of people left homeless. | By Kate RaviliousScience writer Chile's earthquake barely made the news, whilst Nepal's has brought complete and utter devastation. How did two such similar earthquakes have such disparate effects? A huge part of the answer is, of course, building standards and wealth. Since Chile's terrible M9.5 earthquake in 1960, where over 5,500 people died, the country has taken big steps in modernising its buildings, designing them to withstand the shaking produced by great earthquakes. Meanwhile, in Nepal, few buildings were up to code, and many toppled when the earthquake struck. But wealth and building codes don't tell the entire story: the geology is different, too. Nepal sits on a continental collision zone (India is smashing into Asia) and its earthquake fault is well disguised: most of the fault is buried deep underground and surface ruptures are quickly covered by muds washed down by monsoon rains and the dense jungle. Furthermore, the speed of this continental collision (around 4.5cm every year) means that major quakes only hit Nepal every few decades. Chile's fault meanwhile is obvious - a whopping great trench where the Pacific Ocean floor dives underneath South America at a rate of nearly 10cm per year - with major earthquakes occurring every year, making earthquake-resilience a priority. As continental collision zones go, Nepal's is at the simpler end of the spectrum and has been relatively well studied. Indeed, geologists had identified Nepal's most vulnerable segment of fault just weeks before the recent deadly quake struck. Other countries in continental collision zones are underlain by a nightmare of widely dispersed faults, splintering across thousands of kilometres of land. All the way from the Mediterranean to Indonesia, lies a restless network of earthquake faults, created by the African, Arabian and Indian plates forging northwards into the Eurasian plate. Massive cities - including Istanbul, Tehran, Tabriz and Ashkhabad - are situated on some of the most dangerous land on Earth. "Because continental faults are less confined, they rupture less frequently, with some faults only coming to life every few thousand years - well beyond human memory or recorded history," explains James Jackson, a geologist at Cambridge University, UK, who heads up Earthquakes Without Frontiers, a project to increase resilience to continental earthquakes. Since 1900, earthquakes on continental faults have killed twice as many people as earthquakes on ocean-continent boundaries. Over the last few years, Jackson and his colleagues have been tracking down these elusive continental faults in Iran, Kazakhstan and China. Using high-resolution satellite images, they can spot anomalies in the landscape that hint at where the fault may lie. Meanwhile, seismic reflections help to draw a picture of what lies underground. And back in the lab, the scientists study regular satellite snapshots of the Earth's surface to monitor how the planet's surface is deforming. "We can see exactly where the Earth is being stretched apart or sheared, enabling us to map which parts of the Earth are under greatest strain," says Richard Walters from Leeds University, a member of the Earthquakes Without Frontiers team. Inverted expenditure In Nepal's case, much of this information was already available, and indeed a great deal of work had been done by local organisations (such as the National Society for Earthquake Technology) to prepare for the next big earthquake - training stonemasons, retrofitting schools and hospitals, educating people about earthquakes and stockpiling vital resources. "It does appear that there has been much less loss of life than would have been expected from such a large earthquake (though the toll could still turn out to be in the tens of thousands) and there is evidence that the programmes of the Nepalese government and some of the non-profit agencies did save lives," says Philip England, a geologist at Oxford University, also part of the Earthquakes without Frontiers team. If nothing else the devastating earthquake in Nepal will hopefully highlight to the international community how vital it is to build earthquake resilience. "Five times more money is spent on a response [to an earthquake] than it is on helping people to prepare," Katie Peters, from the Overseas Development Institute in London, told Sky News earlier this week. The first results from the EU's Sentinal 1 satellite show that last Saturday's earthquake in Nepal did not rupture the surface, suggesting that significant strain may still be stored on that segment of the fault, and that another large earthquake could hit in the coming decades. "Appalling though this event is, it could have been far, far worse. Let's hope that this event is the trigger for a more positive outcome next time," says England. | 1 अप्रैल, 2014 को उत्तरी चिली में 8.2 तीव्रता का भूकंप आया था। छह लोगों की मौत हो गई थी, 2,500 घर क्षतिग्रस्त हो गए थे और 80,000 लोग विस्थापित हो गए थे। एक साल बाद ही नेपाल में एम7.8 का भूकंप आया था। 6,200 से अधिक लोग (और गिनती) मारे गए थे, पूरे शहर और गांव समतल हो गए थे और लाखों लोग बेघर हो गए थे। |
uk-england-lancashire-21590584 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-21590584 | Blackpool Council announces small council tax drop | Council tax is being marginally reduced in Blackpool. | Blackpool Council leader Simon Blackburn (Lab) announced there will be a reduction of 0.01%, during a budget meeting at the town hall. There has been no news on the 300 job cuts expected to be announced by the council as it seeks to save £14.1m in the next financial year. Tory group leader Tony Williams called it a "political budget" and said the loss of jobs was being ignored. Mr Blackburn said he was intending to freeze the council tax for the next three years but decided that for the next financial year there should be this small drop. He described the reduction as a "symbolic gesture". The decrease in council tax will work out as an annual reduction of nine pence for residents in band D households. On Thursday, Lancashire County Council announced a surprise 2% drop in council tax. Conservative County Council leader Geoff Driver said: "The county council has managed its finances very well despite huge reductions in funding and that has put us in a strong enough position to cut council tax while announcing new investments and continuing to make savings." Related Internet Links Blackpool Council | ब्लैकपूल में परिषद कर में मामूली कमी की जा रही है। |
uk-england-berkshire-33840492 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-33840492 | Body found in Jubilee River missing man search at Datchet | A body has been found in the search for a man who went missing in the Jubilee River in Datchet. | Emergency services were called to The Myrke at about 19:00 BST on Friday following reports that people were in the water. A man in his 20s is believed to have "got in to difficulties" and a body was found in the river on Saturday afternoon, police said. Another man was treated in hospital for the effects of the cold. Supt Kate Ford said: "Sadly a body has been recovered from the water and is believed to be the man for whom we were searching." | डैचेट में जुबली नदी में लापता हुए एक व्यक्ति की तलाश में एक शव मिला है। |
magazine-31291791 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31291791 | A curious British airship experiment | Britain was seen to lag behind other countries during the global airship-building race of the 1920s and 1930s. But a quirky scientific experiment 85 years ago briefly gave a boost to the image of the giant aircraft. | By Justin ParkinsonBBC News Magazine As airship R100 crossed the Atlantic on its maiden voyage, the captain stuck his arm out of the window. In his rubber-gloved hand was a round piece of glass. Every three hours during the trip from England to Canada, Squadron Leader Ralph Sleigh Booth, or another member of the 44-man crew, repeated the action, for five minutes at a time. A couple of thousand feet below, a passenger on a steam ship heading in the same direction, Lester Dillon Weston, watched with great interest through a telescope pushed through his porthole. Booth was carrying out an experiment aimed at ensuring the human race could continue to feed itself. The piece of glass was a Petri dish designed to pick up spores released by a fungus known as wheat rust, which had destroyed large areas of crops in North America. Cambridge University scientist Dillon Weston - a man with a passion for aviation - was keen to find out whether spores could cross the Atlantic. He decided to use airships, still at the experimental stage as passenger craft, to aid his research. "It wasn't just Dillon Weston who benefited from this," says Ruth Horry, a researcher at Cambridge University's history and philosophy of science department. "People were suffering a sort of airship fatigue in Britain. The government had spent lots of money on developing them and nothing seemed to be coming out of it. "So the fact they could be used to aid scientific endeavour was very useful for publicity. That's why the captain took part in the experiment. It was excellent PR." Airships, quiet but huge, had not always been popular with Britons. Germany had used them to drop bombs on Britain during World War One. After one was shot down over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, in 1916, the pilot responsible, William Leefe Robinson, was awarded £3,500 and a Victoria Cross. In contrast, after the war, the government became involved in efforts to turn airships into luxurious passenger craft, able to compete with ocean liners and linking the British Empire more quickly. It was envisaged that they could get from England to Australia in 10 days, India in six and Canada in three. Cruising speeds were lower than those for aeroplanes but during this era using the latter was expensive and involved many stop-offs. "The public was pretty much in favour of airships," says airship historian Dan Grossman. "I don't think people were tired of them by 1930 but maybe that there was a sense that the British effort could move on a bit quicker." Other countries' programmes had resulted in tales of bravery which enthralled the public. In 1926, the airship Norge became the first aircraft to reach the North Pole, on an expedition organized by Norwegian Roald Amundsen and American Lincoln Ellsworth. Germany's LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin had made a five-stage flight around the world in 1929, amid huge press coverage - unsurprising as media mogul William Randolph Hearst was the tour's major backer. Airship disasters The 720ft-long R100, built by Vickers at Howden, East Yorkshire, set off from Cardington, Bedfordshire, in July 1930. Its inflated volume was more than five million cubic feet and its construction involved 58,200ft of tubing and five million rivets. Its opulent design included a double staircase leading down to the dining room, flanked by panoramic windows, and a two-tier promenade deck. It could carry 100 passengers, sleeping in bunk beds, and had a nautical theme, with the use of portholes as windows. The official brochure described the R100 as like a "small hotel" and "intermediate in comfort between a Pullman coach and ocean liner". Costing about £450,000 to build and run, the maiden voyage coincided with Dillon Weston's trip to Canada for a year-long study of the effects of fungi on crops. Dillon Weston persuaded those in charge of Sqn Ldr Booth's mission to assist his experiment. As a former member of the Cambridge University Air Squadron, he had previously badgered friends to fly around Cambridgeshire in planes to test his Vaseline-coated collection dishes. His involvement in the R100 voyage was timely for the government, as it gave it an added note of practicality. "Devastating yet invisible plant diseases were an important enemy to conquer and new aviation technologies were vital in winning the war against them," says Horry. "Newspaper coverage of the time showed that the scientist who chased invisible diseases captured both tiny spores and the imagination of the public. 'Disease germs two miles up - flying scientists chase them,' declared one newspaper." "No plane would have been able to carry the equipment needed for any scientific expedition across the Atlantic at that stage, so the airship was vital," says Grossman. Dillon Weston watched some of the flight from below, but the 64mph cruising speed of the R100 was far greater than that of the Ausonia, on which he sailed. The R100 took just over three days to travel from Bedfordshire to Montreal, where 100,000 people came to see it. The Toronto Star newspaper christened it a "wonder airship" and the Manchester Evening News called it a "beautiful sight, the sun glinting brilliantly" on its hull. The R100 was nicknamed the "capitalist airship" because a private firm had built it, while its sister ship, the R101, became known as the "socialist airship", having been constructed by the Air Ministry, although both were to transport only wealthy travellers. The R101, despite the proximity of millions of cubic feet of hydrogen, had a smoking room on the lower deck. The floor and ceiling were made of light asbestos. When he arrived in Canada, Dillon Weston collected the Petri dishes to analyse, for what he thought was the start of a series of experiments. But this was not what happened. On 5 October 1930, the R101 crashed near Beauvais, northern France, en route to Karachi. The hydrogen ignited, killing 48 of the 55 passengers and crew. Among them were aviation minister Lord Thomson of Cardington, who had pushed for the government to promote airship building, and his valet. Grossman feels Thomson was partly to blame for demanding the R101's launch before sufficient testing. Having arranged an official dinner at the planned stop-off point in Ismalia, Egypt, Thomson decided against refuelling there, to avoid eating amid noxious smells. This meant overfilling the balloon, Grossman argues, meaning more rubbing on girders and hydrogen leakages. Thomson also reportedly brought a 129lb carpet and two cases of champagne, weighing 52lbs, on board. The crash was a PR disaster, with pictures of the site splashed across newspapers and survivors appearing fully bandaged in photographs. The British Airships Scheme was abandoned with what the historian Nick le Neve Walmsley has called "extraordinary haste", with the R100 being scrapped. Manned airships programmes largely ended after the German Hindenburg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in May 1937, with the loss of 35 of those on board. Dillon Weston, who died in 1952, used a Bunsen burner to create glass models of the spores he analysed, which can be seen at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. He never wrote his full report, not considering the evidence gained from the R100 conclusive on the movements of wheat rust spores. But Horry has used flight papers, telegrams, family letters and newspaper reports to re-trace his journey. Although Dillon Weston's experiment was never repeated, Horry believes its "piggy-backing" spirit continues in Nasa's gathering of peripheral scientific data on its missions. "It sounds brave to stick an arm out of an airship window," she says. "But really, like going into space, the brave thing was flying the airship in the first place." More from the Magazine The longest aircraft in the world has been unveiled at an airfield in Cardington, England, from where the great airships of the 1920s flew. The world's longest aircraft in the making (February 2014) Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | 1920 और 1930 के दशक में वैश्विक हवाई जहाज निर्माण की दौड़ के दौरान ब्रिटेन को अन्य देशों से पीछे देखा गया था। लेकिन 85 साल पहले एक विचित्र वैज्ञानिक प्रयोग ने कुछ समय के लिए विशाल विमान की छवि को बढ़ावा दिया। |
uk-england-lincolnshire-29438367 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-29438367 | Thieves use digger to take Market Deeping Co-op cash machine | Thieves using a digger have ripped a supermarket cash machine out of a wall and escaped with its contents. | The raid happened in the early hours of Wednesday at the Co-op store in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. Police are looking through CCTV footage, while forensic officers examine the scene. Officers, who are appealing for witnesses to contact them, believe two or three people were involved and left the scene in a car. | चोरों ने एक खुदाई करने वाले का उपयोग करके एक सुपरमार्केट कैश मशीन को एक दीवार से बाहर निकाल दिया और उसकी सामग्री के साथ भाग गए। |
uk-politics-30333900 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30333900 | In quotes: Reaction to Jeremy Thorpe's death | Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg | Politicians and commentators react to the news that former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe has died aged 85 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. "Jeremy Thorpe's leadership and resolve were the driving force that continued the Liberal revival that began under Jo Grimond. Jeremy oversaw some of the party's most famous by-election victories and his involvement with the anti-apartheid movement and the campaign for Britain's membership of the common market were ahead of his time." Lord Steel of Aikwood, who succeeded Mr Thorpe as leader "He had a genuine sympathy for the underprivileged - whether in his beloved North Devon where his first campaign was for 'mains, drains and a little bit of light' or in Africa, where he was a resolute fighter against apartheid and became a respected friend of people like President Kaunda of Zambia." Former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Nick Harvey, who represents Mr Thorpe's former constituency of North Devon "Jeremy Thorpe was a colossal figure in the revival of the Liberal cause in post-war Britain and today's Lib Dem politicians continue to feast on his legacy. His charisma, energy and innovative campaigning lit up his generation of British politics. He was the first to embrace fully the television age, the first to hit the campaign trail in a helicopter and both the first and, rather memorably, the last to deploy a hovercraft. "He would have shone in whatever walk of life he chose, but it was to the lasting benefit of Liberalism that he rejected the Conservatism of his ancestors and devoted himself to progressive causes at home and abroad. In North Devon he was a greatly loved champion of the community and is remembered with huge affection to this day." Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell "Jeremy Thorpe's enforced resignation as leader of the Liberal Party and his subsequent departure from Parliament should not obscure the fact that in his day he was an outstanding parliamentarian with a coruscating wit, and a brilliant campaigner on the stump whose interest and warmth made him a firm favourite with the public." Greg Hands, deputy government chief whip and Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham tweets: "One of my earliest political memories was of Jeremy Thorpe arriving to campaign where I lived in Looe, on a hovercraft on the beach, 1974." Michael Crick, political correspondent for Channel 4 News tweets: "Jeremy Thorpe had been top TV reporter in '50s, early '60s for ITV's "This Week". Big intvs w Kenneth Kaunda, King Hussein, Hastings Banda" Businessman Roland Rudd tweets: "Jeremy Thorpe also remembered as incredible showman using hovercraft in campaign and photographed hurdling fence on eve of feb 74 election." | उप प्रधान मंत्री और लिबरल डेमोक्रेट नेता निक क्लेग |
entertainment-arts-55702610 | https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55702610 | Paul Roberts: How he taught Harry Styles his gloom-busting Kindness moves | When the Harry Styles video for Treat People With Kindness was released it became an immediate hit. Its choreographer Paul Roberts had created dances for One Direction - though with 1D there was no Phoebe Waller-Bridge to consider. So how did Roberts combine the two stars' talents to create the energy-lift which people have been craving in the Covid gloom? | By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC News Styles' video for Treat People with Kindness came out on New Year's Day - though it was shot in London in February 2020. Choreographer Roberts had worked often with Styles in the One Direction years. Roberts says the timing of the shoot, at the art deco Troxy in Stepney, east London, turned out to be fortuitous. "We had a great time but we didn't know how lucky we were. Looking back it was about three weeks before the world started to burn. Maybe that's partly why people are loving it now - the video has such a carefree sense to it." Roberts has had 20 years as one of the UK's most in-demand commercial choreographers. He created dances for the 2019 Spice World tour and has worked with everyone from Katy Perry to Sir Paul McCartney. He devised work for the dance group BalletBoyz and, as well as stage work, he choreographed One Direction in videos such as Kiss You, Steal My Girl and Best Song Ever. "So when Harry got in touch to say he wanted me for a new video it was a thrill. The only definite thing was it would be a song from the album Fine Line - but we didn't even know which song would be chosen." With One Direction, Roberts spent six years working with a hugely successful boy band whose members insisted dance would never become a major part of the act. 'Waiting for 10 years' Wasn't that a choreographer's nightmare? "It was always really interesting working with One Direction. I knew very early on that there was a magic about them and I could see they had other skill-sets aside from being this very good-looking five-piece - and then four-piece - band. "In personal moments you got to see them flourish. They'd mess around doing silly dance moves but I'd think, 'Actually if you wanted to dance really well you sure as hell could do it.' "So when Harry contacted me and we spoke about doing a video with a lot of dance I was like, 'Well I've been waiting 10 years for this.'" Styles knew he wanted Phoebe Waller-Bridge to have an equal presence. "I believe Harry went to see Phoebe in the West End when she had her success with Fleabag. They went out to dinner and got on really well. That's when Harry started to think how they could work together in some way." Before shooting began there was a five-week rehearsal period - far more generous than most projects ever get. But a lot of the time Styles and Waller-Bridge weren't in the same room or indeed country. "I was with Harry in a dance studio in London and we had all kinds of music to try out from modern alternative stuff to old school big band and Glenn Miller. We were exploring. Only on the third day did we begin to apply what we'd done specifically to the Treat People With Kindness track. "Meanwhile Phoebe was in Canada working on the James Bond script. But fortunately I had a brilliant assistant on the project called Jared Hageman so Jared flew out to work with Phoebe. And eventually Harry needed to be in LA so I went there. "He was amazingly devoted to the whole thing. He'd be shooting the Watermelon Sugar promo in Malibu and they'd wrap at 8pm but he'd get in a car and come to the studio and we'd rehearse moves until gone midnight." Roberts says by then it was clear the choreography would at least nod to the Hollywood of an earlier age. 'Dance language' "The directors Ben and Gabe Turner sent me a link to a black and white movie from 1943 called Stormy Weather. There is a justly famous sequence in it with the Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, called Jumpin' Jive. "I think it's the greatest dance-sequence ever filmed and Gabe and Ben and Harry all wanted our video to have some of the same feel. "I think in Harry's head he wanted to push himself to the absolute limit of what he was capable of. We were never talking about just an average soft-shoe shuffle. "So the reality was that I and Jared would talk constantly and exchange material from thousands of miles part. And of course Phoebe and Harry would also pitch in ideas. "We wanted to find a dance language that would take things as far as we could possibly go with Phoebe and Harry, without it becoming comedic. "Actually my big worry was practical - that they'd both start out with massive energy but that as the weeks progressed you'd have these two incredibly busy people with no time for everything needed to make the project special. But neither would give up, not for a moment." Nostalgia for better times He says it was important the dancing had a contemporary edge as well. "Harry and Phoebe are modern artists and very intelligent. They're fashion forward-thinking. "I find that once you've stopped giving artists their steps it's often quite nice to step back and just watch how they interpret the music. Sometimes little gems can be grabbed and put into the mix. "It was discovered very early on that both Harry and Phoebe had huge potential. The delight came from their energy combined with the talent of the film-makers plus the extended period of time we had to rehearse. "I work in a world where budgets have shrunk considerably so it was a big investment for managements and Harry's label." Roberts remembers the two stars finally came together for little more than the last week of the project, including the shoot. But there was still time to bring in a ballet dancer to give guidance on "port de bras" - how to hold your shoulders or extend an arm gracefully. "Harry and Phoebe are both decent and generous beings. So we all kept it fun, despite the blood, sweat and tears which had gone into the preparation. "When finally we were together they could layer on little side-eyed glances or maybe some tiny movement of the face which the camera would pick up. Above all we wanted a sense of style [no pun intended] and panache." He says the fact most of us feel a real lack of either style or panache in our lives has given Treat People With Kindness an impact as a video it might not otherwise have had. "The whole thing has a nostalgia for a time where you could be in a club and socialise with friends with no social distancing. I think the chemistry Harry and Phoebe have together just oozes joy. And for most people joy is in short supply." | जब ट्रीट पीपल विद काइंडनेस के लिए हैरी स्टाइल्स का वीडियो जारी किया गया तो यह तुरंत हिट हो गया। इसके कोरियोग्राफर पॉल रॉबर्ट्स ने वन डायरेक्शन के लिए नृत्य बनाए थे-हालांकि 1डी के साथ विचार करने के लिए कोई फोबे वालर-ब्रिज नहीं था। तो रॉबर्ट्स ने दोनों सितारों की प्रतिभा को ऊर्जा-लिफ्ट बनाने के लिए कैसे जोड़ा जो लोग कोविड की निराशा में तरस रहे हैं? |
world-europe-23220256 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23220256 | 50 lodges at Rossnowlagh Orange Order parade | About 50 Orange Order lodges have taken part in the annual parade in the County Donegal village of Rossnowlagh. | The march comes before the annual 12 July celebrations in Northern Ireland, marking the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Orangemen from Northern Ireland took part in the parade. They were joined by lodges from Cavan, Leitrim, Monaghan and the host county, all in the Republic of Ireland. The demonstration made its way along a one-mile route starting just outside the village, before a religious service at the field. | रोसनोलाघ के काउंटी डोनेगल गाँव में लगभग 50 ऑरेंज ऑर्डर लॉज ने वार्षिक परेड में भाग लिया है। |
world-africa-12831054 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12831054 | Who gains from Kenya's ICC cases? | Six Kenyan politicians accused of links to the violence which followed the 2007 elections are to appear at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Some Kenyans have been lobbying for the case to be deferred. As Kenyan analyst Gitau Warigi writes for the BBC Focus on Africa magazine, this has more do to with politics than justice | The ICC tug-of-war has provoked another savage bout of infighting within Kenya's shaky coalition government. The Kibaki wing of the coalition, the Party of National Unity (PNU), is spearheading the deferral campaign and has even instigated a motion in parliament to have Kenya withdraw entirely from the Rome Statute, the treaty that underpins the ICC. President Mwai Kibaki is entirely fixated with the predicament of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta. He is also worried about the case of his closest confidante Francis Muthaura, a secretary to the cabinet and that of the former police commissioner, Hussein Ali. The case against these three is that they organised retaliatory attacks against the initial perpetrators of the massacres. Overall, the violence left 1,200 people dead and more than 500,000 homeless. The rival Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) faction, led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is pulling in the opposite direction and has insisted the country's obligations to the Rome Statute be upheld. Justice unserved Whatever the debate, this is in fact about politics rather than justice and it is threatening to destroy the political settlement that ended Kenya's post-election crisis. Mr Kenyatta and William Ruto, the former higher education minister who has also been summoned to The Hague, have been saying they will be candidates in the 2012 presidential election when Mr Kibaki's tenure comes to an end. An indictment by the ICC would almost certainly end these ambitions. The foremost beneficiary would be Mr Odinga, already being prejudged by opinion polls as the 2012 presidential frontrunner. Yet the ICC matter is hurting the ODM leader almost as much. It has intensified the long-running feud between Mr Odinga and Mr Ruto. Those who are backing Mr Ruto have been driven into a marriage of convenience with the PNU, and specifically Mr Kenyatta, with the sole intention of stopping the prime minister's political ambitions dead in their tracks. Improbable as it sounds, a whispering campaign that Mr Odinga somehow wrote the list of targets for Mr Ocampo, is spreading among both Mr Kenyatta's and Mr Ruto's core supporters. The other silent beneficiary of the ICC ruckus is Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, but he has opted to play his cards more tactfully than his bitter foe Mr Odinga. With an eye on 2012, he has deliberately chosen to be the face of the government's anti-ICC campaign. By doing this Mr Musyoka is making a critical investment, drawing on potential supporters in the areas that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto control. The expectation is that he will reap the rewards come election time. If indeed the ICC was to put Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto out of political circulation, then Mr Musyoka may be looked upon kindly for his efforts. So far, the question of his sincerity is being delicately side-stepped. What is beyond doubt is that if this previously implausible alliance between Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Musyoka ends up fronting a joint candidate - who the vice-president fervently hopes will be himself - the numbers they can call up would easily overwhelm Mr Odinga. Already, that is apparent in parliament where the ODM's dominance has been eroded with the defection of Mr Ruto's allies. Political backfire The person who could end up paying the highest price over the ICC imbroglio is Mr Kibaki himself. He is the person whom victims of the violence look to for restitution and justice. Mr Kibaki's uncharacteristically unsubtle campaign to forestall any ICC trials has left the victims pained and disillusioned. More so as they see the president hobnobbing with characters like Mr Ruto in whose area most of the violence and destruction was carried out. Meanwhile, the ICC business remains unfinished, with Mr Ocampo suggesting that the court's decision on indictments could come very soon. Kenya's lobbying has gone a notch higher to target UN Security Council members. However, there is no guarantee the council will heed Kenya's and the AU's deferral request. Under ICC rules, a deferral is allowed if a state party guarantees that it has established a credible and independent judicial process to try the crimes in question. The state party must also demonstrate that it is singularly committed to prosecuting those crimes. Kenya has yet to demonstrate a commitment on either front. If anything, attempts to create a special tribunal to try the cases arising from the post-election mayhem have failed twice in the Kenyan parliament. Gitau Warigi is a political columnist with the Sunday Nation newspaper and an online editor with africareview.com | 2007 के चुनावों के बाद हुई हिंसा से जुड़े होने के आरोप में छह केन्याई राजनेताओं को हेग में अंतर्राष्ट्रीय आपराधिक अदालत में पेश होना है। कुछ केन्याई मामले को स्थगित करने के लिए पैरवी कर रहे हैं। जैसा कि केन्याई विश्लेषक गीताउ वारिगी ने बीबीसी फोकस ऑन अफ्रीका पत्रिका के लिए लिखा है, इसका न्याय से ज्यादा राजनीति से लेना-देना है। |
world-europe-24725738 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24725738 | Drug rooms: Admirers eye Copenhagen model | As a senior police official in northern England calls for safe rooms for the injection of hard drugs, attention has focused on similar projects around Europe. County Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg points to an experiment in Copenhagen, which Danish police say has saved lives and helped clean up drug-ridden districts. | By Maddy SavageBBC News, Copenhagen The harsh Danish winter has yet to set in but Louise Hultman has just pulled on a thick, woolly hat. "I haven't washed my hair for days, it looks horrible," she says. "Life is difficult when every moment is about getting your next fix." The 23-year-old has been taking hard drugs since she was 15 and says she steals to fund her addiction to heroin and cocaine. But these days she injects inside one of Copenhagen's so-called drug consumption rooms, where she can access sterile needles and get help from nurses if anything goes wrong. Addicts shoot up from inside individual booths spread along a spotless metal bench. They bring their own drugs, which remain illegal in Denmark, but police in this neighbourhood, Vesterbro, no longer prosecute them for possession. "I feel ashamed when I shoot up on the streets. If somebody passes by, they should not see my problem," says Louise, her eyes glazed following her most recent drug dose. "So it's great we have somewhere to go now. And I feel safer here," she adds. A clean environment Copenhagen is home to the biggest, most open drug scene in Scandinavia, with up to 8,000 users concentrated in a 2.5km radius. The capital's first drug consumption room launched a year ago, following a change in national legislation. It is funded by the city council, which spent more than a decade lobbying the government for permission to launch the project. A second room opened in August 2013 and a third is planned for Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city. "We are providing a clean environment for long-term addicts and we have found that they are now much more likely to access other health services in the area," says Ivan Christensen, who manages the drug rooms in Copenhagen. He says it is impossible to know how many lives have been saved by the project, but there has not been a single death on the premises, despite more than 100 overdoses. "Two of my best friends died this year because they weren't near a room like this," says Ms Hultman. Safer streets Vesterbro is the city's former meat-packing area and is now its red light district. The largest drug room is tucked behind a homeless shelter scrawled with graffiti and opposite a bar boasting to be one of the world's best strip clubs. But like Hackney in east London or Berlin's formerly communist Mitte, this neighbourhood has quickly become a hub for young creative people and some of the Danish capital's hippest bars. Police believe the drug consumption rooms are crucial to help clean up the area as it becomes increasingly gentrified. They say the amount of drug-related litter on the cobbled streets has reduced tenfold over the past year, there are fewer street fights between addicts and there has been a drop in burglaries in the area. "You have to find new ways to deal with drug addicts. You can't succeed by putting them into jail," argues Deputy Chief Superintendent Kaj Majlund. "You have to have a dialogue with these junkies and get them into the drug rooms so they can get help." Domino effect Denmark is not the first country to launch drug consumption rooms. Switzerland pioneered the idea in the 1980s and since then others have opened in Germany, Spain, Norway, Canada and Australia. Trials have also taken place in three parts of the UK: London, Brighton and County Durham. Brighton City Council will vote on whether to introduce a permanent project in 2014. Commissioner Ron Hogg in County Durham wants his region to go even further, supplying "safe heroin" for addicts rather than make them bring their own. Deputy Chief Superintendent Kaj Majlund says he is happy to pass on his number if other places want advice. "I would say try it, try it, try it and you will see that it helps," he smiles. Conservative critics But not everyone is convinced by the concept. "Yes the addicts are no longer out on the streets confronting tourists or children," says Peter Buurskov, who runs a hotel a few streets away from the main drug district. "On the other hand these rooms keep people in the system because they are surrounded by other addicts." It is this kind of voter that the city's opposition Conservative party leader, Rasmus Jarlov, is hoping to attract when he stands in mayoral elections next month. He worries that in the longer term consumption rooms will increase drug dealing in the area and encourage more people to shoot up. "We all want to help the drug addicts of Copenhagen but we think that maybe we should use the resources on getting them out of drugs instead of providing facilities where they continue to take drugs and a zone where police cannot enforce the drug laws," he argues. The road home Back at the consumption room in Vesterbro, manager Ivan Christensen stresses that his staff are developing a rapport with long-term users who previously had no access to support services for addicts and says he has noticed a "growing interest" in rehabilitation programmes. Ms Hultman is amongst those on the waiting list; she is hoping to get a place in Sweden, where her family lives. But other addicts say that they will continue to take drugs, no matter how much time or money is spent on programmes designed to help them. "I don't have the balls to get into rehab," says Fransesco Raccio, 37, who started using when he was at boarding school. "It's very hard, it takes a lot of courage, you have to be 100% sure and you have to do it for yourself and not for anybody else. I tried that once and it didn't work." "I understand the critics, but in the end if people want to do drugs they will do drugs. Why not help us with these rooms, which are a better place for us?" | जैसा कि उत्तरी इंग्लैंड में एक वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधिकारी ने कठोर दवाओं के इंजेक्शन के लिए सुरक्षित कमरों की मांग की है, ध्यान यूरोप के आसपास इसी तरह की परियोजनाओं पर केंद्रित है। काउंटी डरहम की पुलिस और अपराध आयुक्त रॉन हॉग कोपनहेगन में एक प्रयोग की ओर इशारा करते हैं, जिसके बारे में डेनिश पुलिस का कहना है कि इसने लोगों की जान बचाई है और नशीली दवाओं से ग्रस्त जिलों को साफ करने में मदद की है। |
uk-politics-45813699 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45813699 | States, debt, nationalisation and money | Imagine you got a bargain. You bought a £1m house for £100,000. And imagine you get a great deal on the mortgage. It's only a tiny portion of your disposable income. Anyone hearing that would think you'd done well. | Chris CookPolicy editor, Newsnight@xtophercookon Twitter Anyone except an official from a finance ministry. All around the world, governments use a particular way of thinking about debt. If they applied it to our story, they would see the £100,000 debt and the flow of payments to service the mortgage. But they would not notice you had a £1m asset and were living in a cavernous house rather than a tiny flat. That is the consequence of a focus on a particular sort of net debt and the deficit. Governments have a way of thinking that focuses on cash-flows and liabilities. Debts and assets But a new IMF report, released today, has pointed out that this focus - which misses the benefit of non-financial assets - can be extremely misleading. The Japanese state, for example, looks like a global laggard if you just look at debt - it has debt three times its national output. But because it owns a lot of stuff, the aggregate fiscal position is a lot better. It has a big mortgage. They also have a lot to show for it. Conversely, Germany has little debt, but also little stuff to offset it. (Norway, which has a huge fund of oil money salted away, is in clover.) Britain's debt looks like a bigger problem when you consider that our government owns relatively little to offset it. Of the states they analysed, only Portugal has a worse overall position, relative to the size of their economy. This is not the only thing worth considering: Russia's apparent solvency on this measure is a rather rosy way of presenting its current state. And there are risks to states owning a lot of stuff: if our state still owned Pickfords removals, would you trust it not to make regulation work better for them than other removers? They could end up dampening competition, which can lead to poor outcomes for consumers. And the state can be a bad owner: if it is politicians who decide on what gets investment, politics can make it difficult to get money into things. Our railways, under nationalisation, were not renowned for being a growing network crawling with slick new locomotives. Slightly odd accounting Our Treasury has tended to take the view that it should seek to minimise the complexity of its balance sheet. It dislikes holding onto assets that it could sell - even if that means selling things at a steep discount, For example, it loses money when it sells tranches of the student loan book. But this is rarely recognised: the slightly odd way we do public sector accounting means that even if I take a £100bn asset and sell it for £10bn, it shows up in the accounts as a £10bn windfall. The real effect - a net loss of £90bn - is disguised. Conversely, if the state buys up private assets - as Labour has proposed - then our official national accounts will turn blood-red because we will need to issue debt to buy out the current owners. But that is because we ignore the assets: so long as the Treasury pays a fair price we will really be exchanging, say, £100bn of government debt for £100bn of shares. There are strange consequences to our aversion to holding public assets. The government is keen, for example, for hospitals to shed extra land they have nearby. Sell it and use the money to build, they say. This is also a bet that we will not be desperate for land adjacent to large hospitals for expansion in the next few decades. A bold punt - and one we took without much thought for decades ahead. Governments could learn a lot from what people ask when they hear from friends who are first-time buyers: they are more interested in the house than the mortgage. You can watch Newsnight on BBC 2 weekdays 22:30 or on Iplayer. Subscribe to the programme on YouTube or follow them on Twitter. | सोचिए कि आपको एक सौदा मिल गया है। आपने 100,000 पाउंड में एक मिलियन पाउंड का घर खरीदा है। और सोचिए कि आपको बंधक पर बहुत अच्छा सौदा मिलता है। यह आपकी खर्च करने योग्य आय का केवल एक छोटा सा हिस्सा है। जो कोई भी यह सुनेगा वह सोचेगा कि आपने अच्छा किया है। |
world-asia-52450744 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52450744 | Kim Jong-un: Who might lead N Korea without Kim? | Speculation and rumour about Kim Jong-un's health may amount to nothing, but questions about who might succeed him in the short or long term will always be there. The BBC spoke to analysts about the contenders and whether history is on their side. | A male member of the Kim family has been in charge of North Korea ever since its founding by Kim Il-sung in 1948 - and the mythology of this family runs deep throughout society. Propaganda about its greatness begins for citizens before they can even read: pre-schoolers sing a song called: "I want to see our leader Kim Jong-un." So how can you imagine a North Korea without this symbolic and political figure at the top? How would elites organise themselves, as well as society as a whole? The easy answer is: we don't know. More interestingly, they don't know either. They have never had to do it. There has always been a Kim... As Kim Jong-un was being prepared for power, they even began using the term "Paektu Bloodline" to help legitimise his rule. Paektu is the sacred and mythologised mountain where Kim Il-sung is said to have waged guerrilla war and where Kim Jong-il was reportedly born. Kim Jong-un still goes there when he wants to emphasise important policy decisions. There has always been a Kim at the ideological heart of the country. What would North Korea be like without such an heir? Kim Jong-un, 36, is believed to have children - but they are far too young. It is thought he has three children, the oldest being 10 and the youngest three. Kim Jong-un himself was considered young when he took power - he was 27. It is likely that some sort of group leadership would emerge, perhaps as in Vietnam, that leans heavily on the founder's teachings and legitimacy to boost their own standing. Observers can track who holds certain key positions and can follow news and open-source intelligence about important institutions, but can't really tell how factions are developing, nor who is holding power through personal rather than institutional bonds. Moreover, sometimes vice or deputy directors wield more real power than the titular heads of institutions. This makes all predictions extremely difficult. The three remaining Kims There are three Kims who could potentially be involved in the political make-up of North Korea if Kim Jong-un were to disappear. They all face limitations in carrying on family rule. The first is Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un's younger sister. She is said to have been a favourite of her father who commented on her precocity, her interest in politics from a young age. Her manner is efficient, mild and one suspects rather observant. Much has been made of her closeness to her brother. At the Singapore Trump-Kim summit she was famously on hand to pass him a pen to sign the agreement with, and at the next summit in Hanoi, was pictured peeking out from behind corners as her brother posed for statesman-like photos. Yet she was not above a temporary demotion after the Hanoi summit - purportedly because of its failure although this will never be confirmed. She doesn't sit on the top policy-making body, the State Affairs Commission, but is an alternate member of the Politburo and vice director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) of the Workers' Party of Korea. These may seem like incomprehensible acronyms but the PAD is a powerful organisation that ensures ideological loyalty in the system. She is a woman, however, and this makes it hard to imagine her occupying the top position in such a deeply patriarchal country. North Korea is an extremely male state, in which gender carries rigid expectations. Being supreme leader, and certainly running the military, does not fit in the range of womanly duties. The second is Kim Jong-chul. He is Kim Jong-un's older brother, but has never appeared interested in politics or power. (He is known to be interested in Eric Clapton.) At most, he could be a symbolic link to the Kim family: perhaps made the head of a foundation and put forward to read the odd speech. The final one is Kim Pyong-il, Kim Jong-il's half-brother. His mother - Kim Jong-il's stepmother - was angling to have him become Kim Il-sung's successor. She failed and was sidelined by Kim Jong-il as he rose in influence. Kim Pyong-il was sent to Europe in 1979, where he has held various ambassadorships, returning to North Korea only last year. This means it is very unlikely he has the network to be a central player in elite politics in Pyongyang. The second-most powerful man in North Korea right now There are other individuals who have been central in the Kim Jong-un era, but it is difficult to know who among them would form co-operative relationships and who would compete with one another. One is Choe Ryong-hae. He has had his ups and downs under Kim Jong-un, but having weathered a few storms currently sits on the presidium of the politburo and is also first vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission. Last year he became the first new president in 20 years, replacing the aging Kim Yong-nam - so he is the person who represents the North at international engagements. Choe has also held high positions in the military and the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) of the Worker's Party of Korea, responsible for enforcing loyalty throughout the regime. This is an extremely powerful organisation: it enforces the adherence of all citizens to North Korea's ideology. He is probably the second most powerful man in North Korea. The old spymasters and rising political grandees Another is Kim Yong-chol. This general paved the way for the Trump-Kim summits, meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo several times. He has been head of the United Front Department (responsible for relations with South Korea) and the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the country's main intelligence service. He seems to have suffered a demotion following the collapse talks with the United States, but it is unlikely this spymaster will remain obscure for long. Yet another is Kim Jae-ryong. As well as being on the State Affairs Commission, he is Premier of the Cabinet, a moderately influential position. Relatively little is known about him, but his star has risen in the past years as others have fallen. He is known for managing industries and ran the most isolated province, home to key military-industrial sites, for several years. This may mean he has been closely involved in the nuclear program. Jong Kyong-taek is responsible for the State Security Department, which investigates and punishes political crimes. It also helps physically protect the leadership. These are crucial responsibilities that help enforce stability in the system. Hwang Pyong-so is another official who has held top military posts and has run the OGD in the Kim Jong-un era. Like Choe (and many others) he has been disciplined; he doesn't seem to have been rehabilitated in the same way, however. Other 2010s foreign policy stalwarts Ri Yong-ho and Ri Su-yong have also seen roles diminish recently. They have been replaced by Ri Son-gwon and Kim Hyung-jun. The former is said to be an ally of Kim Yong-chol. The military enforcers A handful of top generals of the Korean People's Army (KPA) would also certainly exert influence in any transition period. Currently, two men sit atop the General Political Bureau of the KPA, Kim Su-gil and Kim Won-hong. This bureau enforces political loyalty in the military, something that would be absolutely crucial during periods of uncertainty. Kim Won-hong, helps illustrate how difficult it is to predict how power would be shared if Kim Jong-un were no longer there. Kim Won-hong and Hwang Pyong-so had been thought to be rivals, competing to influence Kim Jong-un at the other's expense. Amongst top elites, who would clash and who would ally? Would there be pro and anti-Kim Yo-jong factions? Would the fear of instability stop rivalries from getting out of hand? After all, it is in no elite politician's interest to see the state collapse, opening the door for some kind of takeover by South Korea, or even China. There is currently no perfect contender: his sister would have to overcome the sexism and the break from tradition of a male heir. Anybody else is not directly descended from that all-important Paektu bloodline. but in the end, they will all have to think of the unity of the state they have defied every international norm to preserve. | किम जोंग-उन के स्वास्थ्य के बारे में अटकलें और अफवाहें भले ही कुछ भी न हों, लेकिन इस बारे में सवाल हमेशा रहेंगे कि कम या लंबे समय में उनका उत्तराधिकारी कौन हो सकता है। बीबीसी ने विश्लेषकों से दावेदारों के बारे में बात की और क्या इतिहास उनके पक्ष में है। |
world-us-canada-31025554 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31025554 | PJ Crowley: Yemen back to square one | Give or take, the fourth anniversary of the Arab Spring coincided with the resignation of Yemen's government following a confrontation with a Houthi insurgency, leaving Tunisia as the only regional country that continues to inch along a path towards more pluralistic governance. | By PJ CrowleyFormer US Assistant Secretary of State Yemen is back to square one. The collapse of the government of Yemeni President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi is bad news on several levels. The headlines in western media have focused on what this means for the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) or for Iran's ambitions in the Middle East. These are important questions. Certainly given the identification of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, there is a justifiable concern that AQAP will take advantage of potential chaos. While the Houthis have been battling the government for several months, they have also been fighting al-Qaeda. It is perhaps its only overlapping interest with the West. The Houthis are not enamoured with the US policy in Yemen, nor drones. But even the Houthis seem to recognise the potential value of Monday's drone strike that allegedly killed three al-Qaeda operatives. But being the enemy of an enemy only goes so far. The relative ease with which the Houthis gained strength in recent months, took over de facto control of the capital and became the country's new kingmaker is remarkable and undoubtedly disconcerting to Yemen's primary backers, the United States and Saudi Arabia. The United States has been training Yemeni forces under a counterterrorism effort US President Barack Obama termed a "model" several months ago. While that may be true, the model is clearly a work in progress. The Saudis have poured billions into Yemen to try to ensure the political primacy of the Sunni majority over the Shia minority. The Houthis are a Shia Zaidi sect. The Houthis apparently received support from Iran. Their dramatic rise does suggest that no strategy in Yemen is likely to succeed without taking Iran into account. The Obama administration has been careful to avoid mixing other pressing issues with the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, but it needs to find out what the Houthis and the Iranians want in Yemen and what they can live with. A more fundamental question is: Can Yemen, arguably the region's weakest country, even survive this latest crisis intact? This is not a given. Not so long ago Yemen was two countries - North and South. It only unified in 1990 after a process that took two decades. Like everything else in Yemen, the bond is fragile. The proximate cause of the Houthi confrontation with the Hadi government was a failure to implement an acceptable power-sharing agreement based on a shared future vision for Yemen. The government was considering constitutional changes that would have established a new federal system in Yemen. Hadi favoured the creation of six federal regions and the Houthis just two. At stake is the question of how to divvy up income from Yemen's energy sector. The Houthis participated in both the 2011 revolution that upended the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh - who is nonetheless now backing them - and the National Dialogue Conference that followed. Intriguingly, the Houthis appear to want to be part of the solution, but don't necessarily see themselves as the solution. Since none of the key players in Yemen want to see the country divide and open the door for another mini-caliphate, the potential exists for an inclusive political process that leads to an interim government, constitutional changes and new elections. Parliamentary elections last occurred in 2003 and presidential elections are overdue. Even these basic steps will be a heavy lift. Yemen will need help pulling it off. Mr Obama's brief stopover in Saudi Arabia en route home from India, leading a high-powered bipartisan delegation to pay respects to the Saudi royal family following the death of King Abdullah, was an important gesture and provided a valuable opportunity to discuss Yemen with the new monarch, King Salman. In turn, the United States needs to broaden its counterterrorism approach in Yemen. The Obama administration has become far too tactical. Drones have a role to play, but the secret to success in Yemen is ultimately better governance and economic growth. Just as the crisis in Syria was less about democracy but the price of grain, so too cuts in fuel subsidies in Yemen contributed to the current unrest. Most American aid to Yemen is military. Whacking bad guys is important, but what Yemen desperately needs is more economic assistance. Its economy is stagnant; it imports 90% of its food, and is running out of water. What Yemen needs is a long-term commitment from the United States and the international community. If there is one thing we now understand about the transformation under way in the Middle East, helping a country like Yemen save it from itself will take not years, but decades. P.J. Crowley is a former Assistant Secretary of State and now a professor of practice and fellow at The George Washington University Institute for Public Diplomacy & Global Communication. | दे या ले, अरब स्प्रिंग की चौथी वर्षगांठ एक हौती विद्रोह के साथ टकराव के बाद यमन की सरकार के इस्तीफे के साथ हुई, जिससे ट्यूनीशिया एकमात्र क्षेत्रीय देश बन गया जो अधिक बहुलवादी शासन की दिशा में आगे बढ़ रहा है। |
technology-55915490 | https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55915490 | Amazon: Meet Jeff Bezos's successor - Andy Jassy | Andy Jassy is not a household name. | By James ClaytonNorth America technology reporter He is, though, about to take on one of the biggest jobs in global business - replacing Jeff Bezos as chief executive of Amazon. Accompanying the appointment of a new football manager comes endless speculation. What will the style of play be? Are they the right fit at the club? Can they manage the big stars? Business is no different. Yet with Amazon's new chief executive, we kind of know what to expect. Amazon's business is so big it essentially acts as an umbrella organisation for many different companies. Mr Jassy has been at the company for 23 years, conducted plenty of interviews, and has been pretty open about what makes him tick. He also runs its most lucrative business - Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon's quarterly results, announced on Tuesday, confirm that AWS is the driving force behind its profits - accounting for about half of the company's operating income. It saw the potential for the outsourcing of computing and storage, that companies use to run things like websites, before its rivals. Google and Microsoft got into the game later - and now offer similar services. However, there's a clear market leader in the field, and that's Amazon. According to one estimate, AWS accounts for about a third of worldwide cloud infrastructure spend. It's a long way away from where Amazon started - as an online shop selling books. Mr Jassy, who founded AWS in 2003, nurtured this side-bet of Amazon's into a money-spinner - and became the obvious successor to Mr Bezos. And the way Mr Jassy has relentlessly developed AWS is strikingly similar to the way Mr Bezos went about building Amazon, and he is most certainly moulded in his predecessor's image. AWS has become so successful it's even become a focus of anti-trust campaigners - and the Federal Trade Commission. So should it be hived off from Amazon entirely? Investors want Amazon to have many more offshoots like AWS - hugely profitable firms all under the company's banner. That's what Mr Jassy has delivered before, and that's what they hope he can do again. Amazon has a burgeoning advertising business. It has acquired companies like Whole Foods and Ring home security systems, and is venturing into pharmacy. And don't forget Amazon Prime. All of these businesses have plenty of room to grow. You might expect shares in Amazon to take a dive on the news that Mr Bezos had stepped back. But the market seemed pretty relaxed about the move. They know Mr Jassy, and see him as an able replacement. It's not uncommon for a hyper-rich founder to do this - there are precedents. Think of Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Google or Bill Gates at Microsoft. Those two companies have done fantastically well under Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella respectively. And Mr Bezos is not leaving, remember. He'll be less involved in running the everyday aspects of the company, but Amazon is still his baby, he'll still be the most influential person in whichever room he finds himself at the company. Mr Bezos's move then is capturing headlines. However, Amazon has become a very big, very successful company - and that's likely to continue under Mr Jassy. | एंडी जेसी कोई घरेलू नाम नहीं है। |
uk-england-manchester-55563579 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-55563579 | Covid lockdown: 'My baby screamed when she saw new faces' | When Rachael Powell's one-year-old daughter met her grandparents for the first time after months of Covid-induced separation, she "absolutely screamed the place down" as she "didn't know who they were". | By Rachael LazaroBBC News The 39-year-old was on maternity leave with Emmeline when the first national lockdown was announced in March and she had to shield. "I was really looking forward to going to coffee shops, meeting other mums and going to baby classes and then everything stopped," she says. "I felt guilty that she didn't get any of that and have that interaction." The mum from Monton in Greater Manchester is far from alone in having those concerns. Many parents believe their babies' development has been hit by the impact of coronavirus. Baby classes have been cancelled, restarted and cancelled again, while meet-ups with fellow parents now feel like a luxury enjoyed only in the distant past. Rachael says it left her feeling "cheated" out of her maternity leave and upset that even simple things like visits from Emmeline's grandparents had become fraught. "She just screamed - absolutely screamed the place down," she says. "I couldn't leave her in the same room as them. She didn't know who they were." Rachael says Emmeline had managed to have some interactions with other babies when classes started up again with new Covid-secure guidelines, but it was "just not the same" as when she took her baby's seven-year-old brother Charlie to classes when he was her age. "It was good at first, because she got to do songs and activities, but as a mum, you didn't get anything from it as I was sat so far away from other mums. "And, as Emmeline was getting bigger and wanting to get off the mat and see other children, the whole thing became about keeping her on the mat." Liz Osler, who runs Little Groovers music classes in Greater Manchester, agrees that Covid-secure sessions are "the opposite of what the groups are about really". "Children are usually encouraged to be sociable and come up and select an instrument, but now they're given instruments in a bag and you've got to keep the bag on your mat." However, she believes it is still worthwhile hosting the sessions, as they give parents somewhere to go during a difficult time. She says everyone was "so happy to be able to do something normal, even though it's not normal", but reorganising her business had meant "massive financial outlay" on items such as headsets and loud speakers and on booking larger venues to allow for social distancing. She says running the classes also means she is "on pins all the time". "Before Covid, I was in the moment... and now the music is the last thing on my mind [as] all I'm doing is thinking about everyone's safety. "I can't wait for when children can be sociable with each other and we can blow bubbles and just enjoy the music together. "You just want to fast-forward to when it's all over." Delimar Recio, who is originally from Venezuela and lives in Walkden, Greater Manchester says that pressure of having to second guess her one-year-old daughter Sabrina's interactions is hard. The 31-year-old says while it was "frustrating" to have a burgeoning support network taken away when the first lockdown was announced, the easing of restrictions was also stressful because of Sabrina's natural curiosity. "She wanted to reach out and touch the other babies and crawl towards them," she says. "I had to hold her back and she was crying. "I thought 'what is the point if she was going to get upset all the time?'." Education consultant and child psychologist Dr Paul Kelly says classes and meet-ups are vital to a baby's development and Covid was having a "massive impact". "We are social creatures, social beings - it is pre-programmed in our brains," he says. "When children's brains are stimulated, they grow." Dr Kelly says there is also an impact on parents, who are missing out on "mutual support", adding: "An informal get-together is massive in terms of benefitting both parent and child." For him, people should "grab what they can, when they can" during these uncertain times and focus on "how you can enhance [your baby's] development... rather than spending time thinking about how your child might be behind". Both mums say they have been surprised by what their daughters now take in their strides. Rachael says Emmeline "just clung on to me" when she first started nursery and was "quite teary", but, "after a week or two", stopped crying and settled in, while Delimar says Sabrina is now used to video-calling and is slowly getting used to meeting more people. "After the first lockdown, she'd cry if she saw a new person," she says. "Now she's more friendly." Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [email protected] | जब राचेल पॉवेल की एक साल की बेटी महीनों के कोविड-प्रेरित अलगाव के बाद पहली बार अपने दादा-दादी से मिली, तो वह "पूरी तरह से चिल्लाई" क्योंकि वह "नहीं जानती थी कि वे कौन थे"। |
world-us-canada-46284269 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46284269 | At Thanksgiving, discordant Trump heads squabbling American family | The Thanksgiving holidays will provide little respite from rhetoric in a highly polarised US. | Nick BryantNew York correspondent@NickBryantNYon Twitter In this week of Thanksgiving, a holiday observed by most Americans regardless of creed, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation or politics, it seems untimely to talk of national discord and divisiveness. However, a shared activity and shared menu of turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie is something altogether different from a genuine act of commonality. In these angry times, America seems incapable of putting aside its differences, of truly coming together and even of engineering temporary political ceasefires. Calamitous events are instantly politicised. Even as the death toll continues to mount in California, the wildfires have sparked rancorous debates about forestry policy and global warming. Terror attacks claimed by ISIS are invariably followed by rows about immigration. Each successive multiple shooting fuels the unending fight between those who believe thoughts and prayers offer an adequate response and those demanding tighter controls on firearms and gun ownership. The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last month also shone a light on an alarming rise in anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League reported a 57% spike in anti-Semitic incidents in 2017. Donald Trump's visit to Pittsburgh, a customary presidential act at such times of bereavement, became contentious rather than communal, with a Jewish social justice group mounting street protests because of his unapologetic embrace of nationalism and his characterisation of some of hate-spewing racists in Charlottesville as "decent people". This kind of protest, which drew widespread community support, would have been almost unthinkable under most recent presidents. Given the prevailing mood of acrimony, however, and Donald Trump's role in stoking it, it came as no surprise. Even acts of sacred remembrance, such as the recent trip to France to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One, become needlessly controversial. Prior to Mr Trump heeding the advice of the Secret Service not to travel by motorcade to an American war cemetery when Marine One was grounded by bad weather, a decision seized upon by critics as a dereliction of presidential duty, the trip had already taken an ugly turn. He arrived in France saying he planned to "celebrate" the end of World War One, a discordant choice of word. The moment Air Force One touched down in Paris, he also picked a fight with his host, the French president Emmanuel Macron. If ever there was a moment to observe a diplomatic ceasefire, surely it was the anniversary of the Armistice. Read more from Nick Long before Donald Trump arrived in Washington, the esteemed American political scientist James Q Wilson shrewdly observed: "Once politics was about only a few things. Today, it is about nearly everything." That dictum seems especially pertinent now. Politics comes to the war cemeteries of France, to American football stadiums on a Sunday afternoon, to the charred cul-de-sacs of Paradise, California, to the National Cathedral in Washington. When political leaders from both sides gathered there to remember the late Republican Senator John McCain, President Trump was deliberately excluded. John McCain decided before his death that a bipartisan coming together was possible only in the enforced absence of America's head of state, a view widely shared amongst those who packed the pews. Division, of course, is nothing new. From the country's fractious founding through to the modern-day, this great American experiment has always been explosively combustible. Just visit the Civil War battlefields of Gettysburg, Antietam or Manassas; or the trouble-spots of the civil rights and Vietnam era, such as Birmingham, Selma, and the campuses of "Ole Miss" or Kent State University. The past forty years, if anything, have been relatively peaceable if measured in urban violence, political assassinations or '60s-style mass demonstrations. But what makes this era so unsettling is the ingrained polarity of the politics. During the civil rights era, when policy makers in Washington feared the country might be overwhelmed by the racial fury breaking loose in almost every major city, progressive Democrats and moderate Republicans joined forces to defeat segregationist Democrats and unsympathetic Republicans. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, which sounded the death knell for southern segregation, would never have been enacted were it not for bipartisanship. Likewise during Watergate, Democrats and Republicans buried their differences to serve the national interest and to avert a full-blown constitutional crisis. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee joined Democrats in voting to subpoena those incriminating White House tapes. Moderate Republicans helped draft articles of impeachment - though Richard Nixon resigned, of course, before they were put to a full vote of the House of Representatives. The poser of the famed question, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" was not some liberal firebrand but rather Senator Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee. Gone, it seems, is an era when moments of national mourning and commemoration, such as the Challenger space shuttle disaster or the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings, were politically benign; when a US president could speak on behalf of all of his compatriots, as Ronald Reagan did so memorably on both occasions. But it is also important to point out that the politicisation of national tragedies and convulsions by no means started with Donald Trump. Along with the soothing words uttered by Bill Clinton in response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when 168 people were murdered in a domestic terrorist truck bombing, came an attack on unnamed right-wing figures whom he accused of recklessly stoking anti-government sentiment - the "loud and angry voices in America today," as he put it, "whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible." It was a valid point to make, but also a highly political one at a time of national grieving. For a president then struggling for relevancy in the aftermath of the Republican Revolution in 1994, Clinton saw in the rubble of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building a partisan opportunity. The bombing marked the turning point of his troubled first term, and the start of a comeback that culminated two years later in his re-election. The attacks of September 11th offer another case study. The national unity and patriotic bipartisanship - crystallised on the floor of a joint session of Congress when then-Democratic Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle hugged George W Bush - proved short-lived. In the run-up to the Iraq war, the White House pushed through a war authorisation vote ahead of the 2002 congressional mid-terms, seeking to tag Democrats who opposed it as soft on terrorism. President George Herbert Walker Bush, by contrast, had waited until after the 1990 mid-terms to seek congressional approval for the first Gulf War, a deliberate act of depoliticisation. What marks out Donald Trump is the speed and apparent relish with which he douses these moments of crisis and mourning with politics. Divisiveness is his default setting, conflict defines his presidency, and though he often pays lip service to national unity in scripted comments and formal statements, his authentic self usually finds quick expression on Twitter. His talent lies in being a partisan attack dog rather than a national consoler. This month's midterm congressional elections, at which a divided nation produced a divided result, highlighted America's disunity. They reinforced a historic realignment where Democratic strength is now concentrated in the cities and their suburbs, and Donald Trump's America lies beyond. The political map, rendered in deeper shades of red and blue, looks more partitionist. Almost the entire western seaboard and most of the northeast coastline is now Democratic. On a road trip hugging the Pacific Ocean, you could travel from the southernmost tip of California to the northern-most tip of Washington state and step foot in only one congressional district represented by a Republican. New York City no longer has a single Republican congressman or congresswoman. Conversely, the landlocked states of America look like a giant red sea, save for a few isolated blue archipelagos. Though it is an exaggeration to speak of political no-go areas for the Republicans and Democrats, large swathes of the United States resemble one-party fiefdoms. Texas hasn't elected a Democratic Senator since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. That was also the year California last voted in a Republican Senator. It should come as no surprise that the new Congress convening in January will be the most ideologically polarised in decades. Donald Trump is not the cause of this disunity. His victory in 2016 was the culmination of a politics that has continually become more wilfully and aggressively partisan. Both Democrats and Republicans have accelerated this trend. His presidency, however, has widened and deepened the breach. His political business model, after all, has long been based aggravating points of cultural, economic and racial contention, whether on birtherism or immigration. At his rallies, he often looks and sounds more like the leader of a cult than the leader of a nation. As he told rally-goers in West Virginia ahead of the mid-terms, in one of those inadvertently insightful sound-bites he delivers from time to time: "It's so easy to be presidential, but instead of having ten thousand people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we'd have about 200 people." The problem for Trump is not the ongoing adulation of rally-goers. Even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, as he once famously boasted, some would probably not cast off their Make America Great Again caps. It is the wider audience outside. Though his blue-collar base remains solid, and his strength in rural states helped the Republicans retain control of the Senate, the mid-terms became a revolt of white-collar suburban voters. This was especially true of college-educated women, whose unexpectedly high support for him in 2016, even in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood comments, helped him beat Hillary Clinton. For all the polarity, moderates and registered independents can still sway presidential elections. The mid-terms suggested that the America turned off by Donald Trump is more heavily populated than the America happy with his performance as president. Even in the Senate, where Trump interpreted the results as validation of his leadership, preliminary vote tallies suggest some 45 million Americans cast their votes for Democratic Senate candidate, as opposed to 39.3 million for Republican candidates. Presidents commonly rebound after mid-term setbacks, as Barack Obama did in 2012 and Bill Clinton did in 1996. Trump's three predecessors were all two-term presidents. The Electoral College means he could lose the popular vote by a heavy margin, as he did in 2016, and still win the White House. Also it would be an act of analytical folly to write him off, a repeat of the colossal mistake so many pundits made in 2016. However, as the respected political statistician Nate Silver noted earlier this week: "His base alone will not be enough to win a second term." In 2016, Donald Trump benefited from the politics of division. But this avowed nationalist has struggled to be a truly national leader. The polarisation which fuelled his rise also has the potential to bring about his fall. | थैंक्सगिविंग की छुट्टियां अत्यधिक ध्रुवीकृत अमेरिका में बयानबाजी से बहुत कम राहत प्रदान करेंगी। |
uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-41681917 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-41681917 | IVF struggle: 'Our baby dream feels further away' | Every year, about 50,000 women walk into an IVF clinic in the UK, hoping it will help them achieve their dream of parenthood. But despite almost 40 years of research, the treatment fails 70% of the time. The BBC's Sophie Sulehria shares her struggle of trying for a baby. | By Sophie SulehriaBBC News I didn't think it could happen to us. We had been married for six months and had no reason to think we couldn't have children. All our friends had become pregnant so easily, it should have been the next step. But four years of IVF treatment and £38,000 later, our baby dream feels further away. Listen to Sophie's story here on BBC Radio 4's PM programme Jonny and I met in 2009 and two years later, we were married. We bought our first house together which we were going to renovate ourselves, excited to earmark the spare room as the nursery. We'd always wanted children, from the moment we met we talked about it. I didn't have a thought in my head it would be hard for us. But of course, it was. By the end of 2013 I was pulling my hair out. Although people warned me it could take time, I knew something was seriously wrong. I had always had acute tummy pain but was repeatedly told by doctors it was "probably IBS". But when I didn't fall pregnant, I started to join up the dots. A laparoscopy confirmed it was far worse than we had feared - I had stage four endometriosis, a condition where tissue that behaves like the lining of the womb is found in other parts of the body. It was suffocating my reproductive organs and had started to grow on my diaphragm, kidneys and liver. It was that day we were told it would probably be impossible to have children naturally. I remember Jonny collapsing into a chair, unable to take in the news. Blood tests also revealed I was suffering from premature ovarian failure. I was in my early 30s and had the egg count of a 50-year-old. We needed to move quickly if we wanted to try IVF with my own eggs, so we started treatment on the NHS in April 2014. Even after a huge amount of medication, they were only able to collect one egg, though it was "top quality". As I waited the two weeks until I was able to do the pregnancy test, I was certain it had worked. 'I had IVF for a couple I'll never meet' My endometriosis story 'I wish IVF had never been invented' Sadly I was wrong and we were forced to face doing the whole thing again. But this time we would have to pay privately. Time was of the essence as with every month that passed by, my egg reserve got lower and lower. Three more years of hell ensued - six rounds of unsuccessful IVF, at a total cost of £38,000. We had to borrow money from family and with each failed round, the news has got worse and worse. How could this be happening to us? I hit complete depression. My body didn't feel like my own and my phobia for needles was getting worse, yet every day I had to face up to five of them. But the hardest part of it all was my mind, I was all-consumed with being a mum. People would only have to mention their baby news and I would have a meltdown. Everywhere I turned, people would be pregnant. The worst year was 2016. Some days I couldn't get out of bed, just staring into space thinking how far away the dream of being a mum felt. But it was Jonny I felt for more. Not only did he have to face the fact he may not be a dad any time soon, but he also had to live with me. This wasn't the woman he married - a low, depressive person who couldn't have his children. 'I wish I could do more' - Jonny Baker When I first heard the words "you won't be able to have children naturally", it hit me like a wrecking ball. Since that day my positivity and determination to build a family with the woman I love so dearly has rarely wavered, but when it does, it feels like overwhelming waves of raw emotion with no end in sight. People have said what a great support I have been to Sophie and what a rock I am. The reality is, my weaknesses are often hidden, covered by a brave face. I always wish I could do more, I wish I could fix this, make everything OK. The reality of how I've coped with the journey is simple - Sophie. She is the only reason I have been able to, and still can, get up every morning. I will continue to do everything I can for her and our future family, however that comes. Sophie and I used to talk about our life together, building a family, home and future filled with love and joy. I know this can all still happen, just in a different way than we envisaged, and more than ever we are determined to make that happen. I had no idea about the 70% IVF failure rate until we became one of the statistics. We are now nearing the end of our fourth year of our fertility journey and I can't remember what life was like before we started trying for children. But if we want a family, we may need to start looking at other ways to do so. So what do people do when "baby plan A" starts to move further and further away? What other options are out there for us to become parents? What does "plan B" look like? We have no idea. Do we look at adoption? Fostering? Using donor eggs? In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) Source: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority/Fertility Network UK We don't have a solution, we don't have a baby, and we don't know what to do next. Over the next few months we will be exploring our options as part of the PM series on BBC Radio 4. It wasn't an easy decision for us to make, to bare our souls to millions of people. However, if it helps one other man, woman or couple start to face the next step in their journey to have a family, then it is worth it. Sophie Sulehria will be sharing her story and exploring her options as part of a three-month series on PM on BBC Radio 4. | हर साल, लगभग 50,000 महिलाएं यू. के. में आई. वी. एफ. क्लिनिक में जाती हैं, इस उम्मीद में कि इससे उन्हें माता-पिता बनने के अपने सपने को पूरा करने में मदद मिलेगी। लेकिन लगभग 40 वर्षों के शोध के बावजूद, उपचार 70 प्रतिशत समय विफल हो जाता है। बी. बी. सी. की सोफी सुलेहरिया एक बच्चे के लिए प्रयास करने के अपने संघर्ष को साझा करती हैं। |
business-21298008 | https://www.bbc.com/news/business-21298008 | TV's white spaces connecting rural Africa | "This is the greatest achievement I can say for this school. [The students] are finding it a great favour that they should be the first school in Africa to have this kind of a project. It is very exciting. They wonder how they got there." | By Fiona GrahamTechnology of business reporter, BBC News Beatrice Nderango is the headmistress of Gakawa Secondary School, which lies about 10km from Nanyuki, a market town in Kenya's rift valley, not far from the Mount Kenya national park. The school is situated in a village that has no phone line and no electricity. The people that live here are mostly subsistence farmers. "We don't really have a cash crop, but the farmers do a bit of farming," says Mrs Nderango. "They grow potatoes, a little bit of maize, but we don't do well in maize because of the wild animals. They invade the farms." Although Kenya has fibre optic broadband thanks to the Seacom cable, most of rural Kenya is not connected and until now getting online would mean travelling to town. But all of this is changing, thanks to technology that uses the unused parts of the wireless spectrum that is set aside for television broadcasters - the white spaces. The colour of television The project is part of the 4Afrika Initiative, an investment programme being announced by technology giant Microsoft, that also includes a new Windows Phone 8 smartphone for the region and investment in help for small businesses on the continent, and in education and internships. For the white spaces project, the company is working with a Kenyan ISP, Indigo Telecom, and the Kenyan government. The ISP is installing wireless 'base stations' - or masts - that are solar-powered, to get round the lack of mains electricity. The base stations act as a link to the nearest main cable connection to the internet, without the expense of extending the fibre-optic network. The signal supplied is much more powerful than normal wifi. "What we are calling TV white space, that is just a different set of frequencies. It is between 400 megahertz and about 800 megahertz, and those radio frequencies will just go further," says white spaces expert Professor Robert Stewart of Strathclyde University. "They can go through walls, they will kind of bend around hills, they will give you much better connectivity. And of course, that's why the TV guys chose that in the first place." Local schools, a healthcare clinic, a government agriculture office and a library have been connected in the first part of the pilot. Ms Nderango says internet will benefit teachers and students alike. "Students will now be introduced to e-learning, they will be able to carry out the assignments, they'll be able to do a lot of research," she says. "To add to that, there is the exposure to the rest of the world." And she believes the wider community will benefit as well. "It will change lives, because on the internet you can access information about skills. "The farmers for example will improve their skills, and learn entrepreneurship." Business networking Microsoft's Fernando de Sousa says getting rural areas online is a crucial part of making them economically viable. "There is... a commercial responsibility that both private and public sector have across Africa to bring technology and bring access that can then drive economic growth, economic development and sustain employability, especially outside of the metropolitan areas," he says. "It is going to significantly increase the ability for innovation and the great ideas that Africans have to actually reach markets and become available for use by consumers... I think that there is a fantastic opportunity for Africa to showcase its own capabilities in the world because of the increased access." The next step is to open the network more generally to the business community in the area. "The commercial viability of actually deploying white spaces on a broad spectrum across the communities, is something that is very important... because a. it can't be a subsidised service; and b. it is not a private government or community network," says Mr de Sousa. "It really needs to be a commercially viable network. Bringing small businesses online and enabling them to use the technology is very, very important." This is not the first time that TV white spaces have been used in this way - in the UK pilots are underway on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and in Cambridge. In the United States, Wilmington, North Carolina, has a white spaces project in place, and the Air.U partnership hopes to connect rural college campuses. There are several test beds around the world. More is planned. In Africa, Google is sponsoring a project in South Africa that will connect 10 schools in the Western Cape for six months, that will launch soon. There are obstacles: in many countries this part of the spectrum is licensed, and the way it is used is changing as television services move to digital. National and international regulators are looking at how to allocate space, to avoid having competing services trying to use the same space. For now, and probably in the long term, TV white space networks will be complementary to fibre-optic broadband rather than a replacement. But Strathclyde University's Prof Stewart, one of the men behind the pilot on the Isle of Bute, thinks that for remote rural areas it may be the most cost-effective option. "If we find that rural communities in developing or developed countries can access this without significant expense, then it will make a difference," he says. "It is not going to solve all the problems. It is not for everyone. But it will solve problems for some folks." | "यह इस स्कूल के लिए सबसे बड़ी उपलब्धि है जो मैं कह सकता हूं। [छात्रों] को यह बहुत अच्छा लग रहा है कि वे अफ्रीका में इस तरह की परियोजना वाला पहला स्कूल होना चाहिए। यह बहुत ही रोमांचक है। वे आश्चर्य करते हैं कि वे वहाँ कैसे पहुँचे।" |
uk-england-14025244 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-14025244 | Avon and Wiltshire 'not meeting dementia waiting times' | A mental health trust says only a third of people with suspected dementia are getting a consultation within the prescribed four weeks. | Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust guidelines also say any further treatment should start within 13 weeks of the consultation. Another third of people are being seen within 10 weeks and the final third take longer, figures show. The partnership said it was due to the success of an awareness campaign. The partnership trust, which operates in Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, says it has increased training for GPs and held a number of public events to raise awareness of dementia. The guidelines are agreed with the South West Strategic Health Authority. | एक मानसिक स्वास्थ्य ट्रस्ट का कहना है कि संदिग्ध मनोभ्रंश वाले केवल एक तिहाई लोगों को निर्धारित चार सप्ताह के भीतर परामर्श मिल रहा है। |
uk-england-dorset-18233307 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-18233307 | Swanage Railway steam train sparks cause fire | Firefighters had to be called after sparks from a steam train started a fire on a railway embankment in Dorset. | The fire covered an area of grassland by Swanage Railway between Corfe Castle and Afflington Bridge. It was reported by a member of the public shortly before 16:30 BST on Sunday and tackled by 17:00. A Dorset Fire spokesman said: "A steam train passed through throwing out hot sparks which resulted in the very dry track side vegetation catching alight." | डोरसेट में एक रेलवे तटबंध पर भाप ट्रेन की चिंगारी से आग लगने के बाद अग्निशामकों को बुलाना पड़ा। |
magazine-36534695 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36534695 | Rescuing America's roadside giants | Anyone making a road trip across America will sooner or later run across a giant statue - a cowboy, an American Indian chief or a lumberjack, perhaps. Many, now half a century old, are falling apart, but one man and his friends are tracking them down and bringing them back to life. | By Jasmine Taylor-ColemanBBC News, Illinois On the concrete floor of an Illinois garage, a giant rests in pieces. His head is the size of a wardrobe, his bulging torso bigger than a double bed. The 23ft-high (7m) colossus stood for 45 years outside Two Bit Town, a now-abandoned tourist attraction in Lake Ozark, in the heart of the American Midwest. Chief Bagnell, as he was nicknamed, was one of thousands of giant statues designed to entice travellers to pull off US highways. Now he is getting a makeover thanks to Joel Baker, a television audio technician by day who is America's leading restorer of fibreglass figures made in the 1960s and 70s. "Over the years these guys have been in the weather and the wind. Some of them have been hit by cars," says Baker as he weaves his way through the outhouse strewn with body parts. With the help of three friends, he has spent his evenings for past three months stripping off layer after layer of paint from Chief Bagnell's body. They have patched up cracks and painstakingly polished around every feather in the warrior's headdress, and every wrinkle in the face. What started out as a fun hobby for Baker five years ago, tracking down the statues made by a California-based boat building firm, International Fiberglass, has developed into a mission to save and repair them. The firm began making giant human figures in 1964 after a restaurant in Arizona ordered a model of Paul Bunyan, a giant lumberjack in American folklore. It made hundreds more over the next decade, of which between 180 and 200 still exist, according to Baker. After Paul Bunyan came cowboys, golfers, pirates and goofy-looking country bumpkins, advertising everything from tyres to golf courses. "These giants were just going out all over America," says Baker. The first American Indians were purchased by Pontiac dealerships, while the cowboys were made for Phillips 66 petrol stations. The figures were also a common sight outside car repair workshops often carrying an exhaust pipe - a muffler in American English - and have become known as Muffler Men. But there were also about 20 female models - so-called Uniroyal Gals, made for the Uniroyal tyre company in 1966, some clad in a bikini, others in a skirt, T-shirt and heels. By today's standards the gals in bikinis, the stereotyped American Indians and country bumpkins might be considered inappropriate. But they reflect the values of the period - and so it's no surprise that the vast majority of Muffler Men were white and male. "The American hero was this big brawny guy who's going to change your tyre or chop down your tree," says author Doug Kirby, one of the founders of RoadsideAmerica.com which maps the giants' locations. "It's all quite politically incorrect now, of course." For Baker and his fellow enthusiasts, the Muffler Men epitomise the road culture and mass production of the 1960s - but the idea of building models of epic proportions to attract passing trade goes back much further in American history. The founding father was James V Lafferty, who built a six-storey elephant on a strip of undeveloped coastal land just south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1881. Lucy the Elephant was intended to attract property buyers and visitors and still stands as a tourist attraction today, having survived Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In 1882, Lafferty filed a patent on giant buildings "of the form of any other animal than an elephant, as that of a fish, fowl, etc.", which he claimed was his invention. One of the first examples of giant novelty architecture at the roadside was a 64ft-high (20m), bright orange wooden bottle on the outskirts of Auburn, Alabama. Built in 1921 to advertise Nehi soft drinks, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", the structure housed a service station, grocery shop and living space. It burned down in about 1936, but the area on the map is still called The Bottle. Traders had always relied on images rather than words to advertise goods to America's multilingual immigrant population, says Brian Butko, a historian whose books include Roadside Giants and Roadside Attractions. But as time went on, scale became important. "It is a lot harder to attract attention when cars are going by at 50 mph," says Butko. "That's where the roadside giants got started. They were trying to draw people off the road from long distances away." When the modern American road trip really got going after World War Two, with the rapid growth of car ownership and the new interstate highway system, more and more businesses competed to cater for road-weary travellers. "A lot of the people I talk to say Muffler Men remind them of their childhood in the 60s," says Joel Baker. "They remember being in the back of their dad's car, they remember the make and model of the car and driving by whatever restaurant the Muffler Man stood at." But just as Muffler Men multiplied thanks to the success of the car industry, they suffered when it stumbled in the 1970s. International Fiberglass ceased operations in 1972, and slowly attitudes towards its giants began to change. "There was a sense of embarrassment about these models," says Butko, when the fuel crisis and subsequent recession caused some dealerships, fuel stations, and repair workshops to close. More efficient cars had less need to stop in small towns, and just drove past. Many of the Muffler Men were "just trashed", says Joel Baker. Among those that were simply neglected, he has discovered many in dire condition, with arms and heads falling off. It's the contrast between childhood memories of the models and their current state that has driven him to take action. And it seems communities are beginning to appreciate the figures again as other authentic elements of the roadside, such as diners and petrol stations, disappear. "In lots of places, they went from tacky things that half the town hated, to becoming a cherished landmark," says Kirby. Businesses are also harnessing their pulling power once more. Shawn Fennel, who owns a repairs garage for vintage cars near Nashville, Tennessee, paid $20,000 (£14,000) for a Muffler Man to stand on his forecourt last year, and transported it across the country from El Monte, California. "It's every day that somebody stops and has their picture made," Fennel says. Doug Kirby says travellers are also taking greater interest, and sometimes going out of their way to see one. "There's awareness that a roadside attraction or model is something of a rarity," he says. "It's a fun diversion, something that's pretty simple - just as it always was." So Muffler Men made in the 1960s are still doing their job. In the garage, Joel Baker and his team are slowly revitalising the giant war chief, with a view to reinstalling him in Lake Ozark this summer. Two colleagues spray the model with grey primer to prepare for repainting. Baker stands back and smiles with satisfaction. "There's a pull to these giants," he says. "That's why they were made - to attract attention. And it worked." Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook | अमेरिका भर में सड़क यात्रा करने वाला कोई भी व्यक्ति जल्द या बाद में एक विशाल मूर्ति के सामने भाग जाएगा-एक काउबॉय, एक अमेरिकी भारतीय प्रमुख या एक लम्बरजैक, शायद। कई, जो अब आधी सदी के हैं, टूट रहे हैं, लेकिन एक आदमी और उसके दोस्त उनका पीछा कर रहे हैं और उन्हें फिर से जीवंत कर रहे हैं। |
blogs-trending-34778966 | https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34778966 | Why do China's biggest brands celebrate being single every year? | Millions of people in China are celebrating being single on the social network Sina Weibo - because it's "Singles Day" on 11 November. Here's BBC Trending's quick guide to the day and the huge viral phenomenon, driven by online retailers, that it has become. What is it? | BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why It's meant to be a day set aside for single people to spoil themselves. The date is four single 1s - 11.11 - or as they call it in China, "bare sticks" - in other words, you're unattached. Who started it? It's hard to be sure but an often repeated explanation is that it started as a grassroots movement among students at Nanjing University in the early nineties. They bought themselves presents, as a sort of "anti-Valentines day". So it's just grown from there? No - it's grown because of heavy promotion by online retailers and brands. In 2009, the online retail giant Alibaba decided to turn the day into a massive marketing opportunity. Every Singles Day, Alibaba offers huge discounts, aimed at those who are single. It's also a shopping day for other brands and retailers - China Daily called it "China's Black Friday" last year, comparing it to the big US sales day after Thanksgiving, after sales of 10 billion yuan (US $1.63 billion) were recorded on just one online shopping site. So it's big, then? It's one of the biggest online conversations each year. It's perhaps no surprise that the Singles Day hashtag on Weibo has reached hundreds of millions of people over the years - because the online retailers who help drive it know their sites are just a click away. But wait - people are also getting married this "Singles Day"? Er... This appears to be a growing trend. Last year, the Xinhua news agency reported a "wedding boom" on Singles Day. It seems some people see the "bare sticks" next to each other (11.11) as a romantic symbol of singles finding one another. What's this picture? This twist on Communist-style propaganda art is used all over the internet to represent Singles Day, including on the Weibo page for the hashtag. The slogan translates as: "Our Singles Day strength". What's going viral this Singles Day? The Chinese account of the US sitcom, the Big Bang Theory, has been making jokes about the upcoming day on Weibo. Some students are sharing selfies of themselves holding boards explaining why it's OK to be single and stating that they aren't interested in finding a partner. One student has dreamt up a fake "Singles card" that looks like a marriage licence, which is also drawing clicks. But big brands are still among the top Singles Day trends. Research by Kerry Allen Blog by Whitney Henry and Mukul Devichand Next story: Should drivers over 70 years old be retested? A man whose wife killed by an elderly driver, who mistook the accelerator for the brake, has started a popular online petition calling for over-70s to be retested every three years.READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. | चीन में लाखों लोग सोशल नेटवर्क सिना वेइबो पर एकल होने का जश्न मना रहे हैं-क्योंकि यह 11 नवंबर को "एकल दिवस" है। यहाँ बीबीसी ट्रेंडिंग की उस दिन की त्वरित मार्गदर्शिका और ऑनलाइन खुदरा विक्रेताओं द्वारा संचालित विशाल वायरल घटना है, जो बन गई है। यह क्या है? |
world-europe-guernsey-15150767 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-15150767 | Guernsey Education Department 'ready for review' | Guernsey's education minister has said her department "has nothing to fear" from a review of its services. | It follows Chief Minister Lyndon Trott's suggestion to the Policy Council of a root-and-branch review of the island's education services. The council is due to decide if it will take place at a meeting later. Deputy Carol Steere, who has offered to resign over poor GCSE results, said if a review received backing, her department was happy to face it. She said: "I say bring it on, the department will say bring it on. We have nothing to fear from a review." | ग्वेर्नसे के शिक्षा मंत्री ने कहा है कि उनके विभाग को अपनी सेवाओं की समीक्षा से "डरने की कोई बात नहीं है"। |
magazine-32416382 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32416382 | Gallipoli: Six tales of valour and a missing Victoria Cross | Six Victoria Cross medals were won by one regiment on the first day of the Gallipoli campaign. But they had never all been in the same room - and one appeared to have disappeared altogether. It took a feat of detective work to bring them together at last. | By Andrew BomfordBBC Radio 4 PM Programme Collectively, they were known as the "six VCs before breakfast". These Victoria Crosses - the highest UK and Commonwealth military honour there is - were awarded for valour shown by soldiers from the Lancashire Fusiliers in a famously bloody dawn assault near Cape Helles, Turkey, on 25 April 1915. It was the opening salvo in the ultimately doomed Gallipoli campaign of World War One, which resulted in more than 100,000 deaths among British, Australian and New Zealand troops, plus allies from other nations on one side, and the Turkish troops of the Ottoman Empire on the other. The VC citation describes the hail of deadly machine gun fire the Fusiliers faced while landing at W beach, and how they overcame supreme difficulties to cut the barbed wire entanglements under fire and gain control of the cliffs above the beach. The citation reads: "Among the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Captain Bromley, Sergeant Stubbs, and Corporal Grimshaw have been selected by their comrades as having performed the most single acts of bravery and devotion to duty." They had gone down in Army folklore, but the six VCs had never been together in the same place. Two of the six were already on display at the Fusiliers Museum in Bury, Lancashire, and three more were owned by Lord Ashcroft, an avid collector of war medals, and on permanent display at the Imperial War Museum in London. Then there was the sixth VC, which was missing and hadn't been seen in public for the best part of a hundred years. Tales of bravery It was Sarah Stevenson, collections officer at the Fusiliers Museum, who first came up with the idea, three years ago, of getting all six together at the museum for the 100th anniversary celebrations of the campaign. But this was no easy task - even before the missing VC could be located. None of the war medals had ever been loaned out elsewhere before, and initial approaches to the Imperial War Museum were rebuffed. Undaunted, displaying the sort of can-do attitude you'd expect from a 30-year veteran in the Army, Col Brian Gorski, chairman of the Fusiliers Museum, took up the task of hunting down and acquiring the missing VC with gusto. "At one moment of time I thought we'd never get there, when everything went dead for two or three months," he admits, "I thought, I'm going to give this whole thing up." He began his search with what little was known about the recipient of the missing VC, awarded posthumously to Capt Cuthbert Bromley. At Gallipoli, Capt Bromley was shot in the back and the knee, but carried on fighting. Later he was hit by shrapnel in the ankle. He died the following August, when the troopship he was on, the Royal Edward, was torpedoed and sunk in the Aegean Sea with the loss of almost 1,000 lives, while sailing back to Gallipoli from hospital in Egypt. Col Gorski showed me the makeshift Bromley family tree he began compiling on a whiteboard in the museum office, working on the assumption that someone in the extended family still owned the VC. Using public records, and by trawling archives in East Sussex where the family originated, he traced each family line down from Cuthbert's three brothers and a sister. He even searched graveyards in Sussex, and visited old addresses, in what seemed at first like a fruitless task. At one point during the search, Stevenson appeared on BBC North West Tonight, appealing to anyone who knew of the whereabouts of the VC to come forward. "It was a long and eventful journey," says Col Gorski. He eventually discovered family members still living in the same area where Cuthbert Bromley had lived - including a cousin, Louise Bromley. Email exchanges eventually led to another cousin of Louise, Nick Bromley, who lived in London. Crucially, Nick owned Cuthbert's Victoria Cross. It was sitting in its presentation case on his sideboard. At first Nick was surprised to have been contacted, but then he remembered the anniversary. "I was very honoured that we'd been approached," he says. He thought it was only right that the medals should be reunited for the occasion. Nick showed me various letters which the family had kept, written by Capt Bromley to his mother, another Louise Bromley, from the battlefield at Gallipoli. On yellowed paper, and written in pencil, faded after 100 years, they give a tantalising, fascinating and somewhat quirky insight into life during the battle. 29 April 1915 My Dearest mother, I'm laid up with a bullet wound, nothing serious at all, clean through the flesh and I'm as fit as can be. The regiment suffered rather heavily in the recent fighting. I quite enjoyed myself and hope to be about again very shortly. Fondest love, Cuthbert. PS Writing bad is not due to wound but awkward position lying down. 3 June 1915 My Dearest Mother, I got your letter of 6 May. Very fit. We're close up to brother Turk now. Only fifty yards away in places. The show has changed from open work to trench warfare. But we shall get them out soon. Lovely climate here and sea bathing. I hope all goes well at home. Fondest love to you and Mary. Cuthbert. 14 June 1915 My dearest Mother, Here we are again. I'm in command now until someone senior returns. Life is alright. I find the want of change of clothing a distinct drawback. An occasional box of good Egyptian cigarettes or a nice light pipe, or one or two khaki handkerchiefs or a toothbrush would be most acceptable. Although my toilet is pretty spasmodic. I hear Bulgaria and Romania are coming in. This is good. Best luck, Cuthbert Cuthbert was fond of drawing little sketches on his letters. In one - in what might seem now a little like the 1915 equivalent of a selfie - he depicts himself bayonetting a Turkish soldier, and captions the picture: "Daily Routine." In another he draws a picture of the injury to his ankle by a piece of shrapnel and writes: "Straight through 2' to 2½'". Lord Ashcroft, who had bought three of the six Fusiliers Victoria Crosses and displayed them in his extensive collection at the Imperial War Museum, agreed to temporarily lend the medals to the Fusiliers Museum after being approached personally by Col Gorski. As well as being a prominent donor to the Conservative party and prolific political pollster, he also has a fascination with military history and, in particular, with the concept of heroism during warfare. "The 'six before breakfast' was an action of collective bravery," he says. To put it into context, he said, the Lancashire Fusiliers had started the day with 27 officers and 1,002 other men, and 24 hours later a headcount revealed just 16 officers and 304 men. This week, I watched alongside delighted staff at the Fusiliers Museum, as the culmination of three years hard work came together with the arrival of the three Ashcroft VCs, to join the Bromley medal and the other two VCs. The medals arrived on Monday under tight security in a large wooden box. Each is worth well over six figures. For the first time all six VCs are in the same place, at the same time, just in time for the 100th anniversary celebrations. "I'm feeling so emotional - I might cry," says Stevenson as she checks through the medals before placing them in alarmed glass display cases. "It's quite moving when you realise what they did to deserve these medals, and here they all are on their 100th anniversary. It's a very special moment." The next day 21 members of the family of John Grimshaw, one of the Victoria Cross holders, came to the museum to see the medals in place. "It's the first time I've seen them all together," says 72-year-old Edna Aspinall, who is John Grimshaw's niece. "I tell all my children and grandchildren about it. It's something that makes us so proud." John Grimshaw died in 1980, aged 87. She continues: "I remember as a child Uncle John coming to visit and my mother telling us to take the milk bottle off the table. We all had to smarten up whenever he visited. To us, he was a hero - but he was our hero." What was Gallipoli? Why is Gallipoli still celebrated in Australia and New Zealand on Anzac Day? Andrew Bomford's report will feature on Radio Four's PM Programme at 17:00 BST on Thursday 23 April Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | गैलीपोली अभियान के पहले दिन एक रेजिमेंट द्वारा छह विक्टोरिया क्रॉस पदक जीते गए थे। लेकिन वे सभी कभी भी एक ही कमरे में नहीं थे-और ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि एक पूरी तरह से गायब हो गया था। अंत में उन्हें एक साथ लाने के लिए जासूसी का काम करना पड़ा। |
newsbeat-46611123 | https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46611123 | Christmas delivery drivers: Diary of a courier | There's nothing quite like that sinking feeling of coming home and seeing the "sorry we missed you" delivery card on the floor. That's a trip to the sorting office you can't quite be bothered with. | But spare a thought for the delivery drivers, working flat out in the run-up to Christmas. "If you can't put a parcel in an outbuilding or letter box, you can't deliver it." That's the experience of courier Sally Smith, who often drives 100 miles in a single day. Her "extremely busy" route goes from Lossiemouth in northern Scotland. "Everyone in my depot is sound and they wouldn't do stupid things. For me, I've got a military base on my route and a lot of customers there that I have to support," says Sally. She's had Christmas cards, biscuits and chocolates from happy customers. But up and down the country, there are other disgruntled people - furious at either not receiving a parcel or finding it stuffed in a neighbour's bin. "If couriers stuck to the guidelines that have been set out, we'd be returning about 70% of the parcels," Sally explains. "It's a case of using your own discretion. "The bad stories just make us look bad and it's a shame. The majority of drivers I know are really nice - and they'll go out of their way to help you in any way they can." Talking of bad stories - earlier this week, the Hermes courier firm "apologised and provided compensation" after one driver did a poo in a customer's shed, before bagging it up and leaving. Unsurprisingly, Sally accepts that sort of incident is "totally unacceptable". "Couriers will often make arrangements with customers and they'll say: 'I know I'm not going to be in on this day so I'll leave the door open for you.'" As Christmas draws closer, she's looking forward to visiting the Kinloss barracks, where she has a "great relationship" with the military families who are stationed on site. She'll give a bag of sweets to the guards and personnel, before receiving one in return. But if you're delivering everyone else's Christmas shopping, how do you manage to buy your own? "I don't! I haven't started. I'll probably have to do mine on Christmas Eve." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here | घर आने और फर्श पर "सॉरी वीज़ मिस्ड यू" डिलीवरी कार्ड देखने के डूबते एहसास जैसा कुछ भी नहीं है। यह छँटाई कार्यालय की यात्रा है जिससे आप परेशान नहीं हो सकते। |
uk-scotland-glasgow-west-55200264 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-55200264 | Man, 36, charged over Celtic Park disorder | A 36-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with disorder-related offences outside Celtic Park last Sunday. | The man is the latest person to be charged after hundreds of fans converged on the ground to call for the sacking of manager Neil Lennon. Police Scotland said he was released on an undertaking and a report had been submitted to the procurator fiscal. There were violent scenes at the ground after Celtic lost to Ross County. Police Scotland deployed officers, at least 12 vehicles and the force helicopter. Three officers suffered minor injuries. Glasgow is currently under level four of the Scottish government Covid restrictions, meaning protests are prohibited. | पिछले रविवार को सेल्टिक पार्क के बाहर अव्यवस्था से संबंधित अपराधों के संबंध में एक 36 वर्षीय व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है और उस पर आरोप लगाया गया है। |
uk-england-49794857 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-49794857 | Thomas Cook's last flight: 'The staff were crying and it was very sombre' | Thomas Cook's flight from Orlando to Manchester landed at 08:52 BST - according to Flight Radar , it was the stricken operator's final flight. The BBC has spoken to some of the passengers who were on board, as well as people in Leicester from where the holiday firm's first excursion left in 1841. | Anthony Speak, 64, and Wendy Willis, 57, said the atmosphere on the flight was very different from their outward journey on 8 September. "The staff were crying and it was very sombre," said Ms Willis. "But the staff were brilliant and very professional, despite not having a job when they landed." "We saw one of the girls in floods of tears," added Mr Speak, from Dudley, West Midlands. Stephen and Tracy Curran, from Cumbria, who also flew to America on 8 September, said they had constantly been checking for updates on their holiday-provider's fate. "We thought it would be a close call," said Mrs Curran. "We didn't know what had happened until we landed - the staff didn't know either. "There was a plane that was due to take off an hour after us - but it's still there." Susan Macintosh, 55, said she felt "very fortunate" to have made her flight back to the UK. Ms Macintosh, along with her family, praised Thomas Cook staff for their professionalism, adding it was an emotional moment when the pilot made an announcement marking the end of an era. The family had been waiting for the latest news as speculation heightened about the future of Thomas Cook. Her son-in-law Kenneth McGuinan, 31, said: "For the past couple of days I have been constantly checking [to see what is happening]." What to do if you are affected If you are abroad, the UK government has pledged to get everyone home. Customers can visit the Civil Aviation Authority's special Thomas Cook website. Those scheduled to return to the UK within the next 48 hours or who are having problems with their accommodation or need special assistance can ring 0300 303 2800 in the UK or +44 1753 330 330 from abroad. Customers have been urged not to cut short their holiday or go to the airport without checking the website for more information about their return journey. Those whose future holidays have been cancelled will be informed of how they can claim a refund on the website. There was also sadness in Leicester, from where Victorian entrepreneur Thomas Cook organised his first holiday. The 12-mile (19km) rail excursion to Loughborough in 1841 was an attempt by the cabinet-maker and Baptist preacher to offer working-class people a diversion from drinking, which he saw as the root cause of society's ills. "Thomas Cook is part of Leicester life, part of its history," Sally Pick said. "We've lost something famous about Leicester. "I feel bad for the staff who may lose their jobs, and the holidaymakers abroad." Ivor James, 70, said the company's collapse was "sad" and a "great shame". He said he used to book holidays with the firm in the 1990s but now goes online. "People may have fallen out of love with the package holiday because of holidays on the internet," Mr James said, "I think the mobility of people getting to Europe and cheap flights hasn't helped them." Yvonne Russell said she had seen the internet have a similar effect on the retail industry in which she works. "Online means no-one comes to the High Street," she said. A caller to BBC Radio Manchester said emotions were also running high on the last Thomas Cook flight from Cancun. The woman, who gave her name as Trish, said the captain asked the passengers to "please bear in mind the staff here are working under tremendous pressure" and they didn't know whether they would have jobs or not. "We would like you to remember that we also have families and children and bills to pay," the pilot apparently told passengers. "The staff were all excellent but were all crying," Trish said. "It was horrendous to see." 'Bereavement' She said the captain told passengers he had more than 25 years of service with Thomas Cook and signed off saying: "This is a sad day." Prospective passengers have been speaking of their heartbreak after their holidays were cancelled. Chloe Hardy, 26, from Burbage, Leicestershire, was due to fly to Zante in Greece on Thursday with 33 friends and family for her wedding at a Thomas Cook hotel. "I tried to hold on to the tiny bit of hope Thomas Cook was going to be OK," Ms Hardy said. "It's a nightmare. You never think it's going to happen to you. "It's devastating, it feels like bereavement." She said the wedding had been 15 months in the planning but "it's been for nothing". At the head office in Peterborough By John Devine, BBC reporter Thomas Cook employs 9,000 people in the UK and about 1,000 work here. Cars have been streaming in since about 7am and if you didn't know otherwise, you'd think it was business as usual. There are several members of the media here but people have not been willing to talk, understandably. There has been a lot of "no comment" and one man just said: "I've lost my job." One woman was coming out of the car park in tears with two children in the back of the car. She said her partner worked there. There have been people huddled together in groups outside the offices, obviously discussing what has happened. Stoke-on-Trent travel agent Andy Dean described the collapse as "massive", and said he had been inundated with people trying to make other arrangements. "My first thought was for the people whose jobs and livelihoods will be affected and for those people whose holidays have been affected," he said. "It isn't just flights, it is accommodation as well." | ऑरलैंडो से मैनचेस्टर के लिए थॉमस कुक की उड़ान 08:52 BST पर उतरी-फ्लाइट रडार के अनुसार, यह प्रभावित ऑपरेटर की अंतिम उड़ान थी। बीबीसी ने कुछ यात्रियों से बात की है जो बोर्ड पर थे, साथ ही साथ लीसेस्टर के लोगों से भी बात की है जहाँ से 1841 में हॉलिडे फर्म की पहली यात्रा रवाना हुई थी। |
uk-scotland-tayside-central-45964816 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-45964816 | Luxury cars crushed as transporter hits low bridge in Perth | A car transporter has crashed into a low bridge in Perth, causing tens of thousands of pounds of damage to luxury cars it was carrying. | The roofs of at least two new Range Rovers were crushed in the accident in Marshall Place at about 08:00. Police were called to the scene as debris on the road caused rush-hour traffic problems. Network Rail later tweeted to say the bridge had been inspected by engineers and was "passed fit for rail traffic". | पर्थ में एक कार ट्रांसपोर्टर एक निचले पुल से टकरा गया, जिससे उसे ले जा रही लक्जरी कारों को हजारों पाउंड का नुकसान हुआ। |
uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-26679152 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-26679152 | Magee campus: Date set for business plan | The accountancy firm RSM McClure Watters is to undertake the business case for the expansion of the University of Ulster's Magee campus. | The business case will assess the need to increase student places there. Work on the project will begin at the end of March. A draft report is expected by the end of June, with the final report due in September. The plan will assess provisions needed to serve 9,400 students. | लेखा फर्म आर. एस. एम. मैकक्लूर वाटर्स अल्स्टर विश्वविद्यालय के मैगी परिसर के विस्तार के लिए व्यावसायिक मामला शुरू करने वाली है। |
entertainment-arts-27238897 | https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27238897 | Game of Thrones' Kit Harington from Westeros to Pompeii | As one of the most talked-about TV series around the world, HBO's fantasy drama Game of Thrones has made stars out of its main actors. Now 27-year-old Kit Harington, from Worcester, who plays Night Watch soldier Jon Snow, has just taken his first lead role in big-budget Hollywood movie Pompeii. | By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter, BBC News Made by Resident Evil director Paul WS Anderson, Harington plays a Celtic slave, Milo, forced to fight as a gladiator in the city of Pompeii in AD79 - the year an eruption from nearby Mount Vesuvius wiped out the population of the Roman town. The 3D film portrays the volcano, the earthquake and then the tsunami that engulfs Pompeii, adding up to a sizeable movie budget of $100m (£60m). "I took the part deliberately a year ago because it was a lead role, and I wanted to try that out," Harington says. "Then once I was in it, I stopped feeling the pressure. "It's only when it's done and you're the centre of attention, talking about it, that it hits you that the success of the movie is resting on your shoulders. But I really enjoyed it and I want to do more lead roles again, if I'm allowed." Anderson describes Pompeii as "the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire" - it was where the Romans came to gamble and have fun on the Italian coast. Pompeii's unique history is down to the town, and its residents, being perfectly preserved across the millennia after they were buried in volcanic ash. Excavations began in the 18th Century, and since then, the site near Naples has attracted thousands of tourists each year. But Harington admits he didn't go until after the film was finished. "I didn't have time before we started shooting. I know it's bizarre, but I went after we wrapped. I wanted to go to this place that I'd be pretended to be in for so long. I'm ashamed to say I didn't do a whole amount of historical research, I took the script as gospel. "But then I went to all the exhibitions and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we were very historically accurate. I mean, we're a big-budget action movie and we're bound to take historical liberties. But not many. "We were very painstaking in re-creating Pompeii in Toronto, where we shot the film. I think we built around 30 different sets, including the Coliseum where the gladiators fight. It was strangely similar walking through the real town." Ancient disaster movie Inevitably, Harington admits, there will be comparisons to Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning 2000 drama Gladiator. "But I'm not about to try and do Russell Crowe impressions. There is a lot in this movie that is Gladiator-esque, but you can't make a historical film featuring gladiators that won't. "The main focus in this is the volcano erupting, then the earthquake and then the tidal wave. Really, it's an ancient disaster movie." Two of Harington's co-stars in Pompeii, Keifer Sutherland and Jared Harris, have also enjoyed huge success in big-budget TV dramas, 24 and Mad Men respectively. Harington's Thrones co-stars, including Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner and Lena Headey, have all been offered film roles off the success of the TV series. Harington believes that "TV has been able to offer all actors opportunities it couldn't have a decade ago - and it's made my film career happen. Certainly the quality of television is on an equal footing to film now, but I can't think of committing to any other TV series apart from Game of Thrones. "Actually, I'm contracted to them right now anyway, so I can't, but it's the only one I want to do. I'm doing all my film roles in between shooting for the series, I can't even change my hair or my beard for parts, which limits me - I've got to look like Jon Snow. "I'm always amazed by how much people love the character of Jon though, I suppose he's one of the truly good people who's managed to survive so far. I know that I'll be thought of as him for a long time - sometimes fans come up to me and are really upset that I'm not actually Jon Snow, wearing fur and fighting Wildlings." 'Star on the rise' Game of Thrones, originally written as a novel by author George RR Martin, has much of its roots in ancient and medieval history - including Jon Snow's military stronghold, The Wall, loosely based on the Roman Hadrian's Wall in the North of England. "I think Thrones has had a real impact on producers being willing to invest money in period pieces in film and television in order to make something look historically accurate, as I think it's tapped into a fascination we all have with the past," the actor says. "I'm not sure that Thrones could qualify as a historical set piece though, it's got too much fantasy in it, and it's not 'swords and sandals' the way Pompeii is. "I don't have much luck with my roles though, do I? I'm either Jon Snow, stuck in the Night's Watch, unable to get married or leave, or I'm a gladiator in an arena about to die horribly every day. I'm really stuck as to which of my characters has the worst life. For real life this is amazing though - I never thought I'd make it this far as an actor." Critics have declared themselves "not blown away" by Pompeii, volcanic eruption or not, with the Hollywood Reporter saying, "the lava flows, as does the cheese". The Washington Post notes that "Harington's star is on the rise, but his first starring role doesn't showcase what he can do from an acting viewpoint. His startlingly defined six-pack abs are the most memorable part of the character." Kit Harington says he's "very proud of the film - it's old-fashioned action with great special effects" but admits that he's "had enough of historical characters for now" - although he will star in fantasy adventure Seventh Son, with Julianne Moore, next year. "I was desperate to do something contemporary after Pompeii and the last series of Thrones," he says, "and now I'm filming the movie version of another hit TV series, Spooks. I just had to go and be someone modern for a change." Pompeii is in the UK cinemas now. | दुनिया भर में सबसे अधिक चर्चित टीवी श्रृंखलाओं में से एक के रूप में, एचबीओ के काल्पनिक नाटक गेम ऑफ थ्रोन्स ने अपने मुख्य अभिनेताओं से सितारे बनाए हैं। अब 27 वर्षीय किट हैरिंगटन, वॉर्सेस्टर से, जो नाइट वॉच सैनिक जॉन स्नो की भूमिका निभाते हैं, ने बड़े बजट वाली हॉलीवुड फिल्म पॉम्पेई में अपनी पहली मुख्य भूमिका निभाई है। |
uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-45838588 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-45838588 | Camilla at Crathie school during Princess Eugenie royal wedding | Camilla, Duchess of Rothesay, visited a small Scottish school while Prince Charles attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank . | The Duchess of Cornwall's arrival at Crathie Primary in Aberdeenshire was delayed by a tree on the road due to high winds. She was given a tour of the school - which has nine pupils - before visiting a new games pavilion in nearby Braemar. Princess Eugenie married her partner in Windsor Castle. It is understood that Friday's school invitation was a long-standing one. After apologising for her late arrival, she told her guides, 11-year-old Logan Beedie and Zara Jones, 10: "It's nice and blowy outside, isn't it?" | कैमिला, डचेस ऑफ रॉथेसे, एक छोटे से स्कॉटिश स्कूल में गईं, जबकि प्रिंस चार्ल्स राजकुमारी यूजनी और जैक ब्रूक्सबैंक की शादी में शामिल हुए। |
science-environment-15726717 | https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15726717 | Unlocking the genetic secrets of the UK's fungi | Fungi might be one of the world's most diverse kingdoms of life, but we know surprisingly little about them. Now this is about to change with scientists creating the first genetic library of the UK's fungi. | By Rebecca MorelleScience reporter, BBC News Providing a splash of colour before winter hits, the fungi at Deer Park Farm in Devon are putting on a spectacular display. They come in every variety: from red, fairytale-like toadstools to slimy, alien tentacles poking out through the soil. These steep fields contain some of the UK's rarest varieties of a family of fungi known as waxcaps, and they have attracted the attention of scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. The researchers are collecting samples of DNA to take back to the lab for analysis. They are starting to create a genetic database of the UK's fungi, beginning with the waxcaps. Dr Martyn Ainsworth, a senior researcher in fungal conservation from Kew, says: "It is a huge kingdom, and relatively under-explored and under-studied. "I think we know so little about them because, scientifically, they are hard to work on. "We can grow a certain number in the lab, but there is a whole host of fungi that we would recognise as mushrooms and toadstools in our woodlands, and some of the most commercially important ones such as ceps, porcini and chanterelles, which we cannot grow in the lab. "This has held back a lot of research." Mushroom mystery But, fungi, which fall between plants and animals on the tree of life, are the hidden helpers of our environment: they recycle waste and dead matter, and provide plants with water and nutrients. "They are absolutely fundamental to ecosystems. Fungi are really the behind-the-scenes team that are doing all the work," adds Dr Ainsworth. One basic question that the team is trying to answer with the genetic library is just how many species of fungi there are. Currently, the UK is thought to contain anywhere between 12,000 to 20,000 species, but Dr Bryn Dentinger, a senior mycologist from RBG Kew, is trying to find the unique gene sequences that will help conservationists gets a handle on this number. He says: "Because of their cryptic nature, fungi are very difficult to identify by morphology alone. "But now, with genetic techniques, we finally have the tools here we can accurately diagnose the number of species we have at a much faster rate than before." Early results already suggest that some waxcaps that were currently considered to be single species, could actually be two or more distinct species. "There is a lot of hidden diversity that DNA sequencing is allowing us to reveal," Dr Dentinger added. But despite their apparent abundance, scientists are still concerned about the future of some species of fungus. Habitat destruction and nitrogen pollution from fertilisers are causing serious declines, and one group that has been particularly affected is the waxcaps. In fact, their sheer presence is now used as an indicator to show that a grassland habitat is healthy, and a glut of waxcaps can lead to an area being given a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) conservation designation. Future of fungi Audrey Compton and John Whetman, who own Deer Park Farm, say that when they bought their farm 10 years ago, it already had some fields packed full of fungi, which they have simply left alone to allow the mushrooms to thrive. Mrs Compton explains: "We have some really ancient grasslands here; they haven't been ploughed up, they are too steep for a tractor, they haven't been fertilised, haven't had pesticides, and therefore, they are more or less as as nature intended. "And as long as we graze them the right amount, we're going to have beautiful summer flowers and wonderful autumn fungi." The researchers from Kew say that delving into the DNA of fungal species will help to conserve them - because if we are unsure of how many species there are, how can we keep track of the ones we are losing? Dr Ainsworth explains: "It is answering these basic first questions: how many species we have got and then looking to see what are their ecological requirements. "And then when you know those things, then you can begin to manage habitats in a conservation-minded kind of way." While the scientists are beginning their sequencing project with waxcaps, which has been funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Scottish Natural Heritage, they are keen to broaden it out to other fungi and say the same techniques could be applied to create a worldwide genetic library of this Kingdom. This, admits Dr Dentinger, could take decades - although he says it would be worth the effort. "The total diversity of mushrooms is a difficult number to estimate - 700,000 to over 5 million - and modern molecular data is supporting the higher numbers of fungi," he explained. "Clearly there is a lot out there - and the only way we can do this is anybodies lifetime is to use DNA sequencing. "It is a daunting task, but it's also incredibly exciting. It is an exciting time to be a mycologist." | कवक दुनिया के जीवन के सबसे विविध राज्यों में से एक हो सकता है, लेकिन हम उनके बारे में आश्चर्यजनक रूप से बहुत कम जानते हैं। अब यह बदलने वाला है जब वैज्ञानिकों ने ब्रिटेन के कवक का पहला आनुवंशिक पुस्तकालय बनाया है। |
magazine-34126445 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34126445 | Witnessing Japan's surrender in China | In September 1945, China's long and bloody war with Japan finally came to an end - millions had died and thousands of foreigners were held in internment camps. As Japan surrendered, my great-uncle was sent to Shanghai to find out what had happened to British citizens trapped during World War Two. | By Rupert Wingfield-HayesBBC News, China By 1945, China had been fighting for eight years, longer than any other Allied power. It had lost perhaps 14 million people, second only to the Soviet Union. On 9 September, inside an assembly hall at the military academy in Nanjing, the Chinese Chief of Staff Ho Ying Qin waited for the arrival of Japanese general Yasutsugu Okamura. At two long tables the victors and vanquished sat facing each other. A few feet away a small group of foreigners sat watching. In the middle, in the uniform of a British major-general, sat my great-uncle, Eric Hayes. Gen Hayes had started his career fighting in another forgotten war - the 1915 invasion of Mesopotamia. In 1919 he was sent to Siberia to fight with the Whites against the Bolsheviks. He spent two years in Bolshevik prisons, becoming fluent in Russian. In late 1944 he was sent on another obscure mission, to be commander of British forces in China. Britain didn't really have any forces in China, but Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist regime was now an ally in the war against Japan. In 1938, as the Japanese swept across eastern China, Chiang's nationalist regime had taken refuge in Chongqing, deep in the mountains of western China, clinging to the banks of the Yangtze River. Mao Zedong and his communist guerrilla army were far to the north in the caves of Yanan on the high Loess plateau of Shaanxi. My great-uncle took up residence at Number 17 Guo Fu Road, a few hundred metres from Generalissimo Chiang's headquarters. For years the people of Chongqing had been terrorised by Japanese aerial bombing. Japan wanted China out of the war and was trying to force Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate a truce. "When the Japanese planes first arrived we had no idea about bombing," says Su Yuankui, a small, energetic-83-year old. "We went out into the streets to look at them. But then we heard the explosions and saw houses burning." Su's family lived in an old three-storey house but soon the whole population of the city was digging tunnels to use as bomb shelters. But there were never enough of them, and in June 1941 it led to a terrible disaster. "Just after dinner we heard the siren and ran to the shelter," Su tells me. "People kept coming in behind us - more and more. My father said, 'It's no good, the air is getting bad, we should get out.' But people were still flooding in. People began fighting, pulling their hair and their clothes, even biting. They couldn't breathe." Su crouched down in a corner trying to find air. He blacked out. "The next morning there were dead people on top of me. Rescuers were pulling them off. They shook me and I woke up. They were shocked. 'Look this little one is alive!' they shouted." Outside on the street hundreds of bodies were laid out. It's not clear exactly how many died that day, perhaps 3,000. Among them were Su Yuankui's two older sisters. On 15 August 1945 China's long nightmare came to an end. Two weeks later, in Tokyo Bay, Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender. On the same day in Chongqing, Gen Hayes received orders to get to the Chinese capital, Nanjing, as soon as possible. He hitched a ride aboard an American C46 transport, already filled with war correspondents. "The plane was also filled to capacity with petrol, and as a result, we waddled off the ground with some difficulty at the last moment and with further difficulty cleared the surrounding hills," he wrote. Arriving in Nanjing on 3 September, he found what he described as a "fantastic situation". "We found that we were only the sixth Allied plane to land at Nanking airfield, which was still entirely under Japanese protection, if not control. At that time in Nanking there were only some fifty Americans and 200-300 Chinese Commando troops, against 70,000 Japanese quartered in the city." The Japanese empire in China had collapsed over night. It was clear to my great-uncle that the Japanese army in Nanjing was not happy with its orders. "The Japanese army gave me the impression of being extremely tough and dangerous as indeed it had proved itself in battle," he wrote. "There is clearly no realisation of the extent of the disaster Japan has suffered. It regards itself, with some reason, as an undefeated army which, to its regret, has been ordered by the emperor to lay down its arms." The surrender ceremony, scheduled for 5 September, was delayed for four days, and so Gen Hayes decided to travel on to Shanghai. His orders were to find out what had happened to the city's large British community. There were no planes, and the train service was still completely under Japanese control. At Nanjing railway station the trains were crammed with Japanese troops. The first-class compartment was occupied by a Japanese general and his mistress, who were not about to make way for a British general. "I appeared to be faced with one of two unpleasant alternatives, either to beat a retreat with what dignity I could muster and so lose a great deal of face, or to attempt to have a compartment cleared of Japanese and so risk an unfortunate incident," he wrote. In the end a third option was found. The Japanese ejected a group of Chinese from another carriage. "Let us hope the ejected Chinese were puppets!" my great-uncle wrote. Puppets was the term used for those who had collaborated with the Japanese occupation. Even in victory the Chinese were still being humiliated by foreigners. Once in Shanghai, Gen Hayes found that most of the British community was still living in Japanese internment camps. One 13-year-old girl, Betty Barr, was interned with her family a the Lunghua camp, along with JG Ballard and his family (of Empire of the Sun fame). Lunghua was the largest internment camp in Shanghai with around 1,600 Britons. Now 83, Betty still lives in Shanghai with her Chinese husband, George. Today the Lunghua camp is an elite Chinese boarding school, but many of the buildings from the 1940s are still there. As we walk around the leafy campus Betty points to where the Japanese camp commandant, Tomohiko Hayashi, had his office; the assembly hall where they would put on amateur dramatics; and the pond where they got water to flush the toilets. For two-and-a-half years they were virtually cut off from the world, not knowing who was winning or when it might all be over. "We had nothing except for rumours that must have come from secret radios," Betty says. "And then in May 1945 we saw American planes in the sky over here writing V - V - V in the sky for VE day… so we knew that Germany had been defeated." Life in the camp was monotonous and the internees were hungry, but the Chinese in Shanghai were suffering much more. Betty's future husband, George, was living in a tiny attic with his mother and seven siblings. His father had been sent to work in a coal mine in Manchuria, in the north-east of the country, where he died. The children were slowly starving. "My mother, she had to sell my younger sister to get money," he says. "That morning she brought pancakes. We were so happy! We hadn't eaten them for several months. Suddenly I saw my mother was sad and not eating. I asked her why are you not eating? She said, you are eating your younger sister's flesh!" In Lunghua camp Betty's American mother kept a meticulous diary. On 14 August 1945 she wrote: "Allies have accepted Japanese surrender, but no confirming message coming from Japanese. Fears that Japanese army in China will fight on. People greatly depressed wondering why no news." But a day later the mood had changed completely: "Confirmed that the war is over. Great jubilation! Thanksgiving service at 3pm out of doors. Six flags unfurled on top of F block. Entertainment on both roofs until midnight, clear sky, bright moon. Perfect." But the end of the war brought more uncertainty. Shanghai was in chaos, no-one knew who was in charge. So Betty's family stayed put at Lunghua. Finally, nearly three weeks later on 6 September, her mother wrote: "Gen Hayes British General in charge in China came here today, with some others. Went to Nanking for treaty signing. Says we repatriates will be sent to Manila to be sorted." With him, Gen Hayes brought some very unwelcome news. The allies had agreed that after the war the Shanghai International Settlement would be abolished. Nearly a century earlier the British had forced Imperial China to hand over a large chunk of Shanghai to British rule. Other countries had followed suit. Inside these so-called "concessions" foreigners had their own town councils, police forces, laws and courts. "I found a remarkable lack of realisation of the implications of the abolition of extra-territoriality and of the fact that from now on Shanghai will be essentially a Chinese city," Gen Hayes wrote. It was the end of an era. Many foreigners wanted to stay. But within four years they would all be gone. As Mao's communist forces swept south in the summer of 1949 the foreign community fled. For the next 30 years Europe and America turned away from China - and forgot the part it had played in the bloodiest war in history. Read Gen Hayes' report in full Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | सितंबर 1945 में जापान के साथ चीन का लंबा और खूनी युद्ध आखिरकार समाप्त हो गया-लाखों लोग मारे गए थे और हजारों विदेशियों को नजरबंदी शिविरों में रखा गया था। जैसे ही जापान ने आत्मसमर्पण किया, मेरे चाचा को यह पता लगाने के लिए शंघाई भेजा गया कि द्वितीय विश्व युद्ध के दौरान फंसे ब्रिटिश नागरिकों के साथ क्या हुआ था। |
10317251 | https://www.bbc.com/news/10317251 | Climate protest 'delayed Aberdeen emergency flight' | Nine climate change protesters delayed an emergency ambulance flight taking off after they stormed Aberdeen Airport, a court has heard. | Five men and four women are on trial facing breach of the peace and vandalism charges at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. It follows an incident at the airport involving a group called Plane Stupid in March 2009. An airport duty manager told the court the flight was unable to leave. The defendants are Mark Andrews, 26, from Edinburgh; William Boggia, 44, from Ballater, Aberdeenshire; Matilda Gifford, 25, Daniel Glass, 26, Emilia Karwowska, 20, Jonathan Agnew, 24, and Josephine Hanson, 25, all from Glasgow; James Kerr, 35, from Paisley, Renfrewshire; and Katherine Mackay, 21, from Shipley, West Yorkshire. All nine deny the charges against them. The trial continues on Wednesday. | एक अदालत ने सुना है कि नौ जलवायु परिवर्तन प्रदर्शनकारियों ने एबरडीन हवाई अड्डे पर धावा बोलने के बाद एक आपातकालीन एम्बुलेंस उड़ान भरने में देरी की। |
world-africa-45760464 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45760464 | In pictures: Melania Trump's whistle-stop Africa tour | US First Lady Melania Trump is visiting Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt to promote children's welfare on what is her first major foreign trip alone. | President Donald Trump has not visited Africa since taking office in January 2017. In February, a row broke out after he allegedly used "shithole" to describe some African nations. Mrs Trump's week-long trip to the continent is seen as an attempt to heal some of the divisions. Pictures from AFP and Reuters | अमेरिका की प्रथम महिला मेलानिया ट्रम्प बच्चों के कल्याण को बढ़ावा देने के लिए घाना, मलावी, केन्या और मिस्र की यात्रा कर रही हैं, जो अकेले उनकी पहली बड़ी विदेश यात्रा है। |
magazine-33189628 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33189628 | 'I'm a gay man but married a woman' | Decades ago when gay people faced ostracism and the threat of prosecution in the UK and other Western nations, many chose to marry and disguise their sexuality. But even with increased tolerance now some choose to take the same path. | By Victoria Derbyshire & Megan BramallVictoria Derbyshire programme Nick, who is in his 50s, has been married to his wife for 30 years. He is also gay. He thinks his wife had suspicions about his sexuality for years, but things came to a head when he had an affair with a man. "She asked if I wanted to leave and I didn't. She's my best friend really above all else, so we've decided we would like to remain together as best friends," he says. Nick isn't his real name - many of the couple's friends and family don't know he's gay and he wants to remain anonymous to protect his wife. From the beginning, there was unhappiness in the marriage, with doubts about whether they had made the right decision. He'd always felt uncertain about his sexual orientation and this troubled him more and more as he got older. Like many men in his situation, Nick, a nurse, found himself living a double life. On the surface he was a happily married man, but he was also using gay pornography. He'd get drunk with a gay friend and, he says, "events took their course". His wife was angry and upset when she found out about six years ago, and Nick knew there was no point denying the truth any longer. "I felt it was the right opportunity to be honest and tell her what she'd already suspected of me, but there'd been an understanding that if I didn't do anything we wouldn't talk about it - and when I did we had to talk about it." Nick acknowledges it would have been better for her if he had admitted sooner that he was gay and needed to act upon it. She told him she was disappointed that he hadn't been able to trust her enough to be honest with her, and that if she had known she would have accepted it. "I still feel inordinately grateful to her each day that she was so tolerant after that," Nick says. The couple chose to stay together not for the sake of children - they don't have any - but because of their feelings for each other. "Things couldn't have gone better with my wife that, you know, we still love each other and we're still together but it could have been so very different." While the couple have stayed together, they no longer have a physical relationship and sleep separately. Nick has promised his wife that he will never again have sex or a relationship with a man - he says he owes it to her. But can he stick to that promise? He says: "I'm hoping so, it's my intention to. It didn't feel like a choice in the past, it felt like it was enforced on me. I'm now making that choice that I would like to, in a sense, remain celibate." Nick is a member of a support group called Gay Married Men, based in Manchester and founded 10 years ago. Men travel from around the country to attend meetings. Group founder John says most of the men are older - they married women in the 1970s and 80s when society was more hostile to gay people. Now society is more tolerant, they are more comfortable with coming out as gay. But why did they get married in the first place? Nick says many men who contact the website say they did so to try to "sort themselves out". Andy, 56, a student, adds: "At times you think you're going through a phase and as you've once or twice heard people say, 'You find the right woman and she'll turn you and you'll be a real man.' "Unfortunately society, at the time when I got married nearly 30 years ago, you were either straight or queer and queer was a really vindictive word." John, a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University who was married for seven years, says it took him a long time to realise he was gay. He knew his sexuality was ambiguous but he didn't have the vocabulary to define it. "I didn't know what a gay man was. Truthfully, I thought a gay man lived in London. Which people laugh at and it is funny now, it's really strange but I had this kind of naivety. "I knew gay men were like Larry Grayson, John Inman and, you know, they were camp and effeminate. Well, I didn't feel like camp or effeminate so I couldn't be gay, could I?" Group members are at different stages - some just suspect they may be gay, others are living with unknowing wives, some are separated or divorced and some have re-married to men. John is now married to a man who has been his partner for 23 years, but says he still finds parts of his life raw and upsetting. Andy is divorcing his wife after 30 years and four children - she has a new partner. He says: "I still love her, I'm very close to her, in fact we describe each other as best friends - which may sound odd, but when we've got children together…" Some remain married because of the expectations of friends and family, or because they have children and don't want to break up a family. John says the men are often quite desperate and struggling to cope with no support - many are suffering from quite severe depression. "We've had bursts of tears when people have come because they're so upset and also so relieved to find out there are other people that are just like themselves. Because that's part of the problem, because we're a myth, we don't exist. "We don't exist in [the] gay world - we're on the cusp of [the] gay world because we're married men. We don't exist in [the] straight world. So we seem invisible." The group members say they don't judge anyone and Nick, who helps run the site, says his main message is that people don't have to struggle alone. "There are people who are successfully managing their sexuality with their family. You still have connection with your children and you don't have to be cut off, out in the cold. "I'm definitely happier, a weight has lifted and I can be honest with my wife." The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:15-11:00 BST on BBC Two and BBC News Channel. Follow it on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | दशकों पहले जब समलैंगिक लोगों को ब्रिटेन और अन्य पश्चिमी देशों में बहिष्कार और अभियोजन की धमकी का सामना करना पड़ा, तो कई लोगों ने शादी करना और अपनी कामुकता को छिपाना चुना। लेकिन बढ़ती सहिष्णुता के बावजूद अब कुछ लोग वही रास्ता चुनते हैं। |
uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-16000150 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-16000150 | Scotland The What? comic Steve Robertson funeral held | The funeral of Scotland The What? comedy star Steve Robertson has been held. | Family and friends gathered for a private service at Aberdeen Crematorium. The former lawyer and rector of the University of Aberdeen died last month after a short illness. A memorial service is expected to be held at a later date. Mr Robertson, George Donald and William "Buff" Hardie made their debut in 1969. | स्कॉटलैंड द व्हाट? कॉमेडी स्टार स्टीव रॉबर्टसन का अंतिम संस्कार किया गया है। |
uk-england-hampshire-46055205 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-46055205 | Dying mum set to fly home to Iraq to see son | An Iraqi woman with terminal cancer is set to fly home to her eight-year-old son after well-wishers raised more than £60,000 for a private medical flight. | Arij Altai, 38, came to Southampton five years ago to study for a PhD in linguistics at Southampton University. After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, she had to stay behind when her husband and son flew back in September. Mrs Altai's friend, Deborah Cornah who set up a fundraising page said: "We're overwhelmed, thank you." Mrs Altai's dying wish is to see her son Ali again, she said: "I don't want to die now, before I see my son." It is understood she may only have weeks to live. Arrangements are now being made for the six-hour specialist medical flight with a doctor and nurse from Southampton to Baghdad. It is hoped Mrs Altai will fly home in the next few days. | शुभचिंतकों द्वारा एक निजी चिकित्सा उड़ान के लिए 60,000 पाउंड से अधिक जुटाने के बाद टर्मिनल कैंसर से पीड़ित एक इराकी महिला अपने आठ साल के बेटे के लिए घर जाने के लिए तैयार है। |
world-us-canada-32793801 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32793801 | How the Iraqi army are bombing Islamic State in Mosul | The Iraqi army has been stepping up air strikes on the Islamic State (IS) group's positions in northern Iraq in preparation for an expected offensive to retake the city of Mosul. BBC Persian's Nafiseh Kohnavard is the first ever journalist to be allowed to fly on an air mission over the occupied city. | By Nafiseh Kohnavard BBC Persian, Erbil Airport It's 01:00 at Erbil Airport in northern Iraq and army mechanics are carrying out final checks on a military helicopter. It's a Russian-made Mi-17 modified to carry two rockets. As we arrive, soldiers are scrawling messages like "This one is for you Islamic State!" and "You are doomed!" on them. The missions are a joint operation between the Iraqis and the Americans, and most of the pilots are US-trained. We're joined by General Ahmed Thwenee, an air force veteran who explains that helicopters can deliver more precise strikes because they fly at low altitudes. Of course, that leaves them more exposed to fire from the ground, as the general experienced first-hand when he was shot in the leg on a previous mission. As our crew pose for photos on the tarmac, a US military advisor asks if we're sure we want to go. "This is going to be a dangerous operation," he says. Bombing his home The target is a sulphur factory 25 miles (40km) outside Mosul. We're told IS are using it to produce bombs and to train suicide bombers. We fly with two other helicopters and we're escorted by a US war-plane high overhead. It's freezing cold inside the chopper. A gunner is sitting at the open doors, machine-gun at the ready. Down below in the darkness I see the twinkling lights of a string of villages captured by Islamic State in the past year. Hassan our pilot is from Mosul. He still has relatives in the city and heard recently that his house had been occupied by IS. It's clear from his expression just how personal these missions are for him. He tells us that he's asked for permission to bomb his house, but was told it's too big a risk to the civilian population. A burst of flame After half an hour we reach the target and hover overhead, waiting for orders to strike. Although it's incredibly noisy on board, a scary silence seems to descend. Then suddenly it's all go. The first two helicopters dive down and dance over the target, firing their rockets. Then it's our turn to swoop in. We see a burst of flame right below us, and then after a couple of seconds we hear a big boom. Hassan swoops the helicopter round in a big arc to make sure they've hit their target. The machine gunner gives the thumbs up and we're off. The whole thing took just twelve minutes but it felt like the longest twelve minutes of my life. | इराकी सेना उत्तरी इराक में इस्लामिक स्टेट (आईएस) समूह के ठिकानों पर हवाई हमले तेज कर रही है ताकि मोसुल शहर को फिर से हासिल करने के लिए एक संभावित हमले की तैयारी की जा सके। बीबीसी फारसी के नफीसेह कोहनवार्ड पहले पत्रकार हैं जिन्हें कब्जे वाले शहर के ऊपर हवाई मिशन पर उड़ान भरने की अनुमति दी गई है। |
uk-england-humber-42809007 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-42809007 | Hull stabbing death: Man in court charged with murder | A 63-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of man stabbed to death at a house in Hull. | Colin Cadamartriea is accused of killing Jarrad Marsh at the property in Albert Avenue on Saturday. Police said 31-year-old Mr Marsh died at the scene, despite treatment by paramedics and police officers. Mr Cadamartriea, of Albert Avenue, appeared before Hull Crown Court and was remanded in custody. He will face a trial in June. More on this and other Hull stories | हल में एक घर में चाकू मारकर हत्या करने के आरोप में एक 63 वर्षीय व्यक्ति अदालत में पेश हुआ है। |
uk-england-lincolnshire-46347937 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-46347937 | Murder arrest after man's body found in Spalding house | A man has been arrested after the body of a 49-year-old man was found in Lincolnshire. | Police were called to a house on Neville Avenue, Spalding, at about 11:40 GMT on Sunday and discovered the man's body. Officers said a man from the Spalding area had been detained on suspicion of murder. The arrested man, aged 59, remains in custody for questioning, according to Lincolnshire Police. | लिंकनशायर में एक 49 वर्षीय व्यक्ति का शव मिलने के बाद एक व्यक्ति को गिरफ्तार किया गया है। |
uk-england-oxfordshire-43830772 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-43830772 | Oxfordshire's Big Picture | Each week we feature pictures shared with us from across Oxfordshire. | Find out how you can join in and submit your images below. If you have a great image of the county send it to us by email to [email protected]. | हर हफ्ते हम ऑक्सफोर्डशायर से हमारे साथ साझा की गई तस्वीरों को प्रदर्शित करते हैं। |
uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44966895 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44966895 | Wildcat kittens born at reserve in Sutherland | Two Scottish wildcat kittens have been born at the Alladale Wilderness Reserve in Sutherland. | The kittens are part of a captive breeding programme set up to help conserve the endangered species. The adult cats involved were genetically tested by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland before they bred. Scottish wildcats are under threat from cross-breeding with domestic cats, disease and habitat loss. The reserve is working with organisations including Scottish Wildcat Action and The European Nature Trust in an effort to help conserve wildcats | सदरलैंड के अलाडेल वाइल्डरनेस रिजर्व में दो स्कॉटिश वाइल्डकैट बिल्ली के बच्चे पैदा हुए हैं। |
technology-37255719 | https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37255719 | Google suspends Project Ara DIY smartphone work | Google has suspended work on Project Ara, its modular smartphone. | By Rhiannon WilliamsTechnology reporter The project, which the company launched in 2013. was designed to let users buy a basic phone and add different modules like a keyboard or other sensors, Google had announced during its developer conference I/O in May, its intentions to have a developer version ready to ship in the autumn. It will now concentrate on its other phones, tablets and other hardware lines, reports Reuters. Project delays Project Ara has suffered numerous setbacks since it began life as a Motorola venture, which Google owned before later selling. The idea was to create a smartphone which could be customised to owners' tastes with interchangeable "modules" including screens, cameras and processors. In 2014, a trial was announced in Puerto Rico, centred around providing buyers with a smartphone frame and a range of 20 to 30 clip-on modules. However, this pilot scheme was delayed and eventually cancelled last year, with the team blaming "lots of iterations" in the design. In May this year, Google said a new version of the modular phone would be less customisable than originally planned. The main display and processors could no longer be swapped - a redesign Google said offered more space for other parts with more unusual functions. Modular handsets Modular phones could help consumers upgrade their handset without having to buy an entirely new model, as well as reducing technological waste. However, the individual components are expensive to manufacture. LG released the modular LG G5 phone earlier this year to a lukewarm response. On launch it only supported two additional modules - a high-definition audio processor and a camera grip. The battery can also be exchanged, but doing so causes the phone to reboot. "Project Ara went against every lesson the smartphone market has learnt over the years, eliminating the removable battery for example," says Ian Fogg, senior director of mobile and telecoms at analysts IHS. "The original concept of making all modules user-changeable is an incredibly hard thing to do. "By redesigning it so only certain modules were swappable dramatically simplified the project, but it undermined the point of how important swapping those bits out was to the consumers. It went right against every bit of industry wisdom." | गूगल ने अपने मॉड्यूलर स्मार्टफोन प्रोजेक्ट आरा पर काम रोक दिया है। |
uk-wales-32839531 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-32839531 | Cutting VAT on tourism a 'non-runner', says Lord Bourne | Cutting VAT on the tourism industry is a "non-runner" while there is such a large budget deficit, according to the new Wales Office minister Lord Bourne. | By Brian MeechanBBC Wales business correspondent The Cut Tourism VAT campaign calculates almost 6,000 jobs would be created in Wales if the tax was reduced to levels similar to other parts of the EU. Dropping the rate from 20% to 5% would boost the Welsh economy by almost £170m a year, it added. But Lord Bourne said tourist attractions need to be better promoted. The former Welsh Conservative leader has recently been appointed as a minister in the Wales Office. He told the Wales at Work programme that the focus should not be on tax cuts for businesses operating in the tourism sector. "What is important is that people are aware of the fantastic things that exist in Cardiff and throughout Wales," he said. "We have free entry to national museums for example... many countries don't have that free entry." | न्यू वेल्स ऑफिस के मंत्री लॉर्ड बॉर्न के अनुसार, पर्यटन उद्योग पर वैट में कटौती करना "गैर-धावक" है, जबकि बजट में इतना बड़ा घाटा है। |
uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41832065 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41832065 | Citizen's income: Could it work in Scotland? | The Scottish government's draft budget for the coming year includes funds to study the idea of setting up a "citizen's income". So what is a basic income system, and how might it work in Scotland? | By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter What is a basic income system? The basic income system is a radical redesign of tax and welfare - completely redrawing the relationship between the state and the citizen. Under such a system, every individual would be given a cash payment at regular intervals, without any requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work. Several different figures have been suggested, mostly in the rough area of £100 a week for adults. As the name suggests, it would be universal - paid out to every citizen regardless of their wealth, employment or personal status - and would be enough to cover the basics of life. It would serve as a replacement for existing benefits payments such as jobseeker's allowance. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), a charity which has undertaken extensive studies about basic income, call it "a basic platform on which people can build their lives - whether they want to earn, learn, care or set up a business". Enthusiasm about the possibilities of a basic income has sprung up in several countries in recent years, but it is by no means a new idea. References to such a scheme date back as far as 1516, and have been debated by political theorists and philosophers ever since. What could the benefits be? The money distributed in a citizen's income system is given out with no strings attached, so the idea is that it affords the individual freedom of choice. Beyond the basics of food and shelter, people can put the money towards education or training, or launch entrepreneurial enterprises or creative endeavours. A guaranteed safety net could see more people take a punt on starting a business or volunteering in their community - or they could devote more time to caring for relatives or friends, something which may become more and more necessary with an aging population. Giving everyone money unconditionally also cuts out a huge amount of bureaucracy in the welfare system. No forms have to be filled in, no appointments kept at the jobcentre, no eligibility interviews held or home visits conducted. While there would be great cost and upheaval in setting up such a system, once established it would be relatively cheap and simple to run - in stark contrast to the current system. It could also cut out some loopholes in the current system which can disincentivise work. Because the payments would be guaranteed, jobless people would be able to take on limited or seasonal work without facing having their benefits cut off. Proponents also point to the looming issue of automation. If a significant number of workers are made redundant by machines, something like a basic income might become necessary as people go through retraining for different fields or find their new role in life. What could the downsides be? Opponents of basic income schemes baulk at the idea of paying people to do nothing; they fear it would be ruinously expensive and foster a generation of unmotivated couch potatoes. As noted above, backers hope that a basic income would make all work pay and encourage more people into work - but there are concerns it might have the opposite effect. The SAK trade union in Finland, where a pilot programme of basic income is currently being run, argue that the system might reduce the labour force by tempting new parents or those close to retirement to cut their hours. They also call the model being trialled "impossibly expensive", a criticism repeated by most opponents of the basic income. One Welsh economist voiced fears of a "tremendous tax" as a result of the "extremely expensive socialist experiment", suggesting that it would be a disincentive to work both for low earners and those on higher incomes who would effectively pay for the system via their taxes. On that latter point, concerns have been raised about social cohesion in a basic income society; at present the welfare state is justified on the grounds of people receiving redistributive payments on the basis of need, but would the taxpayer be as happy to fund a system where people could avoid contributing by choice? There are also questions over what this would mean for immigration and open borders. Say Scotland had a basic income system and England did not - would the jobless of Carlisle or even the continent flock north in search of a payday? The whole point of the basic income is that it is universal, so restricting it only to locals would run the risk of creating second-class citizenries - but leaving it open to all comers might not be practically possible. Another more political complaint is that the state would play a very central role in any country with a basic income system, involved closely in the life (and bank balance) of every citizen. And as for the job-stealing robots, detractors point out that concerns about technology are nothing new. The labour market has always evolved, with the workforce moving from the farm to the factory to the office - machines might yet prove the equal of humankind, but not yet. What are councils doing? The Scottish government has set aside £100,000 in the draft budget to help fund basic income pilots at local authority level. Four councils have been linked to potential pilot programmes - in Glasgow, Fife, North Ayrshire and Edinburgh. Even the most advanced of these are at a very early stage - mostly currently focused on feasibility studies of how a pilot could be carried out, rather than how a system could be rolled out across a council area or the country as a whole. In general, the pilot schemes would be limited to a specific area, with unconditional payments sent out to individuals for a period of about two years. However, the start of the pilots are still some time off. North Ayrshire Council, for example, set aside £200,000 in this year's budget to examine a basic income - but it is expected to take 12 to 18 months just to design a pilot scheme. Equally, work at Fife Council is "recognised as a long-term project", with initial work "focussed on desk research and engagement with interested groups", and that in Glasgow is "at the very early stages". Fife councillor David Alexander noted: "We must be realistic, this is a very complex issue which will take years of investigation and groundwork. "It's far too early to say where a pilot might happen - we don't even know if it will be the right thing to try. But it could be a game changer, so we're taking it seriously, because we know we have to try new things and learn as we go." And even once they get up and running, the pilots would have to run for several years before they could be evaluated - so any decisions about the wider future of basic income in Scotland is a long way off yet. In fact, it may well be for a future Scottish government, after the next election in 2021, to look at the matter in earnest. Could this really happen in Scotland? For all the trials in what is proving a rather long pipeline, is there a realistic possibility of Scotland actually adopting a universal basic income system? To get down to brass tacks, how much would it cost? Reform Scotland crunched the numbers for a £100-a-week system, and reckoned it would cost just over £20bn a year in Scotland. There's no getting away from it: that's a lot of money. But, by scrapping a raft of benefits which the citizen's income would replace, removing tax-free personal allowances and hiking all rates of income tax by 8%, they reckon £18bn could be raised. All of that would still leave a £2bn shortfall, but Reform Scotland argue this is not insurmountable via other savings and the hope that more people would join the workforce. It's not just about money, though - as with most other things in Scottish politics, there is a constitutional element. Anthony Painter from the RSA told MSPs on Holyrood's social security committee that there was a "basic problem" for them - a lack of powers. He said a citizen's income would be "a wholesale change to the system of social assistance and tax", a "holistic change" - and as such, "you need to have powers over the whole system in order to implement a full universal basic income". Siobhan Mathers from Reform Scotland told the same committee that it was "really quite difficult to run the numbers" even with newly-devolved welfare powers, adding that "it is easier to do pilots than it would be to roll out a wholescale change". The main problem for a Scottish system as it stands would be the interaction with the aspects of tax and welfare which remain reserved to Westminster, such as Universal Credit. Many of the benefits which would be replaced by a basic income are not under Holyrood's control. Effectively, any Scottish basic income scheme would have to be set up either in partnership with the UK government, or with its blessing via the devolution of further powers. Has this been tried elsewhere? As mentioned above, a two-year pilot programme is currently running in Finland, where 2,000 unemployed people are given a €560 (£490) monthly income, whether they wanted it or not. This is the largest and most advanced trial currently running, at least in Europe, but results will not be published until 2019. Nicola Sturgeon has recently tweeted out links to studies of the Finnish experiment. The government in Ontario, Canada is running a basic income project in three communities, focused on people on low incomes, although the payments vary, based on earned income. Charities in the US have also set up projects giving unconditional cash transfers to villagers in Kenya and Uganda. However, a proposal to introduce a similar system in Switzerland was comprehensively defeated in a referendum in 2016. There is dispute over whether or not many of these pilots constitute a "true" universal basic income - for example the Finnish scheme focuses only on currently unemployed people, rather than society as a whole. Another pilot programme ongoing in Holland has been criticised as amounting only to a minimum guaranteed income. To be a real test of a true UBI, a pilot programme would have to be mandatory, rather than voluntary, and include the already-wealthy too - something which may prove problematic, if the system penalises them through increased taxation. All of this will have to be borne in mind as councils draw up their plans for pilots of their own. | आने वाले वर्ष के लिए स्कॉटिश सरकार के मसौदा बजट में "नागरिक की आय" स्थापित करने के विचार का अध्ययन करने के लिए धन शामिल है। तो एक बुनियादी आय प्रणाली क्या है, और यह स्कॉटलैंड में कैसे काम कर सकती है? |
uk-england-london-54769562 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54769562 | Chessington murder charge over woman's death | A man has been charged with murdering a woman who died in south-west London. | The victim was discovered by police at an address in Ranyard Close, Chessington, in the early hours of Saturday morning. The 48-year-old woman was later pronounced dead at the scene. Keith Bettison, 71, also of Ranyard Close, has been charged with murder. He will appear at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Monday. | दक्षिण-पश्चिम लंदन में एक व्यक्ति पर एक महिला की हत्या का आरोप लगाया गया है। |
world-asia-india-52816817 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52816817 | India coronavirus: Trouble ahead for India's fight against infections | On the face of it, things may not look bad. | Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent Since the first case of coronavirus at the end of January, India has reported more than 150,000 Covid-19 infections. More than 4,000 people have died of the infection. To put this in some context, as of 22 May, India's testing positivity rate was around 4%, the death rate from the infection around 3% and the doubling rate of infection - or the amount of time it takes for the number of coronavirus cases to double - was 13 days. The recovery rate of infected patients was around 40%. All this is markedly lower than in the countries badly hit by the pandemic. Like elsewhere in the world, there are hotspots and clusters of infection. More than 80% of the active cases are in five states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh - and more than 60% of the cases in five cities, including Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, according to official data. More than half of people who have died of the disease have been aged 60 and older and many have underlying conditions, hewing to the international data about elderly people being more vulnerable to the disease. The more than two-month-long grinding lockdown, official data suggests, has prevented the loss of between 37,000 and 78,000 lives. A paper published in Harvard Data Science Review appears to support that - it shows an eight-week lockdown can prevent about two million cases and, at a 3% fatality rate, prevent some 60,000 deaths. "Infection has remained limited to certain areas. This also gives us confidence to open up other areas. It is so far an urban disease," says VK Paul, who heads the medical emergency management plan on Covid-19. This is where such claims enter uncertain territory. India is now among the top 10 countries worldwide in terms of total reported infections, and among the top five in the number of new cases. Infections are rising sharply, up from 536 cases on 25 March when the first phase of the world's harshest lockdown was imposed. The growth of infections is outpacing growth in testing - tests have doubled since April but cases have leapt fourfold. Epidemiologists say the increase in reported infections is possibly because of increased testing. India has been testing up to 100,000 samples a day in the past week. Testing criteria has been expanded to include asymptomatic contacts of positive patients. Yet, India's testing remains one of the lowest in the world per head of population - 2,198 tests per million people. The bungled lockdown at the end of March triggered an exodus of millions of informal workers who lost their jobs in the cities and began returning home in droves, first on foot and then by train. Some four million workers have travelled by rail from cities to their villages in more than half a dozen states in the past three weeks. There is mounting evidence that this has already led to the spread of infection from the cities to the villages. And with the messy easing of the lockdown earlier this month, there are growing fears of infections spreading further in the cities. Rising infections and a still-low fatality rate possibly points to milder infection in a younger population and a large number of asymptomatic cases. The focus, says Amitabh Kant, CEO of the government think-tank NITI Aayog, should be "bringing down fatalities and improving the recovery rate". But if the infection rate continues to grow, "things are going to get pretty grim in a few weeks time," a leading virologist told me. Doctors in the capital, Delhi, and the western city of Mumbai tell me they are already seeing a steady surge in Covid-19 admissions and worry about a looming shortage of hospital beds, including in critical care. When the infection peaks in July, as is expected, a spike in infections could easily lead to many avoidable deaths as hospitals run out of beds for, or delay treatment to, infected patients who need timely oxygen support and clinical care to recover. "That is the real worry. A critical-care bed needs an oxygen line, a ventilator, doctors, nursing staff. Everything will be under pressure," Dr Ravi Dosi, who is heading a Covid-19 ward at a hospital in Indore, told me. His 50-bed ICU is already full of patients battling the infection. With the lockdown easing, doctors are feeling jittery. "It's a tactical nightmare because some people have begun going to work but there is a lot of fear", says Dr Dosi. "One co-worker sneezed in the office and 10-15 of his colleagues panicked and came to the hospital and demanded they get tested. These are the pressures that are building up." One reason for the confusion is the lack of - or the opacity of - adequate data on the pandemic to help frame a strategic and granular response. Most experts say a one-size-fits-all strategy to contain the pandemic and impose and lift lockdowns will not work in India where different states will see infection peaks at different times. The reported infection rate - the number of infections for every 100 tests - in Maharashtra state, for example, is three times the national average. "The infection is not spreading uniformly. India will see staggered waves," a leading virologist, who insisted on anonymity, told me. The lack of data means questions abound. What about some 3,000 cases, which are not being assigned to any state because these people were found infected in places where they don't live? (To put this into context, nine states in India have more than 3,000 cases.) How many of these cases have died or recovered? Also, it is not clear whether the current data - sparse, and sporadic - is sufficient to map the future trajectory of the disease. There is, for example, no robust estimate of carriers of the virus who have no symptoms - last month a senior government scientist said at least "80 out of every 100 Covid-19 patients may be asymptomatic or could be showing mild symptoms". If that is indeed true, then India's fatality rate is bound to be lower. Atanu Biswas, a professor of statistics, says the predicted trajectory could change "with the huge inclusion of asymptomatic cases". But, in the absence of data, India cannot be sure. Also, epidemiologists say, measures like the doubling time of the infections and the reproduction number or R0 have their limitations. R0, or simply the R value, is a way of rating a disease's ability to spread. The new coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, has a reproduction number of about three, but estimates vary. "These measures are good when we are in the middle of a pandemic, less robust with fewer cases. You do need forecasting models for at least a month's projection to anticipate healthcare needs. We should always evaluate an aggregate of evidence, not just one measure, but a cascade of measures," Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told me. Others say even calculating the number of recorded infections every day is "not always a good indicator of how an infection is spreading". A better option would be to look at the number of new tests and new cases every day that would provide a "degree of standardisation", K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, told me. Likewise, he believes, a measure of how many Covid-19 deaths have occurred compared with the size of a country's population - the numbers of deaths per million people - is a better indicator of the fatality rate. Reason: the denominator - the country's population - remains stable. In the absence of robust and expansive data, India appears to be struggling to predict the future trajectory of the infection. It is not clear yet how many deaths are not being reported, although there is no evidence of large scale "hidden deaths". Epidemiologists say they would like to see clearer data on deaths due to pneumonia and influenza-like illnesses at this time over the past few years to quantify excess deaths and help with accurate reporting of Covid-19 deaths. They would also like to see what racial disparities in infections and deaths there are to help improve containment in specific community areas. (In Louisiana, for example, African Americans accounted for 70% of Covid-19 deaths, while comprising 33% of the population.) What is clear, say epidemiologists, is that India is as yet unable to get a grip on the extent of the spread of infection because of the still limited testing. "We need reliable forecasting models with projection for the next few weeks for the country and the states," says Dr Mukherjee. Epidemiologists say India needs more testing and contact-tracing for both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections, as well as isolation and quarantine. There's also the need to test based on the "contact network" to stop super-spreader events - frontline workers, delivery workers, essential workers, practically anybody who interacts with a large group of people. "We have to learn how to manage and minimise risk in our daily lives as the virus is going to be with us," says Dr Mukherjee. Without knowing the true number of infected cases India is, in the words of an epidemiologist, "flying blindfolded". That can seriously jeopardise India's fight against the virus and hobble its response in reviving the broken economy. Follow Soutik on Twitter | इसके बावजूद, चीजें खराब नहीं लग सकती हैं। |
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