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uk-wales-56321577 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-56321577 | Weather alert issued for gale force winds in Wales | Winds could reach gale force in Wales with stormy weather set to hit the whole of the country this week. | The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind covering Wales and England, starting from 21:00 GMT on Wednesday evening. Travel and power are both likely to be disrupted, with the warning to remain in place until 15:00 on Thursday. Gusts of 55mph (88kmh) are likely and could hit up to 70mph on coasts and hills, with heavy and blustery showers. | [
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uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11069985 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-11069985 | Huge tidal turbine installed at Orkney test site | The massive tidal turbine AK1000 has been installed in 35m (114.8ft) of water at a test site in Orkney. | Atlantis Resources unveiled the marine energy device at Invergordon ahead of it being shipped to Kirkwall. Trials on the device will now be run at the European Marine Energy Centre test site off Eday. The device stands 22.5m (73ft) tall, weighs 1,300 tonnes and has two sets of blades on a single unit. It could generate enough power for 1,000 homes. | [] |
uk-england-leeds-45776523 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-45776523 | Leeds stabbing: Man attacked outside betting shop | A man has been stabbed in broad daylight outside a betting shop in Leeds. | Police were called to the scene outside the Coral shop on Compton Road in Harehills just before 14:00 BST. The man was taken to hospital for treatment but his condition is not known. West Yorkshire Police said the area has been cordoned off and officers remain at the scene. The force has appealed for information. | [
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world-us-canada-51010441 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51010441 | Could killing of Iranian general help Trump get re-elected? | It was inevitable that the fallout from the US airstrike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani would spill into presidential politics. Everything spills into presidential politics these days, and this is without a doubt a major story. | Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter With tensions rising between the US and Iran, the long-term consequences will largely depend on the nature of Iran's response to the attack and the intensity of any conflict that follows. If the end result is a US withdrawal from Iraq, the politics of the situation could be turned on its head, with hawks doing the howling and non-interventionists celebrating. In the short term, however, there are already some possible implications both for the Democratic presidential primaries that begin in less than a month and November's general election contest. A wartime president? Traditionally, a US president facing a major foreign policy crisis benefits from at least a short-term bump in public support. The "rally around the flag" effect boosted George HW Bush's standing during the 1991 Gulf War. George W Bush saw his approval surge to record levels in the days after the September 11 attacks and subsequent bombing of Afghanistan. Those were massive military engagements, however. When the stakes have been lower, the tangible political benefits - at least in terms of polling - are harder to discern. Barack Obama saw no change in his approval ratings during the 2011 air war in Libya. When Donald Trump fired missiles at a Syrian air base in response to that nation's use of chemical weapons, the slight increase in his ratings appear in hindsight to be little more than statistical noise for a man whose approval has been relatively stable throughout his presidency. The first survey following the Soleimani strike suggests the public will be as sharply divided on Trump's handling of the situation as it has been on everything else this president has done. A slim plurality approve of the action, but a similar plurality also express concern that the president did not "plan carefully enough". Short of a stunning military victory or a protracted bloody fight, the end result could be simply more of the same when it comes to views on the Trump presidency. Republican support Trump could end up benefiting from this episode, however, the way he always seems to benefit from his controversial or incendiary moves - by rallying his base. In that same Huffington Post poll, 83% of Republicans said they approved of the airstrike. Meanwhile, the president's supporters have gone on the attack, treating the Soleimani strike as the latest way to "trigger" political opponents. On social media, a common Trumpian response for those expressing concerns about the consequences of the Soleimani strike is "sorry for your loss". The Babylon Bee, a conservative parody website, joked that Democrats want to fly US flags at half-mast to mourn Soleimani's death. The drama in the Middle East may also help the president by turning national attention away from his impeachment and looming Senate trial. That seemed to be on the president's mind in multiple tweets Monday morning. "To be spending time on this political Hoax at this moment in our history, when I am so busy, is sad!" he wrote. Democratic doves On the Democratic side, the Soleimani strike could invigorate an anti-war movement within the party that has not seriously flexed its muscles since the height of the Iraq War. Bernie Sanders, one of the Democratic front-runners, was quick to stake out his peace candidate credentials. "I was right about Vietnam. I was right about Iraq. I will do everything in my power to prevent a war with Iran," he wrote in a tweet that included a video about his anti-war efforts. "I apologize to no one." Tulsi Gabbard, another candidate who has vigorously opposed what she views as "regime-change wars" pursued by both parties, said the Soleimani strike was an "act of war" that violated the US constitution. Those statements stood in contrast to other Democratic candidates, who both condemned Soleimani's record of support for proxy wars against US forces in the region and criticised the wisdom of the attack. "There are serious questions about how this decision was made and whether we are prepared for the consequences," said Pete Buttigieg. Elizabeth Warren called Soleimani a "murderer". Amy Klobuchar expressed concerns for US troop safety in the region. Meanwhile, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg took aim at Sanders, saying it was "outrageous" for the Vermont senator to call the strike an "assassination" (a word used by several Democratic candidates). "This is a guy who had an awful amount of American blood on his hands," Bloomberg said. "Nobody that I know of would think that we did something wrong in getting the general." A rift within the party between progressives and moderates was on display time and again when the topic turned to healthcare during the debates. If the Iran crisis gets hot, the use of military force could become an equally divisive topic. More on the 2020 race Biden's challenge The Huffpost poll on the Soleimani strike had some particularly good news for front-runner Joe Biden, with 62% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters saying they "trust" him on Iran. That's well ahead of Sanders and Warren, who 47% said they trust on the subject. Such a response isn't surprising, given Biden's long record of foreign policy experience, including eight years as vice-president and a lengthy tenure as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee. That track record isn't entirely a blessing, however, as a focus on the Middle East has once again turned attention to Biden's support for the 2003 Iraq War - and his sometimes muddled defence of it. In response to a question from a voter in Iowa on Saturday, Biden said that while he voted for the Iraq War authorisation, he opposed President Bush's handling of the conflict "from the very moment" it began. Biden had spoken in support of the war before and after it was launched, however, and only first expressed regrets about his vote starting in 2005. The more Biden twists and turns to qualify his Iraq War support, the more media outlets will point out where he is misleading or exaggerating, giving the story national attention - and the more Biden's opponents could sense a weakness they could exploit. No more oxygen As if December's impeachment fight didn't make it hard enough for back-of-the-pack Democrats to generate attention amid a flood of major breaking news, now Iran is set to compete with a Senate trial of the president for top billing. That's bad news for candidates like Cory Booker, Deval Patrick, Tom Steyer and the few other stragglers who are still in the race but languishing in the polls and below the cut-off mark to qualify for upcoming primary debates. It could also spell trouble for Klobuchar, whose surge in fundraising and Iowa polling of late could prove short-lived if voters become preoccupied with events overseas. In presidential campaign politics, it helps to be the candidate who gets hot late in the game. With the Iran crisis looming, however, it may end up already being too late. Who will take on Trump in 2020? | [
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uk-scotland-glasgow-west-52274685 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-52274685 | Coronavirus: 'I've moved out to protect my family from the virus' | Week four of social distancing is starting to take its toll. | By Debbie JacksonBBC Scotland But while most of us are giving up trips out of the house, many health workers across the country are making an even bigger sacrifice. Those who are on the front line, experiencing face-to-face contact with patients who have the virus, are putting themselves at risk every day. Some of them have made the difficult decision to stay away from their families to avoid passing on that risk. Ambulance technician Jamie Kennedy from Glasgow is one of them. Jamie, 38, moved out of his family home 11 days ago and into a hotel so that he can carry on doing his job without worrying about bringing the virus home to his wife and two children. He can also continue to do vital work if any of his family have to self-isolate. He told the BBC: "I am staying in a hotel which offered free rooms to NHS staff at the start of lockdown. The hotel is almost full of NHS staff. "It was a difficult decision but when I saw the situation getting worse and worse I had the discussion with my wife Ashley. "It was a purely personal decision, but I would never forgive myself if anything happened and if the kids got ill. I am out in the community all day and if I went in and caused them to get sick, I would never forgive myself." Tuesday's figures saw the number of patients testing positive for Covid-19 in Scotland rise to 6,358. A total of 615 people have died, including two health and care workers. 'Symptoms present in the majority' Jamie's shifts for the Scottish Ambulance Service are completely consumed by coronavirus right now. "In the majority of calls one or more symptoms are present and we have to treat it as a potential case," he said. " It could be up to nine patients in a shift. "Thankfully the morale is high and we are well looked after. My manager calls to check we are doing okay." Contact with his wife and children is limited to video calls and one socially distant trip a week to drop off groceries. Having to see them from a distance is heartbreaking. He said: "I do a big shop for them and take it over to the back garden and talk to them from the back of the garden. "It's hard. I was there the other day and my daughter, who is eight, wanted a hug and she was crying. That was difficult. "There is no end in sight right now but I'll stay away from my wife and kids as long as I need to, to keep them safe." Jamie's wife Ashley says like many families of front-line workers, they are worried. 'The right thing' She said: "The children have taken it pretty bad but understand how important their daddy's job is. "It's been hard for me to see the children so upset and Jamie upset leaving, but I've had to stay strong for him to be able to put his all into his job and strong for the kids to feel secure and safe." "It's hard not seeing him and having a wee cuddle but we know it's the right and safest thing to do. "Jamie is the most selfless man I've ever known. "We as a family who is affected by this virus cannot stress enough that everyone keeps to the stay at home guidelines. The more everyone stays home the sooner the virus will die off and the sooner we can get Jamie home." 'We just wanted to do our bit to help' Scottish hotel group Manorview is one of many hotel companies across the country keeping their doors open to NHS staff at this uncertain time. The company made the decision to stop trading on 18 March. Five days later its hotels opened up again to front-line health staff, for no cost. They've had more than 2,000 room bookings, with three venues fully booked until the start of May. Managing director David Tracey said the group was humbled to hear some of the stories of NHS workers who are trying to keep working to look after patients, while also trying to protect their own families at home. He said: "More than ever, we need to secure the health, safety and wellbeing of our NHS team. They are on the front line, helping us all, and saving lives. We are very thankful for the work they do. We are there for them and we're proud to be of service, and in a position to help. "The attitude of our team has made this negative situation more positive." | [
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uk-northern-ireland-54677426 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-54677426 | Ballymoney: Man, 37, arrested in UDA investigation | A 37-year-old man has been arrested as part an ongoing investigation into criminality linked to the North Antrim Ulster Defence Association (UDA). | He was arrested on Saturday morning and is currently in custody. Detectives from the Causeway Coast and Glens Criminal Investigations Branch also searched an address in Ballymoney and a number of items were seized. Police have appealed for those with information about criminality linked to paramilitaries to contact them. | [
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uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-11714685 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-11714685 | Electric buses take to the roads in Coventry | Electric buses will soon be running on the roads in Coventry. | Coventry firm Travel de Courcey is to introduce the three buses in May next year, on its Park and Ride South route. The 38-seat buses will run between the Memorial Park in Kenilworth Road and the city centre using power points already installed by the council. A Travel de Courcey spokesman said the company had been looking to improve its vehicles, both environmentally and from a passenger perspective. The buses, Versa EV's, are provided by Optare plc of Leeds. Travel de Courcey has invested £400,000, the government's Green Bus Fund has invested £300,000 and Centro, which looks after public transport in the West Midlands, has contributed £100,000. Mike de Courcey, from the bus firm, said when it heard about the Green Bus Fund it seemed a good opportunity for the firm. "The electric buses are ideal for urban driving where the vehicle is stopping and starting," he said. | [
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world-europe-jersey-11398895 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-11398895 | Jersey States pressed on cutting number of politicians | A Jersey deputy is calling on the number of States members to be reduced more than current proposals. | St Helier Deputy, Trevor Pitman, has put forward changes to proposals by a States group to cut back the number of senators from 12 to eight. He wants the States to go further, with numbers cut to six, saying it would save more money. Plans to reform the structure of the States are under review and could be the subject of a referendum. | [] |
uk-england-nottinghamshire-21964260 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-21964260 | Nottingham Boots confirms 200 jobs to go | About 200 posts are to go at the Boots site in Nottingham. | Managers at Alliance Boots said a fall in demand for products made for other companies meant it had to reduce capacity. Bosses said the posts will go over the next two years and added they would make efforts to redeploy staff. The division of Boots involved, BCM, currently employs 1,200 people and will now focus on own brand beauty and skincare products. Stephen Le Hane, an HR director for the company, said: "You will appreciate that many of our customers are suffering from the recession as most companies are in the UK. "The amount of demand they have for the products in BCM has gone down and as there are quite high fixed costs in manufacturing, those adjustments in their volume requirements for us can have an impact on the profitability and success of the BCM business." | [] |
uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-11309150 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-11309150 | Bletchley Park studies at The University of Buckingham | A degree in military intelligence studies, highlighting the importance of Bletchley Park is to be offered by The University of Buckingham. | The course will look at intelligence history and Bletchley Park focusing on the World War II code breakers. Course director, Professor Anthony Glees said it was an opportunity to work with Bletchley's previously unresearched archives. The Master of Arts degree explores how military intelligence developed. The degree is the university's newest course run by the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies. Professor Glees said: "The course will reveal fresh insights into how the war was fought, which will be totally unique for students at this level." | [
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world-us-canada-49240582 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49240582 | The men who feel left out of US abortion debate | The fiercely-contested debate over US abortion focuses on the rights of the mother and foetus. But a lawsuit in Alabama by a man who says his girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes adds a third voice to the conversation, writes James Jeffrey. | After the rage has dissipated, after overcoming alcoholism as a coping mechanism, even after a new and beautiful family comes on the scene, a great sadness still persists - and likely always will. That's the message from men talking about their experiences of abortion, a voice rarely heard among the passionate multitudes in the US abortion debate, though abortion rights supporters argue that this group is an outlier and does not speak for the majority of men involved in an abortion. Currently, the usual male perspectives that feature are legislators pushing to restrict abortion procedures, drawing the ire of pro-choice supporters accusing them of trying to legislate women's bodies. But now would-be fathers denied by abortion are speaking out. An Alabama abortion clinic is being sued by a man after his girlfriend had an abortion at the six-week stage, against his will in 2017. The case is the first of its kind because the court recognised the foetus as the plaintiff and the father as the representative of his baby's estate. "I'm here for the men who actually want to have their baby," the man told a local news agency in February. "I just tried to plead with her and plead with her and just talk to her about it and see what I could do. But in the end, there was nothing I could do to change her mind." Currently in the US, fathers have no legal rights to hinder the abortion of a pregnancy for which they are responsible. State laws requiring that a father be given a say in, or even notified of, an abortion have been struck down by the US Supreme Court. "I was in my 30s living the good single life in Dallas," says 65-year-old Karl Locker. When a woman he was seeing told him she was pregnant, he says he felt "like one of those wolves with its leg caught in a trap". Nevertheless, he decided he had to support her - and the pregnancy. "I tried everything, I offered to marry her, to take the baby myself, or to offer it up for adoption," Mr Locker says, explaining that he felt keeping the child would be the right thing to do. "She said she could never give her child up for adoption - it didn't make cognitive sense." Other voices in abortion debate In the end he drove the woman to the clinic and paid for the abortion. Afterwards he says he moved to California as he couldn't bear the knowledge of what he'd done. "I didn't know how I was going to survive; I wasn't going to jump off a bridge, but I probably would have drank myself to death," says Mr Locker, who believes that reconnecting with his faith and starting a family with another woman saved him. "I've thought about what happened every day for the last 32 years." Men are usually involved in an abortion in one of four ways, all of which can leave men traumatised when they come to reflect afterwards on their roles, say those running counselling groups for post-abortive men. Sometimes men coerce a woman into having an abortion against her will; others say they will support the woman's decision either way, while steering that decision towards abortion. Some men find out about the abortion for the first time after the fact, or the abortion goes ahead against their wishes. What polling has occurred indicates a majority of women say they do not regret having an abortion, but fewer studies have been done on men's reactions. What data there is for men comes from post-abortive support groups, which is dependent on men seeking them out, making it difficult to make any broad statistical observations. But the accounts include commonalities such as feelings of anger, guilt, shame and deep sadness on anniversary dates. "Men are meant to be protectors, so there is a sense of failure - failing to protect the mother and the unborn child, failing to be responsible," says 61-year-old Chuck Raymond, whose 18-year-old girlfriend had an abortion in the late '70s when he was a teenager. "There is incredible guilt and shame about having not done that." Mr Raymond says he thought a child would have interfered with educational plans and his military training at West Point military academy, where cadets are not allowed to be married or be raising children. "Once I was involved in training, I got caught up in everything and suppressed the event, keeping it out of my consciousness. Years later though, I realised that a tragedy had occurred, and we had made a tragic choice." He likens the mental and emotional anguish that can follow an abortion to battlefield post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Abortion in US - how we got here The Supreme Court's landmark Roe v Wade decision issued on 22 January, 1973, is the best-known case on abortion, for having legalised the procedure across the United States. But two later cases had more of an impact on men, says Allen Parker, president of The Justice Foundation, a conservative law centre in Texas. After the 1976 Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood v Danforth, the father's consent to an abortion was no longer required. In its 1992 Planned Parenthood v Casey decision, the court went further, saying fathers are not entitled to be notified about an abortion. "There's so many contradictions around all this - it's abortion first, and be damned if otherwise," says the Reverend Stephen Imbarrato, a Catholic priest and anti-abortion activist. Before entering the priesthood, Father Imbarrato got his girlfriend pregnant in 1975 and steered her toward having an abortion, finding out decades later she had been carrying twins. "Men regret lost fatherhood, as men are inherently called to be fathers." But others argue that the number of men traumatised by abortions are outliers. Gillian Frank, a historian of sexuality at the University of Virginia, says that the 1992 Planned Parenthood v Casey decision found that "in most contexts, where there was a stable and loving relationship, men and women made the decision together". "And when men are absent from the decisions, it is often because there is a risk of violence or coercion in the relationship. These decisions [by the courts] rested on the fact it is not a child, so the situation is not analogous to child custody." There is disagreement on the ratio of women who have abortions without telling men, or in spite of them, or because of them. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organisation that analyses abortion in the US, half of women getting abortions in 2014 said they did not want to be a single parent or were having problems with their husband or partner. "It has been recognised time and again that when people say they are arguing for men's voices to be heard it is actually more about being able to control women and to regulate their decisions," Mr Frank says. "And I don't see it as men have been absent, quite the opposite, men have always been vocal about women's ability to control their reproductive destiny." Before Roe v Wade, he notes, this took the form of women having to go in front of a panel of usually male doctors to plead their cases for an abortion, and it continues today with "the men controlling pharmaceuticals and the men behind desks making decisions". "Outside our clinics, it's typically men who are leading the protests and clambering on to cars to yell over the fence with bullhorns," says Sarah Wheat who works for Planned Parenthood in Austin, the Texas state capital and a major battleground over Texas legislation on abortion. Planned Parenthood is an organisation that provides sexual health care services, of which about 6% involves abortion, Ms Wheat says. "It's usually loud and intimidating, designed to shame, stigmatise and intimidate. And when we go to the Capitol it feels very similar with the legislators. From our perspective, it feels men are still overrepresented." Indeed, much of the pushback against men's involvement in abortion is steeped in the historical context of a patriarchy telling women what to do. "There is a disconnect," Mr Locker says. "Men have a responsibility - as they should do - hence their wages get docked with child support if a baby is born, but at the same time they get no rights on an abortion going ahead." "People don't see it, they keep men out of it," says Theo Purington, 34, whose pregnant girlfriend got an abortion in 2006 against his wishes, leaving him "depressed and a mess". The experience led to him becoming involved in pro-life advocacy and counselling post-abortive men enduring similar struggles. "If men had to sign off on an abortion, I think you would see a 50% drop, and that's why the [abortion providers] don't want men involved," says Mr Purington. "The greatest injustice in this country today is that a man cannot protect his unborn child from abortion [in the same way as] men protecting our children is part of our responsibility." Amy Hagstrom Miller, who runs Whole Woman's Health, a company that manages seven clinics that provide abortion in five states in the US, says: "Yes, men are clearly involved at the beginning, in terms of getting the woman pregnant." But she adds: "When it comes to her body, then there is a line that is drawn. It is the woman's pregnancy, she is carrying it in her body, and you don't get to tell someone what to do with their body and force them to carry to term - once you do that you start going into terrifying areas." Ms Hagstrom Miller says that the abortion rights movement hasn't helped itself by framing abortion as just a woman's issue. "Abortion benefits women and men and families. Millions of men have benefited from having access to abortion." She notes that over 60% of abortion patients are parents already - a figure supported by the Guttmacher Institute - and that at her clinic many couples turn up who are wrestling with an unplanned pregnancy and all the complex issues surrounding it. Some factors they consider are what size of family they want to have and how a new child would impact their current situation or family. But, counter those involved in post-abortive counselling, it's what can happen further down the line that is not being acknowledged or spoken about enough due to the politics and posturing. "Because of the rhetoric out there, people can't address what is there, which is a sense of loss, and affects men and women and whether you went into it pro-choice or not," says Kevin Burke, a social worker and co-founder of Rachel's Vineyard, which runs weekend retreats for post-abortive men and women. "But you are not given permission to speak about any of that, so you can't process it." Mr Burke adds how he has found through his counselling work with imprisoned men from racial minorities that the fallout from an abortion can be heightened if a man previously experienced difficulties growing up. "The abortion experience for men, especially with previous father loss, abuse and trauma, can contribute to the other issues that can lead men to express their grief, loss and rage from childhood abuse, and their abortion experiences, in destructive ways," Mr Burke says. "What we have learned is they seem to interact in a kind of toxic synergy." Commentators note you don't have to be an anti-abortion advocate to feel sorrow over an abortion, or be haunted about whether you did the right thing. Hence, Mr Burke explains, later on many men and women carry a huge amount of moral and spiritual wounding. Ms Hagstrom Miller says she would like to see the debate "moving away from a conversation of rights to a conversation about dignity and respect, empathy and compassion" - a point not that far from sentiments held by some of those against abortion. "I hate it when you have people outside abortion clinics shouting things like 'You are going to hell'," says Mr Locker, who has joined prayer groups outside clinics. "For one it's not getting the job done [of dissuading the woman], and it shows no compassion, and just condemns the mother, who is feeling just as much like she has a leg caught in that trap too." In the meantime, we could be hearing more from increasing numbers of post-abortive men, says Theresa Bonopartis, director of Lumina, an organisation that counsels post-abortive men and women. She puts this down to a combination of the technological advances in ultrasound revealing more of what is occurring in the womb and the revelations of the passage of time since the Roe v Wade decision. "It's changing now, men are fed up," Ms Bonopartis says. "Men had bought into how they have no say in this and that if they speak out, they are against women, but now the impact is being felt by more and more of them as the repercussions of 45 years of abortion are being seen." | [
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world-middle-east-50850319 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50850319 | Moqtada al-Sadr: The firebrand cleric who could calm Iraq | When the Americans launched the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 and plunged Iraq into the violent chaos that continues today, few people outside the country had even heard of a little-qualified young Shia cleric called Moqtada al-Sadr. | By Jim MuirVisiting Senior Fellow, Middle East Centre, LSE Nearly 17 turbulent years later, he is probably Iraq's best-known figure and certainly one of its most powerful - instantly recognisable from his scowly features, yet elusively enigmatic. Radical, firebrand, maverick, mercurial, quixotic - these are just some of the adjectives routinely attached to a man whose actions and positions have often seemed puzzling and contradictory. Yet they have allowed him to achieve the extraordinary feat of surviving through years of upheavals during which his followers have battled the Americans and their allies, the Iraqi army, Sunni Islamic State group extremists, and rival Shia militias. His current political manifestation, a coalition known Saeroun (loosely translatable as "On The Move"), came out top of the polls in the 2018 general election, putting Moqtada al-Sadr in pole position in the inevitable jostling to form a coalition government (nobody wins an outright majority in Iraqi elections). As well as being a leading kingmaker, Moqtada al-Sadr is also a key player behind the upheavals currently shaking the country in protest against corruption and incompetence, themes he has been pursuing for years. Long lineage If he was obscure when the US-led invasion began, it was not long before he leapt into prominence. As soon as Saddam Hussein's grip was loosened, he set about activating the networks and legacy bequeathed him by his esteemed clerical father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, in the teeming, deprived Shia quarters of Baghdad and the cities of southern Iraq. It's impossible to understand Moqtada al-Sadr's undoubted appeal to the masses without reference to his eminent family clerical background. Both his father and his father-in-law, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, were revered religious figures who cultivated strong social care networks among the Shia poor, and incurred the wrath of Saddam Hussein. Both these illustrious forebears met violent deaths. Muhammad Baqer was executed by the regime in 1980 along with his sister Amina, and Muhammad Sadeq and two of Moqtada al-Sadr's brothers were cut down in a hail of bullets in 1999 by assassins believed to be agents of Saddam Hussein. So the concepts of sacrifice, martyrdom and social service are integral elements of the legacy inherited by the young Moqtada al-Sadr, who was only 30 at the time of the invasion. He is often pictured between images of these two eminences, all three black-turbanned to denote a lineage stretching back to the family of the Prophet Muhammad. At times, Moqtada al-Sadr has donned a white shroud to signal that he too is ready for martyrdom. Powerful images for the devout Shia masses. American foe Barely had the Americans and their allies settled in than Moqtada al-Sadr shot to prominence as the loudest voice calling for their ouster. Words were followed by action, as he mobilised his followers into the Mahdi Army (a name with messianic Islamic connotations) which US commanders rapidly came to see as their biggest threat in Iraq. From 2004 onwards, the Mahdi Army clashed repeatedly with US-led coalition forces and was blamed for numerous roadside bombings and other attacks. Moqtada al-Sadr also lambasted Iraqi leaders co-operating with the Americans. His followers were deeply involved in the Shia-Sunni sectarian atrocities and general gangsterism of 2006-7. In 2008 his men fought pitched battles with Iraqi army troops sent in to tame Basra by then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Through successive phases of turmoil since then, Moqtada al-Sadr has been adept and pragmatic in both the military and political spheres. The Mahdi Army has been through several mutations, and is currently labelled the Peace Companies. Politically, the Saeroun is the latest morph produced by the broader Sadrist movement. Such shake-ups have allowed Moqtada al-Sadr to keep a grip on both spheres and prevent complacency. In the 2018 elections he forbade any of his 34 incumbent MPs from standing again and ran a successful list which, astonishing for a supposedly Shia clerical-based outfit, included communists, secularists and Sunnis. Critical of Iran His decisions have often seemed fickle and bizarre, not least when it comes to relations with outside powers. While he has been consistently against American interference in Iraq, he has often criticised Iran too, for its interference both in Iraq and in Syria. In 2017 he even visited Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional arch-rival. Yet he took refuge in Iran from 2007 until 2011, studying in the Qom seminaries to try to upgrade his clerical credentials; and in September this year, he was filmed sitting with the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the mastermind of Iran's regional influence, Gen Qasem Soleimani - images that caused a frisson through much of Iraq. For Patrick Cockburn, author of a biography of Moqtada al-Sadr, there is no real contradiction in all this. "He and his father have pursued a pretty consistent line as populist nationalist religious leaders in the context of Iraqi politics with its multiple power centres at home and abroad. This means that nobody is a permanent friend or a permanent enemy." "In Moqtada's case, political ambivalence is exacerbated because he is, at one and the same time, leader of the biggest party in parliament, while his followers are playing a central role in the protest movement. "He is part of the post-2003 Shia political establishment - though the rest of it does not like him - and simultaneously its chief opponent." As long ago as 2003, an aspiring Shia politician - the now-resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi - was warned by a friend : "Watch out for Moqtada. He has the streets." That remains the case today. "If there is to be a resolution of the present crisis, then Moqtada would have to be at the heart of it," says Patrick Cockburn. Jim Muir has covered the Middle East from the region since 1975, much of the time as a BBC correspondent. | [
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magazine-24338387 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24338387 | 'Why I gave up my US passport' | The Magazine feature on the number of expat Americans renouncing their US citizenship due to tax filing requirements prompted a huge response from readers. | Many wrote to say they were experiencing similar problems to those outlined in the article. Here is a selection of their stories. 1. David Green, Ontario, Canada: I was born and raised in the US. At the age of 30, I fell in love with a beautiful French girl whose profession was working in the French language. We moved to Canada (bilingual) where we have enjoyed life and we both could earn a living and contribute to life. I always paid my taxes to both the USA and Canada and seldom paid US taxes due to the higher taxes in Canada. But when you retire, hold on to your hats because the common deductions you enjoyed while working no longer apply. I ended up paying over $3,000 (£1,850) in taxes to the US when I retired. That is a significant amount of my retirement income. Since all my benefits come from Canada and the USA provides nothing but increased complications in tax laws and the ability to snoop into our personal lives (including my wife who is not a USA citizen), I renounced my USA citizenship in April of this year - for a fee ($450). I feel sad at the action I have taken but angry at the bureaucracy that caused this problem for so many to possibly catch so few. 2. Pamela Schmidt, Germany: I was an American citizen, and I have spent most of my time in Europe for the last 12 years. In 2006, I married a German citizen and applied for German citizenship in 2010. The German authorities do not allow dual citizenship; therefore, I had to take a decision of becoming German or remaining American. I thought about it for a while and chose to become German. As I have spent most of my adult life in Europe, I feel more European than American, and I would like to be able to play a more active role in politics in the country where I live, which are the main reasons for my decision. However, the bizarre financial rules in the US did make the decision easier. The American government with laws like Fatca [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act] treats non-criminal citizens abroad like tax-dodgers and limits Americans' financial situation when living abroad, as many local banks don't want to deal with these regulations. 3. Lorenzo, UK: I renounced my US citizenship recently as I am also a British citizen. It is probably true that most individuals do so for tax reasons or, at least, to free themselves from the administrative burden of having to file yearly tax returns in the US. This requires professional help even in the simplest of cases. In my case my motivation was entirely different. I had found out a few months ago that my son, aged eight, could not receive a US passport as his mother is non-American. I was unable to provide sufficient proof of residence in the US for him to qualify. This came as a shock to me and triggered a fundamental re-assessment of my historical US citizenship. Fundamentally, what meaning could I give to the nationality I was born with if I wasn't able to transmit it to my own son? To keep a nationality that has no application to the circumstances of my direct family seemed to me empty of substance as it wouldn't survive me. It was nonetheless with a heavy heart that I took the decision as both my father and grandfather were US veterans of the two world wars. Tax considerations seemed frivolous in my circumstances. 4. Cynthia Bennett, Alzey, Germany: I gave up my US citizenship in 2011 and was listed in the Federal Register. Of course the main consideration was the realisation that I was never going back to live in the US, after decades here in Germany. But the trigger that got me into action was Fatca and the realization that US congressmen and senators will happily throw middle-class Americans living and working abroad under the bus if that can garner them a few soundbites under the pretence of "punishing rich tax evaders". Probably they don't even realise that their efforts are bad for expats because they never think about expats. Expats are totally out of their considerations because expats won't affect their election results. Even if the Fatca mess gets straightened out (ie repealed), there will likely be another "inadvertent" attack on "US persons" living outside the US in a few years. 5. David Skene-Melvin, Toronto, Canada: In 1962, my widowed mother was forced to renounce her USA citizenship. Born Rye, New York, 1900, married St Louis, Michigan, 1931, she had lived her married life in Canada. In 1962, having come out of graduate school and with a steady job, I offered to take her to England to visit her immediate younger sister, British by marriage. The USA refused her a passport because, although she was, most definitely, a US citizen, she had not lived in the USA for 18 years. Although British by marriage, she deliberately took the route to formally renouncing her US citizenship, applied for and received a Canadian passport, and I took her to the UK for a happy two months to reconnect with her sister and visit her husband's (my father's) family. 6. Michael Putman, London, Canada: I relinquished US citizenship at the Toronto consulate last week on the basis of my naturalisation as a Canadian citizen and employment with the Canadian government. Although at first I came to Canada in 2004 for education alone, due to the continuous acts of kindness and generosity shown me I gradually fell in love with the country and its people, including one in particular who became my wife. I view my relinquishment not as an escape from IRS filing (although I won't miss it), or as a renunciation or political repudiation of the US but rather as a desire on my part to fully assimilate into the civic and cultural life of my new country, and to repay the people of Canada the many benefits and kindnesses they have shown to me by offering my full and undivided allegiance and loyalty in return. The fact of the matter is that after living here nearly a decade, I found that my character, values and behaviour had changed subtly but surely into becoming Canadian, and where the heart and mind go, the allegiance must follow. 7. Tim, Port Perry, Ontario: I renounced my US citizenship earlier this year. I was born in Texas to Canadian parents. I grew up in Canada and lived here most of my life, but when I wanted to join the military, I decided to serve in the US Air Force. When I left the air force, I came back to Canada and found out that I had to continue to file US taxes, even though I was not going back to the US and didn't live there. Every year, I had to fill out a form disclosing every bank account and asset that I had, including those of the company that I founded. I always thought that this was an invasion of privacy, especially when some of those accounts were joint with my wife, who is Canadian. When I heard about the new laws, I had had enough and made the appointment. I wasn't in any hurry to give up my citizenship, but I don't feel like I was left with much choice. 8. Michael Hayes, Freigericht, Germany: With its draconian penalties and inscrutable or non-existent filing guidelines, reporting into the US tax system has become a major financial risk for Americans living abroad. I decided to eliminate this risk to my family and well-being and simplify my life. Thus I became a German citizen and renounced my US citizenship. 9. Tom, Switzerland: I dumped mine in 2009. Would have done it sooner, but couldn't be bothered to take a day off work to go up to Bern and back (been Swiss since 1997). Doing so was still free of charge back then, my US passport was expired, and I didn't want to get another one just for the occasional (once or twice in 10 years) trip to the US. This was before I'd ever heard of Fatca. My children have been adversely affected by Fatca and will probably be relinquishing soon (keeping their Canadian and Swiss citizenships). For us, it's not about taxes, but rather the paperwork (and time) to show that we owe nothing. 10. Mike Connally, Reading, England: Gave it up nearly 20 years ago for exactly the reasons outlined in the article. I never owed any taxes, as my foreign-earned income exemption was high enough to cover my meagre income. But I was fed up with having to file extremely burdensome and voluminous forms every year to report chapter and verse of my financial life to the US. Morally, it's none of their business, and I'd had enough. I'm quite happy being "just" British. 11. Michael, London: I renounced my US nationality after having lived in the UK for almost 20 years. I was born and raised in America and am still an "American". Having or not having a US passport makes no difference. The reason I renounced my US nationality was that compliance was a nightmare. I usually paid little or no US tax, but the time and money involved in filing tax returns and bank account disclosures became onerous. Retirement planning was almost impossible without spending a lot of money on expert advice. The rules are foolish and probably end up costing more to enforce than is collected in tax. I have never regretted renouncing my US nationality. The only tiny downside is that I sometimes have to wait in a longer immigration queue to enter the US when I visit. 12. George Rivera, Zaandam, Netherlands: I have lived in Holland for the past 35 years. I renounced my US citizenship about 25 years ago. Living in Holland, after 10 years I was able to put in perspective how unfair the US government is with its own citizens (poverty, healthcare, education etc). Being a member of a minority group (Puerto Rican) living in New York, I never realised that life can be better. I was given a golden opportunity in Holland and I profited. I seriously doubt if I would be so content if I had remained in the US. 13. Sue Hughes, Monmouth, Gwent: I had been in the UK for four years and married to a Brit for two when in 1968 I wanted to vote in the US presidential election. I was astonished to learn that, as I was "married to a foreigner and living abroad", I no longer had a vote. I rang the Home Office to see if I could become a British citizen and was told that this was possible, so I changed my citizenship and was issued with a "certificate of loss" from the US. Dual citizenship was not an option. Since then I have voted in every single UK election, from parish council to general elections. But being told you no longer have a vote in the country of your birth and origin was pretty damning. 14. Donna-Lane Nelson, Switzerland: I gave up my citizenship in 2011 mainly because I couldn't have a normal banking relationship. Swiss banks are closing accounts of Americans, not allowing investments or giving loans. I was paying double taxes on my pensions, AVS and SS [social security] and on a limited income. However, it wasn't taxes, but the bank problem that made me give up my citizenship. It was so upsetting, I vomited afterwards. Like the day I was divorced, this was one of the saddest of my life. I don't regret the choice. 15. Norman Heinrichs-Gale, Mittersill, Austria: I gave up my American citizenship for Austrian in 2009. My wife gave up Canadian. We originally came to Austria to work at an international conference centre for just one year. Over the years and three children later, Austria felt more and more like home. Increasingly, the US seemed to become a very foreign place, culturally and politically. Tax issues were not a factor in our decision, but rather the availability of affordable university education and health insurance. 16. Robert Alexander, Cambridge, England: I recently obtained Irish citizenship through my grandparents being Irish. Up to then, I was a USA citizen born and bred. The reason why I chose to have Irish citizenship is because I met my wife through Facebook four years ago. It became apparent early on, that it would not be an easy process to be together, with the immigration rules being as tight as they are. We were looking at having to spend a large amount of money to apply to the Home Office for us to marry and me to be allowed to live and work in the UK. There were no guarantees I would even get the visa, despite having my wife and our daughter. It was just a huge stress and to know I could become Irish through descent seemed the most easiest way to go. I am now a legal alien, running my own business and supporting my family. For us, this was just the best way. 17. Alec, London: I left the US at the beginning of 1993. Next April I will have lived in the UK for 20 years. I left America both because I've loved Europe since living in Germany for a year when I was a teenager, and because the increasingly reactionary drift of American politics and political thought since the '70s made me feel more and more out of step with American values. The developments I've seen since I've left have only confirmed me in the wisdom of my decision. I held both British and American citizenship for several years, but when the IRS contacted me and told me that due to the Alternative Minimum Tax, I had incorrectly filed my taxes after a monetary windfall one year, and owed them over $2,000, I decided the time had come to give up my American passport. My only regret is not having done it much sooner - though visiting it for holidays and family is often pleasant (the shopping is great!), I'm always happy when I get on the plane to come home. 18. Walt Hopkins, Kinross, Scotland: I renounced my US citizenship in 2007. I have been a British citizen since 2002. After 2014, I plan to renounce my British citizenship and become a Scottish citizen. In addition to objecting to the expensive hassle of US taxes for expats, I renounced my US citizenship because of the way the US spent my taxes on illegal wars. I feel the same way about how my British taxes are spent, so I look forward to an independent Scotland that will use my taxes to care for people rather than to kill people. 19. Mary, Ottawa, Canada: I was born in Europe to expat parents. I only lived in the US for two-three years as a teenager, and I left again as soon as I graduated from high school. Filing my taxes for the US has always been stressful. The forms are very complicated, but getting them done professionally can cost upwards of $500 per year, and the price seems to keep rising. I've never had a high enough income for that not to hurt. So I muddle through, trying to file US taxes by myself, but there's always the stress of getting something wrong and being faced with a large fine. Then, after I had a child, I found out that the US wasn't going to recognise the tax-sheltered status of RESPs (Canada's educational savings plan). So even though it was for my child, because my name is on the account, any interest it earns or the government grants it receives are eligible for taxation by the US. I officially renounced my US citizenship last April and am waiting for "approval" from the State Department to officially be a non-US person. It was well worth the cost and I'm already sleeping easier. 20. Gray, California, US: During the Vietnam war, like many others I protested in Washington DC. Aged 18, I was falsely arrested by the FBI - a record that still follows me today (age 61). I left the US in 1976 and lived in and eventually became a British citizen in 1982. I'm committed to my decision. I have to say growing up I never felt "American" and although some might see me as American I never "wave the flag" or feel moved by hearing the national anthem. A few years ago I was hired by a company here in California. My stay here is only temporary and I miss being home in Britain. I'm looking forward to returning home. When I told my father, in 1982, that I had renounced my citizenship he was absolutely livid, offended and downright purple with rage. He didn't talk to me for over a year. It was only the birth of my daughter that loosened his tongue. Plus one who would never change... My husband and I pay our taxes, with no reservations. We'd never consider giving up our American citizenship. Why give up such a precious heritage, that so many people around the world would be envious to have? And I haven't met another American in Dubai who would consider giving it either. Dubai is a great place to live, and I'm glad we have the privilege to live as expats here, but it ain't America. Cheryl Keown, Dubai, UAE ...and one who changed and then regretted it... In the 50s I renounced my American citizenship to become an Israeli citizen. I felt gung-ho as an 18-year-old. Little did I realise the shabby treatment until after I got out of the military there. I came back home, became a naturalised American, became American again after the legal time limit. I would NEVER, EVER give up my US citizenship again. No-one in the world should renounce the citizenship of his birthright, except for despotic countries. Jack Gilead, Prachin Buri, Thailand ...and one who became a proud American I became an American citizen in 2002, 21 years after I married my American husband and settled in the US. As long as both my parents were alive in Norway, I felt I should keep my citizenship. When my father passed away I felt released from that obligation and applied to become a citizen of the US. However, I kept my Norwegian citizenship as long as I could, meaning that when my Norwegian passport expired 5-6 years ago I was not eligible to renew it again, since in the meantime I had sworn allegiance to a different nation. If Norway had allowed dual citizenship (they do in some cases because our daughter is a dual US and Norwegian citizen), I would have kept my passport simply because it makes travel a little easier. My heart is loyal to the US and if I ever had to make a hard choice, I would choose to side with the US even had I been able to keep my Norwegian passport. That is what happens when you live long enough in a great nation, I think. Berit Landeg, Mentor, Ohio, US You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook | [
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blogs-trending-30055278 | https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-30055278 | #BBCtrending: Rosetta physicist's 'sexist' shirt | One of the leading scientists on the Rosetta Project gave a string of TV interviews in a shirt emblazoned with half-dressed women. The angry reaction online spawned two hashtags, spoof images and has now led to a tearful apology as well. | BBC Trending What's popular and why The eyes of the world were focussed on Matt Taylor this week. The British scientist involved in the Rosetta Project - to land a spacecraft on a comet - was at the heart of media coverage of the event. And so was his shirt. On Wednesday he appeared in front of the cameras wearing a bespoke short-sleeved number, plastered in bright cartoon images of scantily-clad women. People on Twitter were not amused. "Women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt," tweeted a female tech journalist, sarcastically. She was sent abusive tweets in response. Science is seen by many as a male dominated world, and so the shirt only reinforces the notion that women aren't accepted on equal footing, claimed his critics. "For clarity -- No, the shirt is not "cool" or acceptable in a professional setting - on an engineer, scientist, or anyone," tweeted another user. The hashtags #ShirtGate and #ShirtStorm appeared, and have been used more than 3,500 times. South African cosmologist Renée Hložek wrote a blog addressed to budding female scientists: "Yes, you are capable of being taken seriously," she wrote. Pressure mounted on Taylor to apologise, while others lightened the mood by spoofing the photo. "Fixed it," claimed one tweeter, who posted a new image showing famous female scientists photoshopped onto the shirt. That image alone has been shared more than 2,700 times on Twitter. The scientist wasn't without his sympathisers, however. "Poor Dr Matt Taylor. He landed on a comet and the only thing people seem to talk about are his tattoos and his shirt," wrote one. BBC Trending contacted Taylor for comment but has not heard back. The outcry has evidently hit him hard though. During a press briefing this morning, he broke down in tears and apologised for his choice of clothes. "The shirt I wore this week, I made a big mistake and I offended many people," he said. You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending All our stories are at bbc.com/trending | [
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uk-england-berkshire-33971014 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-33971014 | Arthur Hill Baths in Reading closes for urgent repairs | A 103-year-old swimming pool has been shut for four days after an inspection revealed urgent repairs were needed. | The Arthur Hill Memorial Baths in Reading will be closed until Saturday to allow work on corroding cast iron pipework which feeds into the pool. The building was donated to the town by the Hill family in memory of Arthur Hill JP, who was mayor of the town four times between 1883 and 1887. Reading Council has spent thousands on the aging building over the years. The local authority apologised for the brief closure but said the repairs had to be done. The pool was opened on 29 November 1911. | [
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uk-scotland-highlands-islands-51206457 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-51206457 | New virtual reality experience of Scottish waters | Scotland's opportunities for sailing and boating on rivers, lochs and seas are being promoted in a new campaign. | A series of 360 degree virtual reality videos have been produced as part of #MustSeaScotland. St Kilda, Islay, Skye and Inverness Marina are among the locations featured. Sail Scotland has created the campaign with other organisations, including the National Trust for Scotland and VisitScotland. The campaign comes during Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters 2020. All images are the copyright of Airborne Lens. | [
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science-environment-19365661 | https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-19365661 | Bloodhound diary: Supercar needs supertrack | A British team is developing a car that will capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the Bloodhound SSC (SuperSonic Car) vehicle will mount an assault on the land speed record. Wing Commander Green is writing a diary for the BBC News website about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering. | By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder I've just had a very odd experience - someone's sent me a video of myself appearing on Foreign Secretary William Hague's Facebook page. To try and explain this rather strange event, I'll start with my recent visit to the Bloodhound track in the Northern Cape of South Africa. I've just been to inspect the work on Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape, where we'll be running Bloodhound SSC next year, as we test and develop the car up to our astonishing target of 1,000mph. The scale of the work required to prepare this surface is truly vast. The car will need to do a number of test runs, so our main track is 500m wide, to give us multiple lanes to run on (each time the car runs on the hard soil surface, its metal wheel cut ruts, so each lane is one-use only). The track is 12 miles (19km) long - which is just long enough to accelerate to 1,000 mph, then stop again before the desert ends. This process will only take two minutes, from setting off to coming to a halt 12 miles away. In addition to the main track of 500m, we need a 300m "safety zone" either side of the track, in case the car gets very slightly offline - because "slightly" off at 1,000mph can mean being a couple of hundred metres sideways in the time it takes to correct the steering (for the sort of things that I might need to correct while I'm driving at 1,000 mph, have a look at "How hard can it be to keep it in a straight line?"). The team preparing the track has to remove a huge quantity of stones from the surface - an estimated 6,000 tonnes. There is no mechanical way of clearing these without damaging the surface, so it all needs to be done by hand - all 21,000,000 sq m of it! That's the equivalent of clearing a two-lane road, by hand, stretching from London to Moscow. This is a task of biblical proportions and would defeat us without a huge amount of help - which is exactly what we are getting from the Northern Cape Government in South Africa. The Northern Cape is preparing the track for us, paying a team of 300 local unemployed people (moving 6,000 tonnes of stones - that's 20 tonnes each). This will leave them as the owners of the World's Best Race Track and is, in the meantime, bringing some much-needed employment to the area. This team has just finished clearing the 19km x 500m main track, so I went to see how it was looking, and to spend a bit of time working with the team and thanking them for their work (you can see some more detail on how it's looking in our latest desert update). While I was working on the desert (and finding out just how hard and tiring the work really is), I took a small break to record a short video about the preparation work. The UK High Commission in South Africa asked for a copy - and that's how I finished up on the Foreign Secretary's Facebook page. Bloodhound's long-term legacy is to excite a generation of young people, through our Education Programme, about the magic of science and technology (and if your local school hasn't already signed up to this free programme, get them to do it now!). In generating this global Engineering Adventure, of course, we'll also be promoting British engineering on a global stage. This is exactly the sort of thing that the government's "GREAT" campaign is trying to achieve. I'm proud that we will be helping to promote Great (make that GREAT) British engineering - and I'm equally proud of the stunning work that the Northern Cape is doing, as they build the world's best race track. I'm still surprised to be on William Hague's Facebook though. The engineering part of our adventure is also coming along well, and our rocket test programme is about to move into the next stage. Unfortunately, I can't give you any details (it would spoil the surprise), but watch this space - we've got a cracking event planned in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile, the tank that will contain the rocket oxidiser (high test peroxide, or HTP for short) inside Bloodhound SSC is completing its design in preparation for manufacture. The tank will be manufactured by ABC Stainless from thin-walled stainless steel (about 2-3mm thick) and will weigh around 80kg. It's going to have to carry 950 litres of HTP, weighing 1,320 kg. HTP is almost pure hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hence it's nearly 40% heavier than water (H2O). The tank (and the rest of the car) will have to withstand 2g of acceleration and 3g of deceleration, with an absolute limit of 9g (just in case). During rocket firing, the tank will feed our pump motor (the 800 hp Cosworth F1 engine) with 950kg of HTP, which will all be pumped into the rocket (at 76 Bar/1100 psi) in 20 seconds. If those numbers don't paint a picture for you, then imagine filling your bath in three seconds - that's the flow rate we're talking about. The tank will be pressurised to 1.5 Bar (24 psi) during this process, to help supply this huge flow of HTP. To make sure that there are no leaks or weak points, the tank will be pressure tested to 1.5 times this working load, and designed to survive 2.5 times the pressure if required. There is no precedent for testing a hybrid-rocket-powered 1,000 mph car, so we've borrowed the test figures from another cutting-edge technology company - these pressures are based on Nasa protocols. Good news on the wheels as well. The design for our runway wheels (which we will need first, for the UK runway tests next year) has been released to Castle Engineering. The tyres for the runway tests were originally designed for the Lightning jet fighter, but they happen to have the tall thin shape that we need. We bought some unused tyres from the world's last Lightning operator - Thunder City in South Africa. So we've shipped UK-made tyres back from South Africa in order to test Bloodhound in the UK next year, before shipping it (still on these tyres) out to South Africa. It's a funny world sometimes. The manufacturing process for the high-speed desert wheels has also been agreed with all the companies involved. The whole wheel manufacturing process will involve some four tonnes of aluminium, which Trimet is supplying in liquid form (did you know that aluminium is shipped as a liquid? No, me neither). Otto Fuchs will then turn this large aluminium puddle into solid lumps (there are some technical terms involved like "casting" and "forging", but you get the general idea) from which we can machine the wheels. The carbon fibre monocoque work also continues, with the production of one of the cockpit moulds, which is now ready for work to begin on the cockpit lower section. It's been a long time coming - can't wait to see my "1,000mph office" finally taking shape. If you want to see how the whole process works, have a look at the latest Cisco BHTV video . With the huge success of the Olympics only just behind us, we're looking forward to creating another global British success in 2013/2014. The Olympics aimed to inspire a generation about sport, and of course to promote the team work and dedication that makes a successful athlete. Look behind the science and technology of Bloodhound, and we are promoting exactly the same things - our engineers, and the hundreds of supporting companies, are the best in the world because they work hard at it, and they are building the world's first 1,000mph car together as a world-class team. The Olympics has done its bit, so now it's our turn - and I can't think of a better time to do it. | [
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science-environment-50017189 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50017189 | Bloodhound diary: South African trials get under way | A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle aims to show its potential by going progressively faster, year after year. By the end of 2019, Bloodhound wants to have demonstrated speeds above 500mph. The next step would be to break the existing world land speed record (763mph; 1,228km/h). The racing will take place on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa. | By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder We're off! By the time you read this, Bloodhound will already have started the 5,500-mile journey south to its Hakskeenpan desert track in South Africa. The majority of the team will arrive in mid-October, aiming to start high-speed testing towards the end of the month. There's been a huge amount of work over the past few weeks to get the car ready. It may seem strange that we've apparently left everything to the last minute but believe me, it's not by choice. Some of the key bits of hardware on the car have only recently arrived, including our Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, once all the paperwork was in place (borrowing a state-of-the-art military jet engine is, quite rightly, a non-trivial process). The huge carbon-fibre airbrake doors were another long-lead item that arrived pretty much at the eleventh hour but, given all the work that went into them, we're very grateful to have them in time for this year's tests. With the arrival of all the bits of the car, both big and small, the team has raced to fit them all together over the past few weeks. Each bit then needs testing to make sure it will work when we unpack it 5,500 miles away in South Africa. This includes the complex jet engine systems, which have to mimic the controls of the Eurofighter-Typhoon to make the jet engine think it's at home. Our first attempt to simulate a jet engine start was unsuccessful (I would emphasise the word "simulate" - we've got a great relationship with our hosts at Berkeley Green UTC, but if we fired up a jet engine inside the college, the relationship might become a little strained). Our brilliant systems guru Joe Holdsworth quickly diagnosed that the high-speed digital comms link between the engine and the car had failed to start up correctly. The solution? The same one you and I would use - switch it off, then switch it back on again! Last week I watched the wheel hubs being assembled. These are beautiful bits of engineering, containing not just one, or even two, but three separate high-speed wheel bearings on each wheel, giving us a huge amount of redundancy (and hence safety). The wheel hubs are an "interference fit" inside the wheel bearings. In other words, they are so precisely machined that the parts grip each other tight when fitted together. In turn, this extremely tight fit requires a special assembly method. Each hub is left in the freezer overnight, which causes it to shrink very slightly. When the hub is brought out of the freezer and dropped into the bearing housing, it slides in snugly. As the hub gradually warms up to room temperature, it expands by a fraction of a millimetre and, because the clearance is so small, it locks in place inside the bearings. Hopefully we won't have to take them out again. There have also been some interesting discoveries during the car assembly. One of the less welcome ones was a broken retainer on a pin in the suspension assembly. We believe that this device was originally weakened/damaged by some of the high bump loads we had during our Newquay test session a couple of years ago. A fix is already being put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. Bits do break on racing cars and land speed record racing is no different. Every time we run the car over the next few weeks, there will be a large range of engineering checks to look for exactly this sort of problem. It will take time, but that's fine by me; it's all part of the process of doing this as safely as possible. While we've been busy getting the car ready, the Northern Cape government has been doing some terrific work to get the desert fully race ready. Although the desert clearance was largely completed a couple of years ago, the annual rains have revealed some more bits and pieces of rock that need to be removed. In addition, as the desert gradually "rehabilitates" following the surface repairs of the past few years, and with the wear and tear of local traffic, there are some minor ridges and ruts that need to be smoothed out. Stuart Edmondson, our director of engineering operations, was on the pan a few days ago and sent a short clip of video to show us just what a great job they are doing (thank you, Northern Cape!). The other exciting image from the pan is Bloodhound's new home-from-home being assembled. The engineering workshop/hangar is being erected on the eastern side of the pan, roughly opposite the mid-point of the track. It's next to some key facilities, including the joint control room that we will run with the South Africans and (perhaps more importantly) the only toilet facilities for about 20 miles in any direction. When we arrive out in South Africa, we'll have to get the car ready to run on the desert. After taking it off its airfreight pallet, the car will need to have the 90kg metal desert wheels fitted, along with the all-important tail fin that will keep it pointy-end forwards. Once everything has been checked over, we'll be ready to start our high-speed test programme. Every single run will have a detailed schedule, known as the "run profile", with a target speed and a list of test objectives. We're planning on up to 12 run profiles, with the later runs depending on the results from the first few tests. At the moment, the test programme is looking roughly like this: Don't get too excited, though. For those of you who are already multiplying the number of 7-12 profiles by 50mph jumps, that's not what we're planning. A couple of the remaining profiles will explore the peak speed of Bloodhound, while the rest are scheduled for engineering trials, including airbrake tests at reduced speeds. For me as the driver, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I don't have to memorise this whole list. Each time we run the car, the team will agree the exact details of the profile(s) the day before we run. The bad news for me is that I will then have to memorise all the details of the agreed profile(s), so that I can reproduce them exactly when the car is screaming along at several hundred miles an hour. It's all in a day's work. Each run will have a long list of test objectives. Looking at the "simple" example of profile 1, this is just a slow-speed test of the steering and brakes. To fit all the test points in, I'm planning to break the run up into three phases, possibly more. My "supersonic office" is going to keep me busy right from day one. For the first test run, we'll start with phase 1, a static engine test, to check engine start-up procedure, check for leaks and check the onboard systems. After that, phase 2 will be the first rolling test. A gentle increase in the throttle will determine the power required to move the car away from rest, followed by a check of the steering feel and response with the desert wheels. I will also need to check that the digital back-up speedo matches the main speedo as we accelerate, and that the cockpit distance counter (used in later runs as one of the cues for chute deployment) is working and can be reset between phases. At the end of phase 2, I'll gently brake to a stop, monitor the brake pressure required and keep an eye on the brake temperatures to confirm the thermocouples appear to be working. Phase 3 of the first test run (which we may need to repeat a couple of times) will use gentle acceleration (no reheat) to accelerate to a maximum of 100 mph. After selecting the jet to idle, I'll gradually increase the brake pressures to find the maximum grip level of the metal wheels on the desert, keeping a careful eye on brake temperatures as well. There's more to add to that list, but you get the general idea. One of the key things that we are looking at during high-speed testing this year is the chute deployment sequence. Bloodhound's chutes are based on the tried-and-tested systems used for both Thrust SSC (the current record holder) and its predecessor, Thrust 2, way back in 1983. As you'd expect, we've made a couple of small changes to try to improve the system, so we need to test these. The problem with testing brake chutes is that it's almost impossible to measure what is happening during the deployment. The only way to find out is to video each and every deployment to see what happens (or doesn't happen!). To watch the chutes, we've built video cameras into the rear wheel fairings on both sides. They'll produce some really exciting shots of jet engine reheat and the desert tearing past at 500+ mph, all of which we will be posting on the Bloodhound website over the next few weeks. Their main job, though, is to capture that fraction of a second at the end of a run when the chute comes out to play, so that we can make sure it's playing nicely. Finally, when we get to South Africa, I'll get to wear the new "Bloodhound LSR" race helmet for the first time. The colour scheme is based on two winning entries for our helmet design competition, run all the way back in 2013. My personal thanks to Sam James (11 years old at the time) and Cerys Rogers (then 14) for their cracking designs (and to "Ringo" for the superb artwork of course) - sorry it took so long, guys. I hope you both like the finished article. | [
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uk-england-essex-54825879 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-54825879 | Paris Bataclan attack: 'My brother's life isn't defined by that night' | Five years ago, Nick Alexander was shot dead at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. The 35-year-old was working as the merchandise manager for Eagles of Death Metal when three gunmen stormed the building as part of co-ordinated terror attacks across the city, killing 130 people. | Nick was the only British victim of the attack. His sister, Zoe Alexander, told the BBC she was was determined to ensure his life was not defined by the events of the night of 13 November 2015. It still feels so surreal to me that Nick died in the attacks. Five years is quite a significant amount of time but grief is not a linear experience. In some ways it feels like a very long time since I last saw him but in other ways it feels like yesterday. Nick was a vibrant force and he was fantastic company. As a child growing up in Weeley, Essex, he was funny, quirky and a popular and loyal friend. There were seven years between us which feels like a big gap as children but as an adult he was a great friend as well as a brother. He was such a people person which is why he was so good at his job, interacting with the fans on a daily basis. One of the things I admired most about Nick was that he was unashamedly himself and trod his own path throughout his whole life. He was authentic and that gave him a great energy that people wanted to be around. After he died we received messages from all over the world, some from people he had only met once after they bought merchandise from him, but he left a lasting impression on them. That was the kind of guy he was. We talk about him all the time at home and he is very present for us. My children are eight and nine, they still remember Uncle Nick and how he made them laugh. We share funny stories and we go to Paris every year on his birthday and drink champagne. We miss him deeply. Of course it is easier now and it does get better but you never fully recover. The pain lessens but the remembering does not. Every year I also travel to Paris with my parents to go to an annual ceremony to remember the victims, on the anniversary of the attack. We obviously can't go this year but we will be watching a live stream. A brilliant community has formed of survivors and relatives of the people who died, and we find great strength in standing alongside each other. A survivor community has also formed here in the UK and there are around 20 of us that have a really close friendship. It is one of the good things that has come out of such a horrible tragedy. Terror attacks here in the UK, and recently over in France and in Vienna, take you straight back to that moment. It makes you reflect. Terrorism and radicalisation thrive in the cracks and divisions of society but so much community cohesion has come out of what happened - we have seen what we can be and what we can achieve. Four years ago, on the first anniversary of the attack, myself and my parents created The Nick Alexander Memorial Trust, which provides music equipment to disadvantaged communities across the UK. Several gigs we have staged to raise money have been really successful and we have been able to help many different projects. We have refurbished the music studio for a homeless centre, worked with ex-offenders and provided instruments for deaf babies, pre-schoolers and dementia patients. We have also helped music groups stay connected during lockdown by providing them with iPads. Music was Nick's passion, he dedicated his career of 15 years to it and I'm sure he would be incredibly proud of everything we have achieved. Queens of the Stone Age are broadcasting previously unseen footage of an acoustic show on their YouTube channel on the anniversary and are encouraging fans to donate to the trust. The band's singer Josh Homme is also part of Eagles of Death Metal, although he wasn't on tour with them when the attack happened. Their support means so much to us. We have managed to build a legacy for Nick and have created something so positive in his memory. It has helped with our grief process and it means Nick is not defined by the tragedy of that night. It makes us feel like he is almost still around and it has helped us take back control of his ending. Now we are the ones deciding how his life continues. As told to Charlie Jones Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk | [
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world-middle-east-26240650 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26240650 | Egypt's commitment to press freedom on trial | Three journalists from al-Jazeera's English news channel go on trial in Egypt on Thursday, in a case which campaigners say is part of a sweeping crackdown on freedom of speech, reports the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo. | In mid-December, the award-winning Australian correspondent Peter Greste arrived in Egypt's capital for a routine assignment - his first in the country. He checked into an upmarket hotel on the banks of the Nile, where al-Jazeera had a makeshift office, and started reading up on the story. Just two weeks later, the former BBC correspondent became the story. He and two of his colleagues from al-Jazeera English - Egyptian-Canadian Cairo bureau chief Mohamed Adel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed - were arrested. The trio was soon branded the "Marriott Terror Cell". On Thursday, they are due to appear before a criminal court in Cairo on charges including broadcasting false news, and aiding or joining a terrorist organisation - as the Muslim Brotherhood was designated four days before their arrest - and endangering national security. If convicted, they could be sentenced to several years in jail. 'Breaking the law' Egypt denies the case is an attack on freedom of speech. It says the al-Jazeera journalists were working illegally because they did not have press passes. "We have accredited more than 1,000 correspondents from foreign organisations, and they are working freely," one official says. "If you break the law, this is not freedom of expression." Al-Jazeera is a regular target for Egypt's military-backed interim government. The channel is owned by the government of Qatar, which backs the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt regards the network as a mouthpiece for the Islamists. But al-Jazeera's management deny allegations of bias. "The charges just don't hold water," says Heather Allan, head of newsgathering for al-Jazeera English. "Egypt is a very important story for us. We've always been there, we believe we have been very fair, and when they were picked up we thought it would last a day or two." Instead, the journalists have now spent almost two months in Cairo's Tora prison complex, a much feared high-security fortress. In a letter written from there last month, Peter Greste recounted being "locked in my cell 24 hours a day, for the past 10 days, allowed out only for questioning". His colleagues were held separately in worse conditions, according to relatives. They say Mohamed Fahmy, who entered prison with a dislocated shoulder, was forced to sleep on the floor, and is still waiting for medical treatment. All three men are now sharing a cell, and are being allowed out for only an hour's exercise a day. Their only offence, according to Peter Greste's prison letter, was "doing what any responsible journalist would - trying to make sense of the unfolding events with accuracy, fairness and balance". But trying to provide balanced coverage is a dangerous business in Egypt these days - especially if that includes reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood. The army removed it from power last July, along with President Mohammed Morsi - following mass opposition protests - and would clearly prefer it to disappear from view. Fear returns Thousands of miles away, at their home in Australia, Peter Greste's parents cannot comprehend how he and his colleagues wound up behind bars. "He's a professional journalist, of a high ethical standard," his father Juris told the BBC. "He's been there for about two weeks, just getting his bearings, all of sudden he is accused of being a terrorist. You can't punish someone just because you don't like the message." But critics say that is exactly what Egypt is doing - with scant legal justification. The three men are among a group of 20 people indicted by the authorities at the end of January. They also include the Dutch newspaper and radio correspondent, Rena Netjes, whose only connection with al-Jazeera was having a meeting with Mohamed Fahmy at the Marriott. She managed to flee Egypt, with the help of her embassy. Many journalists in Egypt say they are now working, or trying to work, in a climate of fear - among them 23-year-old Mosa'ab Elshamy. The photojournalist has been documenting the tumultuous changes here since the revolution of 2011 that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. But lately, he has been taking fewer pictures because of the risk of being jailed. "It is my biggest fear because I know it is going to take months, if not years, before getting out," he says. "We have seen how journalists in Egypt have been detained for the most absurd reasons, and they continue to spend months of their lives [in prison], and a day in prison is like no other day." Mr Elshamy has adapted by covering fewer stories and spending less time on the streets, but some of his colleagues have opted to leave the country. "The change is huge and it's tangible," he says. "The little achievements and the little freedoms that people got from the revolution have been taken away. People are back to this fear." Hunger strike For the young photographer, concerns about press freedom are acutely personal. His older brother, Abdullah, has been in prison since August. The correspondent for al-Jazeera's Arabic channel was arrested while covering the violent dispersal of a pro-Brotherhood sit-in, during which hundreds of people were killed by the security forces. At the time the authorities insisted they had to restore security. Unlike the other three al-Jazeera journalists, Abdullah Elshamy has no trial date. The 25-year-old has not even been charged. On 21 January, he began a managed hunger strike in protest - he is accepting liquids, but no solid food. "I do not belong to any group or ideology," he says in a statement posted on Facebook by his brother. "I belong to my conscience and my humanity. Nothing will break my will or my dignity." Police state 'reinvented' Campaigners say the al-Jazeera staff are among 13 foreign and locals journalists imprisoned in Egypt. The country is now ranked among the top 10 jailers of journalists in the world. The current attack on press freedom is the most severe ever, according to Gamal Eid of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. "There is no space for the opposing view," he says, comparing the country to Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and even Germany under Adolf Hitler. The silencing of dissent goes far beyond journalists. Political scientist Amr Hamzawy is facing charges over a tweet questioning a court ruling. The university lecturer and former member of parliament has even been barred from leaving the country. "There are increasing signs of restrictions on freedom of expression for academics, for politicians and for intellectuals," he says. "We are really looking at days worse than the Mubarak days, because even under Mubarak we had opposing voices being heard every now and then, but now its being suppressed. We are witnessing the reinvention of the police state." When the case against the al-Jazeera journalists comes to court, it will be carefully watched abroad, including in the White House, which has called for the journalists to be released. Many here believe they are being tried just for telling all sides of the story. Critics say that in today's Egypt that is tantamount to a crime. | [
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disability-45045223 | https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-45045223 | The stomach-churning one-night stand | Life with a disability can sometimes give rise to unspoken questions and sensitivities, but amid the awkwardness there can be humour. The following is an edited version of a sketch by Philip Henry, who has Crohn's Disease, delivered for the BBC at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. | There's nothing sexy about diarrhoea. And since that's the main, outwardly noticeable symptom of Crohn's Disease, it makes dating hard. This is why I decided the best way to deal with the problem was to ignore it completely. Let me tell you how that turned out. I had always thought Lydia was cute, but nothing had ever happened between us. A few years passed before I ran into her again and clocked the nakedness of her ring finger - she was single - and asked her out for dinner. The fact Crohn's had reared its ugly mug since we last knew each other wasn't mentioned. It just didn't come up. All I needed was one good date - enough to make her want a second, and hopefully a third. Date three was the time to drop the C-bomb. You can bail after two dates, but after three you need a good reason, and I figured no woman would be callous enough to say, 'it's because you have a chronic illness and I think it'll be a drag'. You'd think my body would be a faithful accomplice in this plan, but no, it wasn't going to give me two trouble-free dates. It wasn't even going to give me one. That evening, as I waited for the taxi, my stomach bubbled and gurgled like an air-locked radiator. Maybe nerves were making it worse, I don't know, but thanks to Imodium I made it into the taxi and to the restaurant. I walked in and saw her. She looked really good. I could tell she wanted this to work as much as I… needed the toilet. I bolted and made it to a cubicle with nano-seconds to spare. I had to stay positive. She hadn't seen me and if I could get this all over with now, I might be OK for the rest of the night. After a few false starts, I left the cubicle. Two lads stood by the sinks daring each other to take an ecstasy pill. I threw another Imodium into my mouth. "Third one tonight," I said, as I passed, leaving them suitably shocked. After blaming the taxi for my lateness, Lydia and I had dinner - I hoped good solid food would settle my stomach, which turned like a washing machine - and she even laughed at my jokes. We headed to a local pub where a band was playing. It was a warm summer night and this was going well. I'd almost forgotten about the date-saboteur in my intestinal tract. While we watched the band, it started again. Just the odd cramp at first, then the familiar spasms that foreshadowed something like a fire hose being shot into a toilet bowl. I scanned the pub for the toilets and spotted them at the far end. But while I had looked away to plan my route, something unexpected happened - she made "the move". Her hand had edged across the bench towards mine and she had interlocked our fingers. It was the sweetest gesture directed at me in years and I wanted to tell her, to reciprocate, but instead, I said "I think I see someone I know," snatched my hand away and ran towards the toilet. Storytelling Live: Going Out Philip was one of six people with a disability or mental health problem to perform a story about going out as part of BBC Ouch's storytelling event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - hosted by Lost Voice Guy. You can watch the show on BBC Two at 23:30 BST on Friday 31 August and on iPlayer afterwards. Here are other stories from the event that you might like: As I sat and stared at the graffiti-riddled cubicle door, my stomach sank in a way that had nothing to do with Crohn's. She had made the first move and I had embarrassed her. She thought I had rejected her. When I returned, her hands were folded across her stomach. The conversation was polite but dry. I had to come clean. "Lydia, I'm sorry about ducking into the toilets. My ex came into the pub and I knew she'd go crazy if she saw us together, so I had to wait for her to leave." It was pathetic. It was the most obvious lie I had ever told. And she bought it. Twenty minutes later we were snogging in the back of a taxi on our way to her flat. Thirty minutes later we were in bed together. An undisclosed amount of minutes later we were lying back in each other's arms smiling. I fell asleep happy, content, and with no further emergencies. Morning! I sat bolt upright. Morning was the worst time for me. Every day was a sprint to make it to the bathroom, but as I looked around this strange bedroom I realised I didn't know where the bathroom was. I looked at the empty space beside me. She wasn't even there to ask. I got up, ran out of the room and found I was in trouble - I could hear the shower. I tried the handle. Locked. Now she gets modest? I looked around. It was too much to hope that this little flat would have two bathrooms. I knocked on the door. "Hey, will you be long?" "Give me 10 or 15 minutes. Put the kettle on." I couldn't hold on for that long. It was impossible. My sphincter was already at maximum clenching tolerance. My stomach cramped violently. I ran down the hall and looked for anything that might help. I stopped and considered it for a while - but the cat's litter tray just wasn't feasible. I ran into the living room - a couple of vases, they'd work as Plan B. Sweat dripped off my forehead as I ran into the kitchen and saw the answer to my problem - the kitchen bin. It was seat-height, had a bin-liner in it and there was a roll of kitchen tissue nearby. It was the best I could hope for. In one deft move I sprinted towards it, pulled my boxers down, turned and aimed - I had one shot at this. When Lydia arrived draped in a towel, she stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth agape. "You made breakfast!" she said. I nodded and smiled back. I ushered her to the table and pulled out her chair. She sat down in front of the bacon butty and mug of tea I'd prepared. She looked up at me, shaking her head. 'I can't believe you did this.' I shrugged, "I also emptied your bin." For more Disability News, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast. | [
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newsbeat-20489859 | https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-20489859 | Merlin to be axed after fifth series ends in December | The BBC show Merlin will end after the current series. | The programme has been running for five years and pulls in almost seven million viewers in its Saturday evening slot. The creators say the show, which features a young King Arthur and his wizard servant, will come to a "natural and dramatic end" with a two-part finale. "I think the show has run its natural course," admits Northern Ireland-born Colin Morgan, who plays Merlin. "We've arrived at its strongest point and we've achieved what we set out to do." Newsbeat recently spoke to Bradley James who plays King Arthur about Merlin's future. "It's always wise to go out on a high and I think we are at a stage where you take it series by series and think do we want to another one or do we want to do something else?" 'Spectacular finale' The creators of Merlin say this series is where the storylines have reached their peak. "We always felt the story of the legend was best told across five series, leading to a spectacular finale that draws on the best-known elements of this much-loved story and brings to a conclusion the battle for Camelot." Richard Wilson plays Merlin's mentor in the show and admits while he is extremely sad the show is ending thinks it is good news for his character. "Speaking as Gaius I feel I have mentored the young wizard as far as I can. He is much smarter and greater than me now and I am simply exhausted." Over the years the programme has had a number of guest stars including Michelle Ryan, Emilia Fox and Mackenzie Crook. The controller of BBC One says they have ambitious plans for new drama in Merlin's Saturday night slot for 2013. The next episode of Merlin is on BBC One at 8pm on Saturday 1 December. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter | [
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uk-wales-mid-wales-26963177 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-26963177 | Road reopening after lorry gets stuck under Newtown bridge | A road has reopened after a large lorry earlier became stuck under a railway bridge in Powys forcing the cancellation of trains. | Traffic queues formed in the town after the incident at 06:30 BST on the A483, which was shut in both directions at Dolfor Road. Buses replaced trains between Newtown and Machynlleth but services are running again. Network Rail has assessed the bridge for damage. | [
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world-asia-china-26414016 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414016 | Making sense of the unrest from China's Xinjiang | The horrific attack at Kunming railway station - in which knife-wielding attackers hacked at least 29 people to death - has shocked China. One of the country's newspapers dubbed it China's "9/11." | By Martin PatienceBBC News, Beijing Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua called it a terrorist attack carried out by "Xinjiang separatist forces". Rich in minerals and resources, Xinjiang is home to approximately nine million Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic minority. Most are Muslims. In the last year, more than a hundred people have been killed in violence in the autonomous region. Beijing blames the attacks on violent Uighur separatists. But human rights groups say that China's repressive policies in the region are fuelling the unrest. But what must really worry China's leaders is that the violence from Xinjiang now appears to be spreading. In October of last year, Chinese officials said that militants from the region were involved in an apparent suicide attack in Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of power in China. The attack in Kunming appears to represent a further escalation. "This attack is a very significant development in the trajectory of Chinese terrorism," said Rohan Gunaratna, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies terrorism in Asia, including China. "It was a low-cost but a high-impact attack which has generated huge publicity," he added. "Uighur extremists have shown that they can launch an attack far away from their base of operations." 'Cross-fertilisation' There have long been tensions in Xinjiang. During the 1990s, there was a surge in nationalist sentiment among Uighurs after several Central Asian countries gained their independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Beijing suppressed the demonstrations during what it called a "strike hard" campaign. Since then, China has regularly blamed outside forces for stirring up the violence, including serious ethnic riots in 2009 that left around 200 people - mainly Han Chinese - dead. In particular, the Chinese authorities have singled out the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) for orchestrating attacks. In a recent article, Philip Potter, an expert on terrorism at Michigan University, said that China's ongoing security crackdown in Xinjiang has forced the most militant separatists into neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. He wrote that they were forging strategic alliances with jihadist factions affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He concluded that this was leading to "cross fertilisation" that has the potential to "substantially increase the sophistication and lethality of terrorism in China". But other analysts say there is little or no evidence to suggest that ETIM, or any other group for that matter, is behind the violence. They argue that China plays up the threat in order to justify its heavy-headed security policies in the region. 'The walls have ears' Human rights groups say that Beijing's restrictions on practising Islamic religious customs as well as Uighur culture and language are fuelling the unrest. Foreign journalists trying to operate in Xinjiang are constantly followed by the security services, making it difficult to assess the situation on the ground. During one visit to the region, I was told by a Uighur that "the walls have ears" and that "no-one was allowed to talk out about what was going on". Another BBC team visited the scene of a violent attack last year, which the authorities also blamed on terrorists. But locals told the BBC that the violence had been triggered after officials pressured some devout Muslim men to shave off their beards. Many Uighurs also resent the influx of Han Chinese to the region. Once the majority, Uighurs are now a minority in what they consider their homeland. They believe that Beijing is trying to water down and dilute their culture and religion through mass migration. Uighurs also complain that they are not sharing in the profits of the region's economic boom. Some Chinese scholars admit this is part of the problem. "The reason why Xinjiang is troubled is because development in the region has been unbalanced," says Xiong Kunxin, a professor of China Ethnic Theory at the China Minzu University. Prof Xiong says that speeding up development in the region will help alleviate the problem. But other analysts believe that the problem is more deep-rooted than simply economics. "It's the general colonial attitude of Han Chinese officials to Uighurs that generates huge resentment," says Michael Dillon, an academic and author of the book, Xinjiang: China's Muslim far northwest. In order for Beijing to tackle the unrest, he said: "Xinjiang needs to become a genuinely autonomous region." But Mr Dillon says that will almost certainly not happen. Like Tibet, Beijing sees Xinjiang as an integral part of modern-day China. The country's leaders regard any talk or even hints of separatism as treason - a red line that simply cannot be crossed. | [
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uk-43069415 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43069415 | Barry Bennell: Justice has been served, say victims of ex-football coach | Three of Barry Bennell's victims have told how he turned their dreams into a "horrendous nightmare" after the former youth football coach was convicted of 43 sex assaults on boys. | Bennell, who worked at Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra, was found guilty of abusing 11 boys aged eight to 15. Speaking outside Liverpool Crown Court, another victim, Andy Woodward, said "justice has been served". It is understood 86 others have come forward to say they were victims. The jury, which deliberated over five days, had been told of Bennell's abuse of 12 boys between 1979 and 1990. Before the case he admitted seven charges of indecent assault on three boys, two of whom were also part of the allegations he was tried on. He was found guilty of 36 charges on Tuesday, and a further seven counts on Thursday. Bennell, who is now known as Richard Jones, appeared in court via videolink during the five-week trial due to illness. He could be seen shaking his head and muttering when the final guilty verdicts were returned by a 10-1 majority. He will be sentenced on Monday and will be produced from custody to attend the hearing. It was the fourth time Bennell had been convicted of abusing boys. The jury was told he had previously received jail sentences in the UK and in the US in 1995, 1998 and 2015. 'Innocence shattered' The latest police investigation began in November 2016 when Andy Woodward gave interviews about his experiences to the Guardian and BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. Speaking outside court after the verdict, the ex-Crewe defender said: "Justice has been served today and people will be able to move on with their lives including myself." Mr Woodward said he believed "the football clubs that were accountable for this... could have stopped this for so many years... And I think now's the time that that comes sort of out. "And I would personally like after 15 months, an apology from Crewe Alexandra for what happened to us boys." Ex-Manchester City youth player Chris Unsworth, who was abused by Bennell when he was a scout at the club, stood alongside Micky Fallon and Steve Walters as he read a statement. The three men are supporters of the Offside Trust, which was set up by ex-professional players to support abuse survivors. Mr Unsworth said: "We stand before you today as men united in justice, but this is about so much more than us." Mr Fallon, who was targeted by Bennell at Crewe, said: "We stand before you today as men united but, at the same time, we were very young boys. We were little boys with a dream and our innocence was shattered. Our dreams turned into the most horrendous nightmare." Prosecutors described Bennell as a "predatory paedophile" who abused boys on an "industrial scale". They told the trial he had a "power hold" over the aspiring professional players. Boys were abused at his home - including a property in Derbyshire where he had arcade games and a puma and a monkey - on trips away, and in his car on the way to and from training, they said. Det Insp Sarah Oliver, who led the investigation, said Bennell had betrayed the trust of the young players. "As a football coach he should have provided nothing more than safety and support for the players in his care," she said. "Instead he abused them. He also abused the trust of their families who had placed them into that care so they could pursue their dreams of being professional footballers. He has shattered those dreams and left them burdened for decades." Club launches review In a statement, Crewe Alexandra expressed its "deepest sympathies" to Bennell's victims and said it worked closely with the police investigation. It added it was was not aware of any sexual abuse by Bennell or had received any complaint before or during his employment with the club. Manchester City offered "heartfelt sympathy to all victims for the unimaginably traumatic experiences they have endured". The club said it was keen to speak to any survivor or witness to sexual abuse which might be connected to Manchester City or which could support a review it launched after the latest allegations were raised in 2016. It added its review also identified serious allegations of child sex abuse in respect of a second man with "potential historic connections to the club". The man is now dead and is not believed to be linked to Bennell. The Football Association said it acknowledged the "traumatic experience" of Bennell's victims "and the bravery they have shown in coming forward". It said an independent inquiry into allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse in football had been set up and also urged victims and survivors to contact police "if they are ready to do so". Bennell chose not to offer any evidence or witnesses in his defence and had told police he was suffering from cancer, which in turn had caused memory problems. His barrister accused the complainants of inventing stories about him and "jumping on the bandwagon". During the trial, the judge, Recorder of Liverpool, Clement Goldstone QC, had directed the jury to find Bennell not guilty on three charges of indecent assault. | [
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technology-20439301 | https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20439301 | How the world's first webcam made a coffee pot famous | Computer technology now moves so fast it's hard to remember life before the internet. But just 19 years ago at the beginning of the nineties, the fledgling world wide web had no search engines, no social networking sites, and no webcam. | By Rebecca KesbyBBC World Service The scientists credited with inventing the first webcam - thereby launching the revolution that would bring us video chats and live webcasts - stumbled upon the idea in pursuit of something far more old-fashioned: hot coffee. As computer geeks at the University of Cambridge beavered away on research projects at the cutting edge of technology, one piece of equipment was indispensable to the entire team - the coffee percolator. "One of the things that's very, very important in computer science research is a regular and dependable flow of caffeine," explains Dr Quentin Stafford-Fraser. But the problem for scientists was that the coffee pot was stationed in the main computer lab, known as the Trojan room, and many of the researchers worked in different labs and on different floors. "They would often turn up to get some coffee from the pot, only to find it had all been drunk," Dr Stafford-Fraser remembers. Streaming coffee To solve the problem, he and another research scientist, Dr Paul Jardetzky, rigged up a camera to monitor the Trojan room coffee pot. The camera would grab images three times a minute, and they wrote software that would allow researchers in the department to run the images from the camera on their internal computer network. This removed the need for any physical effort to check the coffee pot, and avoided the emotional distress of turning up to find it empty. However, it wasn't until 22 November 1993 that the coffee pot cam made it onto the world wide web. Once again it was a computer scientist, momentarily distracted from his research project, who made the breakthrough. Dr Martyn Johnson was not one of those connected to the internal computer network at the Cambridge lab, and therefore had been unable to run the coffee pot cam software. He had been studying the capabilities of the web and upon investigating the server code, thought it looked relatively easy to make it run. "I just built a little script around the captured images," he says. "The first version was probably only 12 lines of code, probably less, and it simply copied the most recent image to the requester whenever it was asked for." And so it was that the grainy images of a rather grubby coffee pot in a university lab were written into computer science folklore, as the first ever webcam. East of Java "It didn't vary very much," explains Dr Stafford-Fraser. "It was either an empty coffee pot, or a full one, or in more exciting moments, maybe a half-full coffee pot and then you'd have to try and guess if it was going up or down." Word got out, and before long millions of tech enthusiasts from around the world were accessing images of the Trojan room coffee pot. Dr Stafford-Fraser remembers receiving emails from Japan asking if a light could be left on overnight so that the pot could be seen in different time zones. The Cambridge Tourist Information office had to direct visitors from the US to the computer lab to see it for themselves. The coffee pot cam even got a mention on the BBC's longest running radio soap opera - the Archers. "I think we were all a little bewildered by it all to be honest," confesses Dr Johnson. "I sometimes think nothing else I'm ever involved in again in my life will get this much coverage and it was just one afternoon's crazy idea," adds Dr Stafford-Fraser. Die Kaffeekanne Ten years and millions of hits later, the scientists wanted to move on. "The software was becoming completely unmaintainable," remembers Dr Johnson. "Research software is not always of the highest quality and we simply wanted to throw away the machines that were supporting this." Despite a wave of nostalgic protest from webcam fans around the world, the coffee pot and the webcam were eventually switched off. The last image captured was the scientists' fingers pressing the "off" button. "In 10 years it had gone from being a wacky new idea, to a novelty that a reasonable number of people knew about, to a widely viewed icon of the early web, to an historic artefact, and then to something that people were mourning over when it was no longer there," concludes Dr Stafford-Fraser. "Only on the internet can that sort of thing happen in just a few years." The Trojan room coffee pot was sold at auction - predictably over the internet - for £3,350. It was bought by Der Spiegel news magazine in Germany, which soon pressed the pot back into active service. Rebecca Kesby's report on the creators of the world's first webcam airs on the BBC World Service's Witness programme on 23 November. You can download a podcast of the programme or browse the archive. | [
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magazine-37735370 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37735370 | The WhatsApp suicide | A 40-year-old woman from northern India killed herself in January after a video of her being raped was circulated on WhatsApp. The BBC's Divya Arya travelled to the village in Uttar Pradesh to hear the full story. | Geeta was a brave woman. She was a health worker in a rural area of northern India, a job that meant she often walked alone between the surrounding villages, sometimes after dark, visiting strangers' houses. Her income supported the whole family, including an alcoholic husband and three teenage children. They lived in a brick house that had no door or toilet, but Geeta was proud that she had been able to educate her daughter and her two sons. Towards the end of 2015, a young man from a nearby village started following Geeta. He had first seen her when she helped his brother's wife to give birth. When Geeta refused to speak with him, he began to threaten her. According to Geeta's friend and colleague, Khushboo, the man snatched her phone in the street and told her, "If I find you alone, I won't let you go." Geeta must have heard stories about sexual assault in the villages where she worked. Eighteen months earlier, in 2014, her home state of Uttar Pradesh made international headlines when two teenage girls were raped and murdered in the village of Badaun. She must have known, too, that in the patriarchal and honour-bound culture of the village, she could be blamed for "inviting" the sexual advances of a man - even if those advances were unwelcome, intimidating, or violent. The next time she was called out to the man's village, she told Khushboo she was afraid to go alone. Khushboo immediately offered to go with her, and was alarmed to see the man "roaming around" the village. She urged Geeta to tell the village elders about the situation. Convinced that any such a request would backfire, Geeta refused. "They'll only find fault with me," she said. A few days later, when the two friends were going to administer polio drops to children, Geeta told Khushboo that "something bad had happened". When Khushboo questioned her further, Geeta said that the man, together with three of his friends, had followed her out of the village. The men, she said, had forced themselves upon her and "torn her clothes". #ShameOnline This is one of a series of stories looking at a new and disturbing phenomenon - the use of private or sexually explicit images to threaten, blackmail and shame young people, mainly girls and women, in some of the world's most conservative societies. Explore all the stories and join the conversation here. Khushboo is adamant that Geeta, although distraught, was not suicidal. "I said to her, 'We're all with you; just don't do anything drastic.' But at that point Geeta was not thinking about death. In fact, she was thinking of going to the police. She told me, 'I'll report them. I'll find out the names of the men who abused me and get them arrested.'" But before Geeta could gather the courage to tell the police, a video of the rape began to circulate on the messaging service WhatsApp. Within hours it was being watched and shared on mobile phones by young and old men, while women spoke in hushed whispers. "She called me," says Khushboo, "and said that it had become difficult to go out of the house because all her neighbours knew about 'it'. She sounded so worried. She asked me if anyone knew about 'it' in my neighbourhood." Geeta's intuition that she would be shamed and blamed for attracting the predatory advances of a man was eventually borne out. "Those last days she was so sad," says Khushboo. "She wasn't even eating properly… The day before she died, she told me that she had gone to the local doctor and told him everything. He had said, 'Go back home and stay quiet, it's all your fault.' She also went to the former head of the village, but he also said, 'It's your fault - what can we do about it?'" That was the final blow. The next afternoon, Geeta was found foaming at the mouth on a roadside on the outskirts of the village. She died before she could be taken to hospital. The post-mortem confirmed death by poisoning. The rape and shaming of Geeta is not an isolated incident. In recent years, mobile phones and chat apps have spread through even the poorest and most remote areas of the country, and India has seen a series of recent cases in which gang rapes have been filmed on mobile phones and circulated on messaging services. In August 2016, the Times of India found that hundreds - perhaps thousands - of video clips of sexual assault were being sold in shops across Uttar Pradesh every day. One shopkeeper in Agra told the newspaper, "Porn is passé. These real life crimes are the rage." Another, according to the same report, was overheard telling customers that they might even know the girl in the "latest, hottest" video. Sunita Krishnan, an activist who runs an anti-trafficking NGO in Hyderabad, recently told the Supreme Court she had collected more than 90 rape videos from social media. Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court advocate, told the BBC that judges were so "appalled" by two reports of gang rape that were recently circulated via WhatsApp in southern India that they issued a special order to India's Central Bureau of Investigation to identify and pursue the perpetrators. The court also asked the IT Ministry to examine what measures could be taken to block the online circulation of such videos. "Women are constantly being targeted," he said, "and just because not enough cases are being talked about, that should not give us the complacent picture that everything is fine and hunky dory." At village level, many are more bothered about women using mobile phones at all than they are about men using them to intimidate rape victims or to share videos of sexual assaults. A number of local councils in Uttar Pradesh, concerned with what they see as technology's corrupting effect on traditional moral values, have prohibited girls from owning mobile phones. "There is so much pressure on girls, and if by any chance they do lay their hands on a phone or use ear phones to listen to music, then they are branded 'characterless'" says Rehana Adib, a social worker who took part in a fact-finding mission to study Geeta's case. ("Characterless", in India, implies loose morals.) "When society and family squarely places the burden of honour and good character on the shoulders of women, and men are absolved of passing any test of integrity, then how can a woman who dares to be strong and independent survive?" Following protests led by health workers from adjoining villages, three men have now been arrested for raping Geeta and for making and circulating the video. But in her home village, anger over Geeta's death is still muted by questions about her honour. Even Geeta's own husband, who eventually found out about the video from his neighbours, shares the prevailing suspicion that she might have done something to encourage the attack. "If she had told me," he says, "we'd have asked her if it was done with her consent. Then we'd have gathered the village elders to decide what action should be taken." He shows no sign of outrage about the rape, and has made no demands for police action. When the BBC spoke to the village doctor and the former village head, both men denied discouraging Geeta from going to the police, and blamed her for what had happened. To another villager, who asked not to be named, Geeta's death required no special explanation: "How could she continue to live with this public humiliation?" he asked. The same sentiment was echoed by Pradeep Gupta, the senior police official investigating the case. "It appears that the woman must have felt social pressure and that would have forced her to take her own life," he said. "It is very unfortunate." In the village, then, the notion that rape places a burden of shame on the shoulders of the survivor continues unchallenged. Geeta's death was, for many, inevitable. But that changes nothing for those left behind - especially Geeta's daughter. "It's still very difficult," she says. "Whenever I step out, someone would point at me and jeer, asking 'Aren't you ashamed of what happened with your mother?'" The names "Geeta" and "Khushboo" have been made up, to protect the identities of the women involved Read more: The head-on collision between smartphones, social media and age-old notions of honour and shame | [
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world-asia-35399545 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35399545 | Viewpoint: The toll of terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan | In the past couple of months there has been a suicide terrorist attack almost every day somewhere in the world. The attacks have covered all the main continents and dozens of countries. The list is becoming endless and includes such countries as Indonesia which had not experienced a terrorist attack for nearly a decade. | By Ahmed RashidLahore Among the countries worst affected have been Afghanistan and Pakistan which alone have accounted for a bomb a day - sometimes several bombs a day. The level of suffering, the devastation of families, the loss, trauma and psychological impact of all this killing is taking a heavy toll. The loss to children when one or more parents are killed is particularly heartbreaking. Yet for the terrorists the soft targets are children, pupils at school and college, kids at play in the street kicking a football around. The terrorists make sure that the parents feel guilty for the rest of their lives. Afghanistan has been facing up to three to four attacks a day in the form of Taliban infantry assaults on towns, villages and police stations or in the form of insidious car or motorcycle bombs detonated to wipe out targeted individuals. On 20 January a suicide car bomber targeted a bus carrying employees of the privately-run Afghan Tolo TV channel, killing seven people. It was heartbreaking news because many of the dead were younger journalists who bought news to our doorsteps. They left a number of young children behind. Unrestrained violence For months the army and the government were telling Pakistanis they had seen the back of Taliban extremism after an 18-month-long military campaign in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan in which they said about 2,000 militants had been killed. Yet Pakistanis woke up earlier this month to mourn dozens killed in three suicide attacks on three successive days. The worst - if there is such a delineation when we talk about such unrestrained violence - was the attack on 20 January on a university at Charsadda in the north west of the country that claimed the lives of 22 students and professors. The day before 10 soldiers and civilians were killed by a suicide bomber at a check post in the north-west, while on 18 January six soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in the centre of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province. It is not just the Taliban who are orchestrating the violence. Afghanistan is facing a multi-dimensional civil war with the Afghan Taliban fighting and killing representatives of the Kabul government as well as al-Qaeda, break-away Taliban factions and Central Asian groups. On top of all that it is also at daggers drawn with militants from so-called Islamic State. Distant onlookers may say it is good that extremists are fighting among themselves, but we who are closer to the ground know the truth. In such battles it is only the innocent, the bystanders, the children and the people at the wrong place at the wrong time who are the victims. There are no victories to be had or territory to be gained in such brutal internal combat. The worst tragedies always affect the bravest of men and women. That was the case with the bombing of the bus in Kabul. Tolo TV employs some of the best and brightest staff and is setting the pace for the rest of the Afghan media. Saad Mohseni and his family - who run Tolo - have been threatened by the Taliban for some time but they and their staff have laboured on regardless. Meanwhile the mainstream Afghan Taliban are capturing territory, now exerting control over large swathes of southern and central Afghanistan as well as the fragile road system which they can block at any time. They have the capacity to starve certain cities. The fact is that the closer you are to such wanton killing the more it affects you, making you irritable, sad and less inclined to go out too much. People are constantly on the watch to ensure their children have returned home safely a night. Yet people are also aware that such suffering is only a drop in the ocean compared with what is going on in Syria and Iraq, where on many days casualties can soar into the hundreds. On 17 January for example IS launched a three-pronged assault on the town of Deir al-Zour, killing some 135 Syrian soldiers and civilians while kidnapping another 400. The fact is that at ground level it does not appear that the world is beating back IS. In fact there is a growing perception of international dithering and procrastination. The world needs more diplomacy to bring its disparate parts together, to heal longstanding wounds and forge a coalition of the truly willing to combat this scourge, this Black Death of our time. Above all it requires the Muslim world to wake up to the abominations it is allowing within its ranks and join together to fight the extremists. The West cannot do for the Muslim world what Muslims must do for themselves. Similarly it cannot provide endless numbers of troops, trainers and special forces when Muslim nations refuse to take the initiative and prefer instead to be preoccupied by internal conflicts - such as that between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Ahmed Rashid | [
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world-africa-42996851 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42996851 | Liberian church massacre survivors seek US justice | The Monrovia Church massacre in 1990 was the worst single atrocity of the Liberian civil war. About 600 civilians, including many children, were killed while taking refuge in a church. Now, four survivors are bringing a claim for damages against one of the men they believe was responsible, reports Elizabeth Blunt who was a BBC correspondent in Liberia at the time. | It was July 1990, and rebel fighters were advancing on the capital, Monrovia. President Samuel Doe was holed up in his vast, gloomy Executive Mansion. After dark bands of soldiers roamed the streets, looting shops and warehouses and seeking out people from Nimba County, the area where the rebellion had started. They dragged the men from their homes, beating and often killing them. Hundreds of terrified families, looking for a safer place to sleep, took refuge in St Peter's Lutheran Church - a spacious building in a walled compound. Huge Red Cross flags flew at every corner. But on the night of 29 July, government soldiers came over the wall and started killing those inside. An estimated 600 people - men, women, children, even babies - were shot or hacked to death with machetes before the order was given to stop. A Guinean woman doctor, who was one of the first to reach the church the next day, described to me the scene of utter horror. Dead bodies were everywhere. The only sign of life was a baby crying. She describes having to walk over corpses to reach the child, but when she picked it up and tried to comfort it, she said she suddenly saw a flicker of movement, and then another. A few children had survived, protected by the bodies of their parents, but only when they saw her, a civilian and a woman taking care of the baby, did they dare to come out. One of the child survivors is among those now suing for damages. 'Protected status' American missionary Bette McCrandall was there, too, that morning - she had lain awake the previous night, listening to everything that was happening from the Lutheran bishop's compound close by. She says those events have stayed with her, even all these years afterwards, as they have with all the survivors. "The memories of that day and that night don't leave me," she says. This was the worst atrocity of the war, the event so shocking that it drove neighbouring countries to mount an armed intervention. Yet no-one has ever been prosecuted or held responsible. The man now being taken to court in the US is Moses Thomas, formerly a colonel in the much-feared Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (Satu), based at the Executive Mansion. Survivors have identified him as one of those giving orders that night. Now he lives in the US state of Pennsylvania. Like many Liberians, he was given what is known as "temporary protected status", because of the atrocities which were going on back home. Liberia has had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Mr Thomas was among those recommended for prosecution - but no cases have ever been brought. So now a movement has started to bring them to justice outside Liberia. Speaking to the BBC after being served court papers on Monday, Mr Thomas called the allegation "nonsense". "I don't want to give any credence to the allegation," he said. "No-one in my unit had anything to do with the attack on the church." 'Small victory' Hassan Bility, who heads the Global Justice and Research Project in Monrovia, said he was pleased with the latest development. "For 27 years the survivors of this massacre have fought and laboured for justice without success, and nobody has been paying any attention - not the Liberian government, not anybody outside. So this is a small victory," he says. What happened in Liberia's civil war? 1989: Charles Taylor starts rebellion against President Samuel Doe 1990: Doe horrifically killed by rebels 1997: Civil war ends after death of some 250,000 people. Taylor elected president 2012: Taylor convicted of war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone Ms McCrandall certainly sees it as important. "For me," she says, "it is a chance for him to own up to what he has done, and on whose orders. "That person will have to live and die with the guilt of what he has done. And in my mind it is comforting to me that this issue has not been put to rest, that the case has not been dropped." The snag is that for the moment this is only a civil suit, not a criminal case. A number of criminal prosecutions have started in Europe, where courts will hear cases for war crimes under so-called "universal jurisdiction". In the US that is more difficult, so campaigners against impunity have had to be ingenious. One Liberian warlord, known as "Jungle Jabbah", was recently prosecuted for immigration fraud, since he had falsely claimed on his application that he had never belonged to any armed group. Trial in Liberia? Mr Thomas is being sued in a civil action by four of the survivors. If they win, he is unlikely to be able to afford much in damages. But campaigners hope that the evidence which comes out in court will make the American authorities question his "protected" status, opening the way for a criminal prosecution or deportation. But if he is deported back to Liberia, what then? Would he go on trial? Liberia never set up a special court and has never tried any war crimes cases. Many suspects still hold high positions. Campaigner Hassan Bility clings to the hope that now, with a new government now in place, things might be different. "The current President, George Weah, was totally disconnected from the war," he says. "He was not part of any faction; he was playing football in Europe... And he gets a lot of his support from poor people, the ones who really suffered in the war... We have the opportunity right now to do this". | [
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magazine-15366156 | https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15366156 | All in a name: 25 of your changes | The Magazine's recent piece on changing your name by deed poll prompted lots of readers to email examples. Here are 25 of the best. | People change their given names for many reasons, as discussed in the article, and a wide selection is represented here. 1. I changed my middle name last week from Eleanor to Deci after collecting sponsorship to do so. I raised about £400 for the mental health groups I work for. It's only being changed for a year so I don't have to worry about getting a new passport though. A lot of people are calling me Deci or Decibel at the moment. Janet Deci Bell, London 2. My wife and I changed our names when we married. It seemed unfair that I kept my surname and she had to give up hers. A new name also gave us the chance to create something that belonged just to us. By combining our surnames, Walker and Bland, we came up with Blake. Twenty-seven years later we're a pair of very happy Blakes. David Blake, London 3. I took a bet with my work colleague to change. He bet me £1,000 I would not do it but I did. At the time I was 23 stone so the name - John ateall-thepies - was appropriate. This was over two years ago and I am now 15 stone after a long diet. I have since changed my name back to John Spring as I got asked so many times as to why I had this name due to my new figure! John Spring, Sutton 4. Changed name to RU Seerius to stand for parliamentary election. Monster Raving Loony Party of course. Jonathan Brewer, Derbyshire 5. I had my middle name changed to "Danger". Names aren't that important and I think everyone should choose their own name when they come of age. There should be less James Smiths and more Zig-Zag Banana-Hammocks in this world. My mum was fairly mystified when she found out but she didn't give me a middle name to start with so it's sort of her fault anyway, leaving me a blank canvas to paint on. My friend paid for the name change as a birthday present. I'm thinking of changing my first name to "Incredible". Lee Danger Cooper, London 6. I was christened Julian Ralph Willetts Cook but found myself in a school year with four other boys named Julian. At the time my parents were living in Africa so I travelled a bit more than other kids at school, and with the surname Cook I ended up with the nickname Thomas Cook (the travel agent). This quickly got shortened to Tom, which is what I got used to being called. I filed a statutory declaration to simply add Tom on to the front of my existing names. My sister and my niece and nephew as well as my aunt and cousins still call me Julian, and my wife has got used to switching to Julian when we are with them. For everyone else, I'm Tom. Tom Cook, Cowbridge 7. I changed my name to Joseph Stuart James Walcroft-Woodward from my birth name Stuart James Woodward. I changed my family name after genealogical research proved that my direct male line ancestors had a different name. I also first-named myself after a hero from my ancestry, Joseph, who fought and survived throughout the Peninsular War (1807-1814) as well as military service before and after that. I have retained my birth names because I like them and also in honour of my parents. In all normal circumstances I am still known as Stuart Woodward and called Stuart. The rest is really just for my own deeply-held feelings of connection to my forbears. Joseph Stuart James Walcroft-Woodward, Colchester 8. I changed my name last year. I was registered at birth as Anne Carolyn but was called Carolyn from a young child. After a serious illness which involved undergoing lots of hospital procedures, I was sick to death of being called Anne so I applied to have the Anne removed from my name and now I am just Carolyn Mitchell - and very happy with it! Carolyn Mitchell, Harrogate 9. I changed my surname by deed poll to take my wife's name when we got married. I believe the practice of the woman taking the man's name is somewhat anachronistic. It also helped that my surname was Green so Chapelle is much nicer! Similarly my wife is one of two sisters so there is a concern the Chapelle name would die out. Of course, the law of Sod, we have now gone on to have two daughters so let's hope they find a man prepared to do the same. Dan Chapelle, Ipswich 10. I had to pay to change my name to have the same married surname as my partner and now my son. I was not allowed to double up my surname with my partner's as she did with mine when we married. Lee Hamilton-Evans, Brighton 11. I was Caroline for the first 17 years of my life, but I've been Charlie for the last 24 years. My mother chose a very popular first name for me - I had nine school friends in my year with the same name, or a variation thereof - so, to be different, I changed it in my last year of school, much to the amusement of my fellow pupils. I chose Charlie in honour of my grandfather, of whom I was very fond. I changed my name legally in 1994 in order to have my new name on my passport. Charlie, Edinburgh 12. I was born Claire Lily Botley and was teased and tormented throughout school. My mum remarried when I was nine and I became legally known as Claire Lily Douglas. My mother divorced her husband and I decided that I wanted my doctorate title to be associated with my maternal family. I recently got married but have decided not to change my surname for the fourth time as I must remain Scott for work purposes. My uncle's speech at my wedding made reference to me having had more surnames than he had had cars. Dr Claire L Scott, Glenrothes 13. I didn't exactly change my name, just added to it. Having lived without a middle name since birth and feeling that I'd missed out, I thought long and hard about it and finally took my father's middle name and changed it by deed poll. My full name is now Alison Ogston Leith. I have two grown up children who were both given middle names - I wouldn't have had it any other way. Alison Leith, Aberdeenshire 14. I changed my name when I was 18 (now 46) but only by reversing my two forenames and then adding a third forename which was a family name. I was Christopher Michael Young, I am now Michael Christopher George Young. My parents were unhappy about the change and my mother still insists on using my former first name! Michael Young, Brighton 15. When I was in the RAF I was offered a Branch Commission (a commission in one's own trade) but it was suggested to me that I change my name as officers and gentleman did not have foreign names. Can you imagine them suggesting that these days? I did change it, but when I was invalided out I changed it back again. I'm not ashamed of being half Greek - quite the opposite. Len Loullis, Stamford 16.When I was a teenager I changed my name when my mum remarried but when she went to the solicitors, she called me and asked if I wanted to change my first name from Charlotte to Charlie as well as changing my surname, to which I said yes. Now as an adult I hate my name being Charlie, with all the "ooh I was expecting to see a man" and "that's a man's name isn't it?" comments. It is my biggest regret. I will shortly be changing my name back to Charlotte! Charlie Hawkes, Wolverhampton 17. I changed my name a couple of years ago now. I can't say it was because I wanted to be a celebrity or anything like that, I just didn't like the former name (John). Do I regret changing my name? No I don't and I can honestly say I feel happier about myself. Admittedly I changed my full name and I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with the surname but I created it on the basis of ideals and methods that I want to follow. Kai Childheart, UK 18. I changed my surname by statutory declaration as I wanted to leave the surname of my ex-husband, but my new man did not want to get married. I also wanted my new baby to have the same surname as both her parents (she is now 28), and outside the family most people assumed we were married. Anne Course, Surrey 19. I changed my name after my husband left me and we got a divorce in 2010. My maiden name was Ebbage and I think the reason that I did not revert back to it was because I was going through a lot of self-discovery at the time of my divorce. I have always been a fan of Agatha Christie and at the time I was reading her autobiography and her account of the separation from her first husband. After talking it over with my parents I decided to change my name to Lesley Anne Christie and the day I was able to change my name at the bank, at work and the council was the day I finally felt freedom from my upsetting marriage. I love telling people my name and every time I see it and say it, I am reminded of a very wonderful woman and the strength I found inside myself to overcome a very painful time in my life. Lesley Christie, Cheltenham 20. My (then) seven-year-old daughter and I both chose the name O'Hara as our last name based on my Irish ancestry. We rejected both my father's name and her father's name and chose instead our own family name. Why should we be burdened by the name(s) of people we feel no connection with or loyalty to? We chose to abandon the patriarchal naming system and move forward with our own, new, chosen family name. Kate O'Hara, Hong Kong 21. My current name is Alixandrea Corvyn and was chosen by combining my original first name (Alix) with the name of a character I created in a short story I wrote. The Corvyn comes from the Latin "Corvus" for crow and the surname "Corbin" of one of my favourite artists. I was Alixandrea online for a good year or two before I officially changed my name. I also considered it as my "stage name" before deciding to take it for all aspects of my life. Alixandrea Corvyn, Cambridge 22. My previous surname was Timms. My wife's maiden name was Fowler and she had a son by a previous relationship, also with the surname Fowler. Between meeting and marrying we had two further children and we had to decide what we would do for a family name. After discussions with my wife's first son, who didn't want to loose the Fowler name, we decided to hyphenate our surnames and this is the surname given to our two newborn children at birth. For some years we were a family unit with one surname until my wife's first born son elected to change his name to an obscure made up Italian-style name in an effort to attract girls. This didn't work and he suffered a fair deal of abuse from his peers over it so he promptly changed it back. David Fowler-Timms, Northampton 23. When my parents divorced my mum wanted to change her surname but still wanted to have the same name as my brother and I. Since her family are Spanish it seemed like a logical choice to go double barrelled but sometimes I regret it as the UK doesn't seem to be prepared for it. I often have problems filling out my full name and when I do companies drop one of my surnames. Sometimes I wish I had a nice normal name rather than Chani Emily Francisca Lawrence Martinez - it is a bit of a mouthful! Chani Lawrence Martinez, Bristol 24. I changed my surname last September and it was the best decision of my life. I haven't seen my father for over 10 years. While this used to upset me as a child, I now felt it was time to move on. I felt that my old name associated me with him, as it was his surname as well. I took my nana's maiden name and I feel liberated from my past. My nana was honoured that I took her name and I love that people associate me with her because of my name change. Holly Fernyhough, Keele 25. I am an actor and the opportunity to change my name came when I applied to join Equity. There was already someone with my name in the union.I changed my name in 1998, at the age of 30. It took me a very long time to realise that I felt dissociated from it, that my name didn't - and never had - described "me". When I changed it to something I felt more comfortable with, I immediately noticed how much happier I felt to give my name when asked for it. Not that my birth name was a stupid one - it just wasn't me. Richard Ely, Alfreton And someone who was tempted but did not: 26.When I was younger and fed up with all of the jokes I swore I would change my name as soon as I was old enough. Now I wouldn't dream of changing it. It is a part of who I am and it is memorable, which isn't a bad thing at all so long as you are remembered for the right reasons! Bill Badger, Romford | [
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world-us-canada-39724045 | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39724045 | 100 days: America in a time of Trump | Presidential elections are always something of a national Rorschach test. | By Nick BryantBBC News, New York The reaction to candidates, like the perception of inkblots, helps to divulge the nation's character, underlying disorders and emotional condition. Donald Trump's unexpected victory showed that America had a split personality. It also revealed that, among his 62 million supporters, rage and fear were over-riding emotions. Make America Great Again not only became a mission statement but a nostalgic catch-all. For many of his white working-class supporters, it implied a return to an era when the homeland was more homogenised and the world was less globalised. The first 100 days of an administration, though in many ways a bogus measure, can also be diagnostic. They can reveal the character of a presidency and set the tone. Also they are indicative of the health of US democracy: the functioning of its institutions, executive, legislative and judicial; the workability of the US constitution and the dispersion of political, economic and cultural power. Inauguration day was a celebration for some, a convulsion for others. What is the state of the nation now? The Character of the Presidency What has become clear since Donald Trump delivered his inaugural address is that he has changed the presidency more than the presidency has changed him. The vocabulary of President Trump, if not all his policies, is much the same as that of candidate Trump. To the White House he has brought the same aggression and plain speaking that characterised his insurgent campaign. Social media remains his favoured conduit with the American people. Twitter is to Trump what television was to JFK and radio was to FDR. But it is his means of expression, more than the utilisation of a new medium, that marks such a break from the past. At his inaugural ball he vowed to keep tweeting. By choosing Frank Sinatra's My Way for his first dance, he also gave us a musical clue as to how he would govern. Trump would be Trump. The anti-politician had morphed into the anti-president. His so-far unsubstantiated allegation that Barack Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower - "Bad (or sick) guy!" he tweeted - emphasised how he does not feel bound by presidential protocols or conventions. Here he disdained the longstanding tradition that incumbent presidents avoid savage attacks on their predecessors. From his ongoing refusal to release his tax returns to his stonewalling of requests to disclose visitor logs at the White House, he has indicated normal rules do not apply to him. All this continues to horrify his critics but not most of his supporters. They voted for unorthodoxy, and seem to have granted him dispensation to flout norms so long as he delivers results. And yet, he has received highest marks when he is at his most conventionally presidential. His speech to the joint session of Congress, which was similar in language and tone to normal State of the Union addresses, was probably the highpoint of his first 100 days. It got far better reviews than his inaugural, both from Republicans and some Democrats. His decision to strike Syria also trod the path of orthodoxy. Cool-headed and cogent, his late-night statement explaining his decision to strike was also standard presidential fare. Even some of his detractors remarked how in these two moments he truly assumed the mantles of president and commander-in-chief. Lauded by many Democrats who wished Obama had enforced his red line on chemical weapons, the strike on Syria angered some hardline loyalists. Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and Michael Cernovich, a self-styled "American nationalist", were dismayed that pictures of dying children moved him so easily and that he acted like a neo-conservative rather than a neo-isolationist. Unsurprisingly perhaps, conformism infuriates the alt-right. Flip-flops on Syria, Chinese currency manipulation and Nato have made Trump's foreign policy appear erratic and incoherent. The confusion over whether or not his administration continues to support a two-state solution in the Middle East displayed a lack of clarity that perplexed foreign diplomats. His congratulations to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a referendum granting him more authoritarian powers was markedly different from the cautious reaction of European leaders. Ahead of the French presidential election, Trump said of Marine Le Pen "she's the strongest on borders and she's the strongest on what's been going on in France". His words, which came close to an endorsement, prompted this shocked response from former Bush speechwriter David Frum: "Collect jaw from floor, reinsert in head." Had one of his predecessors implied support for a far-right candidate, the political storm would have lasted days, and possibly overshadowed their entire presidency. But the response to Trump's remarks was more like a passing shower. It spoke of how quickly the abnormal has become quotidian under this presidency. There's an argument to be made that Trump is at his most successful in foreign affairs when he's at his most unpredictable for the simple reason that is when he's most feared. The Assad regime will surely hesitate before ordering another chemical strike. Nato's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he's already seeing the effect of Trump's focus on financial burden-sharing within the military alliance. The American aid worker Aya Hijazi was released after three years in detention only when Trump raised her case with President Sisi. At the United Nations, there's a new focus on reform, especially of peacekeeping operations. This is partly because there is a new reformist Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, but mainly because of the fear that the US, by far the organisation's biggest donor, could pull funding. Trump has brought a fear factor to the American presidency often absent during the Obama years. Richard Nixon labelled this kind of strategic unpredictability the Madman Theory, and saw it as an essential diplomatic tool. Communist bloc leaders, the theory went, would not provoke America because of the unpredictability of the president's response. It might be crazed. Nuclear even. But the fact that Nixon used this approach in Vietnam shows its shortcomings. In the present context, it's a risky approach to apply to North Korea, but the Trump administration clearly believes "the era of strategic patience" towards Kim Jong-un is over, and that sabre rattling will jolt Beijing into pressuring Pyongyang. The next 100 days, presumably, will tell. Overall, there's a "good cop, bad cop" dynamic to the Trump administration's diplomacy. Mainstream foreign policy types such as Defence Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson adopt the more conventional approach. Trump lends menace, often through his tweets. Sometimes the very administration seems to have a split personality. Yet the first 100 days have probably yielded more results in the foreign realm than the domestic. Noticeable in these first 100 days has been the corporatisation of the presidency. There's a chairman-of-the-board feel to his daily routine, with its meetings and photo opportunities that often place him in a leather-backed chair in the presidential boardroom - the West Wing basically has two, the Roosevelt Room and the Cabinet Room - surrounded by corporate chiefs. His cabinet is also packed with fellow billionaires and multi-millionaires. This raises the question of whether a super-rich president at the head of a super-rich cabinet can remain a working-class hero in the all-important Rust Belt. After spending time last week in the Ohio River Valley, which is dotted with derelict steelworks, what struck me was how few of his supporters cared. "No-one works for a poor man," said one Trump devotee. There's a nagging sense one business that's undoubtedly seen an uptick is Trump Inc. Potential conflicts of interests abound, and it is hard sometimes to differentiate where the presidency ends and the family business begins. There's been criticism that Trump spends so much time at resorts owned by the Trump Organization. The mixing of business with the presidency could yet be his undoing . An aim of staffing the administration with so many executives was to vest government with corporate know-how and efficiency. But this presidential start-up has been surprisingly accident-prone, critics would say incompetent. Whether with big-ticket items such as the original travel ban or fairly trivial matters, like misspelling Theresa May's name in a White House memo handed to reporters, it has often shown itself to be slapdash. Turf battles between hardline figures like Steve Bannon and moderates like Jared Kushner also belie Trump's boast that it is a "fine-tuned machine". David Brooks, a conservative columnist for the New York Times, has labelled it "a golden age of malfunction". When a new administration fumbles what should have been a pro-forma presidential statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day you sense there is a problem. When the White House spokesman claims that Hitler did not use chemical weapons against his own people, it suggests it has lost the historical plot. These last examples showed not only a disregard for detail but also an apparent disdain for truth. The first 100 days has produced a litany of falsehoods. A scorecard compiled by the website Politifact found that of Trump's statements 69% were either mostly false, false or "pants on fire". Alternative facts: Kellyanne Conway was lampooned when she first used this Orwellian-sounding phrase, but it perfectly captured the twilight zone of truth often found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Under Donald Trump, the White House is no longer a reliable source. Victories are often lost in the swirl of controversy. Illegal crossings over the southern border have fallen sharply, by 40% during the first month of Trump's presidency, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That's the steepest decline since 2009. With immigration arrests up by almost a third in the first month, there's a feeling among his supporters that he is delivering on his pledge to protect America's border, even if construction has not yet started on his famed wall. Trump would argue he has already made the homeland safer. A by-product of Trump's troubled presidential launch has been to burnish the reputations of his predecessors. For Democrats, the idolatry of Barack Obama gathers pace. George Herbert Walker Bush, recently ailing in hospital, has become even more of a revered national elder. His son, George W, the one-time Toxic Texan, has been subject to some speedy historical revisionism. Not only has his newly published collection of portraits of wounded warriors won acclaim, as a work of the hand and the heart, his reported remarks at Trump's inauguration - "That was some weird sh**" - have come close to making him a folk hero of the left. Might Trump one day be subject to this kind of reassessment? The hostile commentary on him is similar to the scorn heaped on Ronald Reagan. Yet the movie star president is now widely seen as the leader who, by winning the Cold War, ended America's long national nightmare after Vietnam and Watergate. Lyndon Baines Johnson was pilloried as a racist vulgarian, but nonetheless enacted transformative legislation such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act, dismantling segregation, and launching Medicare. History remembers John F Kennedy's early presidency for the elegance of his inaugural address and the photogenic beauty of his New Frontier, but his first months in office were full of missteps. They included the Bay of Pigs, a string of congressional setbacks and a disastrous summit with Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, which emboldened the Soviet leader to build the Berlin Wall. While Trump cannot yet boast much of a record of accomplishment in these first 100 days, there are still 1361 to go. Checks and Balances A "civics lesson from hell" was how the Harvard academic Louis Menand described the contested aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, with its hanging chads, thwarted recounts and litigation. Not since the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Bush versus Gore has the US constitution faced such a stress test. Now, as then, we have learned where power in America truly lies, and how the checks and balances hard-wired into the US system operate in practice. Donald Trump's executive power has continually been constrained. After signing that early executive order banning entrants from seven mainly Muslim countries, the courts intervened to block him. It was an early constitutional test. But although Trump railed against the "so-called judges" who thwarted him, using unusually vehement language, his administration abided by the court's decision and kept within the law. With the checks and balances working as the founding fathers intended, a constitutional crisis was averted. With Trumpcare, it wasn't the courts that blocked Trump but Congress. As he sought to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump could not even secure a simple majority in a House of Representatives under Republican control. Had his healthcare proposals cleared that hurdle in the lower house, parts of the reform package would have run into trouble in the Senate. There the Republicans also enjoy a majority but not one big enough to enact bills into law without bipartisan support. With the legislative branch restraining the executive branch, again the constitution worked as intended. The Republican leadership, frustrated by these checks, successfully removed one of them: the use of the filibuster in blocking nominees to America's highest court - in this instance, Trump's nominee Neil Gorsuch. This did not involve an amendment to the constitution, rather a revision of Senate rules, but it was nonetheless momentous. This nuclear option, as it is called, delivered a clear win for the president: the elevation of Judge Gorsuch to the bench. However, the filibuster remains intact to block his legislative agenda, and Democrats will use it to thwart Trump. In recent years, as Washington has become more ungovernable, there's been a growing literature about the inoperability of the constitution, and how its checks and balances have acted more like spanners in the works. Just as Republicans, the great practitioners of the politics of No, used the constitution to stymie Barack Obama, Democrats are relying upon it to impede Donald Trump. For them, the constitution must now seem timeless and timely. A number of Democrats have told me that the genius of the Founding Fathers was to anticipate this kind of presidency. In these first 100 days, we have been reminded of the power of states and municipalities. We have seen an inversion of the doctrine of states' rights. For decades, states' rights was the battle-cry of white supremacists determined to uphold segregation in defiance of federal court orders demanding integration. Now progressive states are using this principle. Some of the biggest cities in the country, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, are wilfully obstructing Trump's immigration crackdown. Thus, sanctuary cities have become to the progressive left what segregationist citadels were to the racist right, emblematic battlefields in a tug of war between local government and the federal government. Similar battle-lines have been marked out over climate change. Protest power has also emerged as a significant force, as something akin to a national passion play has unfolded on the streets. The sea of pink pussy hats at the massive women's marches on the first weekend of the presidency vividly highlighted a new sense of personal political empowerment: people ready to take matters into their own hands. The speed at which demonstrators congregated at US airports in the immediate aftermath of the ban surely had an emboldening effect on the state attorneys general who successfully challenged it in the courts. The death certificate of Trumpcare may have been signed in the House of Representatives, but mortal wounds were inflicted in those angry town meetings, which alarmed Republican lawmakers. Maybe one of the reasons President Donald Trump has not yet returned to Trump Tower in Manhattan is the fear of massive demonstrations in the city of his birth. For the past eight years, popular anger was on the right of US politics. Now it is on the left. The pertinent political question over the coming years will be to what extent the Democratic Party can harness this street agitation. Will there be a Tea-Party-style mobilisation of progressives that translates into real political power? Or are opponents of Donald Trump pinning more faith in pressure groups than the Democratic Party? The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, has witnessed a fundraising bonanza. The ACLU raked in $24m (£18.7m) in online donations the weekend after the first travel ban, six times the amount it normally raises in a year. Constrained by Congress, the courts and his own party, so far this has not been an imperial presidency, the phrase coined by the historian Arthur M Schlesinger Jr to describe the Nixon White House, which was accused, even before the Watergate break-in, of pushing constitutional bounds. Rather it has been an inhibited presidency, in which Donald Trump has been made all too aware of the limits of his executive power. Economy, Business and Culture Donald Trump's promise to Make America Great Again was primarily an economic pledge, and there were early signs of a Trump Bump on Wall Street and Main Street. Just three trading days after the new president took the oath of office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the 20,000 mark for the first time in its history. Investors expected him to slash corporate taxes and set fire to business regulations. Not since 2000, a report suggested last month, has consumer confidence been so buoyant. This rosy soft data has not been matched by hard economic data. The US economy added just 98,000 jobs in March, almost half of what some economists expected. Industrial production and housing starts were lower than expected. Retail sales, which should have risen with consumer confidence, actually fell by 0.2% in March, their first decline in over a year. The markets, having watched the healthcare debacle, are no longer so confident Trump can deliver lower corporate tax rates and a $1tn infrastructure spend. Barron's, the weekly financial newspaper, recently opined: "Trump bump, we hardly knew ye." As for the impact of Trump's "Buy American, Hire American" doctrine, it is too early to judge. Industry groups have voiced concerns it will raise costs, making it prohibitively expensive to build the new bridges and roads. The tech sector is worried Hire American policies will block or discourage high-skilled immigrants. The tourism industry is reporting a "Trump Slump," because of the off-putting effect of the travel ban and its author. After signalling his willingness to name and shame corporations accused of exporting US jobs abroad or stiffing the federal government, there's evidence it has had a chastening effect. Presumably, no senior executive of a publicly traded company wants to reach for their smartphone in the morning to find their name on his Twitter feed, if only because of the effect it can have on the share price. Boeing, a company that Trump shamed publicly during the transition, says it's made progress with the administration over bringing down the costs of the replacement for Air Force One. The Trump administration also claims to have created jobs by pressuring major corporations to invest in new American plants. Most of these expansion plans were in place, however, before Barack Obama left office. That's true of Ford's Michigan investment, ExxonMobil's Gulf Coast expansion, and Intel's Arizona plant, all of which were touted by the administration as totems of Trumpism. Arguably, the main effect of his self-congratulatory tweets about saving US jobs has been political rather than economic. It has persuaded blue-collar voters that this billionaire populist is battling on their behalf. As for his tweets lambasting business? They've created a love/fear relationship with the corporate sector, which welcomes his deregulation and proposed tax cuts but not necessarily his efforts to roll back globalisation. One sector that has undoubtedly benefited from a Trump bump is the media. The New York Times and Washington Post have seen subscriptions soar. CNN, a network of which obituaries were being written only a few years ago, is enjoying a ratings windfall. Twitter, whose once stagnant user numbers have risen, is finally winning again. Despite high-profile exits, Fox News remains the most influential news channel in America, if only because its breakfast show Fox and Friends is what Trump watches in the morning. Overall, the response of the US journalistic community to Trump's presidency has been to become more adversarial. Reporters like Jim Acosta, anchors like Jake Tapper, and even mild-mannered Wolf Blitzer have adopted a more hard-edged approach. The New York Times has replaced bland headlines with more judgemental wording. A headline three days into his presidency signalled its new approach: Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers. Elsewhere, cultural lines are being blurred, an inevitable response perhaps to a president who turned politics in a new reality show genre. Comedians, faced with the dilemma of satirising a self-satirising White House, have adopted a more journalistic persona. John Oliver and Samantha Bee mix gags with serious reportage, much of it directed against Trump. Stephen Colbert, who struggled at first as David Letterman's successor after shedding his mock right-wing persona, may overtake apolitical Jimmy Fallon in the late-night ratings. The mimicry of Alec Baldwin and the casting of Melissa McCarthy as Sean "Spicey" Spicer have once again made SNL appointment viewing. In the arts, the expectation is that Trump will produce a burst of creativity, in line with the "Take your broken heart, make it into art" plea from Meryl Streep at this year's Golden Globes. But much of that art, whether paintings, screenplays or novels, may still be unfinished. Just as we await the great Trump-era movie - a Doctor Strangelove, The Deer Hunter or Wall Street - there's not yet been a great Trump-inspired novel. For now, literary classics are filling the void. George Orwell's 1984, with an assist from Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts", rose to the top of best-seller lists. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, which imagines as president Charles Lindbergh, the aviator who became the spokesman of the America First Committee in the early years of World War Two, has also enjoyed a revival. Hulu is streaming a dramatisation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which imagines a totalitarian America. On Broadway, a stage adaptation of 1984 is in the works. Then there has been the unexpected success of Come From Away, a feel good 9/11 musical of all things, which tells the story of the nearly 7,000 airline passengers stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Foot-tapping and tear-jerking, the show is all about making outsiders feel at home. Rather pointedly, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took Ivanka Trump to see it. Next month unveils the fifth season of House of Cards, but in the wake of accusations of Russian meddling, its plotlines, once considered so outlandish, now seem more run-of-the-mill, a case perhaps of life overtaking art. Two Americas To journey from the major coastal cities into the American heartland feels right now like travelling between different countries. There has long been two Americas, one that favours pick-up trucks over Prius hybrids, Walmart over Whole Foods, Duck Dynasty over This American Life. This age of Trump, as well as accentuating those divisions, has brought with it new identifying markers. Do you wear a scarlet Make America Great Again baseball cap or a pink woollen hat? Would you buy an Ivanka Trump dress? Do you agree with Alex Jones, the host of the far-right Infowars, or Van Jones, CNN's leading pundit? Or, more simply, do you have faith in the president? Increasingly, how you respond to Trump determines which America you inhabit. Barack Obama entered office vowing to bring together red and blue state America, though he was a deeply polarising figure who singularly failed in that endeavour. Donald Trump has not tried particularly hard to be a unifying figure. His travel largely has been to states that voted for him. Many of his appearances outside the White House and Mar-a-Lago have essentially been campaign rallies. His Attorney General Jeff Sessions, angry that a judge had challenged the latest travel ban, even referred to Hawaii, which achieved statehood in 1959, as "an island in the Pacific". My own travels around the country, mainly into the Bible and Rust Belt, suggest he remains strong in the regions that sent him to the White House. Last week on the Ohio River Valley, businessmen told me how the Trump Bump is for real. They see it on their balance sheets, with the relaxation of Environmental Protection Agency rules over coal often cited as the reason for the turnaround. Many Rust Belt voters continue to adore Trump because liberals hate him so. They voted for the billionaire partly to punch sneering bicoastal liberals in the nose. They are enjoying the sight of elite blood being shed in such quantities. Because of the shadow cast by the Russian allegations, these first 100 days have sometimes felt like the final days of an ailing administration. Trump is routinely cast as a modern-day Richard Nixon. Yet while it is difficult sometimes to see how this administration can remain viable in its present form, it is harder to imagine how it would be brought to a premature end. Barring some catastrophic revelation emerging from the FBI's investigation into Team Trump's alleged links with the Kremlin or some massive financial scandal, the Republican leadership is unlikely to move against him. In the unlikely event that it launched impeachment proceedings, here the constitution is his friend. It is hard to dislodge an incumbent president. The Founding Fathers, who came up with a governing model that has constrained Trump, also came up with an electoral model, the Electoral College, which has already helped him and may do so again. That will be true if the Rust Belt remains a stronghold. My overwhelming sense, based on the popular vote in November and opinion polls since, is that more Americans are anti-Trump than pro. But my sense also is that many blue-collar battlers remain fiercely loyal. So to write him off would be to repeat the same analytical mistake commentators have made since he first announced for the presidency, that of underestimation. For while Democrats regard their new president as a national embarrassment, many of his supporters continue to view him as a potential national saviour. One hundred days into a presidency the like of which this country has never seen before, the state of the union is disunion. | [
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uk-wales-south-west-wales-32993942 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-32993942 | £6m homes plan for SA1 Swansea Waterfront | Fifty new homes are planned for Swansea after the Welsh government announced a deal with a construction company. | Contracts have been exchanged for two residential sites on SA1 Swansea Waterfront, leaving just four remaining plots at the development. Persimmon Homes West Wales said the £6m project would support a "substantial number" of construction jobs. Work could start later this year subject to planning approval. The company recently completed the new Haven development overlooking the Prince of Wales dock and plans are under way for a £100m waterside campus for University of Wales Trinity Saint David. | [
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explainers-53664064 | https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53664064 | Beirut explosion: What is ammonium nitrate and how dangerous is it? | Nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - taken from a ship off the coast of Beirut six years ago and then stored in a warehouse - has been blamed for the explosion that ripped through the port area of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. | By Tom EdgingtonBBC News But what is ammonium nitrate and why can it be so dangerous? What is ammonium nitrate? Ammonium nitrate is a crystal-like white solid which is made in large industrial quantities. Its biggest use is as a source of nitrogen for fertiliser, but it is also used to create explosives for mining. "You won't just find ammonium nitrate in the ground," explains Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London. That's because it's synthetic, made by reacting ammonia with nitric acid, he says. Ammonium nitrate is made all over the world and is relatively cheap to buy. But storing it can be a problem, and it has been associated with serious industrial accidents in the past. How dangerous is ammonium nitrate? On its own, ammonium nitrate is relatively safe to handle, says Prof Sella. However, if you have a large amount of material lying around for a long time it begins to decay. "The real problem is that over time it will absorb little bits of moisture and it eventually turns into an enormous rock," he says. This makes it more dangerous because if a fire reaches it, the chemical reaction will be much more intense. What caused the mushroom cloud? Videos from Beirut showed smoke billowing from a fire, and then a mushroom cloud following the blast. "You have a supersonic shockwave that is travelling through the air, and you can see that in the white spherical cloud which travels out from the centre, expanding upwards," says Prof Sella. The shockwave is produced from compressed air, he explains. "The air expands rapidly and cools suddenly and the water condenses, which causes the cloud," he adds. How dangerous are the gases produced? When ammonium nitrate explodes, it can release toxic gases including nitrogen oxides and ammonia gas. The orange plume is caused by the nitrogen dioxide, which is often associated with air pollution. "If there isn't much wind, it could become a danger to the people nearby," says Prof Sella. Is it used in bombs? With such a powerful blast, ammonium nitrate has been used by armies around the world as an explosive. It has also been used in several terrorist acts, including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In that instance, Timothy McVeigh used two tonnes of ammonium nitrate to create a bomb which destroyed a federal building and killed 168 people. Has anything like this happened before? | [
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uk-england-leicestershire-15923253 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-15923253 | School closures in Leicestershire and Rutland | When there is severe weather a list of schools that are being affected in Leicester and Leicestershire will appear below. | For information related to school closures in Rutland, please refer to the county council website. The BBC relies on schools and local education authorities to notify it of closures. We advise you to contact your child's school during periods of extreme weather to find out if it has been affected. The page will be manually updated between 06:30 and 21:00 GMT on severe weather days. Please note this page does not auto-update. If no schools are listed below then the BBC has not been made aware of any closures in the region. School closures for [insert date] | [
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uk-england-surrey-17728180 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-17728180 | Epsom soldiers and wives cycle to Germany for charity | A group of soldiers and military wives from Surrey are on a 500 mile (805km) ride from Epsom to Germany to raise money for two rehabilitation centres. | Fifteen cyclists left Headley Court Centre earlier to make the journey to the Personnel Recovery Centre in Normandy Barracks in Sennelager. Both centres help to rehabilitate injured servicemen and women. Capt Ian More said it was a huge challenge as many of the cyclists had not done anything like it before. Sophie Crease, who organised the event, said: "My father was a very keen army cyclist he did something similar in the nineties - I took the idea from him but went a little bit further." The team hopes to arrive in Germany on Friday. | [] |
uk-wales-north-west-wales-38885723 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-38885723 | A55 reopened at Abergwyngregyn after caravan overturns | The A55 in Gwynedd has now reopened after a caravan overturned on the road. | It was being towed by a lorry but had its roof ripped off, with the remainder lying on the road. The incident happened westbound near junction 13, for Abergwyngregyn, but at 16:30 GMT, the eastbound carriageway was also closed. All lanes have now been opened but traffic is still slow in the area. | [
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uk-wales-south-east-wales-38931372 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-38931372 | Plans submitted for 529 homes at former Newport steelworks | Plans to build 529 new homes and a school at a former steelworks in Newport have been submitted to the council . | Whiteheads Steelworks was closed down in 2005 and later demolished as part of the city's regeneration works. Developers say the development, off Mendalgief road, could regenerate a section of Pill "traditionally associated with industry". Plans also include a pub-restaurant, retail and assisted living units. Whiteheads Developments first submitted plans for the development in 2015 with a smaller number of residential properties - 498 - and a care home. Developers changed the plans following noise concerns over the Coilcolor factory and after increased costs of "unforeseen contamination" at the site. | [
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uk-wales-36711013 | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-36711013 | World War One: The role of Cardiff's black serviceman | Many died in the cause of victory, but returned home from World War One to face intolerance, unrest and scorn. Cardiff's multicultural Tiger Bay contributed many black servicemen to the war effort, but there was no hero's welcome on their return. Actress Suzanne Packer looked at what life was like for them 100 years ago. | They served and died alongside white soldiers and seamen in the trenches and on the open sea. But the reward for some upon their return was violence, oppression and deportation. Following a huge surge in the number of men enlisting upon the outbreak of World War One, African and Caribbean men living in Wales found their offers refused. Prof Hakim Ali, an expert in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora, said the time before World War One was "a high point of imperialism... there was a common idea of white supremacy". A newspaper report in May 1915 said: "A number of coloured men have lately presented themselves for enlistment in any of the services at the Glamorgan headquarter recruiting office in Queen Street, but up to the present Recruiting Sergeant Ashton has been reluctantly compelled to decline their services until such time as the War Office consider it politic to form a coloured race battalion." There was talk of starting a black battalion between the ports of Cardiff, Newport, Barry and Swansea, but this never materialised. Some black men did join Welsh regiments, including the 1st Mons and the Welsh Guards, formed in February 1915. Prof Adi said: "Some people joined out of a sense of adventure... others, from the Caribbean and Africa, as well as other countries, believed that they were proving they were just as good, as patriotic, as any white person and, as a result of this sacrifice, they expected if they were going to suffer equally in the trenches or in the merchant fleet, that they should be treated equally when the war ended." Eustace Rhone joined the 3rd Battalion of the Welch Regiment and was deployed to France. He died on 27 September 1915 of gas poisoning, two days after being injured on the battlefield after chemicals fired by the Allies blew back on to the advancing troops. By 1916, the Merchant Navy were short of crew and Yemeni and Somali seamen arrived in Cardiff in significant numbers, including Ali Janrah who lived on Bute Street and rescued his captain after the ship was torpedoed. After the Armistice was signed and sailors returned home, there was unrest in Cardiff over competition for jobs on ships following the increase in the city's minority ethnic population from 700 to 3,000. The frustrations of unemployed veterans exploded in June 1919 with a series of notorious race riots. Mahomed Abdullah, 21, a native of Aden, Yemen, was one of those killed in the riots. He had served on British ships as a fireman. No-one was brought to justice for the killings in the riots. Prof Adi said those who had been attacked were subsequently blamed, so an idea was put forward to repatriate ex-servicemen and others. "Their involvement in war made absolutely no difference to their status at the end of it." The commander of one ship responsible for repatriating men to the Caribbean, The Orca, reported: "They came on board with a grievance that their patriotic services in the mercantile marine during the war have been entirely disregarded and they contend that they have been repatriated in undeserved disgrace without means to support themselves and without facilities to obtain employment." A telegraph from the ship said there had been a mutiny with "coloured troops and civilians" and requested armed guards on arrival in Barbados. One of the British West Indies soldiers, Private Lashley, was shot dead and five others were manacled. Ms Packer said: "So these men, who left the colonies to fight for the mother country, returned in shackles. "These demobilised men must have wondered why did they enlist at all. Why risk their lives on the front line? Or on the merchant ships. "Those who remained in Wales had survived one battle, but another was just beginning, a battle for acceptance that would take generations to win." | [
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