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A man has been charged following a disorder at an under-15s football match in Leicester. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The man, aged 50, is accused of a public order offence at a match between Blaby and Whetstone FC and Leicester Nirvana FC on 21 October, last year. The match was being played at the home of Blaby and Whetstone FC in Warwick Road, Whetstone. The man, who has not been named, is due to appear at Leicester Magistrates' Court on 25 February. |
A mysterious flying triangle has been spotted in the sky over Shropshire in recent weeks - the latest of unexplained goings on stretching over decades. Is the county a hotspot for UFOs? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The "Flying Dorito" as it has become known, was spotted near Sleap Airfield, near Wem, and over The Wrekin, the Shropshire Star reported. These sightings, the former described as an aircraft making a low humming noise, prompted Nigel Haymen to use Your Questions to ask us to investigate. It is not the first time we have looked into what inhabits the skies above Shropshire - in 2010, actor John Challis joined BBC Inside Out to look for UFOs from Lyth Hill in Shrewsbury. The town's UFO Investigations and Research Unit described the hill as a "high intensity" area for sightings at the time. But no flying objects appeared for our cameras. Christian Delaney of the Shropshire Paranormal and UFO Society said he had seen UFOs over the county for a number of years. "I've seen something yellow that looked like a cigar do a figure of eight over the Wrekin for three or four minutes getting faster and faster," he said. "And on Lyth Hill one [a UFO] appeared and the light got bigger and bigger like it was expanding and then changed colour. "I don't know what it is about Shropshire but they do seem to have quite a presence here," he said. Former UFO investigator for the Ministry of Defence, Nick Pope, said: "Shropshire certainly seems to be something of a UFO hotspot. "I personally investigated a fascinating wave of sightings in 1993, centred on RAF Cosford and RAF Shawbury," he said. A meteorological officer at Shawbury described seeing a vast triangular-shaped craft flying slowly over the base, making a low-frequency humming sound, before suddenly accelerating away, many times faster than a military jet, he said. Mr Pope said previous 'Flying Dorito' sightings may have been generated by people seeing the last airworthy Vulcan bomber which stopped flying last year. Or a B2 stealth bomber rarely flown in the UK. "These two [recent pictures] might show a secret prototype aircraft or drone, though another less exciting possibility is that it's a hang glider or a power hang glider," he said. Nathan Cross from Sleap airfield told the Shropshire Star the photo could have been of a Rutan VariEze aircraft at an angle. "I know that one was flying at about the given time and I have spoken to the pilot who concurs," he said. "Or perhaps it is a genuine UFO - we will remain diligent." A West Mercia Police spokesman said: "We've had no reports of UFOs over the Shropshire area since March of this year. In that case the report turned out to be a helicopter. "Over the last few years we've had a total of four reports of UFOs within Shropshire, including the helicopter...none were suspicious." Mr Pope said aircraft lights, weather balloons, meteors, satellites and Chinese lanterns can be mistaken for UFOs. "People really do want to think there's something out there," he said. "Additionally, people's mistrust of government fuels conspiracy theories, and the idea that the authorities are covering up the truth about UFOs is a popular one. "I should say that there's no smoke without fire, and that while the sceptics have to be right every day, the believers only have to be right once." This story was inspired by a question from Nigel Haymen. |
As Venezuela prepares for 14 April elections - the first presidential poll without Hugo Chavez's name on the ballot in almost two decades - the choice for voters appears as stark and as divisive as ever, the BBC's Will Grant in Caracas reports. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
While he was alive, very few committed supporters of late President Hugo Chavez would ever openly criticise him. They had no time for opposition arguments about the government's control of the media and the judiciary, and rejected the idea that Venezuela was living under a dictatorship. Rather, when there were complaints they tended to be over more immediate quality-of-life issues: infrequent rubbish collections or a lack of local sporting facilities. In pro-Chavez neighbourhoods - like 23 de Enero in the capital, Caracas - such problems were easily solved with oil money. Shouting over the noise of a gleaming-new government rubbish truck as it crushes the mountains of waste outside her building, local co-operative leader Judith Vegas explains how she has enjoyed a direct line to the Chavez government for years. She shows us around a brand new baseball ground and takes us on the shiny lifts which the socialist administration installed in the crumbling 1950s housing blocs. In her state-owned apartment, Judith cannot hold back her tears when talking about Hugo Chavez. "It hurts me what's happening," she says between sobs. "I loved him and everything he did for us." For Judith, the most fitting tribute to the late socialist leader is a vote for his chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro, in next month's election. "We'll love Maduro, too. The absence of Chavez won't mean that things will stop here. No. Chavez is inside all of us." But her support for Mr Maduro isn't completely unconditional. "It's not that we don't trust him but he must follow the lines which Chavez left down to the letter so that this revolution can continue. "If he fails to do so, he will come up against the people on 14 April," she warns, before adding brightly: "But I'm sure he won't." 'Commando Hugo Chavez' Millions of like-minded Chavistas agree. Although campaigning doesn't officially get underway until 2 April, tens of thousands turned out to the National Electoral Council earlier this month to see Mr Maduro hand in his credentials as presidential candidate. The rally outside was, in all but name, an election campaign event. Unsurprisingly, Mr Chavez's image is emblazoned across all of the United Socialist Party's election propaganda. "We are trying to choose between two names for the campaign team," Nicolas Maduro told the assembled crowd. "It's between 'Commando Battle of Carabobo,'" he said to muted murmurs, "or 'Commando Hugo Chavez'!" he cried - to rapturous applause. "Approved! My election team will be called Commando Hugo Chavez!" the acting president declared. One of the Commando's main leaders is Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez. He opened the doors of his office to BBCMundo - in a rare at-length interview in the days immediately after Mr Chavez's death. He was still wearing the armband in the colours of the Venezuelan flag which all of Mr Chavez's inner circle had worn at his funeral. "Without doubt we have lost the most important leader of the 20th and 21st Century," Mr Ramirez opened by saying. "I have been his oil minister for 10 uninterrupted years. President Chavez wasn't just our boss and our leader, he was our friend." When the discussion turned to the election, Mr Ramirez was adamant about what he believed April's vote entailed. "This is a referendum to confirm the political will already expressed by the people last October (in the presidential election which Mr Chavez won by 11%) and then again in December when we won 20 of the 23 governorships in the country." And he was typically dismissive of the chances of the opposition's candidate, Henrique Capriles. "There is no way that the right wing will again govern this country. And much less, these men." 'Unique opportunity' In opposition circles, they know they face an extremely tough prospect against a man hand-picked by Mr Chavez the day before his final cancer operation. Nevertheless, Mr Capriles is showing a far more aggressive style against Mr Maduro than he did against Mr Chavez last year, resolutely refusing to call him president and referring to him instead as just "Nicolas". There is even an outside possibility of a televised debate between the candidates - something Mr Chavez never countenanced. In an interview earlier this year, before Mr Chavez's death, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spoke of the prospects for the opposition in a post-Chavez Venezuela. "After 14 years of control of the media, resources and all the public powers, in our last electoral processes, which were not clear and fair processes, almost half the population voted against (Hugo Chavez)." "That shows that Venezuelans understand the true nature of the regime which tries to be imposed on us: a regime in which citizens are dependent on the government and are not allowed the right to disagree or dissent." This was "a wonderful, unique opportunity to produce a true transformation of our society", she added. In the country's first presidential election without Hugo Chavez's name on the ballot in almost 20 years, it seems the choice in front of Venezuelans remains as stark and as divisive as ever. |
The government has suffered a second Brexit defeat in the House of Lords as peers backed, by 366 votes to 268, calls for a "meaningful" parliamentary vote on the final terms of withdrawal. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Ministers said it was disappointing and they would seek to overturn the move when the bill returns to the Commons. Lord Heseltine, one of 13 Tory peers to rebel, said he had been sacked as a government adviser on regional growth. The previous defeat was on the issue of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens. Lord Heseltine, 83, who served as a minister in the Thatcher government, said he was informed by the Conservative chief whip in the Lords he was to be sacked "from the five jobs with which I have been helping the government". "This is entirely the right of the prime minister and I'm sorry that the expertise which I have put at the government's disposal over the last six years has now come to an end," he said. "However, in the last resort, I believe, as I said in the House of Lords, the future of this country is inextricably interwoven with our European friends. "It's the duty of Parliament to assert its sovereignty in determining the legacy we leave to new generations of young people." Lord Heseltine had been brought in by former Prime Minister David Cameron to advise the government on a range of projects, including schemes in east London and Swansea. 'Deal or no deal' After a three-hour debate on Tuesday, for the second time in a week peers amended the legislation that will authorise Theresa May to notify the EU of the UK's intention to leave and pave the way for official Brexit talks to begin. The turnout in the Lords for the vote was the largest since 1831, according to Parliament's website. The amendment, which was carried by a majority of 98, would require the final terms of the UK's withdrawal from the EU to be put to separate votes in the Commons and the Lords. Some peers believe this would amount to a veto but ministers insist the UK would leave the EU anyway irrespective of whether it was approved or not. As well as Lord Heseltine, 12 other Tory peers defied the government to vote in favour of the amendment, including former ministers Lord Deben and Viscount Hailsham. The issue will now return to the Commons to be reconsidered by MPs, who have already rejected calls for the "meaningful vote" clause to be included in the legislation, saying verbal guarantees given by government on parliamentary scrutiny are sufficient. The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said ministers were adamant they wouldn't back down after the Lords defeat and it was genuinely hard to tell at this stage if MPs had the numbers in the Commons to defeat the government. Speaking in favour of the amendment, QC and crossbench peer Lord Pannick said it would enable Parliament to exercise some "control" over the process of withdrawal and fulfil its duty to properly scrutinise. "It must be for Parliament to decide whether to prefer no deal or the deal offered by the EU," he said. "It will guarantee that the government must come back to both Houses and seek approval for the result of negotiations." But government minister Lord Bridges said once Article 50 had been triggered, the process of leaving the EU was irrevocable and the amendment was totally unclear on what would happen if the UK and the EU were not able to agree a formal deal on the terms of exit. "We will leave with a deal or we will leave without a deal. That is the choice on offer." 'Not in the dark' Parliament, he insisted, would not be left "in the dark" during the two-year process and would be able to shape future legislation on the incorporation of EU law and potential changes to immigration rules. He also argued the amendment would tie Mrs May's hands and make her task in getting a good deal "more difficult from day one". Reacting to the defeat, Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested peers were threatening the UK's aim of getting negotiations under way as soon as possible. "It is clear that some in the Lords would seek to frustrate that process, and it is the government's intention to ensure that does not happen," he said. "We will now aim to overturn these amendments in the House of Commons." But Labour's Baroness Smith said that given the referendum campaign had been full of arguments about reasserting Parliamentary sovereignty, it was appropriate that Parliament should have the "final say" on the process. Lib Dems defeated And former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg urged MPs to "find the nerve" and ensure the requirement for a Parliamentary vote remained in the bill. "I would urge MPs of all parties, including Brexiteers who campaigned to leave on the basis of parliamentary sovereignty, to stop Parliament being neutered. "Parliament has a long history of ratifying treaties. What is the government scared of? If they cannot bring back a deal they are prepared to put before MPs, then it cannot be a deal that is good enough for Britain." Earlier, a Lib Dem amendment calling for a second referendum on the terms of exit was comfortably defeated by 336 votes to 131. Without a commitment to a second vote, the Lib Dems took the rare step of opposing the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill at its third and final reading although peers overwhelmingly approved the bill and sent it back to the Commons. Theresa May has said she wants to trigger Article 50 by the end of March but the Commons is unlikely to have an opportunity to consider the changes made by the Lords until the middle of next week as four days have been set aside for debate on the Budget. |
President Trump's promise to build a "great wall" along the US-Mexico border remains one of the central and most controversial promises of his presidency. But scientists from the University of Arizona are starting to unravel the effect that such a wall could have on a desert ecosystem it will cut through. The team is studying wildlife in the Sonoran Desert, which stretches across the border from Arizona into Mexico and is already divided by a barrier at the border. BBC science reporter Victoria Gill joined the team in a search for some of the desert's most endangered animals. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News Its proximity to the border gives Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument a dangerous reputation. But as you bump along dirt roads of this set-aside swathe of the Sonoran Desert (and if you do not tune in to the pre-recorded park radio announcement that warns of "illegal activity related to proximity to the international border"), it is the wild beauty of this landscape that hits you first. Forests of tall saguaro cactus stand with arms stretched upward - seemingly triumphant - silhouetted against the rising Sun. These impressive, swollen plants can grow 20m (65ft) in height - sucking up and storing liquid from bursts of rainwater that can fuel an impressive two centuries of prickly growth. But I am here with my friendly and almost intimidatingly competent PhD student host Stephanie Doerries and her softly spoken colleague Andrew Antaya - looking for some much more elusive desert life. We're in search of endangered Sonoran pronghorn. "There are only 228 individuals in 800,000 hectares (two million acres), so they can be quite difficult to find just by going to a hilltop," Stephanie says. That's why she and Andrew take their somewhat desert-ravaged truck, which is packed full of camping gear, scientific equipment and a huge cooler of ice-cold water, out into the desert at dawn. The fleeting cool of first light can be the best time to catch a glimpse of these shy creatures. Sonoran pronghorn are unique to the North American continent - in a different family from antelope that roam the plains of Africa. They are found throughout North America, but the Sonoran subspecies lives only in this desert. Their evolutionary race with the now extinct American cheetah made them the fastest land animal on the continent. But they are built for distance as well as speed - each individual could have a home range as large as 2,800 sq km (almost 1,000 sq miles), as they walk the arid landscape foraging for leaves and cactus fruit. Their critically low numbers and their cross-border range have made this animal a central character in the ongoing discussion about the impact of President Trump's promised "impassable" border wall. As Stephanie and Andrew's trackers pick up the faint "blip, blip, blip" of a nearby radio-collared pronghorn, they both peer intently and silently through their scopes. In these wide desert plains, the small hill we have climbed gives a clear view several kilometres in every direction. "I got them," Stephanie says, triumphantly. Only with her expert help - lining up the view perfectly through her scope - do I manage to catch a glimpse of a female with her delicate, twin fawns. Pronghorn typically have twins. Stephanie begins to make meticulous notes. Is she standing or lying down? Alert or resting? In which direction is she moving? "What we can hopefully help to understand," she says, "is what it's like to be a pronghorn in the Sonoran Desert along the US-Mexico border. What happens when you encounter humans or vehicles on the landscape?" Stephanie has much more data to collect before she and her colleagues can draw out a clear answer to this. She will spend hours just finding an animal before she can begin watching and recording its behaviour. But initial data suggests that pronghorn do respond differently to human disturbance than to "more natural disturbances". And if these disturbances take the animals' attention away from foraging or from looking out for predators, that could be lethal. People are not an obvious feature of the landscape here - on hiking trails and stunning mountain drives, the views are of arid, empty wilderness. But Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument stretches right up to the US-Mexico border, and that location brings a level of human activity. US border patrol trucks are on the move here constantly, checking the border fence and dragging large tyres that smooth out the dirt track and make border crossers' footprints easy to spot. Purple flags demarcate water supply tanks, where those who head north and into the US desert on foot, can find a potentially life-saving drink. Stephanie hikes and camps alone in the desert on a regular basis and she has seen and even crossed paths with groups of people who were walking north. "In three years of field work," she says, "I've encountered border crossers twice on foot and we simply avoided each other. While driving, I've encountered two groups waiting along the roadside for assistance. I stopped a safe distance away and left water in the road for them. "I've also observed border crossers on about half a dozen occasions while scanning my surroundings from an observation point." Divided Desert The most obvious human disturbance here though is the structure that cuts right through Sonoran pronghorn range - the physical barrier at the international border. The protected land of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument includes about 50km (30 miles) of the international border. On either side of the official crossing point, at the tiny US entry port of Lukeville, there is a high pedestrian fence. It is a tight, metal grill structure about 7m (23ft) high and is just 8km (five miles) in length. Beyond that, stretching out towards the mountains, is a low vehicle barrier. Stephanie's supervisor and the lead researcher on the pronghorn study, Prof Dave Christianson, from the University of Arizona, shows me the point at which the high, impermeable fence ends. It is a strange sight; the imposing fence stops abruptly. And standing by the low barrier - designed to be permeable for wildlife but to stop cars driving into the US desert - you can quite easily poke your toe through the wide gaps between the posts and have one foot in each country. Standing by this low barrier, scanning the surroundings, Dave points out how unproductive this harsh, hot landscape appears to be. "But we find hundreds of species that evolved not just to survive here, but to thrive," he tells me. Those species all evolved long before any fence was built, but the fence itself is what has made this area such a fascinating ecological experiment. "When human beings suddenly change the landscape like this, it's a great opportunity to be paying attention, and to see what happens," Dave says. So how much of an impact could severing the connection with Mexico have on the species he studies? "Potentially a very, very large impact," he says. "Pronghorn still attempt to cross the border, but a barrier here is likely cutting off a large part of pronghorn range that they need to survive. "That's critical, because for species like pronghorn - large animals that need to move - being able to go where the forage is and where mates are is a critical part of their survival." Importing Mexico's animals The US government has spent more than a decade investing in the conservation of endangered Sonoran pronghorn. In the nearby Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, the US Fish and Wildlife Service runs a captive breeding programme, centred on a large desert pen for the animals. This was built following a devastating drought that saw the number of US Sonoran pronghorn fall to just 21 animals. Animals from Mexico have been brought across the border and into the pen for this programme. And each year a few carefully selected adults are released to supplement and help sustain the wild population. According to the wording of the executive order President Trump issued in January this year, the low "wildlife-friendly" fence could soon be replaced with a "contiguous, impassable physical barrier". And, Dave says, this would cut off vital pronghorn range altogether. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, President Trump reinforced his promise that "we're building the wall, don't you worry about it", to chants of support from the audience. "In fact," he added, "it's going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule." With little visible progress more than three months later, a legal obstacle - also with its origins in Arizona - has since threatened to slow his plan. In April the Center for Biological Diversity and congressman Raul M Grijalva sued the Trump administration over its proposed border wall. Their suit called on federal agencies to conduct an "in-depth investigation of the proposal's environmental impacts". Despite this, and amid a cloud of scandal surrounding the Trump administration, t that will be asked to submit design proposals for the new border wall. When I asked the Office for Customs and Border Protection whether semi-permeable barriers - designed to mitigate the impact on wildlife of the existing border fence - would be replaced with the impassable barrier prescribed by President Trump's executive order, the response was equivocal. "We cannot address future construction," said a representative, but "I can tell you that the environment has been one of the main considerations on previous construction projects". Science without borders I go along with my University of Arizona hosts across the border to Mexico, where they introduce me to their collaborator in the neighbouring Pinacate reserve. Miguel Grageda is the natural resources management coordinator at the reserve - a Unesco World Heritage site. After spending the day on the US side of the desert - searching for pronghorn until late in the evening - it is dark by the time we reach the reserve, so we head straight to our campground, with a plan to start our exploration on this side of the border early in the morning. Miguel is responsible for monitoring many of the species of animals and plants in the reserve. But listed, endangered species are his key focus, and what the researchers call a "biological corridor" - for both the pronghorn and the aptly named bighorn sheep - spans the border. Both species range over wide areas to find food. Miguel has been working with the Arizona team for the past two years, helping gather genetic information - from samples of animals' droppings - that could ultimately reveal how much interbreeding there is between the groups of animals across the border. Genetic mixing gives species the biological armour to adapt to environmental changes or disease, so it is also crucial for their long-term survival. "There is a highway along the borderline, and that has already affected the relationship between the populations of these animals in the US and Mexico," Miguel tells me. "And now this new issue - the wall they want to build along the border, which is also going to be a limit. "These animals need to move all the time… and they have become trapped in the reserve." As Miguel and Dave chat quietly, they share their concerns that, in future, the logistics of their international collaboration may become more difficult. And Miguel does not hold back with his view on the construction of a new border wall. "The pronghorn don't know where one country ends and another starts," he says. "They don't know about boundaries. So to me having a wall makes no sense. "That won't stop the social problems, but it will increase the problems for wildlife - on both sides of the the line; not just in Mexico, but also in the United States." We pack up our tents and head out into the reserve, with Miguel advising Dave about where we might have the best chance of seeing bighorn sheep - an even rarer sight than the pronghorn. Dave and the team will have to wait to see whether there will be a new structure for them to study in this desert - a wall that would slice this precariously connected habitat in half. Follow Victoria on Twitter |
A former professional footballer has completed a three week 1,000-mile (1,600km) challenge running to all 20 Premier League grounds. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Francis Benali, who made more than 300 appearances for Southampton Football Club, embarked on the run to raise money for Cancer Research UK. He has raised more than £100k for the charity. Mr Benali started at St James' Park in Newcastle and finished at Southampton's St Mary's Stadium. Arriving during Saints' game against Newcastle United he ran a lap of the pitch at half-time to a standing ovation from supporters. |
When a country has statues of people that no longer reflect its values, what is the best solution? Is there a way of addressing the past without erasing it? And is doing nothing an option? The BBC's Kavita Puri speaks to four people about possible lessons to be drawn from Iraq, Germany, India and the US. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It was a beautiful spring day in East Baghdad in April, 2003 and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's neighbour came to him shouting, "The Americans are here." Abdul-Ahad went out into the street. He saw US soldiers in uniform pointing their guns. They were moving towards what was then known as Firdos Square, in the middle of which was an enormous statue of Iraq's President, Saddam Hussein, his right arm stretched into the sky, waving to his people. A crowd of Iraqis had now gathered in the square. "It became clear that the city had fallen," Abdul-Ahad says. Iraqi civilians moved towards the bottom of the statue. They tried to knock down the thick, concrete pedestal, but to no avail. Then an American armoured vehicle appeared. A marine got out and put a huge rope around the statue. He climbed to the top of Saddam's head, holding an American flag. Abdul-Ahad was watching the marine as he tried to place the flag, thinking, "No don't do that." The statue was pulled down by the crowd. It was dragged through the street. And the iconic image was then captured of men, taking their flip flops off, and using them to beat the statue of their former ruler. They were "just breaking that domination of the regime," Abdul-Ahad says. Baghdad's many statues of the country's leader had been a symbol of oppression, "the eyes and moustache of Saddam following you wherever you go" he says. The day they fell "was the moment, you realise that 30 years of oppressive rule has finally collapsed, that this person who had been dominating our lives - he was bigger than God for us - is finally gone and he's removed." Many statues were melted down, or sold to collectors. No-one really knows what happened to them all. They just disappeared. The plinth where Saddam's statue once stood was empty for a long time. As a sectarian war raged, no-one could agree what should be in its place - would it be a Shia, Sunni or Kurdish monument? It was finally removed altogether and is now a park. "We come here now, 2020, we don't see any images from the Saddam era and that helps the history to disappear," says Abdul-Ahad, now a journalist for the Guardian. He doesn't want the statue of Saddam to be in the centre of Baghdad, staring down at him as it used to. But he would have a liked it to be housed in a museum or a park in the country, otherwise he fears that period of history will be forgotten altogether. It's important he says that "the young generation, the children in 100 years' time, can look at it and say, 'Oh, so that was the dictator who ruled Iraq.'" If you walk around German cities you will find virtually no statues of the Nazi era. Many were destroyed by heavy bombing during World War Two - and later melted and reused during rebuilding. An order issued by the victorious Allies in 1946 decreed that any manifestation of the Third Reich, including statues, were illegal and to be destroyed. "How can a country go on with statues of oppressors and of dictators?" asks Daniel Libeskind, the architect of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. "You have to get rid of everything that offends justice and truth. And that's what Germany did." But getting rid of statues doesn't have to mean erasing the memory of history too. For Germany, remembrance did not happen immediately after the war. However, in the 1960s and 70s the country began to reflect on its difficult past. Now the teaching of the Holocaust and the Nazi era is mandatory in German schools. Almost all students have either visited a concentration camp or a Holocaust memorial or museum. Rather than maintaining statues, the country chose to focus on its crimes and their victims. Libeskind, the son of Holocaust survivors, originally from Lodz in Poland, believes Germany has made an "amazing statement" to the world that it's possible to face unspeakable crimes and be a successful democracy. In the late 1980s he entered a competition to design Berlin's Jewish Museum. He won and felt the weight of responsibility. "It was so much more than just the design of a building," he says. The challenge was to work out how historical truth could be communicated to generations who had never experienced that era. He began by creating a void, "which is the centre of the museum, which is an emptiness, an empty space where nothing is really exhibited, but you feel that this emptiness speaks to you about what happened in history, that cannot be exhibited," he says. So difficult history can be told without exhibiting statues. Even the word "statue" strikes Libeskind as old-fashioned. "I think it's about more than statues today. It's about creating spaces, public spaces that can make people care about things they didn't know about." In northern Delhi there is a large park. It's slightly overgrown, stray dogs wander around, sometimes children play cricket there. In it are statues, some covered in graffiti. After India won independence in August 1947, there was no clamour to remove the statues of monarchs and viceroys from the boulevards and roundabouts of the capital. Over time, some were sold to Britain and others moved to this place, known as Coronation Park. It had been the site where lavish ceremonies - known as durbars - took place when a new British monarch took to the throne. Today it is where effigies of former officials from the colonial era have been stored, "out of sight, out of mind", as AGK Menon, the founder of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, puts it. "And that's how it got the name," he says. "A graveyard of statues." The most iconic of the statues is King George V. At around 70ft tall, it stood in the heart of Delhi, near India Gate on the road leading to the Viceroy's House. Well over a decade after independence it no longer felt right to have the statue of a British King in such a prominent position. He was dismantled and taken to the place where he attended the Delhi durbar on becoming Emperor of India in 1911. AGK Menon wanted to use the statues to tell the history of Delhi. During the Delhi Durbar, George V had laid the first foundation stone of the new imperial capital in Coronation Park. Menon's aim was to open a new, refurbished version of the park on the centenary of this occasion in 2011, with plaques providing historical context. "We have to recognise the fact something happened. There was a colonial government, there was a decision to make Delhi, and this is where it took place. Let us celebrate the fact that this is where New Delhi started," he says. Work started, but then a new government withdrew support. The park remains derelict, containing the Raj-era statues. Perhaps it's a sign that it's still difficult for Indians to talk about their colonial past. "Some Indians are not comfortable with it; others are. But somehow it is still a very live political fuel," says AGK Menon. "So it does have a sort of energy that has not ended." There certainly still is unfinished business. The plinth of George V stands empty in the centre of Delhi. No-one could agree what should go there. Scattered across southern states in America are statues commemorating Confederate leaders and soldiers, who fought in the American civil war to continue the practice of slavery. They lost the war, but decades later these monuments celebrating notable Confederate veterans started to appear in town squares. Sarah Beetham, chair of liberal arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, says many statues were built on county courthouse lawns, where many African Americans would be judged. "And they very much borrow the language of victory monuments from the ancient Roman past." In theory, the civil war gave equal rights to African Americans, but in reality racial segregation persisted, so the South won what Beetham describes as a "sort of shadow war". "These monuments are victory monuments to winning that shadow war," she says. Statues such as the one of Confederate general Robert E Lee, erected in Richmond, Virginia, in 1890, were central to the continuation of the Confederate movement, and a permanent reminder of white supremacy, Beetham argues. These monuments were never completely accepted. Journalist John Mitchell, for example, wrote editorials in the Richmond Planet newspaper at the time, saying prophetically "that black workers had been conscripted to put the statue up and that one day they would still be there to take the statue down," Beetham says. The southern states defended the existence of the statues, arguing that they were paying tribute to Confederate military heroism rather than defending slavery. They also cast the war as a defence of states' rights, against the powers of the federal government. It wasn't until 2015 that the movement to remove these statues really took hold. It started after the shooting of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The killer was later discovered with a pistol and a Confederate flag, and Sarah Beetham pinpoints that as the moment when the Black Lives Matter movement explicitly linked such violent attacks to the long history of racism symbolised by Confederate monuments. Now, with mass protests across America following the murder of African American George Floyd, many protests have coalesced around these statues. In Virginia a number have been pulled down, including that of the former Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Sarah Beetham says: "Statues aren't history. They are historical objects. The fact that people are attacking them today shows that we do care about them and that we see them in some ways as kind of reflection of ourselves and our own values." As long as there have been statues, she says, there have been people who destroy them. "There's something about a group of people taking out their anger against much broader inequalities but focusing it on an object that looks like a human being." She says the statue of the British King George III in New York is a good example. It was destroyed during the war of independence and the metal was melted into 40,000 bullets, which were then used against the British. Loyalists tried to preserve parts of the statue by burying them underground - remnants are are still occasionally unearthed today. Virginia's governor has said that the statue of Robert E Lee in Richmond will now be removed and put into storage. Although hundreds more statues remain, Sarah Beetham hopes the dismantling of this one, and perhaps others, means the country will now start to confront its past. "It says that maybe finally we're going to have some kind of reckoning about what the Civil War was actually about. And if Robert E Lee is going to come down now, maybe we're ready to atone for some of these things and to finally process them and figure out what they mean for us. And I really hope that that's true." You may also be interested in: We name buildings after people, or put up statues to them, because we respect them. But what if we then discover they did wrong? In what cases should the building be renamed, or the statue be removed, asks the BBC's in-house philosopher, David Edmonds. How do you decide when a statue must fall? |
A Jewish teenager avoided death in occupied France thanks to the kindness and bravery of a doctor in a small Alpine resort. But it's a story local people seem reluctant to remember, Rosie Whitehouse discovers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
As the first snow began to fall in December 1943, Huguette Müller and her sister Marion quietly left the French city of Lyon and travelled up into the Alps, to one of the highest ski resorts in Europe. The city was no longer safe, as Klaus Barbie - the SS leader who became known as the Butcher of Lyon - had begun to intensify his search for Jews. The two young women pinned their hopes of survival on the village of Val d'Isère, just a few kilometres from the Italian border. Huguette had already had to flee from Nice, which had been a haven for Jews while it remained under Italian control. But in September 1943, when Italy dropped out of the war, the Nazis swooped along the Riviera making thousands of arrests. One of them was Huguette's and Marion's mother, Edith, seized as she attempted to obtain false papers for herself and Huguette. She was deported in late October and gassed on arrival in Auschwitz - a fact the sisters would only learn after the war. Aged 15, Huguette had made her way to Lyon, to live with 23-year-old Marion. And now they were both on the move again. In the winter of 1943, though, the mountains were also a risky place to hide. German soldiers recently relocated from the Russian front were based in Val d'Isère's Hotel des Glaciers. They pillaged hotels and restaurants and burned chalets to the ground if they found someone who'd been drafted to work in a German factory and failed to go. Locals still refer to the occupation as la terreur. The SS was also on the lookout for suspicious strangers. So why the sisters went to Val d'Isère puzzles Huguette, now 92. One possibility is that Marion had been advised to go there by her future husband, Pierre Haymann, a member of the French resistance. But they found themselves in serious danger when, not long before Christmas, Huguette slipped and broke her leg. The village doctor said the break was so bad the teenager needed to be moved to the hospital in Bourg St Maurice, down in the valley. Scared that questions would be asked and their cover blown, Marion panicked and punched him in the face. On a foggy morning in San Francisco, Huguette takes a sharp intake of breath, and continues telling the story of how she survived the Holocaust, under the doctor's care. "I think I was there for six months, I can't quite remember - all I knew was that it was safe," she says. Neither Huguette nor Marion ever spoke about their time in the Alps. Marion waved her hand dismissively whenever asked about it. Only one photograph of that period remains. Marion died in in 2010, and as her daughter-in-law it fell to me to empty out her house. In an old suitcase, alongside her wartime papers, there was a picture of her standing next to a mountain chalet in the snow. It's only now, 76 years later, that Huguette has decided that she wants her story to be told. Both sisters were born in Berlin in the 1920s and fled to France from Germany with their parents in 1933, soon after Hitler came to power. While Marion had false papers, Huguette did not. Their parents had been careful to get her baptised, so there was no telltale J for Juif on her carte d'identité but it did say she had been born in Berlin. That would have been enough for her to be arrested and sent to her death on arrival at the hospital in Bourg St Maurice. Huguette says the doctor explained that without the right medical care she would end up with one leg shorter than the other. "I replied it was better to limp than be dead," she says. So, remarkably, he offered to care for her, for six months, in his own house. Why a total stranger was prepared to risk his life for a teenage girl he had met moments before is a mystery. If he had been caught he and his family would have been imprisoned or shot. It's a mystery to Huguette too. "When I returned to Val d'Isère in the 1970s to find him and thank him, it was too late," she says. "His widow answered the door and said he was dead. That was that. And now I can't quite remember his full name." A quick Google search reboots her memory. It reveals his name in seconds. The main roundabout in Val d'Isère is Rond-Point Dr Pétri. The doctor, Huguette confirms, was Dr Frédéric Pétri, who lived in a large chalet with his mother and sister. "He was very nice," she says. "He carried me into the garden when the weather got better." A genealogy website reveals that Pétri went on to become mayor of Val d'Isère, welcoming royals and celebrities to the slopes, among them Princess Anne and the Empress of Iran. But he never mentioned to anyone that he had hidden and nursed a Jewish girl during the war. His daughter, Christel, is not surprised by the revelation. "He was driven by a passion, not for plastering broken legs, but for caring for people," she says. "He was profoundly generous and all his life he did everything he could for others." Today, Val d'Isère stretches for three miles along a narrow mountain plateau, but in the 1940s it was a tiny place with fewer than 150 residents. "My father's house was on the main street," she says. "To hide a Jewish girl was a very dangerous thing to do." Christel is also surprised that the sisters chose to hide in such a small place. The answer she thinks lies in why her father came to Val d'Isère in the first place. In 1938, passionate about winter sports, the young doctor decided to join his friends, among them world-class ski champions, who had founded the resort a few years earlier. Like many of the young men who ran the hotels and ski schools, he was born in Alsace, a region of eastern France that before World War One had been occupied by the Germans. Christel believes this instilled a dislike of Germany that was only reinforced by the two years he spent in a prisoner of war camp near Stuttgart, from 1940 to 1942. When the Germans arrived in the Alps in September 1943, the young men and women of Val d'Isère turned the best weapons they had against them - their skis. Adept at crisscrossing the mountain passes they set up a resistance network. One of the group was Germain Mattis, a local ski instructor who was arrested by the Germans in June 1944 and died in a concentration camp at the age of 27. This may well be the reason that Marion selected Val d'Isère as a place to hide. Her future husband Pierre Haymann was not only a member of the resistance but his family was from Alsace. He may have had connections in the resort. Trusting the doctor, Marion left her sister in Val d'Isère to recover and went to join Pierre in Toulouse. The break would take six months to mend, so it was not until June 1944 that she returned. Now pregnant, she narrowly avoided being raped and murdered by the SS on the way. Hoping to learn more about resistance activities in Val d'Isère, I sent a number of emails and left posts on the resort's Facebook page. I got only one reply, from a member of a famous Paris hairdresssing dynasty - Roby Joffo - whose uncle, Joseph Joffo, wrote one of France's best-known Holocaust memoirs, A Bag of Marbles. Roby's father, Henri, and his uncle Maurice (Joseph Joffo's elder brothers) were also lying low in Val d'Isère during the winter of 1943-44, though they felt secure enough to work in a hair salon on the main street, opposite the Pétris' chalet. The Pétri and Joffo families have remained close ever since. Roby is adamant that there were other Jews hiding in the valley. He makes a number of calls to Val d'Isère, but nobody seems to know anything about it. The Holocaust in France About 75,000 Jews were deported from France to concentration camps and death camps between 1940 and 1944. Only in 1995 did French President Jacques Chirac acknowledge French responsibility. "These dark hours forever sully our history and are an insult to our past and our traditions," he said. "Yes, the criminal folly of the occupiers was seconded by the French, by the French state." Only two French officials were convicted for crimes against humanity. One was Paul Touvier a local intelligence chief who served under Lyon Gestapo boss Klaus Barbie; he was convicted in 1994 for having ordered the execution of seven Jews 50 years earlier. The other was Maurice Papon, jailed in 1998 for his role in the deportation of 1,690 Jews from Bordeaux. (Papon had gone on to serve as Paris's police chief and as a government minister.) Barbie himself, a German, was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and convicted on 41 counts of crimes against humanity in July 1987. Christel is not surprised by the eerie silence. She says no-one ever spoke about what happened during the war, and as a result even the families who still live in Val d'Isère today have no idea that members of the French resistance operated in their town. The war divided communities, explains Jane Metter, who researches the period at Queen Mary University of London. For those who collaborated and those who resisted "the only way to carry on living with your neighbours after the war was to forget what had happened." For Frédéric Pétri to have hidden Huguette was, she says, "a 100% dangerous thing to do" and an act that would not necessarily have been applauded after the liberation either, as "the region was a highly Catholic, conservative, right-wing society". The archives in Annecy, not far from Val d'Isère, are full of letters written to the authorities during the war, often anonymously, denouncing people for acts of resistance. Two months after the sisters left, Val d'Isère was liberated. But the local resistance carried on the fight, supporting the partisans in Italy, which was still occupied by the Germans. Once again Petri would place his life on the line for a total stranger. On a winter's evening in November 1944, he set off to rescue a group of British soldiers who had been led over mountain passes by the partisans. Trapped in a snowdrift without adequate clothing, they were freezing to death. When Pétri finally found them only one of the soldiers, Alfred Southon, was still alive. He was barely breathing but Pétri refused to give him up for dead. He carried him back to his chalet, and with the help of his mother, cared for him until he was well enough to leave. This was also a potentially unpopular move as many people resented what they saw as Britain's abandonment of France at Dunkirk and the bombing raids on French cities. Just as Dr Pétri had said nothing about hiding Huguette, he did not mention this adventure to his family either, until Southon became a celebrity in the UK when his story was told in a 1953 BBC radio documentary. Marion married Pierre and after the war they settled in Paris with Huguette and their two small children, Francois and Sylvie. The marriage did not last and Marion then began what she called her "second life" in London with husband Joe Judah, and their son Tim (my husband). In 1947 Huguette went to San Francisco to join her father who had survived the war under cover in Paris. There she fell in love with James Carleton and had a son, Norman. She has lived there ever since. A silver coffee set that once belonged to her mother sits in pride of place on the sideboard in her elegant home. Huguette now wants Pétri's bravery and kindness recognised and so I agree to write to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, to ask if it will consider recognising Pétri as one of the Righteous Among Nations - a list of non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust. Yad Vashem advises me it could take years for a decision to be made. I also try to arrange an interview with the mayor of Val d'Isère, Marc Bauer, to ask him to comment on the Yad Vashem application. When I get nowhere by email I telephone the town hall, where a member of staff tells me it will not be possible, as this is a "delicate matter". The history of World War Two still haunts France. Huguette's decision to revisit the darkest period of her life has offered Val d'Isère a chance to address its past, but it appears it isn't one the resort is ready to take. You may also be interested in: A British lawyer is accusing the German government of violating the country's constitution by refusing to restore the citizenship of thousands of people descended from victims of the Nazis. He argues that the law began to be misapplied under the lingering influence of former Nazis in the 1950s and 60s, and that it's still being misapplied today. The fight to get citizenship for descendants of German Jews |
Love it or hate it, even the most hardened anti-Romeo will be hard pressed to avoid Valentine's Day this year. But as an exhibit at the British Library currently on show is testament to, there is a first for everything - even on Valentine's Day. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Anna BrowningBBC News Right reverend and worshipful and my right well-beloved Valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartily, desiring to hear of your welfare which I beseech almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your heart's desire and if it please you to hear of my welfare I am not in good health of body nor of heart nor shall be till I hear from you, for there knows no creature what pain that I endure and on pain of death I dare not reveal. And my lady my mother has laboured the matter to my father full diligently but she can no more get than ye know of for the which God knows I am full sorry. But if that you love me as I trust verily that you do, you will not leave me therefore. For if that you had not half the livelihood that you have for to do the greatest labour that any woman alive might I would not forsake you. And if you command me to keep me true wherever I go, I advise I will do all my might you to love and never no more. And if my friends say that I do amiss, they shall not me hinder so for to do. My heart me bids ever more to love you truly over all earthly thing and if they be never so angry I trust it shall be better in time coming. No more to you at this time but the holy trinity has you in keeping. And I beseech you that this bill be not seen of no earthly creature except yourself and this letter was written at topcroft with full heavy heart. By your own M[argery] B[rews]. It is a letter, written from a young woman to her love, and is the first Valentine in the English language. And, for the first time, the descendants of Margery Brews and her betrothed John Paston have been traced. In 1477 Margery wrote a letter to her John pleading with him not to give her up, despite her parents' refusal to increase her dowry. Addressing her "ryght welebeloued Voluntyne" (right well-beloved Valentine), she promised to be a good wife, adding: "Yf that ye loffe me as Itryste verely that ye do ye will not leffe me" (If you love me, I trust.. you will not leave me). Her beloved might have had his mind on business, driving a hard bargain for her hand in marriage, but Margery still had her sights on romance, and so secured her place in English history. "It might not necessarily be that nobody had used Valentine in any context before, but this is probably one of the first times it was written down," says British Library curator Julian Harrison. And for Cambridge historian, Dr Helen Castor, the importance of Margery Brews' letter and the light it sheds on relationships at that time is hugely important. "One of the wonderful things about this particular letter is that it is so private," she said. "It gives a real sense of the relationship between a young man and young woman wanting to marry. "Without this letter we wouldn't know that this was a love match," she said. While romantics 534 years later might celebrate Valentine's Day with fine dining, chocolates and flowers, Margery is left pleading with her love not to leave her while pledging her heart over all "earthly things". She promises her undying love: "Myne herte me bydds ever more to love yowe truly" (My heart me bids ever more to love you truly), and speaks of her ailing body and heart over her fiance's continuing silence. However, modern-day lovers be reassured, like any self-respecting fairytale romance the heart did (finally) rule the head and, despite her father's stubbornness over her dowry, Margery did marry her knight. The couple had a son, William, in 1479. Margery died in 1495, John in 1503. Their 16th and 17th generation descendants - by way of a king's illegitimate offspring - were traced via the family history website MyHeritage. Living in Shropshire and until then unaware of their genetic link to a Valentine milestone, Sir Charles Buckworth-Herne-Soame, his wife Lady Eileen, their son Richard, his sister Mary Edwards, husband Keith and son Rob recently saw the missive for the first time. For historians, the Paston Letters have long been a fascinating insight into the soap opera lives of gentry in the Middle Ages. Most documentation which survives from medieval times are legal and governmental records, financial accounts and property deeds. Few personal letters exist and even fewer are written by women. The archive of more than 1,000 letters - most in the British Library - is written by three generations of the Norfolk landowning-family over a period of 70 years. Family fall-outs, parents nagging, clashes with the aristocracy and parties while mother's away are all detailed. But Margery's letter, as the first English Valentine, has added significance for scholars and is currently part of a British Library exhibition on the evolution of the English language. Dr Castor says it sheds invaluable light on such relationships at the time. "We tend to assume that marriages in this class at this time were arranged for dynastic reasons, but Margery's letters show that everything else was slotted in around the fact that this was a couple who really loved each other." For archaeologist Rob Edwards, 38, and great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the couple, the letter is a link to the past he relishes, particularly as he works in history. "It really reminds you that the people you are studying are very much like ourselves. They have the same feelings and the fact that they are related really does add an extra dimension. "You can imagine it, trying to get a bit more towards the wedding from your parents. This money is going to set you up." Julian Harrison agrees. "The letter shows they were no different to us. They had the same loves, desires and financial problems." The medieval writer also had other things in common with their modern counterpart. Don't think the advent of mobile phones and e-mails is the first time abbreviations have littered correspondence, they often abbreviated a word or two in the Middle Ages - Margery used wt for with, for example. And while her letter is also written on paper, there is one key difference. She didn't write it herself. It would have been dictated to a man who would have written it for her. However, says Julian Harrison: "The fact that she isn't writing the letter doesn't mean she can't write, it means she can afford someone to write for her. "People have assumed that people in the past were illiterate, but actually levels of literacy may have been higher than we think." Richard Buckworth-Herne-Soame, 40, recognises some but not all family traits in the letter, while his mother, Lady Eileen, notes time have changed. She admits she brought no dowry to her marriage. "No he didn't drive a hard bargain," she says of Sir Charles. But, Richard adds: "We still have the stubbornness." Around the BBC BBC History - Paston Letters Related Internet Links The British Library - Evolving English MyHeritage - Love letters gallery Helen Castor's website |
Trade with China is of increasing importance in the UK, no more so than in Southampton where the city's port is investing £150m to improve its infrastructure. But is the port in danger of putting too much faith in China? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A plastic remote-controlled motorcycle in a box on a toy shop shelf may not appear a symbol of commercial might. But when you see thousands of them stacked in a Southampton cargo warehouse you realise you are looking at a billion pound industry. It is mostly down to this booming business from China that the city's port is willing to invest £150m. "China is enormously important here at the port," said deputy manager Clive Thomas. "China represents about 60% of what we do through the container terminal. Minis getting big "Without the surge of demand from the Chinese economy we wouldn't be progressing with the level of investment we have at present here." He says the port is a "good barometer" of the impact of Britain's business with China. This has grown to such an extent in Southampton that the port is having to cater for larger vessels bringing the cargos in. Some ships are now capable of transporting up to 18,000 containers which are 40ft (12m) long and nine ft (2.8m) high. In an effort to compete with rivals, Associated British Ports, the port harbour authority, has started constructing a new 500m berth in Southampton capable of handling the world's largest container ships. The project also includes four new ship-to-shore gantry cranes worth £26m and a substantial dredging effort to allow larger vessels to come through. John Eynon, the managing director at Import Services, which processes three million boxes each year at its warehouses, said "around 95% of products" it handles comes from China. He added: "It just seems as though the Chinese have taken over entirely the manufacturing of products. This time of year it is every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week that these cartons are coming down here." On the flip side, the port is also changing to accommodate a growing export market from Britain back to China. It is opening its fifth multi-storey car park this month to house orders of Minis and Land Rovers. Plans are already afoot for a sixth multi-storey. Dr Hui-Chi Yeh, lecturer in China and Global Politics at Southampton University, said: "Southampton now handles 40% to 45% of the UK's deep sea trade from major economies in the Far East and China, and continues to attract trade delegations, notably from major Chinese ports, such as Qingdao. "These meetings have contributed to trade in excess of £2.5bn in business deals alone this year. Provisional funding from the Regional Growth Fund for the City of Southampton's infrastructure projects has been made available to help develop these links further." About 12,000 jobs are directly and indirectly dependent on the port's import and export industry, from dockworkers at the port to the hauliers delivering the goods to the shops. But does this mean Southampton is entirely dependent on its business with China to survive? Clive Thomas does not think so. "South America and the Indian sub-continent are two places beginning to grow in popularity and importance to the manufacturers as well," he said. "The capacity improvements we're making here at the port will ensure we're well prepared for the future." |
Welsh housing associations directly contributed more than £1bn to the economy in 2014/15, an independent report has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Welsh Economy Research report showed 79% of direct spend was retained in Wales, and associations built nearly 2,000 affordable homes. This was an increase of 4% on the previous year. The annual report, commissioned by Community Housing Cymru, looked at the impact of social housing in Wales. Welsh Housing Associations £1.1bn contributed to the economy in 2014/15 £872m of that was retained in Wales 1,923 new homes built in 2014/15 £301m on repairs/maintenance in 2014/15 £532m on regeneration in 2014/15 |
Mark Bridger is an evil and manipulative individual who clearly likes to be in control. He has committed the most horrific of crimes - the abduction and murder of a young, vulnerable girl. He appears to be somebody who is a fantasist. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
That is the summation of Bridger - convicted of murdering five-year-old April Jones - by Det Supt Andrew John, the detective charged with solving her abduction and death. Minutes after luring April from outside her family home in Machynlleth, Powys, on 1 October 2012, his actions sparked the biggest missing person hunt in British policing history. But the man at the centre of the storm remained largely a mystery until his true nature was laid bare during the five-week murder trial at Mold Crown Court. Bridger, 47, arrived at the mid-Wales town some 20 years before the events of that fateful autumn night. He was born on 6 November 1965 in Sutton, Surrey, the second of three children, and grew into a strong man, described as of "very big build" and over 6ft tall. Accounts from people with whom he worked in Machynlleth variously described him as "sociable", "hard-working" and "charismatic". Others remarked on his apparent obsession with the military, and his claims to be a former army bomb disposal expert who had changed his identity to protect himself from IRA retaliation, and a serving member of the SAS. Indeed, when interviewed by police over April's disappearance he told them how he had "excelled" during his military service. But that was complete fantasy. Bridger had never joined the army. In fact, far from having a distinguished military career, the court was told that as a teenager Bridger had been in trouble with the police. Later, senior detectives pointed out he did not have the criminal past they would have expected from a predatory paedophile. He had pleaded guilty to offences including possession of a firearm, having an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence and theft when he was about 19. In the early 1990s, he was also convicted of criminal damage, affray and driving with no insurance. In 1984, when he was 20, he became a firefighter in London. Within six months, he had quit due to "personal problems". He told the jury how it was around the time he had split up with his partner, soon after the birth of their son. It was at this point that Bridger turned his attentions to Wales. He knew south Wales because his grandmother lived there. "I had bought some camping equipment and survival equipment. I lived on the beach for a couple of months," he told the court. He said he lived in places including Porthmadog, Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bala in Gwynedd, where he had a variety of jobs, including bar work, being a chef, a waiter, a car recovery mechanic and a forestry worker. After living in several locations, he finally settled in Machynlleth - a small town of some 2,100 people. Once there he worked in a variety of jobs - kitchen assistant in a local hotel, as a welder and helping to renovate a local guest house, lifeguard and more latterly a slaughterman in an abattoir. This knowledge of how to handle knives was brought up in evidence when the jury heard in the prosecution's opening speech that a number of knives were found near a wood burner in his home in Ceinws, with bloodstains containing April's DNA nearby. Prosecuting counsel Elwen Evans QC said: "The defendant was an experienced slaughterman who knew how to use knives professionally." Away from work, Bridger's personal life was complicated. He had six children with a number of women and just days before he murdered April, he had split with his latest girlfriend and was upset about it. He claimed he had turned to drink after relationship break-ups and had been on anti-depressants on and off for 12 years. The attention of women was clearly important to Bridger as his trial was told that hours before he took April, he contacted three other women via Facebook asking if they wanted to meet, "no strings attached". April's head teacher, Gwenfair Glyn, provided an insight into the relationships he formed when she gave evidence at his trial. She told how he had had a history of relationships with young mothers and there were "complex relationships between a number of these families". She had spoken to Bridger at a parents' evening just a couple of hours before he took April, where she had seen him talking to a former pupil now in secondary school, which she found "strange". Describing his character, Ms Glyn told the murder trial: "Mr Bridger was always confident, courteous and charming. He often appeared charismatic, even." It matched the view of others who had found him sociable and outgoing. 'Risk-taker' Even April's father, Paul Jones, had remembered him as a "pleasant bloke". The two knew one another in the early 1990s when they had dated sisters. He remembered Bridger as a "risk-taker" who "drove like a maniac". He told how he had loaned Bridger a book on SAS survival skills which he would not return, claiming to have lost it. Mr Jones later found it during a visit to Bridger's house and took it back. But it was only when police seized Bridger's computer that the sordid, hidden nature of the man was revealed. He had computer folders filled with images of child sex abuse, graphic depictions of rape, and pictures of previous young murder victims, including Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10, from Soham, and 13-year-old Caroline Dickinson who was raped and murdered in a French hostel during a school trip. Among his collection were dozens of pictures taken from social media of local young girls, including April and her older half-sisters, one of whom he had asked to become his Facebook friend despite not knowing her personally. April's mother Coral had warned her not to accept. As Bridger's behaviour in the hours before April's abduction became more predatory, the court heard how he made an approach to a 10-year-old girl, playing near to where April was last seen. He invited her to a sleepover with his daughter but no arrangements were finalised. Not long afterwards, April's mother, Coral, made her frantic 999 call. Shock that Bridger, a seemingly courteous and charming man, was responsible has resonated throughout the community. From the close-knit community of just 2,100 people, the sense of betrayal from the wolf hiding in open view in their midst has been profound. |
A woman in her 20s was raped near to public toilets in a park, police have said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Dorset Police said she was attacked in Bournemouth Lower Gardens. It took place in the early hours of Saturday and a cordon has been set up while the area is examined. Det Insp Christijan Boyle said police want to speak to a man who rode past the scene on a bike at about 01:50 BST who "may have important information". Related Internet Links Dorset Police |
Three British tourists have been found dead near waterfalls in Vietnam. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
One of the group has been named as Christian Sloan, from Kent, who was described by his family as a popular man who "lived for life". Two women aged 19 and 25, named in reports as half-sisters Izzy Squire and Beth Anderson, were also found near the Datanla falls, Lam Dong province. Early investigations suggest one of the group slipped while exploring the falls and inadvertently took the others down. Police have questioned a local man, but he has not been detained. Mr Sloan's family said: "Christian's death is a very sad loss to us. "He was a very popular young man, formerly in the Royal Navy, who had many, many friends not just locally but around the world." James McGlashan, who was travelling with Mr Sloan at the time, wrote on Facebook to say he was on his way to Ho Chi Minh City and thanked people for the messages that had been flooding in. "Thank you for all your support. Devastated RIP Sloan." 'No ropes' Nguyen Van Yen, deputy chairman of Lam Dong province, who was in charge of the operation to recover the bodies, told the BBC: "When we found the bodies, we found their helmets and safety jackets but no ropes. "According to our initial investigation, after visiting the Datanla waterfalls, they went to the forest to another area for canyoning. "On their way, they passed through a stream which flowed into a waterfall. Unfortunately a person slipped, taking the other two with them." The man who was with them was questioned by police but has not been detained, he said. Their bodies are being moved from from Lam Dong province to Ho Chi Minh City. According to local reports, emergency workers had to climb down a steep slope to recover the bodies. The deputy director of the tourist company which manages the falls, Vo Anh Tan, said visitors usually started at the top of the tiered waterfalls and climbed down. James McGlashan's father, Alan, from Deal in Kent, said his son had not gone on the tour because he had been ill and later had to identify the bodies at the hotel he had been staying in. He said the trip had been booked through the hotel with a tour company that had had excellent reviews. Safety concerns Simon Calder, travel editor at the Independent, told the BBC the area was extraordinarily popular on the backpacker trail, offering opportunities for canyoning, white water rafting and to climb or descend the waterfalls. The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head said the number of international visitors to Vietnam had risen rapidly in just a few years - and this would raise safety concerns. "As in much of the rest of South East Asia, law enforcement in Vietnam is weak, and a culture of accident prevention is almost non-existent," he said. The UK Foreign Office said: "We are providing support to the families of three British nationals following their deaths near Da Lat, Vietnam. "Our sympathies are with their families and friends at this difficult time. We are in close contact with local authorities in Vietnam on their behalf." Da Lat is the capital of Lam Dong province, in the country's central highlands. |
Anyone who wants to understand Vladimir Putin today needs to know the story of what happened to him on a dramatic night in East Germany a quarter of a century ago. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Chris BowlbyBBC News, Dresden It is 5 December 1989 in Dresden, a few weeks after the Berlin Wall has fallen. East German communism is dying on its feet, people power seems irresistible. Crowds storm the Dresden headquarters of the Stasi, the East German secret police, who suddenly seem helpless. Then a small group of demonstrators decides to head across the road, to a large house that is the local headquarters of the Soviet secret service, the KGB. "The guard on the gate immediately rushed back into the house," recalls one of the group, Siegfried Dannath. But shortly afterwards "an officer emerged - quite small, agitated". "He said to our group, 'Don't try to force your way into this property. My comrades are armed, and they're authorised to use their weapons in an emergency.'" That persuaded the group to withdraw. But the KGB officer knew how dangerous the situation remained. He described later how he rang the headquarters of a Red Army tank unit to ask for protection. The answer he received was a devastating, life-changing shock. "We cannot do anything without orders from Moscow," the voice at the other end replied. "And Moscow is silent." That phrase, "Moscow is silent" has haunted this man ever since. Defiant yet helpless as the 1989 revolution swept over him, he has now himself become "Moscow" - the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. "I think it's the key to understanding Putin," says his German biographer, Boris Reitschuster. "We would have another Putin and another Russia without his time in East Germany." The experience taught him lessons he has never forgotten, gave him ideas for a model society, and shaped his ambitions for a powerful network and personal wealth. Above all, it left him with a huge anxiety about the frailty of political elites, and how easily they can be overthrown by the people. Putin had arrived in Dresden in the mid-1980s for his first foreign posting as a KGB agent. The German Democratic Republic or GDR - a communist state created out of the Soviet-occupied zone of post-Nazi Germany - was a highly significant outpost of Moscow's power, up close to Western Europe, full of Soviet military and spies. Putin had wanted to join the KGB since he was a teenager, inspired by popular Soviet stories of secret service bravado in which, he recalled later, "One man's effort could achieve what whole armies could not. One spy could decide the fate of thousands of people." Initially, though, much of his work in Dresden was humdrum. Among documents in the Stasi archives in Dresden is a letter from Putin asking for help from the Stasi boss with the installation of an informer's phone. And there are details too of endless Soviet-East German social gatherings Putin attended, to celebrate ties between the two countries. But if the spy work wasn't that exciting, Putin and his young family could at least enjoy the East German good life. Putin's then wife, Ludmila, later recalled that life in the GDR was very different from life in the USSR. "The streets were clean. They would wash their windows once a week," she said in an interview published in 2000, as part of First Person, a book of interviews with Russia's new and then little-known acting president. The Putins lived in a special block of flats with KGB and Stasi families for neighbours, though Ludmila envied the fact that: "The GDR state security people got higher salaries than our guys, judging from how our German neighbours lived. Of course we tried to economise and save up enough to buy a car." East Germany enjoyed higher living standards than the Soviet Union and a former KGB colleague, Vladimir Usoltsev, describes Putin spending hours leafing through Western mail-order catalogues, to keep up with fashions and trends. He also enjoyed the beer - securing a special weekly supply of the local brew, Radeberger - which left him looking rather less trim than he does in the bare-chested sporty images issued by Russian presidential PR today. East Germany differed from the USSR in another way too - it had a number of separate political parties, even though it was still firmly under communist rule, or appeared to be. "He enjoyed very much this little paradise for him," says Boris Reitschuster. East Germany, he says, "is his model of politics especially. He rebuilt some kind of East Germany in Russia now." But in autumn 1989 this paradise became a kind of KGB hell. On the streets of Dresden, Putin observed people power emerging in extraordinary ways. In early October hundreds of East Germans who had claimed political asylum at the West German embassy in Prague were allowed to travel to the West in sealed trains. As they passed through Dresden, huge crowds tried to break through a security cordon to try to board the trains, and make their own escape. Wolfgang Berghofer, Dresden's communist mayor at the time, says there was chaos as security forces began taking on almost the entire local population. Many assumed violence was inevitable. "A Soviet tank army was stationed in our city," he says. "And its generals said to me clearly: 'If we get the order from Moscow, the tanks will roll.'" After the Berlin Wall opened, on 9 November, the crowds became bolder everywhere - approaching the citadels of Stasi and KGB power in Dresden. Vladimir Putin had doubtless assumed too that those senior Soviet officers - men he'd socialised with regularly - would indeed send in the tanks. But no, Moscow under Mikhail Gorbachev "was silent". The Red Army tanks would not be used. "Nobody lifted a finger to protect us." He and his KGB colleagues frantically burned evidence of their intelligence work. "I personally burned a huge amount of material," Putin recalled in First Person. "We burned so much stuff that the furnace burst." Two weeks later there was more trauma for Putin as West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl arrived in the city. He made a speech that left German reunification looking inevitable, and East Germany doomed. Kohl praised Gorbachev, the man in Moscow who'd refused to send in the tanks, and he used patriotic language - words like Vaterland, or fatherland - that had been largely taboo in Germany since the war. Now they prompted an ecstatic response. It's not known whether Putin was in that crowd - but as a KGB agent in Dresden he'd certainly have known all about it. The implosion of East Germany in the following months marked a huge rupture in his and his family's life. "We had the horrible feeling that the country that had almost become our home would no longer exist," said his wife Ludmila. "My neighbour, who was my friend, cried for a week. It was the collapse of everything - their lives, their careers." One of Putin's key Stasi contacts, Maj Gen Horst Boehm - the man who had helped him install that precious telephone line for an informer - was humiliated by the demonstrating crowds, and committed suicide early in 1990. This warning about what can happen when people power becomes dominant was one Putin could now ponder on the long journey home. "Their German friends give them a 20-year-old washing machine and with this they drive back to Leningrad," says Putin biographer and critic Masha Gessen. "There's a strong sense that he was serving his country and had nothing to show for it." He also arrived back to a country that had been transformed under Mikhail Gorbachev and was itself on the verge of collapse. "He found himself in a country that had changed in ways that he didn't understand and didn't want to accept," as Gessen puts it. His home city, Leningrad, was now becoming St Petersburg again. What would Putin do there? There was talk, briefly, of taxi-driving. But soon Putin realised he had acquired a much more valuable asset than a second-hand washing machine. In Dresden he'd been part of a network of individuals who might have lost their Soviet roles, but were well placed to prosper personally and politically in the new Russia. In the Stasi archives in Dresden a picture survives of Putin during his Dresden years. He's in a group of senior Soviet and East German military and security figures - a relatively junior figure, off to one side, but already networking among the elite. Prof Karen Dawisha of Miami University, author of Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?, says there are people he met in Dresden "who have then gone on… to be part of his inner core". They include Sergey Chemezov, who for years headed Russia's arms export agency and now runs a state programme supporting technology, and Nikolai Tokarev head of the state pipeline company, Transneft. And it's not only former Russian colleagues who've stayed close to Putin. Take Matthias Warnig - a former Stasi officer, believed to have spent time in Dresden when Putin was there - who is now managing director of Nordstream, the pipeline taking gas directly from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. That pipeline symbolised what was seen, until recently, as Germany's new special relationship with Russia - though the Ukraine crisis has at the very least put that relationship on hold. Putin-watchers believe events such as the uprising on Kiev's Maidan Square, have revived bad memories - above all, of that night in Dresden in December 1989. "Now when you have crowds in Kiev in 2004, in Moscow in 2011 or in Kiev in 2013 and 2014, I think he remembers this time in Dresden," says Boris Reitschuster. "And all these old fears come up inside him." Inside him too may be a memory of how change can be shaped not only by force, or by weakness - but also by emotion. In 1989 he saw in Dresden how patriotic feeling, combined with a yearning for democracy, proved so much more powerful than communist ideology. So when wondering what Vladimir Putin will do next, it's well worth remembering what he's lived through already. One thing seems sure. While Vladimir Putin holds power in the Kremlin, Moscow is unlikely to be silent. Listen to Chris Bowlby's documentary The Moment that Made Putin on BBC Radio 4 this Sunday at 13:30 and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
A man and a woman in their 80s have been found dead at a house in Devon. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The elderly couple were discovered at the property on Drake Avenue, Torquay, when police were called to check on them at about 11:00 BST. Devon and Cornwall Police said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The force said it would "like to reassure the local community no-one else is being looked for in relation to this incident at this time". Related Internet Links Devon and Cornwall Police |
The last year has been a bumpy one for South Africa's President Jacob Zuma. Mr Zuma has appeared to veer from one crisis to another. The latest being the negative effect to the economy after the controversial sacking of his internationally respected finance minister. Yet as the BBC's Alastair Leithead finds he is far from out. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
South Africa is in for a rough ride as the ruling African National Congress prepares to choose President Jacob Zuma's successor. His critics want him to resign or be dismissed well before the next election in 2019, either through a vote of no confidence in parliament, or with ANC action. But the party of struggle is protecting a president who is clinging on, despite corruption scandals, criticism from the constitutional court and street protests demanding he must fall. So what's the future of President Zuma and how will that impact South Africa? On the immediate horizon is the vote of no confidence. Demanded by the opposition and originally scheduled for just after Easter, the vote has been postponed pending a Constitutional Court decision. The country's top judges will decide whether the MPs' ballot should be secret. If it is, ANC MPs might worry less about their jobs and more about their consciences, and the long term future of the party. This will be the fifth time Mr Zuma will face such a vote and it would take a big revolt within the ruling party for him to be sacked. While cracks are opening, the formidable ANC machinery is once again rallying behind the president. "Thank you comrade president," the ANC's deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte told the crowd at his 75th birthday party in Soweto a fortnight ago. "Thank you for the dignity you have shown in the face of many, many years of being insulted for who you are and what you stand for," she said, to cheers and applause. But who exactly does President Zuma stand for? Is it the poor and struggling masses the ANC has a commitment to help, or is his leadership more about enriching himself and his close supporters? It all depends on who you ask. There have been a series of corruption scandals and allegations of so-called state capture by the wealthy Indian-born business brothers - the Guptas - who are seen as having undue influence over politics and procurement deals. The Guptas, deny having undue influence or benefitting from close ties with the President's family. But talk to people in President Zuma's heartland in rural KwaZulu-Natal and the support for their man is unwavering. "Those who say he should step down? Nooooo," a woman at a local clinic said, a small baby tied to her back. "Everyone does corruption. Everyone. Even I do corruption. Let's just leave him until he stands down," she said. President Zuma is due to be replaced as leader of the ANC at a big party conference in December. If the party goes on to win the 2019 election, the presidency is then handed to the anointed successor. An ANC win has never seriously been in question, but the ever increasing criticism of President Zuma and the ANC's falling support in last year's municipal elections must at least be making senior figures nervous. "To us he is an innocent man, he is a champion for economic transformation of this country," said Thanduxolo Sabelo, the ANC Youth League provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal. "President Zuma represents the majority of the people in this country who remain in poverty whom we believe, as our champion, will be able to uplift us from poverty." The rhetoric is now "radical economic transformation" to remove "white minority capital". While land reform is overdue, calls of "take back the land" and the president describing white South Africans as racists are popular rallying calls. Some critics believe he is hanging on, despite the pressure and the street protests, because he wants to be able to influence the decision on who will replace him. "The gracious thing for him to do right now is to be asked to be relieved of his duties," said Sheila Sisulu, the daughter-in-law of anti-apartheid hero Walter Sisulu. She is one of the struggle stalwarts who have publically raised concerns over corruption among some ANC leaders. "I think there are a lot of vested interests around him," she said, referring to more than 780 charges a court is deciding whether to reinstate against the president. "He needs to play for time so that his successor, if he is successful in anointing one, would be willing to delay or protect or deflect the charges." Perhaps the most poignant symbol of this loss of faith among the ANC old guard was at the recent funeral of anti-apartheid hero Ahmed Kathrada. A year before his death Mr Kathrada had written an open letter calling for the president to resign and had asked Mr Zuma not attend the burial. Former President Kgalema Motlanthe read out that letter, over his coffin, which was draped in an ANC flag. It would be expected that many of Mr Zuma's opponents want to see him leave now, but even some of his allies criticised his sacking of respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan at the end of last month. That act led the country's credit rating to be downgraded to junk status. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has recently ramped up his criticism of the president, calling for a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture. He has unofficially launched his bid for the presidency, to keep up with the president's ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who already appears to be on the campaign trail. To add to the problems, cracks are appearing in the tripartite alliance - made up of the South African Communist Party (SACP), the ANC and the trades union federation, Cosatu - which has run the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. The SACP has taken a strong stand against the president; Cosatu was also critical, but has recently gone quiet; but the top echelons of the ANC have simply closed ranks. Critics say it is because they are all entrenched in the system and have too much to lose. At his birthday party there was no doubt President Zuma still oozes charisma. Singing a rousing solo, dancing on stage and delivering a long and passionate speech in Zulu he is appealing to his base. As long as he keeps the core support of the party, and his people, it seems unlikely any vote of no confidence will succeed or that he will be leaving a moment before his time is up. |
A seal has boarded a Royal Navy amphibious-assault ship as it was about to carry out military exercises near Carnoustie. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
HMS Bulwark was making preparations for the multinational training exercise Joint Warrior when the seal swam up the ship's landing dock. The animal sat and watched the crew for about half an hour. It was only when an officer approached the seal that it swam away. Air Aviation Officer, Lt Sarah Filshie, said: "It's rather unusual to have a seal actually come on board, but he seemed very inquisitive and interested in what we were up to. "He stayed for about half-an-hour before one of the other officers approached him to see if he needed any help getting back into the water, and then he just turned around and went back out again." |
There is something about the idea of a flying car that sparks the imagination - maybe it is the association with futuristic sci-fi movies or just the idea of finally finding a way to beat the traffic that appeals. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter And there are hundreds of firms competing to come up with the perfect airborne vehicle, with around 175 new designs currently vying to get made. But can a sky-high commute ever be achieved and, if it can, will it be affordable for the average harassed commuter? The BBC met two German firms working to make electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft a reality, at a recent tech summit in Lisbon. Volocopter and Lilium are friendly rivals in the flying taxi space and their crafts look very different. Lilium's is a slick white machine more like a plane, while Volocopter's futuristic design combines the looks of a drone and a helicopter. Lilium's electric-powered vehicle is capable of flying for one hour on a single charge, but the challenges for the firm are moving from a two-seater model to one that can carry more passengers and to switch from vertical to horizontal flight. Volocopter is planning shorter journeys from bespoke Voloports and by 2035 aims to have dozens of these across Singapore, able to handle 10,000 passengers a day. Eventually it wants its craft to be able to land anywhere. In October, Volocopter flew its taxi across Singapore's Marina Bay - a short journey, nearly abandoned because of a heavy downpour. Test flights are incredibly important if firms like Lilium and Volocopter want to gain regulatory favour, but they are a long way from a regular commute. However, both firms claim that once their machines take off, they will be affordable for the masses. "If the journey is short then the cost will be similar to that of a normal taxi, and if it is a longer trip it will be equivalent to a high-speed rail ticket or an economy flight," said Lilium founder Daniel Wiegand. Volocopter's founder Alexander Zosel agrees, saying his company was founded on three principles. "To be the quietest possible aircraft, the safest possible, and not to do toys for boys but to democratise air travel." Both want to become airborne for real in two to five years, initially with a human pilot. To become fully autonomous will take a few more years beyond this time frame. Mr Zosel thinks flying taxis may even beat normal ones in the race to become autonomous. "On the ground I think it will be difficult to mix between human drivers and autonomous cars, but in the air there is so much space and we don't have pedestrians to worry about." But experts remain sceptical about how soon these plans can be realised. "Powering a helicopter requires a completely different level of battery power, endurance, and reliability than powering a car. We're a long way from there; it may take many decades," said aerospace expert Richard Aboulafia. "And if it happens it will be a luxury for wealthy people. I'd be happy if in 20 years we had driverless cars, let alone something that travels in three dimensions." The issue with drones, whether they carry parcels or people, is whether there will be public acceptance, not least because of fears they could quite literally fall out of the air. Mr Wiegand admits an air full of drones sounds "scary". "But they will be at two or three kilometres altitude so you can't hear them or see them." It is not just start-ups planning airborne taxis. Uber has plans to pilot its flying taxis in Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne, with operations due to launch in a similar time frame, around 2023. But the time and expense of designing such vehicles mean that sometimes even the big players drop out. Airbus had been working with car maker Audi on a drone but that work was recently put on hold. Audi said it was looking to work with other VW brands, such as Porsche, which is investigating flying taxis with rival Boeing. Announcing the change of heart, Audi said it thought it would take "a very long time" before flying taxis were ready for mass production. It looks like the commute by rail and car could be with us for some time to come. Listen to Business Daily's episode Will Taxis Ever Take Off? |
An undersea volcano erupting just south of Spain's Canary Islands may be the beginnings of a new island, or an extension to an existing one. For some, it's a colourful spectacle - for others a major blow to their livelihood. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rob Hugh-JonesPRI's The World "It's angry today. Look at it go!" says fisherman Elio Morales Rodriguez in the village of La Restinga, on the south coast of El Hierro island. "That green patch on the water is a dead zone," he says, looking out to sea. "It kills everything. No fishing, no dive schools, no tourists, just dead fish on the surface." For more than a month, the underwater volcano has been erupting three miles to the south of El Hierro, the smallest of the seven Canary Islands, about 50km (30 miles) south-west of its nearest neighbour, La Gomera, and 100km (60 miles) from the most populous of the islands - Tenerife. From about 60m below the sea, the so-called "submarine" volcano is spewing gases and burning lava, some of which is breaking the surface of the water. That has drawn lots of camera crews racing to the island to see what's going on, but far fewer tourists than usual. Local journalist Barbara Belt says the islanders don't know when all the fuss will die down and they will be able to get on with their lives again. In the coastal village of La Restinga, many bars, restaurants, and hotels are shut, and many of the village's residents have already left. Tremors Scientists say the eruption is part of the long-term volcanic evolution of the Canary Islands, which may result in a new island, or add new territory to the southern coast of El Hierro. There is seismic activity to the north of the island too. "There has been an enormous amount of seismic activity around the island," says Nemesio Perez, scientific coordinator at Involcan, the Canaries Institute of Volcanology. "Off the south coast, the magma has broken through the crust. The question is whether that will also happen off the north coast too." Mr Perez studied volcanology in Japan and the United States before returning to his native Canary Islands in 1997 to help improve the archipelago's volcano monitoring network. In the past four months, the network has detected more than 11,000 tremors across El Hierro island, one of which measured magnitude 4.6 and was strong enough to be felt on La Gomera and Tenerife. One resident of El Hierro said it was like an "energy jolt", while another described the noise as "a deep roar". Most of the tremors on El Hierro have gone unnoticed by the 10,000 residents, but a number have been powerful enough to make some a little nervous. "Islanders have had suitcases ready by the door, with a change of clothes, battery radio, torch, blanket and emergency rations," says Barbara Belt. On the north of the island, in an area called La Frontera, a teacher named Carmen says she's using games to encourage children at her infant school to follow emergency procedures. "When I blow a whistle, they scramble to get under the tables as fast as they can. We sing songs until the all-clear, then line up holding a rope to go outside," she adds. "Islanders are told to stay inside during tremors," says Barbara Belt. "When calm returns, they move outside to prearranged meeting points." The island got a visit from the Spanish defence minister in September. In La Caleta, a civil defence task force has arrived from the Spanish mainland and is on stand-by to help in case of emergency. Ash cloud? The islanders' daily lives were disturbed by the temporary closing of a vital road tunnel. There have also been evacuations from homes in potentially hazardous areas. For some, the worst of it has been the impact on the tourist trade. "The TV and papers dramatise everything," says Maximo Rodriguez, chatting in a near-empty bar in La Restinga. "It scares people off. People should come. How often do you get the chance to witness this?" he asks. On the north side of the island, in La Frontera, the owners of the Tasca La Cantina bar, Jose Antonio Padron Perez and his wife Maria Fonte Armas, say they are similarly fed up. "We get walking groups from northern Europe throughout the winter season. Everyone cancelled. But real life isn't as dramatic as the press say. We are all aware of volcanic activity. These are volcanic islands!" El Hierro has more than 500 open-sky cones, making it the most volcanic of all the Canary Islands, and this may be why so many Herrenos say they are unperturbed. Carmen says her children's paintings of volcanoes are colourful and fun, not dark and sinister. Dr Joachim Gottsmann, a volcanologist at Bristol University in the UK, who leads a European Commission-funded volcano study, says there is no obvious or impending prospect of an Iceland-style "ash cloud" developing in the Canaries. "Right now, the eruption south of El Hierro is really a submarine eruption only," he says. But he adds that this could change at any minute. So a cloud of uncertainty does hang over the heads of the islanders. They would like the fuss to subside - or at least for more tourists to come to the island to witness volcanic evolution for themselves. Listen to more on this story, and see aerial photos of the effects of the underwater eruption, at PRI's The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International, and WGBH in Boston. |
This is an unprecedented time for the study of the oceans. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Jonathan AmosScience correspondent@BBCAmoson Twitter Space agencies are now flying six satellite altimeters, returning large volumes of data on the height and shape of the sea surface - and in rapid time. The information is fed into all manner of applications, from forecasting the weather to understanding the migratory habits of marine creatures. The main image at the top of this page gives a snapshot of the six missions in action as they monitor the North Atlantic. Each is seen to fly over the Gulf Stream - the current of warm water that rides up the East Coast of the US and then crosses to Europe. The background map is a model - based on some of the sextet's data - of what the ocean was doing on the day the satellites tracked through the scene. It should be evident immediately that the spacecraft all see the same features. The constellation comprises the satellites known as Jason 1 and 2, which are a joint effort between the US and Europe; Sentinel-3a and Cryosat, which are solely European ventures; Saral/Altika - a French-Indian project; and HY-2A from China. Their equipment may differ slightly, but their principle of operation is the same: they emit radar pulses towards the sea-surface and catch the "echo". The nature of the returning energy gives information on the state of that surface, providing indications of wind speed and wave height. Meteorological agencies feed this into the numerical models that produce our weather forecasts. But the time to the arrival of the echo is also a measure of the elevation of the surface - and is useful in a couple of ways, says Remko Scharroo, an altimetry expert with Eumetsat, the organisation charged with gathering the satellite information for Europe's forecasters. "First of all, you can look at the slope of the sea surface and that tells you something about the currents. And secondly - the total height also depends on the total energy in the ocean. "You can imagine that if you heat up the ocean, it slightly expands. And that's very important for example in hurricane forecasting because this type of information will tell you how much energy a hurricane can absorb from the ocean. If the sea surface is warm but the underlying water is not, the hurricane will not be intensified as much." And it all goes wider than just the met offices, of course. Shipping companies take the current information to work out the most efficient routes, saving time and diesel. Drill rigs and cable-laying vessels will monitor strong currents and surface eddies to plan sensitive operations. Marine biologists are interested in the surface conditions and currents because these hint at how water is being moved and mixed. This influences the distribution of nutrients in the ocean and the production of plankton. All higher life - from the smallest fish to the biggest whales - depends on such processes. Even geologists have reason to thank the work of the satellite altimeters. This is because the mean topography of the sea surface reflects the shape of what lies below. Because water follows gravity, it is pulled into highs above the mass of tall seamounts, and slumps into depressions over deep trenches. Most of our knowledge of what the ocean floor looks like relies on these altimetric interpretations. The two newest missions, Jason-3 and Sentinel-3a, are currently going through a period of commissioning before being accepted into full operation. They were launched in January and February, respectively. In the Gulf Stream map, Jason-3 is seen to track very close to its predecessor Jason-2 so that their instruments can be cross-calibrated. Eumetsat has a key role in the management of the data coming from both the Jason and Sentinel missions. Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos |
President Mohamed Nasheed of The Maldives has made a personal apology to a Swiss couple who were severely mocked without their knowledge during what they believed was a ceremony renewing their marriage vows. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The fake ceremony happened at one of the archipelago’s luxury hotel resorts earlier this month. The Maldives government says the couple are distressed by what has happened and wish to remain anonymous. President Nasheed’s office said he telephoned the couple to say that the whole of the Maldives was deeply sorry for what happened in this fake ceremony, in which the unsuspecting couple were subjected to a torrent of strong verbal abuse in the local language which they did not understand. Tourism industry The statement said the President had invited the couple to return to the Maldives as his personal guests. It said that they desired anonymity and sought the president’s help in trying to contain the spread of video or photographs of the incident, as the publication of these had already caused them “considerable distress and embarrassment”. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the hotel employee who led the ceremony, Hussein Didi, is now under arrest with one of his colleagues. A local website, Haveeru Online, said they were facing charges including insulting Islam and “disesteeming” a tourist couple. Maldives Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Shaheed told BBC Sandeshaya that action of few people could halt the whole tourism industry. "You know we receive about 800,000 tourists each year; majority of them are actually repeat visitors because they have had a good time in the Maldives," he said. The fake ceremony mainly consisted of insults although Mr Didi also appeared to mock the level of hotel workers’ salaries. The minister added that everybody in the Maldives are "disgusted" by the behaviour of the hotel employees. Luxury tourism is a mainstay of the Maldivian economy and the anxious government says it is preparing strict new guidelines for these expensive ceremonies for tourists. |
US singer Ariana Grande was just leaving the stage at Manchester Arena when a bomb exploded right outside, killing and injuring dozens - including teenagers. Here, Alison Jamieson, author of Talking about Terrorism, answers some of your questions. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
What happened? The gig was just about over and crowds were swarming towards the exits when a "huge bang" went off. Some thought the noise was balloons popping, but in fact it was a man setting off a home-made bomb. We know that 22 people died - including an eight-year-old girl and a student - and more than 50 were hurt. The impact threw some people into the air and sent the music fans into a state of panic, desperate to get out of the building. Who does things like this? At the moment, we know very little about the man who did this. Terrorists - people who try to make themselves heard through violence - think they are acting not just for themselves but for the wider community. Somebody who does this sort of thing may be acting out of hatred towards a particular group of people or feel that they have been treated badly. Alison says attackers are usually acting out of anger. They have sometimes followed instructions through websites, or acted alone, or they might have been trained. It's too early to know for certain if the man who carried out this attack had views connected to political or religious belief systems. But the so-called Islamic State, which is a group fighting wars in Iraq and Syria, has said it is behind this attack. Sometimes with attacks like these the person involved might be miserable, hate his life and want to get into the history books. Again, an attacker could be lonely or unwell, and may not be thinking in a way that most people think. Why target young people? We don't know exactly who he meant to target but with a lot of these sorts of attacks, it's a question of opportunity. Some places like underground rail systems, shopping centres or, in this case, Manchester Arena can't be completely protected. These types of venue are possibly easier to target than Parliament or town halls, so you can sometimes say the attacker is just choosing the easier option. Could this happen to me? Terror attacks are very, very rare in most countries. But no-one is 100% safe and you can't give people false assurances, says Alison. Britain is largely a safe place to live. It's an island so it's not easy to smuggle weapons in and it's also a place where people look out for each other. Whatever your background, there's a group who will look out for you. The police, security services and the government are all working to keep you safe. How can I stay safe? What can I do to help? Manchester seems to have shown extraordinary courage and generosity, says Alison. Kind people offered beds for people to sleep in, gave them lifts and left food and drink at the scene for the emergency services. Some ideas for how you and your friends could help include: Alison Jamieson has written Radicalisation and Terrorism: A Teachers' Handbook for Addressing Extremism (2015) and Talking about Terrorism: Responding to Children's Questions (2017) |
Woodland in Guernsey has increased by more than 20% since the last habitat survey in 1999. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Environment Department still has 10% of the island to survey, but the results so far show an increase by 50 hectares to more than 300. Since March, more than 1,000km of field boundaries have been surveyed along with the island's open ground. The information from the surveys is used to help future planning developments. Parts of the coast and the north of the island are still to be surveyed. |
Private healthcare facilities - largely the preserve of the affluent prior to the coronavirus pandemic - have been made available to NHS patients in recent weeks. It has meant some cancer or cardiac patients considered at high risk if they contracted Covid-19 are now able to undergo critical surgery. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Thomas MackintoshBBC News, London On the day the UK went into lockdown, 32-year-old Robert Rodrigues received the news that he had cancer. "I was due to get married the week I found out I was diagnosed," he said. The wedding and honeymoon were all put on hold - as large gatherings and foreign travel were restricted - and Mr Rodrigues tried to make sense of his diagnosis. "I saw the coronavirus as a lesser evil compared to suffering from cancer and it spreading," he said. "I tend not to be a worrier which is a good thing. The doctors were all so professional and pulling me through all the way. "Their opinion was let's act quick and I kept telling myself that everything was in hand." Because of the risk of spreading or catching coronavirus, Mr Rodrigues's diagnosis and all of his consultations were carried out remotely. Within three days he was in the privately-run London Bridge Hospital having his tumour removed before it spread. It was all possible because of a historic deal made between the NHS and private hospitals to acquire thousands of extra beds, ventilators and medical staff. "I would definitely urge anyone to get checked out," he added. "There is no reason for being stuck at home - the healthcare system is still looking after people who have things not related to Covid-19." London Bridge is one of 28 private and independent hospitals in the capital which have helped the NHS during the coronavirus outbreak. Operating theatres, beds and intensive care units have all been made available to NHS patients at no extra cost, the hospital's chief executive Janene Madden said. Strict precautions are in place to ensure the hospital remains as coronavirus free as possible. Temperatures are taken and full personal protective equipment (PPE) is donned by staff during complex surgeries. Patients are swabbed in the throat and through the nose 48 hours prior to surgery to make sure they are not coronavirus positive - if they are then the surgery is put on hold. Former milkman Ted Grenham, from East Peckham in Kent, is another patient who has undergone a life-saving operation, this time to have a valve put into his heart. Mr Grenham has just turned 83 and because of his age and heart problem is considered to be at risk from coronavirus. Many London hospitals have large numbers of Covid-19 patients and undergoing surgery at one would have been too risky. "We have had more than 1,000 Covid patients at King's [College Hospital]," says Prof Phil MacCarthy - part of a team of doctors at the hospital who have come to London Bridge to operate on Mr Grenham. "There are many, many wards full of patients. "So this risk benefit about exposing the patient [to coronavirus] versus leaving them alone is that much more difficult at King's because trying to keep them Covid free at King's is very much harder. "The risk of contracting Covid at London Bridge Hospital in this relatively Covid-free environment is a lot less than at King's. "We are working on a recovery plan to get the patients back to King's to start doing these procedures but that's a complex plan. "What we are seeing for the first time is NHS staff working with private hospital staff and they work very well together - I've been very impressed." The extra resources for the NHS have helped make other urgent treatments possible during the pandemic. The NHS often uses private sector facilities when the need arises, but it is the mass purchasing of these resources which is unprecedented. Elsewhere across the capital, The Cromwell Hospital, in Kensington, is also ensuring critical urology, gynaecology, colorectal and endocrine surgery are made available for patients from several London NHS trusts. Director Phil Luce said Bupa was "dedicated to helping alleviate pressure" on the NHS and it had also shared ventilators with the new temporary Nightingale hospital in east London. "We're facing the greatest challenge in healthcare that we have seen in our lifetime," he said. "We will do whatever we can to support the NHS to ensure patients get the medical help they need." |
We asked our readers to send in their pictures on the theme of "my summer". Here are some of the pictures sent to us from around the world. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The next theme is "night vision" and the deadline for entries is 15 September 2020. Send pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or follow the link below to "Upload your pictures here". Further details and terms can be found by following the link to "We set the theme, you take the picture", at the bottom of the page. All photographs subject to copyright. |
She is one of the world's leading forensic ecologists who has helped gather evidence for some of the highest-profile murder cases of recent years. But Prof Patricia Wiltshire's interest in the botanical world began during her childhood in Wales. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Ms Wiltshire, 77, remembers with fondness the walks she went on with her grandmother, Vera May Tiley, that introduced her to the natural world. She said: "We lived in a small mining village, Cefn Fforest, near Blackwood in the South Wales valleys. "We would go on walks and she would show me things in hedgerows; birds' nests, insects and plants we could eat, like hawthorn and wild garlic. "She was also a good gardener and keen to protect her plants from pests, so I learnt about plant diseases and how to grow food." Ms Wiltshire's interest in plants grew further after an accident when she was a young child. She said: "When I was seven, I decided to scare my mother by jumping out on her and shouting 'boo', not realising she was carrying a pan of hot chip fat. "I got badly burnt and ended up covered in bandages for two years. "I also suffered from pneumonia, measles, whooping cough and bronchitis, which left me with a chronic cough problem. "I missed a lot of school but had my encyclopaedias, which were my joy. "This was post-war Britain. The NHS had just been set up by Aneurin Bevan, and some of his family lived over the road, but access to treatment was still minimal." Despite her fledgling interest in plants and botany, Ms Wiltshire had little desire to make them her academic profession after she left Lewis Girls' grammar school in Hengoed. Instead, aged 17, she moved to London and began a job in the civil service. For the next decade, Ms Wiltshire trained as a medical laboratory technician at Charing Cross Hospital, learning histology (the microscopy study of tissue), bacteriology, and also biochemistry (the chemical processes in living organisms). She then studied for a botany degree, becoming a lecturer and expert in palynology - the study of pollen and spores. Pollen and spores can last for millions of years if conditions are right, even on surface soil and vegetation. So Ms Wiltshire began specialising in archaeological sites - taking soil samples and recreating the environment in and around Roman era sites such as Hadrian's Wall in northern England and Pompeii in Italy. 'Eureka moment' But in 1994, when she was in her fifties, she received a phone call which would change the course of her career. It was from a police officer in Hertfordshire asking if she could help with a murder. A charred body had been left in a ditch and there were tyre marks in the adjacent field. Police wanted to know if a car belonging to their suspects had been present in the field. Prof Wiltshire said: "I'd never done anything like it before, but I analysed everything in the car and found pollen from the pedals and footwell matched that of an agricultural field edge. "When police took me to the crime scene, I was able to identify the exact spot where the body had been dumped from the types of flowers in that section of the hedge. "It was a eureka moment for me because I didn't think it would be that specific." Despite her own initial scepticism of forensic ecology, she began working on more and more cases. In 2002, she helped police gather evidence in the case of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Police had discovered their bodies in a ditch, but wanted to establish the approach path their killer had used. Ms Wiltshire was able to do this by analysing the re-growth of trampled plants leading to the ditch. Police then conducted a detailed search of her route, and found one of Jessica's hairs on a twig. Ms Wiltshire subsequently gave evidence in the trial of Ian Huntley who was convicted of murdering the two ten-year-olds. Other high profile cases she has been involved with include the child murders of Milly Dowler and Sarah Payne, and five women murdered by a serial killer in Ipswich in 2006. Ms Wiltshire has also worked on cases in south Wales. She said: "In about 2005, I was called to New Tredegar in the Rhymney Valley. "Two thugs had kicked a man to death, then dumped his body in some ferns. "It lay there for a few days, then they returned to burn it, but people saw the smoke and called the police. "They later arrested two men and wanted me to discover if they had been on the site." Ms Wiltshire matched the pollen from the men's shoes to that at the scene, but was still puzzled as the pollen she discovered was not normally found in Wales. Eventually she realised that the lorries that were trundling along the adjacent road were carrying topsoil from England, which was blowing onto the field and depositing pollen and spores. The fact that the pollen was so uniquely located - and matched both the suspects and the crime site - led to the two men confessing. In another case in Bridgend, a body was lain on some wet, peaty soil, which preserves pollen for a long time. Ms Wiltshire later found traces of walnut pollen in the soil and on the suspects' shoes, but she knew there was no walnut site close by. Again, it was eventually discovered that a walnut tree had been cut down by a farmer thirty years previously. The pollen had remained in the soil ever since. Ms Wiltshire, who published a memoir in 2019, said: "People may not realise it, but pollen and spores can tell us stuff that DNA and fingerprints simply can't. "Pollen isn't easily washed away and it stays on people's clothes and shoes. If you walk on soil or vegetation, you inevitably pick it up." Since her first Hertfordshire case, Ms Wiltshire has been able to use the wide range of subjects she studied to develop forensic ecology, which has helped solve many cases over the years. She said: "Sometimes the police call me a 'Welsh witch' because of the way I process a mass of data and come up with ideas. "But it's not magic, it's analysis." |
It was a bit ponderous, sometimes. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent Virtual questions was the easy bit... now for the votes The sound quality was occasionally poor. And no-one laughed when the Speaker announced that the (former Scottish Secretary) David Mundell was unable to connect. But the first session of the virtual Commons was a success, with Mr Speaker Hoyle keeping the proceedings moving at a sedate pace, to allow the technical staff behind the scenes time to get the right faces on-screen, when their turn came to ask a question. The Lords, too, have launched their virtual system, although its first outing was conducted behind closed doors, after a dress rehearsal so chaotic that the House authorities didn't dare let the public watch. The Lords currently bases its virtual proceedings on the Microsoft Teams system, rather than Zoom, as used by the Commons. This is because that was the system their Lordships had to hand when the crisis arrived, but it has not proven well-adapted to the requirements of a virtual parliament, and they will eventually switch to Zoom. In the meantime one official will have the sole function of muting and un-muting peers during virtual sessions, which sounds like a fairly thankless task. More managed debates Compared to the normal, glacial, pace of change in Westminster, parliamentary procedure has been moving at warp factor nine. The question now is whether the 'dilithium crystals' can take much more. Because, considerable though the achievement of virtual question times has been, that was the easy bit. Creating a virtual system capable of dealing with the much more free-flowing debate that would normally come when MPs consider the detail of legislation - particularly at Report Stage or Committee of the Whole House - will be rather more difficult. The kind of thing I mean is where MPs intervene on a minister to ask for a clarification or assurance about a particular point, and maybe rebellion (or even acceptance) crystallises on the floor of the House. Question times have an established list of questioners; spontaneity, with some MP unexpectedly rising to push a particular issue, is much harder for the Chair to cope with, when they're not in the Chamber. The chances are that debate will be much more managed and stilted, with MPs having to organise their spontaneity in advance. Votes cannot be avoided forever Then comes the question of voting. For the next week or so the "usual channels" - the parliamentary business managers - will try to avoid divisions, that is to say counted votes, in the House. So, for example, the Second Reading of the Immigration Bill has been postponed, precisely because that was one measure where MPs would expect to have to troop through the Aye and No lobbies. Another is the forthcoming vote on allowing abortion in Northern Ireland - a very sore point with the Democratic Unionist Party. The forthcoming business will be subject to a "nod or nothing" rule, so that if, unexpectedly, someone does oppose it, and seek to force a division, the division will be postponed. But votes cannot be avoided for ever - and a system to allow remote voting will need to be in place fairly soon. Trials of a system similar to the kind of thing that happens when people need to change a password on something important like internet banking, have already taken place. MPs would be emailed a link and texted a code number to allow them to log into a website where they could register their vote for each division.... but, I'm told, there was an 80 per cent failure rate. Mr Speaker's discretion Even so, the House has now agreed a motion on remote voting, leaving much to the discretion of Mr Speaker Hoyle. • There will be the option to make a remote vote a "deferred division" (this would allow votes to be taken in a group at a later time) • It is up to the Speaker to confirm that a remote vote is applicable • The technicalities of the remote voting will be "authorised by the Speaker" • There will be no tellers • MPs have 15 mins to vote • The 15 mins can be suspended if the Speaker thinks there are issues • The Speaker will announce the result from the chair • MPs can continue with subsequent business before the result is announced - and the Speaker will interrupt proceedings with the result • The Speaker can rule that the vote is "null and void" and order a re-run if there are "problems in the conduct of the division occurred which might have affected the result" The nightmare scenario is that the validity of some close vote is challenged because someone's vote was somehow not registered, or even wrongly registered. The Chair of the Procedure Committee, the former Cabinet Minister, Karen Bradley, didn't push an amendment, delaying the implementation of remote voting to a division. But she remains to be convinced about the technology. |
This weekend marks the 300th anniversary of the role of prime minister. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sir Anthony Seldon & Peter SnowdonPolitical historian and Blair biographer On 3 April 1721, Sir Robert Walpole became Britain's first PM, and since then a cast of 54 occupants have tried to change the course of the country, though only a small number have succeeded. Most prime ministers leave office in unhappy circumstances, having been thrown out by the electorate, pushed out by their parties or succumbing to ill health. "I don't think I did enjoy the job," Tony Blair told us. "Because the responsibility is so huge. "Every day you're making decisions and every day you're under massive scrutiny as is your family. The paradox is that you start at your most popular and least capable and you end at your least popular and most capable." Few might have suspected that a prime minister who, in his decade in office, exuded such an appetite for power, harboured such regrets. Mr Blair's predecessor, Sir John Major, who struggled to hold his government together as his party's long period of rule came to an unruly end in 1997, recalls how his premiership became intolerable as his small majority vanished. "If you have a very small or no majority it is crippling of your time. You have to attend very late night votes, which prime ministers with a large majority don't have to do. "You don't have to worry about sections of your party who are opposed to a particular policy because they're a minority, they're going to be outvoted. You treat them decently and listen to them, but you don't have to worry that they're going to upset the apple cart completely and defeat the government." Sir John found some solace in his weekly audiences with the Queen. "They are utterly private. So it is an opportunity for both parties to speak in total frankness to one another. And in politics, except with people who are extraordinarily close, it is very difficult to do that. So it's a great outlet when prime minister and Monarch can meet." What of the current incumbent? Boris Johnson strikes a characteristically ebullient note. "Number 10 has brilliantly evolved over hundreds of years into what is a big department of state now," he says. "And what you've got is a 18th century townhouse, which is rather beautiful. This is an incredible institution that has evolved over time into this extraordinary centre of a G7 economy." It is obvious that the prime minister revels in the history of the building and, despite being in office during the worst pandemic in over a century, which almost took his own life, he relishes the job. While Mr Johnson claims that he's supported by a "big department of state" in Number 10, many prime ministers feel they lacked institutional might, especially compared with the Treasury. David Cameron told us: "Everyone thinks Number 10 is all powerful because it is the office of the prime minister. But of course Number 10 is very small - underpowered - compared to these massive departments of state. "I remember joking after a few months that you spend far too much time trying to find what the government's actually doing and quite a lot of time trying to stop it." Mr Cameron was criticised for "chillaxing" in the job, enjoying the trappings of Chequers, the prime minister's official residence in the Chilterns. Lack of time and the relentlessness of the Downing Street diary afforded him little time off. "I would often pop up [to the flat] and make a sandwich for lunch. Because you do need a bit of time to be able to be on your own and just think and just breathe. Just a few moments of peace at lunchtime and making a cheese sandwich. These were really valuable moments," he says. For many incumbents of Number 10, survival in office was not just political - it was a matter of life or death. While Spencer Perceval remains the only prime minister to be assassinated - in 1812 - others have been the targets of numerous attempts - notoriously Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and John Major in 1991, both targets of the IRA. Others have left exhausted and ill, notably Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan. David Lloyd George nearly died of Spanish Flu in September 1918 only a few weeks before the end of the First World War. The seriousness of the condition was concealed from the public for fear that it might harm morale. A century later, a stunned public was all too aware of the gravity of Boris Johnson's illness, when he was admitted to intensive care suffering with Covid-19. Was Mr Johnson aware of the echoes with Lloyd George's near death experience during the last major pandemic? "Did he? I had forgotten that. I didn't get the Spanish flu. If you want to know, I'm feeling absolutely tremendous." As a keen student of history and biographer of Winston Churchill, which of the prime minister's predecessors would he most like to meet and find common cause? Would it be Churchill himself, the choice of David Cameron? Might it be Sir Robert Walpole, the man who established the office and held it for longer than any other? The PM's reply was surprising. "I think Gladstone. I'd love to meet Gladstone," he says. The Prime Minister at 300, presented by Sir Anthony Seldon and produced by Peter Snowdon, is on BBC Radio 4 on Friday at 11am and at the same time on Friday 9 and 16 April. It is also available on BBC Sounds. |
Crude oil is too cheap for the taste of many producers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service economics correspondent Energy ministers from Opec, the oil exporters' group, are meeting at their headquarters in Vienna to do something about it. They will be joined by delegates from some oil suppliers outside the group. On the agenda: whether to extend the oil production curbs agreed last year that are due to expire next month. There is widespread support in the group for taking this step, and members could also discuss reducing the ceiling on oil output even further. The formal meeting happens on Thursday but key bilateral talks will take place in Vienna hotels ahead of the official gathering. Key deal Two key players have already agreed that they want to extend the existing limit until March next year: Opec's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, the biggest exporter outside the organisation. The problem for Opec and other oil exporters started almost three years ago, when the price of oil began to slide. North Sea Brent crude oil, which is widely used as a price benchmark, hit a high of around $115 (£88) a barrel in June 2014 but by the end of the year it was half that amount. While Opec members may not sell Brent crude, the prices they get for their oil do move in parallel to this benchmark. And it got worse still from OPEC's perspective; in January 2016 the price of Brent fell below $28 a barrel. Since then it has rebounded, but has not got much beyond the mid-$50s per barrel. That partial recovery has taken some of the strain off Opec members' finances. Many have also responded with cuts to government spending. But they could really do with a stronger price recovery. What and who is Opec? To take one example; last year Saudi Arabia had a deficit in the government's finances equivalent to 17% of national income. This year the IMF projects it will be 10%. It's a substantial improvement but still far too high for the long term. Surpluses generated in times of higher prices in the past mean the Saudis do not, however, have an imminent problem of unmanageable government debt. What Opec and a group of other oil exporting countries including Russia have already done is cut back production in an effort to boost prices. They agreed that last December. The reduction was almost 1.8 million barrels per day - equivalent to about 2% of global oil production. Widespread compliance Often in the past Opec countries have agreed to cut production but failed to comply with their own commitments. The temptation is for individual countries to cheat and sell more while hoping that others will cut production and push prices higher for all. This time, however, Opec discipline has been remarkably strong. The International Energy Agency (IEA) a rich countries' watchdog, estimates compliance with the restraints is at more than 95%. That said, the agreement has not been very effective. Today the price is actually a few dollars less than it was on the day the deal was done. Without the cuts, though oil might have been even cheaper. OPEC members do have a relatively new problem: the American shale oil industry. It has grown from very little 10 years ago, to become a major player. In fact it made an important contribution to the abundant supplies of crude oil that were behind the price fall that began in 2014. In 2005, US crude oil production covered a third of the country's needs, now the figure is more than 60%. In the early stages of the price fall Saudi Arabia appeared to be willing to live with the decline in the hope that it would put pressure on US shale producers and force many out of business. It was uncomfortable for America's oil industry but it proved to be more resilient than the Saudis probably expected, and their producers were very effective at reducing costs. Total US oil production did decline in 2016, but it is rebounding this year. Stock levels Opec's production cuts have made space for other producers in non-member countries and the recovery in prices from their lows of early 2016 has eased the financial pressure. One manifestation of the abundant supply is the fact that stocks of crude oil held by refineries and governments are well above normal levels; a new historical high in the rich countries in March, according to the IEA. The objective shared by Opec and Russia is to get stocks down to the average level of the last five years. The signs are that Opec members are mostly well disposed to continuing the cuts beyond next month's planned expiry. There may well be some debate about how long to extend them, and there have been reports that some would like to make the cuts deeper. Outside Opec, Russia is in agreement but Kazakhstan wants to increase production, while others have been holding discussions with Opec countries. Assuming they do take extend the production limits, what will be the impact on oil prices? They may stay towards the upper end of the recent range - but it will take a while for those stocks of crude oil to come down to levels that could support a stronger rally. Opec's likely action could certainly ensure that prices don't take a renewed dive but the prospect of a powerful surge in prices is not strong. US sell-off There is a new complication for the producers' calculations. President Trump's budget plan includes a proposal to sell half the oil in the US government's emergency reserves, the strategic petroleum reserve, starting from the next financial year. It is just a proposal at this stage but it has still been enough to move international oil prices down. Yet in the longer term, the weakness of oil prices does perhaps contain the seeds of its own reversal. The low prices have undermined investment in new production capacity in the last two years, which in turn means that there could be a supply crunch. The IEA has warned this could come sometime after 2020. In the even longer term, the big question for Opec is whether a shift away from oil-based transport fuels - in favour of electrically-powered vehicles, for example - will cast a shadow over the viability of their natural resources. |
It's the weekly news quiz - have you been paying attention to what's been going on in the world during the past seven days? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
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A man has been taken to hospital after a paraglider crashed into a school playground in the Borders. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The incident happened at about 15:40 on Sunday at St Ronan's Primary School in Innerleithen. A 59-year-old man who lives in the area was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by ambulance as a result of the accident. Police said inquiries into the incident were continuing and said the man's condition was "stable". Scottish Borders Council said there had been no damage to the school in the crash and it had been able to open as normal on Monday. |
The most feared bomber plane of the 20th Century is still going strong after 60 years in service in the US military - from Vietnam to Afghanistan. And she will keep on flying until 2044. How does this 1950s behemoth survive in the era of drones and stealth aircraft? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By James MorganBBC News, Barksdale, Louisiana We are sweltering in the Louisiana summer. The baking hot tarmac of Barksdale runway feels like burning coals. A huddle of young mechanics - exhausted, perspiring - take shelter under the shady belly of a hulking, battered-looking bomber. Its guts hang open. The battle-worn paint under the wings is peeling away to expose yellow primer underneath. Her name is "Cajun Fear" - painted on her nose with a snarling alligator. Parked alongside her: the Grim Reaper, Apocalypse, Global Warrior, and the Devil's Own, the pride of the 96th bomb squadron - the "Red Devils". They call it "the Buff" - an acronym whose first three words are "Big Ugly Fat". This bomber was built in 1960 - the year JFK won the US presidential election, Hitchcock's thriller Psycho was released in cinemas and the USSR successfully sent two dogs into space. Two years later, in 1962, at a factory in Wichita, the last ever B-52 nuclear bomber rolled off the assembly line, fired up its eight engines, and took off to play its role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, more than half a century later - after Vietnam, two Iraq Wars and Afghanistan - the ol' granddaddy of the US Air Force is showing its battle scars. The pilots joke that if you flew upside down "chicken bones from Saigon would fall out." But these senior citizens still proudly patrol the skies for the United States. When the US wants to deliver a message, it sends a B-52. In November, to Beijing's fury, two B-52 bomber planes flew near disputed islands in the South China Sea. "It is a symbol of American might," says Capt Erin McCabe. "Wherever we go in the world, people take notice." The US puts such faith in these historic machines that they will keep on patrolling the skies until 2044 - well into their 80s. In the era of drones, stealth aircraft, and cyberwarfare, a chunky old behemoth sketched out on a napkin three years after the end of World War Two still strikes fear into the enemy. "This plane is the iconic war machine for the United States Air Force," says Col Keith Schultz, 2nd Bomb wing vice-commander, who has piloted B-52s for more than 30 years. "When we load these weapons, the world takes heed. It's always the first aircraft in there in a conflict. We knock down the door - and let all the other aircraft in to do their job." "Knocking down doors" in an aircraft this size - 159ft (48.5m) long, and with a wingspan of 185ft (56.4m) - is a team sport, performed by a crew of five. Sitting downstairs in the dark, with no windows, targeting and releasing the bombs, is Capt Ryan Allen, a weapons systems officer ("wizzo"). "Think about the amount of political power this aircraft has," he says. "When an F-16 shows up in your country - big deal. But when a B-52 shows up… they start singing a different tune." We hear a roar and look up. A dark bird is looming heavily over us, blocking out the sunlight. Plumes of smoke from eight engines fill the sky and eardrums vibrate to a distinctive sound. Not just a rumble but almost a scream from the turbofans. "The sound of freedom" as Schultz likes to say. Cruising at 650 mph at up to 50,000 feet (commercial airliners fly around 35,000 feet) the colossal bomber's 70,000lb payload includes hundreds of conventional bombs and 32 nuclear cruise missiles. It can refuel in mid-air - giving it a potentially unlimited strike range. This created a "nuclear umbrella" for the United States during the Cold War, back in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress "Those engineers who drew it on a napkin in Ohio that first night, I think they knew they had a sweet, successful architecture that was gonna last the duration," says Schultz. "And in that era you're not talking computers - you're talking slide rules. "They built in a lot of durability to withstand a lot of take-offs, turbulence. It's over-engineered - and that's its staying power." Col Warren Ward, a veteran pilot of Operation Desert Storm, also admires the Buff's sturdiness. "It's gonna bring you home," he says. "It's ugly but it gets the job done. Other aircraft have come along that were supposed to replace it. The B-1 was gonna replace it... didn't happen. Then the B-2… that didn't happen either." The exterior of the aircraft has changed little since the 1950s. But internally, over the years it has been refitted with computers and GPS/INS (Inertial Navigation System). It may have been designed with just one thing in mind - to rain bombs from a great height - but over the years the Buff has been adapted to carry almost any weapon in the US inventory, including laser-guided cruise missiles, and to conduct low-level bombing raids in Afghanistan. As enemy technology has advanced, so too have the defence and disguise tools employed by the electronic warfare officer. Sitting upstairs, facing backwards with no windows, he or she uses radar jammers and false target generators to help the B-52 dodge anti-aircraft missiles and fighter jets. "We're as big as a barn on the radar. We're not going to hide from anybody. So what I do is very important," says McCabe. The pointy tip of the spear Captain Erin McCabe, electronic warfare officer: I first heard about the B-52 on the History Channel. Because it is historic. It's older than my parents. Usually the first question I get - "Is that thing still flying?" But that's the beauty - it's so old and the enemy is thinking about the new thing - not the old B-52 any more. So all our tricks are still viable. It's just as lethal as when it was first made. Versatility is our strength - we can carry almost any weapon in the US inventory. My favourite is flying low-level and feeling the percussions of the weapons. It burbles the aircraft, and you can feel how fast they hit - boom, boom, boom - the loud noises. I want to be part of the pointy tip on the spear - the first person out there to knock on the door. But as enormous as the B-52 is on the outside, once you fold down the hatch and clamber up the ladder into the dark interior, it is anything but spacious. The crew rub up against each other with little room for privacy. "The airplane was not designed for people. It was designed for bombs," says Ward. He should know, having once made a flight that lasted 47.2 hours. "We took off here at Barksdale, flew east… and landed at Barksdale again - all the way around the world." And of course there are no creature comforts. "You can't even stand upright, except on the ladder if you want to stretch your back. Though if you're creative you can sling up a hammock, he says. The ejection seats are "like sitting on a concrete sidewalk". And as for the odour… "It does not have a new-car smell," says Ward. "You get in and it's hot and you're pouring sweat into your seat cushion. "But then when you climb to altitude it's freezing, and your clothes are still all wet, and you shiver…" To get an uncensored flavour of what it smells like to steer a 100-tonne hulk of 1950s design, it's worth reading the blogs of a former pilot, alias Major Kong, named after the bomb-riding B-52 commander in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic Dr Strangelove. "Every B-52 I flew in smelled like stale sweat, piss and engine oil," he writes. The "facilities" for the crew consist of a can with a lid on it, which sometimes leaks. "And if you have to go the other way, it's the 'honey bucket'," laughs Ward. "But he who uses that is banished forever. On that round-the-world flight we had a bet going - whoever breaks first buys the beers. "We made it all the way to the Aleutian Islands before our co-pilot broke out in a sweat and bolted up. "A voice came over the intercom: 'We have a winner!" Then everybody went full oxygen..." So it's uncomfortable to fly in. Maybe it's a joy to manoeuvre? You can forget that idea, says Ward. "It is a pig to fly. It's a dump truck. I equate it to herding buffalo. "You turn the yoke… nothing happens. Turn it again… nothing happens. You turn it the third time, and the first instruction is kicking in. "It's not nimble. But you come to respect it." From this sleepy corner of Louisiana, Ward took part in one of the longest and most devastating bombing raids of the 20th Century. One night in December 1991, he was woken in the middle of the night and called urgently to the briefing room. He and 56 other crew entered seven bombers - his was the Grim Reaper, with a painting of Bugs Bunny carrying a sickle on its nose - and flew 14,000 miles to Baghdad to drop a wave of cruise missiles, which obliterated Saddam Hussein's air defences. A day-and-a-half later (35 hours) they landed again, without their wheels having touched the ground. The global strike range of the B-52 also created a new phenomenon in warfare - a new kind of psychological experience. "It's very unique, to fight a war thousands of miles away and return home to a normal lifestyle," says Schultz. "And at 35,000 feet you don't hear the battle cries. You don't hear the 200lb bomb going off. If you sneezed you'd miss it." Ward agrees: "I could wake up here in my own home, take off and fly to a war half-way across the world, come home and sleep in my own bed. That's a pretty strange concept in the whole history of war. "I can reach out and touch my family, which is a beautiful thing. But you're conflicted because you can't tell them anything. You can't decompress." Instead the pilots rely on their comrades for support. "It's not like a fighter pilot mentality where you're invincible and you do everything on your own," says Allen. "It forces you to co-operate. I wouldn't trade that camaraderie for anything else in the world. "When we're dropping bombs on the training range there's always cheering. "Usually we have a contest to see who gets the closest bomb. The loser buys the beers. "It's awesome. It's a rush. We thump our chests a little bit." This pride and affection for the beloved Buff transcends all ranks at Barksdale. The engineers for instance have a tradition of "patting the aircraft as she goes", says maintenance crew chief Jacob Dunn. "All our planes are 'shes'. It's just a superstition we have." And what about the bombs - does he ever hug them, like Major Kong? "Of course! Who doesn't wanna hug a bomb?" he grins. He is joking… at least, I think he is. Crude gags and devilish humour are the oil that holds these crews together. But don't let that fool you into thinking they are relaxed about their duties. They scrutinise and inspect every last bearing. "Is that a crack up there? No, just dirt. OK, phew!" In this age of "smart" new devices which break and cannot be repaired, the remarkable endurance of a mechanical 1950s bomber - and the Air Force's "don't discard, reuse" mentality - feels almost heartwarming. That is, until you remember the destruction it has wrought. Seen from the ground, 60 years of the B-52 is a very different story. Its future will include an improved weapons system, better data links for communications, and the re-engining of the aircraft to reduce fuel consumption. But for the crews who fly it, it will still and always be the Buff. No technology can replace what makes it special, as Allen explains. "I'm sitting in a jet that probably went to downtown Hanoi in the 60s, or shot cruise missiles into Iraq in the 90s. "I'm sitting in an aircraft that's survived the ages and adapted to all kinds of mission sets… and it's still looking to go to 2040 and beyond. "My kids and even my grandkids could fly it. "That's awesome. That's huge." That's a B-52. Operation Secret Squirrel Col Warren Ward (ret), deputy director of programming, USAF Global Strike Command: I got into B-52s in 1988. Back then we had the Soviet menace, before the Berlin Wall came down. From my perspective, we just thought we were in a flying club. I thought great - the government's paying me to fly and I'm never going to have to use it! There's no big Armageddon war coming. Then all of a sudden Iraq rolls into Kuwait and the reality started sinking in... Oh my God what are we doing? The squadron I was in - 596 Bomb Squadron - we got put on a mission called Senior Surprise. But that was classified so we had to call it something else. We called it Secret Squirrel. We had a new cruise missile that was a variant of a nuclear missile. While the rest went out into the field we stayed back in Barksdale. Our families asked, "Why are you staying back?" We couldn't tell them anything. On the night of 15 January, we stayed up late watching the news, waiting. I remember going to bed at midnight, tired, and at 3am the loudspeaker comes on for all the Secret Squirrel crew to get into the briefing room. I was tired, I don't wanna get up. The colonel is there - all the weather report, enemy warnings, where the bad guys are. We took off at 6.30 in the morning. Seven jets taxiing out of the airport. I was in number three jet. We fly non-stop from Barksdale to the Middle East. We never landed... 35.4 hours. I'm not gonna stand here and act cocky. I was scared. I didn't know what I was getting into. It was the first time I'd dropped live ordnance against anybody. We launched them cruise missiles from the airplane and when they go you think, "Somebody's gonna have a bad day." The longest combat mission prior to that was the RAF flying Vulcans. We beat their record. After 17 hours over there I was able to dial into the BBC on shortwave radio and find out what we did. We asked you to share you thoughts - here are some of your emails: David Meigh, Jakarta: I spent five years building irrigation systems in Vietnam for peasant farmers whose one million relatives were killed by these weapons of terror - old people, women and children. I have stood in craters made by them near Dau Tieng whilst our project had to clear vast quantities of unexploded bombs to build canals. John McDonald, Nottingham, UK: About a million dead people have shared the B52 experience. They can't speak for themselves. Dave Volker, Minnesota: I flew B-52s during the early 1970s. Stateside we stood ready to defend the US with nuclear capability. In South East Asia we flew combat missions over Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam while stationed in Thailand and on Guam. I accumulated 42 combat missions as co-pilot and pilot in command. I am proud to say that I flew these aircraft as a volunteer; I chose this aircraft and to fly it to defend the US. We faced down the Russian Bear and won the Cold War. We in the Strategic Air Command prevented a global apocalypse with one of the finest war machines ever made. Sometimes it takes a large and imposing sword to keep the peace. Wayne, Wigan, UK: I was fortunate enough to maintain B-52G aircraft in Guam from 1988 to 1990. It was pretty mind blowing to later talk to my dad back home and to realise that some of the airframes that I worked on were the very same ones that he had maintained in the early 60s in Michigan. No surprise to me that they are scheduled to continue their mission for another 30 years. Artem, London: Millions of people [have experienced B-52s] - these raids destroyed their countries infrastructures, killed their families and maimed them for life, something you clearly fail to make notice of. Anonymous, Decan, Kosovo: I was blessed to live in the era of B52 and Nato who stopped ethnic cleansing of Albanians from Kosovo. Alan, Essex, UK: In January 1991, at the start of the first Gulf War, I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We were woken in the early hours to the sound of B-52s flying over the house very low, on a long slow approach to land at the airport. The noise was unbelievable, but the impression of power was awesome. We knew then that the war had started. Over the next few days, I watched further streams of bombers on approach intermixed with Hercules C-130s and KC135 and KC10 tankers, using any one of the airport's three runways. After the uncertainty following the invasion of Kuwait we realised that the kingdom had massive support. 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We've paid off the six armed guards who've been protecting us, haggled over excess baggage, and I'm now writing this in a small plane heading south from the sun-baked Somali port of Bosaso, across the vast, yellow-brown plains of the Horn of Africa, towards Nairobi. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent@BBCAndrewHon Twitter It's a special moment for me. I've spent just over a decade living and working on this continent, and this is the end of my final trip in this particular job, and so a chance - first of all - to say thank you for taking the trouble to read this blog, and the many others I've written, in courtrooms, under trees and stars, in tents, hotel rooms, stadiums, bars, huts and airports all over Africa. Generalisations It's been a wonderful, enthralling, sometimes sobering privilege. And now, of course, comes the temptation to offer you some grand conclusions about the future of the continent. But fear not. "I don't like generalisations," Nelson Mandela's lawyer, George Bizos, once told me, chidingly. Besides, the more I've travelled here, the more I've come to appreciate the difficulty of trying to draw useful comparisons between, say, South Africa and Sierra Leone, and, for that matter, to resent reading about or hearing from foreigners who "have fallen in love with Africa" or who feel that single word - "Africa" - can still be applied to events - Ebola, famine, terrorism - that have left so much of this huge continent untouched. And then of course there's the simple fact that humble journalists like me are, more often than not, at the mercy, not of grand themes, but of mere events. I have travelled to many parts of the African continent over the years I have been here and met many wonderful people. It is one of the most dynamic places I have worked and lived in. It's been a wonderful, enthralling, sometimes sobering privilege. I wasn't expecting to spend my 44th birthday on a small fishing boat laden with weapons, heading into the besieged Libyan city of Misrata; nor arguing with a government soldier to spare the life of a colleague in the chaos of Ivory Coast's civil war; or watching France's President Francois Hollande emerge dazed and delighted from a giddy crowd of Malians celebrating the liberation of Timbuktu; or standing on a roadside in Sierra Leone, watching an old man try to save his Ebola-ravaged wife from dying; or, need I add, spending weeks - or was it months? - sitting in a Pretoria courtroom tweeting manically about Oscar Pistorius's trial. And yet, of course, there have been themes. World-beating economic growth statistics and enduring inequality, China's phenomenal infrastructure programme; the growing number of democratic - sometimes nominally democratic - elections; the movement to restrict presidents to two terms in office; and the rival trend of leaders amending the constitution "democratically" to hold on to power; the emerging backlash against traditional foreign aid; the slow fight to address climate change; Islamist extremism; the impact of mobile phones and social media; the all-too-often-deadly migration to Europe; and the rise of an increasingly assertive middle class. Taken in northern Ethiopia, near the village of Korem - which was at the epicentre of the 1984 famine, ahead of the UN conference on funding development, in July. We'd stopped at the side of the road to get some shots and these kids appeared. But it is in relation to that last point that I now find myself digging my heels in, and discovering my own emerging bias. Foreign correspondents like me are often harangued in Africa for painting an unduly negative picture of the continent - of relishing the gloom in obstinate defiance of all the good news. Perhaps there are times when that is true. Voiceless majority But it's always worth looking at these things in terms of power, and access to power. Who has influence? Who has a voice? Why do South African newspapers always discuss the alleged "genocide" against white farmers, while ignoring the far more bloody and systematic campaign of violence against impoverished Somali shopkeepers in Soweto or around Cape Town? Why do the television crews still gravitate towards foreign humanitarian workers during emergencies, with their convenient planes and well-stocked compounds? And - in the same spirit - how much unquestioning focus should one give to the "Africa Rising" narrative, so well articulated by the social-media-wired, urban, aspirational middle classes of Nairobi or Lagos? Because the truth, hard-learned on dirt roads and neglected corners, is that the majority - the often-voiceless majority - on this continent are still facing daunting challenges: from soaring prices, to unemployment, wretched schools and hospitals, an absence of justice, and most pressingly of all - insecurity. That applies in the beleaguered townships of South Africa, in the forests of the Central African Republic, the besieged towns of north-eastern Nigeria, the slums of Monrovia, and on the endless battlefields of South Sudan. Of course there is plenty going impressively, fantastically right here - the arc of history bending towards optimism and all that. But it seems to me that a bias towards the powerless and voiceless is a reasonable and necessary one - especially when they still seem to be in the majority. This was taken at the end of our first trip to cover Ebola in Sierra Leone. It was the trip when we did that big piece about Kigbal village, with the living on one side of the road and the dying on the other. The quickest way to get to Freetown's airport is by boat. I could go on... But, the captain has just announced that we're coming in to land at Mogadishu's airport. A stiff wind is blowing spray off the waves and over the dunes beside the runway. I have so many favourite places in Africa. A speedboat down Lake Kivu, the swaying bars of Lubumbashi, lobster on the beach outside Freetown, the pink-rock highlands of Ethiopia, the star-crowded night sky outside Timbuktu. But for some reason Somalia - violent and irrepressible - seems to have got under my skin more than anywhere else. In recent years it has managed to pull off the remarkable feat of appearing to display this continent's myriad nations' possible futures simultaneously - an ambitious, globalised, resurgent state, rallying at impressive speed; a divided, stagnant, might-have-been, wrestling with corruption and poverty; and a wretched failure, exporting terrorism to its neighbours. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person. So I'm still betting on Somalia to find a way forward. In the meantime, I'm now taking a break from daily news to write a book about some of the garrulous, irascible, wonderful people I've come to know in Mogadishu and beyond. I hope to be back, somewhere, before too long. |
Office rental firm Regus has swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half, after being hit by restructuring costs of £15.8m in the UK. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Regus made a loss of £6.1m in the six months to June, compared with a £69m profit in the same period a year ago. But the company said that despite the "challenging" trading environment, it was continuing to open new centres. Regus, which rents out ready-to-use offices for as little as half a day, said revenues fell 7.5% to £515.5m. However, the company raised its interim divided to 0.85 pence per share from 0.8 pence per share a year earlier. Shares in Regus clawed back earlier losses and closed almost 3% higher on Friday. |
One of the world's most famous self-portraits is going on rare public display in the northern Italian city of Turin. Very little is known about the 500-year-old, fragile, fading red chalk drawing of Leonardo da Vinci but some believe it has mystical powers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Dany MitzmanTurin There is a myth in Turin that the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci in this self-portrait is so intense that those who observe it are imbued with great strength. Some say it was this magical power, not the cultural and economic value of the drawing, that led to it being secretly moved from Turin and taken to Rome during World War Two - heaven forbid it should ever fall into Hitler's hands and give him more power. Whatever the reason, this was the only work from the entire collection of precious drawings and manuscripts to be removed from the Royal Library in Turin at the time. The library's current director, Giovanni Saccani, says nobody even knows exactly where it was hidden. "To prevent the Nazis from taking it, an intelligence operation saw it transported in absolute anonymity to Rome." Under such difficult circumstances, preservation was not properly considered, "nor did they have the same knowledge and techniques back then," says Saccani. "Naturally, this did not do its condition any good." Inside the Royal Library a pristine red carpet lines the stairs - we follow the steps down to a secure underground vault with reinforced doors. This purpose built caveau has been the home of Leonard's Self-Portrait, and thousands of other priceless drawings and manuscripts, since 1998. The picture's treatment today could not contrast more strikingly with the neglect it suffered during the first half of the 20th Century. The lighting is exclusively fibre optic - no natural light can enter this room - and the temperature is kept at a constant 20 degrees Celsius, the humidity at 55 per cent. The display cases are made of a type of glass which Saccani describes as "anti-everything", and the whole area is fitted with alarms and security cameras. Using a special preservation torch, Saccani shines some light onto the drawing's surface to demonstrate the extent of the damage known as foxing, when small reddish-brown spots or marks appear on ancient paper. "This case is particularly bad," he sighs - 200 years ago the foxing was less obvious. "On the bottom left of the drawing there was a red chalk inscription in Latin which said Leonardus Vincius, which has now completely disappeared." Since the damage is so extensive and the paper so fragile, restoration would be extremely complex. Exhaustive analysis and discussion by world experts in restoration has led to "the decision to maintain the status quo," says Saccani. And since coming to the caveau in 1998, the condition of the drawing has not deteriorated any further. "This comforts us because we know we are getting it right now. You have to remember it's a good 500 years old. The pictures we drew at school probably don't exist anymore and this was a drawing done on ordinary paper, so I think it's pretty extraordinary that we can still display such a masterpiece today." Equally extraordinary is the story of how this self-portrait ended up in Turin. It was part of a vast collection purchased in 1839 by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy. A passionate collector, he bought it from Giovanni Volpato, an art dealer and curator who had travelled extensively throughout Europe. How he came upon Leonardo's drawings is a mystery but it is known that he asked the king for the sum of 70,000 Piedmontese lire for the collection. "A doctor earned 1,000 lire a year at the time so it was an astronomical figure," smiles Saccani. "The king managed to get him down to 50,000 but it still took him eight years to pay for it in instalments." But Saccani says Volpato was not the ruthless businessman he might sound. "Volpato's aim wasn't simply financial because, in exchange for agreeing to give the king a discount, he asked to be allowed to become the unpaid curator of drawings in the Royal Library." And since then Turin has remained the home of the red chalk Self-Portrait. Is it really a self-portrait? Generally dated around 1515, some experts believe the picture corresponds more with Leonardo's style in the 1490s, yet the subject of the drawing is an old man. "He wasn't terribly keen on the idea of self-portraiture full stop," says James Hall, author of The Self-Portrait: a Cultural History - he doesn't believe the portrait was drawn by Leonardo. "He didn't much like the idea that the art work should be a portrayal of the artist. He wanted the art work to represent an ideal." Hall thinks this drawing has become famous at least partly because of the sheer lack of self-portraits by Leonardo. "People have latched onto this like the philosopher's stone and clung to it." But others are less sceptical. "I'm quite happy to believe it is a self-portrait but I think it's for each person to decide when they see the real object," says Liz Rideal, the author of two books on self-portraits and a lecturer at the National Portrait Gallery in London and Slade School of Fine Art. She says most people want to believe it is a genuine Leonardo "because he has this superman status… I think we are in awe of genius and therefore, if this is the self-portrait of a genius, then we want to see what he looked like." As director of the Royal Library, Giovanni Saccani is in no doubt: "It is a self-portrait… anyone who finds themselves standing in front of this drawing is struck dumb. The first thing they say when they recover is 'this is giving me the shivers'. The expressive power of this face is absolutely connected to an emotion and an ability that only Leonardo could possess." Leonardo's Self-Portrait is considered so valuable that it is subject to a state decree of immovability. It can only be moved with ministerial permission. In 2011 it was taken to the Reggia di Venaria Reale just outside Turin for an exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. "Transportation involved a special 'clima box' able to maintain the same air conditioning systems present here in the caveau," says Saccani. "This 'clima box' was then put inside a case, which was in turn placed in an outer casing, all of which was able to avoid vibration." The package was then driven with an armed escort and constantly monitored using remote technology. An extraordinarily complex, delicate and expensive undertaking, unlikely to be repeated very often in the future. Over the coming weeks, 50 people will be allowed into the Royal Library's caveau every hour from 09:00 to 18:00 to see the self-portrait - the temperature of the vault has been lowered slightly to compensate for the body heat that people will give off. Although there are more than 80 masterpieces on display in the King's Treasures exhibition - including further works by Leonardo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Perugino and Van Dyck - for most visitors, the highlight will be the rare chance to behold the face of the great Renaissance polymath. And they might also bear one final myth in mind - it is said that just before taking an exam, students would do their last-minute revision in the Royal Library above the vault. Legend has it that studying near Leonardo's genius can somehow rub off. Photographs courtesy of the Regional Management for the cultural and landscape heritage of Piedmont Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
The identity of a man accused of murdering a British backpacker in New Zealand remains secret after a judge reserved a decision on naming him. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Grace Millane, 22, of Wickford, Essex, was found dead on 8 December, a week after she was last seen at a hostel. A 27-year-old man has denied her murder and is set to go on trial in Auckland in November. A name suppression order against identifying him remains in place after a High Court hearing on Thursday. Miss Millane had been travelling alone in New Zealand for two weeks, following a six-week group trip through South America. Her family became concerned when the University of Lincoln graduate failed to respond to birthday messages on 2 December. Miss Millane's father flew to New Zealand and was there when police discovered the body of his daughter. She was last seen at a hostel in Auckland. |
Thieves used stolen plant machinery to rip out a cash machine from a Co-op store. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The raid happened at the store on Muntjac Way, Witham St Hughs, near Lincoln, in the early hours of Friday. Lincolnshire Police said the cash machine was ripped out of the wall and then taken away in another vehicle. A cordon remains in place around the store and the force is asking for anyone with information to get in touch. Officers said they have not made any arrests in connection with the raid. Related Internet Links Lincolnshire Police |
This is a body blow for David Cameron. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Nick RobinsonPolitical editor When he became Tory leader, he told his party that they needed to stop obsessing about Europe. This defection - and the by-election which will follow - will revive that obsession. Conservative MPs and activists, as well as the Tory press, will angst and speculate about who might follow Douglas Carswell into UKIP's ranks. They will debate and argue about whether their leader now needs to threaten to leave the EU and spell out his full negotiating demands. They will disagree and fall out about whether and how to control immigration. Their coalition partners in the Lib Dems will do nothing to ease their plight. Labour will highlight every Tory split as evidence of their unfitness to govern and portray every utterance from Number 10 as a lurch to the right or of policy-making dictated by Nigel Farage. The Scottish National Party will tell Scots that the only way to opt out of all this is to vote to break up the United Kingdom. The earliest the by-election can be held is early October, immediately after the Tories' big pre-election party conference - just when they needed to focus on the battle against Labour and Ed Miliband. Whenever it is actually held, almost certainly much later, it will hover like a cloud over the Conservatives. William Hague, Cameron's predecessor and the man he calls his real deputy, once compared the issue of Europe to an unexploded bomb. Not any more. It just went off. PS Carswell's defection genuinely shocked even his Eurosceptic friends in the Tory party - in large part because he had praised Cameron for promising an EU referendum and for his Bloomberg speech spelling out his strategy of renegotiating Britain's relationship with the EU. Tory HQ have already dug out a series of quotes which they will deploy against the man who is now UKIP candidate for Clacton. Here are a couple of them: |
A man is in a serious condition after he and a boy had to be rescued from the sea in Cornwall. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The pair got into difficulty in water off Gunwalloe near Helston, where police, coastguard and lifeboat crews were called at 14:20 BST . The man was treated at the scene by paramedics while the boy was taken to hospital, Devon and Cornwall Police said. A warning for strong winds was issued for Cornwall on Thursday and Friday. |
Appearing before a Stormont committee together in May, just months into heading up Northern Ireland's response to Covid-19, Arlene Foster joked that she and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill had been seeing so much of each other, they were practically in the same household. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jayne McCormackBBC News NI Political Reporter It was a light-hearted and unexpected moment from the first minister, given their parties had only agreed to return to government together in January after three years of bitter stalemate. Sources close to Robin Swann recall that his first-day brief as the new health minister included notes on what his role would be in the event of a pandemic. Two months later, the executive he sits on imposed an unprecedented lockdown across Northern Ireland while trying to present a united public health message and protect people from coronavirus. Quite the challenge for a five-party executive only finding its feet again. Credibility of message 'damaged'? The first couple of months of lockdown had their bumpy moments, with splits between Sinn Féin and other parties over the timing of school closures, the question of when to lift lockdown measures and calls for an all-island approach to tackling the virus. However, the general consensus appeared to be that they were staying on message and joint press briefings from Ms O'Neill and Mrs Foster twice a week were watched by many. Those conferences have been brought to an abrupt halt over the furore regarding the deputy first minister's attendance at the funeral of republican Bobby Storey. Sinn Féin insists neither its vice-president nor other party members in attendance breached Covid rules, but the DUP leader said she could not stand at a podium next to Ms O'Neill when "credibility of the executive's messaging" had been damaged. That being said, there is no sense this crisis will lead to an imminent collapse. Such is the unique set-up of Northern Ireland's political system that the biggest unionist and nationalist parties must share power together in the executive and the DUP has already insisted it will not walk out of Stormont, perhaps mindful that the public might not forgive another stalemate so soon after the last one, especially with a deadly and invisible virus still in our midst. The stand off and political tensions will likely remain until the outcome of a police investigation and any other potential inquiries. Some have drawn parallels with the lead-up to the collapse of Stormont in 2017, after the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scandal led to the late Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness taking Sinn Féin out of the executive he shared with the DUP. New decade, same approach? When the parties reached a deal to restore power-sharing six months ago, they pledged that any new administration would operate differently. A public inquiry into what went wrong with the RHI scheme exposed failings regarding transparency and accountability within Stormont departments, as well as conduct of special advisers and civil servants. So are things different now? With the summer months upon us, a theoretical "school report card" for Stormont might show a mixed bag of results for the first term. When it emerged that funding to continue free school meals for vulnerable children over the summer months had been held up briefly - due to a dispute between the DUP and Sinn Féin over the long-delayed Troubles pension - it appeared to some that old habits were beginning to leak through. In the wake of the RHI inquiry's findings, a new code of conduct for special advisers (Spads) took effect, but Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister has been trying to push legislation through Stormont that would put into statute tighter rules on Spads and the ministers who wield them. However, the head of the civil service, David Sterling, previously told two Stormont committees that the first and deputy first ministers believe the issues dealt with by the bill would be better handled by new non-statutory codes of conduct. Other challenges on horizon While the assembly is set to make Paul Kennedy the new Standards Commissioner later this month to oversee the conduct of MLAs, there is no such process under way yet to appoint commissioners to oversee the conduct of executive ministers. That pledge of a "robust" independent panel was contained in the New Decade New Approach deal, but the Executive Office says it hopes that competition can begin later this year. Other challenges are dawning at Stormont too, not least Brexit which the DUP and Sinn Féin remain openly at odds on. During last week's assembly debate on the motion calling for Michelle O'Neill and other Sinn Féin ministers to apologise for attending Mr Storey's funeral, the party's Stormont chief whip John O'Dowd remarked to the DUP benches that it was "as difficult for us to share power with you, as it is for you to share power with us". Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill still share a political household, but right now it seems they are in separate wings of the house. |
Thousands of characters have come and gone during Coronation Street's 50-year history. But only a few live on in viewers' affections long after leaving the cobbles. Hilda Ogden is one of them. With her curlers and headscarf, the cleaning lady has remained arguably the most iconic character of the last five decades. Actress Jean Alexander, who played Hilda, recalls her days on the Street. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ian YoungsEntertainment reporter, BBC News When the Coronation Street cast and crew took part in the Manchester Pride parade this summer, they were joined by a troupe of male dancers dressed as Hilda Ogden. When the show held a Street party to celebrate its golden jubilee, entertainment was provided by hula-hooping Hildas. A flyer advertising a new art exhibition of Corrie legends bore the image of just one former favourite - our Hilda. Twenty-three years after she last set foot on Coronation Street, Hilda - helped by her distinctive attire - has been popping up everywhere during the anniversary celebrations. It is perhaps not surprising, given that the lovable busybody drew 27 million viewers, one of the largest audiences in the show's history, when she left on Christmas Day 1987. In 2005, she was voted the nation's favourite soap character, while in her 1980s heyday, Hilda was behind only the Queen, Queen Mother and Princess Diana in a poll of the most recognisable women in Britain. "I don't know why she was so popular," considers Jean Alexander, who played Hilda for 23 years. "I think probably because she was a downtrodden, poor little soul. I think people were sorry for Hilda. "She went plodding away, doing her best all the time, always aspiring to better things. "I liked playing her. She was a gift to play," Alexander continues, before concluding with a loud chuckle: "But I wouldn't want her living next door to me." Hilda was stuck on the bottom rung of the social ladder, frustrated by her layabout husband, constantly scheming and striving to better herself, but never quite managing it. She was exactly the type of person Jean Alexander was desperate not to become in real life. Born in Toxteth, Liverpool, Alexander trained as a librarian but turned to acting as a way of escaping a mundane life. After 12 years working in theatre in the north - learning a play a week - she landed what would become her most famous part in 1964. By playing that working class underdog, Alexander managed to escape becoming one herself. The actress says she wanted "to get out of a humdrum, normal sort of existence" that would otherwise have been awaiting her. The character's look was inspired by real life Hilda Ogdens in Liverpool during World War II. Women working in munitions factories would tie up their hair to keep it out of the machinery, the actress says, and put in curlers so they were ready in case they happened to be invited out in the evening. "And that was Hilda too," Alexander explains. "She always had her hair tied up ready - in case. All she had to do was whip the curlers out and give it a flick up with the comb. "She never did go anywhere that was worth going to - but that's where I got the idea from." Looking back on the show's history, Alexander's character acting skills, coupled with sharp writing from the likes of Jack Rosenthal and John Stevenson, make Hilda stand out. A large part of her appeal came from her comic value - whether it was her unbearable singing, her beloved "muriel" (her name for the mural on her living room wall) or her bickering with husband Stan. But she was not spared the heart-tugging drama. Alexander formed a close double-act with Bernard Youens, who played the good-for-nothing Stan, and recalls learning her lines while playing Scrabble with him backstage. When Youens died in 1984, Alexander's quietly devastating solo scene following Stan's on-screen funeral is remembered as one of the most poignant the Street has seen. Hilda lasted a few more years before moving away to become a doctor's housekeeper in Derbyshire and finally getting the respectability she craved. Alexander now watches the show occasionally - mainly to see whether her old friends are still in it. But, she says, it is "not the same as it used to be". "It hasn't got the character that it used to have," she says. "It's lost its identity somehow for me. "You look at all the people in it - the young people in it particularly - and hardly any of them have got a job and those who have are only being paid in buttons. "And yet you never see them in the same clothes twice running. They've got all the latest fashions, the make-up, the hairdos, all this. "Poor Hilda could only get a pinny off the market every once in a while. It shouldn't be like that - it's too glossy now." The year after leaving Coronation Street, Alexander was given another long-running part, as Auntie Wainwright in Last of the Summer Wine. The wizened junk shop owner, on screen for a total of 22 years, was the "absolute favourite part" of her television career. So when the show was cancelled, she was "devastated", she says angrily. The last episode was shown in August. The reason she was given - that it was "old fashioned and not edgy enough" - cuts no ice. "If they're trying to attract a young element, they're not going to succeed because they're all playing with their computers and watching things on iPods and whatnot," she says. "They're not sitting at home watching television. It's the older people who are watching television, and they're not getting their share of programmes at all." 'No going back' On Coronation Street, an anniversary return for Hilda would have given the show a boost. And producers did approach her agent saying they were writing Hilda into one episode, Alexander reveals. But the actress told them she would not go back. "It's a mistake," she says firmly. "Hilda would be a different person now. She's now achieved her ambition of having some status. "She wouldn't be the old scrubber Hilda now - oh no. The public would be disappointed - they'd expect to see Hilda the same as she was before. "It's quit while you're ahead, me. And I did." |
The next time you talk to someone at work who's wearing a name badge, look at it very closely - it might not actually be a badge at all, but a sensor. It might be telling your employer who you're talking to and in what sort of tone of voice, writes Lucy Kellaway. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
This isn't a brave new world; this is now. Such devices are dirt cheap and companies are increasingly taking note. It's pretty scary. Yet is the arrival of Big Brother in the corporate world quite such a bad thing? Being constantly monitored by invisible devices might sound terrifying but I'm not sure it is any more so than being monitored infrequently by visible human beings. Under the present arrangement, we are observed in a haphazard and unscientific way by superiors who may well have made their minds up about us already, based on not much evidence at all. Sod's Law decrees that when you do something good, no-one notices but the minute you do something bad you get caught. I remember one boss who, once in a blue moon, would walk around the office; whenever he crept up behind me I was invariably writing a shopping list or was on the phone to my mum. Such surveillance did not improve my behaviour, though it did increase my sense of injustice. To have been monitored all the time - which would have put the shopping list in the context of otherwise diligent behaviour - would have been a vast improvement. In most offices a raft of mainly pointless, cumbersome tools are used to assess performance, including "competency matrices", appraisal interviews and psychometric testing. Together they are so ineffective that according to a delightful piece of research by the University of Catania, companies would be no worse off if they promoted people at random. So if we are in favour of meritocracies, we should also be in favour of anything that helps us measure merit more accurately. While the data collected by the new sensors are almost certainly too crude to offer much help now, I see no reason why in time (and probably quite soon) we will not have worked out exactly which behavioural quirks are the key to high (or low) performance, and found a decent, objective way of measuring them. You could say that monitoring behaviour in offices would kill trust and spontaneity, making robots of us all. But so long as everyone knew they were being monitored and understood what for, I don't see why it should be such a terrifying idea - except perhaps for those who bully, shout at or harass others and who have until now been getting away with it. Far from making work less civilised, the arrival of Big Brother could make it more so. Office life could become more transparent and less political. And managers would be freed from having to play the role of policeman all day and allowed to get on with the more important role of helping people do a better job. Above all, for the system to work, you would need to have some faith in the regime that implemented it. But then, if you don't have any faith in the regime, the chances are that you are done for anyway. Lucy Kellaway is an author and Financial Times columnist. Listen to her on Business Daily and World Business Report on BBC World Service every Monday. |
A potential firearms incident is being investigated after police received reports of shots being fired in a Nottinghamshire town. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Officers were called to the area around Carsic Road in Sutton in Ashfield at about 19:15 BST on Saturday. There have been no reports of injuries. Extra "reassurance" patrols have been put on, and an appeal for witnesses has been made. A police spokesman said that "incidents of gun crime are extremely rare". Related Internet Links Nottinghamshire Police |
Here is Prime Minister David Cameron's speech on why Britain should vote to keep its current "first-past-the-post" voting system for Westminster elections when it goes to the polls on 5 May. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"It's been nine months since the coalition came together in the national interest. In that time, Nick Clegg and I have discovered we agree on key elements on programmes for national renewal. From cutting the deficit and restoring responsibility to our finances… …to getting behind businesses and helping them create more wealth and jobs… …to redistributing power away from Whitehall to individuals, families and communities. And we have tried to deliver this agenda in a different way. Rational debate, not tribal dividing lines. Reasoned announcements, not headline grabbing statements. And where there are differences of opinion between us - not rancour but respect. It's one of those differences that I want to speak about today. In less than three months, this country will decide whether or not to change our voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote. Nick believes we should - and is campaigning for a 'yes' vote. I profoundly believe we should not - and will campaign for a 'no' vote. So yes, there is a real difference of opinion between us. On this one, I don't agree with Nick. But this is not a source of tension. And it's not a coalition breaker either. Far above our beliefs about how the voting system should work, we share a much more important belief - a belief in democracy and the voice of the people being heard. Once the votes have been cast and once a decision has been made, we will accept the result of this referendum and continue to work together in the national interest. But now, this country is facing a hugely important, future-deciding vote. So I'm here today to explain as clearly as I can why AV is completely the wrong reform… …why it would be bad for our politics… …and bad for our democracy. For me there are three big problems with AV. One - it would lead to outcomes that are unfair. Two - it is a voting system that is unclear. And three - it means a political system that is unaccountable. Let me take each in turn. First, let me take on this myth that AV is more fair and more proportional than the system we have currently. This is really important. Those arguing for AV claim it will make every vote count, end safe seats, encourage smaller parties… …and that the final result will better reflect the will of the people. On every measure, that is simply not true. It won't make every vote count. The reality is it will make some votes count more than others. There's an inherent unfairness under AV. Supporters of unpopular parties end up having their votes counted a number of times… …potentially deciding the outcome of an election… …while people who back more popular parties only get one vote. Why? Because if you vote for a mainstream candidate who is top of the ballot in the first round, your other preferences will never be counted. But if you vote for a fringe party who gets knocked out, your other preferences will be counted. In other words, you get another bite of the cherry. I don't see why voters of the BNP or Monster Raving Loony Party should get their votes counted more times than supporters of the Conservatives or for that matter Labour or Liberal Democrats. The idea that everyone has an equal voice and an equal vote is deeply enshrined in our existing electoral system The principle of one person, one vote is what makes our democracy fair. AV flies in the face of that. So AV doesn't make every vote count like its supporters say it will… …and neither will it end safe seats. Of course, there is an argument that some MPs having ultra-safe seats can create a 'jobs-for-life' mentality and reduce accountability, though they can also be incredibly hard-working. But AV is not the answer. At the last election, 225 MPs - one in three - were elected with more than fifty percent outright. AV would not have made a difference in these places. And if you look at Australia, where they have AV, nearly half of all seats are considered 'safe'. What's more, AV will not increase the chances of smaller parties winning a seat. On the contrary, it could harm them. Caroline Lucas, the country's first Green Party MP, only got thirty-one percent of the vote in her constituency. It's the same with the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists. None of their current MPs got over fifty percent of the votes in their constituencies. Would these parties be able to hold on to their seats if the threshold was put up to fifty percent? The evidence from Australia suggests no, where smaller parties have been all but obliterated. Added to all this, AV is not as proportional as you might think either. As Roy Jenkins, who chaired the Independent Commission on the Voting System, said: "On its own, AV would be unacceptable because of the danger … it might increase rather than reduce disproportionality." The evidence shows that AV would have produced even larger Labour landslides between 1997 and 2005… …and larger Conservative ones in the 1980s. Let's just look at one example - 1997. Back then, the Conservatives won twenty-five percent of seats despite recording thirty-one percent of the vote. Disproportional? Yes. But under AV, we would have been punished further, getting in all likelihood just fifteen percent of seats. That's even more disproportional. The simple fact is, AV could exaggerate the inherent biases in the current system… …giving Labour an even bigger advantage than they already have at General Elections. The truth is, for all their arguments for change, campaigners for AV really only have one point - that an MP does have to get the theoretical backing of fifty percent of the voters. But even this is flawed. The fifty per cent threshold applies to the votes counted - not the number of votes cast in the election. For example, let's say a voter decides to only mark one preference on their ballot paper - as many end up doing under Alternative Vote. If the person for whom they cast their vote is eliminated, then this vote is discarded and doesn't count. The only ones that count are the votes that make it to the final round - from which the fifty percent has to be reached. So this majority is a complete fix. It's not so much that the winner has half the electorate behind them... ...as that by virtue of a weird counting system, they have crawled over the finishing line. And isn't this the point? This backing is not actual approval. It's passive acceptance. It can mean someone who's not really wanted by anyone winning an election because they were the least unliked. It could mean that those who are courageous and brave and may not believe in or say things that everyone agrees with are pushed out of politics… …and those who are boring and the least controversial limping to victory. It could mean a Parliament of second choices. We wouldn't accept this in any other walk of life. Can you imagine giving the gold medal to someone who finishes third? No. Of course not. And we shouldn't accept it with our democracy either. Second, AV is unclear. There's a brilliant simplicity to first-past-the-post. You walk into a polling booth, put a cross against someone's name, drop the paper in a ballot box - and the person who gets the most votes wins. That goes out the window with AV. It's not my job to tell you exactly how the system works - that's for the 'yes' campaign to explain. But even if it was my job, I'll be honest with you, I don't think I could. Yes, there's a superficial simplicity in getting people to rank candidates in an order of preference... …and redistributing votes until someone gets fifty percent. But it's a lot more complicated than that. Here's a passage from a book detailing how the Alternative Vote system works: "As the process continues the preferences allocated to the remaining candidates may not be the second choices of those electors whose first-choice candidates have been eliminated. It may be that after three candidates have been eliminated, say, when a fourth candidate is removed from the contest one of the electors who gave her first preference to him gave her second, third and fourth preferences to the three other candidates who have already been eliminated, so her fifth preference is then allocated to one of the remaining candidates." Do you understand that? I didn't. And I've read it many times. And I don't think we should replace a system that everyone gets with one that's only understood by a handful of elites. This complexity spawns other problems. It increases the cost of politics. A whole machinery of bureaucracy will have to be built to explain the system to people. You can imagine it already. A quango overseeing the whole process. Consultants drafted in to construct a message. Leaflets printed and advertising slots booked. A monumental waste of time, money and effort. And quite apart from all this, we may have to buy and install electronic voting machines to make sense of all the different outcomes and possibilities… …machines which aren't even reliable. This complexity also leads to uncertainty. It goes without saying that under AV, it takes longer to count votes - which means weeks can go by before you know who has won and what the government will be. Last May at our General Election, the country voted on the 6th, we knew the result on the 7th, discussions began later that day and the coalition was formed on the 12th. In Australia last summer, that whole process took seventeen days. And it also encourages negative campaigning. In Australia, voters are lectured at polling stations by party apparatchiks with 'How to Vote' cards. These cards are the product of number-crunching by party pollsters, telling people the exact order in which to rank each candidate. That's what politics becomes: people not voting so much in droves, but as drones.... ...going into the polling booth with no idea who they are ranking or why. I don't think the best way of restoring faith in politics is to lumber the public with a confusing system which is more expensive, more uncertain - and leads to them being harangued at polling booths. Third, and to me most importantly, AV will actually make politics less accountable and make it much harder to kick out governments. You want to know the best thing about First Past the Post? It is often decisive - and sometimes ruthlessly so. It has a habit of rising to the occasion. Be it 1979. And yes, 1997. It recognised that the government of the day, had had its day, and it was time get rid of them. There's nothing more powerful than that - when people see their vote had led to the removal vans driving down Downing Street. That's real accountability. Real democracy. Real people power. The problem with AV is that it makes this all the more unlikely. Hung Parliaments could become commonplace. Now, it won't surprise you to hear me say that is not necessarily a bad thing and that, as happened last May, it can bring parties together in the national interest. But let's be clear, when there are more hung Parliaments there will be more haggling and horsetrading between politicians - both before and after elections. There will be gamesmanship between parties in different constituencies as they try to stitch up second preference votes. And there could well be an occasion where we have a genuine second-choice government. If the last election was under AV, there would be the chance, right now, that Gordon Brown would still be Prime Minister. Ok, the last election was not decisive in terms of who won. But it was certainly decisive in terms of who lost. And I think any system that keeps dead governments living on life support is a massive backward step for accountability and trust in our politics. So for all these reasons, I think AV is the wrong reform. And I'm not alone. The truth is that AV is a system that no one actually wants. No one wants it at home. No one wants it abroad. In the weeks ahead you're going to hear from a lot of people in the 'yes to AV' camp saying how this is the reform they always called for. Believe me, they didn't. One of the board members of the Yes Campaign once said: "I'm sorry but I'm no fan of AV". The Electoral Reform Society, which is bankrolling the Yes to AV campaign, has called AV a "very modest reform" and said it would not be "suitable for the election of a representative body". Ben Bradshaw, who is leading Labour's Yes campaign, once said "if one of the reasons that we want reform is to rebuild public trust and confidence in politics, make MPs more accountable, give more power to people…then AV doesn't deliver that". And last April, even Nick Clegg called it a "miserable little compromise". The point about AV is that even the people calling for it really want something else… …whether it's a regional list system or the Single Transferable Vote. For most of them, it is their fourth, third, or at best second choice. And, as so often happens in elections using the AV system… …on May 5th they want their second preference to come first. I'm sorry. When it comes to our democracy, Britain shouldn't have to settle for anyone's second choice. And this argument that no one really wants it, it's as true abroad as it is at home. Only three countries use AV for national elections: Fiji, Australia and Papua New Guinea. In Australia, six in ten voters want to return to the system we have - first past the post. Indeed, over sixty countries and almost half the world's electors use our voting system. Are we really going to abandon something that is used around the world for something so obscure and so unpopular? But let me be clear. My rejection of AV is not a rejection of reform. I passionately believe that politics has to change. It has to change because frankly, in too many ways the political system is broken. And that's why this coalition is committed to sweeping reform. We are making votes fairer - by levelling up the size of the constituencies so that every vote weighs the same. We are making politics cheaper - by cutting the size of Parliament, cutting Ministers' pay and sorting out expenses. We are making politics - and government - more accountable, by removing the Prime Minister's power to set the date of an election… …and introducing new rights for constituents to recall MPs who break the rules and new powers for Parliament to oversee the Executive. But above all, and most importantly, we are putting power directly into the hands of people. Real transparency - so people know how government works, what it's doing, the results it's getting the money it's spending. Real engagement - with a new Public Reading Stage for government bills, so people can directly write legislation. And real empowerment - by devolving decision-making down to mayors, local councils and neighbourhoods, so people call the shots on the things that matter to them, not politicians in Whitehall. Over the next eleven weeks, the debate over AV is going to heat up right across the country. But throughout this time, I'll be making my case loud and clearly: Yes, our politics needs reform. Yes, we need to shift more power down across the country. But no to AV. It means a voting system that is unfair… …processes that are unclear… …and politics that is unaccountable. It is, put simply: the precise opposite of what we need right now. And that's why I urge the country to vote 'no' in May's referendum." |
Three people arrested after the discovery of a body in a market town have been released on bail, police have said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Officers found "the remains of an adult body" after they were called to Bondgate in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, at about 18:00 BST on Tuesday. North Yorkshire Police said the death was being treated as unexplained. A 75-year-old woman, a 46-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman were arrested in connection with the death. More Yorkshire stories Related Internet Links North Yorkshire Police |
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July. Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal. In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities in an effort to put pressure on the monarchy to change the law. The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015. Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, correspondents say. |
The publication of a report revealing if council planners recommend Aberdeen FC's bid for a new £50m stadium complex for approval or refusal has been delayed. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The stadium and training facilities would be at Kingsford, near Westhill. The recommendation of Aberdeen City Council planners had been due to be published on Tuesday afternoon. However, it is still being finalised. Councillors will decide on 11 October whether to give the go-ahead. The club has said the new facility is vital to its future. However objectors have called for the club to look elsewhere. BBC Radio Scotland has broadcast a 25-minute programme about Aberdeen's stadium bid. |
Dozens of hot-air balloons have taken to the skies over Bristol ahead of Europe's largest ballooning event. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, now in its 37th year, takes place at Ashton Court with more than 500,000 visitors expected. Organiser Clive Bailey said Bristol was "the world capital for ballooning" and hosted Europe's "biggest free event". The four-day festival starts on 6 August, with more than 100 hot air balloons expected to take part. |
A horse which was trapped in mud on a riverbank had to be rescued by firefighters. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The horse got stuck in the mud near the River Windrush, close to Willow Farm in Witney, Oxfordshire, at about 08:47 BST on Saturday. Up to 10 firefighters helped with the rescue operation using specialist animal rescue equipment. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue said the horse was freed without injury with the assistance of a vet and the owner. For more stories of pets and animals being rescued follow us on Pinterest Related Internet Links Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service |
A missing climber believed to have fallen from sea cliffs in Aberdeenshire is a senior teacher. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Owain Bristow, the head of biology at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, went missing on Friday. Emergency services had received a report of a man falling into the water near the Bullers of Buchan beauty spot. Police and coastguards using a drone and a helicopter have been leading the search. Aberdeen and Peterhead lifeboats have been combing the coast. Robert Gordon's College is offering support to pupils. |
On the morning of 16 December 1914, the shipping town of Hartlepool in north-east England was bombarded by the German Navy during its first attack on the UK's home front during World War One. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
During the 40-minute attack, 1,150 shells were fired, devastating large areas of the town. It left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured. On the 100th anniversary, listen to archive recordings of survivors recalling the attack. All images courtesy of Hartlepool Culture and Information. Audio courtesy of Teesside Archives and BBC Tees. Related: Hartlepool Bombardment: How it unfolded on 16 December 1914 You may also like: When the Germans bombarded Hartlepool Britannia 'did not rule the waves' BBC World War One |
Dutch investigators say the damage to Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine on 17 July, suggests it was pierced by a large number of objects from outside the plane. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
They reveal that a few minutes before the plane went down, the pilots asked to move a few nautical miles north of their flight path because of weather conditions. The Dutch Safety Board says its preliminary report was based on the contents of the flight and cockpit data recorders, other communication with the plane, as well as forensic examination of the wreckage where possible. These are its key findings: |
The family of Gerry Evans are still waiting for formal identification after human remains were found in County Louth. The Crossmaglen man was last seen in March 1979. BBC reporter Barbara Collins was with the family as events unfolded at the site in Carrickrobin. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The light was fading when John Hill from the Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains gave the nod that the family and friends of Gerry Evans could go down the narrow, mucky lane to the site where they had found his remains. Just a few hours before, they had been given the news they had been waiting for. It was obvious from their faces that they were struggling to take it all in. Two weeks ago, the commission had announced they were winding down the search at Carrickrobin after 16 months of painstaking excavation. Hope They had unearthed an area the size of four football fields but had found nothing. The family were devastated. Gerry Evans' brother Noel said they were losing hope that he had ever be found. Time was passing, memories were fading and the landscape was changing, but a renewed appeal for information gave the commission what they needed to complete their task. As we walked down the lane, treading carefully to avoid the pools of mucky water and stones, we saw the huge machines they had used to drain the bog and rakes and shovels lying on the ground. Further down stood a small temporary building and the cars belonging to the team who'd been working at the remote site, day after day, in all weathers. They stood now, in their distinctive orange overalls, behind a hearse containing a small coffin. Beside them, the parish priest, ready to say prayers over the remains. Stoic Mary Evans walked over and stood silently, stoically. Her face was composed, but her hands were shaking. She had waited for this moment for more than three decades. She had never locked her back door in all that time, hoping that one day Gerry would walk through it. Deep down, she knew he was dead, but she never lost hope that one day she would at least have a grave to visit. After the priest blessed the coffin with holy water, she turned to shake hands with hands with the people from the Commission who had found her son at last. Then she got into one of the waiting cars, ready to follow the hearse up the lane. When it reached the main road, it turned left for Dublin, where forensic scientists will spend the next few weeks formally identifying the remains. The two cars containing Gerry Evans' immediate family turned right for Crossmaglen. There was nothing else to wait for at the site, nothing more to do but to go home and wait some more. But this wait of a few short weeks will be nothing to the three decades they've been waiting to give Gerry Evans the burial they'd prayed for. |
President Donald Trump has claimed that the United States "is full", and incapable of allowing entry to any new and diverse migrants. But citizens in one mostly-rural state say they couldn't disagree more. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rupa ShenoyPRI's The World Forty years ago, Curtiss Reed Jr came to Vermont for a ski vacation and got stuck in a storm. He had to sleep in a Dunkin Donuts for two nights before he could make it to a friend's house. That gave him plenty of time to take in Vermont's natural beauty. "I spent three weeks skiing, eating, drinking and decided this was paradise," says Mr Reed, a consultant with the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity. "Six months later, I moved here." But since then, Mr Reed has seen downtown shops close in towns across the state. Taxes have gone up. Wages for many have stagnated. Mr Reed says that's because Vermont has only tried to attract one kind of new resident. Despite President Donald Trump saying "our country is full" earlier this month during a visit to the US southern border, Mr Reed says if Vermont wants to improve its economy, it needs to bring in more people. But the New England state has two problems. It doesn't have enough people to do the jobs it already has, and it doesn't know how to attract people of a different demographic from Vermont's current population, which is nearly 95% white. Under the Trump administration's policies, there are fewer refugees, immigrants and temporary visa workers coming into the state. Joan Goldstein - commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic Development - says the race is on. States across the US are competing to attract new residents, she says. "I know that sounds very mercenary but we're in a competitive marketplace," she says. "Vermont's marketing strategy for decades was white, heterosexual males with family incomes of $120,000 (£92,000) or more. That population is shrinking." Vermont has made a big change in their approach, she says. Instead of just trying to attract businesses to the state, they're now appealing directly to individuals. "Other states have asked us how we did this because they're also interested in some of the same types of tactics," she says. "So clearly, even though it's a departure, it's probably going to be more mainstream soon." This year Vermont began handing out $10,000 (£7,600) for certain workers who move to remote parts of the state. "There was significant interest from outside the US on the initial publicity hit we had," she says. "I would say close to 25% of people coming in with inquiries were from other countries." But so far none of the 26 people approved for the grant have been refugees or people who moved from another country. That may be because there are barriers for immigrants who want to work in the state. Chris Winters, the deputy secretary of state, says it's been difficult for people to get their credentials from elsewhere to qualify in Vermont. "When you go beyond protecting the public you start unfairly keeping people out of professions who are otherwise qualified to be there," Mr Winters says. "So, we can really do a lot still in Vermont to improve access to our workforce." This month the Vermont legislature passed a bill that would make it easier for many immigrants to transfer their qualifications so they can get certified for jobs in the state. The governor is expected to sign it. The state is also making other moves, like hiring a chief racial equity and diversity officer. Mr Winters hopes those measures will help to attract, among others, nearby Canada's many new, diverse immigrants to work in Vermont. He believes diversity is key to keeping millenials in the state - and points to his own daughter, who's leaving Vermont for university because she doesn't feel like she's met enough different kinds of people. "I think it's really unfortunate that we've heard statements recently like 'America is full,' 'there's no more room at the inn,'" Mr Winters says. "I can tell you there's plenty of room in Vermont." But Marita Canedo, with the group Migrant Justice in Burlington, says Vermont still has a long way to go before it appears to be welcoming of all immigrants and minorities. "If you're going to promote a state as 'The Green Mountain,' beautiful landscape, you have to take into account the people that are there already, and struggling, which is the dairy industry," Ms Canedo says. Many people who work in Vermont's dairy industry are undocumented. Cruz Alberto Sánchez-Pérez came to Vermont from Mexico in 2015 to join two of his brothers working on dairy farms. He says they were paid less than minimum wage and didn't get a day off until they organised to demand better wages and benefits. It's still a tense environment for people who look like him, says Mr Sánchez-Pérez, even though he's just won asylum in the US. In addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Border Patrol has jurisdiction 100 miles (160km) from the federal border, which includes much of Vermont, and is on alert for undocumented people trying to cross into Canada. Vermont has also had some recent race problems. "Over the last three or four years, we've had a number of unfortunate incidents," Mr Reed says. In 2017, the city of Rutland's incumbent mayor campaigned on bringing in Syrian refugees to reinvigorate the local economy. The pushback he faced drew national attention and he lost in what was seen at the time as a referendum on refugee resettlement. Last year, Kiah Morris, Vermont's only female African-American state senator, resigned because her family was being harassed. In Stowe, racial slurs were yelled at non-white counsellors and children at a camp. "There any number of places around the state that have had these incidents," Mr Reed says. "And in the absence of a robust response, what's left in people's minds is: 'Eh. Vermont. I believe the SNL skit,'" he said, referring to a Saturday Night Live segment aired last year which parodied a meeting of racists. "If they're going to keep coming here, we're going to go someplace else," the character leading the meeting in the skit says. "Our own place for our own people. No immigrants, no minorities. An agrarian community where everyone lives in harmony because every single person is white. Yes, sir?" "Yeah, I know that place - that sounds like Vermont," special guest Adam Driver said in character. The audience laughs. To dispel that image of Vermont, Mr Reed says the state and local governments have to actively campaign against it by appealing specifically to immigrants and minority communities - because not all of them get information the same way as white people. Vermont could advertise through social media via the online community colloquially known as Black Twitter. It could advertise in Spanish. "It starts with an invite," Mr Reed says. "And if you're inviting only to a shrinking population, then the net result of that is that your economic growth and prosperity is in jeopardy." Unfortunately, Mr Reed says, the natural beauty that drew him to Vermont isn't enough to sustain its economy. The state will also have to learn to embrace change. The World is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI/PRX and WGBH. You can listen and read more here. |
Last year Joanne Milne became an internet sensation when footage of her hearing for the first time was posted on YouTube. But, cruelly, she is now slowly losing her sight because of a rare disorder. To build up a visual memory bank, she has taken a tour of three beauty spots in her native North East that were suggested to her by BBC radio listeners. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"It's like a tunnel which is unfortunately closing in and in," says Joanne Milne of the gradual loss of her eyesight. More than a year ago Ms Milne, who was born deaf, was fitted with cochlear implants and heard for the first time at the age of 39 - footage of her tears of emotion on hearing a nurse read to her went viral. But she has known for some time now that she is going blind due to a disorder called Usher syndrome, although she is totally accepting of her fate. Determined to be positive, she is trying to build up a bank of memories for when the inevitable happens. Ms Milne, from Gateshead, spends hours looking at old photos of her family, trying to "imprint" them on her memory. "I can see these photographs perfectly, the colours and the faces, but I can't see my fingers wiggling in front of my face," she says matter-of-factly, without a trace of self-pity. "This picture is of me in a bonnet as a baby with my father and elder sister, and when I close my eyes I can see this picture. "It does seem very, very cruel but the positive thing I can say about that is because of the lack of my senses, it makes me appreciate life and admire a view for that little bit longer. "It's probably the worst thing imaginable for someone who is deaf to be told they are going blind. "I still have some sight and while I have that sight I'm going to grab every opportunity and live every day like my last." Recently BBC Newcastle asked listeners to suggest places for the 40-year-old to visit to help her mission to build up a memory bank of images. Hundreds responded and Ms Milne, who says she feels "overwhelmed" that so many people care, chose three places she had never been to. First stop was to see radio listener Jane Lancaster, who nominated Low Newton beach, Newton Point, on the Northumberland coast. Asking Ms Milne to close her eyes, she led her to her favourite coast in all its rocky splendour with views of 14th Century Dunstanburgh Castle. Ms Lancaster said: "Every time I look at this view my heart skips a beat. The castle leads your eye in and the rocks lead it out to the sea." Ms Milne describes the view as "breathtaking", adding: "I felt like a child on Christmas morning, not being allowed to open my eyes for a moment." Next on the list was High Force waterfall in the heart of the Durham Dales. Ms Milne sits on rocks listening to the torrent of water. She says: "I feel very emotional - it's not just about what I can see but what I can hear, too. It's noisy but it's peaceful, if you know what I mean." Despite living only an hour's drive away, Ms Milne had never been to the Lake District, which attracts millions of visitors a year. For her final destination she chose a boat trip on the tranquil waters of Ullswater, the region's second largest lake. Ms Milne takes several minutes to find the words to describe the view. "It doesn't matter which direction I look, every view is beautiful and the skyline is so dramatic. I've now got a picture of the Lake District in my memory and the sound of this boat and it's absolutely magical. "I will never forget this for the rest of my life. It has also been very touching because it's about places the general public has nominated for me." Joanne Milne's tour will be shown on Inside Out on BBC1 at 19:30 GMT on Monday 28 September. |
Firefighters had to be called after sparks from a steam train started a fire on a railway embankment in Dorset. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The fire covered an area of grassland by Swanage Railway between Corfe Castle and Afflington Bridge. It was reported by a member of the public shortly before 16:30 BST on Sunday and tackled by 17:00. A Dorset Fire spokesman said: "A steam train passed through throwing out hot sparks which resulted in the very dry track side vegetation catching alight." |
A number of operations had to be cancelled at Jersey General Hospital due to a large number of patients needing intensive care beds. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
There were 13 non-urgent operations cancelled on Monday, the hospital said. The Jersey health service said it needed to make sure anaesthetists who provide intensive care support were available. It said they were rescheduling all the operations and no other appointments were affected. The hospital said one person was moved to the UK at the weekend for treatment at an intensive care unit. It added operations were back to normal on Tuesday. |
A 21-year-old woman believed to have been murdered at a house in Nottingham has been identified by police. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Casey Brittle died in hospital a short time after being found injured at a property in Springfield Street, in the New Basford area, on Sunday. On Tuesday police were granted an extra 24 hours to question a 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder. Results of a post-mortem examination have not yet been released by Nottinghamshire Police. Forensic investigators are continuing to examine the house. |
A loggerhead turtle that washed up on a County Donegal beach and was being looked after at an aquarium in Portaferry, County Down, has died. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Staff at the Exploris aquarium said that despite their attempts to save it, the turtle, which had hypothermia, died during the night. It landed on Irish shores after being blown off course from the Gulf Stream into the colder North Atlantic. Aquarium staff named it Columba. Tanya Singleton, who works at Exploris said they knew it would be a battle to save the turtle. Staff tried to raise its core temperature, and treated it with antibiotics. "He was still spending long, long periods being very inactive and very lethargic so we were quite concerned that there were underlying problems there that we just didn't know about." Colulmba will now be taken for a post-mortem to discover what caused his death. |
The 1966 World Cup is the only World Cup to have been boycotted by an entire continent. But it is better known for England's victory, a controversial goal in the final and the glorious displays of both Eusebio and North Korea. BBC Focus on Africa's Piers Edwards takes up the story of a little-known boycott that changed football's greatest competition forever. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Ghana's Osei Kofi was once described as being the equal of the legendary George Best by Gordon Banks, a World Cup winner in 1966. Given the Northern Irishman's status as one of football's greatest ever players, that was some claim. But the odds are you've never heard of Kofi, who put four goals past Banks when they met in two club friendlies. This would largely be because a player nicknamed "One Man Symphony Orchestra" or, less poetically, "Wizard Dribbler" never got to unfurl his wing play at a World Cup. He was denied the chance when Africa dramatically boycotted the 1966 finals. At the time, Ghana's "Black Stars" were back-to-back African champions, having won in 1963 and 1965. "We had the 'Black Stars' proper in those days," Kofi, now a church minister, told the BBC in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. "We had the men, those who were strong and those who were intelligent. "That's why we could have got to the World Cup at any given time." But at the peak of their powers, the "Black Stars" were pushed down a black hole. In January 1964, Fifa decided that the line-up for the 16-team finals would include 10 teams from Europe, including hosts England, four from Latin America and one from the Central American and Caribbean region. That left just one place to be fought for by three continents: Africa, Asia and Oceania. Within a month, Ghana's Director of Sport Ohene Djan, who was also a member of Fifa's Executive Committee, was crying foul. "Registering strong objection to unfair World Cup arrangement for Afro-Asian countries STOP," he complained in a telegram to Fifa. "Afro-Asian countries struggling through painful expensive qualifying series for ultimate one finalist representation is pathetic and unsound STOP At the worst, Africa should have one finalist STOP Urgent - reconsider" Djan's bullish tone stemmed from Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana which had become, in 1957, the first sub-Saharan nation to achieve independence. Nkrumah wanted to use football to unite Africa and had told his appointee Djan to do whatever was necessary to put African football on the world map. The late Djan was also a member of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) where he emerged as one of two main figureheads in the World Cup fight - the other being an Ethiopian called Tessema Yidnekatchew. The pair assembled a convincing argument why the Fifa decision, which Tessema labelled "a mockery of economics, politics and geography", was so unfair. Firstly, they argued that Africa's standard of play had significantly improved in the preceding years. Then they pointed out that the costs of arranging a play-off between Africa's top teams and their counterparts from Asia and Oceania were "onerously" expensive. Then there was the politics - for the situation was complicated by Caf's bitter row with Fifa over apartheid South Africa. Politics and the pitch Following its founding in 1957, Caf was the only pan-African organisation in existence - preceding the creation of what is today the African Union by six years - meaning that, on the South Africa issue at least, it assumed a geo-political role. Based in Cairo, Caf became the world's first sporting organisation to expel South Africa as a result of the government's apartheid policy, in 1960. "As soon as an African country became independent, it joined the United Nations and then Caf - there was no other organisation," recalls Fikrou Kidane, a long-term colleague of Tessema, who died in 1987. Football historian Alan Tomlinson says: "Right from the very beginning, this was a story about cultural politics in the post-colonial period." Having initially suspended South Africa a year after Caf, Fifa then readmitted the country in 1963, in part because of its pledge to send an all-white team to the 1966 World Cup and an all-black one to the 1970 finals. "The first time I encountered that solution, I just laughed," said Tomlinson, who is currently working on a biography of then Fifa President Stanley Rous. "But in terms of a form of gradualism, which fitted a model of development, Rous actually believed that could happen. He truly believed that football could bring people of different kinds together." For the 1966 World Cup, Fifa placed South Africa - a pariah state on its continent - in an Asian qualifying group in order to avoid playing an African rival but the designated African/Asian/Oceania play-off group meant a meeting could happen. "That was not acceptable and complicated things for sure," said Kidane, who attended Fifa congresses in the 1960s as an Ethiopian delegate. In July 1964, Caf decided to boycott the 1966 World Cup unless Africa was given a place of its own. With only Egypt having ever played at a World Cup before, back in 1934, this was no small gesture. Fifa, though, was not playing ball. "As the decisions of the Organising Committee are final, I do not think that for the prestige of Fifa it would be a good solution to alter the decisions even if some of Tessema's arguments appear reasonable," Fifa Secretary General Helmut Kaser wrote to Rous in 1964. The Englishman saw no reason to disagree. So in October 1964, on a weekend when Caf successfully lobbied for another Fifa suspension for South Africa, Africa carried out its threat - with its 15 then-eligible teams all pulling out. "It was not a difficult decision," said Kidane, who now advises the current Caf president. "It was a matter of prestige. Most of the continent was fighting for its own independence - and Caf had to defend the interest and dignity of Africa." 'We would have won it' Despite being denied his shot at the limelight, Osei Kofi professes to have no bitterness. "We should have regretted not playing in the World Cup but it was a cheat," he said. "It was not fair. And it hurt Fifa for Africa to do this." Many feel differently. "I don't know any of us who will say he didn't regret it," Kofi Pare, another Ghana international in the 1960s, told the BBC. "After we had been watching the World Cup, we knew we could have done better. I think we were one of the greatest teams." "If we had played at the World Cup, we would have gone to the final - or won it - honestly." Over 100 teams in Africa, Asia and Oceania contested the last World Cup qualifiers but for 1966, there were just two (with some Asian nations having withdrawn for economic reasons). A meticulously-prepared North Korea side thumped Australia 9-2 to secure a major propagandist boost for their government and reach their first finals, which they then lit up. They stunned Italy before taking a 3-0 lead against Portugal in the quarter-finals - only for Eusebio to answer with four goals in an unforgettable 5-3 win. His performances were laden with irony. For like captain Mario Coluna and two other mainstays of the Portugal team that finished a best-ever third, Eusebio was effectively African. All four were born in Mozambique, which was then a Portuguese colony. With minnows punching above their weight and an "African" finishing as the tournament's top scorer, the winds of change were blowing through the World Cup. Fifa finally reacted. Two years after the finals, it unanimously voted to give Africa a World Cup place all of its own. Asia got one too. The boycott had worked. "I think it was absolutely pivotal," says football historian Tomlinson. "If Fifa had proved obstructionist about that, world football might have gone in a different direction." Today, Africa has five places at the 32-team World Cup and briefly, when South Africa became the first African country to host in 2010, once had six. It still wants more. But one goal has been more than achieved. Since boycotting the 1966 edition, Africa has been present at every World Cup. So the legacy of Djan and Tessema lives on as Roger Milla, Asamoah Gyan et al continue the theme of Africa's greatest World Cup strikers - this time on the pitch. Listen to the full World Service documentary here |
Highland Council has sought full planning permission for its Inverness West Link and permission in principle for associated projects. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Planning officials have recommended that the south planning applications committee approves both applications. The West Link has been proposed as a way of easing travel across Inverness. The new road is opposed by a local campaign. Campaigners say the West Link will lead to the loss of green space. The other project involves relocating Torvean Golf Course, creating a new sports hub and parkland at Torvean and extend Kilvean Cemetery. The committee will meet on 8 April. |
A driver died after his car was in collision with a lorry in Shropshire. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The man, aged in his 30s, was in a Vauxhall Astra which crashed with the lorry in Telford, at about 11:10 GMT on Sunday. An off-duty nurse gave him first aid until paramedics arrived at the scene on Wellington Road, near Donnington, West Midlands Ambulance Service said. Witnesses are being asked to contact West Mercia Police on 101. |
MPs voted on Wednesday night on whether the UK should join US-led coalition air strikes against so-called Islamic State militants in Syria. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The government motion was passed 397 to 223 after a 10-hour debate in the House of Commons. Below is the breakdown of how each MP voted. Find out how your MP voted Find out which constituency you live in *The Commons is made up of 650 MPs but the Speaker and his three deputies cannot vote while Sinn Fein's four MPs do not take their seats and did not take part. *There is also currently no MP for Oldham West and Royton, with a by-election taking place on Thursday. MPs who voted for the motion Conservatives: Adam Afriyie (Windsor) Alan Mak (Havant) Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) Alistair Burt (North East Bedfordshire) Alok Sharma (Reading West) Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) Amanda Milling (Cannock Chase) Amanda Solloway (Derby North) Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) Andrew Bingham (High Peak) Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) Andrew Griffiths (Burton) Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) Andrew Rosindell (Romford) Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) Anne Main (St Albans) Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) Anne Milton (Guildford) Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) Ben Gummer (Ipswich) Ben Howlett (Bath) Ben Wallace (Wyre and Preston North) Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) Bob Blackman (Harrow East) Bob Stewart (Beckenham) Boris Johnson (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) Byron Davies (Gower) Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) Caroline Spelman (Meriden) Charles Walker (Broxbourne) Charlie Elphicke (Dover) Charlotte Leslie (Bristol North West) Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) Chloe Smith (Norwich North) Chris Davies (Brecon and Radnorshire) Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) Chris Green (Bolton West) Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) Chris Philp (Croydon South) Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) Chris White (Warwick and Leamington) Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) Claire Perry (Devizes) Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) Craig Williams (Cardiff North) Crispin Blunt (Reigate) Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) Damian Green (Ashford) Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) David Amess (Southend West) David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) David Cameron (Witney) David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) David Gauke (South West Hertfordshire) David Jones (Clwyd West) David Lidington (Aylesbury) David Mackintosh (Northampton South) David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) David Mowat (Warrington South) David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) David Nuttall (Bury North) David Rutley (Macclesfield) David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) David Tredinnick (Bosworth) David Warburton (Somerton and Frome) Derek Thomas (St Ives) Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield) Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) Edward Argar (Charnwood) Edward Timpson (Crewe and Nantwich) Edward Vaizey (Wantage) Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar) Fiona Bruce (Congleton) Flick Drummond (Portsmouth South) Gareth Johnson (Dartford) Gary Streeter (South West Devon) Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) Geoffrey Cox (Torridge and West Devon) George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth) George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) George Hollingbery (Meon Valley) George Osborne (Tatton) Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West) Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield) Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham) Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) Guy Opperman (Hexham) Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) Heidi Allen (South Cambridgeshire) Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald) Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) Henry Smith (Crawley) Hugo Swire (East Devon) Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford and Woodford Green) Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset) Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock) Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) James Berry (Kingston and Surbiton) James Brokenshire (Old Bexley and Sidcup) James Cartlidge (South Suffolk) James Cleverly (Braintree) James Davies (Vale of Clwyd) James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) James Gray (North Wiltshire) James Heappey (Wells) James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) James Wharton (Stockton South) Jane Ellison (Battersea) Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey) Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) Jeremy Quin (Horsham) Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam) Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) Jo Churchill (Bury St Edmunds) John Glen (Salisbury) John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) John Howell (Henley) John Penrose (Weston-super-Mare) John Stevenson (Carlisle) John Whittingdale (Maldon) Johnny Mercer (Plymouth, Moor View) Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) Jonathan Lord (Woking) Joseph Johnson (Orpington) Julian Brazier (Canterbury) Julian Knight (Solihull) Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) Julian Sturdy (York Outer) Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) Justine Greening (Putney) Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) Karen Lumley (Redditch) Karl McCartney (Lincoln) Keith Simpson (Broadland) Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) Kevin Foster (Torbay) Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire) Kris Hopkins (Keighley) Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne) Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) Liam Fox (North Somerset) Lucy Allan (Telford) Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) Maggie Throup (Erewash) Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) Margot James (Stourbridge) Maria Caulfield (Lewes) Maria Miller (Basingstoke) Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) Mark Menzies (Fylde) Mark Pawsey (Rugby) Mark Prisk (Hertford and Stortford) Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) Mark Spencer (Sherwood) Mary Robinson (Cheadle) Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) Matthew Offord (Hendon) Mel Stride (Central Devon) Michael Ellis (Northampton North) Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks) Michael Gove (Surrey Heath) Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) Michelle Donelan (Chippenham) Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) Mike Wood (Dudley South) Mims 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(Ludlow) Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge) Phillip Lee (Bracknell) Priti Patel (Witham) Ranil Jayawardena (North East Hampshire) Rebecca Harris (Castle Point) Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) Richard Bacon (South Norfolk) Richard Benyon (Newbury) Richard Drax (South Dorset) Richard Fuller (Bedford) Richard Graham (Gloucester) Richard Harrington (Watford) Rishi Sunak (Richmond (Yorks)) Rob Wilson (Reading East) Robert Buckland (South Swindon) Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) Robert Halfon (Harlow) Robert Jenrick (Newark) Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) Robert Syms (Poole) Robin Walker (Worcester) Rory Stewart (Penrith and The Border) Royston Smith (Southampton, Itchen) Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) Sam Gyimah (East Surrey) Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) Scott Mann (North Cornwall) Seema Kennedy (South Ribble) Shailesh Vara (North West Cambridgeshire) Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) Simon Burns (Chelmsford) Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire) Simon Hoare (North Dorset) Simon Kirby (Brighton, Kemptown) Sir Alan Duncan (Rutland and Melton) Sir Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden) Sir Edward Garnier (Harborough) Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) Sir Greg Knight (East Yorkshire) Sir Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex) Sir Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) Sir Roger Gale (North Thanet) Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) Steve Baker (Wycombe) Steve Brine (Winchester) Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) Suella Fernandes (Fareham) Tania Mathias (Twickenham) Theresa May (Maidenhead) Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) Therese Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) Tom Pursglove (Corby) Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) Victoria Atkins (Louth and Horncastle) Victoria Borwick (Kensington) Victoria Prentis (Banbury) Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) Will Quince (Colchester) William Cash (Stone) William Wragg (Hazel Grove) Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park) Labour: Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) Alan Campbell (Tynemouth) Alan Johnson (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) Alison McGovern (Wirral South) Angela Eagle (Wallasey) Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) Ann Coffey (Stockport) Anna Turley (Redcar) Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) Caroline Flint (Don Valley) Chris Bryant (Rhondda) Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) Chuka Umunna (Streatham) Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) Conor McGinn (St Helens North) Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) Frank Field (Birkenhead) Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West) George Howarth (Knowsley) Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) Graham Jones (Hyndburn) Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) Helen Jones (Warrington North) Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) Holly Lynch (Halifax) Ian Austin (Dudley North) Jamie Reed (Copeland) Jenny Chapman (Darlington) Jim Dowd (Lewisham West and Penge) Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) Joan Ryan (Enfield North) John Spellar (Warley) John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) Keith Vaz (Leicester East) Kevan Jones (North Durham) Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) Liz Kendall (Leicester West) Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) Margaret Beckett (Derby South) Margaret Hodge (Barking) Maria Eagle (Garston and Halewood) Mary Creagh (Wakefield) Michael Dugher (Barnsley East) Neil Coyle (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) Peter Kyle (Hove) Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North) Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) Vernon Coaker (Gedling) Wayne David (Caerphilly) Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) DUP: David Simpson (Upper Bann) Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) Ian Paisley (North Antrim) Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) Jim Shannon (Strangford) Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) Lib Dems: Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) John Pugh (Southport) Nick Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam) Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) UUP: Danny Kinahan (South Antrim) Tom Elliott (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) UKIP: Douglas Carswell (Clacton) Independents: Lady Sylvia Hermon (North Down) MPs who voted against the motion Labour: Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) Albert Owen (Ynys Mon) Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) Andrew Smith (Oxford East) Andy Burnham (Leigh) Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) Angela Rayner (Ashton-under-Lyne) Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) Barry Gardiner (Brent North) Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) Cat Smith (Lancaster and Fleetwood) Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) Chris Evans (Islwyn) Christian Matheson (City of Chester) Christina Rees (Neath) Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) Clive Efford (Eltham) Clive Lewis (Norwich South) Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) David Anderson (Blaydon) David Crausby (Bolton North East) David Hanson (Delyn) David Lammy (Tottenham) David Winnick (Walsall North) Dawn Butler (Brent Central) Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) Derek Twigg (Halton) Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) Edward Miliband (Doncaster North) Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East) Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) Gavin Shuker (Luton South) Geraint Davies (Swansea West) Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) Graham Allen (Nottingham North) Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton) Grahame Morris (Easington) Harry Harpham (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) Iain Wright (Hartlepool) Ian C. Lucas (Wrexham) Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) Ian Mearns (Gateshead) Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) Imran Hussain (Bradford East) Ivan Lewis (Bury South) Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) Jess Phillips (Birmingham, Yardley) Jessica Morden (Newport East) Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) John Mann (Bassetlaw) John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) Jon Cruddas (Dagenham and Rainham) Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) Jonathan Reynolds (Stalybridge and Hyde) Judith Cummins (Bradford South) Julie Cooper (Burnley) Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) Karen Buck (Westminster North) Karin Smyth (Bristol South) Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) Kate Hollern (Blackburn) Kate Osamor (Edmonton) Keir Starmer (Holborn and St Pancras) Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) Lisa Nandy (Wigan) Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) Louise Haigh (Sheffield, Heeley) Lyn Brown (West Ham) Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) Margaret Greenwood (Wirral West) Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) Mark Hendrick (Preston) Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) Matthew Pennycook (Greenwich and Woolwich) Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) Naz Shah (Bradford West) Nia Griffith (Llanelli) Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East) Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) Nick Thomas-Symonds (Torfaen) Owen Smith (Pontypridd) Pat Glass (North West Durham) Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) Paul Flynn (Newport West) Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) Peter Dowd (Bootle) Rachael Maskell (York Central) Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford and Eccles) Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) Richard Burgon (Leeds East) Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West) Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green) Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) Sadiq Khan (Tooting) Sarah Champion (Rotherham) Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham, Ladywood) Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) Sir Alan Meale (Mansfield) Sir Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton) Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow) Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) Stephen Pound (Ealing North) Stephen Timms (East Ham) Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) Sue Hayman (Workington) Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn) Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) Wes Streeting (Ilford North) Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) SNP: Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) Alex Salmond (Gordon) Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) Angus Robertson (Moray) Anne McLaughlin (Glasgow North East) Brendan O'Hara (Argyll and Bute) Callum McCaig (Aberdeen South) Calum Kerr (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) Chris Law (Dundee West) Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) Corri Wilson (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) George Kerevan (East Lothian) Hannah Bardell (Livingston) Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) John McNally (Falkirk) John Nicolson (East Dunbartonshire) Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) Kirsty Blackman (Aberdeen North) Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) Martin John Docherty (West Dunbartonshire) Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) Mhairi Black (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) Mike Weir (Angus) Neil Gray (Airdrie and Shotts) Owen Thompson (Midlothian) Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) Paul Monaghan (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) Peter Grant (Glenrothes) Philip Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) Richard Arkless (Dumfries and Galloway) Roger Mullin (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) Ronnie Cowan (Inverclyde) Stephen Gethins (North East Fife) Steven Paterson (Stirling) Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) Stuart Blair Donaldson (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire) Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) Conservatives: Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) Julian Lewis (New Forest East) Philip Hollobone (Kettering) Stephen McPartland (Stevenage) Plaid Cymru: Hywel Williams (Arfon) Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East and Dinefwr) Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) SDLP: Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast South) Margaret Ritchie (South Down) Mark Durkan (Foyle) Lib Dems: Mark Williams (Ceredigion) Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) Independents: Michelle Thomson (Edinburgh West) Natalie McGarry (Glasgow East) Greens: Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) MPs who abstained Conservatives: Adam Holloway (Gravesham) Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) Christopher Chope (Christchurch) John Redwood (Wokingham) Kenneth Clarke (Rushcliffe) Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) Labour: Jo Cox (Batley and Spen) Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central) Steve Reed (Croydon North) Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) MPs who did not vote Conservatives: John Bercow (Buckingham) - Speaker Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) - Deputy Speaker Labour: Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) - Unable to attend Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) - Unable to attend Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley) - Deputy Speaker Mike Gapes (Ilford South) - Unable to attend Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) - Deputy Speaker Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire) - Unable to attend Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) - Unable to attend Sinn Fein: Francie Molloy (Mid Ulster) Mickey Brady (Newry and Armagh) Pat Doherty (West Tyrone) Paul Maskey (Belfast West) |
A fire which killed a woman at a house in South Yorkshire was "likely" started by a cigarette igniting her clothes. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The un-named woman, in her late 70s, was found with "significant burn injuries" by crews called New Cross Drive in Sheffield on Sunday. The fire service said the flames were out when they arrived at 12:30 GMT. A spokesman said: "It is believed this fire started when smoking materials, likely a cigarette, set the casualty's clothes on fire." Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here. |
Computer users across the globe are being strongly urged to change all their online passwords because of the Heartbleed Bug. Memory expert Tony Buzan gives tips on how to remember new ones, which should be a long jumble of randomly generated letters and numbers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts Changing passwords is something many people avoid at all costs, because they fear they will forget the new password. However, you can make something memorable by simply using the power of association and location. In order to remember a string of online passwords, all you have to do is associate each individual letter and number with a known or fixed item, calling on your imagination throughout. The more you stimulate and use your imagination, the more connections you will be able to make, and the more you will be able to memorise. When you find that you have to remember a random formation of letters and numbers, devise your own memory image words for each number and letter. Say for example, I need to remember this random mix of numbers and letters: B5g3ars91fPpq1m2bn4d8Vc3. Start with a key image word that starts with the sound of each letter, and make sure the word is easy to imagine and easy to draw. For example, B = Banana. If you can think of several possibilities for a letter, use the one that comes first in the dictionary. A similar rule is applied to remembering numbers - you devise key memory images for words that rhyme with the sound of the words for the numbers. For example, the key rhyming memory image word that most people use for the number five is "hive" and the images conjured up for it range from one enormous hive, from which emanates a sky-covering swarm of monster bees, to a microscopic hive, with only one tiny bee. To remember a random string of passwords you need to "translate" each number and letter of the password you have to remember into an image whether it be in a form of a letter or story, devised from a basic code. Use the letters and numbers you have transcribed and make up catchy words and phrases that link you back to both the number and the letter. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
Residents of a housing estate in Hull have held a huge street parade as part of the UK City of Culture 2017 arts festival. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Giant puppets and homemade costumes were created for the event on Orchard Park in the north of the city. Artists ran special sessions to help people design and build their creations. Roads on the estate were closed and hundreds of people turned out to watch the event. Kerith Ogden, one of the artists behind the parade, said it was a chance for people to bring their ideas to life. "It's about bringing lots of different people together to make a brilliant spectacle that can be enjoyed by all," she said. |
A new study indicates that only a third of children in Bradford had sufficient exercise in the first lockdown, last spring - and that a similar proportion were rarely leaving the home. Dr John Wright, of Bradford Royal Infirmary, says this is contributing to a different kind of health crisis, one that began long before the pandemic, but risks becoming worse because of it. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Born in Bradford research project, monitoring the health of 13,500 children born in the city between 2007 and 2010, provides a great opportunity to track changes in their behaviour. Last spring nearly 1,000 of them, aged nine to 13, took part in a survey, telling researchers how much exercise they were getting in lockdown, and the data (a pre-print of which can be seen here) is alarming. About two-thirds of the children had taken part in an earlier survey, enabling us to compare their behaviour before and after lockdown. Of this sub-group, 69% had been getting the recommended daily average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity before lockdown, but once it began, only 29% - less than half - met that target. And when people fill in questionnaires, they are likely to overestimate physical activity rather than underestimate it. Children from poorer and ethnic minority backgrounds (and there is a big overlap between the two groups in Bradford) were particularly likely to be getting insufficient exercise. In fact, the survey shows that far too many children were rarely leaving the house. Overall, 30% of the nearly 1,000 participants reported that they had normally stayed at home, or in their garden or yard, in the previous seven days, but there were significant differences depending on ethnic background: among children of Pakistani heritage the figure was 40%, while among White British children it was 16%. (Most children in Bradford belong to one of these two groups.) Before lockdown all children were leaving the house to go to school, and would benefit from some physical exercise both in class and during breaks from lessons. During lockdown a surprising number were confined to the space between four walls, and their garden if they had one. This year of the virus has been a throwback to the infectious giants that bestrode the world before the advent of antibiotics, vaccines and public health measures. It has been a harsh reminder of the ever-present risk of new communicable diseases, and a lesson in the consequences of complacency. But the Born in Bradford research reminds us that there is another malicious pandemic that we must turn our attention to, one that causes far more deaths than Covid ever will. Less visible than Covid, but hiding in plain sight, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and mental ill-health are the modern epidemics. While we have been like children playing Sunday football chasing after the Covid ball, we have left this particular goal wide open. Covid has been a complicated problem, but with public health measures, testing and vaccines it has been solvable. Luckily, it has an easily identifiable cause, the infamous spiked virus. Non-communicable diseases, by contrast, are complex problems that arise from multiple and interacting factors that are often unknown. They are shaped by the houses we live in, the neighbourhoods we play in, the food we eat, the shops we visit, the schools we learn in and the jobs we work at. Physical activity is a good illustration of this complex problem. We all know that it is an important ingredient in keeping our bodies and minds fit. Efforts to promote more active behaviour have generally borne encouraging results, as evidenced by the number of gyms that have sprung up in recent years, sales of fitbits and the popularity of Joe Wicks. The limitation on focusing on individual behaviour, however, is that it potentially widens inequalities. The comfortably off give up smoking, buy fitbits and eat kale. The poorer have less choice. Prof John Wright, a doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio. Telling children and families to go out and take more exercise is all well and good if they have a nice garden or live near a park. If you live near busy roads, without a garden or safe place to exercise, then you are going to be reluctant to let your children go out to play, and thus the seeds of NCDs are sown. Two boys from an Afghan family, Mehdi and Maseh, aged 11 and nine, say they have rarely been going out to play in the latest lockdown - the only real exception being when it was snowing. "In the weekends we sometimes play video games together - we love playing computer games - and then we probably will watch TV," says Mehdi. "We did go to the park at the start of the Covid but both our footballs are busted. There's a park but it's a long walk away, so we don't go. We'd go out and play with friends but because of Covid we don't see them and so we just stay in." Fortunately, their parents do at least send them to Bradford's Arise Sunday education support group, where learning club tutor Shamsa Aslam organises exercise sessions, as well as educational activities. Emily, 13, from nearby Leeds, does a lot of sport when she goes to school - football and badminton - but doesn't have the equipment to play at home. She also used to go for runs during her school lunch hour but has now stopped. "I was doing skateboarding but there have been some attacks and so it's not very safe round here," she says. She does at least get some walks with members of her family. For those who used to take part in team sports, lockdown has taken away a big part of their lives. Dawood Nasir used to play 10 hours of basketball a week at the Mandela Centre in Leeds until the pandemic stopped him. For a while he carried alone, but then gave up. "I'd go in my back garden and start dribbling and I'd go to the park but there would be no one there," he says. "I just lost all my motivation." Daniel Bingham, who led the Born in Bradford research on physical activity, wants to see measures to get young people exercising again once lockdown is over. But he says that by itself is not enough, because even before the pandemic there was a problem. Figures for England as a whole in 2018/19 showed that 53% of children were not getting the recommended daily average of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. (Again, this is likely to be an underestimate, as young people may overstate how active they have been when asked to remember what they have done in the last week.) "Our research shows that Covid has made a bad problem worse," Daniel says. "But how do we make things better? This should be a wake-up call to really ask how we can change our society to be more active." And the research has also shone a light on the need to pay particular attention to children from ethnic minorities, he argues. "If they're starting at a different level from the majority white British children, what extra resource and support do they need to be able to do more physical activity?" There is a lot to learn from the vigour of how we have tackled Covid that we could replicate for NCDs. In particular, it would be helpful if the urgency of public health policy and legislation that has so effectively tackled the virus were transferred to tackle inequalities, urban planning, overcrowded houses, lack of parks, unsafe roads for active travel, poor education and pressures from industry to consume junk food and alcohol. Follow @docjohnwright, radio producer @SueM1tchell on Twitter Listen to My Name is... with Hamza Malik, Dawood Nasir's basketball coach from the Mandela Centre in Leeds, at 11:00 on Monday 1 March on BBC Radio 4 - or catch up later online The programme also features Claire and Westen, youth and community workers from Youthpoint, at the Leeds Cardigan Centre, who have been delivering fruit to the young people who would normally attend their sport and youth sessions. |
Staff working for Northern Ireland's Agriculture Department (Daera) at border posts at Larne and Belfast ports are returning to work on Wednesday, more than a week after the department temporarily suspended physical checks at the ports. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Luke SprouleBBC News NI BBC News NI examines the events leading up to checks first being suspended and what has happened since. 1 January: The Irish Sea border comes into effect The end of the Brexit transition period sees the Irish Sea border come into effect. It's a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol - the part of the Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods. This avoids the need for checks on the Irish border. Instead EU customs rules are enforced at Northern Ireland's ports. Mid-January: Anti-protocol graffiti begins to appear Many unionists and loyalists are strongly opposed to the protocol. Graffiti opposing the Irish Sea border begins to appear in some loyalist areas of Northern Ireland including parts of Bangor, Belfast, Glengormley and Larne - which is home to one of NI's main ports. On 27 January Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan tells MPs there are also signs of discontent on social media platforms. In February two men will be charged with painting graffiti in Larne. 28 January: Concerns raised about potential threat NI's Chief Vet Robert Huey represents Daera at a routine meeting of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace). Recalling the discussion at a meeting of Stormont's Agriculture Committee on 4 February, Mr Huey recounts that the topic of the graffiti was raised and he informed the meeting that police had "been reassuring that it was not a serious threat". He says he was then told by "the representative there for Mid and East Antrim [council]" that this "was not the case, that the threat was serious and that I should be taking it seriously". Mr Huey says that the next day - 29 January - he reported this to the daily "gold command" meeting which was attended by representatives from local authorities across Northern Ireland. Mid and East Antrim Council has not responded to BBC queries about whether its chief executive Anne Donaghy attended the Solace meeting. "Council has a very low threshold concerning threats and the safety of its staff, and will always take decisive action to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of employees," said a council spokesperson. 31 January: Minister raises safety concerns Daera Permanent Secretary Denis McMahon says he received a call on 31 January from the then-minister in the department, Edwin Poots, to "express his concern about the safety of staff at the ports of entry". Mr Poots said a "local government officer" had contacted him to "alert him to potential health and safety risks as a result of threats to staff" at Larne Port, Mr McMahon told the agriculture committee on 4 February. BBC News NI has asked Mid and East Antrim Council if it was Ms Donaghy who contacted Mr Poots, but the council has neither confirmed nor denied. Mr Poots added that he had had conversations with political colleagues across Northern Ireland as well as other stakeholders who were reporting the same, added Mr McMahon. Mr Poots had subsequently contacted police to provide more details, he added. 1 February: Checks are suspended Mr McMahon says he receives a call from Mr Poots at midday on 1 February. He says the minister formally registers his concern about the health and safety of Daera staff working at the point of entry/border control post. Mr McMahon speaks to a senior police officer, who says officers are gathering additional intelligence and arranging a meeting with stakeholders, including Mr McMahon, the following day. The permanent secretary says the officer tells him he will share a threat assessment after that meeting, but at that stage it has not changed from the previous week. Later that day, at the request of Solace, Mr Poots meets the chief executives of Mid and East Antrim Council and Belfast City Council. At that meeting, concerns are highlighted about threatening graffiti and reports that the vehicle registrations of staff had been recorded, and that they feel threatened. Mr McMahon says the issues are primarily raised around Larne. An email, seen by BBC News NI, is sent from an officer in trade union Unite to the head of HR at Mid and East Antrim council, at 13:45 GMT. In it, the union says staff appear to have been threatened by graffiti "and potentially other methods", and asks for assurances that the council is risk-assessing the issue. Unions later say they understand that following receipt of that email the council contacted police at about 15:00 and asked them if there were issues around threats to staff before subsequently being told by the PSNI that there were not. That evening, Mr Poots phones Mr McMahon again and tells him he wants Daera staff stood down at Larne and Belfast, given the risks identified. Mr Poots adds he is "not convinced police had a full understanding of the risk" and that Mid and East Antrim Council has already taken action. Mr McMahon speaks to the chief vet and they decide that despite the lack of a formal police risk assessment, temporarily suspending physical checks on food and other animal products would be a "measured proportionate approach". At about 19:00 Mid and East Antrim Council makes a decision to immediately withdraw all its staff from inspection duties at Larne Port. At 21:50 Daera says it is temporarily suspending physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast. Belfast City Council staff remain at work and Daera checks on live animals at Larne continue. Documentary and seal checks - the other two-thirds of the Irish Sea border process - continue. Documentary checks are online while seal checks are completed at British ports. Meanwhile, at a Mid and East Antrim Council meeting, Mayor Peter Johnston tells councillors: "Trade unions - on behalf of council members of staff assisting with the checks at the port - have raised serious concerns around suspicious activity such as apparent information gathering, including the taking of personal registration plates from their vehicles". That night Mr Poots announces he will stand down as Daera minister to undergo surgery for a cancerous growth on his kidney. He is replaced by fellow DUP assembly member Gordon Lyons. 2 February: EU staff withdrawn The EU condemns threats against staff and tells EU officials working in Northern Ireland not to attend their duties. ACC McEwan tells BBC News NI there is no evidence to corroborate an anonymous claim that any of the main loyalist paramilitary groups were behind the threats. He adds there is no evidence that car registrations of staff were being gathered, adding that there was nothing to suggest an attack on anyone was imminent. 5 February: Council staff resume inspections Mid and East Antrim Council says its 12 environmental health officers are returning to work after it received a threat assessment from police. It adds it has carried out its own risk assessment and staff safety is its priority. 6 February: Trade unions dispute threat claims Trade unions Nipsa, Unite and GMB distance themselves from Mid and East Antrim Council's account of alleged threats to workers around "increasing suspicious activity such as apparent information gathering, including the taking of personal registration plates from their vehicles". The trade unions write to Mayor Peter Johnston asking him to withdraw the remarks he made at the 1 February council meeting. In a letter written written on behalf of the unions by TUS secretary Alan Law, they say: "As this was an official statement issued on behalf of council at the monthly meeting please would you clarify which trade union made this claim as neither Nipsa, GMB nor Unite did, and we absolutely distance ourselves from these remarks." 7 February: 'No credible threats' Chief Constable Simon Byrne says police have no evidence of "credible threats" against port workers in Larne or Belfast. He says Mid and East Antrim Council's decision to withdraw staff was taken by "people outside of the purview of policing". He says police worked with the council to reassure them there was no credible threat, ahead of workers returning on Friday. Meanwhile a Daera spokesman says resumption of full checks will by informed by a formal threat assessment from police, which it has received, alongside its own internal risk assessment. 9 February: Council statement 'untruthful' Alan Law says the trade unions are particularly concerned about Mr Johnston's remarks which said unions had raised concerns over staff number plates being gathered. He says that while Unite had contacted Mid and East Antrim Council on 1 February over concerns about graffiti and "potentially other methods" no union had raised the issue of number plates. "The mayor [Peter Johnston] references the trade unions, he says the trade unions advised the council that number plates were being recorded," Mr Law says. "Now that simply didn't happen and that's the main issue we have with the council's statement. "These are very serious situations and we would expect an employer like the council to take the matter extremely seriously and ensure any statement they would put out would be accurate and would not attribute untruthful remarks to the trade unions." In response, Mr Johnston tells BBC News NI the council acted on "lots of information from different stakeholders". He says the email from Unite was "certainly one of the pieces of information which was brought to the table". "We had information elsewhere and that all formed part of the decision. Not only did we have the letter from the union..but we had information from many other stakeholders," he adds. "When we presented the information we had we received cross-party support and unanimous support to withdraw the staff. "Throughout all of this our priority and our duty of care ultimately is with our staff." Meanwhile Daera confirms staff will return to work from Wednesday 10 February, meaning physical checks on products of animal origin can recommence. |
Unseen by most of the world, the once tranquil port of Aden is being steadily infiltrated by jihadists from both al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and the so-called Islamic State (IS). | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent They are not in charge of the city, the military forces of the UAE are. But in the last few days disturbing reports have emerged of the summary executions of prisoners by the jihadists, along with their black flags hoisted onto public buildings. The war in Yemen, now in its sixth month, has effectively offered the jihadists a backdoor entry into the country's second most important city and a major Indian Ocean port. "The jihadists have been taking advantage of the chaos in Aden to infiltrate the city," says Aimen Deen, a Dubai-based consultant and former jihadist himself. Nigel Inkster, the director of transnational threats at the London think-tank IISS and a former director of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, concurs. "AQAP are a very opportunistic organisation," he says. "What has happened in Aden has created an opportunity and given them scope to expand there and in certain parts of the country." So what exactly has happened in Aden? Very bad things in recent weeks is the answer. For 128 years, the Indian Ocean port of Aden and the adjoining hinterland was a British protectorate and later a crown colony. As recently as the 1960s, cruise ships were dropping off passengers to shop in its teeming markets as they refuelled on the long voyage between Southampton and the Far East. It was one of the busiest ports and harbours in the world. After a violent independence campaign, Aden became the capital of the Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen from 1967 to 1990. Russian sailors strolled around town, office women wore Western skirts and there was even a local brewery. Then followed unification with North Yemen and a brief and ultimately unsuccessful attempt by the South to split away in 1994. When I interviewed the country's strongman, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in 2000, he told me his greatest achievement had been uniting the two Yemens, North and South. Aden But today Yemen is in chaos. Pushed out by the Arab Spring protests of 2011, President Saleh left office, but not Yemen. A sore loser, he conspired to wreck Yemen's transition to a peaceful democracy, forming an alliance in 2014 with the same Houthi rebels he had fought several wars against. In September 2014, the rebels advanced on the capital, Sanaa, from their northern stronghold. By January 2015, they had the president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, under house arrest. By March, they had seized almost the whole of the western half of the country, driving the government into exile and capturing Aden. Who is fighting whom in Yemen? Houthis - The Zaidi Shia Muslim rebels from the north overran Sanaa last year and then expanded their control. They want to replace Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, whose government they say is corrupt. The US alleges Iran is providing military assistance to the rebels. Ali Abdullah Saleh - Military units loyal to the former president - forced to hand over power in 2011 after mass protests - are fighting alongside the Houthis. Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi - The president fled abroad in March as the rebels advanced on Aden, where he had taken refuge in February. Sunni Muslim tribesmen and Southern separatists have formed militia to fight the rebels. Saudi-led coalition - A US-backed coalition of nine, mostly Sunni Arab states, says it is seeking to "defend the legitimate government" of Mr Hadi. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - AQAP opposes both the Houthis and President Hadi. A rival affiliate of Islamic State has also recently emerged. Human Rights Watch report on Yemen Yemen's giant neighbour, Saudi Arabia, suspected the hand of Iran was behind the rebels, who are Shia, and launched a devastating air war to push them back and force them to sue for peace. It has largely worked, but at a cost. The rebels are now in full retreat, but over 4,000 people have been killed in the fighting, at least half of them civilians. The once quiet, torpid streets of Aden have been battered by mortar fire, snipers and artillery. As part of the Saudi-led coalition, the UAE landed an entire armoured brigade there to reinforce the Yemeni loyalists fighting the rebels. French-built Leclerc tanks of the UAE army have been in action north of the city. But in Aden itself there has been something of a power vacuum with almost no effective policing or security - just the sort of situation the jihadists like to exploit. As far back as February, when the Houthis were advancing into Aden, IS declared a new province, a "wilaya" of Aden and Lahej. After launching an attack on Houthi rebels on 18 July, they reportedly executed seven of their captives in the district known as Crater. Now, in a new report on the mistreatment of prisoners by both sides, Human Rights Watch cites reports that on 23 August, IS dressed a number of Houthi prisoners in orange jumpsuits, placed them in a boat which was then towed out into the harbour. Reportedly watched by local residents of Aden, the boat carrying the prisoners was then blown up, killing those on board, the report says. Yemen is no stranger to violence. In the last four years, it has witnessed some horrific suicide bombings, mostly in Sanaa. For now, it seems that the jihadists of AQAP and IS have largely put aside their differences to fight their common enemy, the Shia Houthi rebels. Ironically, they are being aided by air strikes from the very countries - Saudi Arabia and the UAE - who normally oppose them. But their apparent infiltration into what was once one of the most important ports on the Indian Ocean gives them a base they could only have dreamed of before this war began. |
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), to give its full name in English, has its roots in the bitter Algerian civil war of the early 1990s, but has since evolved to take on a more international Islamist agenda. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Its reach has also expanded across the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, attracting members from Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Senegal as well as from within Mali where, in alliance with other Islamists, it is fighting French troops on the ground. During the Mali crisis, its fighters have dramatically increased their profile, allowing them to further their aim of spreading Islamic law and jihad across West Africa. AQIM's influence over other nascent Islamist cells comes from its wealth: it is one of the region's best-armed groups thanks to the money it makes from kidnapping Westerners and drug and cigarette trafficking across the Sahara. It emerged in early 2007, after a feared militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden's international network. Back in the 1990s, against a background of Islamist political groups testing their strength across North Africa, the military-backed authorities in Algeria at first permitted the Islamists to play a full part in the nation's political life. But then, when the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to sweep the board in a 1992 general election, they annulled the whole process and took power back. The political ferment immediately moved into violence. Armed Islamists mounted attacks across Algeria, the security forces fought back; and sometimes it was hard to tell which group had carried out which atrocity. Other states in the region - Tunisia and Morocco, Mauritania to the west and Libya to the east - also battled against Islamists. Most feared But the conflict in Algeria was particularly brutal, killing perhaps 150,000 people. It peaked in the 1990s, until an amnesty offer to Islamists in 1999 led to gradual improvements. Violence fell and the country's economy recovered during the early years of the 21st Century. However, the most feared of the militant organisations, the Armed Islamic Group or GIA, rejected the promised amnesty and continued a violent campaign to establish an Islamic state. By then it had split, with the most extreme faction calling itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat - a name which echoed an Islamist group in Morocco. The Arabic word "Salafist" means fundamentalist, in the sense of going back to the original texts of Islam. In September 2006 the GSPC said it had joined forces with al-Qaeda, and in January 2007 it announced that it had changed its name to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to reflect its new allegiance. At the time there had been much debate in intelligence circles about the significance of the move. Some officials dismissed it as an act of desperation by a group on its last legs, seeking to attract new recruits by aligning itself with Osama Bin Laden. Others, who saw it as far more worrying development, proved correct, as al-Qaeda has succeeded in persuading North Africa's Islamist extremists to take a more global view. In fact, the head of the US Africa Command said he believed that in 2012 AQIM, Nigeria's Boko Haram and the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab were co-ordinating their efforts. The merger announcement delighted al-Qaeda's then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who described it at the time as "a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness" for Algeria's authorities. Wave of attacks Shortly afterwards, seven bombs exploded in Algeria's eastern Kabylia region, killing six people, and in April 2007 at least 30 people were killed in bomb attacks on official buildings in Algiers. AQIM said it had planted the bombs. More attacks followed: on buses carrying foreign oil workers; on American diplomats; on soldiers; and in September 2007, a suicide bomb attack in Batna, aimed at the motorcade of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The president was not injured, but 20 people were killed. Two days later, a car bomb killed more than 30 people at a coastguard barracks in the town of Dellys. In December, twin car bombs claimed by AQIM killed at least 37 people in Algiers, including 17 UN staff. The death toll continued to mount in 2008. Back-to-back attacks on 19 and 20 August killed dozens of people. The first was a suicide car bombing at a police college in Issers, east of Algiers, killing 48 people. A day later, two more car bombings struck in quick succession in Bouira, south-east of Algiers. The second explosion in Bouira killed 12 Algerian employees of the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. The attacks continued into 2009, when suspected al-Qaeda militants in February killed nine security guards who were working for the state-owned gas and electricity distributor Sonelgaz at a camp near Jijel, east of Algiers. Algerian Islamists represent the largest national grouping in al-Qaeda, according to Jill Carroll's 2007 briefing paper How Did Al-Qaeda Emerge in North Africa? 'Years of hardship' Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Algeria's prime minister in 2007, warned that the bombers wanted to take the North African country back to "the years of hardship". But other incidents across the Maghreb pointed to the group's regional ambitions. In January that year, 12 people were shot dead by the security forces in Tunisia near the small town of Solimane, south of the capital, Tunis. The authorities initially described their adversaries as criminals but later admitted that the men were Islamist militants with connections to the GSPC. Meanwhile, Morocco's security forces clamped down on several militant cells - arresting, trying and jailing their leaders - after four incidents blamed on al-Qaeda-inspired groups in 2007. The security forces were said to be on the lookout for militants who were believed to be crossing into Morocco from Algeria. And of course the Madrid train bombs, which killed almost 200 people in 2004, were the work of a Moroccan gang. In December 2008, AQIM militants abducted the United Nations special envoy, Robert Fowler, and his assistant, Louis Guay, near Niger's capital, Niamey. They were released in April 2009. The group also seized four European tourists who disappeared in January 2009 along the Mali-Niger border. Two were freed in April. The group threatened to kill one of the remaining pair - a Briton - unless a radical Islamic cleric convicted of terrorism in Jordan, Abu Qatada, was released from jail in the UK. And in June 2009 the British government said it believed AQIM's claims on an Islamist website that the death threat had been carried out against the British captive, Edwin Dyer. In July 2010 AQIM said it had killed French hostage Michel Germaneau - kidnapped in northern Niger three months earlier and transferred to Mali - in revenge for the killing of seven comrades in a failed rescue raid. In November 2011 a German was killed and three other foreigners kidnapped by AQIM in the ancient tourist city of Timbuktu in northern Mali. 'One-eyed' The group is thought to have between 600 and 800 fighters spread throughout Algeria and Europe - and according to the independent think-tank the Council on Foreign Relations, most of its major commanders trained in Afghanistan. Since 2004, the leader of the militants is thought to be Abou Mossab Abdelwadoud, a former university science student and infamous bomb-maker. In 2005, deputy GSPC leader Amari Saifi was sentenced to life in prison by an Algiers court for kidnapping 32 European tourists in 2003. The former paratrooper was captured by Chadian rebels in mysterious circumstances and passed on to Libya before standing trial in Algeria. Another leading member was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, known as "The One-Eyed", a former soldier and infamous cigarette smuggler at the centre of the 2013 hostage drama in Algeria. He left AQIM in late 2012 after falling out with some leaders and has been involved in operations in Mali. He organised the importation of arms for the underground network from Niger and Mali. He is wanted in Algeria on terrorism charges. |
A number of houses in Aberdeen were evacuated following the discovery of an explosive device. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The device - which BBC Scotland understands to be a grenade - was found in a garage in the Craigiebuckler Terrace area on Tuesday. An army explosive ordnance disposal team was called in to investigate the find. There were no further details about the incident available. |
What do volcanoes and rockets have in common? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent, New Orleans "Volcanoes have a nozzle aimed at the sky, and rockets have a nozzle aimed at the ground," explains Steve McNutt, a geosciences professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa. It explains why he and colleague Dr Glenn Thompson have installed the tools normally used to study eruptions at the famous Kennedy Space Center. Comparing the different types of rumblings could yield new insights. In the case of rockets, the team thinks their seismometers and infrasound (low-frequency acoustic waves) detectors might potentially be used by the space companies as a different type of diagnostic tool, to better understand the performance of their vehicles; or perhaps as a way to identify missiles in flight. In the case of volcanoes, the idea is to take the lessons learned at Kennedy and fine-tune the algorithms used to interpret what is happening in an eruption. It might even be possible to develop systems that give early warnings of some of the dangerous debris flows associated with volcanoes. "It all started really as a way to test and calibrate our equipment," says Glenn. "We don't have any volcanoes in South Florida - obviously. But Kennedy provided some strong sources, and it also gave our students the opportunity to learn how to deploy stations and work with the data." The team has now recorded the seismic and acoustic signals emanating from about a dozen rockets. Most have been associated with launches; a few have been related to what are called static fire tests, in which the engines on a clamped vehicle are briefly ignited to check they are flight-ready. But perhaps the most fascinating event captured so far was the SpaceX pad explosion in September 2016. This saw a Falcon 9 rocket suffer a catastrophic failure as it was being fuelled. Many people will have seen the video of the spectacular fireball. But Glenn's and Steve's equipment caught information not apparent in that film. For example, they detected more than 150 separate sub-events in the infrasound over the course of 26 minutes. These were likely individual tanks, pipes or other components bursting into flames. Of course, the SpaceX explosion was an unusual occurrence, and it is the more routine activity that most interests the team. And some clear patterns are starting to emerge in their study of "upside down volcanoes". "As the rocket gets higher and higher and accelerates, we see a decrease in the frequency in the infrasound - that's basically a Doppler shift because the source is moving away from us," says Steve. "And then you get a coupling of the signal in the air into the ground and this produces seismic waves recorded on the seismometer. "So, we get some common features between the infrasound and the seismometer, but then there's a little separation of the energy between the two." There is a lot still to learn, but the pair think they can distinguish the different types of rockets - to tell a Falcon from an Atlas from a Delta. There are subtle but significant divergences in their spectral signatures, which almost certainly reflect their distinct designs and modes of operation. Where in particular the rockets could have instruction for volcano monitoring is in describing moving sources. A rocket is a very well understood physical process. Its properties and parameters - such as the size of the nozzle orifice, the thrust, the trajectory and the distance - are all precisely known. The related seismic and acoustic signals should therefore serve as templates to help decipher some of the features of eruptions that share similar behaviours. Good examples of rapid movement in the volcano setting are the big mass surges like pyroclastic flows (descending clouds of hot ash/rock) and lahars (mud/ash avalanches). An objective of the team is to improve seismometer and infrasound systems' characterisation of these dangerous phenomena. This could lead to useful alerts being sent to people who live around volcanoes. "Assuming you can find a few safe places to put your instruments that are reasonably close, you'd get your advance warning," said Steve. "What you'd be doing then is getting the time and the strength of the signal and then watching it evolve to figure out which direction it's going. "If you can do that successfully then you can forecast with a couple of minutes in advance things like lahars and pyroclastic flows downstream." Glenn added: "I worked on [the Caribbean island of] Montserrat during the crisis from 1995 to 2011, and we did have a rudimentary system even then for tracking the pyroclastic density currents coming down the slopes of the volcano. "It wasn't quite a real-time application, but we hope with this kind of work that we can improve those algorithms and make them more of an automated alarm system." The equipment at Kennedy has been temporary, but the team is looking for a permanent installation. Like everyone, Glenn and Steve are particularly looking forward to the launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy vehicle in the New Year. The Heavy should produce nearly 23 meganewtons of thrust at lift-off, more than any rocket in operation today. It is sure to make for some interesting seismic and infrasound signals. Glenn Thompson and Steve McNutt detailed their work here at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos |
Manchester Airport train station was evacuated and a man detained after a suspicious bag was found while officers were investigating reports of a man behaving "erratically". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Greater Manchester Police said a cordon was put in place and bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion. Trains, trams and buses were suspended for a number of hours and the station reopened at 11:20 BST. The detained man was taken to hospital. Police confirmed the bag did not contain a viable device and there was "no evidence" to suggest the incident was terrorism related. Ch Insp Andy Sutcliffe said: "Public safety is our top priority so a controlled explosion of a bag was carried out as a precaution before an inspection of the contents confirmed that there was no viable device or components inside." Passengers were asked to follow directions from police officers as they were evacuated from the station and there were long queues for taxis. Related Internet Links Greater Manchester Police Manchester Airport |
A car towing a caravan and driving the wrong way on the M40 has been involved in a crash with another vehicle. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It was travelling south on the northbound carriageway when it crashed at about 16:00 BST on Monday. The road was closed between junction 6 for Watlington and junction 8A for Oxford, and reopened at about 07:00. The air ambulance was dispatched by South Central Ambulance Service, but no details of any injuries have been released. Thames Valley Police is now appealing for motorists with dashcam footage to come forward. |
Hundreds of restaurants have launched tasty plant-based treats in conjunction with Veganuary, a campaign encouraging people to follow a vegan diet for the first month of the year. From pea protein pepperoni to watermelon steak, will any new products rival Greggs's vegan sausage roll success from last year? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alice EvansBBC News Late at night on New Year's Day, dozens of people queued up outside the Greggs on Grainger Street in Newcastle to be among the first foodies to taste the new vegan steak bake before it was first available to buy on 2 January. Food blogger Emma Phillips had been invited to the event by Greggs as a peace offering after she ate a non-vegan doughnut that had been mistakenly labelled as vegan. The 40-year-old from Gateshead said the launch became "quite an experience" after various partygoers joined the queue to see what all the fuss was about. "Bearing in mind it was New Year's Day, the Greggs in particular that they chose was on the corner beside quite a notorious area of Newcastle for revellers, shall we say - so a lot of quite inebriated people were walking past," Emma said. After a bit of "ribbing" from non-vegan passersby, "they started to join the queue as well". Inside, people were rewarded for their wait with trays of steak bakes, a DJ, and some iPads were even given away, Emma said. It might seem like a lot of hype for just one product. But Greggs knows how much one star snack can bolster an entire brand. After Piers Morgan criticised the vegan sausage roll when it launched during the 2019 edition of Veganuary, Greggs's marketing team jumped for joy. The ITV presenter's characteristically scathing retweet, followed by Greggs's witty reply, helped a video clip advertising the roll to accumulate a cool 5.3m views - and led to widespread media coverage. The roll became one of the fastest selling Greggs products for years and helped to contribute to what was described as a "phenomenal year" by the company's chief executive. Annual sales broke £1bn for the first time, with sales growing 13.5% compared to 7.2% in 2018 - and it was announced on Wednesday that all 25,000 staff members would get a share of a £7m payout to celebrate the success. So, it's safe to say that food chains have realised there is money to be made out of Veganuary. Food outlets jumping on the bandwagon include Wagamama, which has launched a "tuna" steak made of watermelon, Subway with its Meatless Meatball Marinara and Costa Coffee with its ham and cheese toastie - free from ham and, er, cheese. Caffe Nero has launched an entire new menu to help people get through the 31-day challenge - complete with raspberry croissants and "meatball" paninis. Pizza Hut, meanwhile, says it hopes its Veganuary special, a pepperoni-style pizza made from pea protein, will "appease" - oh dear - " even the greatest meat lovers". So far this year the pizza chain says it has sold an average of 1,400 vegan pizzas a day - up 50% on January last year. And Leon says its new chipotle and avocado burger has sold better than expected. The fast food chain's vegan burgers are now out-selling other burgers. Dominos has confirmed rumours it is "getting there" with developing a vegan pizza - but it looks like it is going to miss the chance to make the most of the Veganuary hype. 'Scream flavour, whisper health' Alison Rabschnuk from the Good Food Institute says the timing of Veganuary is "perfect" for businesses. "Health concerns are the primary consumer motivation for eating vegan and January is the number one month for new health-related resolutions," she says. But she also points out that not all vegan food has to be healthy - and new foods might actually sell better if they are marketed as an indulgent treat. "Scream flavour and whisper health" is Alison's advice. "The fact that a dish is plant-based is what cues health for the customer - there's no need to overemphasise that point." Veganuary launched in 2014 as a non-profit organisation encouraging people to try out being vegan in the first month of the year by signing the Veganuary pledge. It also supports businesses to develop plant-based products "as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering and improving the health of millions of people". The campaign claims 200 new vegan products were launched by restaurants and supermarkets at last year's event, when 250,000 people made the pledge. This year is even bigger. The number of sign-ups has already surpassed 370,000 (including 150,000 in the UK) and is "steadily rising", according to Veganuary's head of marketing, Toni Vernelli - who adds the "huge response" shows the "positive action" of the campaign is "exactly what many people need right now". Google Trends also suggests there's much more interest in Veganuary this year. While making money from vegan foods at this time of year should therefore be easy, some food outlets have faced barriers. Burger King cooked up a storm with its January roll-out of the Rebel Whopper which, although made of a plant-based patty, is not strictly suitable for vegans or vegetarians because it is cooked alongside meat products. But the Veganuary team has defended the new burger and warned non-vegan customers not to get too picky. It argues animals are better off with non-vegans eating plant-based burgers, even if they're cooked alongside their meaty counterparts. PETA has also urged vegans to accept this kind of practice because otherwise restaurants will be put off making vegan products. The risk of cross-contamination posed by the Rebel Whopper is one of several issues fast food chains encounter when rolling out vegan products. Another problem for full-time vegans is whether or not to buy food from restaurants which make most of their fortune from meat. Vegan social influencer Emily Woolnough has been grappling with this question for a while. When KFC trialled a vegan burger last year, the 20-year-old from Cleethorpes refused to eat it. "I was against buying something from KFC because they kill millions of chickens… [and] I don't want my money to be going into that," she said. But by the time the zero chicken burger launched across the UK on 2 January, Emily had listened to other influencers and had a change of heart. "It's good to increase the demand for vegan food," she says - adding that the "amazing" KFC burger is her favourite Veganuary product because "it tastes so realistic". Emma Phillips agrees it's the multinational big cheeses who will really be able to drive veganism to become mainstream. "They're not bothered about the animals… but I don't care," she says. "No business is there in an altruistic sense. For me, if veganism is to become mainstream... it has to be convenient, it has to be accessible. So the likes of Greggs and KFC are actually pushing that agenda in the way a niche movement wouldn't do." Toni Vernelli, head of communications at Veganuary, agrees with the bloggers about sometimes-demonised business such as KFC, McDonald's and Burger King. "We don't think we can achieve a vegan world without them," she says. She points out the huge advertising budgets and overflowing budgets enjoyed by these companies and says, with increased demand, industry giants might invest in growing their vegan menus. While they may not want to be too closely aligned with a store that sells 1.5m pork sausage rolls every week, Emma and Emily do have one thing in common with Greggs - they're all profiting from Veganuary. Emma says she got 1,000 new followers in the first week of January. And part-time Starbucks worker Emily, whose @naturally_vegan Instagram page is smaller than Emma's @veganwomble account, has still had about twice the number of new followers in the first week of January compared with her weekly average. "Posting the new foods gains a lot of attraction," Emily says. "It's the hot topic at the minute, it's what everyone's talking about." |
A cyclist has died after a hit-and-run collision in the West Midlands. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Emergency services were called to Midland Road, Darlaston, Walsall, at about 03:20 GMT on Wednesday. West Midlands Police said a man had suffered a serious head injury after being knocked off his bike by a car. The force said the driver then left the scene and investigations to trace them are ongoing. The A462 Midland Road remains closed between Empress Way and The Green. |
Three men and a woman arrested amid allegations that care home staff were victims of modern day slavery have been released without charge. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The four were arrested in November 2019 after warrants were carried out at Danygraig Nursing Home, Newport and Ashville Residential Care Home, Brithdir. They had been arrested on suspicion of modern day slavery offences. On Thursday Gwent Police confirmed no further action would be taken. Modern slavery is defined as the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. Related Internet Links Gwent Police |
A housing developer which was refused permission to build 366 homes in Bangor because of fears over the effect on the Welsh language is appealing. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Gwynedd councillors also rejected the planning application by Morbaine because of concern about the impact on local traffic and schools. The developer wants to build the houses at Pen y Ffridd in Penrhosgarnedd. The planning inspectorate will consider the appeal before making a recommendation to the Welsh Government. The application for the houses was the biggest considered by Gwynedd council and was refused using new planning rules designed to protect the Welsh language. Residents had organised a petition against building at the 35.36 acre (14.3 ha) site raising concerns about overdevelopment and lack of infrastructure. |
At least 14 people have drowned when a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank off the south coast of Bangladesh, officials say. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The boat was destined for Malaysia and included Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh, local authorities told the BBC. All of the dead bodies recovered are reportedly of women and children. An official told the AFP news agency that 70 people were rescued. Many are still missing. The boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal near Saint Martin's island. In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. Most have been placed in refugee camps and some have tried to flee in boats to Malaysia. |
Aberdeen councillors have reaffirmed their commitment to a new bridge over the River Don at the proposed site near Tillydrone. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Supporters of the project insist the bridge would ease traffic congestion. However, Labour has long been opposed to the route currently planned at Tillydrone. There was a lengthy debate on Wednesday, and councillors voted to reaffirm their commitment to the so-called third Don crossing. |
The latest Electoral Office statistics show a marked increase in the issue of proxy and postal votes for the Westminster election in Northern Ireland. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Mark DevenportBBC News NI Political Editor 11,707 proxy votes have been issued - that is 1,787 up from the 9,920 proxies appointed for the March assembly election. 23,682 postal votes have been issued - up from the 19,670 sent out in March. Fermanagh South Tyrone tops the table for both proxy and postal votes issued. 1,707 proxy votes and 2,981 postal votes have been issued in the constituency. Other constituencies with high levels of applications include Mid Ulster and West Tyrone which are especially high for postal votes, and Newry and Armagh and Foyle which are high for proxy votes. |
Two monkeys have escaped from Belfast Zoo after giving their keepers the slip. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
One of the lion-tailed macaques is being pursued near houses in the Ben Madigan Park area of the Antrim Road in north Belfast by zoo staff. The other monkey has been spotted on the cliff face of the Cave Hill, but cannot be reached at present. Previously, six lion-tailed macaques escaped from the zoo in October 2013. Belfast Zoo has said they are tracking the movement of the animals. |
A photo of Rohingya refugee children queuing with empty plates in Bangladesh has won a major food photography award. K M Asad has been named Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2020 for his image from a sprawling refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
More than one million people live in the refugee camp, recently been placed in lockdown amid the Coronavirus pandemic. "This moving image really speaks to our times," awards founder and director Caroline Kenyon says. "The world is in the grip of Covid-19 - and normal life, whatever that may be, has stopped for all of us. "These Rohingya refugee children remind us of the fragility of life, that our need for food for survival connects us all around the world - we are all the same." After judges sifted through 9,000 entries from more than 70 countries the winners, were announced online via a livestream event. Here are some of the competition category winners, with descriptions by the photographers. Bring Home the Harvest: The Morning Catch, by Zay Yar Lin, Myanmar Food Bloggers: Bowl of Squash, by Aimee Twigger, UK Food for the Family: Olek Eating Pancakes, by Anna Włodarczyk, Poland Food in the Field: When the Hive is Filled, by Xiaodong Sun, China Food Stylist: Halibut and Radish, by Nicole Herft, UK InterContinental Food at the Table: Looking Too Good to Eat (Just Yet), by Sandy Wood, UK Young aged 15-17: Believers Sharing a Meal, by Sangjun Lee, India Marks & Spencer Food Portraiture: Baked Figs, by Liam Desbois, UK Young aged under 10: Apples, by Scarlett Blanch, UK Champagne Taittinger Wedding Food Photographer: Just Desserts, by Thomas Alexander, UK On the Phone: Hilsa, by Azim Khan Ronnie, Bangladesh One Vision Imaging Cream of the Crop: Vinaigrette, by Kai Stiepel, Germany Pink Lady Apple a Day: Caramel Lady, by Diana Kowalczyk, Poland All photographs courtesy Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2020. |
Two major reports this new year have painted a bleak picture of children and young people's mental health. A study by the Prince's Trust suggested as many as three quarters of a million young people in the UK felt they had nothing to live for and ChildLine said it had seen a large increase in concerns about online bullying and self-harming. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
So is life tougher for today's youth or are children's views just better heard these days? Andrew Webb, President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services The idea that "children should be seen and not heard" is thankfully, consigned to history. These days the thoughts, feelings and wishes of young people have become increasingly important and increasingly sought by professionals. The introduction of a children's commissioner to promote the views and best interests of children was a milestone in the journey of listening to the child's voice. Local authorities have developed many innovative ways to ensure that the views and needs of children of all ages are taken into account when designing and delivering services to meet their needs. We have learned our lessons from not listening to the experiences of the youngest in society. We have learned that we must not only listen, but we must also hear what a child tells us, and act on their experiences to ensure we meet their individual needs. Providing children with access to support when they need it is something local authorities must continue to work on, but children's wellbeing and happiness is not just the business of statutory services. As a society we need to continue to encourage the development of responses in ways which are relevant to children and young people, and that provide positive messages and support. Times have changed and childhood is not the same as it was, but rather than hanker for times past, we must help our children adapt to being children in modern times. We must instil in them a sense of confidence and adventure, of trust and independence while addressing issues surrounding the increased early sexualisation of youngsters, the pervasive nature of modern technology and the challenges that both online and offline bullying bring. Only if we get the balance right will we begin to see the happiness and wellbeing of our children improve. Christian Guy, Director of the Centre for Social Justice The majority of people look back on their childhoods with fondness. But there is little doubt that children and young people live under some intense pressures today. Whether it is a rampant culture of materialism, exams, bullying or the internet, many feel vulnerable under the strain. Some of these have been challenges for generations, while others - such as texting and online access - are in their infancy. And another pressure, often hidden behind Britain's front doors, has been the explosion of family breakdown. This can have a detrimental impact on children - they tend to do worse at school and are more likely to live in poverty as a result of instability at home. Supporting families and the professionals around them is the best place to start in the quest for better childhoods. Getting it right for parents and children builds resilience and protects against the inevitable rollercoaster that is our early years. Philip Treleven, Operations Director at The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Following their education, young people should be able to readily establish themselves as young adults and lay the foundations for a productive and satisfying life; namely, through gaining employment and engaging in activities that give a sense of achievement, fulfilment and enjoyment. Unemployment undermines this and, while there are a large number advancing down their chosen career and life paths, young people excluded from reaching their potential can experience a negative impact on their physical and mental well-being. The statistics appear to tell us that youth unemployment has increased. However, instead of debating whether things are better or worse, the focus should be on the fact that youth unemployment exists and is a tragedy for the individuals affected. Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Life has improved tremendously for young people in the UK since World War One. They have better nutrition, better health, they are all entitled to free education to the age of 18, they are listened to and have far greater opportunities and options in life. However, today's young people are under a great deal of pressure from parents and schools to do well and achieve high exam results. Many worry about getting the grades to go to university, and/or finding a job which is proving difficult even for graduates. Many fear they will be saddled with student debt for life and will never be able to buy their own home. Many children lead constrained lives, ferried everywhere and not allowed out on their own by parents worried about drugs, alcohol, gangs, and traffic. And many children are worried about fitting in and being accepted by their peers - with pressure from social media causing problems. Parents can help by allowing children more freedom, with support when they need it. Government can and should do more by recognising that all children are different, encouraging a better balance between vocational and academic subjects, and ending the excessive emphasis on testing. It should also provide more support for disadvantaged families so they can better support their children, and help children to stay in education past 16. It should reverse cuts to funding for education for those over 16, provide better careers guidance and do more to promote good quality apprenticeships. Enver Soloman, Director of Evidence and Impact at the National Children's Bureau The latest data on well-being from Unicef, which compares a number of different countries, suggests children and young people in this country say their well-being is not too bad - but that pre-dates the onset of the recession. For children generally, there are greater pressures to growing up today that are different than in previous times - whether it is issues related to social media and the dynamics of bullying, for example, which have changed. It used to take place in the school environment, now it can take place anywhere if the child has a mobile phone or tablet. For children experiencing poverty, the expectation is that the number will rise from 3.5 million in 2013 to 4.1 million in 2015. By 2020 it will have risen to over 4.7 million by 2020. So we know that over the next six years the number of children in poverty will increase by over one million. Inevitably this will mean hardship for a large number of children. We know from research that when children are living in homes where there is a financial shock - someone leaving their job or the impact of separation - it does have an impact on what children say about how they feel about life. And issues of mental illness, particularly among teenage boys, are greater than 10 to 15 years ago. But if we look at all children as a whole I don't think we can say life is worse for all of them. |
It is more than 80 years since any one of them was alive. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website And yet tourist chiefs believe they could form a crucial cornerstone in boosting tourism numbers for the south west of Scotland. They hope to tap into a "moment in the limelight" being enjoyed by Robert the Bruce, Robert Burns and JM Barrie. All three have links to Dumfries and Galloway which it is hoped can be exploited to attract more people to the area. The Netflix film the Outlaw King, the 260th anniversary of Burns' birth this year and the opening of a children's literature centre at Moat Brae - the house that helped inspire the Peter Pan story - could all play their part. Paula Ward, VisitScotland regional leadership director, said there were few similar places with strong connections to such famous figures. "The creative calibre of Burns and Barrie, coupled with the historical significance of Robert the Bruce have left a lasting legacy on the region and one that continues to attract visitors from far and wide," she said. "This year - thanks to the recent release of the Outlaw King, the 260th anniversary of Burns' birth and the upcoming opening of Moat Brae in late spring - represents an unmissable opportunity for Dumfries and Galloway." She said it was a chance to share the stories of the famous trio and also "encourage people to follow in their footprints and embark on their own adventures around the region". "Tourism is more than a holiday experience, it creates jobs and sustains communities," she said. "I look forward to seeing Bruce, Barrie and Burns help Dumfries and Galloway enjoy a tourism boost this year." Attractions linked to the trio already attract thousands of visitors but it is hoped those can be increased in 2019. Dumfries and Galloway Council said the "rich history and heritage" of the region was the basis for many attractions, festivals and events in the region. It said its cultural strategy and major festivals strategy would aim to help to strengthen that. "Dumfries town centre possesses a rich heritage of buildings associated with internationally renowned characters such as Bruce, Burns and Barrie all of which can play a key role in the revitalisation of Dumfries as a distinctive tourist destination," it said in a statement. Bruce bonus Dumfries and Galloway boasts a number of places with links to Robert the Bruce. They include Bruce's Stone which sits at the site of an early victory at the Battle of Glentrool and a plaque in Dumfries marking the spot where he killed John "Red" Comyn to begin his bid for the throne of Scotland. Mark Turner, of Solway Tours who run a Robert The Bruce tour, said visits to Scotland were increasing with historical tourism "definitely leading that charge". "Tracing a family tree is the biggest factor in our mind followed by some clever marketing and targeting by VisitScotland such as their Scotlandisnow and seesouthscotland campaigns," he said. "The success of Outlander, Outlaw King and Mary Queen of Scots also play a big part. "We take many groups to the sites used in filming these places." "In Dumfries and Galloway, Annan Castle, Lochmaben Castle, Castledykes, Dalswinton, Glentrool, Whithorn and, of course, Greyfriars are all important Bruce sites." However, he said work still needed to be done to make sure people extended their visits to the area. "Lots of people want to visit these sites but we need to persuade them to stay longer in the region, he added. "Scotland is on crest of a wave of tourism and history and our heritage is pivotal in that success." The Burns legacy Robert Burns, of course, was a son of Ayrshire but he spent his final years in and around Dumfries. You can scarcely turn a corner in the town without stumbling across some connection to Scotland's national bard. Among them is his mausoleum, the house where he lived and, near Auldgirth, the home he built for his family at Ellisland Farm. Stuart Cochrane, curator of the Ellisland Trust, said that they had Burns suppers, concerts and family-themed events planned this year. "Ellisland receives visits from all around the world and our events also help to fill local hotels and guest houses," he said. "Robert Burns and Bruce are the most significant Scots and Burns in particular is loved worldwide as his writings and philosophy are just as prevalent as they were two hundred years ago." And, of course, ongoing right now is the Big Burns Supper in his honour which was estimated to contribute about £500,000 to the local economy last year. Children's literature JM Barrie was another man born elsewhere - Kirriemuir - but who spent time in Dumfries in his youth, attending Dumfries Academy. He would later credit his time spent playing at Moat Brae house in the town as inspiration for his most famous work, Peter Pan. That building has been rescued from demolition and will open later this year as a national centre for children's literature. The site will celebrate "the life of JM Barrie, his links to Dumfries and Galloway and the story of Peter Pan". It is hoped it will attract 45,000 visitors a year and generate an additional £1.3m for the economy. More than that it will provide a "major new visitor attraction to fire the imaginations of children and young people and promote a love of storytelling". Centre director Simon Davidson said Barrie's heritage in the town would be in the spotlight when the site opened. "Barrie loved Dumfries and it was the place where Peter Pan began, so we have a wonderful story to tell the world," he said. "Once Moat Brae is open we expect it will make a valuable contribution to the region's efforts to attract more tourists from across Scotland, the rest of the UK and overseas. "What's also important is that Moat Brae plans to collaborate closely with Spring Fling, the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, the Wigtown Book Festival and others to support each other's work in making Dumfries and Galloway a major centre for cultural tourism." And, if it achieves that goal, the region will owe a debt of gratitude to these three famous historical figures. |
Record spring rainfall has led to warnings that rats may have been flushed out of overflowing sewer systems and hunting around for new lodgings. BBC Panorama has been investigating whether the squeeze on council budgets could be affecting our ability to keep ahead of the vermin population. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Last year in the UK, a survey by the industry found that local council pest controllers made roughly 300,000 rat-related visits to people's homes. There is no official statistic to measure the rat population, but councils are also being routinely called out to grapple with the return of the bed-bug to Britain - after being all but eradicated half a century ago - as well as the ever-present cockroach. And they are feeling the pressure. Over the past two years, amid tightening budgets, 29 councils have pulled out of the pest control business entirely and others have started to charge for their services. Councils are obliged to keep their own land free of rats and mice and have some powers to intervene to make private landowners do the same, but they are not legally required to provide a pest control service. In Stevenage, the council has introduced a £47 charge for pest control, which initially resulted in a 50% drop in rat-related calls, although those numbers have begun to recover. DIY dangers Chris Woodard of the council's pest control team said that when faced with the one-time charge, people were giving more thought to tackling the problem on their own: "I think people just thought, 'oh, we'll try to deal with that ourselves and we'll go out and buy some poison for a few pounds'." But he warned that the DIY route can be dangerous. "Most people I see putting it down do it in a totally inappropriate manner, thereby poisoning wildlife and doing themselves some harm," he said. Private companies are often the choice for domestic pest problems, but Simon Forrester of the British Pest Control Association said even competitively-priced private firms are sometimes beyond the reach of the most vulnerable. "Local authorities are the safety net for society, and many people who can't afford pest control need to find some sort of support, they're often the ones who have the worst pest problems near and in where they live." Graham Jukes of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health said he believes cutbacks will lead to more problems with pests. "Resources to actually deal with the problem around the country are actually diminishing and so I believe the problem is getting worse," he said, adding, "populations will increase... damage and the potential loss of wellbeing will increase as well." Council fees 'lazy' But that view is countered by private contractors such as David Channon, of Microbee Ltd. He said in areas where private pest controllers have taken over, infestations have not gone up. "There hasn't been a sudden collapse in confidence or a sudden outbreak of pests in any of the locations that have had private contractors," said Mr Channon. But Chris Woodard from Stevenage said the view from the front line is that budget-cutting by councils will lead to pest populations increasing. "As far as public health pests go, they will be out of control… none of this is measurable quickly, it'll be a long term approach, if something is going to happen over the next three, five, maybe 10 years." A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said pest control was a matter for individual councils and that given the amount of overall budget spending that goes to local councils, they have to play a part in spending cuts. He added: "There are many ways for councils to make sensible savings rather than the lazy option of introducing charges. Councils can protect front-line services through better procurement, greater transparency and sharing back office services." Mr Jukes also thinks there is also a wider issue of co-ordination among the varying government departments or agencies that have an interest in public health, particularly with regard to pest control. "The question is, are they being co-ordinated in any shape or form and my view is no, they're not." Panorama: Rats, traps, bugs and cutbacks, BBC Two, Monday, 6 August at 20:30 BST then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer. |
Four Tornado jets from RAF Lossiemouth have arrived in southern Italy to bolster UK operations over Libya. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft will be used for reconnaissance and to increase the strike capability of operations over Libya. The Moray base was saved from closure under defence cuts announced on Monday. Kinloss, also in Moray, and Leuchars in Fife will shut as air bases and be taken over by the Army. |
Scotland's First Minster Alex Salmond will face head of Better Together campaign Alistair Darling in a live televised debate on Scottish independence later. It will be broadcast by STV in Scotland and online. But do TV debates influence voters? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Esther WebberBBC News It's been billed as the most important piece of televised political theatre in Scotland's history. For two hours between 20:00 BST and 22:00 BST, the figureheads of the "Yes" and "No" campaigns will participate in a head-to-head showdown in a bid to win over hearts and minds before the referendum on 18 September, when voters will be asked the yes/no question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" There's already been drama over the line-up. Mr Salmond repeatedly called for UK Prime Minister David Cameron to face him in the debate, calling him "feart" when he rejected the invitation. Mr Cameron said as leader of the pro-UK campaign, Mr Darling was the man for the job. Then there was a wrangling over the date. Now there's the much-anticipated spectacle of a live debate. A silver-tongued swipe at the opposition can gain admiration. An ill-timed stumble or an embarrassing gaffe can send a campaign into an tailspin. Both protagonists have experience in the field. The leader of the SNP faced other Scottish party leaders in a debate before the Holyrood elections in 2011 and Mr Darling has been a familiar face on the small screen as a former Scotland Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. But how much do televised debates matter? Tom Mludzinski, head of political polling at ComRes - which organised the responsive "worm" that tracked audience reactions to the leaders' debates before the general election in 2010 - says the one thing TV debates guarantee is a wider audience - "viewers who wouldn't normally watch political programmes". "It can be a particular help where things are unknown - that's what we saw with Nick Clegg [ahead of the 2010 British general election]. He had a much lower profile back then, and that exposure created the 'I agree with Nick' phenomenon and so-called Clegg-mania," he says. Following that logic, Mr Mludzinski argues that "there is more to gain for Darling, who's perhaps less well-known as an orator and has the chance to make a good impression". However, Scott Macnab, a political correspondent for the Scotsman, says the SNP leader will also be hoping to gain some ground. "The polls are against Alex Salmond. He's the one who really has to make it happen. If Mr Darling and Mr Salmond came out level-pegging, I suspect the Better Together people would be pretty happy with that. For Alistair Darling, it's a case of damage limitation," he says. There is also more of a risk of Mr Salmond's personality eclipsing the campaign on the "Yes" side, he argues, since the first minister is "a love-hate figure". "He will have to show that independence will be better for the people of Scotland - in terms of the economy, healthcare et cetera - in order to avoid it being a referendum on Alex Salmond," he says. But if either man turns out to be a smash hit with viewers, would it make people more likely to vote for their cause? And would a gaffe have the opposite impact? Mr Clegg's rating jumped from just under 20% to fluctuating between 28% and 33% after the three televised leader debates before the British general election, but his TV appearance didn't translate into as many votes as he might have hoped - the Lib Dems went from 62 seats to 57. But the public response to his performance was "useful all the same", Mr Mludzinski says, "since it helped give him the credibility he needed going into the negotiations that led to the coalition being formed". Some televised debates across the Atlantic in the US - where they are more widespread - have had more impact. Texas governor Rick Perry was a much-fancied contender in the 2011 race for the Republican nomination before he decided to list the three government departments he would axe if he made it to the White House in a TV debate. The trouble was, he could only remember two of them. He withdrew from the race shortly afterwards. And in the first US presidential TV debate in 1960, Republican nominee Richard Nixon famously lost out on the presidency after many thought he appeared sweaty and shifty next to a polished and confident John F Kennedy. However, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, says in general, TV debates in the US "don't have a great deal of impact on the way people vote". "Where it does make a difference is for the minority of voters who've not made up their minds or who don't have strong partisan ties - and also where the race is very close," she says. In the case of the referendum, Mr Macnab thinks it will be difficult for either side to produce a trump card to woo the undecided since "everything's already out there" - something that those that feel there are still many unanswered questions would challenge. But if debates only make a difference in a small number of cases, why do broadcasters and politicians hold them? In addition to trying to reach and inform more voters, they also help make politicians more accessible and give an insight into how they might deal with different policies, Prof Jamieson argues. "While they might not make people switch sides, we know debates help people learn how candidates would govern and how they would handle certain issues - they're very useful in tying campaigns to governance," he says. So would Scots like to see their politicians on TV more often? Mr Macnab is sceptical. "It's been a very long campaign and most people are getting a little weary of it. Watching the Commonwealth Games has been a welcome break," he says. The debate's viewing figures might be the best indicator of how many people are engaged - or have already switched off. The debate will be shown on STV on Tuesday 5 August at 20:00 BST. |
The Sri Lankan defence ministry says the army has captured three Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the north-east of the country. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, said government forces carried out a three-day operation against the rebels in the coastal district of Trincomalee. There's been no official confirmation from the rebels. Talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers broke down last year. Correspondents say although the ceasefire is still officially in place, the country has been sliding back towards war. An independent body overseeing the ceasefire says more than four thousand people have been killed since the truce was agreed five years ago. |
Neither the Greek government nor its eurozone partners want to see Greece leaving the eurozone - or a "Grexit" as it has become known. But if they cannot agree a way forward it could come to that. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
To state the obvious, no country has left before. There is no formal process in which a country can exit the eurozone so much of it would be improvisation. On Monday night, Greece rejected a plan to extend its €240bn (£178bn) bailout, describing it as "absurd". Greece is likely to run out of money if a deal is not reached before the end of February. "We should extend the credit programme by a few months to have enough stability so that we can negotiate a new agreement between Greece and Europe," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Germany's ZDF. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed the Greek proposal, telling broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday evening: "It's not about extending a credit programme but about whether this bailout programme will be fulfilled, yes or no." So what would the consequences of a Grexit be? What would happen to Greece? The previous Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, warned that living standards could fall by 80% within a few weeks of exit. Unable to borrow from anyone (not even other European governments), the Greek government would simply run out of euros. It would have to pay social benefits and civil servants' wages in IOUs (if it pays them at all) until a new non-euro currency can be introduced. The government would not be able to repay its debts, which now amount to a total of about €320bn (£237bn), most of it owed to European governments and agencies and the International Monetary Fund. The government would have to impose a freeze on withdrawals and on people taking money out of the country. This could lead to queues of ordinary Greeks trying to empty their bank accounts before they get converted into a new currency worth substantially less than the previous one. In the longer run, Greece's economy should benefit from having a much more competitive exchange rate. But the devaluation would not solve underlying problems in the economy, including poor tax collection and a struggle to control government spending. There is also a real possibility of a surge in inflation. Tax receipts would probably fall as the economy contracted, so the government might finance spending by printing money. The likely currency depreciation would also be inflationary. It would make imported goods - which in Greece includes a lot of its food and medicine - more expensive. What would happen to the wider eurozone? There is a danger that a Greek departure from the euro might do wider economic damage, but the risk is generally thought to be much reduced since 2012, the last time such speculation was rife. Actions by the European Central Bank are a key element behind this change. First of all, there is the ECB's commitment to do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro". That promise, made by the ECB's President Mario Draghi in July 2012, was later fleshed out to include a commitment to buy the debts of governments whose borrowing costs were affected by fears of them leaving the euro. The ECB has not acted on that promise, but its existence was enough to calm eurozone financial markets. And the ECB could use this initiative if the fears were to re-emerge in the wake of a Greek exit. There is also quantitative easing, the programme of buying government debt across the eurozone, announced by the ECB in January. The scheme does not target financially vulnerable countries, but the expectation has already reduced government borrowing costs, which have stayed quite low for all eurozone countries (as implied by the bond market) except Greece. Having said all that, if Greece really does go, financial contagion cannot be ruled out. Nervous depositors in other struggling eurozone countries, such as Spain or Italy, may also move their money to the safety of a German bank account, sparking a banking crisis in southern Europe. Confidence in other banks that have lent heavily to southern Europe - such as the French banks - could also be affected. The banking crisis could conceivably spread worldwide, just as it did in 2008. What does it mean for businesses? Greek businesses would face a legal and financial disaster. Some contracts governed by Greek law would be converted into a new currency, while other foreign law contracts would remain in euros. Many contracts could end up in legal disputes over whether they should be converted or not. Greek companies who still owe big debts in euros to foreign lenders, but whose main sources of income are converted to a devalued non-euro currency, would be unable to repay their debts. Many businesses would be left insolvent - their debts worth more than the value of everything they own - and would be facing bankruptcy. Foreign lenders and business partners of Greek companies would be looking at big losses. In the wider eurozone, businesses, afraid for the euro's future, may cut investment. Faced with a barrage of bad news in the press, ordinary people may cut back their own spending. All of this could push the eurozone into recession. The euro could lose value in the currency markets, providing some relief for the eurozone by making its exports more competitive in international trade. But the flipside is that imports from the rest of the world would become more expensive - especially the US, UK and Japan. What about political consequences? If Greece leaves, it undermines the idea that the euro project is irreversible and could give a boost to anti-euro and anti-European Union political forces in other countries. In Spain, the left-wing anti-austerity party Podemos is already gaining ground, ahead of elections later this year. In Portugal, there is growing fatigue with austerity, and it also goes to the polls this year. Under European law as it stands, abandoning the euro probably also means leaving the European Union. A lawyer at the European Central Bank wrote in 2009 that "withdrawal from EMU without a parallel withdrawal from the EU would be legally impossible". But there would be a political aspect to the decision so perhaps some way of keeping Greece in the EU would be found, if all countries involved wanted it enough. |
Imagine a camera that allows you to see through a crowd to get a clear view of someone who would otherwise be obscured, a smartphone that matches big-budget lenses for image quality, or a photograph that lets you change your point of view after it's taken. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Leo KelionTechnlogy reporter The ideas may sound outlandish but they could become commonplace if "computational photography" lives up to its promise. Unlike normal digital photography - which uses a sensor to capture a single two-dimensional image of a scene - the technique records a richer set of data to construct its pictures. Instead of trying to mimic the way a human eye works, it opens the activity up to new software-enhanced possibilities. Pelican Imaging is one of the firms leading the way. The California-based start-up is working on a handset part which contains an array of 16 lenses, each attached to either a blue-, red- or green-colour sensor, which link up to a chip that fuses the data they produce together. "You end up with a standard Jpeg-image that has a depth map of the scene that allows you to identify where all the edges of all the objects are right down to human hair," chief executive Christopher Pickett tells the BBC. A companion app uses this information to let the snapper decide which parts of their photo should be in focus after they are taken. This includes the unusual ability to choose multiple focal planes. For example a photographer in New York could choose to make the details of her husband's face and the Statue of Liberty behind him sharp but everything else - including the objects in between them - blurred. "Because we have no moving parts we also have super-fast first shot, as we're not hunting for focus," adds Mr Pickett. "You get the perfect picture as you just don't miss." Another firm, Lytro, already offers similar functions on its own standalone light field camera - but Pelican suggests offering the tech via a component small enough to fit in a phone will prove critical to its success. Nokia has already invested in Pelican, leading to speculation it will be among the first to offer the tech when it becomes available next year. For now, high dynamic range (HDR) imaging offers a ready-to-use taste of computational photography. It uses computer power to combine photos taken at different exposures to create a single picture whose light areas are not too bright and dim ones not too dark. However, if the subject matter isn't static there can be problems stitching the images together. Users commonly complain of moving objects in the background looking as if they're breaking apart. One solution - currently championed by chipmaker Nvidia - is to boost processing power to cut the time between each snap. But research on an alternative technique which only requires a single photo could prove superior. "Imagine you have a sensor with pixels that have different levels of sensitivity," explains Prof Shree Nayar, head of Columbia University's Computer Vision Laboratory. "Some would be good at measuring things in dim light and their neighbours good at measuring very bright things. "You would need to apply an algorithm to decode the image produced, but once you do that you could get a picture with enormous range in terms of brightness and colour - a lot more than the human eye can see." Even if current HDR techniques fall out of fashion, computational photography offers other uses for multi-shot images. Last year US researchers showed off a process which involves waving a compact camera around an object or person to take hundreds of pictures over the space of a minute or so. The resulting data is used to create what's called a light field map on an attached laptop. Software makes use of this to render views of the scene, letting the user pick the exact vantage point they want long after the event has ended. Another technique involves analysing two photos taken in quick succession, one with flash the other without. "You can use this to work out what features of the image are shadows," explains Dr Martin Turner, a computer vision expert at the University of Manchester. Microsoft has filed a patent for this idea saying the information could be used to make flash photographs look less "jarring" by automatically improving their colour balance, removing ugly shadows cast by the bright light and treating for red-eye. Ultimately you end up with what looks like a highly detailed low-light image that doesn't suffer from noise. Some of the most exotic uses of computational photography have been pioneered by Stanford University where researchers came up with a way to "see through" dense foliage and crowds. By positioning dozens of cameras at different viewpoints and processing the resulting data they were able to create a shallow-focus effect that left the desired subject sharp but obstructing objects so blurred that they appeared transparent. Their research paper suggested surveillance of a target as a possible use for the tech. "They spent $2m [£1.3m] to build this great big camera array and it took a team of dedicated grad students to run the thing," says Prof Jack Tumblin, a computational photography expert at Northwestern University, near Chicago. "It was a wonderful lab machine, but not very practical." Prof Tumblin is currently trying to develop a budget version of the effect using only a single camera. His theory is that by taking lots of shots from different positions, with the lens's exact location recorded for each one, he should then be able to use software to remove an undesired object from the final photograph. The caveat is that the thing involved must be static. Perhaps the biggest potential benefit of computational photography isn't new gimmicky effects but rather the ability to capture the best two-dimensional shot possible. One area of research is to create a high-quality image that currently requires a heavy lens containing several precision-polished glass elements to take it - but to do so with a smaller, cheaper, less complex part. The idea is to stop trying to avoid any imperfections in the image cast onto the sensor but rather control what kinds they are, limiting them to ones that can be fixed with software. Another technique involves taking shots in quick succession and moving the sensor as little as half-a-pixel between each one before combining the information to create a "super-resolution" image. Hasselbad already uses this on one of its high-end cameras to let its 50 megapixel sensor create 200MP photos. And there's the suggestion that building a hybrid device which takes takes both stills and high-speed video simultaneously could solve the problem of camera shake. "The purpose is to get an exact measurement of how the photo has been blurred," explains Prof Tumblin. "If the video camera part focuses on some bright spot off in the distance it can be used to work out the trajectory. That lets blur caused by your hand moving in random ways become quite reversible." |
Energy provider SSE Airtricity is to drop natural gas prices by 7.8% and electricity prices by 8%. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The company, which supplies around 300,000 homes and small businesses in Northern Ireland, said it would save the average household over £100 a year. The reductions will come into effect on 1 April. Earlier this month, Power NI announced that it was reducing its prices for homes and small businesses by 9.2%. Budget Energy has also announced a 5% price cut. |
The 33 miners trapped deep underground in northern Chile for more than two months have now been rescued. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Omar Reygadas was the seventeenth to be freed in an operation that drew the world's attention. Mr Reygadas, 56 is a heavy equipment operator who has been a miner all his working life. His children Omar, Ximena and Marcela kept a diary for the BBC, describing their long wait to see their father again. Read September's entries 15 OCTOBER Omar: I just left the hospital and I'm waiting to hear if my Dad will be discharged today. He had an operation because he had some problems with his teeth. The doctors need to do some checks to determine if he can go home. The first thing my Dad wants to do is to spend some time with his family at home. Then he will go to church. His mood is good - but he is quiet and anxious because he is waiting to be discharged. Our lives - the lives of the miners' families - have changed since the accident. My father and the other 32 have suffered and they continue to experience major changes. For example I have never been interviewed before. I've worked with the media but I had always been behind the camera, not in front of it. But, because of the accident, I have been interviewed several times. 'Centre of global attention' It's amazing to think how this story has travelled beyond the borders of Chile. I think all the miners, including my father, will sooner or later have to face their new reality. They will have to speak to the press. They are the centre of global attention. Once they go out they will read everything that has been published, what the media have being saying about them. Journalists from around the world are waiting to interview them and ask what happened during those 69 days, how they managed to stay alive. It's only then that they will realise the magnitude of what happened. We, the family, we've already lived through that. They know things will not be quiet for a while. But the priority of the 33 is to spend time with their family and loved ones, to rest and, in my Dad's case, have the necessary medical treatment. My Dad knows that the media have been covering the story. He is aware that the press will follow what happens to him and the other 32 miners. I think he'll handle the situation well. He is a very sociable man, very friendly. He likes to talk, I think he'll take it in his stride. 'I cried and he wept' I was chosen to be the first to greet my Dad after he climbed out of the capsule. It was awesome when they opened the capsule. I was really touched to just see him there. He was whiter and a little thinner than I remembered. I was moved when I hugged him. I cried a little and he wept. He knelt down to thank the Lord. I told him I loved him very much and did not say anything else. I was so excited. What struck me most was the faith of each miner that came to the surface. My Dad is a believer and he came out with a much stronger faith in God because he was given another chance at life. For me the main lesson is that God does exist - and he took pity on the miners and their families. There are miners who were not believers and now believe in God. Another lesson is that you have to spend more time with your family. Thanks to the BBC for your coverage, for having reached out to us, for speaking to us. It was a beautiful experience to have met you. 14 OCTOBER Ximena: After emerging from the mine where he was trapped for 69 days along with his 32 fellow workers, my dad told me that at one point he thought they would not be rescued. As soon as I saw him, I hugged and kissed him and took photos of him. The reunion was so wonderful, just huge! My brother Omar had been nominated to receive him once he emerged from the capsule. My sister Marcela and I were waiting in the rest area. When he saw me, he said: "Don't cry, don't cry, just be calm, because I'm calm." In himself, he's just the same as ever, but physically he's different - a lot thinner and very pale. He's normally quite dark-skinned, but at the moment he looks like Casper, he's so pale! In general, he's in good spirits. But then when he remembers the first few days after the accident, he starts crying, he gets very upset. But then he pulls himself together and his spirits are high once more. 'While sleeping' My dad never imagined that an accident like this would ever happen to him. He told me that during the first few days down that mine, he thought they would never get them out. During those dark moments he prayed to God and asked him that if he was going to take him, then please would he do it while he was sleeping, so he wouldn't suffer, wouldn't have to live through a landslide. What little food they had, they eked it out as long as they could. They ate very little. They had some tuna fish which they ate using a teaspoon. He thought that once the rations were finished or when they gave up trying to find them, they would die down there. He thought he would die there in the mine because he never imagined there were so many people, so much equipment and even big companies, trying to help them. When he told me all this, he started to cry a bit. He thought they'd been abandoned and the mining company wasn't going to help them. 'Thank you' But he began to have real hope when he heard the machinery up above, obviously trying to locate them. That's when he realised they would get them out. He told me he thought about us all the time and missed us terribly, but he did think he wouldn't see us again. I was surprised when he said he would not work again. I don't really believe him. If he wants to eat a nice roast with salad and rice, then that's what we'll prepare for him. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all those people who were there for us, as families, as a nation. I thank them all for being with us. Let's hope nothing like this ever happens again anywhere in the world. It's just so painful. 13 OCTOBER Marcela: When my dad was rescued I remembered my mother - who passed away eight years ago. This is a moment I would have loved to share with her. It would have been very different if she were here with us. We are now waiting to see my dad, to share a moment and have a chat. Then he will be sent to the hospital in Copiapo for a couple of days before he can finally come home. Then we will decide how we will celebrate. My brother was chosen to greet him. We saw him on a screen at the camp. We all hugged each other and screamed of joy - it was a beautiful experience. He looked well. The doctors will determine how good his health really is, but I thought he looked well. He did look a bit pale after spending such a long time below ground. My brother didn't have a special message for him, but gave him a flag of Colo Colo - his football team. That's the only thing we could do at this time. We didn't meet the president because he had left for the hospital with Bolivian President Evo Morales. My brother spent some time with the first lady and he even filmed her on his video camera. She also met us at the cafeteria. We just want to thank the whole world for this. 12 OCTOBER Omar: We are feeling a mixture of optimism and nerves. Anxious as we are, we know we have to remain calm for the big moment when my dad is released. I will be the one who will greet my dad once he is outside. I will wait for him by the tunnel that was drilled to get through to them. So I will be the first person he sees when the capsule is opened. I have so many things to tell him... that I love him, that I miss him… But maybe it's better to leave it to the moment and see what words come to me. Maybe I won't say anything to him. Maybe I'll just hug him and no words will come out of me. All I want is to have him in front of me. After all that time and all that suffering when we didn't know what had happened to him, it will be the most beautiful and wonderful thing. I have felt well treated by the press. The journalists are just doing their job. They are here because this is a historical event, something that has captured the world's attention. This is why I try to answer all their questions. I also work in the media, in fact. 11 OCTOBER Ximena: My dad is anxious, he knows that it's almost time to go out and is happy, very happy, because he misses us a lot down there. Over the weekend we told him that he has become a great granddad again. My older daughter just had a baby. He was very happy as he had seen my daughter and she had shown him her bump. We are now going to stay at the camp until the 33 of them are out. I have a week's leave at work so that I can wait for my father and stay with him in hospital. My brother Omar will wait for him at the capsule's exit. Me and my sister Marcela will stay in a special room which was set up for the relatives. From there, he will join the other miners and wait until the last one is out. Then they will all go to hospital together. The miners decided to wait together. Apparently, there were plans to send them to Copiapo in groups of four, but they refused. I think the miners have been very united - and it's not just about their life down in the tunnel and the wait here for the last one, it's also about all the paperwork they need to do so that they all get the same pay. There is no established order for getting out. The paramedic will decide. My dad had a sight problem, but he is now fine. He says that he will give his place to a younger miner, but what matters is that they all go out and that they have no problems along the way. The anxiety is killing me. I will try to do all I can on these days so that I can avoid crying when they rescue him. I want to be well when I see him and hug him. I plan to be calm, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens when the moment comes. After that, we'll have plenty of time to organise a barbecue and finally give him the steak and avocado that he always asks for. 8 OCTOBER Omar: They are saying the rescue is near. I convince myself that everything will be fine. We trust the rescue team entirely, but we are worried about the force of nature. We fear a landslide that could hamper the operation. We don't want our relatives to be in danger on the way to the surface. We are waiting for the team to make a decision to encase the tunnel or not. As a family, our position is that they should encase the tunnel. We want our relatives to come out safe and calm. We don't want the decision to be rushed. If the president is not here by the time they get rescued, so be it. The rescue workers are the ones doing the job and security is what matters - for the miners inside and for the people outside. Our other worry is about how they get out. The miners with the best health will go first [when dangers are thought to be highest]. We want to see our father soon, but we don't want him to be one of the first ones because of the risk this implies. Our whole family will be sleeping in Camp Hope during the weekend. We want to see my dad soon. We want to find out how he is and then start planning for a barbecue and a party. 4 OCTOBER Marcela: I spoke to my dad last weekend. He seemed happy and was in a better mood than at other times. I think he knows the rescue is near and that he will be with us soon. We can now talk to him every weekend, so we do whatever we can to be here when that happens. We only have eight minutes for the four of us, and it's very difficult to say so many things in such a short time. So we tell him that we love him and we miss him, and try to cheer him up. Generally, we try not to talk too much about the rescue, just like the psychologist recommended. We tell him only what's necessary, so we only told him that it would happen soon. We are very happy the rescue might happen in just a few days. But we are a bit worried about my dad's health. The government and the rescue workers are prepared to receive them, but we haven't prepared anything because we don't know what his health condition will be. We do know that as soon as he gets out he will go straight to the hospital in Copiapo so that they can run some medical tests. What we do after he gets rescued will also depend on his mood and what the psychologists say. So we don't have any plans to hold a party yet. We do know that when the rescue operations start we will all stay at the camp to wait for him. We will have to sort out permission from work. This sad experience has helped my family to be even more united. We now appreciate the small things in life, like the neighbour or friend who offers help or some words of encouragement. We have also remembered that God is here with us. Read September's entries Translated from Spanish interviews by BBC Mundo. You can read the original text in Spanish here. |
Dozens of startled sheep flocked into a garden after they were chased out of their field by a dog off its lead. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Police were called to a house in Gorefield, Cambridgeshire, after being alerted to the frightened flock at about 11:50 GMT on Tuesday. They were found hiding in the garden, ignoring a "beware of dog" sign on its gate. No sheep were injured, but Cambridgeshire Police said "words of advice" were given to the dog owner. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk |
What kind of candidate, a few months ahead of elections, takes it on himself to offend a list of people that includes judges and lawyers, immigrants and Muslims, footballers and intellectuals, political allies as well as enemies, the intelligence community and his ex-girlfriend too? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Hugh SchofieldBBC News, Paris The answer is Francois Hollande. In a collection of interviews just published by two Le Monde journalists, the French president unburdens himself, in astonishingly cavalier style, of a series of revealing jibes: There's more. Presidential predecessor and Republican candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is a "crude mini-De Gaulle" and a "Duracell rabbit". The Greens are a "cynical pain in the butt" and left-wing rebels are a "crowd of idiots". And, on a personal note, ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler was a traitor because she lied about his famous "toothless" quote about the poor. Perhaps most damaging of all, not a jibe but a revelation: the admission that he personally ordered the assassination of four enemies of the state, presumably militants in the Middle East. The secret services must be fuming. Friends in the Socialist Party, still hoping Mr Hollande might have a decent shot at a second term in April, are flabbergasted at the president's verbal carelessness. They fear it has already undermined his nascent campaign. Others are more blunt. For more than one commentator, the book - called appropriately A President Should Not Say That - is little less than an act of "political suicide". "How do you manage to turn your camp into a field of ruins, fill your friends with despair and your enemies with rejoicing, and weaken your own position just a little bit more?" asked Le Monde. "Francois Hollande has found the recipe." What was he thinking? The interviews, 60 in all, were accumulated over the last five years by Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme. The president received them regularly at the Elysee Palace and they chatted. The journalists made no secret of their intention of writing a book, and Mr Hollande agreed to their condition of no copy-vetting. In his defence, it has been argued that the controversial comments were made a long time ago - and it is easy to take things out of context. All he was trying to do, plead the president's dwindling band of loyalists, was keep his promise of being a "normal" president by opening his doors, as well as his thoughts, to the press. But, off the record, many Socialists are exasperated by what they see as a kind of narcissistic self-indulgence on the part of their leader. What psychological impulse can it be, they ask, that made him spend so much time baring himself to journalists? How could he have been so naive? More from Hugh: With the book selling out in shops across Paris, the damage is already visible. In a poll, 78% of those surveyed said it was a mistake for Mr Hollande to give the interviews. An even greater figure, 86%, said they did not want him to run for a second term. Until now Mr Hollande has kept his career options open. A Socialist primary will be held in January, and the president will announce if he is a candidate only after the centre-right holds its primary next month. The consensus until this week was that the president would indeed run again, despite record unpopularity and the failure of his solemn vow to bring down unemployment. The argument, as ever with Mr Hollande, is that only a bridge-builder like himself can bring together the two competing wings of the Socialists. The existence of rival candidates - Arnaud Montebourg on the left, Emmanuel Macron on the right - tends to reinforce that case. But now more and more people in the party are pondering whether the president might not be an outright liability. "It's bewildering. I lack the words to say what I think: something between a hammer-blow to the head, and the straw that broke the camel's back," one Socialist MP told Le Monde after reading extracts from the book. "Imagine burying your grandmother when she is still alive; that's roughly the ambience at party HQ," said another. Hitting back at Hollande The president's unguarded quips have already led to a series of angry rejoinders from his targets. Magistrates said they were "stupefied" by his criticism, and the Union of Professional Football Players said: "Sorry to disappoint you, but not all of us are thick." Mr Hollande's ex-partner Valerie Trierweiler sent out a tweet to contradict his denial that he had mockingly called the poor "toothless". In the book Mr Hollande says that her original accusation to that effect, made after the pair had split, was an "odious act of treachery". For many commentators, the interviews are symptomatic of his original mistake when he defined himself as a "normal" president in contrast with the frantic "hyper-president" Nicolas Sarkozy. As political scientist Gerard Grunberg pointed out, in such abnormal times, France was not looking for a normal president. |
Dying is the one thing we all have in common. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Fiona GrahamBusiness reporter, BBC News, Beaconsfield The novelist Maria Edgeworth remarked, "I've a great fancy to see my own funeral afore I die". While you may not be able to take a seat in the pews, you can still have a say in your final send-off. As anyone who has had to arrange a funeral will know, it can be a heart-wrenching process. Many bereavement counsellors believe that pre-planning your funeral can be one of the greatest gifts you can give to those that survive you And, perhaps as people act on such advice, in recent years there has been a steady rise in the numbers of personalised funerals. Fran Hall is a former funeral director who now manages the Chiltern Woodland Burial Centre, and she is hosting this year's National Coffin Exhibition. The event, "Handled with Care", organised by the British Institute of Funeral Directors, hopes to encourage people to have that difficult conversation. "We really want people to start thinking about and actually talking about their own future funeral. It's a subject we don't like to talk about in British society." Going green Although the majority of funerals are still fairly traditional, humanist and civil celebrants are becoming increasingly common. There are more than 200 natural burial grounds across the UK, and organisations such as the Natural Death Centre provide information on alternative arrangements, even DIY funerals. Environmentalism is one driving factor. Actresses Lynn Redgrave and Wendy Richards, chef Keith Floyd and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick have all chosen eco-friendly coffins. "Ten years ago it was all your stereotypical wooden coffins - now there's a whole range," says Julian Atkinson, managing director of coffin makers and distributors JC Atkinson They include a hand-made woollen coffin made by Hainsworth. Sales have been brisk, according to Mr Atkinson. "People like it because it's touchy-feely, it's warm," he says. Craig Wensley of Daisy Coffins feels the use of the term "alternative" is misleading. His company produces caskets made from banana leaf and water hyacinth. "For me, it was about offering modern products that aren't sombre, but look nice," he says. "With willow, sometimes you can see through. We wanted to be green, but we also wanted it to look nice." Newcomer Sunset Coffins has not looked back since launching last year. "Business is good," says managing director Steve Ancrum. "We've been genuinely surprised at how the public have received the product. "We think it's partly because it's British-made, but it's also because it's 100% recycled newspapers." Coffins are not the only choice. Bellacouche is a company that makes soft felt shrouds from locally sourced wool. The base is reinforced to make it rigid, so the body can be carried. "It captured the essence of her" Pamela Barton loved to paint, and made cards for family and friends. Before she passed away a few months ago after a long illness, she talked to her daughter about what she wanted. Her daughter, Anne Barber, works for Civil Ceremonies, training civil funeral celebrants. She contacted picture specialists Colourful Coffins. A few days later Pamela's granddaughter Gemma visited their offices, armed with a painting of her grandmother's of snowdrops. "We looked at it and thought 'gosh, yes, it's exactly it'. The coffin was beautiful, really. It was exactly what she wanted," says Anne Barber. "What I didn't expect was the difference it made to the funeral. What happened when the coffin turned up, the only thing I could say was it was perfect. And it really was. People would touch the coffin, they couldn't believe it wasn't wood. It captured the essence of her." "I call it my own carriage" For some people, simply decorating the coffin isn't enough. When Brian Holden takes that final trip it will be aboard the Alnwick coach of the Orient Express Northern Belle. He and his wife first travelled on the the real-life Northern Belle eight years ago, as an anniversary treat. They liked it so much they became regulars, always travelling in the same carriage. Three years ago, his wife Jean passed away. After 50 years of marriage he found himself alone. "I decided I was not going to scurry into a little hole," he says. "It was a good part of my life, we'd been married for 50 years when we first went on the journey. "I found I could still carry on and make the journey on my own." After spotting an newspaper article about a company called Crazy Coffins that makes unusual caskets, he contacted Orient Express, which agreed to provide plans for the coffin makers to work from. "The older you get, the less years you have ahead of you, and it was nice there. I thought, 'why not get to go out in an environment where you've been happy'. "I'll go out in comfort, and disappear into the fiery furnace in the Alnwick Northern Belle carriage." The company is currently building a Viking longboat and a Tardis. Complicated orders such as Mr Holden's need to be ordered in advance, but simpler designs, such as a skateboard they built for a 9-year-old boy, can be done in a few days. Plan ahead The funeral industry has been criticised for having pushed up prices in recent years The president of the British Institute of Funeral Directors, Ken Satterly, says he would always advise people to shop around. He blames the increases on rising fees. "Over the last five years there's been tremendous increases in charges for cremations, fees for minister and church, fees for doctors, fees for issuing of cremation forms ... and the cost of fuel has risen steeply." Given the expense involved, it makes sense to make provision before you go, or you could risk leaving your family struggling to pay, funeral directors say. It does not have to cost the earth - the Natural Death Centre publishes a 14-point checklist of money-saving tips. You do not need to use a funeral director, and you can even be buried in your back garden. And if you still want a bespoke coffin - do not despair. Greenfield Creations has been selling cardboard coffins direct to the public for 20 years. Will Hunnybel, whose father started the company, says he gets 50 - 60 internet enquiries a week. A plain cardboard coffin will set you back around £130, or for a few hundred pounds more you can have the design of your choice printed on it, and have it delivered to your front door. |
Panels made from plastic and aluminium were installed on the sides of Grenfell Tower to make it warmer and drier. But the cladding has been blamed for helping flames to spread when fire broke out in June 2017, resulting in 72 deaths. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tom SymondsHome affairs correspondent, BBC News Hundreds of thousands of people are living in buildings with similar cladding, which must now be removed at enormous cost, resulting in a crisis in building safety. The public inquiry has questioned key employees of Arconic, the multinational metals company that made and supplied the cladding sheets for Grenfell. So, what have we discovered? 1. This type of cladding burns easily The big concern is about a type of cladding called Aluminium Composite Material, or ACM. It is made from polyethylene (PE), plastic sandwiched between two very thin sheets of aluminium. France-based Arconic Architectural Products called its version of the product Reynobond PE, and sold it to big building projects all over the world. What is not in doubt is that this product is highly flammable. 2. The cladding consistently failed fire tests for 12 years before Grenfell In 2005, Arconic commissioned tests in France to see how its Reynobond product would perform in a fire when installed in two standard ways known as "rivet" cladding systems and "cassette" systems. Rivet systems are simply installed straight onto mounting brackets, with rivets. In "cassette" systems the cladding is folded into box shapes, like old-style cassette tapes, to hide the fixings. Crucially, the cassette system was the design used at Grenfell Tower. When the cassette version of Reynobond PE was tested, it failed to complete the test. In the standard European fire test the results are classified from A1 (best) to F (worst). The cassette version was given a rating of E. The folding appeared to allow flaming pools of plastic to form. This version was to be tested again in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Each time the rating was E. Even the better-performing rivet version only managed a class C in more recent tests. 3. It didn't meet building standards in England The bible for the construction industry in England is called Approved Document B. It sets out the fire performance standards required for all buildings. Only products with a rating of B in the European fire test can be used on tall buildings above 18m. The Reynobond cladding with class E fell short of the required standard. England has its own system of fire test ratings. The best rating is Class 0 (zero), which is acceptable instead of the European standard. But Reynobond PE's French manufacturer had never put this cladding through the relevant tests, the inquiry was told. There were other ways to meet the regulations, including testing a design in a full-scale mock-up. That didn't happen at Grenfell Tower. Arconic now says it should have. 4. Arconic 'misled' British standards board Test results are commercially sensitive. So a specialist body, the British Board of Agrement (BBA), assesses them and issues product certificates. The BBA decided the evidence from the more successful European tests carried out on the Arconic cladding meant it "may be regarded" as having met the British standard. But the Board was never shown the class E ratings for the cassette version of the cladding and knew nothing about them until a BBC investigation in 2018. Arconic's president in France, Claude Schmidt, was forced to admit at the inquiry this would have "misled" anyone reading the certificate, including British architects. 5. The Grenfell disaster was predicted, a decade before In 2007, Arconic marketing manager Gerard Sonntag attended a talk given by a consultant Fred-Roderich Pohl, who gave a dramatic warning of the risks of Aluminium Composite Material cladding. He said it had the same "fuel power" as a 19,000 litre truck of oil. But he went further. Pohl reportedly asked "what will happen if only one building made out of PE is on fire and kills 60 to 70 persons." Exactly the circumstances of the Grenfell fire in 2017. Mr Sonntag's account of the presentation has been uncovered by the inquiry, which included it in evidence of what the company knew and when. 6. The company was aware of a 'Towering Inferno' warning following fires in the Middle East In May 2013, the BBC reported on a worrying series of fires in the Middle East, blamed on ACM cladding from several producers. Arconic noticed. Employees circulated an email they had received from a sales manager working for a competitor, Richard Geater at 3A Composites, who described cladding which had been sold as fire resistant "burning like paper". It was a "cheat", Geater concluded. Arconic's UK sales manager, Deborah French, was asked at the inquiry: why not attach a health warning to the product? "At the time," she said, the level of risk "wasn't so obvious". 7. Cladding sales continued, despite the risk The company's UK sales manager, Deborah French, told the inquiry British buyers were more likely to request Reynobond PE and fit the cladding as "cassettes", the variant which resulted in poor fire tests, as they allowed for a "cleaner" appearance, with the fixings hidden from view. In France, there was a move towards a "fire retardant" version, but not in Britain. The company's technical manager Claude Wehrle, had been instrumental in commissioning the fire tests. He warned colleagues, and even some clients, about the results, even that they should be kept "very confidential", and sales continued. In the minutes of a meeting in 2011, Mr Wehrle wrote that the cladding "has a bad behaviour exposed to fire", but, "we can still work with national regulations which are not as restrictive". 8. Arconic claimed it wasn't responsible for how its cladding was used Since the fire, the company has stopped selling Reynobond PE. But it argues it is simply the manufacturer of a raw material, supplied to specialist "fabricators" who make cladding systems. Arconic says it can't possibly know the end uses for its products, and it is for designers to check they could meet building regulations. However, an email sent in May 2013 by sales manager Deborah French to a client gave a different impression. She said the company could "control and understand" which type of cladding is being used in building projects because it only worked closely with a "very small group of approved fabricators". "We are able to follow what type of project is being designed/developed," she wrote, and then offer "the right Reynobond specification". Questioned about it, Ms French claimed she had not been telling the truth when writing the email. 9. The company knew it was selling to Grenfell But, the inquiry has evidence Deborah French, who led the sale of cladding for Grenfell Tower, knew it was for a public residential building. In January 2013, four years before the fire, she was sent "artistic renderings of what Grenfell Tower might look like" after completion of the work, according to her witness statement. But she maintained throughout days of evidence that she had "no technical knowledge, and did not get involved in the design of projects". |
When Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, collapsed suddenly on Sunday in the sleepy cathedral city of Salisbury, there were unavoidable echoes of a messy, high-profile death in London a little over a decade before. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Joel GunterBBC News In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian agent, was rushed to hospital after collapsing in London. As the world watched, a rare and highly radioactive isotope destroyed Litvinenko's organs one by one, and he died three weeks later. A British public inquiry found that the former Russian agent had ingested Polonium 210, and that his assassination was likely ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Skripal, 66, who was imprisoned in Russia for working for British intelligence and later came to the UK as part of a spy swap, is currently in critical condition, along with his 33-year-old daughter who was also taken ill. Authorities say they are trying to determine if he was poisoned. Russia has denied any involvement, but the case has put renewed scrutiny on a string of deaths in the UK in the past two decades. The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper MP, wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Tuesday calling for a review of 14 other cases. Those cases were variously found to have been heart attacks, suicides, accidents, and deaths by natural causes, but some allege that they amount to a pattern of state-sponsored murder on British streets. Heartbreak grass Security guard Neil St Clair-Ford was driving through Weybridge in Surrey in November 2012 when he saw something lying in the road ahead of him. He pulled over and found Alexander Perepilichnyy, an exiled Russian banker, in the foetal position, pale, cold, and displaying "very faint" signs of life. Mr St Clair-Ford called a local former Navy colleague, Liam Walsh, to help administer first aid. Mr Walsh told an inquest that Perepilichnyy vomited "greeny-yellow" bile during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with a strange taste, like "licking a battery". Perepilichnyy was born in Ukraine and made his fortune as a financier in Russia, allegedly helping government-connected Russians launder money. In 2010 he fled to Britain and began to co-operate with British authorities. He collapsed during a run near his home, the day he returned from a short trip to Paris. Initial toxicology tests on Perepilichnyy's body revealed nothing suspicious and police said they had no evidence of foul play. But later tests performed by an expert botanist at Kew Gardens suggested the presence of a rare and deadly plant toxin in Perepilichnyy's stomach. Gelsemium, a flowering plant native to China and South East Asia, is known as "heartbreak grass", because its leaves, if swallowed, cause cardiac arrest. Further tests of the compound found in Perepilichnyy could not definitively identify it as gelsemium, and an inquest into his death was suspended last year pending yet more tests. The inquest resumes next month. US intelligence sources told the BBC in 2016 that they believed Perepilichnyy was murdered. An extensive investigation by Buzzfeed News claimed that the businessman was one of at least 14 deaths in the UK that US officials suspected were connected to Russia. 'The highest level of risk' The following year, 2013, Boris Berezovsky, a one-time oligarch and close friend of Vladimir Putin, was found hanged in his bathroom. All the evidence seemed to point to a suicide. He had been suffering from depression and was in debt. According to police there was no sign of a struggle. A Home Office pathologist concluded that his injuries were consistent with hanging. But he had also made himself a sworn enemy of Mr Putin, having fled Russia for exile in Britain and fiercely criticised the regime from afar. Berezovsky's family arranged for an asphyxiation expert to examine photographs of his body. Dr Bernd Brinkmann testified that the ligature mark on Berezovsky's neck did not share the typical V-shape created by a hanging, and instead suggested strangling. The dead man also had a broken rib and a cut on the back of his head. It was enough to persuade the coroner to record an open verdict. "Anyone Putin deems to have betrayed Russia is at the highest level of risk," said Bill Browder, a former Moscow-based financier who led a campaign to impose sanctions on top Russian officials accused of corruption - sanctions that enraged Mr Putin. "And Russia can get away with brazenness in the UK because there have never been any consequences to Russian assassinations here," he said. "The British government either ignores the crimes completely, as they did in the Perepilichnyy case, or they recognise the crime and don't do anything about it." Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said any evidence of Russian involvement with Mr Skripal's condition would be dealt with "appropriately and robustly". "I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished," he said. Among the other deaths flagged to the home secretary on Tuesday are those of Gareth Williams, the so-called "spy in the bag", whose badly decomposed body was found locked inside a holdall in his bath; Dr Matthew Puncher, a British scientist involved in the Litvinenko case who was found in his kitchen with multiple stab wounds from two separate knives; and Scot Young, a business associate of Berezovsky, who was found impaled on railings outside his London flat after falling from a fourth-floor window. Williams' death was ruled to be "probably an accident" and Puncher's and Young's both suicides, and British police say they have found no evidence of Russian involvement in any of the cases barring Litvinenko's. "British police are under no sort of political pressure whatsoever," Tony Brenton, the British ambassador to Moscow at the time of Litvinenko's death, told the BBC. "If they had found evidence of Russian involvement in those cases, we would have followed it up." But the UK government has faced criticism over a perceived lack of action. In the wake of Litvinenko's death, the UK tried and failed to extradite two Russian agents alleged to have carried out the hit. Instead, several Russian diplomats were expelled, provoking a tit for tat response from Russia. The problem facing the UK government now, said Mr Brenton, is that ministers have already levied significant sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and Syria, and diplomatic relations are already very poor. "If it is proven that this was an attack with Russian state involvement we will of course do something, there will be lots of anger and probably more sanctions. But we have already used up an awful lot of our ammunition. The locker is quite bare," he said. In a statement, the Russian embassy in London said: "Media reports create an impression of a planned operation by the Russian special services, which is completely untrue." In Salisbury, counter-terror police have taken over the investigation. The park bench where Mr Skripal collapsed has been cordoned off and a restaurant where he ate lunch has been temporarily closed. If it turns out to have been a Russian attack, part of the purpose will have been to warn those in Russia against betrayal, and those in exile that they are never safe, said Mr Browder. "It sends a message to the rank and file that terrible things can befall you and your family," he said. |
Ghana's Grace Amey-Obeng, one of West Africa's most successful businesswomen, made her fortune promoting products which emphasised the beauty of the black skin, at a time when many of her competitors were selling dangerous skin-bleaching formulas. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The business empire she started a quarter of a century ago with around $100 (£63) now has an annual turnover of between $8m and $10m. Her FC Group of Companies - which includes a beauty clinic, a firm that supplies salon equipment and cosmetics, and a college - has eight branches in Ghana and exports to Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Mrs Amey-Obeng has won dozens of accolades and industry awards for her skincare beauty products and marketing. But one of the things that make her especially proud is her FC Beauty College which, since its opening in 1999, has trained more than 5,000 young people, mostly women. "It's like a family bond. I'm so proud that they have managed to go through the programme," she told the BBC's series African Dream. Equally important to her is her role as a medical aesthetician and she cites seeing a skin condition resolved as something that gives her "joy". "I'm so happy that God has given me that talent and that touch to heal people," she said. 'Irreparable damage' Mrs Amey-Obeng studied beauty therapy in the United Kingdom and after graduation, in the 1980s, returned to her native Ghana. She knew that in her country women take great pride in their appearance and was convinced that there was a niche market she could "tap into". Working out of her bag and going from house to house she advised people on skincare. Soon, however, she became aware that there was "a lot of skin-bleaching going on", a trend she found "alarming" and something that is common in much of Africa. "The women in the market had destroyed their skin with all this kind of beauty products, bleaching products, and so I saw the need for assisting them to reverse the process because otherwise it would become a social problem," she said. "The level of damage - in this climate - bleaching does is irreparable," she added. Not long after her return to Ghana, she opened her first beauty clinic with financial support from her family. "I couldn't access any funds from the bank. I didn't even think about it because everybody said 'In this country nobody will give you money'". Business loan offers came pouring in only after her business had been running for three years. Although access to bank loans in Ghana might be relatively easier these days, she advises that budding entrepreneurs should take care not to borrow too much. Made in Ghana Mrs Amey-Obeng explained that, once her clinic was running, she realised that the imported products they were recommending often proved too expensive for their clients. This was often a result of currency exchange rate fluctuations. "It was a challenge. They would come back with worse conditions, and so we said: 'OK, why don't we start our own line that we can sell to our people?'". Her skincare line, which she started in 1998, would soon have a huge success not only because of the products' prices - which currently range from $3 to $15 - but also, in her opinion, because they were made taking into account black skins and the West African climate. In view of her concerns about skin bleaching, the name of her brand, Forever Clair (Clear), may seem controversial to some. However, she argues that "clair" there refers to "light, hope and strength", not skin colour. "Light shows the way. It's not about complexion, it's about the heart," the entrepreneur said. And she seems indeed bent on helping others to gain hope and strength. She is well-known in Ghana for her philanthropic work, especially through the Grace Amey-Obeng International Foundation. Women leaders, she says, should offer a helping hand to less fortunate women, encourage them and share expertise. "The joy of putting smiles on the faces of people that this business offers, that's what makes me want to do it forever." African Dream is broadcast on the BBC Focus on Africa radio programme every Thursday afternoon, and on BBC World News throughout the day on Fridays Every week, one successful business man or woman will explain how they started off and what others could learn from them. |
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