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A baby girl who died after falling from a third-floor flat window in Clydebank has been named. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
One-year-old Lexi Bergene fell from the building on Dumbarton Road, near Boquhanran Road, at about 14:10 on Wednesday. She was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow where she later died. Police said on Thursday inquiries were ongoing, but her death did not appear to be suspicious. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal. |
A new law banning Isle of Man drivers from smoking in their cars if they are carrying children has come into force. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The move follows similar bans in England and Wales and aims to protect under-16s from second-hand smoke. Both the driver and the smoker, would typically be fined £50, although this could rise to £5,000, the Manx government said. The regulations - brought under the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2006 - were formally backed by Tynwald in February. The law applies even if doors, windows and sun-roofs are open and prohibits the smoking of all cigarettes, cigars and pipes, but it does not include electronic cigarettes or vaporisers. Related Internet Links Department of Health |
Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 17-year-old boy was seriously injured in a stabbing in Sheffield. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The victim was injured during an altercation in Winn Gardens on Friday afternoon, South Yorkshire Police said. He remains in hospital in a "critical but stable" condition, the force added. An 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were held on suspicion of attempted murder. A 17-year-old boy was detained on suspicion of assisting an offender. All three have been released on bail. Any witnesses to the stabbing are asked to get in touch with police. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here. |
Cambridge Analytica has filed for bankruptcy in the US. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The consultancy was at the centre of the Facebook data-sharing scandal in which it was accused of improperly obtaining information on users. The bankruptcy proceedings are part of the process of closing down the company and its UK parent, SCL Elections, that started in early May. The company blamed a "siege of media coverage" for driving away customers and forcing its closure. In court papers filed with a New York court, Cambridge Analytica said it had assets of up to $500,000 (£370,000) and debts in the range of $1m to $10m. Regulators have said that, despite the firm's shutting down and laying off staff, they will still pursue a probe into how the firm used Facebook data. The social network said data on about 87 million users was grabbed when people completed a quiz hosted on the site. This information was then passed on to Cambridge Analytica which has been accused of using it for political campaigning. The political consultancy always maintained that it did nothing wrong in the way it obtained and used the data. |
More than 2,100 bombs fell in the Cardiff district in nearly four years until the final air raid in March 1944. In total 355 were killed. Across Wales, the civilian death toll was nearly 1,000 over the course of the war, with Swansea and Cardiff enduring the worst casualties. Here BBC Wales news website speaks to three men for whom fate intervened on Cardiff's worst night of bombing during World War II in 1941. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Steve DuffyBBC News website It is 70 years since the worst night of the Blitz for civilians in Cardiff - when a bombing raid saw more than 150 killed. The toll on the night of 2 January 1941 also saw 427 more injured, while nearly 350 homes were destroyed or had to be demolished. Chapels and the knave of Llandaff Cathedral were also damaged. The worst hit areas were Grangetown and Riverside. There, casualties included an estimated 50 killed in De Burgh Street, Riverside. Meanwhile seven relations who had been to a family funeral earlier in the day were killed when bombs wrecked Blackstone Street. The worst single incident was at the home of a bakers, Hollymans on the corner of Stockland Street and Corporation Road in Grangetown. Around 32 people were killed - including at least five members of the Hollyman family, neighbours and strangers - as they sheltered in the cellar. The bomb when it hit left an 8ft pile of rubble. The 10 hour air-raid, during a full moon, had started at teatime - 6.37pm - and Grangetown was the first area to be hit by 100 German aircraft. John Williams, a 14-year-old delivery boy for the bakery, arrived the next morning for his horse-drawn round to find his employer Bill Hollyman's baker shop reduced to rubble. Three generations of the family were among the dead. Around 20 unknown victims were buried at the spot in a mass grave. "I knew nothing about it until I got there about 8.30 in the morning," said John, now 84. "I just saw a big ruin. "The firemen were still spraying water on it and the water had turned to ice because it was so cold. They were starting to bring the bodies out on stretchers. "It was incredible but the horse, in the stable next door, was all right. The bomb had gone through three floors of the house and into the shelter and exploded." "I'd been in the shelter the night before. You'd walk down a few step into the cellar, there was seats inside and steel poles put in by the corporation to reinforce it. "I'd finish my final round about 6pm and I went down the shelter, and then was given a bowl of soup. "But that night, Bill Hollyman seemed to think there was a lot of activity overhead and said my mother would be worried and I should go home. It was fate." "It was a bad night. I lived in Devon Street [half a mile away] and we had an Anderson shelter at the back and I was in there with my father, mother, brother and sister. "Luckily, the nearest bomb to us was in North Clive Street, which landed on a wholesalers and blew the slates off the roofs in the street, but we were all right." Ken Lloyd, 12 at the time, was walking home from a children's meeting at the Ebenezer chapel in Corporation Road, when the air raid siren sounded. "You could hear the aircraft in the distance. Mr Hollyman was standing outside, calling people, all the children and anybody passing, into shelter in the basement," he recalled. "Quite a lot of the children who'd been at the Ebenezer went in but I only lived over in Warwick Street and so didn't have far to go so I said 'no'." "I'd been with the other children that day but everyone who went into that shelter in the bakery was killed outright." Trevor Tucker, who was six, had also been offered a place in the shelter, along with his mother and brother. "My father's job took him away from home a lot and the baker was very helpful offering us shelter if we were alone during a raid, especially at night. "But there was no electricity and the only light was from hand torches or candles, so I found it spooky and I told my mother, 'please don't take me there'." He remembers, with his older brother, their fascination when watching a body being removed from the debris the next day. Censorship meant restrictions in details of the air raids in the newspapers, with scant details and in the days to follow, few death notices were published. The death toll in Cardiff rose to around 165 after the raid. In the days following, there was an appeal for blood donations, as the injured continued to be treated. "A list of casualties would be posted outside City Hall," recalls Mr Tucker, now 76. "I remember being taken there by my father... But it was the rather macabre business of seeing a list of names and him reading down to see if he had lost a friend or neighbour." As for his own reaction to the bombing, Mr Williams said: "I just went home but you just got on with it in those days." One of the surviving members of the Hollyman family, Jack, who lived in Canton, started up the business again within a few weeks. The bakery building itself, like John's delivery horse, had survived. "Jack was heartbroken - he'd lost all that family," said Mr Williams. A hardware shop now stands on the Hollymans site in Grangetown but there is a plaque on the wall, erected by the local history society, to remember those who died there. |
The euro, the dream of many a politician in the years following World War II, was established in Maastricht by the European Union (EU) in 1992. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
To join the currency, member states had to qualify by meeting the terms of the treaty in terms of budget deficits, inflation, interest rates and other monetary requirements. Of EU members at the time, the UK, Sweden and Denmark declined to join the currency. Since then, there have been many twists and turns for the countries that use the single currency. 1999 On 1 January, the currency officially comes into existence. 2001 Greece joins the euro. 2002 On 1 January, notes and coins are introduced. 2008 Malta and Cyprus join the euro, following Slovenia the previous year. In December, EU leaders agree on a 200bn-euro stimulus plan to help boost European growth following the global financial crisis. 2009 Slovakia joins the euro. Estonia, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania join the Exchange Rate Mechanism to bring their currencies and monetary policy into line with the euro in preparation for joining. In April, the EU orders France, Spain, the Irish Republic and Greece to reduce their budget deficits - the difference between their spending and tax receipts. In October, amid much anger towards the previous government over corruption and spending, George Papandreou's Socialists win an emphatic snap general election victory in Greece. In November, concerns about some EU member states' debts start to grow following the Dubai sovereign debt crisis. In December, Greece admits that its debts have reached 300bn euros - the highest in modern history. Greece is burdened with debt amounting to 113% of GDP - nearly double the eurozone limit of 60%. Ratings agencies start to downgrade Greek bank and government debt. Mr Papandreou insists that his country is "not about to default on its debts". 2010 In January, an EU report condemns "severe irregularities" in Greek accounting procedures. Greece's budget deficit in 2009 is revised upwards to 12.7%, from 3.7%, and more than four times the maximum allowed by EU rules. The European Central Bank dismisses speculation that Greece will have to leave the EU. In February, Greece unveils a series of austerity measures aimed at curbing the deficit. Concern starts to build about all the heavily indebted countries in Europe - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. On 11 February, the EU promises to act over Greek debts and tells Greece to make further spending cuts. The austerity plans spark strikes and riots in the streets. In March, Mr Papandreou continues to insist that no bailout is needed. The euro continues to fall against the dollar and the pound. The eurozone and IMF agree a safety net of 22bn euros to help Greece - but no loans. In April, following worsening financial markets and more protests, eurozone countries agree to provide up to 30bn euros in emergency loans. Greek borrowing costs reach yet further record highs. The EU announces that the Greek deficit is even worse than thought after reviewing its accounts - 13.6% of GDP, not 12.7%. Finally, on 2 May, the eurozone members and the IMF agree a 110bn-euro bailout package to rescue Greece. The euro continues to fall and other EU member state debt starts to come under scrutiny, starting with the Republic of Ireland. In November, the EU and IMF agree to a bailout package to the Irish Republic totalling 85bn euros. The Irish Republic soon passes the toughest budget in the country's history. Amid growing speculation, the EU denies that Portugal will be next for a bailout. 2011 On 1 January, Estonia joins the euro, taking the number of countries with the single currency to 17. In February, eurozone finance ministers set up a permanent bailout fund, called the European Stability Mechanism, worth about 500bn euros. In April, Portugal admits it cannot deal with its finances itself and asks the EU for help. In May, the eurozone and the IMF approve a 78bn-euro bailout for Portugal. In June, eurozone ministers say Greece must impose new austerity measures before it gets the next tranche of its loan, without which the country will probably default on its enormous debts. Talk abounds that Greece will be forced to become the first country to leave the eurozone. In July, the Greek parliament votes in favour of a fresh round of drastic austerity measures, the EU approves the latest tranche of the Greek loan, worth 12bn euros. A second bailout for Greece is agreed. The eurozone agrees a comprehensive 109bn-euro ($155bn; £96.3bn) package designed to resolve the Greek crisis and prevent contagion among other European economies. In August, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warns that the sovereign debt crisis is spreading beyond the periphery of the eurozone. The yields on government bonds from Spain and Italy rise sharply - and Germany's falls to record lows - as investors demand huge returns to borrow. On 7 August, the European Central Bank says it will buy Italian and Spanish government bonds to try to bring down their borrowing costs, as concern grows that the debt crisis may spread to the larger economies of Italy and Spain. The G7 group of countries also says it is "determined to react in a co-ordinated manner," in an attempt to reassure investors in the wake of massive falls on global stock markets. During September, Spain passes a constititional amendment to add in a "golden rule," keeping future budget deficits to a strict limit. Italy passes a 50bn-euro austerity budget to balance the budget by 2013 after weeks of haggling in parliament. There is fierce public opposition to the measures - and several key measures were watered down. The European Commission predicts that economic growth in the eurozone will come "to a virtual standstill" in the second half of 2011, growing just 0.2% and putting more pressure on countries' budgets. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos says his country has been "blackmailed and humiliated" and a "scapegoat" for the EU's incompetence. On 19 September, Greece holds "productive and substantive" talks with its international supporters, the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF. The following day, Italy has its debt rating cut by Standard & Poor's, to A from A+. Italy says the move was influenced by "political considerations". That same day, in its World Economic Outlook, the IMF cuts growth forecasts and warns that countries are entering a 'dangerous new phase'. The gloomy mood continues on 22 September, with data showing that growth in the eurozone's private sector shrank for the first time in two years. The sense of urgency is heightened on 23 September, when IMF head Christine Lagarde urges countries to "act now and act together" to keep the path to economic recovery on track. On the same day, UK Prime Minister David Cameron calls for swift action on the debt crisis. The next day US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tells Europe to create a "firewall" around its problems to stop the crisis spreading. A meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Washington on 24 September leads to more calls for urgent action, but a lack of concrete proposals sparks further falls in share markets. After days of intense speculation that Greece will fail to meet its budget cut targets, there are signs of a eurozone rescue plan emerging to write down Greek debt and increase the size of the bloc's bailout fund. But when, on 28 September, European Union head Jose Manuel Barroso warns that the EU "faces its greatest challenge", there is a widespread view that the latest efforts to thrash out a deal have failed. The sense that events are spinning out of control are underlined by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who calls the euro a "burning building with no exits". On 4 October, Eurozone finance ministers delay a decision on giving Greece its next instalment of bailout cash, sending European shares down sharply. Speculation intensifies that European leaders are working on plans to recapitalise the banking system. On 6 October the Bank of England injects a further £75bn into the UK economy through quantitative easing, while the European Central Bank unveils emergency loans measures to help banks. Financial markets are bolstered by news on 8 October that the leaders of Germany and France have reached an accord on measures to help resolve the debt crisis. But without publication of any details, nervousness remains. Relief in the markets that the authorities will help the banking sector grows on 10 October, when struggling Franco-Belgian bank Dexia receives a huge bailout. On 10 October, an EU summit on the debt crisis is delayed by a week so that ministers can finalise plans that would allow Greece its next bailout money and bolster debt-laden banks. On 14 October G20 finance ministers meet in Paris to continue efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis in the eurozone. On 21 October eurozone finance ministers approve the next, 8bn euro ($11bn; £7bn), tranche of Greek bailout loans, potentially saving the country from default. On 26 October European leaders reach a "three-pronged" agreement described as vital to solve the region's huge debt crisis. After marathon talks in Brussels, the leaders say some private banks holding Greek debt have accepted a loss of 50%. Banks must also raise more capital to protect them against losses resulting from any future government defaults. On 9 December, after another round of talks in Brussels going through much of the night, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces that eurozone countries and others will press ahead with an inter-governmental treaty enshrining new budgetary rules to tackle the crisis. Attempts to get all 27 EU countries to agree to treaty changes fail due to the objections of the UK and Hungary. The new accord is to be agreed by March 2012, Mr Sarkozy says. 2012 On 13 January, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgrades France and eight other eurozone countries, blaming the failure of eurozone leaders to deal with the debt crisis. Three days later, the agency also downgrades the EU bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Also on 13 January, talks between Greece and its private creditors over a debt write-off deal stall. The deal is necessary if Greece is to receive the bailout funds it needs to repay billions of euros of debt in March. The talks resume on 18 January. The "fiscal pact" agreed by the EU in December is signed at the end of January. The UK abstains, as does the Czech Republic, but the other 25 members sign up to new rules that make it harder to break budget deficits. Weeks of negotiations ensue between Greece, private lenders and the "troika" of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, as Greece tries to get a debt write-off and make even more spending cuts to get its second bailout. On 10 February, Greece's coalition government finally agrees to pass the demands made of it by international lenders. This leads to a new round of protests. But the eurozone effectively casts doubt on the Greeks' figures, saying Athens must find a further 325m euros in budget cuts to get the aid. On 12 February, Greece passes the unpopular austerity bill in parliament - two months before a general election. Coalition parties expelled more than 40 deputies for failing to back the bill. On February 22, a Markit survey reports that the eurozone service sector has shrunk unexpectedly, raising fears of a recession. The next day the European Commission predicts that the eurozone economy will contract by 0.3% in 2012. March begins with the news that the eurozone jobless rate has hit a new high. However, the economic news takes a turn for the better just days later with official figures showing that the eurozone's retail sales increased unexpectedly in January by 0.3%, and the OECD reports its view that the region is showing tentative signs of recovery. On 13 March, the eurozone finally backs a second Greek bailout of 130bn euros. IMF backing was also required and was later given. The month ends with a call from the OECD for the eurozone rescue fund to be doubled to 1tn euros. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel says she would favour only a temporary boost to its firepower. On 12 April, Italian borrowing costs increase in a sign of fresh concerns among investors about the country's ability to reduce its high levels of debt. In an auction of three-year bonds, Italy pays an interest rate of 3.89%, up from 2.76% in a sale of similar bonds the previous month. Attention shifted to Spain the next day, with shares hit by worries over the country's economy and the Spanish government's 10-year cost of borrowing rose back towards 6% - a sign of fear over the country's creditworthiness. On 18 April, the Italian government cut its growth forecast for the economy in 2012. It was previously predicting that the economy would shrink by 0.4%, but is now forecasting a 1.2% contraction. On 19 April, there was some relief for Spain after it saw strong demand at an auction of its debt, even though some borrowing costs rose. The 10-year bonds were sold at a yield of 5.743%, up from 5.403% when the bonds were last sold in February. On 6 May, a majority of Greeks vote in a general election for parties that reject the country's bailout agreement with the EU and International Monetary Fund. On 16 May, Greece announces new elections for 17 June after attempts to form a coalition government fail. On 25 May, Spain's fourth largest bank, Bankia, says it has asked the government for a bailout worth 19bn euros ($24bn; £15bn). On 9 June, after emergency talks Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos says that the country will shortly make a formal request for up to 100bn euros ($125bn; £80bn) in loans from eurozone funds to try to help shore up its banks. On 12 June, optimism over the bank bailout evaporates as Spain's borrowing costs rise to the highest rate since the launch of the euro in 1999. On 15 June, former UK chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown underlined fears of contagion with a warning that France and Italy may need a bailbout.g On 17 June, Greeks went to the polls, with the pro-austerity party New Democracy getting most votes., allaying fears the country was about to leave the eurozone. |
Eating disorders are complex and can affect anyone. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jayne McCubbinBBC Breakfast When Eliza Small started seriously restricting her eating two years ago, she was referred for specialist help. Her family had a history of eating disorders. But she was refused specialist outpatient mental health treatment because her body mass index (BMI) was too high. ''It made me feel like I wasn't good enough at my eating disorder," she said. "It made me feel like I would have to get better at it.'' Which she did. A family member eventually paid for her to have private treatment and she was diagnosed with atypical anorexia - all the symptoms but not the right weight. But what is the right weight? Prof Tim Kendall, England's most senior mental health adviser, says weight shouldn't come into it. ''If you leave an eating disorder until it's got to the point where, say with anorexia, they've lost say a third of their body weight, that has a lot of longer-term consequences which make it very difficult to treat, so it's wrong in my view to leave this until it's got very bad. "To be told you're not thin enough - it's almost an incitement to get worse. It's like someone going to their GP and being told - you drink one bottle of whisky a day right now? Come back when you drink two.'' Prof Kendall believes patient choice is important and community care has a much better chance of success. It should never be withdrawn, he says, and hospital treatment should be enforced only in the most extreme cases. Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) state that on its own, BMI is an unreliable measure of an eating disorder. BBC Breakfast asked all 62 mental health trusts in England and Wales if they used BMI to decide who would qualify for outpatient eating disorder services. Of the 44 trusts which responded, one-third said they did. All said they used it along with other indicators - such as the speed of weight loss. Three trusts, however, said it was a primary measure. They were Derbyshire, Coventry and Kent and Medway. In some areas, patients might be refused access to services if their BMI was over 14. In others, like Kent and Medway, if it was over 17.5. Some trusts said they had a minimum threshold under which people might be refused outpatient services. This is what happened to Claire: ''The first thing they did was weigh me and tell me my BMI was too low. "I would have to go to hospital. I didn't want to, I'd had a bad experience before and I thought I was making good progress as an outpatient. So I was left to my own devices. "Everyone's eating-disorder experience is completely different, you can't put everybody in the same box - you have to listen to the person, to how they are feeling." Sarah Hodge, from Kent and Medway Partnership Trust eating disorder service, said they would rather not use it as a measure at all, but the problem was resources. ''You can have much more success when people have a higher BMI, they're much better able to engage with the therapy. But we just don't have the resources.'' The Department of Health says more funding is on the way: "We are investing £150m to develop community services in every area of the country for children and young people." Eating disorder guidelines from NICE are being redrafted. The hope is some of these concerns will be addressed when new guidelines are published later in the year." Eliza said: ''You wouldn't tell someone with cancer to come back when their condition had deteriorated, why tell someone with an eating disorder?" Eating disorders: Research from the eating disorders charity Beat suggests more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence estimates around 11% of those affected by an eating disorder are male. The Health and Care Information Centre published figures in February 2014 showing an 8% rise in the number of inpatient hospital admissions in the 12 months to October 2013. It is estimated that around 40% of people with an eating disorder have bulimia, 10% anorexia, and the rest other conditions, such as binge-eating disorder. Many eating disorders develop during adolescence, but it is not at all unusual for people to develop eating disorders earlier or later in life. Source: Beat: Beating eating disorders. Fit and fat: Is BMI the best way to tell if you're healthy? Where are you on the global fat scale? Update 4 August 2016: This story has been amended to remove the Cumbria trust from the list of trusts using BMI as a primary indicator. Although it told the BBC that BMI was a primary indicator, the trust has since stressed that it is one of a number of criteria used after a diagnosis of anorexia. |
If you have a job, then you pay National Insurance. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It is taken out of your salary depending on how much you earn, similar to income tax. But because it isn't called a tax, governments can say they haven't increased income tax even though they've put up National Insurance. Labour is planning to increase how much both employers and employees pay. The Conservatives claim that will damage business and say they will scrap the rise. So what is National Insurance and how does it work? History National Insurance payments were introduced in 1911. The idea was to provide a government safety-net for workers who fell on hard times. Employees paid money into the scheme out of their wages. Anyone needing cash for medical treatment, or because they had lost their job, could claim from the fund. What it is used for? The system has changed over the years. National Insurance is now used to pay for: NI is supposed to be "ring fenced" - meaning the money raised is only used for these areas and won't be spent on things like building schools or employing police officers. However, the government can borrow from the National Insurance fund to help pay for other projects. How much do I pay? If you work for a company: On any money you earn between £110 and £844 per week - you pay 11% If you earn more than £844 per week, there's an extra 1% added on top. If you are self-employed: A flat rate of £2.40 per week, plus 8% of your profits between £5,715 and £43,875 per year. If you are an employer: You also pay into the scheme - 12.8% of an employee's salary. Why are politicians arguing about NI? Labour plans to increase National Insurance contributions by 1% for employees and employers. They claim that is needed to pay for public services during the recession. The Conservatives say that will damage the economy and have the support of several high profile business leaders. Instead they want to find extra cash from cutting "wasteful" spending. The Liberal Democrats are also sceptical about the Conservative plan to freeze NI. |
Irene Corsaro will never forget her first driving lesson under a rain of black ash from Mount Etna. Like many Sicilians from Catania, the 18-year-old has learnt quickly how to make her way home on a road covered in volcanic dust during one of the volcano's 11 eruptions in the past three weeks. A 12th eruption was under way on Friday. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Francesca MarcheseCatania, Sicily Every so often, the volcano's four main craters awake with intense, simultaneous blasts. These episodes create a spectacular natural firework display, replete with bubbles, fountains and flows of lava. Within minutes, neighbouring towns and villages are showered with flakes of ash and other debris. 'Lava falling on my roof' Irene's trip with her mother through the deserted streets of her home town of Nicolosi, on Etna's slopes, turned into a nightmare when her Peugeot 107 car was stopped by a sound she had never heard before. "It was like a sudden crackling; like hail pouring down and popping around. I thought it was because of the ash on the street," she said. "Instead, it was fragments of lava (lapilli) falling on both my roof and my windscreen from a giant red cloud right over me." It was 16 February and the sky was already inflamed by the sunset. It was to be the first in an array of violent episodes on Etna, increasing in power each time. Those paroxysms have since come in the middle of the night, at sunrise, during a storm and even under the light of a full moon. Irene Corsaro could feel the stones grinding under the car's tyres and she soon realised how lucky she was to be wearing her anti-Covid facemask. "The red-coloured air was very poor, heavy to breathe in." They rushed home to pack in case they needed to evacuate. Clouds of sulphur dioxide (SO2), visible from space, have reached as far away as China. But the ash and the heavier lapilli stay local. They drape the sides of the volcano and blanket at least 16 towns around Etna's cone. Fornazzo, Giarre and Zafferana are among those affected, and even coastal towns like Riposto and Torre Archirafi. Etna has released some 40 million cubic metres of volcanic material, says volcanologist Boris Behncke, who monitors Etna closely for the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV). "It is quite a lot," he tells the BBC. In comparison, the Etna eruption that threatened the town of Randazzo in 1981 released a mere 20 million cubic metres of material. Watching Etna's destructive power From my window, 20km (12 miles) south-east of Etna's summit, I have an unbroken view of the volcano. There is something primordial about being indoors as nature unleashes its energy. It starts with a column of dust that can climb as high as 12km, then lava fountains, pyroclastic flow and even lightning - mainly from the south-east crater, but from the other three as well. The eruptions may be spectacular, but they are a nuisance too. Lava dust falls over my head and over my washing line. I have spent much of the past three weeks of curfew sweeping the floor. My car windscreen is constantly covered by a dark patina of grime, but you must not use water to clear it. This glaze contains sharp glass particles that will scrape it beyond repair. No wonder some people have wrapped up their parked cars in bed-sheets to protect them. When it rains, the drizzle turns carpets of lava dust into something resembling concrete. It blocks gutters and drainage channels, prompting flooding and water seeping into houses. Etna's explosions generate "infrasonic waves" that the human ear does not pick up because of their low sound frequency, but the glass in the windows does. After so many eruptions, you can now tell what Etna is doing simply by listening to the trembling of the windows. It wakes you up with a jolt in the middle of the night. The sound of a column of ash and dust is different, more of a jingle-jangle. Twelve tonnes of dust The damage to the area has been immense and the Sicilian region has declared a crisis for 13 towns on Etna and another 30 surrounding the volcano. Orange groves and other crops have been destroyed and on one occasion the motorway between Fiumefreddo and Giarre was shut to allow dust to be cleared. Motorbikes are banned and the speed limit has been cut to 20km/h. Schools in Giarre were shut for three days and the weekly market suspended. Locals have been instructed to collect the dust in transparent bags and not to mix it with ordinary rubbish. "We have to deal with six kilos of volcanic dust in every square metre, with a total of 12 tonnes," Giarre Mayor Angelo D'Anna told the BBC. "The latest black rain lasted just 30 minutes and generated as much rubbish as we usually have in a year. It'll cost up to €600,000 (£510,000) and we are worried because it is going to happen again and again. How can we pay for it?" The regional government is to provide €1m and will ask the Rome government for more help, but there is no regional plan to manage the dust. It may be a natural phenomenon, but it is treated as waste and there is not yet anything planned to remove it. Sweeping balconies of black dust has become a regular event for the thousands who live in the towns around Etna. Every roof, terrace, porch, veranda and geranium-adorned balustrade has turned black. Even gardens are barely green any more. How unusual are the eruptions? Etna is no stranger to these episodes. Despite the extraordinary amount of volcanic material that has erupted, experts agree the volcano is merely repeating previous patterns of behaviour. But they also admit that the power released is greater than before. "In the past we witnessed two or three strong events, and others that were weaker," says volcanologist Boris Behncke. "Now every paroxysm is strong. Nonetheless, at the moment Etna is deflating, there is no more magma coming and its system is stable." I have sensed a change too. I have always seen an eruption with a flame that goes on and off like a lighter. This time I have seen at least three tongues of flame with lava fountains on both sides of Etna, and a constant wall of flame. As long as the activity remains on the summit there is no danger. More eruptions are likely, but not even the experts can predict when. Related Internet Links Etna: Italy's INGV |
Has Europe put the worst of its economic woes behind it? European officials in Brussels say they believe the continent has turned a corner in its debt crisis but, as a social crisis develops across much of the continent, that is not how it feels just a short distance away in northern Belgium. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Matthew PriceEurope correspondent, Belgium Tania Godefroot keeps her coat on while she waits her turn. The food bank she has come to is barely heated, and winter's frigid chill has made it feel like a refrigerator. Eventually she gets to the front of the queue. A litre of milk, provided by the European Union to help the poor, goes into her bag. She takes some eggs, a few other provisions. Not much but every little bit counts these days. "At the moment I'm surviving on 180 euros [£151; $240] a month," she says. "That's what left when the bills are paid - rent, electricity and hospital bills." Her daughter has been seriously ill. She does not see any sign of things getting better: "There's less food to go round here because there are more people coming [to the food bank]. "As for jobs - the crisis has made it really hard to find work." That may sound like a repetition of what you have heard out of Europe for several years now, but this is slightly different. The food bank Tania goes to is in the town of Ghent, in northern Belgium - the region of Flanders. Half an hour down the train tracks from Brussels, Ghent is the kind of classic Belgian city whose affluent, picturesque cobbled streets attract tourists throughout the year. It is in one of the richer regions in Europe. Yet even here, while officials in Brussels express a sign of relief that, in their opinion, the worst of Europe's economic crisis is behind them - the poor are getting poorer. Credit squeeze Poverty is increasing, according to Peter Heirman from the Flemish Network Against Poverty: "Not spectacularly - but it's increasing. "People are now losing their jobs. Companies have postponed the crisis for a couple of years, but now they have used all their reserves and there is no space left to keep the people employed. "I think the social crisis is starting right now." Belgium is one of the core countries of Europe, a founding member of what became the EU. It is doing better than the southern nations of this continent. Yet even here it is predicted that 2013 will be a year of stagnation. Last year, bankruptcies hit record levels. Among those at risk right now are Walter Verstraeten and his daughter Charlotte. In a small room on an industrial estate they are carefully measuring chemicals into glass tubes for a series of tests they are conducting. For 10 years they have been building up their family firm, H&V Chemicals. Now they have just gone into bankruptcy protection. "It's very difficult to get credit from the bank, especially if you are a small company and have had some difficulties," says Mr Verstraeten. "If you look at the number of unemployed, the number of companies going bankrupt, the difficulties of companies getting some money, then I think it's just as bad [as elsewhere in Europe]," he adds. Things are getting worse, but actually it is not as bad as Spain or Greece. Not that that is any comfort to the Verstraetens, as they struggle to keep their company afloat. Unemployment in Flanders - at some 7% - is far below the record levels of southern Europe. Public spending is coming under control. While total debt is still very high, this year the central government in Belgium expects its budget deficit to fall below the EU's target of 3% of GDP. Broken taboos According to economists like Koen Schoors at the University of Ghent, that is largely thanks to the crisis itself, which has forced governments like Belgium's to make unpopular, but necessary, changes. "You see countries taking reforms that were not only unspeakable but also unthinkable - real taboos," he says. "The European crisis is helping to create the sense of opportunity [for this]. I'm much more optimistic than a few years ago. Now a lot of [reforms] are happening and a lot of them in the right direction." Among the changes that have helped Belgium's public finances is pension reform. People now have to work longer to get a full pension. Unemployment benefit is also being changed, meaning that people who claim the payments will get less. Good for the state coffers, perhaps - but it helps to explain why Europe's debt crisis is now becoming an economic and social crisis in even the continent's stronger economies. Nowhere, perhaps, is that more apparent than in the eastern Belgian city of Genk (not to be confused with Ghent in the west). 'No future' From atop a road bridge over the river, you can look down on a car park containing several thousand brand new Ford vehicles. They are expensive bargaining chips in the battle between management and workers. Ford announced last October that it was closing its Genk factory. Some 4,000 jobs will go by the end of next year at the plant. One study predicts some 7,000 more will vanish in the local area as suppliers are also hit. With Europe in recession, Ford simply has not been selling enough vehicles to keep Genk open. So the workers went on strike, set up a picket outside the factory gates and told managers they would not allow the cars to be shipped off to buyers until a decent redundancy package had been drawn up. They are back at work now, after some negotiation, but the cars remain "impounded" while talks continue. Huddled by a fire to keep them warm, several dozen workers stand by. Among them is Debby Metten. "I'm feeling very insecure because I don't know what's going to happen," she says. "I think I'm going back to school to train for a job where there is a future." In this area, though, work is hard to find and her partner, Mario Vannoppen, knows it. "I worked here 22 years," he says. "I thought when I started - when I was 18 - I would get my pension here. Now, nobody has a future here." |
The fix is in. A whitewash is coming. That is the view of House of Commons clerks, a week on from Newsnight's expose of the problem of bullying and harassment by MPs. Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons, has proposed an inquiry into what we found. But, we now know, it is likely to be a partial one. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Chris CookPolicy editor, Newsnight@xtophercookon Twitter On Monday, when she first suggested an inquiry, Ms Leadsom said: "the House Commission next meets on Monday 19 March and I have given notice to my fellow members that I will be recommending a short, independently led inquiry by the House Commission looking into allegations of systemic bullying of parliamentary staff." She continued: "I will propose that the inquiry should hear from past and current staff members about their experiences and help to provide them with closure wherever possible." Her wording was a little vague. It is also the case that the House of Commons Commission, the panel that runs the House, would decide on the terms. But she said she wanted an inquiry would take up the issues raised by our report and offer closure to victims. Some clerks took this as a hint that individual bullying and harassment cases would be therefore be opened - or reopened. Yesterday, though, Ms Leadsom made clear that would not happen. Speaking in Parliament, she said: "I can give him a specific reassurance: the inquiry into the bullying of House staff that I will propose to the House of Commons Commission on Monday 19 March will not be carrying out investigations into individual cases." She added: "That is exactly why I expect it to attract the Commission's full support." In short, she did not think that a full inquiry would get the support of the Commission. It may be this or nothing. Drawing conclusions But this leaves her in a curious position. She explicitly says: "There are existing avenues open to anyone wishing to raise specific grievances, and individuals coming forward will be advised to use those where they apply, but the inquiry will look at whether they are functioning properly." But as Woman D, a former clerk who was a witness to bullying by MPs, said: "How on earth can you make a new policy - or improve an existing one - without examining how it has affected individuals in the past. How can you possibly learn lessons without investigating failings?" Hannah White, a former clerk now at the Institute for Government, said: "Andrea Leadsom's proposed inquiry will be seen as a whitewash if it does not examine how effective the Respect Policy [the existing bullying and harassment policy] has been to date in dealing with individual cases". Ms White is an incoming member of the board of the Chamber and Committees Team, the part of the House that employs clerks in MP-facing roles. The fudge It may be that the inquiry will take on real examples, but then not publish conclusions about the cases. Parliament could end up in the odd situation of spending public money collating information about elected politicians bullying public employees, spending more money analysing those cases - and then not acting directly against individuals that they believe have behaved poorly. It would be a curious response to the cases Lucinda Day and I published last week - on TV and online - as well. We named three MPs as being the subject of serious bullying allegations - John Bercow, Paul Farrelly and Mark Pritchard. All deny it. An independent inquiry could clear their names against what Mr Farrelly said was our "very one-sided, selective" reporting. The Leadsom proposal, however, could have one unpleasant side-effect. It could mean that MPs benefit from a "let bygones be bygones" policy. If the inquiry does not allow review of old cases, it is not clear whether anything more will happen. Ms Leadsom wants clerks to be covered by a new HR policy, which is soon to be rolled out. But it is unlikely that it will be possible to use it to bring forward cases that have happened under old anti-bullying and harassment regimes. That was a feature of the inquiry into Mr Farrelly from 2012 after a complaint was raised against him: his case was brought when an HR policy was 8 months old - and that meant only 8 months of evidence could be admitted. As a consequence, the House discarded evidence from two women stretching back eight years. Mr Farrelly denies any bullying. The clerks Woman D said: "I'd like to know what reasons are being used to justify this stance, because from where I am sitting it looks like a deliberate attempt to silence people who have made complaints against Members in the past that have not been satisfactorily dealt with, through a policy that all parties finally acknowledge was not fit for purpose." Woman Q, a serving clerk who has made complaints about bullying by a member, said: "Until members are prepared to come to terms with what has happened in the past, they will not be able to design a system fit for the future." "As a victim of this behaviour, I have absolutely no confidence that the member who bullied me will ever be properly sanctioned. He... will be able to do it again because neither his party nor the House authorities have the courage to tackle him." Ms Leadsom is sympathetic to these concerns. There may be ways of fixing this: perhaps a parallel or subsequent process. Perhaps this inquiry could publish enough narrative details of cases that the political parties could act against sitting MPs. But any process that wins the confidence of the clerks will need to make sure that MPs who have harassed or bullied staff in the past can face the consequences. |
"Significant" efforts are being made to secure the future of 24-hour A&E cover at a Pembrokeshire hospital. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Hywel Dda health board said it is making progress with its work on maintaining the service at Withybush General Hospital in Haverfordwest. This comes after a document leaked online suggested it would be cut. Medical director Sue Fish said: "We are pleased to say that good progress is being made in relation to nurse and consultant appointments." |
A 54-year-old woman has gone on trial at Newry Crown Court accused of stealing a packet of prawns from Sainsbury's in Armagh. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Arija Kehere of Main Street in Keady, County Armagh, has denied the charge. A store detective told the jury that he saw the accused place the £6.99 prawns in a navy bag, pay for other items and then leave the shop. He said he arrested her outside. The court heard the detective had been head-hunted because of his efficiency. He had made 107 arrests in one year and was described as Sainsbury's guardian angel. |
Is this the moment the landlords fight back? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Simon JackBusiness editor@BBCSimonJackon Twitter This afternoon, the landlords to Arcadia - Sir Philip Green's retail empire - will be asked to vote on whether they will accept swingeing cuts to the rent they charge to well-known retailing brands like TopShop and Dorothy Perkins. This form of insolvency - called a Company Voluntary Arrangement - has been used to keep other struggling retailers (Debenhams, House of Fraser) alive. Up to now, landlords have largely been forced to accept that in the current retail climate, having a tenant paying anything at all is better than having the building stand empty. But some industry insiders say that many landlords have been looking for a moment to hold the line and there's a chance this could be it. Even when the landlords vote against a CVA, they are often outvoted by the other creditors - particularly if one of those creditors is a pension scheme many million pounds in deficit. However, in the case of Arcadia, the landlords have more power thanks to its complex structure. The pension scheme is only a creditor to one of seven interconnected companies. That means its massive voting power does not blow the creditors to the other six companies out of the water. Even so - the landlords will know that if they vote against today's restructuring, the company could very well collapse - leaving them without a tenant, right? Well maybe not. If you are landlord to some of the better brands - like TopShop - in some of the better retail locations, you might think it is pretty likely that someone will want to buy it out of administration - so why take a massive hit on your income to prop up a company that has been performing poorly. That is one of the fundamental objections to the concept of a CVA. Not only are the landlords bearing the brunt of a company's poor performance, but they are in effect making life worse for successful retailers which are well run. No wonder the boss of fashion chain Next says he wants a CVA clause in all his new rental agreements. Why should I have to compete with a retailer next door to me, who has the same square footage and the same landlord but is paying half the rent I am? Those comments from Lord Wolfson sent shivers down many a landlord's spine and made a lot think they would need to show some backbone at some point. The truth is that companies that really need or want to cut their cost base are not going to be able to do it by cutting rents on rubbish units in rubbish locations. They are not paying much rent for those locations. What they need to do is cut the expensive rents in the premium locations - and a CVA allows the company to do that. It is hard to muster much sympathy for landlords who grew fat off the retail land by charging eye-watering, ever rising rents during the good times. But some argue that rewarding unsuccessful businesses can't be good for competition or the wider economy. Almost all of the recent CVAs have been passed despite the gritted teeth of landlords. If this does turn out to be the moment they fight back in sufficient numbers, Sir Philip Green will know his high street luck has really run out. |
Animation plays a big part in both children's and adults' lives these days - just look at the popularity of online games , TV series such as Paddington , and recent box office hits such as Detective Pikachu . | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sherie RyderBBC UGC hub and Social News So when long-running US cartoon series Arthur introduced its first gay wedding, it gained huge traction on social media. Now on its 22nd series, Arthur is produced by American public-service broadcaster PBS, known for its educational children's broadcasts, and is currently broadcast on CBBC daily at 0700. In this episode, Arthur, an eight-year-old aardvark, attends his teacher's wedding, along with friends and other teachers, where they anticipate Mr Ratburn's marriage to Patty, a female rat. The first surprise is that Patty is his sister, and the second, when he walks down the aisle, is that he's with his groom. In New York, one Twitter user's post highlighting Mr Ratburn's gay marriage, was "liked" more than 112,000 times in 21 hours. Gamers, animators and fans have shared their congratulations, with comments including: "Love conquers hate," "Welcome out," and "Arthur says, 'Gay rights.''' While one Twitter user asked why no-one was talking about the fact Patty was also "clearly" gay. Another Twitter user, an actor, writer and "gay internet person", was clearly happy with the coming out, calling it his "Game of Thrones finale". One fan of drawing and watching cartoons joined in with a '"Woo-hoo" for featuring gay teachers in children's cartoons. But not everyone was impressed with the broadcast. One Twitter user questioned PBS Kids's agenda. And someone on Facebook called it "grooming kids and wrong". It's not the first time a gay character has been introduced to children's cartoons. Variety Magazine reported that children's TV network Nickelodeon had featured a "bi-racial" gay couple in its series Loud House in 2016. And what about the timing of the event? It comes not long after Teacher Appreciation Week in the US, when Arthur PBS tweeted a form encouraging pupils to nominate their favourite teacher, giving its own example of Mr Ratburn. You might also be interested in: |
The Drums have said they'll continue as a three-piece after the departure of guitarist Adam Kessler. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A statement from the Brooklyn-based band said they were "sad" at the split and that they have been "distressed by recent events". It added: "Despite recent reports, we haven't replaced anyone." The Drums, who are currently on tour in the US, added that they have begun work on the follow-up to this year's self-titled debut album. |
A man has been charged with the murder of an 87-year-old woman who died four days after she was attacked. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Guy Unmack, 45, of Warren Road, Reigate, Surrey, was charged with the murder of Rosemary Hill who was assaulted on June 21. Mr Unmack was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was detained under the Mental Health Act. He is due to appear at Guildford Magistrates' Court later. |
Andrea Arnold, one of the UK's most successful female directors, is calling for "active" employment of women within the film industry, saying that she's "shocked to discover how few women are making films". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter Figures published by the Directors Guild of America showed that in 2013 and 2014, 6.4% of Hollywood films were made by women, while just over 1% of movies were made by women from ethnic minority backgrounds. Arnold, who has won an Oscar, two Baftas, and four prizes at Cannes Film Festival since she started directing 18 years ago, says she saw the statistics recently, and "was so shocked at the amount of women directors". "The figures were so small. We actively have to employ more females, perhaps we need to at this point. There are a lot of capable women out there." 'Mainly male stories' Arnold's latest film, American Honey, follows an African American heroine, Star, as she travels across the US with a road crew selling magazine subscriptions. It won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and is showing at this year's BFI London Film Festival. The director believes that "we've grown up mainly on male stories, and most of the films have been written and directed by men - and that's only half of the human race". "I remember going to a women's film festival and feeling a slight amount of trepidation, but actually it was fantastic. Some of the films made me cry because they really spoke to me," she recalls. "It was then I realised up till then I had mostly been spoken to by men in cinema." All of Arnold's four feature films are centred around a female story, and three are set, including American Honey, during the teenage transition to womanhood. It's a time Arnold calls " very precious, and very interesting - there are a lot of hormones flying. And I always wanted to do a girl's road trip story, a coming of age". The desire to make the film had been with Arnold, she says, since she saw a New York Times article some years ago detailing the so-called "Mag Crews", itinerant young people who travel across the US, sleeping in camper vans, and going door to door, scratching a living by selling magazine subscriptions. To research and write it, the director took her own road trip, starting off from Salt Lake City, Utah, "as the sun came up, with the freeway ahead of me, and Spirit in the Sky on the radio. 'Intense poverty' "We're all fascinated by America, aren't we? We've all grown up with the idea of it." "I wasn't trying to subvert the American Dream with my story but it's complicated - this belief that you can have whatever you want, as long as you stick at it," she says. "It depends how well you started in life - and if you started in poverty, without proper parenting, how easy is it to find the self-confidence to do what you want to do? "And if you don't do it, that's doubly hard - you are stuck with a sense of failure." Arnold's journey took her through some states, where she says "I didn't fully understand how intense the poverty would be". She describes driving through a town in Oklahoma "where everything was shut - the whole high street, the factories, everything". "There were people there, but nothing for them. I suppose that's when certain political messages get appealing - when you can't even access a doctor or a dentist. It made me profoundly grateful for the NHS, actually." The film stars Shia La Beouf as the crew leader, Jake, and a 21-year-old Texan, Sasha Lane, who was "discovered" by Arnold and her scouts. "It was Spring Break and we were on a Florida beach," Arnold recalls, "and there were 20,000 teenagers on that beach. At first she was careful, because there were actually people out there recruiting for pornography films too. "She just had a certain something - she was very awake and alive, she was very present with us when we spoke to her." Arnold also employed first-time actors in her previous films, Wuthering Heights and Fish Tank, and admits: "I like it because they provide a faithful representation of the world that I am seeking to portray. Shia LaBeouf 'mucked in' "It's often easier to use 'real' people; you can genuinely believe it's the life they have led just by looking at their faces. Sometimes I feel I am making life difficult for myself, as they never do quite what you expect them to do. "But they never repeat themselves, they bring something different and no take is the same." Shia LaBeouf, she adds, "just mucked in with everyone, we got on really well from the first moment we met". "He strikes me as an actor looking to do things in a different way. He was up for the adventure and stayed for the duration of the whole trip, as I wanted him to. There was no flying in and out, just staying in the same motel rooms as the rest of the crew." Arnold often drove her cast from one location to another, and early on, sent them to try and sell magazine subscriptions for real, "or how else would they have the experience? So I sent them off, and the first time was OK, we had a 'Mag Manager' come and teach them the craft, and they even made some money. 'We lived together for two months' "However the next time we did it again, on a housing estate in Nebraska, the police were called and we got chased away - I think the residents were more protective. "The people in my film are very much like the real magazine crew that I read about and met. "It was a huge experience for all of us, I think - we lived together for two months. They say road trips change everyone and at the end of that period, I sensed a great deal of sadness from them, that it would all come to an end." American Honey premieres at the BFI London Film Festival on October 7th and is released in the UK on October 14th. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. |
It is an iconic image, encapsulating the horror of the Troubles . Father Alec Reid kneels in a Belfast car park as he administers the last rites over the bloodied, near naked body of a British soldier. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Peter CrutchleyBBC Knowledge & Learning Two British Army corporals had just been tortured and shot in broad daylight after driving into an IRA funeral. The violence in Northern Ireland seemed to have spiralled completely out of control. Yet the contents of a blood soaked envelope Fr Reid was carrying that day would set in motion a chain of events that led to an IRA ceasefire, and ultimately a lasting peace. Twenty years on from the IRA's ceasefire on 31 August 1994, veteran BBC journalist and author Peter Taylor has been reflecting on the part Fr Reid played in stopping the violence. "The role Fr Reid played in bringing about the peace process was absolutely critical. He was one of the real non-combatant, non-politician peacemakers. He was a remarkable man, who played a really important role historically," he said. Just how did a priest come to play such a crucial part in the peace process? Early days Father Reid was ordained as a priest of the Redemptorist Order of the Catholic Church in 1957. He moved to Clonard monastery in Belfast in 1961, where he would work for the next 40 years. Clonard is situated on one of Belfast's many sectarian fault lines and was right on the coalface when the violence began in Northern Ireland in 1969, with riots and shootings commonplace in the area. Engaging in dialogue While the violence intensified in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s, Fr Reid was among those looking for a way to bring peace. In an interview for the BBC documentary 14 Days he explained what motivated him: "I used to say that I don't belong to any political party, but I represent the next person who is going to be killed in the troubles. The church has a moral obligation to get stuck in when people are suffering and to try and stop it." He felt it was imperative to bring nationalist and republican parties together and to get the IRA to renounce violence in favour of negotiation. It was a high risk strategy. It required John Hume, the leader of the nationalist SDLP, and a vocal proponent of non-violence, to engage with the republican party Sinn Féin, regarded as political pariahs at the time due to their links with the IRA. Peter Taylor believes the importance of Father Reid's role at this time cannot be over-estimated. "I think Fr Reid's role was enormous in liaising with John Hume and Gerry Adams to encourage the IRA to make the momentous steps that it eventually did," he said. "Fr Reid had to be trusted by all parties on the nationalist/republican side of the conflict." Fr Reid persuaded Hume to engage in secret talks with Adams, which initially took place at Clonard, with the priest acting as mediator. The two parties eventually began formal dialogue in January 1988. But the beginning of talks did not mean an end to the violence. 14 dark days In fact some of the worst days of the Troubles were still to come. During 14 days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events left Northern Ireland teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice. The spiral of violence began on 6 March when three members of an IRA unit were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. As their funerals were taking place in Belfast's Milltown cemetery 10 days later, loyalist gunman Michael Stone launched a gun and grenade attack on mourners, killing three and wounding more than 50. Among Stone's victims was IRA member Kevin Brady. At his funeral three days later, two British Army corporals in civilian clothing, David Howes and Derek Wood, drove into the funeral cortege. Their car was immediately surrounded by a mob and the soldiers were overpowered. They were dragged away, stripped, beaten and taken to nearby waste ground where they were shot dead by the IRA. In attendance at the funeral, Fr Reid witnessed the fracas and attempted to intervene, even getting between the men after they had been forced to the ground and pleading with their attackers not to kill them. But the priest was warned that he could be shot and was himself dragged away. In the 14 Days documentary he described the scene and how he was deeply affected by their death: "I walked up to this area of waste ground. There was nobody else there, just the two bodies. I went up to the one nearest to me, and he seemed still to be breathing, so I tried to give him the kiss of life. I felt I had done my best to save them, but I had failed. I was very shocked. It was a tragedy." Blood soaked envelope Cameraman David Cairns captured Father Reid, with blood on his cheek. kneeling beside the corporal's body. This moment of compassion amidst the brutality was shown around the world. It wasn't until years later that people would learn that beneath his coat that day the priest was carrying an envelope which would bring hope in the midst of the despair. John Hume had suggested that both sides put their political solution for settling the conflict on paper and Fr Reid had collected Sinn Féin's position from Gerry Adams. He was still carrying it with him at the funeral. "I had held onto the letter but I had to change the envelope, as the blood of one of the soldiers was on it. I went to see John Hume in Derry that afternoon and gave him this paper from Gerry Adams." The letter helped enable the crucial first steps of the peace process and this period of violence intensified the resolve of Fr Reid and other church, community and political figures to achieve peace. Talks continued and Fr Reid would act as a go-between with the Irish government for the next decade. The British government also re-opened secret contacts with the IRA leadership that were first established in 1972. IRA ceasefire On 31 August 1994 the IRA declared a "complete cessation of military operations". This was the culmination of Fr Reid's hopes for the years of talks he had facilitated. This was a hugely important moment as it allowed Sinn Féin to be involved in all-party talks, which would pave the way for the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought nationalists and unionists in government together, in a power-sharing assembly. This agreement was eventually amended by the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, which saw former enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness becoming Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers in 2007. Pilloried and praised During his later years, Fr Reid was also involved in peace efforts in the Basque region in Spain. In January 2003, he was awarded the Sabino Arana 2002 World Mirror prize in Bilbao, in recognition of his efforts at promoting peace and reconciliation. He was also one of the witnesses who confirmed the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005, which was a critical hurdle that needed to be overcome to keep Northern Ireland's fragile peace alive. His career was not without controversy. He angered unionists at a public meeting in 2005 when he likened the unionist treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland in the past to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. Fr Reid later apologised saying his remarks were made in the heat of the moment. On 22 November 2013 Fr Reid died in a Dublin hospital, with tributes flowing in from across the world, with the British Ministry of Defence acknowledging his efforts, saying: "Fr Alec Reid's intervention to administer last rites epitomised his faith and strength of conviction. His comfort was given amidst the enormous fears and tension on that terrible day in March 1988." Father Reid's legacy For Peter Taylor, there is a lingering regret regarding the priest. "Sadly he was one of the few people involved in making peace that I never got to know. At the time I was making the Provos series, he didn't want to talk and I respected that. I was very sorry that I couldn't persuade him," he said. While many people were involved in the lengthy process of bringing peace to Northern Ireland, journalist Brian Rowan assessed Fr Reid's legacy in the 14 Days documentary: "I think when the historians look back on 30 years of conflict here, and on the journey of war to peace, the story will not be told without the name of Alec Reid right in the middle of it all." Watch BBC Northern Ireland's documentary Ceasefire Around the BBC The IRA's journey to peace BBC History: The Troubles The Good Friday Agreement Watch: Ceasefire Related Internet Links On This Day: IRA ceasefire |
A man has been left with a head injury after a gang broke into his home in North Lanarkshire and beat him with hammers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The four unidentified men entered the property on Moffathill in Airdrie at about 17:00 on Tuesday. They carried out what police say was a targeted attack, leaving the man with head injuries that needed hospital treatment. Officers have launched an investigation and inquiries are continuing. Det Con Paul James has urged anyone with information or who saw any suspicious activity in the area to contact police via the non-emergency line. |
Unemployment in Wales has fallen by 1,000, official figures show. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The number of people out of work fell to 124,000 between September and November 2012, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. In Wales, 8.4% of the population is out of work. Across the UK, unemployment fell by 37,000 between September and November to 2.49 million - the lowest figure since May 2010. Welsh government Business Minister Edwina Hart said the figures showed the situation remained "challenging". "The poor performance of the global economy, together with spending cuts imposed by the UK government, which will not support growth or jobs, mean our economic prospects continue to be very uncertain," she said. The UK's economic inactivity rate is the highest in Wales (25.0%) and lowest in the east of England (19.6%), according to the figures. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Wales cautiously welcomed the fall, but Janet Jones, who chairs its policy unit, said: "Clearly the challenge is to get more people back into work and economically active, and it's disappointing to see very little progress on this a year on." She said it was important that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had continual support from both the Welsh and UK governments as they were key "pathways to employment for the unemployed and those who have been economically inactive for a long time". The ONS uses an internationally-recognised survey to produce an estimate of the UK's workforce every month. The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance last month fell by 12,100 to 1.56 million. Across the UK, a record number of people are in work after another fall in unemployment and a further dip in the numbers claiming jobseeker's allowance. Almost 30 million adults were in a job in the quarter to last November, up by more than half a million on the previous year. 'Nearly flat' The figure, giving an employment rate of 71%, is the highest since records began in 1971. The ONS said the largest quarterly decrease in employment was in Wales, a drop of 1.2 percentage points. However, statisticians said this appeared to be due mainly to an unusually high estimate for the three months to August 2012. "The underlying pattern for Wales appears to be nearly flat," said the ONS. Unemployment fell by 37,000 in the latest quarter to just under 2.5 million, the lowest since spring 2011. It was the 10th consecutive fall and was coupled with another cut in the number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance, which was down by 12,100 last month to 1.56 million, the lowest since June 2011. The number of job vacancies in the economy increased by 10,000 to almost half a million at the end of last year, the highest number for four years. |
A woman has died and another was injured after they were hit by a vehicle on a pedestrian crossing. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
They were struck by a blue Volkswagen Sharan on the A338 at Tidworth, close to the Esso petrol station, at about 14:35 GMT on Tuesday. A 55-year-old woman, Ludgershall, died at the scene and a woman, in her 20s, suffered minor injuries. A woman who was driving the vehicle remained at the scene. No arrests have been made. Police are appealing for witnesses and anyone who has dashcam footage to contact them. |
South America's second poorest nation is bracing for an oil boom that could catapult it to the top of the continent's rich list - and beyond. But can Guyana avoid the so-called oil curse and ensure that its newfound riches benefit all Guyanese? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Simon MaybinAssignment, BBC World Service "Many people still do not get how big this is," then-US Ambassador to Guyana Perry Holloway told a reception in the capital, Georgetown, last November. "Come 2025, GDP will go up by 300% to 1,000%. This is gigantic. You will be the richest country in the hemisphere and potentially the richest country in the world." It may sound far-fetched, but with a population of around 750,000, in per capita terms, Guyana's wealth is set to skyrocket. ExxonMobil, the main operator in Guyana, says it has discovered more than 5.5 billion barrels' worth of oil beneath the country's waters in the Atlantic Ocean. 'Oil curse' The money would certainly be welcome. This former British colony - the only English-speaking country in South America - has high rates of unemployment and poverty. But history carries a warning for Guyana. The discovery of big oil in other developing nations has exacerbated existing corruption, leading to the new oil wealth being squandered and stolen. It has become known as the oil curse. You may also be interested in: In Guyana, "corruption is rampant," says Troy Thomas, the head of the local chapter of global anti-corruption NGO Transparency International. He says he is "very worried" about the oil curse. A political crisis in recent months has been seen by some as an early sign of the curse's effects. After the governing coalition lost a no-confidence vote in December, rather than call elections it challenged the vote in the courts. That has led to protests. "All we're asking for is for the government to respect our constitution," a demonstrator tells me, standing on the road outside Guyana's ministry of the presidency. "They just want to remain in power and control the oil money," she adds. The legal battle has continued and this week the Caribbean Court of Justice is hearing the latest appeal in the case. Betting on education "We've seen the experiences in other countries," says Vincent Adams, the new head of Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency, who worked for three decades at the US Department of Energy. "They got all this oil wealth and a lot of those countries are now worse off than before oil." For Mr Adams, there is one key to avoiding that trap: "Education, education, education is the foundation. It's the best investment that this country or any country can make." He is leading a push to revamp the faculty of engineering at the University of Guyana, the country's biggest higher education provider. But preparing young Guyanese for the lucrative new industry has not been straightforward. "Unfortunately for us, we don't have right now labs for a petroleum engineering programme," says Elena Trim, the dean of the faculty. It has also been a challenge attracting academic talent with the relevant expertise. "Our salaries are not that high," she says with an ironic chuckle. "So people are applying to the University of Guyana and when we tell them our salary level, they actually don't want to take the offer." Nonetheless, even at this early stage, Guyana's oil industry has already been taking on the faculty's graduates from other engineering specialisms. Two years ago, 10 were given jobs. Last year, the same company asked for 20 more. "Now they [are] taking our students like hotcakes," says Ms Trim. Scepticism abounds In Sophia, one of Georgetown's poorest neighbourhoods, there is less optimism. Some of the self-built houses and shacks only got access to electricity and running water this century. "Quite frankly, in this community, it's close to 10% of the city's population who live here, but 10% of the city's resources are not being spent in here," Colin Marks tells me at the youth centre he set up. That helps to explain the scepticism about how far the benefits of oil will spread. "Most people are sensitive to it. Because there's more negativity on what it could do for Guyana than positivity. And that's happening because what is happening at the political level. I mean, you're hearing about what happened in Guinea, what happened in Nigeria - Venezuela's next door, you know. So people are very, very sensitive, and not too sure." "In a grassroots community like this, people just want know that if there is money in oil, we want a share of it. We want to benefit from it." Listen to Simon Maybin's report, Guyana - bracing for the oil boom, on Assignment on the BBC World Service or on the BBC Sounds app. |
Angelina Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after doctors estimated she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer. How was that figure calculated and how does it differ from other women's risk of getting the disease? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ben CarterBBC News Jolie's chances of developing breast cancer were so high because she inherited a mutated BRCA 1 gene from her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56. The BRCA1 is present in everyone but only mutates in one in 1,000 people. Anyone with the mutation has a 50-80% chance of developing breast cancer. But Jolie's risk figure was calculated to be even higher because of other factors, including family history. "There are various computer programmes where you can input genetic information, family history and other things and it will calculate a figure, which is why she's got this very precise sounding number," says Dr Kat Arney, a senior science manager at Cancer Research UK. But what are the chances of getting breast cancer if you don't have a mutated gene? It is already "the top cancer in women both in the developed and the developing world", according to the World Health Organization - and in many countries, it's becoming more common. Incidence increased in the UK by 90% between 1971 and 2010. It is also on the rise in the developing world. This is partly explained by the fact that people are living longer and cancer is generally a disease that affects people in later life. In the UK, the chance of developing breast cancer before the age of 30 is roughly 0.05% (one in 2,000). It goes up to 2% (one in 50) before the age of 50 and 7.7% (one in 13) before the age of 70. However, it is after the age of 70 that the risk is highest. A third of all incidences of breast cancer occur in women aged over 70. Overall, a woman living in the UK has a 12% chance of getting breast cancer during her lifetime. It's the same in the US. But increasing longevity isn't the only reason for the high incidence of breast cancer. "There is an increase in rates in younger women and it's for a number of reasons. We know that women's lifestyles are changing and being overweight and drinking a lot of alcohol is linked to breast cancer risk," says Arney. Changes in reproductive habits are also a factor. According to Cancer Research UK, the relative risk of developing breast cancer is estimated to increase by 3% for each year an adult woman delays becoming a mother. Women who breastfeed also reduce their risk. The longer a woman breastfeeds, the greater the protection. It's estimated that risk is reduced by 4% for every 12 months of breastfeeding. This may explain why women in richer countries have a higher risk of breast cancer. African women are four times less likely to get the disease because they have children at a younger age, have more of them and breastfeed them for longer. On the other hand, recovery rates are higher in developed countries. "Breast cancer survival rates [range] from 80% or over in North America, Sweden and Japan to around 60% in middle-income countries and below 40% in low-income countries," according the WHO. But with the number of cases of breast cancer rising in the UK, and in many other countries, how many women are taking the dramatic decision that Angelina Jolie was faced with - to have a mastectomy? The latest figures show that 18,000 operations were carried out in England in 2010/11. There are no official figures on how many of those were preventive but the figure is estimated to be between 5-10%. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
Abu Sayyaf is one of the smallest and most violent jihadist groups in the southern Philippines. Its name means "bearer of the sword" and it is notorious for kidnapping for ransom, and for attacks on civilians and the army. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In 2004 it bombed a ferry in Manila Bay, killing 116 people. In the last year it has taken several people hostage - Malaysian and Indonesian workers, Western tourists and one Filipina among them. Three groups of Indonesians and Malaysians were released earlier in 2016, but two Canadians, Robert Hall and John Ridsdel, were killed after the Canadian government refused to pay the ransom demanded for them. What does it want? Abu Sayyaf has its roots in the separatist insurgency in the southern Philippines, an impoverished region where Muslims make up a majority of the population in contrast to the rest of the country, which is mainly Roman Catholic. It broke from the broader Moro National Liberation Front in 1991 because it disagreed with the MNLF's policy of pursuing autonomy and wanted to establish an independent Islamic state. Its founder, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, was an Islamic preacher who fought in the Soviet-Afghan war, where he is said to have met Osama Bin Laden and been inspired by him. Al-Qaeda provided the group with funding and training when it was initially set up. After Janjalani died, the group split into two main networks whose leaders were then killed in 2006 to 2007. Since then, Abu Sayyaf has operated as a collection of factions that work with each other through kinship or personal ties but which also occasionally compete against each other. The beheading of a Malaysian hostage, Bernard Then, in 2015, for example, is reported to have resulted from a breakdown in negotiations as one of the two factions holding him wanted more money than was demanded, and different parties involved in the negotiations all sought a share of the ransom. The group is believed to have an estimated 400 members and, since 2014, several of its factions have declared their allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group. Isnilon Tontoni Hapilon, one of Abu Sayyaf's most prominent leaders, has been recognised as the leader of all IS-aligned groups in the Philippines. Filipino authorities have characterised the pledges as opportunistic attempts to obtain funds from IS. But IS has recognised some pledges and its de facto news agency, A'maq, has reported two recent major clashes between Philippine armed forces and militant groups, adding to the likelihood of a relationship between them. How dangerous is the group? Abu Sayyaf's hostages tend to be released if the ransom demanded for them is paid. This has been the outcome for most of their hostages. The group is known to kill captives if its demands are not met. Its recent kidnap of 18 Indonesians and Malaysians has also prompted fears of the maritime region becoming a "new Somalia", as Indonesia's chief security minister put it, which could disrupt regional trade. The Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre has warned ships to stay clear of small suspicious vessels in the area and Indonesia and Malaysia have proposed joint patrols in the Sulu Sea to prevent further incidents. There are also fears that the group could be supporting terrorist activities by other IS-linked groups in the region. Investigators looking into the Jakarta attack in January said the weapons used in it had come from the southern Philippines. While there is no evidence that Abu Sayyaf was involved in this, the group has long had ties to prominent Indonesian militant groups like Mujahidin Indonesia Timur and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Several JI members involved in the Bali bombings found shelter with the group after fleeing Indonesia. There is also evidence it has links to jihadist groups in the Middle East. Recently the body of a Moroccan bomb expert, Mohammad Khattab, was discovered following a battle between the group and the Philippine army. What is the Philippine government doing about it? The Philippine army and police have been hunting the group in an attempt to defeat it and rescue its hostages for several months. A clash in early April between the army and the group resulted in 18 soldiers dead and 56 wounded, the army's worst casualties in a year. The presidential office has said that Abu Sayyaf is "on the run" but fighting hard. It is not clear what approach incoming President Rodrigo Duterte will adopt once he takes office from 30 June. On one hand he has threatened to invade Jolo if the kidnappers holding two remaining hostages - Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor - do not surrender. On the other he has indicated he is willing to negotiate with them, saying "we don't go to war with our own people". Some observers argue that the roots of Abu Sayyaf lie in the economic and political disparities between the south and other parts of the country. "As long as Muslims continue to be oppressed, there will always be Abu Sayyaf," the vice-chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Ghazali Jaafar, has said. BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. |
The Brit Awards have been handed out in London, honouring the biggest and best music artists of the past 12 months. Here is the full list of contenders, with winners in bold. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
British male solo artist British female solo artist British breakthrough act British group British single British album of the year International male solo artist International female solo artist International group British live act British producer Special recognition award War Child Critics' choice Winner: Tom Odell Also nominated: Brits global success (for international sales in 2012) One Direction |
Schools across Norfolk have been shut for a third day due to the severe cold weather. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Staff are blaming ice and poor travel conditions among the reasons to close but some are staying open for student exams. Greater Anglia is reporting rail delays between Norwich and London and Norwich and Great Yarmouth due to broken down trains. Temperatures in Norfolk are expected to remain below freezing all day. A full list of school closures can be found here. |
In three weeks time 55,000 pupils in Scotland will leave primary school and in August they will be the first wave of youngsters to be taught the curriculum for excellence in secondary school. But what exactly is this new curriculum? Why has it become so controversial? In the first of three reports BBC Scotland's education correspondent, Seonag MacKinnon, examines the case for change. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Two maths teachers once told me the first time they ever had to put their skills to practical use was in retirement. They were in their new home in the Highlands and had to calculate the amount of curtain material needed for irregular shaped windows. Even they seemed to wonder sometimes why youngsters were being taught subjects such as trigonometry and calculus. Six years ago leading figures in education called for lessons in which there is an emphasis on learning skills and information which can be applied in the real world. The cross party parliamentary grouping which included Mike Russell the Education secretary, then an opposition MSP, said after much deliberation that they also wanted to see lessons with more depth. They argued one of the main weaknesses of the present curriculum was that it was a mile wide and an inch deep. Pupils skate over the surface of a large amount of information, they said, and then memorise it to regurgitate it in essays and exams. Within months young people may have largely forgotten much of what they studied. Peter Peacock, then education minister, was persuaded to authorise pared- down, more relevant lessons. Some teachers argued weaknesses of the status quo had been exaggerated but on the whole the profession was behind the plan. Since then the changes branded by the government as the "curriculum for excellence" have been phased into schools. As the move to more hands-on and informal lessons had not constituted much of a revolution for primaries the change in this sector had been largely untroubled and was well under way. From August all primary - and secondary schools - are expected to be operating the new curriculum although the government said it was likely to be phased in over months and years. The goal is lessons with more depth and relevance. Basic reading But another objective is to tackle the taciturn, passive role many pupils play in class. Employers and the wider world have often complained of school leavers' limited ability to communicate with colleagues, bosses and clients and a limited ability to work effectively in a team. And there have been many complaints that pupils struggle with basic reading, writing and numeracy. Campaigners also say that in state schools only a minority seem to have a rounded education Of late, if activities such as First Aid lessons and Duke of Edinburgh award schemes have been taking place at all, they have tended to be after school and attended only by those who stay behind. The above is a summary of the case made for changing the curriculum. Questions remain. Are the changes being properly implemented? Is there any real evidence they'll work? And at any level are we taking a gamble with children's future. In my second piece I will explore some of these issues. |
Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts has been elected Plaid Cymru's leader at Westminster. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
She succeeds Hywel Williams, the MP for Arfon, who had been in the post for almost two years. Ms Saville Roberts became Plaid's first female MP at the 2015 general election, succeeding party colleague Elfyn Llwyd who stood down after 23 years. Plaid Cymru now have four MPs, after Ben Lake won Ceredigion from the Lib Dems in last week's election. |
The BBC World Service has launched a special podcast series to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. 13 Minutes to the Moon details the final phase of the descent to the lunar surface - and the months and years that led up to those extraordinary moments. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kevin FongBBC World Service Presenter Kevin Fong recalls meeting the unique cast of characters that contributed to the podcasts, including some of the last surviving Apollo astronauts. In the making of 13 Minutes to the Moon, we spent the best part of four weeks travelling around the United States looking for the people who, one day in 1969, had somehow got a man safely to the surface of another world. In Texas, we found Charlie Duke, lunar module pilot on Apollo 16, and Walt Cunningham, who served as command module pilot during Apollo 7, the inaugural test flight. In Chicago, we interviewed the legendary Jim Lovell, who orbited the Moon in 1968 on the audacious flight of Apollo 8, and of course later commanded the ill-fated Apollo 13. The very first of our interviews for the series was with Michael Collins who, along with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, completed the crew of Apollo 11 on the mission that saw human beings land on the Moon for the very first time in the summer of 1969. I remember arriving at a cheap hotel somewhere on the western edge of the Everglades in Florida the night before and standing in the car park staring up into the night sky at the waxing Moon, knowing that the next day I'd be talking to someone who had once flown there. But the astronauts were merely the most visible tip of a gargantuan iceberg. In total, no fewer than 400,000 people were involved in Project Apollo. Nearly all of them felt deeply connected to the mission and, although only a handful of people finally flew to the Moon, in a very real sense the factory workers, engineers, technicians and scientists that worked as part of the Apollo programme felt that, on 20 July 1969, part of them landed on the Moon, too. We wanted to tell all of those stories, framed by the drama of the last 13 minutes of descent before touchdown on the lunar surface. That period of the mission was rife with crisis and, as Armstrong would later testify, "rampant with unknowns". As Armstrong and Aldrin descended from 50,000ft above the Moon, radio communications with Earth broke down; the lunar module was running long on its target landing site; the onboard computer - on which the astronauts absolutely depended - started flashing up error codes that the crew had never before seen; and in the final few seconds, it looked like Armstrong and Aldrin might actually run out of fuel. In the audio recordings from mission control of those final 13 minutes, you can hear the tension in every spoken word, every phrase and every silence. And so series producer Andrew Luck-Baker and I set about the task of trying to unpick those fraught moments and explain how the furious race to get a crew to the surface of the Moon - before the decade was out - conspired to create those exhilarating final moments. Growing up in the 1970s, in the afterglow of Project Apollo, I devoured everything I could find that told those stories: every television programme, every book, every magazine. Later it drove me to pursue science as a career. I studied astrophysics and then medicine at University College London, and later got the chance to work with Nasa at Johnson Space Center as a doctor and visiting researcher. That life and the adventures that came with it were driven in no small part by the people who flew to the Moon. Even as a schoolchild, I think I understood that if people could fire human beings off the surface of our planet, and land them on another world, then surely anything - anything at all - must be possible. And so when the opportunity came to make this podcast series, I jumped at it. We interviewed dozens of people from all over the United States and, although it was quite something to spend time sitting in the living rooms of astronauts who had actually flown to and walked on the Moon, it was our interview with former flight controller Stephen Bales that for me stood head and shoulders above all the rest. I like to think of Steve as the Luke Skywalker of the Apollo programme. He grew up in a farming community in Iowa but on clear nights he would go outside, stare up into vast dark skies filled with stars and dream of the adventure of space. Later, equipped with a degree in engineering, he journeyed from rural Iowa to the hustle and bustle of the city of Houston. He started at first as an intern at Johnson. Little more than an office junior, he gave visiting VIPs tours of mission control. But he stole away from those duties whenever he could, to talk to the flight controllers about their job of running the systems for spacecraft and their human occupants, hurtling through space far above them. This, he decided, was where he wanted to be, part of the team who ran the missions. And in time his boyish enthusiasm won through. When President John F Kennedy set his nation on course for the Moon, to arrive in the course of a single decade, Nasa had to scrabble together a workforce capable of delivering that promise. They hired quickly and often without interview, choosing instead to get people who had the requisite skills and then evaluate them on the job. The flight controllers in mission control were incredibly young - for Project Apollo their average age was just 26 years old. And while it seems strange that such huge responsibility would be given to a bunch of fresh-faced employees, not long out of university, their youth was for the most part regarded as a significant asset. "It wasn't that they didn't understand the risks," Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin told me, "they just weren't afraid." Fearless and prepared to give themselves entirely to the task, they were exactly what the space programme needed. Steve rapidly worked his way up, from a technician's position, supporting missions from the back rooms, to a seat in mission control as a flight controller for Project Gemini. By that time, he was only 23 years old. In mission control someone was always watching, even if you weren't sure who and, as attention turned from the Gemini's orbital flights to the business of Project Apollo and a landing on the Moon, Steve was assigned to the Guidance, Navigation and Control team. These were the people responsible for shaping the spacecraft's path as it flew through space. During exhausting simulations in the months leading up to 20 July 1969, Steve continued to impress. As the mission managers began to assemble the team of flight controllers who would be in the room for Apollo 11's historic first attempt at a landing on the Moon, Steve - now all of 26 - found himself somehow in the mix. For the landing, he would take his seat as the guidance officer, one of mission control's most critical roles. And the enormity of that task was not lost on him. "Here's some 26-year-old kid," he told me, wide-eyed in disbelief even after 50 years, "a kid who can stop a space mission!" In the midst of Armstrong's and Aldrin's descent in those final 13 minutes the crew and their essential support team in mission control were beset by problem after problem. They were travelling too quickly across the lunar surface and in danger of overshooting their planned landing site. Their radio communications with Earth became patchy and then, as they sank still closer to the surface, their onboard computer threw up a series of alarms that the crew had never seen before, alarms that they didn't understand. For the landing on the Moon, the crew depended almost entirely on their onboard auto-pilot - the Apollo Guidance Computer. And although today we like to joke about how limited the processing power of that computer was, at the time it was by far the most complex and sophisticated device aboard the spacecraft. Its ability to assist the astronauts in this near impossible feat was absolutely essential to the success of the mission. The on-board computer display and keyboard together resembled a giant calculator and its rudimentary display was able to flash up only a series of numbers to display information and help identify problems. On the mission audio, recorded from the cabin, you can hear Buzz Aldrin and then Neil Armstrong call out the string of digits appearing on the display: 1202, which they read across the void as, "Twelve-oh-two." In mission control, nobody understood what was happening. Was the computer about to fail? Were they going to have to abort the landing? Were Armstrong's and Aldrin's lives in danger? There was a pause of a few seconds while the team scrambled to try to find an answer and in that time, the normally ice-cool Neil Armstrong broke into the radio transmission again, almost gabbling the words: "Give me a reading on the twelve-oh-two." It is the only time anyone that we spoke to can ever remember hearing a note of urgency in the astronaut's voice. In the 15 seconds that passed from Armstrong and Aldrin first spotting the alarm, Steve Bales talked with his backroom support team, desperately searching for a response to Armstrong's urgent question. The seconds ticked by with the lunar module still falling toward the Moon and with the crew still unsure if their vital onboard computer was still up to the task of guiding them through the landing. This was the essence of mission control. The Apollo flights threw up problems with complex systems, that arose in real time, and which had to be solved by human operators in the moment. And while Armstrong waited all eyes turned to Steve Bales, the boy from Iowa. From the backroom, Steve's colleague Jack Garman recognised the 1202 code as being similar to something they had seen in a simulation from several weeks earlier. It told them that the computer was struggling but still working and able to perform its mission-critical tasks. On that occasion, when the alarm occurred during their dress rehearsal, Steve had aborted the mission unnecessarily and had been admonished for doing so. So, when the 1202 alarm flashed up during the final minutes of Apollo 11's descent, Steve Bales quickly had an answer: "We're go on that flight." And the rest of course is history. We spoke to flight controllers and directors about Steve Bales. They painted a picture of an irrepressible young man, brimming over with enthusiasm but who was nevertheless highly capable and absolutely dependable. Having grown up dreaming about the stars, that night in the summer of 1969, he somehow found himself in the middle of one of the most difficult and critical decisions of the whole Apollo programme and made a split-second judgement that saved the mission. Afterwards, when the crew were safely on the surface, flight director Gene Kranz led him out to join him at a frenzied press conference. And when his shift in mission control was finally done he wove his way down the long corridors that led from the mission operations control room into the blazing Houston sunshine. Bleary-eyed he stood there blinking. The boy from Iowa who had helped put a human being on the Moon. Our road trip across America in search of the people and stories that together were the essence of the Apollo programme was a labour of pure love. Everywhere we turned there were stories just like Steve's, with the safety and success of the mission perpetually in the balance. Someone once said of Neil Armstrong that he's one of the few people of the 20th Century who has a chance of being remembered in the 30th Century. But Armstrong was merely the tip of the spear, and our podcast series gives us a chance to celebrate not only him and his astronaut brethren, but also the genuinely remarkable army of people without whom we would never have set foot on the Moon. The first episode of 13 Minutes To The Moon will be available for download on 13 May, with further episodes released every Monday, culminating in a final edition on 20 July, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing itself. The podcasts can be downloaded from the BBC and from leading platforms around the globe. |
"Portland is a city where young people go to retire." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ashitha NageshBBC News Fred Armisen declared this - in song form - in the opening scene of the sketch comedy show Portlandia in January 2011. The show satirised the city on the US West Coast for its "hipster" culture - a city that gave unicyclists the right of way, where people brewed kombucha before it became mainstream, and whose slogan was literally "Keep Portland Weird". Four years later, with the city in the throes of rapid gentrification, beloved Portland magazine Willamette Week declared to its readers that this moment in 2011 was officially the day "Old Portland", the one that was fun, bohemian and "weird", died. If the "Old Portland" was seen as a liberal utopia, then the "New Portland", in 2020, is characterised by civil rights protests, violent clashes between far-right and anti-fascist groups, and images of federal agents indiscriminately bundling protesters into unmarked vehicles. While Old Portlanders may have discussed their vegan cheese side-businesses, New Portlanders bond over how many times they've been tear-gassed. But this change wasn't as much of a leap as it may seem on the surface. While the Portlandia stereotype endured for almost a decade, the reality for Portlanders themselves was very different. In the 2010s, wealthy outsiders relocated themselves and their businesses to the city in the hopes of capitalising on its "cool", while East Coast publications repeated the show's joke about Portland being "a retirement community for the young". The city's residents were frequently caricatured as the kind of people who use "cacao" as a safe word. At the same time, Portlanders struggled to afford rents that were increasing at one of the fastest rates in the country; beloved local shops were being pushed out in favour of chains and high-rise apartment blocks; and the small businesses parodied on Portlandia, such as the feminist bookshop In Other Words, hit out at the show and everything it represented. Locals explicitly blamed the show for hastening unwanted development in the city. By the time the series ended in 2018, few Portlanders looked back fondly on its influence. For people of colour in Portland in particular, there was something egregious about the city's "Portlandia" reputation. The show - and subsequent portrayals of the city in national media - seemed to whitewash life in what was already an extremely white city. "I've never looked to Portlandia or other cultural phenomena for self-affirmation," said activist Cameron Whitten, who set up the Black Resilience Fund during this summer's protests. "Much of what Portland is famous for was not made for me or people who look like me." Mr Whitten moved to Portland from Northern Virginia in 2009, at the age of 18. His first day in Oregon was marred by racism. "My first day in the state, my friend and I drove to Albany to stay at their dad's house," he said. "After the first night there, we were told to leave because his father was uncomfortable with a black man in his home. I remember that I laughed, because I was surprised by the absurdity of the situation… But I don't find it funny anymore. I've now lived in Oregon for more than a decade, and I'm reminded daily that because of my skin colour, I can be looked at as different, other, and less." A city 'built on white supremacy' Portland is often called the whitest big city in the US - about 72% of its population is non-Latino white, while only about 6.6% of the population is black (compared to 12.7% of the overall US population). This is something black history and urban development scholars say is by design, not happenstance. Prof Shirley Jackson, a Black Studies professor at Portland State University, said that it was important to remember that Oregon was founded on the basis of "excluding certain populations, namely African-Americans". Although the provisional government of the territory banned slavery in 1844, it also required all African-Americans to leave Oregon - any black person who stayed would be publicly flogged every six months until they left. Five years later, in 1849, another law was passed forbidding free African-Americans from entering the territory, and in 1857 Oregon adopted a state constitution banning black people from entering, living or owning property in the state. In 1859, when Oregon joined the union ahead of the civil war, it was the only state to explicitly forbid black people from living within its borders. Going into the 20th Century, the deadly, white supremacist Ku Klux Klan had increasing influence in the state. In one particularly telling photo, published by a local newspaper in 1921 and preserved by the Oregon History Project, two representatives of the KKK's Oregon chapter, wearing hoods and robes, posed with some of the state's most powerful officials - including the police chief and the district attorney. One moment in particular is seared into the black community's collective memory - the Vanport disaster. During World War Two, black people were recruited from across the US to work at a shipyard on the Columbia River, about five miles north of Portland. They were housed in a new development called Vanport, which was built in 110 days. At its height, Prof Jackson said, about 40,000 people lived there. But it was always intended to be a temporary housing project. "After the war ended, many white Portlanders had hoped that the black people who came to work at the shipyards would return to the states from which they had originally come. Although some did, at least one-third of the 18,500 residents who remained in Vanport were black," she explained. "On 30 May 1948, Memorial Day, the waters of the Columbia River flooded Vanport and after six years of existence, it disappeared. For the 6,000 Black people who found themselves without housing, it was especially traumatic." At least 15 people died - although some at the time believed the housing authority had quietly destroyed hundreds more bodies to cover up its slow response to the disaster. Surviving residents, who had been assured that the housing was safe, now had to try and find new homes in Portland. The Red Cross tried to help, but struggled because of deep-seated racism in the city. Housing was also limited "due to racial covenants that restricted whites from selling their homes to blacks", said Prof Jackson. "Many ended up in north and north-east Portland," she said. "It is ironic that gentrification has [now] added to the movement of blacks out of the very areas that they were confined to. Today, these areas are populated in large part by white people, as black people have moved to the surrounding cities of Gresham, Beaverton, and Hillsboro." Entrenched inequality to the present day Racism has persisted in Portland. A housing audit in 2011 found that landlords in the city discriminated against black and Latino tenants 64% of the time, by charging them extra fees, higher rents or demanding larger deposits, while black school pupils are four to five times more likely than their white classmates to be suspended or expelled. Another report on racism from Portland State University and the Coalition of Communities of Color, published in 2014, found that black people were still disadvantaged in employment, health and high school graduation rates, compared to both white Portlanders and black families in the rest of the US. Average incomes and rates of home ownership are also significantly lower for black Portlanders than for their white neighbours and black Americans generally. Activist Gregory McKelvey has been heavily involved in this summer's protests. The city, he says, has only been able to see itself as a "liberal utopia" by adopting a colour-blind approach to racism - which for him means ignoring it. "Portland is allowed to have a reputation as a progressive or edgy city because it does not have to reckon with its racist past, policing or segregation due to the demographics of the city," he said. "Portland is certainly a lovely city and is a beautiful place to live - but part of what it is built upon is colonialism, white supremacy and segregation. Many people say Portland is a place that pushes black people out of neighbourhoods and replaces them with 'Black Lives Matter' signs." A moment of reckoning But could this year's protests change how Portland reflects on its present - and its past? The protests - which have now gone on for nearly 100 consecutive days - were sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, and at least initially were explicitly held in support of Black Lives Matter. When protesters established an autonomous zone in the city in June, they named it after a black man who was killed by Portland police in 2018. They made global headlines in July, when federal agents were deployed to the city. Mr Whitten said he didn't know what impact the ongoing protests would have on racial inequality in the city. But he said he was feeling hopeful. "Frederick Douglass once said, 'power concedes nothing without a demand'. I hope that these protests fuel powerful demands that lead to the transformation we've been longing for." Prof Jackson is less optimistic. She said it was "ironic" that the protests had, in her opinion, "taken attention away from Black Lives Matter, and have become something completely different - we have come to a point where the Black Lives Matter movement is being hijacked for anti-government causes". Gregory McKelvey, meanwhile, doesn't believe these protests alone will trigger a reckoning. It was "frustrating", he said, that the movement was being framed by politicians as an issue of Democrats v Republicans, diverting the focus away from the local issues. "Portland Police is the target of most of the protests, not Donald Trump. Our (local) elected officials want to deflect the issue to Trump and many national audiences allow that to happen because they care more about what is happening at the federal level than in our small city. "For Portlanders, this has always been about Portland and nothing will change that." |
I am seeing spots. More specifically polka dots, on a white maxi dress. Three women have walked by me - all wearing the same identical dress - in the half hour I've been sitting outside this café. I know it's from Zara, I've tried it on, and now I'm seeing those spots everywhere. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Priya PatelBusiness reporter It is the dress of the summer, another viral Zara fashion statement, complete with a dedicated Instagram account set up by fans. Just one sign of how the Spanish clothing giant is bucking the trend of many of its struggling High Street competitors and posting record sales. Considering the success and size of the company, it might be thought of as a bit of an enigma. It doesn't advertise, it does little marketing and its boss, who was named best performing chief executive in the world by a business magazine last year, has not given any big interviews, until now. Pablo Isla recently laid out plans for Zara's future and said it was all about a digital and sustainable transformation. But is it possible for a company to be sustainable, when the entire business is about getting shoppers to buy as much fashion as possible? 'No contradiction' Speaking at their campus-like headquarters in northern Spain, Pablo Isla, the chairman of Zara and its parent company Inditex, tackled the sustainability issue. "There is no contradiction at all between sustainability and profitability of the company," he says. "In the next year, all our stores in the world will be efficient - this means their consumption of energy and water is significantly lower. If your energy consumption is 20% less, you have a return." In fact some of the key ways in which the business works helps with its sustainability goal. Mr Isla explains that Zara works with a "low level of inventory". This helps the retailer minimise waste and avoid discounting huge amounts of clothing. On my tour of the headquarters, I walk past rows of desks where staff are analysing instant data from Zara's store managers. They use this information to decide what to make each week - Zara's factories will only make what they know will sell. Most of Zara's clothes are manufactured at its sites in Spain or in nearby Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. 'Long-term relations' One of the key factories producing Zara's womenswear is just next to the head office. This way of working is all about speed, which allows Zara to get fresh trends into stores before their competitors. But it hasn't always meant being able to keep a close eye on standards. Two years ago, some Zara customers in Turkey found notes in clothes from workers saying they hadn't been paid and asking for them to back calls for better working standards. When asked about it, Mr Isla says working with these suppliers was an "evolution". He says "the most important thing is the idea of long-term relations with our suppliers" when it comes to keeping an eye on working conditions. Fashion Revolution is an independent organisation which monitors where clothes come from and how ethical they are. They say Zara needs to provide more information about where their clothes are made to be held accountable for standards. "Inditex, which owns Zara, remains one of the major fashion retailers that is dragging its feet on publishing a list of its manufacturers," says Fashion Revolution policy director Sarah Ditty. "Other brands have published a list and proved that doing so doesn't hurt them competitively. " Recycled plastics Back at headquarters, I wander through the pilot store built on-site - a perfectly-kept Zara shop where everything is in place - but there are no shoppers. This is where Zara test how everything should look and feel, from lighting to displays. They are aiming to reach zero waste in store - all packaging is made from recyclable cardboard and plastic. Recycling is a big theme for the clothes too. They have been working with the renowned US university MIT to develop ways of making fabric from recycled plastics. I take the opportunity to feel the texture of some of the latest recycled plastic clothes from their sustainable line. The cloth feels silky to the touch. Mr Isla has committed to 100% of the cotton, linen, and polyester used by Zara - and all of its sister companies - being organic, sustainable, or recycled by 2025. Sarah Ditty from Fashion Revolution says that while it is great to see Zara taking steps to incorporate more sustainable material into its ranges, it is essential action that all brands should be taking. However, she highlights that the real issue is all about the sheer volume of clothes they make. Inditex reported putting over 1.5 billion products on the market in 2017 alone. Even with more environmentally-friendly materials, producing that many items each year is unsustainable for our living planet. How much clothing we buy is a marker of just how much the industry has grown and changed in a short space of time. The UK has the highest rate of consumption in Europe, at 27.6kg per person per year. Customer decisions Indeed, Zara has an enormous turnaround, fashion influencer Jasmine Jonas tells me. "I feel confident walking into a Zara, [being] able to find something that will look good, fit well, and that I can afford. But across the board, demand for eco-conscience clothing is rising." It's not just Fashion Revolution - many campaigners say the only way to truly tackle sustainability in fashion is to make and sell less. But how can that be a solution for Zara and Inditex if they want to keep those record-breaking sales? "It's always the customers' decision of how much do they buy of each particular product," says Mr Isla. "I think our responsibility as a company is taking care of manufacturing our products in a very sustainable way. Each customer, each person, is free to decide how much would he or she like to buy at any point in time, if this person wants to spend money going to a restaurant or buying clothes... this is the freedom that each person has." "Should I, shouldn't I?" is the age-old changing room debate, but does it take on a new dimension if, as Pablo Isla says, it is ultimately in shoppers' hands to decide the crucial sustainability issue? In the meantime, Zara says it will do what it can to keep the environmental conundrum for customers to a minimum. |
Arriving at the Hyatt Century City Plaza hotel, or rather the massive tent that had been erected just outside it, all that could be heard was the tell-tale thump-thump-thump of the biggest viral hit the internet has ever known - Gangnam Style. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Dave LeeTechnology reporter, BBC News Inside the venue, row after row of empty seats which had been laid out to line a catwalk and small stage. Empty because right there, on the catwalk, was the strangest mix of dancers you're ever likely to see - Super Mario. Wonder Woman, The Doctor and dozens more. All up there. Gangnam Styling. Thump-thump-thump. It was the climactic point of LA Cosplay Con, the first of what the organisers hope will be an annual gathering of "cosplayers" - people who dress up like characters from, mostly, video games and comics. Los Angeles is a fitting place to hold an event like this, as it was in this city where the term cosplay - a portmanteau of costume and play - was apparently coined back in the 80s. It's a hobby known to some as one of those typically eccentric Japanese pastimes that "normal" people just can't fathom, but in reality, its popularity is sweeping the world. For one day in sunny California, a slice of that diversity had come together. "This is basically where a bunch of kids, who never outgrew the dressing-up phase of our lives, now spend a lot more time and money than we probably should into these costumes," explained Kevin, who'd come as a cosplay classic, Super Mario - a get-up slightly spoiled, if we're to be picky, by his thick beard - he'd opted not to shave into Mario's trademark 'tache. So close. "It's about embodying the character that you love so dearly," he said, through the beard. "This is a chance to come and see other people who do the same thing and not be judged - in fact, you get praised." Praised indeed. As part of the event, prizes were given out for the best costumes. The winner this year was a man who had come dressed as Black Panther. To be clear, that's Black Panther from Marvel Comics - not to be confused with the Black Panther movement of the 1960s and 70s. On its website, Marvel Comics explained that Black Panther - widely regarded as the first mainstream black comic-book hero - is a "brilliant tactician, strategist, scientist, tracker and a master of all forms of unarmed combat whose unique hybrid fighting style incorporates acrobatics and aspects of animal mimicry". Impressive. Here, Black Panther is being ably represented by Shawn - a bus driver. "In the future I can see cosplay becoming really big," he said. "It will be something you see a lot more - people enjoying themselves like this." It's hard to disagree when surrounded by people of the same mind as Shawn. To an outsider, cosplaying sits at the very edge of the nerd spectrum, the most public display of geekiness imaginable. But here, it does look fun. Less fun, at least some of the people here would argue, was what was happening just down the road during that very same week: E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's the Western world's biggest video games show. And while there are lots of dressed-up people at E3, the two groups could not be more different. "The booth babes," said Shawn, who has been to E3, but doesn't make a habit of it. "Some of them may be really interested in the character they dress up as... but my experience is that they're there just to get paid. "The big difference is the heart. The heart you get into that character versus someone who is just there getting paid. "It takes a lot of heart, a lot of courage." The criticism of booth babes - on these pages and elsewhere - is that it's an exercise in skin-flashing to pull in businessmen. If the quality of a product doesn't sell it, maybe the tightness of the hotpants will. But it isn't the bare flesh that cosplayers disapprove of, according to Becky Young, one of the organisers of LA Cosplay Con, and a prolific and well-known cosplayer (if you're into that sort of thing). "A lot of people criticise the tiny clothes in our culture as well," she said, while dressed as Osgood, a character who has appeared in just one episode of Doctor Who. "That's because the artists make characters that don't have many clothes," she reasoned. So what's the difference? "There's a little more artistry and passion in cosplay which is kind of what makes it so exciting. The people here make their clothing from scratch, or they go out and modify clothing that's out there." For a competition that is, in one form or other, about looks - the atmosphere is overwhelmingly welcoming. These are nice people, keen to demonstrate to an outsider that cosplaying is a hobby worth having, but that no, "baffled British journalist" was not a passable cosplay attempt. It goes beyond dressing up. The people here feel their community - cosplayers and gamers - sometimes come in for the wrong kind of attention. It's not just the perception of cosplayers, they argued, but gamers as a whole. Blaming violent games for mass shootings is a safer political bet, one attendee suggested, than blaming US gun laws. "They had a time when they targeted film, then they targeted music, now it's video games," said Heather Ellertson, LA Cosplay Con's organiser, and vice-president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), Her group was set up to represent what they say are the rights of gamers - principally, a right to not be misunderstood and used as a scapegoat. "We wanted to give our members, this group, an opportunity to have their voice heard." And it's a voice worth hearing, because despite the fierce weaponry on show here - a home-made axe, for instance - you'd be hard-pushed to find an event in this city that came close to being as welcoming and inclusive as this. So Gangnam on, fearless cosplayers. Gangnam on. Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC |
A video showing the body of a young man being callously thrown into the sea has sparked an international investigation, and shone a spotlight on the "slave-like" conditions allegedly suffered by Indonesian fishermen on board Chinese-owned vessels. This is the story of just two families, mourning sons and brothers who died trying to build a new life. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Callistasia Wijaya and Rebecca HenschkeBBC News Indonesia Sepri had never been to sea before, when he heard through a friend about the chance to work on a Chinese-owned fishing boat. The promised money on offer was beyond anything the 25-year-old could dream of earning in his village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. "He was so enthusiastic about suddenly being able to earn such big money for us," his sister Rika Andri Pratama remembers. With the assurance of training and a $400 (£326) a month salary, he set sail with a group of 22 Indonesian men on the Long Xing 629 fishing vessel in February last year. "Before he left, he borrowed some money from me," says Rika. "He said it would be the last time because he would come home with loads more and we could finally afford to renovate the family home." But Sepri never came home. No money was sent. And Rika didn't speak to her brother again. In early January, she received a letter. He had died at sea, his body thrown overboard into the Pacific Ocean. "My heart was crushed when I heard he was thrown into the sea," she says holding back tears. She was filled with guilt. "Before our mum died, her last words were, 'you should take care of your little brother'." Two other Indonesian crew members died on the Long Xing 629. Sepri and another man died within days of each other in December, after just 10 months at sea. While Ari, who was from the same village as Sepri, died in March this year, shortly before the rest of the crew were rescued. Like Sepri, their bodies were wrapped in cloth and thrown over the side. Like Sepri's, their families would never get the chance to say goodbye either. A third desperately ill man, Efendi Pasaribu, would make it to shore alive - but only just. There was a chance this could have all gone unnoticed - simply a few more deaths at sea - had the unceremonious sea burial captured on a mobile not come to light, and caused a public outcry in Indonesia. Instead, the video sparked a renewed debate about the abuse of fishermen aboard foreign vessels in Southeast Asia. Shockingly, the stories of life aboard the Long Xing 629 are eerily familiar, and come just five years after about 4,000 foreign fishermen, mostly from Myanmar (Burma), were rescued and freed from remote islands in Indonesia; some had been exploited in slave-like conditions for years. At the time Indonesia vowed to fight to end unregulated fishing and the exploitation of fishermen on foreign vessels. As the Long Xing 629's survivors began to talk, it became clear little had changed. 'All we could do was wash them and pray' Fellow crew mates, who requested only to be identified by their initials, said they were often beaten and kicked. They couldn't understand what their Chinese bosses were saying and it led to confusion and frustration. One of the crew told BBC Indonesia his friends' bodies all swelled up before they died. Another said they were forced to work 18-hour days and only given fish bait to eat. "They [the Chinese crew] drank mineral water, while we were only given poorly distilled sea water," 20-year-old NA said. When it became clear how sick Sepri and the others had become, NA says they pleaded with the captain to bring them to land for treatment. After the three men died, the crew begged to keep the bodies in a cooler so their friends could be buried in line with their Islamic customs once they reached the shore. But the captain told them that no one would want them. "He argued that every country would reject their bodies anyway," NA says. "All we could do was wash their bodies according to the Islamic law, pray and then throw them in to the sea." The captain finally agreed to move the remaining Indonesian crew members to another Chinese vessel which landed in Busan, South Korea. Efendi Pasaribu was still critically ill, but he was alive. 'Leaving for a better future' His mother, Kelentina Silaban, was able to video call her son while he lay in a hospital bed in Busan. Efendi was almost unrecognisable from the healthy 21-year-old who had said goodbye to her just over a year ago. "I said please, please just come home, we will take care of you in the village." Instead, her son's body was returned to her. They were told he had died from kidney failure and pneumonia. Before he left his village he had posted a photo of himself on social media, proudly pulling a suitcase, with the caption: "I am leaving in order to carve out a better future." Efendi ended up being buried close to the family home in rural Sumatra. "We hope that our brother's death helps uncover the slavery on foreign fishing vessels. We are hoping that this will be fully investigated," said his brother Rohman. Answers - not money Migrant rights groups are calling on the government to do much more to protect their citizens from becoming "slaves". The Indonesian government says the Long Xing 269 survivors - none of whom received their full salaries - were part of a group of 49 fishermen, ranging from 19 to 24, who had been forced to work in poor conditions on at least four fishing boats owned by the same Chinese company, Dalian Ocean fishing Co Ltd. It declined to respond to the allegations when contacted by the BBC, saying it would issue a statement on its website. No response has been released. Both countries are promising the families answers. Jakarta described the sailors' treatment as "inhumane", while the Chinese embassy in Jakarta described it as an "unfortunate incident". It has said that they are now carrying out a "comprehensive investigation" in partnership with Indonesia. In Indonesia, three men have been arrested as part of the investigation into the recruitment firms that hired the young men. They could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty under human trafficking laws. "We will ensure that the company has to fulfil our crews' rights," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a video conference. "Based on the information from the crews, the company has violated human rights," she added. The Indonesian fisherman agency association (IFMA) told BBC Indonesia that there are numerous unregistered agencies hiring crews with no oversight from the government. "There are so many requests from foreign vessels, these agencies just make the needed documents and send the men on on their way. There is no filter from the Indonesia side," said the group's vice president Tikno. In response to public pressure, the government says they are now considering putting in place a six-month moratorium on Indonesian fishermen going to work on foreign vessels. "This would allow us to have time to improve our oversight, so we can put in place a one-channel system where we have all the data we need to be able to monitor and make sure the rights of our fishermen are protected," fisheries ministry official Zulficar Mochtar said. Meanwhile, the recruitment firm who hired Rika's brother, Sepri, has promised to pay her 250 million rupiah (£13,000) in compensation. But she wants answers, not just money. "We need to know what happened on that vessel," she said. "Let us be the last family which has to experience this." Additional reporting by BBC Indonesia's Affan Hedyer and Raja Eben Lumbanrau |
India's democracy is facing serious challenges. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Soutik BiswasDelhi correspondent Nearly a third of MPs - 158 of 543, to be precise - in the parliament face criminal charges. Seventy-four of them face serious charges such as murder and abduction. There are more than 500 criminal cases against these lawmakers. These MPs hail from across the political spectrum. Twelve of the 205 MPs or 5% of the lawmakers in the ruling Congress Party face criminal charges. The main opposition BJP fares worse with 19 of 116 - or more than 16% - of its MPs facing charges. More than 60% of the MPs belonging to two key regional parties, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party - who profess to serve the poor and the untouchables - face criminal charges. Then there are allegations of rampant vote-buying by parties, especially in southern India. The Election Commission seized more than 600 million rupees ($13.3m; £8.3m) in cash in Tamil Nadu in the run-up to the state elections in April. It believes that the money was kept to buy votes. In an US embassy cable leaked by WikiLeaks in March, an American official was quoted as saying that one Tamil Nadu party inserted cash and a voting slip instructing which party to vote for in the morning newspapers - more innovative than handing out money directly to voters. The party concerned denies the charge. Independent election watchdogs believe that candidates routinely under-report or hide campaign expenses. During the 2009 general elections, nearly all of the 6753 candidates officially declared that they had spent between 45 to 55% of their expenses limit. After the recent state elections - in three states and one union territory - elected legislators declared that that the average amount of money spent in their campaigns to be only between 39% and 59% of their limits in their official declarations. A total of 76 legislators declared that they did not spend any money on public meetings and processions. There is something seriously amiss in the state of democracy in India. That is why, most believe, the country urgently needs electoral reforms. India's most respected election watchdog Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR) has rolled out a pointed wish-list to clean up India's politics and target corruption. I am sharing some of them: The desire for electoral reform is not new. Since 1990, there have been at least seven hefty comprehensive government-commissioned reports for such reforms. The Election Commission of India has been saying since 1998 that candidates with pending criminal cases against them should not be allowed to contest. If there is an overwhelming consensus about these reforms, why have governments sat on it for more than two decades? Ask the politicians. |
We want to let you know that your information is safe with us. This privacy notice tells you what personal information we collect about you, what we do with it, how long we use it for and who we share it with when you play an interactive quiz. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
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A reunited Blur are to debut two new songs on Twitter. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The band will play the new tracks, which have not been performed in public, in a live web stream next week. The performance on Monday comes ahead of their appearance at London's Hyde Park in August, in a show to mark the close of the Olympics. The quartet will play Under The Westway and The Puritan from a secret location in the UK. The songs will later be available to download and a limited edition vinyl 7in single will be released by Parlophone on 6 August. The live stream takes place on Twitter at 6.15pm on 2 July @blurofficial. There will also be an interview with the band. Frontman Damon Albarn said: "I wrote these songs for Hyde Park and I'm really excited about getting out there and playing them for people." The group - made up of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree - are also playing warm-up dates in August at Margate Winter Gardens, Wolverhampton Civic Hall and Plymouth Pavilions. |
This month the US government is launching its first-ever bug bounty programme - a 20-day scheme for cybersecurity savvy citizens to have a go at finding flaws in the Department of Defense's public websites before the illegal hackers do. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, BBC News There is a $150,000 (£106,000) pot for rewarding the finders of significant bugs. Unauthorised hacks make headlines and can have catastrophic consequences for the organisation that suffers a breach, so many seek to crowdsource their security in addition to employing their own in-house experts, offering financial rewards - known as bounties - as an incentive. Bugs are officially big business. Last month Uber announced that it too was entering the bug bounty arena with a scheme of its own, while firms like Facebook and Microsoft have been running them for years. Microsoft's top reward is currently up to $100,000 (£70,699) for "truly novel exploitation techniques against protections built into the latest version of our operating system" - or anything that bypasses all the security systems on the Windows platform. Generally a bug bounty programme will pay a reward based on how significant the find is. Facebook has so far paid out nearly $1m in bounties but the average pay-out in 2015 was $1,782 per bug - and its most prolific bug hunters were in India, Egypt, and Trinidad and Tobago, the social network says. Job opportunities "By having bug bounty programmes, companies make sure the best hackers look at their code," says computer scientist Gianluca Stringhini, assistant professor at University College London. "The more eyes look at the programme, the more bugs they find. It's also a way for these companies to identify talent." There's no doubt that if you're a successful part-time bug hunter you might even get a job out of it - security researcher Chris Vickery got his current role after doing just that. "When I found one of the databases of [software firm] MacKeeper, they turned around and said 'OK, we want to hire you to give us tips about data breaches'," he said. "That was an awesome response." So how do you go about it? Belgian bug hunter Arne Swinnen is currently ranked number two in Facebook's so-called white hat hall of fame - a surprisingly long list of the people who have helped it make its various platforms more secure by finding and telling it about vunerabilities before the cybercriminals exploit them. Mr Swinnen has a day job but in his spare time has netted around $15,000 (£10,604) finding system weaknesses in the last few months. "Some bugs that I've found they took me a couple of days, others only take five minutes. My biggest bug so far got me $2,500 (£1,767) and only cost me five minutes of my time." He started out by looking at Facebook-owned Instagram after researching bugs online and identifying that fewer bug bounty hunters appeared to have it in mind. "I looked to see what it had - website, mobile apps - I looked at their functionalities, and then started to look for vulnerabilities," he explains. Mr Swinnen admits it isn't exactly his girlfriend's idea of a holiday - but it can be lucrative. "It's my hobby, I like hunting, if you find something it's really a thrill," he told the BBC. Right side of the law Of course many companies without designated schemes will generally be appreciative of some security support. There are a few issues to be aware of though if you plan to fish in the wild, as it were - not least that unauthorised access of a system is illegal in many countries. "In the UK, under the Computer Misuse Act, unauthorised access is a criminal offence - even if the door is wide open," says cybersecurity expert Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University. "You have to understand the law and how far you can push it. You also need to understand how the industry works because there are what you might think of as best practice [guidelines] - it's what responsible disclosure is all about." Prof Woodward also warns about the responsibilities associated with handling any data you might find floating around, that perhaps isn't as encrypted or secure as it should be. "You have a duty of care to whoever that data belongs to or is about," he adds. "Some hackers perhaps feel they are above that but they are not. "You have to be careful, it is a minefield - there is a fine line between probing for vulnerabilities and unauthorised access." Stay alert It is also a minefield for companies, especially small businesses who may well lack both the expertise and the resources to manage this global army of white hats - and the hackers hot on their heels. "In general the problem is that when someone designs a programme they expect the user to play nicely. "But an attacker could present an input that nobody thought about and that could make the programme play completely differently," says Gianluca Stringhini. His basic advice to all firms is simple. "Keep up with the news, see what new attacks are out there, make sure that whenever a new vulnerability is disclosed they update their systems - and keep an eye for general weird activity," he says. Members of staff should also take note, he adds. "You have systems you might develop but they might have holes - system administrators need to keep that in mind but so do end users, their data may not be safe." Click here to listen to the BBC World Service Business Daily Programme about white hats and bug bounties. |
Black New Yorkers Ricardo Velasquez and Namel Norris were shot and paralysed when they were teenagers. As rap duo 4 Wheel City they have received global acclaim and raised the prominence of Krip-Hop - a sub-genre of Hip-Hop which puts disabled matters front and centre and lets them express the "double drama" of being in two minority groups | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Beth RoseBBC Ouch Rick headed home from high school. It was the summer of 1996. The holidays were approaching and his sweetheart was pregnant. But in a single moment everything changed. A gun was fired nearby and he was hit by a stray bullet. "I don't know who shot me, but I ended up in a wheelchair," he says. In the same Bronx neighbourhood was 17-year-old Namel. He was at home with his cousin. "We grew up in the street so we were involved with guns and one day he was playing around with one," Namel says. "It went off and the bullet struck me in my neck." Both teenagers, wounded at different times, were paralysed and became wheelchair-users. They now had to come to terms with being part of TWO minority groups - black and disabled. "It's like you're doing a double life sentence," Namel says. "Imagine that, being black and disabled," Rick echoes. "That's a double drama. It's like your voice is not heard in a double way. You've got all these barriers." In 2020s language, having two 'protected characteristics' like this is referred to as intersectionality and could lead to double celebration - or double the discrimination. It was Namel's mum who first met Rick. He gave her his number and said Namel could call him. But after Namel was discharged he simply wanted to get back to what he'd always done. He met up with his old friends, but it wasn't the same and all the dynamics had changed now he couldn't walk. "One of my friends I used to rap with, wasn't hanging out with me as much," he says. Namel contacted Rick who said he had experienced the same kind of thing with friends and family who no longer knew how to talk to him because he was in a wheelchair. He began to hang out at Rick's recording studio because it was a place he felt he would "be understood, be heard". The pair wrote Hip Hop tracks together as Rickfire and Tapwaterz but the rap market was so saturated that it was difficult to stand out. At the same time, Namel was getting fed-up with the constant questions people kept asking him about his injury - "questions like, 'Are you going to walk again?' and, 'Does this work?'. I was tired of people asking." He took his frustrations out on the page and wrote In My Shoes - a track which dealt with those personal questions. "It felt good to be able to express myself like that," he says. Getting more political, the duo penned another song - The Movement - about the inaccessibility of shops in New York. Listen to Namel and Rick rap and chat on the BBC Ouch podcast... It made an impact. When they returned to the street where they had filmed their music video, the stores had ramps. "That's the song that really put us on the map," Namel says. "Music has always been a form of protest." Their music falls within the little-known sub-genre Krip-Hop - a movement which gives disabled hip-hop artists a platform to educate and deal with ableism alongside racism and sexism. Krip-Hop was founded by Leroy F. Moore Jr. an African American writer and activist with cerebral palsy who wanted to use rap culture as a way to reclaim negative language associated with disability. The latest album from 4 Wheel City, Quarantine Music Volume 1 - released during lockdown - dives into the double minority identity of being both black and disabled The track Crazy World and its accompanying video reflects upon the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests which followed. Namel says: "The song is about how crazy the world is right now and being able to deal with it as a person with a disability." The video flits between Namel in an ambulance wearing a facemask on his way to hospital, George Floyd's death and the protests. The pair say the death of Mr Floyd and the subsequent BLM protests has helped them explain to others how they felt when their lives altered through disability. "When your life gets changed or flipped upside down it makes you think differently," Namel says. "I think that's why a lot of people out there are protesting right now because I feel like they had a wake-up call." Namel and Rick channelled their wake-up calls through lyrics which often have a political edge as they put into words what being black, disabled and American means to them. 4 Wheel City say there is a lot to be done to reach equality and while they want change on a global scale they also want to affect change in their local community. Mount Sinai Hospital commissioned them to rap about pressure sores - a serious problem for people with spinal cord injuries who may sit in their wheelchair for long periods of time - and a local organisation, Being First, recruited them to talk about the perils of gun violence to school students. But there are obstacles within that. "I don't want to be racist," Rick says, but the fact is "white people run most of the organisations" and yet, "if you come to the black community most of us are in wheelchairs due to injuries like gunshots". Namel adds: "Our talent could be used to make a difference". 4 Wheel City have previously rapped at the UN and want this month's 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability, to be marked with meaningful movement forward. Namel says: "I know it can be discouraging and it's easy to say, 'well I'm black and they don't want to listen', but what Rick and I did, we tried to remove that barrier [through music]." Rick adds: "Don't be afraid to be different and go out there and put your voice out there and embrace the struggle." The rap duo last performed in the UK in 2012 at the London Paralympics, a unifying and positive event for disabled people around the world. But they say the summer of 2020 with Covid-19 and BLM protests has, in some ways, made them feel the same. "It was being black and American and disabled," Namel says. "I felt that sense of pride. Just knowing that our music matters on the world stage." For more Disability News, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast on BBC Sounds. |
A Jersey deputy is calling on the number of States members to be reduced more than current proposals. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
St Helier Deputy, Trevor Pitman, has put forward changes to proposals by a States group to cut back the number of senators from 12 to eight. He wants the States to go further, with numbers cut to six, saying it would save more money. Plans to reform the structure of the States are under review and could be the subject of a referendum. |
World War One was commemorated by swimmers in fancy dress who took to the cold water off the Pembrokeshire coast for the annual New Year's Day swim. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
More than 1,500 people took to the sea at Saundersfoot at lunchtime, cheered on by a crowd of about 8,000. X-Factor finalist Jay James, who is from the town, started the swim. There was also a mascot race prior to the start of the main event, with Danny Dog of Heatherton Country Sports Park winning. Over its 31-year history, the swim has raised more than £500,000 for charity. |
The remains of the Roman town of Pompeii destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD79 continue to provide intriguing and unexpected insights into Roman life - from diet and health care to the gap between rich and poor. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Professor Mary BeardUniversity of Cambridge The basement storeroom under a large agricultural depot in the little suburb of Oplontis was full of pomegranates. To many of the Pompeiians trying to find shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it must have seemed strong and safe. About 50 people took cover there. We know they did because archaeologists in the 1980s found their skeletons, well preserved. They were overwhelmed by the volcanic debris and burning gases in the very place where they hoped they would be saved. We know how these poor people died and we know what killed them. But these skeletons can also tell us fascinating things about how the people in Pompeii actually lived. There are some very simple surprises. Syphilis For a start, we often imagine that the Romans, or anyone in the past for that matter, were all much shorter than we are. Well, not so these people. In fact, on average, they are taller than the population of modern Naples. We also imagine that the Romans would have died young. Again, this is another myth - as these skeletons show. There are plenty of middle-aged to elderly people among them. The truth is that childhood was the really dangerous time. All kinds of illnesses that we now vaccinate against or can easily cure with antibiotics were devastating killers. Only half the population would have made it to the age of 10. But if you got that far, you could look forward to a reasonable life expectancy in our terms. Interestingly, infectious diseases leave tell-tale marks and lines in the enamel of children's teeth. Many of the skeletons in the cellar show these - a visual history of the illnesses these people had survived. There are some more curious - and startling - discoveries too. The skeletons of a pair of twins show what were almost certainly the signs of congenital syphilis. If that is correct, then it puts paid to the usual idea that the disease was brought back to Europe from the New World by Christopher Columbus and his sailors in the 15th Century. Strong family That is interesting in itself - we are going to have to stop blaming Columbus, or the Americans, for syphilis. But the discovery tells us even more about ancient Roman society and Roman families than you might think as Fabian Kanz, the anthropologist from Vienna who examined the bones, points out. A pair of children with congenital syphilis would need a lot of care and a lot of nursing, he explains. The simple fact that they survived shows something about the support networks of the Roman world. There were families who were willing and able to devote time, attention and skill to looking after a pair of very sick offspring. But these 54 skeletons reveal other sides of Roman society too. As soon as they were unearthed, archaeologists realised that they were in two groups. One lot, on one side of the room, were found with nothing - they were just bodies, with no possessions found with them at all. The others, on the other side of the room, died with cash, gold and jewels and all kinds of precious objects. One of these skeletons was discovered with almost the largest amount of money found in one place anywhere in Pompeii. Not a vast fortune in terms of the richest plutocrats from the capital city of Rome itself - Pompeii was a small town remember - but it was someone's very substantial life-savings. So how do we explain these two groups? Well, archaeology is not an exact science. It could be that those found without anything were those that had just panicked and ran, and those with the riches had made a more planned getaway. Or, maybe, that group were criminals, who had done some looting on their way out of Pompeii to Oplontis. We cannot know for certain. But the likelihood is that we are dealing with a group of the poor with no possessions and of the rich who had jewels and cash. 'Marvellous' diet It is interesting to see if we can spot differences in the skeletons. Is one group obviously less well nourished? Is one group shorter? The answer is no. Exploring the archaeology of the town of Pompeii and the surrounding area gives us an idea what life was like for rich and poor. One conclusion, if you exclude the destitute who had no support networks at all, is that both rich and poor in Pompeii had a decent diet. True, the rich may have had more elaborate dining rooms, but the poor ate decently too. How do we know? The contents of a cesspit which collected the waste from the lavatories of a block of modest flats in Herculaneum - the next-door town to Pompeii - show that the ordinary people in this block were eating a marvellous diet, from sea urchins to nuts and figs, eggs and chicken. And, as Andrew Wallace-Hadrill - who excavated this cesspit - agrees, you do not get closer to the Roman world than in its excrement. Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town will be broadcast on BBC Two at 2100 GMT on Tuesday 14 December, or afterwards on BBC iPlayer. |
As one of the greatest Chinese fables is set to be retold yet again, in the form of a Netflix series, the BBC's Heather Chen looks at the enduring appeal of a wandering monk and his loyal friends. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Almost everyone with a Chinese background has grown up learning the folktale Journey to the West, the story of an epic pilgrimage of a Buddhist monk and his three disciples, the legendary monkey god Sun Wukong, the greedy and mischievous Zhu Bajie and man-eating demon Sha Wujing. Together with a dragon prince -transformed into a white horse - the party travels on a mission to bring ancient Buddhist scriptures from India back to China. Along the way, they encounter monsters and other obstacles, triumphing through their wit and teamwork. "It is the greatest story in classical Chinese literature," says Qu Jingyi, a professor specialising in Chinese literature and history at the Nanyang Technological University. Fantasy and 'whitewashing' Western audiences might best know the legend through the kitschy 1970s series Monkey, which put Sun Wukong front and centre. The Japanese show, which most people called Monkey Magic after its theme song, was a mainstay of kids TV in the 1980s, and won a cult following for its mismatched dubbing, rudimentary special effects and funk soundtrack. Streaming site Netflix, perhaps capitalising on current nostalgia for the era, has now teamed up with broadcast companies in Australia and New Zealand to bring back Monkey. The Legend of the Monkey will revamp the classic as a "big budget fantasy drama", with a whiff of Game of Thrones about it. The decision proved to be a controversial one, however. There's a noticeable change in location, this time being filmed on set in New Zealand, and early promotional photos released last week show no Chinese actors have been cast. The lead actor is Thai, while others have Maori or Pacific Island backgrounds, but it caused a now familiar outcry. "My childhood favourite just got a whitewashing reboot," said Khoo Fooi-Ling on Twitter. "Is this Journey to the West or Lord of the Rings," wrote a user from Beijing on China's popular micro-blogging Sina Weibo site. "Everything looks wrong, they've butchered and insulted our history. Expect an unwelcome from viewers in China and zero ratings." The journey story has been retold in China for centuries. It can be seen in artworks, cultural festivals and even as local movie and small screen adaptations. You might also be interested in: While it's commonplace to see Chinese operas telling the story, in 2007 it found a fan in British musician Damon Albarn of Blur fame, who brought the story to life in Europe. Monkey: Journey to the West featured music by Albarn with designs by Jamie Hewlett, the artist who brought Albarn's animated band Gorillaz to life. It was performed in Mandarin and featured acrobats, martial artists and a team of contortionists. The legend has even made its way into video games. Blizzard title Overwatch unveiled a festive update in time for the Lunar New Year, which featured special holiday items, maps and cosmetic "skins" modelled after the four main characters from Journey to the West. Multiplayer online battle game Defense of the Ancients (DotA) has also incorporated Journey to the West-themed characters in past gaming updates. 'Dynamic Chinese storytelling' All of this would likely be surprising to Xuanzang, the Chinese monk who travelled to India in the 7th Century to bring back sacred Buddhist scrolls. Still highly revered, he was first immortalised in the 16th Century novel Journey to the West, which added fantasy elements to his travels. So what is the enduring appeal of his tale? Chinese studies scholar Jason Zhuang says it lies in the powerful narrative of the original 16th Century author. "The pure storytelling dynamics of Wu Cheng'en will never be replicated elsewhere. "It's a great novel that tells of important Chinese qualities. Each character also represents different values." Prof Qu says the novel is "very suited to be adapted because of its appeal with young people". It shows "the imagination and sense of humour among Chinese people". While there are other great Chinese novels, Journey to the West offers strong dramatic and comic content, he says, along with elements like fairy immortals, demons and ghosts. "Readers and viewers love the Monkey King's fighting spirit and optimistic attitude towards life," said Prof Qu. "His playful nature is also still beneficial to our modern society, under heavy stress." |
Photographers rarely work in a vacuum, their work is usually inspired by - or a reflection of - what has come before. At times that trigger is hard to define, but some projects use an existing body of work as the start point. Magnum Retold is one such series, where photographers take their cue from work by early members of Magnum Photos. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Phil CoomesPicture editor@philcoomeson Twitter One of those is Temples of Stone, by Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin, who travelled to Egypt and Morocco in the footsteps of one of the founders of the agency, Briton George Rodger, who made the journey through north Africa 60 years ago. "I have a huge respect for and memory of George's work: from his powerful wartime images of Bergen-Belsen to his monumental take on the Nuba," says Franklin. "But I was drawn emphatically to his north African landscapes because they said so much about George, about his restlessness, his curiosity, and his search for some understanding of how nature and society functioned in Africa." The four founders of Magnum Photos, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour, divided the world so they had their own patch to cover, with Rodger focusing on Africa. He made many trips to the continent, including one in 1957 where he crossed the Sahara with his wife Jinx, covering 4,000 miles in three months. The resulting pictures show the beauty of the landscape, historic monuments and of course the people he met on the way. The world has inevitably moved on, yet the landscapes of today are much the same as those the Rodgers crossed by Land Rover all those years ago. "George Rodger loved the desert, Africa, the open road, the unexplored in landscape, and people untouched by modernity," says Franklin. "This last feature has gone, but I found the rest much as he'd left them in the 1950s. "Starting points are wonderful opportunities for photographers and artists. A path has been cleared but the road is unmade. This allows for the creative possibility to build something new." "I've always been interested in landscape and especially the interface between nature and society. The joy is in the way everything overlaps: weathered statues and rock buttresses, human and natural forms, each chiselled out of the desert and stone outcrops in a union of dream-world archaeology. "This eventually became the focus, the road ahead for me. It led to this project and tribute to George Rodger." Rodger was working at a time when photographers would vanish for months on end, returning from assignments with bags of film which would be edited and crafted into shape to run in magazines and newspapers. Today, of course, for many it's all instant uploads and social sharing. "I grew up in that world of waiting weeks and sometimes months to see the photographs I'd shot - especially when working for National Geographic," says Franklin. "Then there was a long wait for publication, so a lot more tweaking, checking and even reshooting would take place. The faster turnaround of images presents challenges as well as opportunities. "A lack of depth and context in the world of instant uploads is a serious issue, but one that is widely recognised in the industry. The opportunity is there to work on longer-form stories, on photo-books, but again this demands more financial opportunities for photographers to work in this way." Photographs are about recording traces of things, many of which pass in an instant; others, like these stone formations and statues, last far longer. So why is it important to record these objects that may well outlive the images made of them? "Photography - images - help us to understand what's going on in different parts of the world in a way that's a struggle sometimes for text. "Documentary photography, done with sensitivity, helps us to engage socially, politically and environmentally with human and planetary issues from the smallest story about life in a suburban-edge town to the largest story of conflict, various forms of abuse or species extinction." Temples of Stone, by Stuart Franklin can be seen at the Leica Studio Mayfair, 17 January - 16 February 2018. You can see more of George Rodger's photographs from his trip in 1957 on the Magnum Photos website. Photographs © Stuart Franklin / Magnum Photos and © George Rodger / Magnum Photos |
Regina Ip wants to become Hong Kong's most powerful politician - and she's not shy about it. The BBC's Helier Cheung profiles the straight-talking "Iron Lady" as part of a series on the Asian women likely to make the news in 2017. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Her uncompromising stance and her former role as Hong Kong's first female secretary for security is what prompted the media to nickname 66-year-old Regina Ip the "Iron Lady". While many of her likely competitors have been coy about their aspirations, Ms Ip has been openly ambitious for years. But then, she's always been more colourful - and confrontational - than many politicians. She has described Hitler as proof that democracy doesn't solve all problems, accused Filipino domestic workers of being sex workers for foreign men, and brushed off animal rights activists who criticised her for wearing fur, calling it "the same as eating beef". She went from being Hong Kong's most popular government minister to its most reviled, left Hong Kong for the US after a row over national security legislation drove 500,000 to the streets, and then returned to lose, and then win, popular elections. Asian women to watch in 2017 Now, many opposition politicians have rallied against her bid to be Hong Kong's next chief executive, saying she would spell "RIP" (a pun on her initials) for Hong Kong. But, Ms Ip told the BBC her unpopularity with some doesn't bother her, since she's "used to criticism" and has been "doing tough and thankless jobs for a long time". Pragmatic student The daughter of a trader and an actress, Ms Ip says her family struggled financially after her father's business ran into trouble. She studied English literature at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Glasgow, but despite her love of WB Yeats, she was pragmatic even as a student. "I wanted to be an academic," she says, "but academic jobs in that area were very hard to come by." So she applied to work in Hong Kong's civil service, knowing it would provide the "security of tenure and pay well", and eventually became Hong Kong's first female director of immigration. Mass protests But it is for her role as security minister, where she advocated for Article 23 - a controversial piece of national security legislation - that she is most well known. Article 23 would have prohibited acts of treason and sedition and given Hong Kong the power to outlaw groups banned in mainland China. Ms Ip was seen as out of touch when defending the bill. Ahead of a planned protest, Ms Ip said some might join the march for fun because it was a public holiday, rather than because they were actually opposed to the proposal. In the end, half-a-million protesters rallied in one of the territory's largest-ever demonstrations. Many chanted "Broomhead - step down!" - using a nickname Ms Ip had been given after critics mocked her bushy hairstyle. The government was forced to shelve the bill and Ms Ip resigned as security minister and went abroad to study at Stanford University. "People remember me for the national security law I championed and failed, but people have forgotten the contributions I made," she laments. She admits she "did not do a good enough job" explaining it to the public, but has few regrets. What concerned her more was the impact on her daughter, who was a teenager at the time. Ms Ip's husband died in 1997 and she describes balancing work and home life in the early 2000s as "truly very difficult, because I was a single parent". She says her daughter was teased at school, with classmates calling her "little broomstick". In the end, she sent her daughter to boarding school in the US, saying it offered a "less controversial environment", while she herself studied for a Master's - her third - at Stanford University. She says she needed the "three years outside government… to do some normal parenting", and her relationship with her daughter improved as a result. On her return from the US, she started a think tank and stood in legislative council elections. She lost out to Anson Chan, a popular pro-democracy candidate, on her first attempt, but went on to win seats in the next three elections - coming out top in her constituency in the most recent vote. Open ambition Ms Ip made a bid for the Chief Executive role in 2012 but had to drop out after failing to receive enough nominations. In March 2017's elections, she'll be competing against former judge Woo Kwok-hing. Two political heavyweights, ex-Finance Secretary John Tsang and Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, are also expected to throw their hats in the ring. So what sort of Chief Executive would Ms Ip be? She has pledged to improve Hong Kong's housing policy and narrow the income gap. More controversially, she has promised to revive the Article 23 bill, arguing that it does not threaten Hong Kong's freedoms. She also intends to implement a contentious political reform package proposed by Beijing - that would give Hong Kongers the right to vote for their leader - but only from a list of candidates approved by a committee dominated by pro-Beijing groups. That proposal was voted down by parliament in 2015. On social issues, she would like to legislate against LGBT discrimination, and supports Hong Kong's bid to host the Gay Games in 2022 - but has stopped short of stating her position (link in Chinese) on same-sex marriage. She says sexism still exists in Hong Kong politics and criticises the media for "focusing on a female politician's hairstyle, clothing and make up" rather than her work. She'd like to see more young women enter politics, and would consider reserving some seats on Hong Kong's election committee (the 1,200-member panel that chooses Hong Kong's leader) for women. Murky elections ahead If this were a popular election, Ms Ip's biggest challenge might be the perception that she is cold and out of touch. John Tsang is considered more popular with the public and his Instagram page is peppered with photos of locals taking selfies with him. By contrast, Ms Ip looked reserved and a little uncomfortable while doing a Facebook Live with the South China Morning Post, and her campaign logo was mocked on social media after people pointed out part of the logo looked like a Chinese word that means "slowness due to old age". Ms Ip has brushed off questions about Mr Tsang's popularity, saying that those who play nice aren't always the best leaders. She points out that out of all four expected candidates, she is the only one to have been through popular elections. But this is an election that will be decided by a small committee, and a majority of the electors will almost certainly vote for whichever candidate Beijing backs. The Chinese government hasn't made its intentions clear, but many analysts believe Ms Lam or Mr Tsang are more obvious choices for Beijing, with Ms Lam likely to be the favourite. It is clear that success for Ms Ip in next year's elections is far from guaranteed. On the other hand, the "Iron Lady" has shown time and again that she isn't someone who gives up easily. |
Edinburgh has fallen silent amid the nationwide lockdown designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Normally bustling Princes Street is nearly empty and only grocery stores and chemists are open. For the few pedestrians about, there are new signs urging them to stay home and others celebrating NHS staff. BBC Scotland's Christopher Bobyn spent an afternoon documenting the city's eerie new landscape. |
A Euromillions ticket holder in the Republic of Ireland has won almost 94m euros (£80m), after sharing the jackpot with a player in Belgium. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Both players matched 5 numbers and two lucky stars in Tuesday night's draw, splitting the top prize of 188m euros (160m). The winning numbers were; 4, 5, 13, 27 and 35, while the lucky stars were 1 and 2. There is speculation the ticket was bought in County Kildare. To date, the biggest Euromillions winner in the Republic of Ireland was County Limerick woman, Dolores McNamara, who collected a cheque for 115m euros in August 2005. |
Former Wrexham FC striker Dixie McNeil has been reunited with a club shirt he last saw nearly 40 years ago. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
McNeil, 67, had appealed for help to trace it as part of a campaign to drum up exhibits for a pop-up museum to mark the club's 150th anniversary. The number nine shirt was handed to the museum by life-long Wrexham fan Geoff Reynolds of Buckley. McNeil wore the shirt during the 1977-78 season and has now been told by Mr Reynolds he can keep it. The former player had always believed his team mate, John Lyons, who played in the final game of the season because he was injured, threw the red shirt into the crowd after the final whistle. |
The government has announced a review into the future of the newspaper industry, warning the closure of hundreds of regional papers is fuelling fake news and is "dangerous for democracy". But is it too late to save local newspapers? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alice HuttonBBC News There's a spot just off the M6 in Coventry where you can time-travel into the 1950s. Walking through beech-panelled boardrooms and a butler's pantry you might not guess this was the Coventry Evening Telegraph for nearly half a century. The rooms look abandoned mid-shift, as though the reporters have spiked their last story and walked out. There's a baseball cap on one of the old PCs, and old family photos on the desks. The building was boarded up in 2012 when the paper finally left for more modern premises. It's due to be turned into a boutique hotel - just in time for Coventry's turn as the UK's new City of Culture in 2021. Brushing dust from the huge but silent printing press Mick Williams, who started working at the Telegraph in 1972 aged just 16, says fondly: "This was my baby. Working here wasn't just a job, there was a prestige attached to it because you were bringing people their news. It's like a museum now." The old building is now a pop-up arts space where tourists come to take photos of the rooms filled with dead technology and dust. Standing in the room where he worked for 30 years, ex-printer Mick reflects on the future of local papers. "I suppose you can get the news from different parts of the media these days. I know I can look at Facebook local groups and I can get some news of what's happening that doesn't appear in the Telegraph until perhaps three days later. [But] you've lost a bit of community spirit haven't you? You've lost a connection." Earlier this month, when Prime Minister Theresa May launched a government review into the sustainability of the British press, she praised the work done by local journalists in covering the terror attack on the Manchester Arena, in which 22 people died. The coverage, by the Manchester Evening News, was, she said, "a very good example of where good quality local journalism and a good quality local paper can actually be out there supporting their community". In an act of solidarity following the bombing, 30 local journalists from Teesside to Dublin answered a call by MEN publisher Trinity Mirror to cover shifts for the exhausted reporters, photographers, subs and editors. Then MEN editor Rob Irvine, whose We Stand Together campaign raised £2.5m for the families of victims, said at the time: "We will make Greater Manchester an even greater place. We will care about each other and support our neighbours. The terrorists will fail. We will prevail." But the National Union of Journalists has warned that the regional newspaper industry is in "free-fall". Since 2005 more than 200 local papers have closed in the UK and the number of regional journalists has halved to around 6,500, with staff cuts, centralised newsrooms, sub-editing and printers re-located miles from local communities, leaving press benches in councils and courtrooms increasingly empty. An estimated 58% the country has no daily or regional title and rural areas are increasingly reliant on London-based media and their own social networks for local news. Public 'losing a voice' A 2016 study found UK towns, whose daily local newspapers had shut, suffered from a "democracy deficit" with reduced community engagement and increased distrust of public bodies. "We can all have our own social media account, but when [local papers] are depleted or in some cases simply don't exist, people lose a communal voice. They feel angry, not listened to and more likely to believe malicious rumour," said Dr Martin Moore, director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power at King's College London, which published the report. "Because it's not necessarily the sexy stuff - like big investigations - for quite some time people didn't notice it was disappearing." Dr Moore says the "repercussions of a lack of a local press" were seen after the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 71 people in June last year. The nearest local newspaper - The Kensington and Chelsea Chronicle - closed in 2014. After that, the area was covered by a single journalist working out of a hub newsroom based in Surrey. "If there had been reporters consistently on the ground who could elevate residents' voices then it's hard to think that the authorities wouldn't have reacted in some way more constructively than they did. As a consequence they went unheard," Dr Moore says. In December the city of Cambridge woke to find that its 130-year-old daily paper The Cambridge News had printed 12,000 copies missing the front-page headline. Readers were quick to poke fun at the paper on social media with the editor-in-chief blaming "a technical problem". But former deputy editor Paul Kirkley said behind the laughter the incident highlighted that "management have cut resources to the bone and then kept on cutting". The paper had changed publishers three times in five years including Local World, which made a large number of staff redundant, Trinity Mirror which removed 10 years of stories from the website and Iliffe News and Media, which was successfully taken to court by HMRC for using an alleged tax-avoidance scheme to ring-fence £51.4m in income. The Yattendon Group, which formerly owned Iliffe News and Media, declined to comment. Current publisher Trinity Mirror said: "Regarding the removal of story archives, it is wrong to use the word 'deleted'. They still exist and can be accessed by our reporters. Given that less than 1% of readers read content more than four months old, we feel resources are better placed covering breaking local news for our readers." Last month journalists at The Swindon Advertiser went on strike over alleged "poverty pay" and job cuts at the title. owned by Newsquest, given the hashtag #scroogequest on Twitter. But Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker, says although digital income was rising, cuts were needed partly because the papers' traditional funding model of advertising had declined so badly and social media giants like Facebook and Google were "free-riding" newspaper's content and giving "peanuts in return." He welcomed the government review. "The important point is that if a publisher doesn't adapt their business to the new economic reality, then they will close and the town or city will lose their newspaper." In 2016 the newspaper trade body The News Media Association (NMA) also raised concerns about the rise of digital news saying the BBC's news website "risks damaging the local press sector, which is currently in transition to a sustainable digital world". Last year, in response, the corporation and NMA, launched the Local News Partnership Scheme. It set up a shared data unit where local reporters can learn new skills, access BBC News video and audio material and local papers can use 150 licence-fee funded reporters to cover public meetings as part of its £8m annual Local Democracy Scheme. But the chair of the independent press regulator Impress, Jonathan Heawood, said it was not just the big publishers that new funding models should be aimed at. "There are around 400 innovative and commercially successful, independent publishers in operation already like The Ferret in Scotland or The Bristol Cable which are co-operatives. "I think this could be the rebirth of the local newspaper if we work out how to help the new business models thrive in the long run, not prop up the old ones." The Bureau Local, a branch of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, is another model looking to improve the future of local journalism. Launched last year with a £500,000 Google grant, its aim is to support public-interest journalism by publishing free data online and collaborating with local and national papers and communities. So far it is active in 106 UK cities and has helped publish more than 150 local stories - including an investigation into swing seats during the snap election, and council cuts to domestic violence services. Bureau local director Megan Lucero said: "People are innovating the way they tell stories, we are innovating the way we consume it. "It rests on how we see journalism- do we see it as a service or do we think it needs to thrive alone as a business? That is a decision we have to make as a society." Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Manchester Evening News had announced redundancies a month after the Manchester Arena Bombing of May 2017. The redundancies were announced in June 2016 and this line has been amended. A complaint about the inaccuracy was upheld by the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit. Death of the Local Newspaper? was broadcast on Radio 4's PM programme on February 19. Alice Hutton worked for The Cambridge News between 2010 and 2012 when it was owned by Iliffe News and Media. |
A fire at Everton Women's stadium that badly damaged a stand is being investigated as a suspected arson attack. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Fire crews were called to the 2,200-capacity Walton Hall Park ground in Liverpool at about 18:30 GMT on Friday. They found scaffolding and plastic netting alight and extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes. Merseyside Police said it was carrying out a joint investigation with the fire service. The club said it was assessing the damage but hoped Wednesday's game with Chelsea Women would still go ahead. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk Related Internet Links Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service |
The results of international school tests in reading, taken every five years, have been published - with a strong showing for the two participating UK education systems, England and Northern Ireland . As well as this Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), there are also the Timss maths tests and the OECD's Pisa tests, as well as numerous higher education tables. What do these global rankings show? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent 1. England and Northern Ireland are in the top 10 of a global schools ranking - with Northern Ireland in joint sixth place, in nudging distance of education superstars such as Finland. It's an impressive performance, with England in joint eighth place, in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study - known as Pirls - taken in primary schools every five years. 2. Russia? The top of global rankings such as Pirls and Pisa usually have a limited cast list - Singapore, Finland, South Korea and particularly clever parts of China usually dominate. But this year Russia is in the gold medal position. The academics running the tests say this shouldn't be a surprise. Russia has done well before in these tests and has been changing its schools, with a big push on academic excellence and a more rigorous emphasis on standards. 3. Who takes these tests? These global rankings are based on samples of pupils representing the different range of regions, peoples and types of school, whether it's somewhere the size of Luxembourg or the United States. For the Pirls tests, England's result was based on a sample of about 5,000 students in 170 schools, while top-rated Russia's result was based on about 4,600 pupils in 206 schools. The sample for the United States was 4,425, or the equivalent of less than 100 per state. 4. Comparing like with like? There is something mesmerising about a ranking, it's a hierarchy uncluttered by any complicating factors. They are blazing headlights on the motorway rather than a torch in the study. But that means not noticing details, such as pupils in the Pirls test being different ages. The flying Finns near the top of the table were on average about a year older than the lower-ranked French or Italians. That's a big difference in primary school. 5. Who should take the credit? It's an iron rule that current governments are responsible for all success, previous governments for all failure. Also, it's a free buffet for drawing conclusions that suit your own views. England's success could be an argument for a rigorous national curriculum testing system, phonics and league tables. Northern Ireland's could be attributed to not having Sats, schools divided on religious lines and the demands of selective secondary schools. 6. Pick your facts, choose your headline: The same rankings can generate entirely different narratives. The Pirls results have rightly been seen as impressive performances from schools in England and Northern Ireland, well above average by international standards. But rankings can be used selectively. In absolute terms this year's results put England in 10th place, but because there is no meaningful statistical difference with the two countries above, the Pirls's organisers have said it is the equivalent of joint 8th. In the past tests five years ago, England was ranked 11th. But the Pirls people say that if the same approximation were applied retrospectively, England would have been joint 6th. So did the results improve or dip? You could produce entirely different interpretations from the same evidence. 7. They make a big impact: Even if you don't believe in education league tables, they make things change around them. The Programme for International Student Assessment tests run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have been seen as driving education policy and stirring education ministers to measure themselves against international standards. In Germany, this became known as "Pisa shock", when a country that thought it had the world's best education system discovered it was some way behind many of its Asian competitors. When the Pisa tests were still finding their feet, the US tried to squash their uncomfortable message about its deeply divided schools - and the OECD's Andreas Schleicher has said that it was the intervention of Ted Kennedy that stopped the US from trying to stop their publication. 8. You rank only what you can measure: It's no coincidence that global rankings focus on maths, science and reading. They are much more straightforward to test and mark than more complicated, culturally defined subjects such as history or literature. But does that mean that less value is attached to subjects that won't see countries climbing up league tables? 9. Nothing is inevitable: It's no accident that countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Finland are at the top of global rankings. They quite deliberately pursued long-term, multi-generational policies to create excellent school systems, with the aim of rising up the economic food chain. The OECD has rejected the idea that some countries have a "culture" of education. It uses the examples of Singapore and South Korea to show a country can go from widespread illiteracy and poverty to having some of the highest education standards in the world. 10. Are they fair? It might seem one-sided to compare a wealthy European school system with a developing country, or a huge sprawling country with a compact city state. But the argument of league tables is that it doesn't matter whether it's fair - it's the reality of a globalised world. Young people in very different and unequal settings are in the same economic race - and their chances of success will be heavily dependent on their access to education. And if you don't get the right result in an education league table... there will be another one along soon. |
Homes were evacuated in Perth and Kinross following reports of an unexploded bomb. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Police cordoned off an area on Victoria Avenue in Milnathort while specialist teams carry out examinations. The item, believed to be an unexploded ordnance device, was found on Friday afternoon. A police spokeswoman said the homes were evacuated as a "precaution" and the item was removed without injury or damage to property. |
A photograph taken on the Western Isles has won the 2019 Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year Awards. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Norfolk-based landscape photographer Ruth Grindrod took her image, Three Rocks, at the Butt of Lewis. The image also won the contest's seascapes category. Ms Grindrod said: "My journey to Scotland is always a long one, but I will never fail to be excited by some of the best landscapes and seascapes in the world." Related Internet Links Scottish Nature Photography Awards |
Condor Ferries has cancelled Friday's high-speed sailings between Poole and the Channel Islands due to "adverse weather conditions". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Strong westerly winds and rain have been forecast for the day. The company said passengers would be contacted about rearranging their travel plans. Its conventional ferry services, which run between Portsmouth and Guernsey and Jersey, have also been rescheduled due to the weather. The Commodore Clipper was due to travel to Guernsey and then on to Jersey before returning to Portsmouth, but will now go to Jersey first. |
A man has appeared in court charged with robbery at a McDonald's and a Miss Millie's restaurant. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rudi Batten, 22, of Station Road in Yate, is charged with two counts of robbery which took place in Yate on 7 and 8 February. Nobody was injured, according to Avon and Somerset Police. He is also charged with possession of an imitation firearm and a knife blade. Mr Batten was remanded in custody to appear at Bristol Crown Court on 19 March. Related Internet Links Avon and Somerset Police HM Courts & Tribunals Service |
A 67-year-old cyclist has died in a crash in Neath Port Talbot. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The man was cycling on the A4241, Baglan, when his bike collided with a silver Ford Fiesta at about 14:00 BST on Wednesday. South Wales Police said he died at the scene of the crash, between the Southdown Road junction and Seaway Parade. The force is appealing for anyone who has dashcam footage of the incident or any information to contact them. |
The detail is buried in many pages of dense text. So for now, in the early moments of relief at getting to a Brexit deal, it's the tone that counts for more than the line-by-line analysis. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland Christmas Eve is the only night of the year when newspapers aren't published, leaving more space for political leaders and others to shape the narrative according to taste. From Boris Johnson, this was about triumph, with big claims of delivering on Brexiteers' expectations. He was unprepared for an obvious question - the first one asked - about what had been conceded. And he blundered into a plainly false claim that there will be no tariff barriers. After the experience of his capitulation last year on the trading relations with Northern Ireland - which he then flatly denied, and later set out to revoke, illegally - his mastery of the detail, or of uncomfortable realities, remains as suspect as ever. However, this was was also about friendship, and a new, positive relationship, speaking of the European project as a noble endeavour. From Brussels' point of view, Michel Barnier staked his claim for the defining soundbite to sum up the day's events: "The clock is no longer ticking". There, too, there's a reset, and a new start. No triumphalism, but regret - at the UK leaving, and regret at the elements of the deal that the British government was not willing to sign up to. That includes the Erasmus student exchange scheme - a symbol of Europe's notion of freedom, in contrast with Boris Johnson's, and one that probably plays better with young British people than it does with the Brexiteers. The message was also like the one at the end of a game show: "Let's see what you might have won", or: "Look at what the British have lost by leaving". The materials published immediately after the announcements included 25 advantages of being inside the European Union, about citizens' rights and travel, security, economic protections and co-operation. It showed in graphic terms that Britain retains only two of them - tariff free trade and visa-free travel, but only for 90 days at a time. As we knew all along, the outcome of this had to suit the Brexiteers, who have got a pretty hard version of Brexit, though not as hard as some might like. And it had to work for the Europeans, in making sure they stayed united, the benefits of being inside the club were clear, and the costs of leaving are also laid out clearly. From Emmanuel Macron in Paris, there was a different tone from the one at podiums in Brussels and London. He is heading into French presidential election season. "The unity and strength of Europe paid off," he said. "The agreement with the United Kingdom is essential to protect our citizens, our fishermen, our producers. We will make sure that this is the case". That final sentence carries a warning. The deal starts with no tariffs or quotas on goods. But it doesn't guarantee things stay that way. We only know fragments of the agreement for now, but it seems that both sides have opportunities to take infringements of the level playing field to arbitration, and to ask for the right to take retaliatory action. Boris Johnson illustrated this with the example of farm animal welfare. If Britain makes it more expensive to farm pigs, it can stop inbound pork from undercutting British farmers. But it's somewhat more likely that a deregulatory Conservative government is going to find the pressures and tensions are in the other direction, as the European Union raises its regulation of business, and meets a British refusal to align. That's where we get back into the possibility of tariffs or quotas. More negotiations And as ever, a deal on fish has not made that prospect go away. The two sides travelled a long way to get to a rise from around half of the UK waters' catch going to EU registered vessels, to a position in five years where the UK gets two-thirds. While the EU gave up more on the timescale it wanted, the UK gave up more on percentages of catch. It's long way from the expectations of Brexiteers, though some point out that any trade deal was bound to have a transition period, and the UK fleet doesn't yet have the capacity to take up new-found quota. Some £100m has been found to help it prepare for that. But after five years, "theoretically, anything is possible," said the prime minister. As a sovereign, independent coastal state, it seems the UK can force EU countries to negotiate access to UK waters. But theoretically, it's also possible that the EU can bring back the prospect of tariffs or quotas to reduce access to its markets. They are vital to British fishing effort already. And if UK vessels are to pick up all the quota of herring, whiting, sandeels, spratts, saithe, anglers and roughead grenadier that it can only sell in the European Union, it faces a consequent weakening of its negotiating position. In other words, the end of negotiations on Brexit look like the start of lots more negotiations, on lots more issues. As Switzerland finds, from outside the EU while ringed by it, the talks never end. |
BBC drama Peaky Blinders - named after the 19th Century razor-wielding Birmingham gang - is marketed with brooding star Cillian Murphy telling his adversaries: "This is our city." But how much of it is actually filmed there? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Andrew DawkinsBBC News in the West Midlands It was almost like any other Wednesday for the public at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. But this time the canal, the rolling mill and the anchor forge - all telling the story of the Industrial Revolution - were cordoned off for a TV show costing about £1m an episode. Peaky Blinders' gang leader Thomas Shelby, or rather the show's star Cillian Murphy, was in town, along with about 100 others milling around - everyone from cast and crew to drivers, caterers and horsemen. The museum is actually about 12 miles away from what it is portraying for TV - a 1920s scrap metals merchant in Small Heath in Birmingham called Charles Strong, named after a real person and a friend of the drama writer's grandfather. But at least these three days of filming have been in the West Midlands. The other outdoor scenes took place over four months in Liverpool, in Manchester, at a secret location in the South and in rural areas with no pylons getting in the way of the cameras. One of the show's extras was Kevin Lowe, a 54-year-old nail maker at the museum who had to teach two Peaky Blinders' actors how to be a blacksmith by "hitting a few horseshoes". New Birmingham actors Putting the museum worker in front of the cameras was part of the show's efforts to get more local people on screen after criticism of the first series for some of the cast's "dodgy" West Midlands accents. The show's writer and creator, Steven Knight, is a Birmingham City FC fan, with family from Small Heath, whose father was a blacksmith. And to research the accent, Cillian Murphy has previously recorded Mr Knight's old school mates talking while out drinking and played the sound back "over and over and over again," the writer said. But overall in series one, director Colm McCarthy conceded "there was a struggle with the accents the first time around". He said in the first series "a lot of people were cast at the last minute" and were "having to play catch up" with the accents, but this time they have two new actors with Birmingham accents after auditions in the city. Mr McCarthy said in March: "Because obviously there's a lot of returning characters this year... rather than being cast and locked into place two weeks before filming started, we knew that they were doing it before Christmas and they've been working with a coach since then." Mr Knight stressed it was "a very difficult accent to get right, even harder than Geordie". He stated: "I've said from the very beginning, the performance comes first. "There's nothing worse than when you restrict an actor and say 'no, your vowels have got longer'... You've got to let the actor do their performance." The second series, including film star Tom Hardy, begins in 1922 on the day the British Empire was "the biggest it ever was" when Birmingham was "the manufacturing heart" of it, according to the programme makers. They revealed the drama now extends to London, Derby and Doncaster, but was still a predominantly Birmingham story. Although Liverpool is actually the outdoor filming location for the Shelby family home in Watery Lane, Small Heath - thanks to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. He bought three streets to stop where he was born being knocked down, Mr Knight said. The writer added it was "very tricky" to find uninhabited streets "accurate to the time" that were not about to be demolished - and following bombing in World War Two, the museum was the show's only Midlands filming location "because of Hitler really". Producer Laurie Borg said: "I'd love to say quite honestly, look, we'd love to shoot the whole thing in Birmingham. I just don't believe that the locations exist any more. "I think up in the North, whereby [there are] docks and... a lot of the mills, there's a lot of stuff sitting around and it's just easier quite honestly for us to find that material." And while Charlie Strong's yard, where contraband is stored in the story, may be just one part of the series, for the Birmingham creator it is "the heart of it". Mr Knight said: "When I was a kid... it was like going to Aladdin's cave times a thousand... gypsies, canal boat people, very ornate, lots of earrings, lot of gold, lots of really well-dressed men and women. "I remember going there and everybody around the fire and it was like stepping into the 19th Century." |
A homeless man was found dead in a busy city street, while another was injured when his tent was set on fire. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The incidents happened in Cardiff on 10 December, and are both being investigated by police as part of separate inquiries. The dead man was found on St Mary Street at 19:30 GMT. His death is being treated as unexplained. A man received minor injuries in the tent fire, which happened at about 13:30 GMT. South Wales Police said: "The man has not yet been formally identified, but he is believed to be from the Llanrumney area and efforts are being made to contact next of kin." |
There is an alarming rise in the number of Syrian refugee girls in Jordan being forced into early marriages, according to the new figures from the United Nations. As Orla Guerin reports from Zaatari refugee camp, poverty is forcing some families to effectively sell their daughters to much older men, and there is now an organised trade in young girls. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In a prefabricated cabin in the sprawling camp, a girl, 13, sat on the floor engulfed by a frilly white dress, and a hooded silk cape. She was surrounded by children, not much younger than her, clapping and singing a nursery rhyme. What looked like a game of dressing-up was in fact her wedding reception. Her Mother looked on from a distance and wept - for her war torn homeland, and perhaps for her daughter. She asked us not to give their names. No choice Earlier, at a makeshift beauty salon, a fellow Syrian refugee curled the girl's hair and layered make-up on her face - the finishing touches to the end of a childhood. The bride told me her 25-year-old husband had been chosen by her family and she had never seen him before. She appeared relaxed, and said she was happy to be getting married. The reality is she had no choice. Almost one third ( 32% ) of refugee marriages in Jordan involve a girl under 18, according to the latest figures from Unicef. This refers to registered marriages, so the actual figure may be much higher. The rate of child marriage in Syria before the war was 13%. Some families marry off their daughters because of tradition. Others see a husband as protection for their daughters, but the UN says most are driven by poverty. City of the dispossessed "The longer the crisis in Syria lasts, the more we will see refugee families using this as a coping mechanism," said Michele Servadei, deputy Jordan representative for Unicef. "The vast majority of these cases are child abuse, even if the parents are giving their permission." In Zaatari camp - a city of the dispossessed sprouting in the desert - some are married before they reach their teens. Jordanian midwife Mounira Shaban, known in the camp as "Mama Mounira", was invited to the wedding of a 12-year old girl and a 14-year old boy. She could not bring herself to attend. "I felt like I wanted to cry," she said. "I felt like she was my daughter. I think this is violence. It's a shame. If a girl is 18 or over they think she is old and will not marry." Mounira tries to spare young girls from adult burdens. At her clinic she lectures refugees, sitting on benches in the sand, about the problems faced by young brides. "They don't know how to cook," she said, "and they don't know how to read and write. They have to take care of their husbands, when they want to go outside and play. Many of them get divorced." That is what is ahead for a slender 17-year-old we met who did not want to be identified. She was married at 15 and has a treasured baby girl. 'Not scared of divorce' The two-month old wriggled in her arms, snug in a pink and white baby-grow, and her mother's love. But her husband is threatening to take the child away, as the price of her freedom. "I am not scared of divorce. I know I will start a new life, but I am scared that my daughter will be taken from me," she said. "I will die without her. A mother's heart burns if her child is taken from her." At the other side of the camp we met Alaa, a shy young girl in a floral headscarf. Back home in Syria she loved school but now her only lessons are in housework. When we heard the sound of dishes being dropped her 20-year old husband Qassem joked that she was no good at cooking. Not surprising perhaps. Alaa - an orphan - is just 14. She fled Syria with her extended family. When she had to share accommodation with male relatives she was married off to Qassem, her cousin. The couple seemed happy in each other's company, but Alaa is pregnant, and worried. "I am scared of having the baby because I feel I won't be able to look after it," she told us, over a pot of sweet tea. "I wish I could have continued my studies and become a doctor and not got married so young." Shopping for brides Not far from the camp, in the city of Mafraq, there is an organised trade in young girls, according to Syrian refugees and local aid workers. It involves Syrian brokers and men - mainly from the Gulf States - who present themselves as donors, but are actually shopping for brides. They prey on refugee families, living in rented accommodation, who are struggling to get by. Local sources say the going rate for a bride is between 2,000 and 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($2,800/£1,635 to $14,000/£8,180) with another 1,000 ($1,400/£818) going to the broker. "These guys from the Gulf know there are families in need here," said Amal, a refugee, and mother of four. "They offer money to the family and the first thing they ask is 'do you have girls?' They like the young ones, around 14 and 15." Some men want even younger children like 13-year-old Ghazal, a slight but spirited girl with blue nail varnish. A 30-year-old Saudi man proposed to her, but she turned him down - against her family's wishes. She told us she was determined to continue her studies, but it is unclear how long she can defy her parents. Saying "no" was not an option for another teenage refugee in the city, who had dreams of becoming a lawyer. Instead she was married off at 14 to a 50-year-old from Kuwaiti. She told her story from beneath a black veil, which concealed her face, but not the pain in her eyes. "Usually a girl's wedding day is the happiest day in her life," she said, "for me it was the saddest. Everyone was telling me to smile or laugh but my feeling was fear, from the moment we got engaged." Her mother - a Syrian war widow - sat alongside. She told us she accepted 10,000 Jordanian dinars ($14,117/£8,248) for her daughter because she had seven more children she could not provide for. "I would never have considered this back in Syria but we came here with nothing, not even a mattress to sleep on. I thought the money would secure the future of my children. He took advantage of our situation." Instead of a better future, the family now has another mouth to feed. Her daughter has a four-month-old baby boy. His Kuwaiti father has never met him. He abandoned his young bride as soon as she became pregnant. |
A year ago music student Jessica Hurst, 25, was told her father had died at the age of 56. Then came the discovery that he had killed himself after getting into debt. As she explains here, it had begun as a relatively small debt for unpaid council tax - but it multiplied many times after the council had him declared bankrupt. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It was Wednesday 4 October 2017. I was scrolling down my Facebook feed during a small break from my opera rehearsal when I saw my dad had posted the words, "Goodnight sweet world." I thought to myself, "This is odd." So I commented: "Have you been hacked? Lol" and I thought no more of it. Several hours later, when my rehearsal was over, I saw lots of missed calls on my phone from my mum and gran. I remember walking along the corridor and picking up a call from my mum who said, "Where are you, lovey?" "I've just finished rehearsal, why?" I replied. "Your dad's gone," she said. My legs collapsed and I fell to the floor. Dad had been found by a bailiff that day at his house, our family home, in Lindale, Cumbria. A few days later, I went to meet the policeman who had been on duty at the time. I broke down in tears when he described how my dad had killed himself. The policeman explained that dad had been discovered by a bailiff intent on evicting him from the house, because of an unpaid debt. He told me dad had left a letter for the bailiff, which he had placed at the bottom of the stairs. It said: "I'm in the first bedroom on the left at the top of the stairs." Dad also left a note for my sister and me. "Jess and Sally, it breaks my heart to write this. This decision is nothing to do with you two. I love you with all my heart. I have been so unhappy in my personal life for so long that I cannot go on. Now that I am about to lose my house as well as my self-respect, I have decided to go." It was my parents' first home when they got married and the place where my sister and I grew up. The house is full of happy memories - of watching TV together on the ancient sofa and crowding around the table with relatives for Christmas dinner. Find out more About 15 years ago my parents divorced and my dad was rushed to hospital due to a tumour bursting through his kidney. He was given 12 months to live and a 15% chance of survival. Although his cancer was successfully managed, the treatment was painful and exhausting. He also had to pay £36,000 to my mother as part of the divorce settlement and £200 maintenance every month both to me and to my sister. In spite of his illness and divorce, dad was an upbeat person - he had a great sense of humour and always made light of every situation. He acted as a bit of an agony aunt for his friends, listening to their problems and giving advice. He organised community events such as bonfires and barbecues and loved cricket, rugby and the village pub. And all the time, he worked hard as a grounds-care specialist sales consultant. I organised a visit to dad's house through the bailiff. He met my sister and I there. "You'll be shocked," he said. Inside I found bankruptcy letters, court letters and other notices on table tops, kitchen surfaces and stuffed in plastic Co-op bags. I went through them one by one. Until he died I hadn't realised my father had been in debt, let alone declared bankrupt. Three days earlier he had dropped me off in Glasgow and helped me move into a flat, ready to start the second year of my master's degree. He had stayed with me all day, helping me to unpack, and called me three times on his journey back home. It was the last time I saw him. He had never stopped supporting me and my sister financially, even though - as I discovered - he had been sliding into debt for 10 years. It all began in 2008 when he missed a council tax payment. Where to get help If you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations which offer advice and support, visit BBC Action Line or you can call for free, at any time, to hear recorded information 0800 066 066 When he failed to settle up, South Lakeland District Council billed him for a year upfront. This brought the debt to £1,473. Over the next few years, the debt steadily grew as dad struggled to make ends meet. By 2014, he owed the council £9,332. He also owed smaller amounts to American Express, HSBC and United Utilities North West, bringing the total to £11,738. It was then that the council petitioned to make my dad bankrupt. He was declared bankrupt on 10 March 2014 at Barrow-in-Furness County Court, and at that point his debt started growing at an incredible rate. Straight away he was charged £3,800 in something called "statutory interest", which took his debt to about £15,500. But that was just the start. Over the next three years my dad actually paid £15,000 to the trustees appointed to collect the debt - the accounting and consultancy firm, BDO - but over the same period the bill from the trustees grew to £72,000. Sadly he never sought financial advice and never spoke to me or my sister. He was a very private person and would have seen asking for help as a failure - as a man, as much as anything else. I think he buried his head in the sand, put the letters to one side and tried to carry on life as normal. How did a debt of £11,738 rise to £72,000? Meanwhile, the council just kept sending more letters. The first person who ever turned up at his house to try to talk to him about his debt was a bailiff. And once dad was declared bankrupt, the sum quickly rose to one that he could never pay back. Unlike my father, I tried seeking advice. I set about calling agencies experienced in helping people with debt problems. They just told me that my dad's case was unusual and implied that I must have the wrong figures and details. Eventually, I decided to email my local MP, Tim Farron, who got in touch with South Lakeland District Council, who then got in touch with BDO, the trustees. I also emailed the bailiff to tell him about my dad's cancer and he said he would wait until I had finished my master's degree before clearing the house. Soon after that, BDO told me that they were willing to reduce the debt owed by my dad's estate to £35,869. Then, a little while later, they cut it to £25,100. It felt like a process of haggling. If only they'd negotiated with my dad, he might still be here today. Even the new, reduced debt is not a sum my sister and I can pay, however. I am a student and my sister is unemployed. We can't afford legal advice, so it looks as though we will lose the house we grew up in, as well as our dad. I would like to know why the council decided to take my dad down the route of petitioning to make him bankrupt, when other routes were available. How did South Lakeland District Council handle the case? I understand that my dad didn't reply to the council's letters and that must have been frustrating. But if a client has been a good citizen, paid his council tax all his life and then suddenly stops, there must be something wrong. I believe that in those circumstances the council should try to reach out to that person. Sadly, suicide rates for men over 50 are increasing. This is a generation that doesn't always find it easy to talk about problems. People should be aware of this, and try to talk to them instead. If not, this will happen again. And no young person should be left without their father because of a few thousand pounds of debt. Michael Fisher, revenues and benefits manager for South Lakeland District Council, told the BBC: "Now we have the full picture of Mr Hurst's situation, we do regret starting the bankruptcy process. We would not have taken this course of action had we had the full picture from the outset. Mr Hurst did not co-operate and the reason his fees are as high as they are is because of the amount of time and effort which has been spent on trying to recover the monies that were outstanding. Really, I think Mr Hurst's case teaches us all a lesson - if anybody is experiencing any financial difficulties, they should speak to their creditors at the first opportunity. The earlier you speak to your creditors, the easier it is to resolve. I don't think burying your head in the sand is ever a solution." The trustees, BDO, said they kept "detailed time records" for every case they handled and that many of the charges on Nigel Hurst's bill were "legal and regulatory matters" that did not necessarily bring them any financial benefit. They have now offered to waive their fees in Nigel Hurst's case. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. |
The respected broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, told the BBC recently that population growth was "out of control" - but one expert says the number of people on the planet could peak in 40 years. Who should we believe? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Hannah BarnesBBC News "The world's population is increasing out of control," Sir David told the BBC's Today programme. "Since I first started making programmes 60 years ago, the human population has tripled." Two striking claims. Let's take the second one first - that the world's population has tripled in 60 years. In 1950, around the time Sir David began his broadcasting career, there were 2.53 billion people in the world. Sixty-three years later and the latest estimate of world population is 7.16 billion. That is a little shy of tripling - more like a factor of 2.8 - but it's not far off. The "out of control" claim is less easily measurable, but perhaps it could be interpreted as the idea that the population will continue to grow at the same rate, roughly tripling in 60 years. If this happened, the world population would reach almost 40 billion people by the end of this century. But the latest United Nations projection puts the figure at little more than a quarter of that - less than 11 billion. That's still 50% more than we have today, but it shows the UN expects much slower population growth in the decades to come than in decades gone by. Some might consider that an increase in the world population from seven billion to 11 billion by 2100 still represents out-of-control population growth. But this UN figure - contained in its World Population Prospects, published every two years - is considered by one expert, at least, to be much too high. "When I looked at them I discovered that they were almost certainly wrong," says Sanjeev Sanyal, Global Strategist for Deutsche Bank, of the latest update of the World Population Prospects, released in June this year. Population growth projections feed into many other forecasts and models - projections of energy use, for example, or corporate profits - so people like Sanyal scrutinise these UN figures carefully. And he finds the UN projections "difficult to justify" for a number of reasons. "If you look at fertility rates - the number of babies that a woman has over the course of her life - in very large parts of the world, those fertility rates are now below what is needed to replace the population," he says. "Much of Europe, Japan, large countries like China, even Brazil, don't produce [the necessary] 2.2 or 2.3 babies [per woman]. Some of them are way below that level and as a result it is almost certain that these huge countries are going to see rapidly declining populations within a few decades from now." The replacement rate is higher than two, because some women will die before they reach the end of their child-bearing years. Also, in developing countries the UN predicts rapidly expanding populations. In Nigeria, for example, it expects the current figure of roughly 160 million to increase to almost one billion by the end of the century. Sanyal is sceptical. "Surely Nigerians will recognise at some points that things are getting crowded and stop having so many babies?" he argues. He predicts the Nigerian population in 2100 will be 400 million fewer than the UN suggests. His forecasts are lower for the world's two largest countries too. He predicts China's population will be 60 million fewer than the UN forecasts for 2100, and India's 100 million. "Even the US is quite suspect," Sanyal says. Here, the UN predicts a rise from 312 million today to 462 million in 2100. "That would be extraordinary for a country which already has birth rates below the replacement rate… You will need huge amounts of migration into the US to reach anywhere near [that]." It is likely that lots of people will migrate to the US. Sanyal accepts that the US population will grow. But to increase at this rate he insists that other countries would have to be showing falls in population - falls that do not appear in the UN figures. Overall, Sanyal paints a very different picture from the UN, with world population peaking around 2050 at 8.7 billion and declining to about 8 billion by the end of the century. That's about a billion higher than it is now, but well short of the UN's 11 billion. Both Sanyal and the UN start with the same data - national censuses from 2010. The difference arises because they make different assumptions about fertility, mortality and migration. "I took into account two or three things which I think are inadequately reflected in the UN [report]," Sanyal explains. "I have probably accounted more aggressively for things like gender bias in countries like China and India. The fact that they are countries with far fewer women of childbearing age than their overall population would suggest." The UN predictions also assume, according to Sanyal, that all fertility rates will eventually converge towards the replacement rate - an "odd assumption" in his view. "We have not seen any country where fertility rates have declined very dramatically [only] to have seen them drift back up to the replacement rate," he says. And the UN has underestimated the impact of urbanisation on reducing fertility rates, he argues. Up to now, as he puts it, urbanisation has been "a very powerful contraceptive" in all countries. For their part, the UN experts say that Sanyal must have been assuming very sharp declines in fertility rates, which they do not share, and very small changes to the global fertility rate can have a huge impact decades down the line. The UN's own predictions highlight this. The 10.9 billion figure in 2100 is what is known as the "medium-variant" - it represents what the UN sees as the middle road. But if you assume a fertility rate of half a child below that, the world's population would have fallen to 6.8 billion by the end of the century. Go up by half a child in the UN's model and it hits 16.6. billion. What's more, small changes in fertility rates have a more pronounced effect over time. Sanyal's forecast and the UN's differ by 800 million at 2050. Yet, this increases to 2.8 billion by 2100. There is plenty of room for disagreement. Let's hope the disagreements don't get "out of control". You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
It may be the era of the box-set binge, but many of us are still finding time to enjoy books. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rebecca ThomasArts and entertainment reporter In the UK alone, sales of adult fiction, non-fiction and children's print books have remained healthy over the past 12 months. Before the Christmas boost, they were up 1% to 191.5 million copies sold, according to market analysis firm Nielsen. Meanwhile, Nielsen predicts a sales increase of audiobooks of 15% to nine million recordings. Ebooks, however, are estimated to be down 10%. To whet your appetite for the books out in 2020, we've picked a selection of adult titles in different genres. Hopefully you'll find something to enjoy. Fiction by established best-sellers Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell The author: A twice Booker Prize-nominated author, Mitchell's work includes Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks and number9dream. He has also translated (with his wife) two books on autism by Japanese writer Naoki Higashida and contributed to the Netflix series Sense8 and the next Matrix movie. The book: Utopia Avenue is Mitchell's first full novel since The Bone Clocks in 2014. It recounts the meteoric rise and plummeting downfall of a British band in 1967 London, set against a backdrop of riots, drugs, love, sex, madness and death. Published 2 June. The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel The author: Mantel won the Booker Prize for the first two novels in her epic story of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. In May, she said of the closing chapter in the saga: "This book has been the greatest challenge of my writing life, and the most rewarding; I hope and trust my readers will find it has been worth the wait." The book: The Mirror and the Light traces the final years of Cromwell, the man who rose from nowhere to become one of the top advisors to Henry VIII. Mantel's story is of the fierce and tragic conflict between royal will and Cromwell's vision of a modern nation. Published 5 March. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell The author: O'Farrell is the best-selling author of novels including After You'd Gone, The Distance Between Us and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. In 2010, The Hand That First Held Mine won the Costa Novel Award. Instructions For A Heatwave was shortlisted in 2013, as was This Must Be The Place in 2016. The book: Set in 1596, Shakespeare's son Hamnet - whose name inspired the celebrated play - goes in search of help for his gravely ill his twin sister. Their mother is a long way away and their father is away working. Neither parent knows one of the children will not survive the week. Published 31 March. Just Like You - Nick Hornby The author: Hornby is the author of novels including High Fidelity, About a Boy and Funny Girl. His recent marriage break-up novella State of the Union accompanied his BBC TV shorts series. Non-fiction includes Fever Pitch, and he wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplays for An Education and Brooklyn. The book: As we've come to expect from Hornby, his latest story is both personal and universal. Just Like You gets to the heart of what it means to fall surprisingly and heavily in love with someone who seems totally unsuitable. Published 17 September. Strange Hotel - Eimear McBride The author: McBride made her name with her award-winning debut A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, about a young woman and her complex family relationships. Her follow-up The Lesser Bohemian was about a relationship between a young student and a 38-year-old actor. The book: Even the plushest hotel room can lack soul, but for the nameless female protagonist, each holds complex memories - many painful. As she travels from country to country and room to room, we discover what has transpired or might transpire within their walls. Will she ever be ready to go home? Published 6 February. Contemporary fiction The Girl with the Louding Voice - Abi Daré The author: Daré lives in the UK but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. As a child, she questioned how it was that housemaids in her country were subjected to such desperate lives. She hopes her novel will give her protagonist - and others - the identity and dignity they deserve. The book: Adunni is a 14-year-old Nigerian who is adamant she wants an education. But her broke father sees her as means to an end - making money. Adunni is sold to an old man. Tragedy then leads to her being secretly sold as a servant to a wealthy Lagos family. Adunni is repeatedly told that she is nothing, but she remains convinced that sheer determination will see her break free. Published 5 March. The 24-Hour Cafe - Libby Page The author: Libby Page's debut novel was the "uplifting" The Lido, about residents who rally together to save their local pool from closure and the land being used for luxury flats. It became a best-seller and is to be made into a film. The book: Page again focuses on the value of community. Inspired by her local café, Page tells of best friends Hannah and Mona, who are waitressing despite being artistically trained. They may dream of a different life, but around them every type of existence is played out by the individuals who walk through the door. Published 23 January. Seven Lies - Elizabeth Kay The author: Kay started her career as an assistant at Penguin Random House. She is now a commissioning editor who writes in her spare time. The book: Jane vows to tell you the whole truth about her relationship with her best friend Marnie. They've been very close since children but now their friendship is teetering because of lies told by Jane, one by one increasing in severity as Jane's possessiveness of Marnie turns to obsession. How did things get so bad and where will they end? Published 16 April. Saving Missy - Beth Morrey The author: Morrey is the creative director at RDF Television, where her credits include Channel 4's The Secret Life of Four Year Olds and ITV's 100 Year Old Drivers. The book: On the eve of her 80th birthday, Missy Carmichael finds herself isolated and desperately lonely. She has no friends and grieves for a family she has lost or alienated - and she knows it's all her own fault. But a chance encounter with two very different women dangles the possibility of a better life - if she will let it happen. Published 6 February. Come Again - Robert Webb The author: Webb is known for his comedy collaborations with David Mitchell on the TV hits Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look. In 2017 he wrote his coming-of-age memoir How Not To Be A Boy, recalling the comedy and tragedy of his early life. The book: Webb takes on a love story - with a twist. Part Time Traveller's Wife, part Peggy Sue Got Married, it tells of Kate, who's bereft following the death of her love-of-her-life husband Luke. One day she wakes up to find she's 18 again in body but still her more mature self in mind. It's the day she met Luke. Knowing what she does about their future, does she walk away or try to re-enact their story and maybe this time save Luke? Published 5 March. Crime and thriller fiction The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman The author: The all-round mega-brain is the creator and co-presenter of TV quiz show Pointless and has hosted Two Tribes and Richard Osman's House of Games, along with being creative director for TV production company Endemol. The book: Osman has a fascination with tales of intrigue, so his first novel is a murder mystery in the classic Agatha Christie style - with a tongue-in-cheek tinge of Midsomer Murders thrown in. Take four bored OAPs in an all-too peaceful Kent village who meet each week to "investigate" unsolved murders. But they get a jolt of reality when a real suspicious death lands on their doorstep. Have the foursome got the gumption to solve the crime? Published 3 September. The Holdout - Graham Moore The author: Moore is a New York Times best-selling novelist whose previous works include The Sherlockian and The Last Days of Night. He also won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Imitation Game, the film about Alan Turing starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The book: Moore's story comes from his own experience of being the "holdout" on a jury - the one member who disagrees with all the others. Here the disappearance of a 15-year-old heiress seems cut and dried - her teacher is the villain. But then pipes up juror Maya Seale, who persuades the others to vote not guilty. Scoot forward 10 years and one of the jurors has been found dead, with Maya the prime suspect. But is she being made to pay for her earlier actions? Published 20 February. The Recovery of Rose Gold - Stephanie Wrobel The author: Wrobel hails from Chicago and worked in advertising until she moved to London. She started a creative writing course and by the end of it had completed this book. The book: The story revolves around the complex Munchausen syndrome by proxy. It follows Rose Gold who, after being poisoned by her mother for 18 years, still decides to take her in after she finishes five years in prison. Mother Patty seems genuinely to want reconciliation. But Rose is not now easily fooled. Published 5 March. Historical fiction Miss Austen - Gill Hornby The author: The sister of Nick Hornby and wife of novelist Robert Harris, she wrote the best-selling novel The Hive, as well as All Together Now, featuring contemporary stories of groups of women and the emotional politics underpinning their relationships. She also wrote a biography of Jane Austen for children. The book: Hornby takes the intriguing story of Jane's sister Cassandra, with whom she had a deep and complex relationship. Set in 1840, 23 years after Jane's untimely death, the story focuses on Cassandra's search for a cache of letters written by Jane and which hold secrets Cassandra doesn't want revealed. As she reads them, she pieces together buried truths about her sister. In real life, Cassandra burnt the letters, which has troubled and divided academics to this day. Hornby offers a possible reason why. Published 23 January. The Foundling - Stacey Halls The author: Halls is the author of The Familiars, set in 1600s rural Lancashire. It was imbued with folklore, in particular the legends and fears around witches and the Pendle witch trials of 1612. In her writing, Halls uses true historical events to explore the treatment of women. The book: It's mid-1700s London. Bess Bright returns to reclaim her illegitimate daughter Clara, who she left at London's Foundling Hospital six years earlier. But Clara has been taken away, and Bess must find her. Meanwhile, a young widow who has not left her house in a decade is persuaded by a doctor from the hospital to hire a nursemaid for her daughter. In doing so, her carefully buried past threatens to resurface and destroy her future. Published 6 February. The Ninth Child - Sally Magnusson The author: The daughter of journalist, historian and Mastermind host Magnus Magnusson, Sally is a broadcaster herself and a familiar face as a former host on BBC Breakfast and Songs of Praise. Her writing includes non-fiction and children's books, and her debut novel was The Sealwoman's Gift, the story of a 17th Century Icelandic woman trafficked to Africa to be a slave. The book: In 1856, Isabel Aird is pregnant despite having given up hope of becoming a mother. She and her doctor husband move to the Scottish Highlands - also there are Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, who is again pregnant and exhausted by motherhood. Lurking in the shadows is Robert Kirk, a mythical character who is said to stalk the Highlands searching for an innocent soul to swap for his own. Not surprisingly, Robert's sights are on Isabel and Victoria. Published 19 March. Celebrity memoirs Non-fiction Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss - Rachel Clarke The author: Clarke gave up a career as a TV journalist to retrain as a doctor. She's now a hospice doctor, specialising in palliative care, and frequently writes about the healthcare system for newspapers. Her previous book was Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story. The book: A memoir about caring for people on the edge of death. Though indisputably a time of sorrow, Clarke tries to show that in the face of death can be found the things that really matter in life, including the strength and compassion of which we are all capable. Published 16 January. Joy at Work - Marie Kondo The author: The self-made "tidying consultant" shot to fame with her mantra that a tidy closet leads to a happy life. She wrote the global best-seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying and bagged her own Netflix show, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. The book: Still feeling out of sorts even though your home is now all boxed and labelled? Well, Marie now suggests your job may be the problem. Written with Scott Sonenshein, an "organisational psychologist", the book espouses re-evaluating the way you work. Published 7 April. Slay in Your Lane Presents: Loud Black Girls - Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené The authors: Adegoke and Uviebinené wrote the acclaimed Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girls Bible, a "self-help" guide offering black teenagers and women the advice they would have liked to have received themselves. The book: An anthology featuring essays from established and emerging black British female writers. They were asked to focus on what the future holds - a post-Brexit/Donald Trump world, but one where there is also more opportunity for black women to thrive. Published 25 June. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. |
When the younger brother of the BBC's Ruona Meyer became addicted to cough syrup, she began to investigate the men who make and sell opioid-based medicine on the streets of Lagos. Her investigation took her deep into Nigeria's criminal underworld, uncovering an epidemic that is destroying young lives across West Africa. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"Where there are lots of school kids, as soon as they get a taste for it, they'll keep pestering you for more," says Junaid Hassan. When I heard him say these words I felt sick to my stomach. I had already witnessed what he described - young Nigerians hooked on cough syrup made with codeine, an opioid which can be addictive. A 14-year-old girl from my home city of Lagos, her parents distressed and unsure how to help her. A young man in Kano, chained to the floor of a rehab centre, swarming with flies, driven mad by months of drinking syrup with his friends. My own brother has suffered from codeine cough syrup addiction. The strawberry tasting opioid hooked him after our father was killed. Grief, depression, a desire to be cool are just some of the reasons Nigerians are falling for this drug. Musicians sing about the high it gives you. Dealers peddle it in nightclubs and on the streets. Teenagers mix it with soft drinks, or swig it straight from the bottle at "syrup parties". Mr Hussan, aka Baba Ibeji, works at Bioraj Pharmaceuticals, a licensed medical producer which manufactures a codeine cough syrup called Biolin. The company is a major supplier to northern Nigeria. He is one of a number of pharmaceutical company employees who the BBC have secretly filmed doing illegal cough syrup deals over the past few months. It is not illegal to drink or manufacture the medicine - but it is against the law to sell it to people without a doctor's prescription or those who don't have a pharmaceutical licence. "Even if someone wants to buy 1,000 cartons, we won't give them a receipt," Mr Hassan told us, explaining how he avoids detection from authorities. Corruption like this is against Bioraj company policy, but is helping to fuel the industrial quantities of syrup leaking on to the black market. When we informed Bioraj that we had evidence Mr Hassan was engaging in this illicit activity, it responded with a statement saying the company only sells codeine cough syrup legitimately, that Mr Hassan denies wrongdoing, and that company chairman Bioku Rahamon personally guards Biolin sales. Like all opioids, codeine is in the same chemical family as heroin. It's an effective painkiller, but is also capable of giving you a euphoric high if consumed in large quantities. It is highly addictive and, taken in excess, can have a devastating impact on the mind and body. In the Dorayi Rehabilitation Centre in Kano, I met a man said by staff to have been driven insane by the drug. He was shackled at the ankles and chained to the roots of a tree, screaming and thrashing his arms. Seventy-two hours earlier he had been out on the streets, breaking car windows in traffic. "He's still going through his withdrawal issues now," said Sani Usaini, the officer in charge of the rehab centre. Codeine cough syrup - the scale of the problem In addition to kidney damage and seizures, serious abuse of codeine cough syrup can trigger mental psychosis - delusions, hallucinations, and even schizophrenia. Many of the syrup addicts in the rehab centre can become so violent that staff chain them to the floor. "He can't be in a bed because he has broken the bed, he has broken the windows and hurt himself," Mr Usaini told me, as I stood in front of another shackled young man. The air hung with a faint smell of faeces and the hum of flies. "Plenty of parents come here to cry." Pharmaceutical company employees who illegally sell syrup on to the black market know just how addictive codeine can be. Among them is Chukwunonye Madubuike, a business development executive with Emzor pharmaceuticals, which illegally sold us 60 bottles of codeine syrup in a hotel room deal in Lagos. "When somebody is addicted to something - you get me? - and he needs it, the price I don't think is an issue on this," he told us. "This is a product that I know that if I have one million cartons, I can sell it in a week." Emzor Pharmaceuticals told us that it is now investigating Mr Madubuike, adding he has access to a very limited amount of Emzolyn with codeine and could not sell large quantities illegally. The company says it is a responsible and compliant business, is reviewing its distribution policies, and treating our findings with the utmost seriousness. 'It crosses all class' In Kano, northern Nigeria, the drug enforcement agency (NDLEA) regularly leads raids to seize and destroy codeine syrup destined for street sale. Officers showed us over two tonnes of syrup - Bioraj's Biolin with codeine - that had been seized by Swat teams. They also showed us weapons criminal drug gangs use to protect their business, including knives, swords, and even a chainsaw that had been used to attack an NDLEA officer. But the NDLEA in Kano, by its own admission, is struggling to cope with the sheer scale of the syrup epidemic. The Nigerian Senate estimates that as many as three million bottles of codeine syrup are drunk every single day in just two states, Kano and Jigawa. "We may not even arrest 10% [of cough syrup on the market]," said Commander Hamza Umar of the NDLEA in Kano. "It crosses all class, no matter the level - rich and poor, educated and illiterate, a beggar and a toddler." Back in the rehab centre, Mr Usaini measures the scale of the epidemic by the number of young syrup addicts who are brought into his care. He used to see perhaps two or three cases each week, but "now we see seven, eight, sometimes even 10 within a week… Any child that you see they're bringing here as a drug addict? It's codeine." In a windowless room, still shaking after two months of withdrawal, we found one of those children - a 16-year-old girl in a pink hijab who told us that she used to get syrup from her boyfriend and drink it after school. She had a simple message for other young Nigerians tempted by the syrup craze: "I would advise them not to go into it if they haven't already. If they do, it will ruin their lives." This is the first report from BBC Africa's new investigations unit, Africa Eye. |
The announcement of the death of Oman's Sultan Qaboos earlier this month was followed by a chorus of praise for the achievements of the "father of the nation" - often tainted with a disturbingly Orientalist flavour - that overlooked the fact his grace period had long since come to an end. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Marc ValeriUniversity of Exeter Many Omanis consider that the late sultan, who had been increasingly isolated and reclusive and who had refused to lay the foundations for governance of a post-Qaboos Oman by appointing a prime minister or by nurturing a successor, had become more of a problem than a solution. Like his counterparts in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), he had made clear after the "Omani Spring" in 2011 - when thousands of people took to the streets to demand more jobs, better wages and an end to corruption - that the centre of political power, combining both executive and legislative powers, should remain his personal prerogative, closed off from any debate. The regime perpetuated what a United Nations special rapporteur called in 2014 a "pervasive culture of silence and fear affecting anyone who wants to speak and work for reforms in Oman". Investments in the security sector were a priority, consolidating Oman's top position in the world for defence and security spending as a proportion of its gross domestic product (GDP). Thus, tremendous challenges await the new sultan, Haitham bin Tariq, as a result of the stasis that characterised the last two decades of Qaboos' rule. Born in 1955, the son of Qaboos' paternal uncle, Haitham served as undersecretary, then secretary-general, in the ministry of foreign affairs, before becoming minister of national heritage and culture in 2002. Haitham, whose oldest son Dhi Yazin is second secretary at the Omani embassy in London, was the UK and Abu Dhabi's preferred choice as sultan. He enjoys support among Oman's intelligence services and the most influential governmental body, the Palace Office. He also benefits from proximity with local merchant elite, through personal and business connections he has established with a number of them. Haitham was among the first Omani royals to set himself as a businessman. In the 1990s, he became shareholder of Sun Farms agricultural company, a major land owner and top vegetables producer in Oman. He has substantially increased his involvement in business ventures since then, through a holding company (NTC) he holds and chairs. In particular, the group partly controls Oman's largest power company, SMN Power, a joint-venture with Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala, which is chaired by Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and French energy company Engie's UAE-based affiliate. Haitham also shared stakes in the Blue City project, a mega tourism-devoted new city south of Suhar. However, mismanagement and legal battles between the owners resulted in Oman's most resounding bankruptcy ever and the intervention of the state's sovereign wealth fund in 2011-12 to buy Blue City bonds. A few hours after the announcement of the old sultan's passing came the heavily choreographed ceremony of the opening of the sealed letter, in which Qaboos is supposed to have named Haitham as his successor. This was critical to ensure that the new leader, who enjoys limited legitimacy among the broader population, benefited from the authority bestowed upon him by Qaboos. This staged investiture, followed by pledges of allegiance by other political elites, does not say anything, though, about potential dissension within the royal family and external interference in the succession choice. Only history will reveal, but the composition of Haitham's first cabinet will give indications about his strategy of family control and, more generally, of elite management. Haitham's other main challenge is to oversee Oman's transition from over-reliance on oil revenues to a diversified economy. The Omani population is one of the youngest in the world: 46% of its citizens are under 19. Policies favouring Omanis in employment for the last 20 years have had limited results, as illustrated by dramatic social inequalities, endemic unemployment, and poverty. The World Bank estimates unemployment among 15-24 year olds is 49%. Real GDP growth turned negative (-0.9%) in 2017 and remained low in 2019 (0.3%). Since 2015, Oman has run high budget deficits and in 2018 rating agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's downgraded Oman's credit rating to "junk". The International Monetary Fund expects Oman's debt to reach 61% of GDP by 2020, compared to 17% in 2015. This is likely to have a direct impact on the new sultan's regional policy. While Oman will not lose its title of the UK's oldest friend in Arabia in the near future, given its exorbitant political and military dependence on the UK and the US, Haitham may find difficult to deflect the UAE's increasing infringement on Oman's sovereignty. The UAE is Oman's primary economic partner and trade between them is only likely to grow further in the years to come. Many citizens from northern Omani regions also work in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which has prompted concern in Muscat about the allegiance of the regions in the long term. Moreover, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Riyadh have been competing for influence in eastern Yemen, which borders Oman, by supporting different local actors. Oman's decision in 2018 to prohibit GCC nationals from owning property in governorates bordering Saudi Arabia and the UAE reflects Muscat's worry towards its neighbours. There are fears, though, that the new sultan might prefer to turn an unfortunate blind eye to the UAE's imperial ambitions, in the name of Muscat's need for Abu Dhabi's money. In 2013, Haitham became chair of the committee responsible for developing a new long-term national strategy, Oman Vision 2040. Inspired by the same international consultancy companies that have force-fed plans across the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia, the preliminary document issued in January 2019 advocated for the privatisation of public infrastructure, education and health services, the reduction of subsidies and the introduction of regressive taxes disproportionately impacting the poor - all measures which have resulted elsewhere in increased inequalities and popular unrest. Given this track record and Haitham's personal history in business, there are reasons to take a circumspect approach towards the Vision 2040 plans, especially since a further structural issue lies in the number of political decision makers holding business interests. As everywhere in the world, the government's attempt to justify large-scale austerity measures for the sake of sustainable development, while merchant and royal elites preserve their own economic privileges and a secured flow of rents, has become unacceptable for young Omanis, who are not willing to grant Haitham the same degree of authoritarian paternalism that their parents gave Qaboos. Indeed, if Haitham does pursue the top-down, neo-liberal reforms that have been announced, pointing towards a deepening concentration of wealth and power instead of promoting a new social contract that would offer a more equitable distribution of wealth from natural resources and a more participatory decision-making process, these are likely to provoke renewed popular frustrations and herald considerable turmoil. |
A young cowboy from Texas who joined the elite US Navy Seals became the most deadly sniper in American history. In a book published this month he provides an unusual insight into the psychology of a soldier who waits, watches and kills. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Stephanie HegartyBBC World Service As US forces surged into Iraq in 2003, Chris Kyle was handed a sniper rifle and told to watch as a marine battalion entered an Iraqi town. A crowd had come out to greet them. Through the scope he saw a woman, with a child close by, approaching his troops. She had a grenade ready to detonate in her hand. "This was the first time I was going to have to kill someone. I didn't know whether I was going to be able to do it, man, woman or whatever," he says. "You're running everything through your mind. This is a woman, first of all. Second of all, am I clear to do this, is this right, is it justified? And after I do this, am I going to be fried back home? Are the lawyers going to come after me saying, 'You killed a woman, you're going to prison'?" But he didn't have much time to debate these questions. "She made the decision for me, it was either my fellow Americans die or I take her out." He pulled the trigger. Kyle remained in Iraq until 2009. According to official Pentagon figures, he killed 160 people, the most career sniper kills in the history of the US military. His own estimate is much higher, at 255 kills. According to army intelligence, he was christened "The Devil" by Iraqi insurgents, who put a $20,000 (£13,000) bounty on his head. Married with two children, he has now retired from the military and has published a book in which he claims to have no regrets, referring to the people he killed as "savages". Job satisfaction But a study into snipers in Israel has shown that snipers are much less likely than other soldiers to dehumanise their enemy in this way. Part of the reason for this may be that snipers can see their targets with great clarity and sometimes must observe them for hours or even days. "It's killing that is very distant but also very personal," says anthropologist Neta Bar. "I would even say intimate." She studied attitudes to killing among 30 Israeli snipers who served in the Palestinian territories from 2000 to 2003, to examine whether killing is unnatural or traumatic for human beings. She chose snipers in particular because, unlike pilots or tank drivers who shoot at big targets like buildings, the sniper picks off individual people. What she found was that while many Israeli soldiers would refer to Palestinian militants as "terrorists", snipers generally referred to them as human beings. "The Hebrew word for human being is Son of Adam and this was the word they used by far more than any other when they talked about the people that they killed," she says. Snipers almost never referred to the men they killed as targets, or used animal or machine metaphors. Some interviewees even said that their victims were legitimate warriors. "Here is someone whose friends love him and I am sure he is a good person because he does this out of ideology," said one sniper who watched through his scope as a family mourned the man he had just shot. "But we from our side have prevented the killing of innocents, so we are not sorry about it." This justification - which was supported by friends, family and wider Israeli society - could be one reason why the snipers didn't report any trauma after killing, she suggests. "Being prepared for all those things that might crack their conviction, actually enabled them to kill without suffering too much." She also noted that the snipers she studied were rational and intelligent young men. In most military forces, snipers are subject to rigorous testing and training and are chosen for aptitude. In the UK, they complete a three-month training course, with a pass rate of only one in four. The US marine sniper course is one of the hardest training courses in the military, with a failure rate of more than 60% and a long list of prerequisites for recruits, including "a high degree of maturity, equanimity and common sense". Research in Canada has also found that snipers tend to score lower on tests for post-traumatic stress and higher on tests for job satisfaction than the average soldier. "By and large, they are very healthy, well-adjusted young men," says Peter Bradley at the Royal Military College of Canada, who is studying 150 snipers in Afghanistan. "When you meet them you're taken by how sensible and level-headed they are." Don't tell your wife But both the Israeli and the Canadian studies only spoke to snipers who were still on active duty. Neta Bar suspects many of them could experience problems in years to come, after they return to normal society. When former Soviet sniper Ilya Abishev fought in Afghanistan in 1988 he was immersed in Soviet propaganda and was convinced what he was doing was right. Regret came much later. "We believed we were defending the Afghan people," he says. "Now I am not proud, I am ashamed of my behaviour." For police snipers, who operate within normal society rather than a war zone, doubts, or even trauma, can arise much sooner. Brian Sain, a sniper and deputy at the sheriff's department in Texas, says many police and army snipers struggle with having killed in such an intimate way. "It's not something you can tell your wife, it's not something you can tell your pastor," says Mr Sain, a member of Spotter, an American association that supports traumatised snipers. "Only another sniper understands how that feels." But for the US's deadliest sniper, remorse does not seem to be an issue. "It is a weird feeling," he admits. "Seeing an actual dead body... knowing that you're the one that caused it now to no longer move." But that is as far as he goes. "Every person I killed I strongly believe that they were bad," he says. "When I do go face God there is going to be lots of things I will have to account for but killing any of those people is not one of them." Chris Kyle was interviewed by Outlook for the BBC World Service. Listen to the interview here. Chris Kyle's book is called American Sniper. |
On 6 November, American voters get to decide the direction of their country once more in the mid-term elections. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
There are local races, and 36 states will choose their governors. But the key races are for members of both chambers of Congress, that help push through laws in the US. Mid-terms: You choose what happens Share this chatbot Produced by Roland Hughes and Paul Sargeant |
Most women and girls around the world either have experienced or will experience harassment in public spaces, statistics show - and public transport is a hotspot for these abuses, from whistling and vulgar comments to sexual touching and assault. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Valeria PerassoSocial Affairs correspondent, WS Languages Different solutions have been implemented around the world to tackle the problem. There are segregated carriages in trains, "pink taxis" for female passengers, safe booths in public transport networks to confidentially report cases, and a variety of awareness campaigns. But does having a woman behind the wheel offer any protection? 100 Women asks female drivers in buses, trains, tubes and taxis, as well as activists and policy experts. 'I shouldn't need other women around to feel safe' Hannah Merrin, 32, has been a train driver and instructor for over ten years. She works for Hong Kong's railway giant MTR, in the concession for the new Crossrail line in England. 13% of Crossrail's drivers are female - more than double the industry average. I got into the railway industry because my father worked there. When I started there were more than 80 drivers and only two of those were women. It was quite intimidating. The majority of them did not have a problem, it was more like having a lot of uncles to look after you, but there were the odd few that did not like to have women around. I was a victim of bullying myself from a manager that made it perfectly clear that, as a girl, he did not want me there and would stop me from progressing. I have seen female passengers getting off the train in a bit of state after being victims of harassment. I delay the train until somebody can come and meet them at the platform if they are really shaken. I had a few drunken women, or some travelling late on their own, and when you are in that situation you are more vulnerable, so I make sure that I keep my eyes on them. There are no protocols on how to deal with abuse on the trains - I just do what I would like others to do if it were me. I don't know if having other women behind the wheel makes women safer… I believe the only way to deal with harassment is by getting men who do it to just stop. I shouldn't need other women around me to make sure I'm safe. Better drivers Doris Muthoni Wanjira, 38, is a conductor in a "matatu" or minibus in Nairobi, Kenya. A recent photo of her carrying a baby while ushering passengers went viral; she received a wave of support on social media after the company suspended her for a week because of that. If you don't have a godfather, relative or someone backing you, it is really hard to get a vehicle if you are a lady. Women have to work three times as hard to make a space for themselves. What happens to female conductors is that some vehicle owners will take advantage of your desperation [to have a job or earn a wage]. And passengers and drivers in the matatus have to go through hell: they are sexually harassed, many assume we are "prostitutes". With the conductors, some [male passengers] go as far as not paying the fare and when we confront them we are verbally and physically abused. But I think it is important that we are seen doing these jobs, it gives other women hope that we can do the same jobs as men. Women feel encouraged when they see us fighting for our space in the matatu industry. And to be honest, women are much better drivers than men. We go slowly but we still meet the targets and many female passengers like travelling with us because we know how to make it easier for them to board or alight and we treat them nicely. When I see a woman being harassed, I always try to protect her. No-one has the right, it doesn't matter what she's wearing because her dress is her choice. We need unions to cover us, we need job security because we keep silent in the face of abuse out of fear. Let us be trained in self-defence, let us have a lawyer that fights for us. Let us be safe and be respected. What is 100 Women? BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport. With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women Safe space and empathy She Drives Us is a mobile app that has just launched in Chile to create a gender-segregated transportation network - it has been labelled the "Uber for women", with 2,500 registered customers and almost 900 drivers. "The app is a new alternative that gives female passengers the option to travel with female drivers only, and this is very reassuring for both," says Macarena Oyarce, a 30-year-old driver working with She Drives Us. "It creates a safe space and allows women to find someone behind the wheel that better understands them, and with whom they can develop a lot more empathy." "Harassment reports led us to look at an alternative business model for the car-sharing industry and ultimately to create this solution," says Esteban Torres, one of the three (male) founders of the service. "If you look at abuse statistics, the picture is very bleak, in Chile as well as elsewhere in the world," "The benefit is two-fold: women can choose the service to travel safely, and it is also a good job opportunity for women who cannot work full-time." The drivers believe it is good they are in charge. "Of course it is a good solution to have women behind the wheel to fight against sexual harassment. This is about stopping harassment for women in the back seat as much as for those of us driving," says 34-year-old driver Carmen Gloria Urrutia. "Statistics show that women are better drivers and have fewer accidents. Plus statistics also say that female-to-female harassment rates are extremely low," says Torres. "I have a daughter and if I am going to let her travel alone I would much rather have her driven around by a woman." 'Think twice, are you sure that was harassment?' Tamara De Anda is a Mexican journalist and blogger. She made headlines for filing a police report against a taxi driver who accosted her verbally and got him fined for catcalling, following a rarely-applied regulation in Mexico City. She is a popular voice in the fight for gender-equality. We need to see a more gender-balanced representation behind the wheel but also in those spaces where transport policies are made. As this is not a type of violence that men themselves have experienced, it is all very abstract to them to the point that they are sometimes unable to recognise it. That's why having women in decision-making positions is an imperative if we want to see any progress. On the transport network, the closest figure to an authority that you have is the driver or conductor. And there are very few females doing these jobs - probably because those who hire drivers are usually men and there are lots of prejudices against female drivers. Here, prejudice is such that some people would cancel a service if they call a taxi, for example, and the driver that arrives happens to be a woman. In Mexico, a striking majority of station guardians and policemen are men and they dissuade you from reporting harassment. If you go and tell them, many would tell you "think twice, are you sure that was harassment?", "do you really want to spend half a day at a police station to report it?" It is very discouraging. So it would certainly help to have women there too. Not just drivers Sade Agboola, 35, founded private taxi company Annisa Cars, that hires only female drivers and is about to go into business in south London, UK. We decided to recruit women drivers for our minicabs but this is not a solution, it is reaction to what is happening. This is a response to a problem that we have to address. We are not trying to single out men nor do we believe that they are men guilty, but we have to address the issue. As a mum-of-one I use a lot of minicabs myself and there were a lot of situations in which I felt uncomfortable and nervous, especially when I was alone with the driver. Having a women-only taxi service is a way to empower women. Some feel very anxious just at the thought of having to leave their home. However big or small the incident of abuse that they went through is, the result is always the same: they have to find a way to go back to living a normal life. I don't think [harassed] women receive enough support. To those that have gone through something really traumatic, we need to give them their confidence back. So our drivers are not just drivers, they can be escorts to help them feel safe. They provide additional support that other women may need. Nobody should feel uncomfortable. "Just another form of sex segregation" Holly Kearl is an American activist and founder of the non-profit organisation Stop Street Harassment (SSH). She is the author of the book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women and helped establish International Anti-Street Harassment Week, in 2012. When we talk specifically about public transit, the often-crowded environment allows some harassers to feel emboldened: they may think they can get away with their behaviour because it's too crowded for the target of the harassment to know who did it. And that doesn't change, regardless of who's driving. I do believe women are safer while in a vehicle driven by a woman, but ultimately these measures are a form of sex segregation and they put the onus on women to have to try to stay safe. It turns women into the "other" and it almost feels like it excuses a harmful behaviour by creating this alternative option. I'd like to see all taxi and ride-sharing companies do more to prevent their drivers from being harassers and abusers in the first place, as well as seeing them hire more women drivers in general. We need education in schools, awareness campaigns and community training programmes to help witnesses and victims of harassment know what they can do in a situations. We need more initiatives that focus on addressing the root causes so that sex-segregation is not needed as a temporary "Band-Aid fix". Not very helpful Hanne Bingle, 58, became a tube driver in the London Underground in 2001. Born in Denmark, she has always worked to promote equality for women in Transport for London (TfL) and was granted a Honorary MBE for her services in 2009. When I first trained to become a Tube driver, there was a little bit of scepticism from some of the (male) drivers but within a very short time things changed. We got to know the guys and it became more about team work. I used to work in the Victoria Line and at the time we had one of the highest percentages of women, but still not very high - around 13% of all drivers, I think. There has been a steady improvement since then. There is something very positive about women in non-traditional roles, the fact that we can show that we are just as capable as anybody else to do the job. It is a very viable career choice for women. As a driver, you always get the odd guy with a little bit of an attitude when the Tube is not working as they expect, but if I am in my compartment they have no reason to come and speak to me. When it comes to helping other women, being at the front of the train means that you are limited in what you can do, it may not be very helpful in fact. But people can call us through the emergency system and we can go or direct staff to come and help them. On one occasion, we had an incident that ended with the perpetrator being taken to court. It was during the afternoon, myself and a fellow passenger intervened and we got him arrested by the police at a station. Women's political participation is needed Laura Capobianco is Global Adviser on Safe Public Spaces for UN Women. Ensuring that public transportation is free of sexual harassment and violence against women and girls should not be regarded as "just a women's issue" and cannot be simply reduced to a discussion of one measure. Safe and sustainable transportation requires looking at women's political participation - that is, women's views informing public transportation solutions: often issues related to gender and violence against women remain invisible as planning and design of public transportation systems are often predominated by men. Also it requires women's economic empowerment, in recognition that women may often avoid certain public spaces or routes because of fear of sexual violence, and this may limit women's autonomous mobility to get to work or to study. Some of UN Women's programmes in this area include training for men and women drivers (taxis, rickshaws, buses, trains) on the issue of sexual harassment against women and girls, how to prevent and respond to it. In certain countries, women-only (segregated) or women-led transportation may also work, as an affirmative interim or "emergency" measure to enhance women's safety and mobility in the process of ensuring safe public transportation. |
At 9am on Tuesday the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam posted an image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642) on its website. Nothing particularly unusual about that, you might think. After all, the museum frequently uploads pictures of its masterpieces from Dutch Golden Age. But there was something about this particular photo that made it stand out just like the little girl in a gold dress in Rembrandt's famous group portrait of local civic guardsmen. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter The web image presents the painting unframed on a dark grey background. It looks sharp and well-lit but not exceptional in terms of photography. Until, that is, you click on it, at which point you're zoomed in a bit closer. Click again and you're propelled towards the outstretched hand of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Another click, and you're face-to-face with the leader of this group of not-so-merry-men. Once more, and you can see the glint in his eye and the texture of his ginger beard. At no point does the image start to pixelate or distort, it's pin-sharp throughout. And it remains so as you continue to click, getting further and further into the painting until the Captain's paint-cracked eyeball is the size of a fist, and you realise that tiny glint you first saw isn't the result of one dab of Rembrandt's brush, but four separate applications, each loaded with a slightly different shade of paint. And then you stop and think: Crikey, Rembrandt actually used four different colours to paint a minuscule light effect in the eye of one of the many life-sized protagonists featured in this group portrait, which probably wouldn't be seen by anybody anyway. Or, maybe, this visionary 17th Century Dutchman foresaw a future where the early experiments with camera obscura techniques, in which he might have dabbled, would eventually lead to a photographic technology capable of recording a visual representation of his giant canvas to a level of detail beyond the eyesight of even the artist himself! It is, quite frankly, amazing. For instance, I've always liked the ghostly dog that turns and snarls at the drummer situated at the edge of the painting. I'd assumed the hound was unfinished and therefore unloved by Rembrandt, but now I can see by zooming in that the artist not only gave the dog a stylish collar, but also added a gold pendant with a tiny flash of red paint to echo the colour of the trousers worn by the drummer. Clearly, Rembrandt was pro-dogs. As always there is artifice behind the art, as you will see within moments of zooming into The Night Watch. It quickly becomes apparent that Rembrandt first created his wonderfully dynamic composition, and then fine-tuned it as he went along. You will spot lots of small shadowy corrections (pentimenti) he made, such as the top of the drummer's stick on the far right, or on the index finger of the Ensign holding the Troop's flag aloft. There is artifice in the photograph, too. It is not a single image as it appears, but a composite of 528 individual digital photographs that have been seamlessly stitched together to give us a completely new view of one the most famous paintings in western art. Let's zoom out for a moment. Rembrandt signed, dated and called his painting: Officers and Men of the Amsterdam Kloveniers Militia, the Company of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. It was a commissioned portrait by the Kloveniers Militia (a sort of Dad's Army of locals) to hang in their HQ. Those featured (probably 18 members originally) each paid to be included. Capt Cocq takes centre stage, with his trusty Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch to his side. The men gathered behind them are carrying an assortment of weapons with which to defend their neighbourhood. Muskets (Klover) were their speciality, a point Rembrandt illustrates with a surreal sequence running left to right across the picture featuring three musketeers. The first, dressed in red with white collar and cuffs, is loading his musket with gunpowder. The second, a young boy, partially obscured by Cocq's right arm, fires his gun, ruffling the feathers of Ruytenburch's hat but not the man himself, who one has to assume is stone deaf. And then, there's the third, an older man also dressed in red, blowing away the spent powder from the fired gun. The young girl in the gold dress is not a member of the militia, but is there as their shining symbolic mascot. The upturned feet of the dead chicken hanging from her belt represent the Kloveniers' golden claw emblem. The painting initially hung with several other huge group portraits, giving visitors to the troops' inner sanctum the sense of being surrounded by local muscle. It was subsequently moved in 1715 to the Town Hall on the Dam (now the Royal Palace), where it was trimmed on all four sides to fit between the doors. It was first called The Night Watch in 1897, when the varnish applied to protect the paint had become so old and stained the picture looked like a nocturnal scene. That layer of varnish was removed long ago in one of the 25 or more restorations and treatments The Night Watch has undergone over the years. The most memorable being in 1975 after a visitor to the museum attacked the painting with a knife, causing severe damage, traces of which you can see when you zoom in on the new composite photograph: An act of art historical sleuthing which is the digital photo's primary purpose. The 44.8 Gigapixel image was created for the Rijksmuseum's conservation department, which is currently embarked upon the most exhaustive facelift The Night Watch has probably ever endured. It enables the team of 12 to look right into the picture without using microscopes, in order to see what work needs to be done. A huge amount is the answer. Zoom in and you'll detect plenty of cracked paint, which is to be expected. But zero in on the Captain's and Lieutenant's faces and you will notice they're covered in blackheads. That's not because they didn't know one end of a bath from the other - they were sophisticated chaps - it is probably down to aging white paint particles, the tops of which have broken off to reveal a dark inner. There are thousands of these pinprick blemishes, all of which conservators should be able to reverse, bringing an even greater liveliness to an already lively painting. The Night Watch is an incredible work of art. Soon, you will be able to stand in front of it once again when the Rijksmuseum re-opens on the 1 June (caveat: there will be vastly reduced number of admissions, and The Night Watch is currently encased in a glass box - still visible but not as approachable). And if and when you do see it for real, you will immediately notice Rembrandt's exaggerated use of light and shade to create a sense of drama, aided and abetted by an all-action composition emphasised by teaming diagonal lines. The Night Watch is as close to theatre as a painting can get. As the director of the Rijksmuseum said, it is a school photo taken before everybody is lined up in order (it shows Capt. Cocq instructing Lt. Ruytenburch to bring his men to attention). It captures a moment of movement and mayhem. You can see that when in front of the canvas. But when you are not, when you're at home, you can now see the same sense of chaos in the way Rembrandt painted his masterpiece, made when he was at the peak of his fame, just at the time his beloved wife was dying and his life took a turn for the worse. The further you look into it the greater the mess appears to be. Splodges of impasto paint here, unfinished transitions there. It's a mixture of early Rembrandt tautness and late Rembrandt looseness. If you thought Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock invented expressionistic painting, you'll think again when you've zoomed into The Night Watch. It is a sight to behold. A magnificent sight, which extends our knowledge of a truly great work of art, whether you're an old timer or a first timer. New technology is often used to try to jazz up old art, which is generally a bad idea. But, the Rijksmuseum is using technology to increase our understanding and appreciation of a Golden Age great, and that is a good idea. As you can see. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter |
A Bulgarian trader in spare parts for buses has become a national celebrity after starting to patrol the Turkish border "hunting" for migrants. Many Bulgarians applaud his vigilante initiative, though others are deeply troubled. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Matthew BrunwasserYambol, Bulgaria "Bulgaria needs people like me, dignified Bulgarians, willing to defend their homeland," says Dinko Valev, sipping a fresh-squeezed orange juice in a flashy cafe in his hometown, Yambol, 50km (30 miles) from Bulgaria's border with Turkey. Valev, 29, is a beefy semi-professional wrestler with a shaved head and a brusque manner. His left pectoral is tattooed with a cross the size of a T-bone steak. He became famous overnight last month when national television news carried a report labelling him a "superhero" and detailing a violent encounter with a group of Syrians near the border as he was out riding on his quad bike. The presenter praised Valev for subduing the group of 12 Syrian men, three women and a child "with his bare hands". They can be seen on mobile phone footage filmed by one of Valev's companions, lying on the ground waiting for police to arrive. Valev can be heard insulting the refugees and saying that they came from Syria "to kill us like dogs". "These are disgusting and bad people and they should stay where they are," Valev tells me in the cafe. He estimates that 95% of Bulgarians support him, describing the migrants as dangerous "terrorists, jihadists and Taliban". "Bulgaria is an unfenced yard and is completely disorganised," he says, reflecting a lack of confidence in government that many Bulgarians share. In fact, the Bulgarian government has built a fence along about half of the Turkish border, and is now seeking to lengthen it. Valev has used his new-found fame to call for volunteers to join him on a border patrol. On 12 March, he says, some 50 unarmed people gathered to look for migrants along the forested border, on quad bikes and jeeps. But a large group of border police were waiting when they arrived. According to Valev they were deliberately scaring away migrants to prevent the vigilantes catching any. The time and place of future patrols, he says, will not be publicly announced. Border police spokeswoman Lora Lyubenova says the authorities welcome information from citizens about criminal activity - including illegal border crossings - but that only the police have the authority to detain and arrest people. Last year more than a million people used the "Western Balkan route" to enter the European Union though only 31,000 are known to have entered Bulgaria. Even so, the Bulgarian media is permeated with inflammatory anti-migrant rhetoric. A 2013 study by the Association of European Journalists, a Sofia-based NGO, looked at 8,439 articles about migrants published in the Bulgarian media and found that the two most commonly appearing words were "threat" and "disease." The director of Bulgaria's National History Museum, popular historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, has floated the idea of converting migrants to Christianity, and suggested that Bulgaria accept only women and children. "Public officials openly instil fear and animosity against the refugees, consistently presenting them as a threat to the Bulgarian public," says Margarita Ilieva, head of the legal programme at the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation. The Helsinki Committee has asked prosecutors to investigate Valev, pointing out that he bragged on national television about committing half a dozen crimes: assault and battery, making death threats, unlawful detention, inciting ethnic hatred and inciting ethnic violence. For his part, Valev says that he was acting in self-defence after a Syrian man tried to stab him. Several other Syrian men then became aggressive, Valev says, so he then used force to subdue them as well. When Valev was taken in for questioning by police on Friday, a crowd of about 30 protesters gathered outside shouting "Dinko is a hero!" and "We don't want migrants!" Fear of migrants has become a powerful focal point for popular discontent about many unrelated problems, according to Haralan Alexandrov a social anthropologist at the New Bulgarian University, who says Bulgarians are no more or less xenophobic than any other Europeans. Corruption, poverty, disappointment with EU membership, Bulgaria's dysfunctional judicial system and the failure to reform it - all these make Bulgarians angry, he says. "Instead of focusing your anger against the powerful judiciary, it's easier to attack the terrified refugees hiding in the weeds. You sense that something is wrong with the world and somebody must be blamed, so you choose the weaker target," he explains. There is also historical trauma. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire for some 500 years until 1878, and nationalist propaganda has programmed Bulgarians to view every representative of the Islamic world as a potential rapist and terrorist, Alexandrov says - a perception exacerbated by the recent bombings next door in Turkey. Meanwhile, the failure of European leaders to deal with the migrant crisis is seen as "definitive proof that the European Union is a tired, wrinkled old grandmother who has allowed herself to be groped and raped by lustful and predatory men," he says. One new concern is the possibility that trafficking routes may change as a result of the new agreement between the European Union and Turkey on returning asylum-seekers. Last week Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said the government remained ready to erect a fence along Bulgaria's border with Greece too, if it proved necessary. Meanwhile, the mayor of Topolovgrad, between Yambol and the Turkish border, has made headlines by asking the defence ministry for military equipment to set up a local volunteer emergency response force, in case the flow of migrants escalates - an armoured personnel carrier, an armoured reconnaissance vehicle, two flatbed military trucks, 30 AK-47 rifles, uniforms, combat boots and tents. He said some 200 local men had already volunteered. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
In 1985, pop star Simon Le Bon "looked into the eyes of death" when the yacht he was racing capsized. Thirty-one years later, he watched footage of the dramatic sea rescue for the first time. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sian DaviesBBC News "It's the most dangerous situation I've ever been in," said the Duran Duran front man. During the Fastnet race, which Le Bon was using in preparation for an attempt to sail around the world, his 71ft craft Drum ran into difficulty off the Cornish coast. The keel broke and the boat capsized, trapping the crew underneath. Just three years earlier, keen yachtsman Le Bon and his bandmates had been sailing around the Caribbean filming the video for their Top 10 hit Rio - one of the 80s' most memorable pop promos. 'Rock star in his pants' But now he found himself stuck underneath an upturned vessel, a mixture of diesel fumes and battery acid filling his lungs. "That was when I looked into the eyes of death," he said. As the crew lay trapped inside the yacht, they heard the beating sound of a helicopter overhead, as the 771 Royal Naval Air Squadron began its rescue mission. Le Bon was trapped inside for 40 minutes, with water around his legs before help came, along with five crew members. The rest of the men on board scrambled on top of the upturned boat, managing to communicate with their colleagues through the hull. "It wasn't completely black because we had the refracted daylight coming through the sea. It was wet, and everything was upside down because you're walking on the ceiling," Le Bon said. The singer's own rescue began when diver Larry Slater from 771 "popped up" inside the boat and began to lead him to safety. "I had to go down to come up. I dived in and started going up - as I came up the waistband of my long johns got caught and pulled down. "As I came up to the surface I stopped about 2ft away. I wanted to breathe but if I did I knew that would be the end of me. "I managed to get them off my feet and came up with a big smile on my face. "I got winched off into the helicopter and one of the guys called 'Hey Simon, where's your pants?' because I was just stood there in my knickers. As he watches the footage, a wry smile spreads across the singer's face as he sees himself back on dry land, clad in a white jacket with his bare legs on show. "There's me, there's a rock star in his underpants." Le Bon watched the film of the rescue for the first time while taking part in a BBC One documentary about the helicopter crew that saved him. He said it was "heartening" and "amazing" to see himself and his fellow crew members being plucked to safety. "I [thought about] it a week afterwards and it made me shake. It was very frightening," he said. The squadron which rescued Le Bon and 26 crew members will be decommissioned this week after 41 years based at Culdrose, Cornwall. It is thought to have rescued about 15,000 people in that time. Major rescues include the 1979 Fastnet race disaster, when more than 70 boats capsized and 19 sailors died, and the Boscastle floods in 2004 when dozens of residents were winched to safety. Now, its responsibilities have been handed over to a commercial operator handled by the Coastguard. 771 Royal Naval Air Squadron - Royal Navy search and rescue started in 1953 - 771 Naval Air Squadron moved to Culdrose in 1971 - It has six Sea King helicopters - 771 is believed to have rescued 15,000 people - Five George Medals have been awarded to 771 aircrew, along with 15 Queens Gallantry Medals and dozens of others - The squadron will cease to exist on 22 March, 2016 Le Bon pays an emotional tribute to his rescuers in the BBC One programme, Rescue 193. "I am grateful to 771 Squadron for saving my life, for saving the lives of the other guys on Drum," he said. "These are guys who face extraordinary danger on a daily basis." He has met diver Mr Slater twice since his ordeal inside Drum. Slater was awarded the George Medal for the rescue, given for acts of great bravery. "He knows how much I owe to him, and I know how much I owe and what these people do with their lives - the bravery and devotion," Le Bon said. "I know they have to look at it as just a job because maybe it would become something they couldn't face. But it's a hell of a job." Rescue 193 is on BBC One South West on Monday 21 March at 7:30pm and on the BBC iPlayer. |
As much of the UK gears up to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, not everyone is happy. Republicans are stepping up their protest over the weekend - but who are they, and what exactly do they want? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Holly WallisBBC News A group of volunteers is spending a long evening organising campaign material - stapling big white placards to wooden poles. The signs read: "Power to the People" and "Citizen Not Subject" in large black lettering. One placard asks: "9,560 Nurses or 1 Queen?" The answer, for members of Republic, is a no-brainer. They are preparing for 3 June, when the country will be celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee - marking her 60 years on the throne, and the first in the UK since Queen Victoria's in 1897. Thousands of onlookers are expected to flock to the Thames to catch a glimpse of their monarch forming the floating centrepiece of her own Jubilee River Pageant, a grand spectacle boasting seven-and-a-half miles of regal flotilla - just one of the main events in an extravagant four-day bank holiday weekend. One might be forgiven for believing that Britain was barmy for royalty. But just along from London's Tower Bridge on the south side of the river, Republic's protest, what they describe as "the biggest and boldest in modern times", will be floating a different idea. And this will be no riverside gala. "We're there to make a point," says Emily Robinson, 31, an academic from Hull who joined Republic in 2006. "For too long we've had a reputation for being a bit polite, but we also want to be firm and serious." After years as a low-key movement, Republic re-launched itself in 2006 as an official pressure group. In 2010 it had 9,000 members, but since the royal wedding announcement that year, they say registered supporters have increased to 21,000. "We're really getting our message out, considering our size," adds New Zealander Paula Feehan, an aid worker who settled in Britain 16 years ago. "We have one-and-a-half paid employees so we're definitely punching above our weight." 'Enormously wasteful' Republic wants to stir up some lively political debate. The mission is simple, says chief executive Graham Smith. "We want to get rid of the monarchy and have a republican constitution with an elected head of state." Republicans want a referendum because, for them, the monarchy is undemocratic. "It's not chosen by the people, doesn't represent the people, and as an institution it isn't fit for purpose," says Mr Smith. Just look at the "enormously wasteful" Jubilee, he points out. So who are the people behind the politics? "Republic has changed over the last few years", says James Gray, a 31-year-old writer from Essex. "It's younger, more evenly split between genders, and more diverse in terms of professions. We're ordinary people." So no Sex Pistols or punk-era vitriol then? "Punk anti-royalism wasn't really founded on principle", says James. "Our methods aren't controversial, but we're not afraid of getting into scraps. Not literally." Mr Smith believes Republic's first hurdle is public opinion, because political opinion will follow. Recent polls haven't provided him with good news here. One published by Ipsos Mori in May suggested 13% of Britons wanted a republic. But Mr Smith dismisses the accuracy of that. "It's clearly a blip because every other poll before and after shows about 20-25%." Mori has previously reported those favouring a republic averaged just under 20%, a slightly lower figure, but one that has remained consistent for 18 years between 1993-2011. Another poll this week by ICM for the Guardian suggests 22% of people believe the country would be better off without a monarchy, with 69% saying it would be worse off. Even after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, support for republicanism remained steady. "That stability", says Mr Smith, "shows that the issue hasn't been sufficiently engaged with in the past." And Republic's chief executive believes opinion is shifting: "The other 75% of the population aren't all monarchists", he says. Many are stuck in "default position" and "don't know how to change it". But does even half-baked tolerance mean Britain is ready for revolution? Royal commentator and Stirling University's professor of communications, Neil Blain, says criticism of the British monarchy is mainly found on social media. "Grumbling seldom finds a public voice," he says. "Republic is pretty much the only force for debate about the monarchy in Britain. And for this reason it's actually rather important." Its impact is another matter. "Republic is building political alliances, which it needs," adds Professor Blain. "Without this there's a danger it could look, not like a lost cause, but a becalmed cause. "Historically, there are periods when the monarchy was quite unpopular. Even in the 90s, broadsheets seriously discussed its future. "We've settled into a period of acceptance. People like spectacle and tradition; it's hard to upstage a royal wedding with micro-blogging. "The major challenge facing Republic is how do you market republicanism? But they're tackling this in an organised, strategic way, so I'd absolutely not write them off." Republic's real frustration is, as they see it, unbalanced, unfettered royal press coverage. They complain in particular about the balance of BBC reporting. By Ipsos Mori's previous reckonings, there could be as many as 10 million people in the UK who sympathise with Republic's view. "You just wouldn't know that from the print media," says the group's director and "full-time republican" Andrew Child. But not all anti-royalists share their position, among them author and former Labour minister Roy Hattersley. "I'm a staunch republican, but I think many of the ways that Republic promotes the position are silly. "They complain the media spends too much time reporting on Jubilee celebrations, but what else are they supposed to do? "There's a very substantial case for a republic, but unfortunately the organisation Republic trivialises it." But Mr Child believes in Republic's approach. "There's still a fear in Britain of openly criticising the Queen. We need to be trailblazers. If we get a proportionate slice of royal coverage, our numbers will go absolutely gangbusters." Back to the volunteers - in an office that cannot be named "because it's not relevant". How can "firm, serious" Republic fire debate if most people are fine, even happy, with the status quo? "It's about asking questions, getting people thinking, working from a premise of fairness and equality," says Paula Feehan. "And showing how a republic would affect a normal person in the street." "Republic isn't radical or scary. We're not counter-culture. We are culture." Republic is ready for the Jubilee. The challenge for them is convincing the UK to listen. |
With the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola revealing woefully inadequate health systems in West Africa, especially in those countries recovering from civil war, the international response and leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) has also come in for criticism. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Thomas FessyBBC West Africa correspondent Announcing US plans, President Barack Obama said the outbreak was "a threat to global security" which required a "global response". So, what would bring the epidemic under control? Here are five things officials say would help: 1) More treatment centres All agree this is key as the real number of cases is believed to be much higher than the 4,366 recorded. Victims in Liberia - the country worst-affected by Ebola - are spreading the virus, some dying on the streets, because there is not enough room at isolation clinics set up to treat infected patients. President Obama's plan to send 3,000 troops to build 17 healthcare facilities and train health workers has been met with some relief, especially in Liberia where most of this deployment will go. But it may take weeks before the first US beds are operational, and the WHO has confirmed that there are no free beds anywhere in Liberia at present. The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has urged other countries to "deploy their civil defence and military assets, and medical teams, to contain the epidemic". Last week, the UK announced it would set up a 65-bed treatment centre for infected medical staff in Sierra Leone, and France has put a team of about 20 experts on rotation to Guinea. But Philippe Maughan, who works for Echo, the humanitarian aid branch of the European Commission, thinks MSF's expectations may be too high. "If it thinks there is a sort of foreign legion ready to deploy for this outbreak, there isn't," Dr Maughan says. "Ebola is a very specific virus for which even specialists in infectious diseases are not necessarily skilled." 2) Home care Until promised treatment centres are set up, this will be the best attempt to stem infections - especially in Liberia. Under broad medical supervision, affected communities would learn how to provide basic care using rehydration and painkillers. "It won't be possible without the participation of the community," warns Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman. This will include breaking down the fear of people wearing protective suits. But it is a risky move. "The need in personnel to have this work is big; supervision and discipline are key," says Dr Maughan. "Some will fail and some will work. It's not ideal, this is a last resort." MSF warns it will only work in the early stages of treatment. "As soon as their family member shows more severe symptoms, like bleeding, they will seek to bring them in a treatment centre anyway," says Brice de la Vigne, MSF's director of operations. 3) Air bridge and medevac system Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the worst-hit states, have been isolated because of flight bans and borders being shut - despite WHO recommendations to the contrary. It has dealt a blow to their economies and food security will soon become an issue. Aid agencies are lobbying states to grant them humanitarian corridors. President Obama has promised to develop an air bridge to get supplies into affected countries faster. Senegal, where many UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have their regional offices, is expected to become a logistical hub. The authorities there have officially agreed to it but, sources say, remain reluctantly slow in turning the theory into practice. "I understand the concerns from the Senegalese government; Ebola was brought to Nigeria by an airline passenger after all, but we need to get equipment in these countries and we need to get staff in and out," Dr Maughan says. The evacuation of infected medical staff is also an issue, potentially limiting volunteers. 4) Preparation elsewhere Don't wait until there is a confirmed case to get ready and make sure what looks good on paper can work on the ground, is the warning to countries in the region. When it arrived in Nigeria, people were spooked, one diplomat told the BBC. "If the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) hadn't sent 50 experts to Nigeria, they would not have it under control," Dr Maughan says. Medical kits are now being dispatched throughout the region and some countries have started public awareness campaigns. Medical agencies believe that if there are more cases in Senegal, where 67 people are still under surveillance after coming into contact with an infected Guinean student, the outbreak could be quickly stopped. But concerns remain over the capacity to act quickly in countries most at risk - Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast. "We are working with the authorities in Mali to get all the 86 health centres and hospitals we sponsor there ready," says Alexis Smigielski, head of the Dakar-based medical charity Alima. 5) Vaccines At least two experimental vaccines are looking promising and could be made available in West Africa in November if trials are conclusive. Injections would be given to medical staff as a priority. "It holds quite a lot of hope," says Dr Maughan. However, it could take several months to reach a production that would respond to the scale of demand. The WHO has also indicated that people who have survived can now provide blood to treat patients who are sick. But the UN health agency has warned that current lab experiments should not distract from the actual needs on the ground. |
As hospitals in Delhi and many other cities run out of beds, people have been forced to find ways to get treatment for sick patients at home. Many have turned to the black market, where prices of essential medicines, oxygen cylinders and concentrators have skyrocketed and questionable drugs are now proliferating. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Vikas PandeyBBC News, Delhi On Monday, India recorded a new global high for daily coronavirus cases for a fifth straight day at 352, 991. Anshu Priya could not get a hospital bed in Delhi or its suburb of Noida for her father-in-law and as his condition continued to deteriorate. She spent most of Sunday looking for an oxygen cylinder but her search was futile. So she finally turned to the black market. She paid a hefty amount - 50,000 rupees ($670; £480) - to procure a cylinder that normally costs 6,000 rupees. With her mother-in-law also struggling to breathe, Anshu knew she may not be able to find or afford another cylinder on the black market. This is a familiar story not just in Delhi but also in Noida, Lucknow, Allahabad, Indore and so many other cities where families are desperately cobbling together makeshift arrangements at home. But most of India's population cannot afford to do this. There are already several reports of people dying at the doorsteps of hospitals because they couldn't afford to buy essential drugs and oxygen on the black market. The BBC called several oxygen cylinder suppliers and most of them asked for at least 10 times more than the normal price. The situation is particularly dire in Delhi where there are no ICU beds left. Families of those who can afford it are hiring nurses and consulting doctors remotely to keep their loved ones breathing. But the struggles are huge from getting blood tests done to getting a CT scan or x-ray. Labs are overrun and it's taking up to three days for test results to come back. This is making it harder for treating doctors to assess the progression of the disease. CT scans are also used by doctors to asses the condition of the patient but it's taking days to get an appointment. Doctors say that these delays are putting many patients at risk. RT-PCR tests are also taking days. I know several sick patients who found a bed but couldn't get admitted as they didn't have a positive Covid report. Anuj Tiwari hired a nurse to assist in the treatment of his brother at home after he was refused admission in many hospitals. Some said they didn't have any free beds and others said they were not taking new patients due to continuing uncertainty over the supply of oxygen. A number of patients have died in Delhi due to a lack of oxygen supply. The city's hospitals are desperate and some have been issuing daily warnings, saying they are left with just a few hours of oxygen. Then the government swings into action and tankers are sent, which is often enough to run the hospital for a day. A doctor in Delhi said that was how hospitals were working and "there are real fears now that a big tragedy may happen". Given the scenario at hospitals, Mr Tiwari paid a hefty amount to procure a concentrator - which can extract oxygen from the air - keep his brother breathing. The doctor also asked him to arrange the anti-viral drug remdesivir, which has been given emergency-use approval in India and is being prescribed widely by doctors. The benefits of the drug - which was originally developed to treat Ebola - are still being debated across the world. Mr Tiwari couldn't find the drug in any medicine shop and eventually turned to the black market. His brother's condition continues to be critical and the treating doctor says he may soon need a hospital where remdesvir could be administered. "There are no beds. What will I do? I can't even take him anywhere else as I have already spent so much money and don't have much left," he said. He added that "the desperate battle to save Covid patients has shifted from hospitals to home", and even that is proving to be a daunting task as "we don't have easy access to oxygen". Remdesivir is in such short supply that families of the patients who are being treated at home are rushing to procure it. They want to have the drug in case the patient is required to go to hospital and may need the drug. The BBC spoke to several dealers on the black market who said the supply was tight and that was why they were charging such high prices. The government has allowed seven firms to manufacture remdesvir in India and they have been told to ramp up production. But several promises of adequate supply from the government have failed to show any result on the ground. Epidemiologist Dr Lalit Kant says the decision to ramp up production was taken too late and the government should have been prepared for the second wave. "But somehow the drug is available in the black market, so there is some leakage in the supply system which the regulators haven't been able to plug," he says. "We learnt nothing from the first wave." Another drug that is in huge demand is tocilizumab. It is normally used to treat arthritis but studies have shown that it can reduce the chances of a very sick patient needing to go on a ventilator. Doctors are prescribing the drug mostly to patients who are severely sick. But it has disappeared from the market. Cipla, the Indian company that imports and sells the drug, has been struggling to meet the rising demand. It usually costs around 32,480 rupees for a vial of 400mg. But Kamal Kumar paid 250,000 rupees to buy one dose for his father. He said the price was "mind boggling" but he had no other option but to pay. Public health expert Anant Bhan says the government should have procured the drug in huge quantities as not many can afford to buy it in the black market. "This shows that there was no planning. The government failed to anticipate the wave and plan for it," he says. "People have been left to their own fate." Cheating Fake remdesivir has also appeared in the black market. When the BBC questioned a dealer that the drug he was offering seemed fake as the firm manufacturing it wasn't on the list of the companies licensed to produce it in India, he replied that it was "100% original". The packaging was also full of spelling errors. But he shrugged and asked me to get it tested in any laboratory. The firm also has no presence on the internet. But such is the desperation that people are willing to buy even questionable drugs. And some have been cheated as well. People are constantly sharing phone numbers of suppliers who can provide anything from oxygen to medicines. But not all of these numbers are verified. An IT worker, who did not want to be named, said that he desperately needed to buy an oxygen cylinder and remdesivir, and he got a lead from Twitter. When he contacted the person, he was told to deposit 10,000 rupees as advance payment. "The moment I sent the money, the person blocked my number," he said. Desperation is driving people to trust anything in the hour of need and that seems to be fuelling the black market. Several state governments have promised to crack down on black marketing of remdesivir and some arrests have also been made. But the black market seems unfazed. Mr Tiwari says people like him don't have any choice but to pay more. "It seems you can't get treated in hospitals, and now you can't save your loved ones even at home." How have you been affected by coronavirus in India? Tell us your story by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways: Your contact info I am over 16 years old I accept the Terms of Service In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. The BBC retains the right to select from these contributions based on editorial requirements and subject to online terms and conditions and BBC editorial guidelines. For more information about how the BBC handles your personal data, see here. If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. |
A mosque in east London has closed for all communal prayer. Instead it is serving two purposes - providing funerals and feeding the local community. Michael Buchanan finds a team of volunteers there battling to deal with the pandemic. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The family shuffled quietly past a crate of milk cartons. They came through the small porch, towards the open coffin. Inside was a woman - a loved one - who died of Covid two days ago. The coffin sat feet away from tins and packets to be distributed by the local food bank. The milk was the latest delivery. It is impossible to capture the enormous consequences of the pandemic. But last Saturday lunchtime, this tragic image - one of grief and hardship coming together - came close, for me at least. Covid-19 has made extraordinary demands of so many different people, but what is currently happening at the Masjid Ibrahim and Islamic Centre in east London is truly remarkable. Situated on a busy road, with the noise of ambulance sirens regularly shattering its peaceful interior, the mosque has closed to communal prayer and is open for two other purposes - to provide a funeral service and a food bank to the local community. Both are inundated. "We've had so many bodies coming in. It's quite shocking. It's one after another after another. We've never had that situation before," says Sofia Bhatti. Alongside her friend, Tabassum Khokhar - known as Tabs - the pair are unheralded heroes. They volunteer to wash the bodies of Covid-positive women prior to burial. The practice, called Ghusl, is a sacred Islamic ritual and is usually performed by the deceased's relatives, who cleanse and shroud the body. But Covid restrictions mean families are currently denied that religious honour, so volunteers like Sofia and Tabs are taking on what they consider to be a privileged task. "We actually believe that when we are shrouding here, that God is shrouding the soul at the same time," says Tabs, standing by a coffin. By day, she works as a teaching support worker in a local school, so the PPE that the mosque provides - bodysuit, footwear, two sets of gloves, masks and visors - is crucial for her. "I make sure my PPE is secure because it's not just about me, it's about my family. I have an 81-year-old mother." The women are seeing first hand - and in graphic detail - the pressure the NHS is under. "Very often we see bodies coming in with a lot of medical equipment still attached to them," says Sofia. "Tubes and pipes and catheters still attached. So it makes our job a little bit harder." One of the women they washed during my visit had died in the ambulance, never actually reaching hospital. There are far more bodies than during the first peak and there is a larger age range. One day this week, the mosque was handling seven bodies. A few days earlier they said they'd processed 10 funerals, all arranged for free and paid for by donations. Before the pandemic, they'd handled two to three funerals a week. The two local hospital trusts in east London have each had more than 1,000 Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic. More have died at home. The borough of Newham, where the mosque sits, has suffered a disproportionate number of deaths. Home to the Olympic Park, the 2012 London games were meant to regenerate this area. Yet it retains high levels of poverty and overcrowded housing. Add in a diverse population, rich in south Asian culture, and large numbers of people who can't work from home and the virus has sadly ripped through its residents. Isfand Aslam said he's shocked by what's going on. His father, Mohammad, died on 3 January, a week after falling ill. His positive Covid test result arrived two days after his death. The 85-year-old was a committee member at the Masjid Ibrahim and despite his age had been in good health. "It took a week between him passing away and getting buried. Initially I was getting a lot of condolences from friends. But by the end of that week I am giving condolences to three friends because their fathers had passed away. It's now got to the stage where everybody we know knows somebody who has passed away." 'I have no money' The sheer number of deaths is impacting the area's main Muslim cemetery. Normally, the Gardens of Peace buries three to four people each day. They're currently carrying out an average of 15 funerals daily. Overall, they are about 50% busier than usual. They can no longer promise burials within 24 hours, as per Muslim custom. Despite this, there is still a concerning number of people in the local area who either don't think Covid is real or are resistant to taking a vaccine. There was anger among some community leaders before Christmas when it emerged the Bangladeshi High Commission in London held a cultural evening to celebrate its independence. Photos from the event, on 16 December, showed a group - including the High Commissioner herself - standing close together with no masks or social distancing. The High Commission said performers had been Covid tested and it had issued 10 videos in Bangla urging British-Bangladeshis to adhere to UK government guidance. To counter disinformation among its members, an imam at the Masjid Ibrahim, Mohammad Ammar, filmed a short video of himself being injected with the vaccine and urged his congregation to follow suit. Imam Ammar has actually been furloughed by the mosque as it focusses all its resources on battling the pandemic, including feeding its local community. The virus forced the mosque to open a food bank in March. It is still running 10 months on. On Monday night, I watched a steady stream of people gather in the gloom at the rear of the mosque to fill their bags. Most were collecting on behalf of a larger household, and the mosque says they're currently feeding 350 families each week, including students, refugees, people with no access to public funds and those who've lost income. Among those collecting food on Monday was Mohammad Rahman. A 42-year-old chef, he lost his job in an Indian restaurant three months ago. The married father of two boys - aged eight and six - told me he was already in rent arrears and struggling to pay his energy bills. "My son says 'where is the pizza'? But I have no money. He says '[can I have] chicken and chips'? But I have no money. The shops are open, but no money", he adds, taking his hands from his pockets. In normal times, the Masjid Ibrahim would attract about 1,100 worshippers over three floors for Friday prayers, and there has been some pressure on the leadership to reopen for communal worship. But Asim Uddin, chairman of the mosque, says now is not the time. "Prayers, yes, it's important. But right now what is the need? The need of the community is they want to be fed and they want a place where they can respectfully bury their loved ones. And the demand is overwhelming. Right now, it's better they stay home, and they can pray at home until the situation goes back to normal." Read more from Michael Michael Buchanan is the BBC's social affairs correspondent and has been reporting on the impact of the pandemic on communities in the UK. Last year, he visited the town of Pontypool to find out what impact coronavirus restrictions were having in Wales. |
Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern part of the world's second largest island and is prey to volcanic activity, earthquakes and tidal waves. Linguistically, it is the world's most diverse country, with more than 700 native tongues. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Some 80% of Papua New Guinea's people live in rural areas with few or no facilities of modern life. Many tribes in the isolated mountainous interior have little contact with one another, let alone with the outside world, and live within a non-monetarised economy dependent on subsistence agriculture. A very small proportion of the land can sustain cash crops, including coffee and cocoa. Abundant rainforests provide the raw material for a logging industry, which is dominated by Malaysian-owned companies. Conservation groups have criticised the social and environmental impact of the activity. Mineral deposits - including gold, copper and nickel - are extensive, but the difficult terrain and poor infrastructure make exploitation slow. There are significant reserves of oil and natural gas and the country has pinned its hopes on becoming a significant energy exporter. The separatist struggle in the neighbouring Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, prompted the flight of thousands of Papuans into Papua New Guinea from the mid-1980s onwards. Many of them remain in border-area jungle camps. Although there is strong public concern in Papua New Guinea over the treatment of indigenous people in the western part of the island, the Papua New Guinean government is keen not to let the issue undermine relations with Indonesia, and has said it will not tolerate the use of its territory for separatist attacks on the Indonesian army. Papua New Guinea had to deal with separatist forces of its own on the island of Bougainville in the 1990s. Up to 20,000 people were killed in the nine-year conflict which ended in 1997. A peace deal signed in 2001 provided the framework for the election in 2005 of an autonomous government for Bougainville. Papua New Guinea has strong ties with its southern neighbour, Australia, which administered the territory until independence in 1975. Canberra's substantial aid programme aims to relieve poverty and to boost development. Australia has also despatched police officers and civil servants to support their local equivalents. Concerns have been raised over high levels of crime and violence in the country, especially gender-based violence. The incidence of HIV/Aids is extremely high, and diseases such as cholera and malaria are endemic. There has also been criticism of Papua New Guinea's human rights record. Refugees in the country have been the targets of xenophobic attacks, and police brutality is commonplace. Though the death penalty has not been used since 1954, in May 2013 legislation extending it to cover a wider range of crimes was passed. Corruption is rife, with Transparency International rating the country one of the most corrupt in the world in 2012. Analysts see political corruption as being a product of the patronage system of governance, and the fact that many politicians are also businessmen has exacerbated the problem. |
A timeline of the events on Wednesday as a coup attempt was launched in Burundi to try to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza, amid unrest over his bid to be re-elected to a third term. All times are approximate and in BST (GMT+1) | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
08:45: Hundreds of protesters reach an area about one km from the presidential palace, the closest to the centre they have got, reports the BBC's Maud Jullien. 09:24: A spokesman for Burundi's President, Pierre Nkurunziza, tells the BBC's Great Lakes service that rumours of a coup were unfounded and spread over Twitter. 10:53: An army general in Burundi says he no longer recognises President Pierre Nkurunziza as the country's leader. Godefroid Niyombareh tells reporters in the capital, Bujumubura, that a national salvation committee has been set up to run the country. 12:14: An emphatic denial from Burundi's president - there is no coup in Burundi and the situation is under control. 12:19: But on the ground the situation is less clear. Thousands begin heading towards the centre of the capital, including soldiers supporting the coup, reports the BBC's Maud Jullien. 12:56: The police that have been cracking down on weeks of protests have "vanished" from the capital, AP reports. 13:11: Gunfire is heard at Burundi's state broadcaster, as troops loyal to the President fire over the heads of protesters. 15:34: 16:37: The UN makes an urgent appeal for calm and restraint. 1900: Confusion over the whereabouts of the president continues. 1901: The US is viewing the coup attempt with "concern", White House spokesman Josh Earnest says. "We call on all sides to lay down arms, end the violence and show restraint." 1905: There is now a dangerous stand-off in Bujumbura, the AFP news agency reports, with pro-Nkurunziza troops still controlling key institutions, including the presidential palace and state broadcaster. 1920: Leaders of the East African countries attending a regional summit in Tanzania strongly condemn the coup and call fro general elections to be postponed. The leaders call on all parties to ensure that the violence stops. 2115: A senior government official in Tanzania confirms to the BBC's Charlotte Atwood that President Nkurunziza left in a plane for just 10 minutes from Tanzania to Burundi before turning back. |
Boris Johnson may have "had enough" of the Covid pandemic. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter He probably spoke for millions of people when he said that at the lectern, looking out at the non-existent crowd to the virtual audience on the other side of the lens. But while we all may choose to loathe the impact of the disease on our lives, the pandemic is far from done with us yet. Although the current situation is about as far from standard as anything in recent history, his conference speech was, well, rather standard. It was a familiar Johnson cocktail: the kind of gags you might hear during an after-dinner speech, and the political message we have heard from him already on several big set-piece occasions. Namely, that the government was fighting a war against this disease but it will be vanquished, and he will lead the country to a happier peace. The speech was not short of ambition - including promises on everything from green jobs, to education, productivity, housing, even to planting trees. It was though short on detail of how the country will make it to his "New Jerusalem", and how his promises would actually be made to happen. Does that matter? While conference speeches are often a big shop window for leaders to talk to the country, it felt today that the prime minister didn't really take that opportunity. Instead, perhaps to try to calm activists' nerves, he pointed out that he was uncomfortable with the expansion of the state to deal with Covid-19, still a believer in traditional Tory values, and even claimed it was "seditious" to suggest that he had lost some of his normal mojo. Familiar repartee He may have claimed this suggestion had been put around by his political opponents. In fact, it is a concern that has been shared privately by some of his supporters and colleagues. For many years, Boris Johnson was the darling of the Tory conference, packing sweaty fringe meetings and the main hall. His fans who flocked to see him could only dream he would win the party a victory of the scale they achieved at last year's general election. Activists may have been cheered by some of his familiar repartee today, and heartened by big promises for the future. But he is no longer just the party's star turn, but a prime minister grappling with what it means to govern, struggling to keep control of a crisis that has a long way to run. Trying to look forward to a world where the pandemic has disappeared doesn't make it go away. |
Has Tesco lost its mojo? Its results for the first quarter of the year are not strong, and yet the first few lines of its press release try to imply that they are, which is not the sign of a confident business. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Robert PestonEconomics editor For example, Tesco starts its press release by saying that "customer perceptions" have improved "on all key measures" - which may well be so, but is not the same thing as money in the till. It goes on to say that there were "positive and improving" like-for-like or underlying sales "in all food categories with the exception of frozen and chilled". For the leading retailer of frozen and chilled food, that is a bit like saying my team Arsenal is brilliant in midfield, and ignoring some conspicuous shortcomings in defence and attack The point is that, in the round, Tesco's like-for-like sales in the UK were down between 0.8% and 1.6% in the three months to May 26, depending on which of the four measures of underlying sales provided by Tesco you may think is relevant. For what it's worth. Tesco seems to think that the 1% drop, excluding VAT and petrol, is the one that is relevant. That compares with a 0.5% rise in the final quarter of the last financial year. So Tesco seems to have gone backwards again, in spite of the £1bn it spent in 2012/13 on recruiting 8,000 new store staff, relaunching thousands of own-label products and "refreshing" the look and feel of its stores. The chief executive of Tesco, Philip Clarke, gave two explanations on the Today Programme for what had gone wrong. Sales of consumer electronics were poor. Historically these have been important to Tesco but Mr Clarke has decided that Tesco will significantly reduce its presence in this market (you can probably hear Dixons breathing a huge sigh of relief). And although no new bits of horse have been found in Tesco's ready meals in the latest period, the memory of equine DNA in the mince seems still to be making some shoppers wary of its chilled and frozen foods. None of which is to say that Tesco is in serious difficulties, or that Mr Clarke will ultimately fail in stabilising Tesco. But it does rather imply that the recovery is taking longer than expected. And it raises the possibility that he won't succeed. What's more, even Tesco's operations in Asia and eastern Europe - which in recent years were the glittering jewels in its empire - have lost some of their lustre. Tesco's market leadership in a handful of developing markets overseas remains an enormous source of strength for the group but it is striking that in the latest quarter like-for-like sales fell quite sharply in China, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey (though the rate of decline in important South Korea has slowed). But back to Britain. Businesses, like all social organisms, rise and fall. Tesco's market share of a third of the grocery market and more than 10% of all retail sales, acquired under Mr Clarke's predecessor, Sir Terry Leahy, put the retailing group in a league of its own, in Britain. But possibly that supremacy was something of a historical anomaly, too far from the mean to be sustainable. Maybe, in an inclement climate for all retailers in the UK, and given that Tesco is so big, the very best that can be expected of Mr Clarke is that at some point he stops it going backwards. |
A bodybuilder. An artist. A scientist. Senior doctors. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Across China, more than 1,800 people who lost their lives to Covid-19 are being mourned - the majority of them in the virus epicentre of Wuhan. Each death is devastating to their loved ones, but among the dead in Wuhan are some people who were noted figures in their field. Here are a few of them. The hospital director: Liu Zhiming Last week, a senior Chinese health official said that 1,716 health workers had been infected by the coronavirus and six had died. On Tuesday, Liu Zhiming was added to the list. Dr Liu, 51, was the director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital - one of the first hospitals to be a designated virus centre. His death was initially reported by Chinese media late on Monday, but media outlets later did a U-turn and said doctors were trying to save him. The next morning his death was confirmed. He was the first hospital director to die from the virus, and it is not known if he had suffered from any underlying conditions to increase his risk. Not much is yet known about Dr Liu's personal life, but he has been hailed by many on Chinese social media as a hero. "Farewell to this hero, a soldier in white," said one comment on Weibo. "There are no illnesses in heaven, thank you for your sacrifice," another said. The whistle-blowing doctor: Li Wenliang Dr Li is arguably the most prominent figure to have died. In December, he had been told by police officers not to spread "fake rumours" after alerting his friends to a new emerging virus. His death, much like Dr Liu's, was confusingly reported. On 6 February, media outlets reported that he was dead, then later retracted it, saying that doctors were working to save him. They confirmed his death a day later. Millions have mourned Dr Li, and his death sparked a wave of anger, grief and overwhelming sense of mistrust towards the government. Many were furious that the government had tried to stifle his earlier warnings about the virus and accused them of also trying to cover up his death. The film director: Chang Kai Chang Kai, a director at Hubei Film Studios, died from the virus along with his father, mother and sister. A note, reportedly written by him and passed around by a friend, revealed the ordeal the 55-year-old had to go through before his death. According to the note, which was published in full by news site Caixin, his father had come down with a fever, cough and had difficulty breathing. "He was taken to many hospitals for treatment, but [was] told no beds [were] available," said the note. "[We were] extremely disappointed... [and] went home." A few days later his father died, followed afterwards by his mother, who was "physically and mentally exhausted". "The ruthless virus also devoured my wife and my body. I went to various hospitals and begged [to be admitted]. Beds were hard to find... we are nobody," he said in his note. "We missed the opportunity for healing and my breath was weak." Chang Kai and his wife were later admitted to hospital, but according to local reports, his condition had deteriorated too much. He died on 14 February, with his wife still battling the illness. He leaves behind a son, who is reportedly studying in the UK. Some of his last words in his note were: "I [was] a filial child to my father and a responsible father to my son. A beloved husband to my wife and a sincere man in [this] life. To those I love and those who love me - farewell." The painter: Liu Shouxiang Prof Liu Shouxiang was a renowned artist in Hubei, known for his watercolour paintings. According to news site Jiemian News, he died on 13 February aged 62. Mr Liu was born in Wuhan in 1958. He went on to train at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, where he stayed on to teach, eventually become a professor. He eventually became known for his distinct watercolour style, reported Jiemian News. His works have been displayed in some of the biggest art museums and galleries in the country. His death was mourned by many on social media site Weibo, with one saying it was the death of a great "talent". "It takes decades to train a talent and only a few days to end that life," said one comment. "How many talents have been taken away by this virus?" another asked. "The financial cost of the virus is great but can the value of these people ever be measured?" The scientist: Duan Zhengcheng The 86-year-old was a former academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a chief scientist at the National Engineering Research Centre for Digital Manufacturing. Born in 1934 in Jiangsu, he went on to graduate with a degree from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and later stayed on to teach. According to news site The Global Times, he went on to develop the world's first whole body gamma knife in 1996 - a type of radiation therapy used to treat tumours. This earned him a national award in 2005. He was known by his students as the "medical madman" because he never gave up on anything, said the report. Prof Duan died on 15 February. The bodybuilder: Qiu Jun Qiu Jun from Wuhan was thrust into the spotlight last year when pictures showing the 72-year-old bodybuilding started to go viral. According to Phoenix News, he only began working out after his retirement, joining a gym and eventually going on to coach others and participating in bodybuilding competitions. He was known to visit the gym religiously and had plans to compete in another bodybuilding competition later this June. He started showing symptoms on 23 January and was eventually admitted to hospital after testing positive. But he died days later on 6 February. His son reportedly sent this message to friends and family, informing them of his father's death: "The father who never got sick could not escape the disaster." Ask me Share this chatbot |
A section of one of the main routes in Northumberland has been closed after a tanker containing aviation fuel rolled onto its side. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The incident happened on the A696 between Kirkwhelpington and the B6342 in the early hours. Emergency services are at the scene and a pump is removing the fuel from the tanker. Diversions are in place and the road will be shut all day. It is the second time in less than three weeks that it has been blocked. On 28 May, a wind turbine stem came off a trailer near Otterburn and the recovery operation took five days. |
The Windrush scandal and the 50th anniversary of the "Rivers of Blood" speech are just the latest reminders that the issue of immigration to the British Isles is a fraught one. For centuries it has prompted debate - and also anger, fear and even murder. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Greig WatsonBBC News You might say it started well. A Greek explorer in about 320BC described the locals as "especially friendly to strangers". This was perhaps a good thing, as over the centuries there were waves of invasions, by Romans, Saxons and Vikings. After hundreds of years of treaties and battles, it was a Danish-flavoured Anglo-Saxon kingdom that faced the Normans in 1066. And lost. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle weeps at how the new King William divided up the land to his foreign nobles: "[He] let it go into the hands of the man who offered him most of all, and did not care how very sinfully [they] got it from wretched men, nor how many unlawful things they did; but the greater the talk about just law, the more unlawful things were done." Arriving not long after William, in about 1070, the Jews were one of few groups allowed to lend money. One estimate says they made up 0.25% of the population but controlled a third of the coinage. This, combined with religious bigotry, led to resentment. After the 1144 murder of a boy in Norwich, there were attacks on the local Jewish community. The monk and writer Thomas of Monmouth fanned the flames by claiming it was a ritualistic murder: "[The Jews] next laid their bloodstained hands upon the innocent victim, and having lifted him from the ground and fastened him upon the cross, they vied with one another in their efforts to make an end of him." The blood libel - that Jews killed Christian children for ritualistic reasons - was born. In York, in 1190, about 150 Jews killed themselves after being besieged by a mob. In 1255, 18 Jews in Lincoln were executed, others vanished, after another mystery death, and in 1264 a rumour that the Jews of London were plotting against t he city saw hundreds killed. In 1278, nearly 700 were arrested for alleged counterfeiting and perhaps as many as 300 were executed. While condemning such massacres, contemporary writer William of Newburgh claimed: "The Jews... had impudently puffed themselves up against Christ and inflicted very many burdens on Christians." After decades of attacks, high taxes and restricted rights, the entire community, between 5,000 and 15,000 people, was expelled in 1290. The ban would not be lifted for 360 years. Besides being a small, damp island on the edge of the known world, by the 1350s, the nation had another problem. As Prof Mark Ormrod, from the University of York, points out: "England was almost deserted. The Black Death had wiped out about half the population, leaving it with two to three million inhabitants. "England had to find a workforce." The financial gap left by the Jews was filled by Italians - and soon they too were in the firing line. In 1376 there was a move to throw them out of England as they were just "Juys, & Sarazins and privees Espies" and furthermore had introduced "un trop horrible vice" - sodomy. Monarchs and governments had a difficult balancing act: the skills and tax income that immigrants provided were desirable, while dealing with the public hostility they aroused was not. Wool was medieval England's top industry and about 1,000 expert Flemish weavers were in London by the mid-14th Century. In 1378 London weavers demanded control of the Flemish, saying they were "for the most part exiled from their own country as notorious malefactors". This was bloodily expressed during in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt when about 40 were dragged from a church and subjected to a language test. As witnesses described it: "And many Flemings lost their heads at that time, because they could not say 'bread and cheese' but 'brode en case'.". Prof Ormrod says: "For many people nationality was simple: you were either born in England, or you weren't. Foreigners were sometimes treated as a single, undifferentiated whole. "But formal records before the 16th Century almost never made direct reference to the colour of anyone's skin." Venetian ambassadors to England in the 15th Century were "perplexed by the English - especially by their extreme hostility to foreigners". A 1440 tax survey of aliens indicates they made up 2% of England's population - reaching 10% in London and Bristol. In his brief but turbulent reign, Richard III stamped down hard. In 1484, the last Plantagenet monarch banned skilled tradespeople or merchants from entering England, while those already resident were barred from employing anyone except their own family. As Prof Ormrod says: "The clear intent of this statute was to starve out skilled foreign workers. "The public defence of such a radical position was that honest English people were at risk of losing employment and becoming 'thieves, beggars, vagabonds and people of vicious living, to the great disturbance of Your Highness and of your whole realm'." Hostility wasn't just reserved for skilled foreign workers. Gypsies moved across Europe during the Middle Ages, sometimes claiming to be eastern aristocracy. Tudor England initially viewed them as exotic "Egyptians" or "Rowmais". The honeymoon did not last. In 1530 Henry VIII forbade Gypsies from entering England, saying they "many times, by craft and subtlety, have deceived the people for their money; and also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies, to the great hurt and deceit of the people". In 1554 Queen Mary made repeat offences punishable by death. Five decades later, the writer Thomas Dekker described gypsies as "beggerly in apparell, barbarous in condition, beastyly in behaviour... a people more scattered than the Jews, and more hated". A flow of Protestant refugees, known as Huguenots, escaping religious wars on the continent, became a flood after the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris in 1572. Many locals were unimpressed. "They are a commonwealth within themselves", complained one. "They keep themselves severed from us in church, in government, in trade, in language and marriage." Prof Ormrod says: "The issues were around national security, the protection of the economy and religious culture. "Parliament constantly debated whether allowing foreigners to live in the country was a security risk, how much they made from the English economy, and how to classify them." The fact "strangers" were subject to double taxes and limited property rights did not evoke much sympathy. In 1593, posters appeared complaining of the "beastly brutes the Belgians, faint-hearted Frenchmen and fraudulent Flemings" who were permitted by Queen Elizabeth, it was claimed, "to live here in better case and more freedom than her own people". The authorities suppressed this discontent, but were not above scapegoating. Black people might have numbered only about 1,000, but Elizabeth moved to expel them in 1596, saying "there are of late divers blackmoores brought into this realm, of which kind of people there are allready here to manie". A second wave of Huguenots fled in France in the 1680s, with up to 50,000 coming to England. A popular song complained: "The nation it is almost quite undone, by French men that doe it dayly overrune". But these incomers were, on the whole, skilled and educated. Many prospered. The next influx not only shocked the nation but torpedoed an early attempt at a liberal immigration policy. In 1708 leaflets had raised sympathy for German Protestants - "Poor Palatines" - caught up up in new religious wars. The first boatloads - about 900 people in all - were given food and supplies, but an estimated 13,000 landed within months, overwhelming the feeble 18th Century infrastructure. Donations raised thousands of pounds but most of these new arrivals were housed in army camps on Blackheath. Rumours soon swirled of German gangs attacking locals, amid claims many were not even Protestants. One pamphleteer described them as "as parcel of vagabonds, who might have lived comfortably enough in their native country, had not laziness of their dispositions and report of our well-known generosity drawn them out of it". Some were sent to marginal farmland in another strife-torn part of the British Isles - Ireland. England's long and often painful relationship with Ireland went into overdrive in the Victorian era, thanks to the demand for labour, faster steamship travel and, tragically, the Irish famine of 1845-52. Being legally part of Britain, the Irish needed no special permission to travel - but some incomers felt they may as well have come from the moon. Robert Winder, author of Bloody Foreigners, says: "I don't think anyone has been the subject of such bitter feelings as the Irish in the 19th Century. "This is partly because they were Papists, the religious dimension, but also they were really poor. "They were felt to be squalid, verminous, unreliable criminals." An 1836 Royal Commission, actually aimed at helping the Irish poor, nonetheless said they brought "filth, neglect, confusion, discomfort and insalubrity". Between 1841 and 1851, about 1.5 million Irish people - nearly 20% of the population - moved through England. The Times in 1847 reported an "Invasion", saying: "Ireland is pouring into the cities, and even the villages of this land, a disgusting mass of famine, nakedness and dirt and fever." In 1861, the census showed 602,000 Irish-born in England and Wales - about 3% of the population. Nearly 20% of Liverpool's population was Irish. Fears were stoked by both religious and political violence. There were anti-Catholic riots during the 1850s and 1860s. The Irish radical - the Fenian - became a Victorian bogeyman. The South London Press in March 1867 said: "As to the foreign plotters who have imported themselves into these realms for treasonable purposes, there ought to be no mercy or hesitancy; a short shift and a strong cord ought to be the fate of every such a man as shall be proved to be of this class." But again violence abroad brought new challenges. Bloody pogroms in Russia and Prussia forced about 200,000 Jews to Britain - bringing radical politics and cheap labour. Sir John Colomb, MP for Bow and Bromley, said in 1888: "England was being made a human ash pit for the refuse population of the world." In January of the same year, The Morning Post said: "No one can doubt that there is a very serious side to this wholesale immigration of poor Russian Jews... it may become a source of positive danger and demoralisation to a large section of our working population." The established - and often successful - Jewish community tried hard to help but this highlighted the immigrant Catch 22. If they were successful, they were greedy fat-cats; if poor, they were idle leeches. The outbreak of war 1914 saw national security used to slam the doors firmly shut. Following World War Two it was Britain's fading Empire that laid the foundations for a new era of immigration. Needing new workers after 1945, Britain took in or allowed to stay tens of thousands of people from continental Europe, with little controversy. But a call was also made to the colonies and when steamer Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in June 1948, with about 500 Caribbean passengers aboard, it made front-page news. The Evening Standard greeted the "sons of Empire" with a large "Welcome Home!" headline. The modern phase of mass migration was under way - but the fears and arguments it provoked had been well practised through the centuries. |
After being diagnosed with chronic migraines which left her in terrible pain and mostly bed-bound, Beth Francis decided to try a holistic approach to tackle her pain. The 26-year old from Beaumaris on Anglesey embarked on a challenge to swim off the cold north Wales coast for 100 days over winter. Here, she tells if it helped. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Gwyneth ReesBBC Wales News Imagine taking a dip in the north Wales sea during the icy months of winter. It's what I do, even in the hammering rain or recent days of snow. So long as the waves and currents aren't too dangerous, and I'm not putting my own or anyone else's life at risk being pulled offshore, then I'm in, headfirst into the waves. Most of the time I swim off Anglesey - perhaps off Newborough Beach, a three-mile stretch of sand backed by tall pines, or maybe Lligwy, a beach of rolling dunes. Usually I go in at high tide as it saves a walk down a long beach in just a swimming costume and flimsy towel. There's hardly ever anyone about, just the occasional hardy surfer or dog walker, wrapped up in coats and wondering what I'm doing. At the moment, the sea temperature is between 6 and 7C, depending where on the island I choose; the east is warmer. As I dip under the waves, I take a deep breath - preparing for the cold and knowing that within a few minutes, my whole body will be tingling, numb and red. More than this, though, I am bursting with adrenalin. Swimming like this makes me feel alive, and it's the best feeling on earth. Some might think this is a form of persecution I've inflicted on myself. Others ask if I'm doing it because I've lost a bet. In fact, I am doing this for health and healing. Because although I might seem and look like a fit and healthy 26-year-old, last August I was diagnosed with a condition that began taking over my life; chronic migraines. I'd suffered from migraines sporadically since the age of nine, but these were something new. In the May of 2017, I began having two or three a week, lasting upwards of six hours at a time. I was in my first year of a PhD in marine biology at Bangor University. But I began losing days of work. My migraines escalated throughout the summer, swelling to 28 attacks per month and I became so unwell that even taking a few months off work didn't help. These weren't just headaches. They would cause tremendous pain and sensitivity to light and sounds. I would have tinnitus, blind spots, nausea, stomach aches and sometimes become completely numb on one side. Chronic migraine is classified by the World Health Organisation as one of the most disabling illnesses, comparable to dementia and active psychosis. And for the majority of sufferers, normal function, including even basic tasks, is impossible during an attack. My GP and neurologist prescribed differing drugs, but there is no cure for this, and the treatments were only so effective. I'd always been active and loved the outdoors yet here I was, a young woman virtually bed-bound, despondent, hopeless and becoming less and less myself. I was losing my life. Eventually, I began looking to the sea - something that wasn't hard to find in north Wales. It has always played a big part in my life. As a child, my parents would take me out in their power boat off Pwllheli, and I was building a career out of my love of the ocean. I knew that I always felt better when I was in, or by, the ocean. I had also read that physical activity in nature was known to aid people with a variety of health conditions. In 2009, Prof Michael Depledge and Dr William Bird, from the European Centre for Environment and Health, based out of the University of Exeter Medical School, proposed a notion called the "Blue Gym" - the idea being that the sea can be used as motivation to exercise outdoors to influence health and wellbeing. They found that regular contact with natural environments provided three major health benefits: reduced stress, increased physical activity and created stronger communities. They also found that people who lived 1km from the coast had much better self-reported health than those who lived inland. I wanted to try something like that - to see if I could regain some health by connecting more with nature. Perhaps I'd even be able to shock my body into feeling better and use the cold water as an analgesic? Knowing how hard it would be, I set myself a challenge, along with my wonderful partner Andrew Clark, 28, to swim 100 days in the sea throughout winter. We committed to going in whatever the weather, so long as it wasn't dangerous or dark, and would record our adventure. It wouldn't matter how long we stayed in, we decided, but we must get fully submerged. Our first swim was on 9 October 2017 - off our local Llanddona beach - long and sandy, and forming the eastern end of Red Wharf Bay. As we waded in, it felt so cold at 12 degrees, but we knew how much colder it would get over the next 100 days. We stayed in the water for over an hour, swimming and playing in the waves. And as we walked back up the sand afterwards, wind whipping at our bare legs and skin stinging from the salty water, I couldn't stop grinning. Now, five months on and with a considerable drop in sea temperature, we stay in for shorter times, but we don't wear wetsuits. It means we have the short sharp shock of immersion, but that we can warm up and get dressed much quicker afterwards. Some of our brave friends have joined us for swims along the way, but mostly it is just us - two heads bobbing in a wild wintry sea, absolutely buzzing on adrenalin. Despite the cold, it has become the absolute highlight of our day. People might think it an odd way to combat migraines, but the change in me has been amazing. Sometimes, I have dragged myself out of bed, eyes half closed, already suffering from a migraine, in order to complete my daily task. But whenever this has happened, I have found the pain of migraine has dramatically reduced in severity afterwards. My overall health has improved, and I now have about 16 migraines a month, nearly half the amount compared to when they were at their peak, and the effects aren't as debilitating. They might last for four or five hours, as opposed to wiping out a whole day. Obviously, I can't attribute this improvement to the medicine or the "vitamin sea" as I like to call it, in isolation. To me, both things are acting together and holistically. I don't think I would have seen this improvement without taking on this challenge. Fundamentally, this has given me a goal to get up and out of bed, and a long way back to my old self. I am doing something positive for my wellbeing, and feel so much more in control of my life and my illness. No longer do I have to accept my life is confined to lying in my bed in pain. Andy and I are now two thirds of the way through the project, with fewer than 40 swim days still to go. But we have no plans on stopping. We have both fallen in love with our daily dip in the ocean, and could not imagine a life without it. An expert's view - Simon Evans, chief executive of Migraine Action Migraine is the fifth most disabling lifetime condition in the UK. Chronic migraine is defined as a minimum of 15 headache days a month of which at least eight are migraine. It can come with visual disturbances, nausea, light and sound sensitivity and in some cases stroke-like symptoms. While there is no direct evidence that swimming in cold water can help relieve a migraine attack, the reported use of ice mixtures in pain relief in migraine goes back to Victorian times. Various methods of cold and ice application have been reported on in the medical literature in recent decades with a number of theories as to why they may work. An article in The Journal of Headache and Pain in 2015 reported good results using an intra-nasal cooling device to reduce pain. Many of the preventative treatments for migraine were designed for other diseases and are often not well tolerated, so we are delighted that Beth has found relief for her migraine, but we suspect it won't be for everyone. Cold water swimming - dangers and guidance (NHS Choices): For more information, visit the RNLI's Respect The Water page. |
"I've found the wee girl.... she's dead." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Paul O'HareBBC Scotland Jorge Williams' voice trembled as he broke the devastating news to a 999 call handler. Less than half an hour had passed since he had answered a Facebook appeal to trace a missing six-year-old. It was one of the warmest summers on record and dozens of residents on the tranquil Isle of Bute took to the shoreline and streets. But the search ended abruptly at 08:54 when Mr Williams discovered Alesha's naked body in a wooded area near his home in Ardbeg. Detectives would later establish the child was abducted from her bed and carried to the lonely spot, less than a mile from her grandparents' flat in Rothesay. There, just days into her summer holiday, she was raped and murdered. A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because he is under 18, was found guilty of the crime. His conviction following a High Court trial in Glasgow would be the culmination of a police investigation which was helped in part by his own mother. It was just after 6am on 2 July and Calum MacPhail was getting ready for work. He noticed the door to his granddaughter's room was open then discovered she had vanished. Giving evidence during the nine-day trial, Mr MacPhail told the jury: "We searched under beds, in wardrobes, but there was no sign of her anywhere." Alesha had never been missing before and her scooter and bike were still in the garden. At 06:23 the child's grandmother, Angela King, dialled 999. The family alerted staff at the ferry port and locals, including the volunteer Bute Resilience Team, joined the search. 'We've found her' In an industrial estate near Glasgow Airport Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team was briefed on the case. Back on Bute Mr MacPhail became alarmed when he saw an ambulance speeding past with its blue light on. It came to a halt near the site of the old Kyles Hydropathic Hotel, which had been cordoned off. Ms King, 47, recalled a conversation with her partner in which he broke off to scream at officers: "If that's my granddaughter up there then I want to know." The family were advised to go to Rothesay Police Station for an update, and once inside they were told: "We've found her, but she has passed." Alesha was lying on her side when she was discovered by Mr Williams and the killer had made no attempt to conceal her body. It was later calculated that the walking distance from the flat to the spot could be covered in between 15 to 17 minutes. Pathologist Dr John Williams established the cause of death was significant pressure being applied to the face and neck. The expert also told the court Alesha had 117 injuries, some of which he described as "catastrophic". Crucially, the soles of Alesha's feet were clean, which indicated she had been carried to her death. Mother spoke to her son Detectives made a breakthrough just after midnight on 3 July from an unlikely source. The killer's mother had reviewed CCTV at the family home and spotted her son coming and going in the middle of the night. She believed he may have seen something and contacted the police. The mother quizzed her son and told the jury: "He was adamant he had nothing to do with it. "There was no way they would find his DNA because he had been nowhere near this little girl." In the course of the investigation the killer's phone was forensically examined and experts established he had carried out a Google search for "How do police find DNA?" Hours before Alesha was killed the boy had hosted a party for his friends which broke up at 00:30. At that point the accused was drunk and in a distressed state. To calm himself down he tried to buy cannabis but Alesha's father, whom he had obtained the drug from in the past, did not respond to his messages. At 01:54 the accused was spotted on CCTV leaving his family home. He went to the MacPhail's flat on Ardbeg Road and found that the key had been left in the lock. The killer entered the property and took Alesha out of bed without waking her or the four adults sleeping in rooms along the hall. The next footage of significance to the inquiry came from two houses on Marine Place. 'Might kill one day' Between 02:25 and 02:26 they captured a figure walking along the shoreline carrying something. The CCTV trail then went cold until 03:35 when the accused was filmed arriving home. Ten minutes later he left wearing a pair of shorts, no top and no shoes. He returned at 03:52 and then departed again six minutes later wearing a grey T-shirt, dark shorts, dark footwear and carrying a torch. The accused arrived home for the final time at 04:07. The teenager's friends told the court he had a "dark sense of humour". The jury also heard evidence about a private conversation he had had with a female friend in which he said he might kill one day for the "lifetime experience". A 16-year-old girl said he made the comment in a Facebook Messenger chat in 2017 after she started discussing a crime documentary. The same friend also said he contacted her just three hours after Alesha was found dead. DNA evidence She said: "During the conversation he started to get anxious and he said the police were going to blame it on him." In the hours after the body was found there was speculation about the crime on a Snapchat group the teenager was part of. During this time he produced a video in which he walked into his bathroom and then revealed his reflection in the mirror. It was accompanied by the caption: "Found the guy who done it." The court also heard the accused lifted weights and could bench press 50kg - more than double the 22kg Alesha weighed. In his defence, the 16-year-old claimed his DNA was planted at the crime scene, but the sheer volume of samples recovered left his astonishing alibi in tatters. Forensic scientist Stuart Bailey found the accused's profile on intimate swabs taken from Alesha and on the front of her neck The odds of it being from anyone else were more than one in a billion. Additional samples were recovered on the child's body and clothing. Mr Bailey said it was "highly unlikely" they had got there through anything other than direct contact. The accused was arrested at 5pm on 4 July and driven to Helen Street police station in Glasgow where he was formally charged with Alesha's murder. Despite what prosecutor Iain McSporran QC described as a "mountain of evidence" he compounded the family's agony by forcing them to endure a trial and blamed Alesha's father's girlfiend, Toni McLachlan, for the crime. Innocent person In a further twist, he agreed to testify and dismissed suggestions he was a "confident liar". The accused repeatedly denied he was responsible and told the court: "I have never met Alesha MacPhail." The most memorable exchange came after Mr McSporran suggested it would have been "extraordinarily wicked" for Ms McLachlan to have murdered her boyfriend's daughter. The accused, who appeared completely unfazed by the enormity of the charge facing him, said: "I agree." The QC then put it to the 16-year-old that the same description would apply to someone who alleged an innocent person was responsible for such a crime. The teenager locked eyes with the prosecutor across the courtroom and replied: "It would be evil." |
A person has been murdered in Baltimore almost every day this year, on average - more killings per capita than Chicago. Then a grassroots campaign made an audacious pledge - to orchestrate a 72-hour ceasefire. Did it work? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jessica LussenhopBBC News, Baltimore Day 1: Friday, 4 August Erricka Bridgeford stands in the second-storey window of the now-abandoned townhouse where she grew up and looks down on the street below, to the spot where Mike, a neighbourhood kid, fell over 30 years ago. That was the first time she'd ever seen someone shot. "I actually heard him die, begging God he wouldn't die," she says. "I was 12." Since media outlets from across the country and globe started requesting interviews with her, asking her to explain her bold attempt to halt homicides for three days in a city where someone is murdered almost every day, Bridgeford started bringing them to her childhood neighbourhood in West Baltimore. After a local television crew packed up and left, the 44-year-old mediation trainer decided to push through the unlocked door of the townhouse and show her three children - aged 17 to 21 - around for the first time. The family wanders the empty rooms in matching orange #BaltimoreCeasefire T-shirts. The air smells of urine, the walls are pocked with holes and smudged with the dirty outline of missing appliances. Upstairs, a used condom lies on the floor of what was once Bridgeford's parents' room. "This is the house that made me," she tells her children. "I feel sad that it looks like this. This looks like a light left out." The empty townhouse is a reflection of some of the underlying causes of the violence in Baltimore. From that second-storey window, Bridgeford watched as drugs moved into her neighbourhood in the 1980s, and the families moved out. Her friends started dropping out of school and selling dope. The grass turned to dirt. Along with the poverty and drugs came the guns - Mike was the first of nearly 20 people Bridgeford knew who've died from violence. But on this particular morning, Bridgeford is in high spirits - it's Friday, 4 August, day one of the "Baltimore Ceasefire". Although the campaign is not affiliated with the Baltimore Police Department or any other arm of the city government, a trusted police contact has promised to text her if anyone is killed over the three days. Eleven hours in, the peace is holding. "The air feels different," says Bridgeford. "Even the sceptics are saying, 'I hope it works.'" The naysayers have some reason to feel that way. The idea for the weekend was set in motion after Bridgeford had a conversation with her 19-year-old son about the city murder rate, which is on track to be the worst in its recorded history and could rise to the highest in the country. Per capita, it's already surpassed Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans. Bridgeford bristles at some of the comments that have been made online, mocking her and the city for even needing such an effort. "We want to purposefully have a pause and a sacred space where everybody's intention is 'nobody gets killed'. A cultural shift, so that it dawns on people that they can make this choice," she says. "I hate the idea that people think 'Oh, Baltimore is violent. Chicago is violent. Detroit is violent.' These places are a reflection of America." Momentum built slowly, first on social media and word of mouth. The ceasefire has no single group or person as its leader. There is no celebrity headliner, no sponsorships or logos, save one: a stark black, white and red sign that reads "Baltimore Ceasefire: Nobody Kill Anybody for 72 Hours". The idea is to convince the residents of the city to take ownership. A large part of that involved canvassing the most violent parts of Baltimore, walking into the city's open-air drug markets and making a plea to people working the corners to commit to a weekend free of violence. One of the first people Bridgeford called was PFK Boom, co-founder of 300 Gangstas, a group of former gang members and ex-offenders who came together after the death of Freddie Gray in 2015 to police and advocate for themselves. "It was a no-brainer," Boom says of Bridgeford's request for help. "I respect what she does. I seen her work, what she stands for, so that's why I will accept that call and put my men, my reputation, my brand and all that [behind it]." Bridgeford and the other organisers forbade media from observing the canvassing effort, but she says the outreach was successful enough that people started calling her independently to pledge their commitment. "There have been people who have called to say 'I am gang affiliated and I'm letting you know whoever I'm responsible for is chilling that weekend,'" she says. "If people get killed that weekend, even if we don't know who did it, we know who didn't do it." Bridgeford is 5 ft 2. Her right arm ends just below the elbow due to a condition she developed while in the womb. Her small stature, glasses and bubbly personality may contribute to the reasons some people write her off as naive. It doesn't bother her. "I grew up in West Baltimore. I've been raped twice. My brother got killed … I've lost my stepson. I've lost cousins. Two weeks ago, I lost somebody. Some years I go to two funerals in one day," she says. "It's not that I'm naïve. It's just that my optimism is gangster." When the people she talks to scoff at her idea of a violence-free weekend, she turns it around on them. "Are you saying you can't keep your hood safe?" she asks them. "And the answer is always, 'Oh, don't worry about it, it's going to be safe around here.' … I understand male ego." After three months of canvassing, going on local radio shows weekly, meeting with organisations all over the city, plastering every telephone pole, every boarded-up door and window with Baltimore Ceasefire posters and stickers, the weekend has arrived. There are dozens of public and private events planned throughout the city - cookouts, block parties, peace walks, art shows, vigils. As one of the organisers flicks through her phone, she sees that dozens and dozens of her Facebook friends have changed their profile pictures to the Ceasefire logo. And she's noticing other things, too, little symbols. Like, for the first time all summer, she's seeing dragonflies. As the afternoon turns into evening, people are getting off work, the bars are filling and the parties are starting - it's the real first test of the ceasefire. Bridgeford and her children head for a busy intersection in southwestern Baltimore where a group of people are waving ceasefire signs, and passing flyers out to motorists. A city bus driver throws open the doors, grabs a Baltimore Ceasefire poster from somebody, and sticks it prominently in the windshield. At some point a tall, thin man appears in their midst, dressed in papery green hospital scrubs - an ID bracelet on his tattooed wrist and EKG leads still stuck to his chest. He picks up a poster and holds it high in the air. "I got shot last night," he says, pointing to a piece of gauze taped to his right cheek. "I still got two bullets left in me." His name is Devrone McKnight - the 23-year-old was driving himself home from the hospital when he saw the ceasefire volunteers by the side of the road. He says he's ashamed. He'd heard about the ceasefire effort but had made no plans to participate. "Now I'm a victim," he says. "From now on, I'm supporting this." He charges recklessly into the street in his socks and sandals, passing fliers and posters to motorists stopped at the red light. He seems almost frantic. "Take it," he pleads with drivers who won't roll down their windows. Some of the ceasefire events are more private, like on a quiet street called McCulloh across town. Brittany Oliver gathers with her family in front of the stoop where her uncle David Lamont Hill was gunned down exactly one year ago after he stopped to visit friends after work. The family, dressed in matching T-shirts with Hill's picture, silently place tea lights near the spot in the street where he fell after being shot seven times. Despite a $5,000 reward for information, no one has been arrested in connection with his death. "We haven't had a whole lot of information about who did it or what happened," says Oliver. In the last two years, not only have the number of homicides increased, but the number of cases closed by the Baltimore Police Department - either because they've been solved or the perpetrator is themselves killed or imprisoned on other charges - plummeted to one of the worst rates for large cities in the nation. Since a low point of about 33% in 2015 when 242 homicides went unsolved, the city says the closure rate has rebounded to a little less than half. But that still means that the city has a backlog of hundreds of open murder cases, as new ones continue relentlessly rolling in. When Oliver heard that the ceasefire weekend just happened to fall on the first anniversary of her uncle's death, she arranged a canvas of the streets all around McCulloh. "I thought I was going to be crying a lot more today," she says. "To be honest with you, that's the ceasefire. For a long time, I wasn't doing anything. This happened and I didn't know what to do. When the ceasefire came up, it gave me an opportunity to find my voice again." Hours later, in a car park on the east side of Baltimore, the time is nearing midnight. Bridgeford, PFK Boom, and dozens of community members have gathered for an all-night barbecue. A team of lawyers is staying up all night to help anyone from the neighbourhood who stops by with criminal record expungements, child support issues, tenant and eviction situations - there's even therapists on hand. As the clock strikes midnight, a cheer rises up from the crowd. Rapper Kendrick Lamar's voice booms from the speakers, singing "We gon' be alright". "We just had 24 hours of no murders in Baltimore, ladies and gentlemen," Bridgeford calls. "Who said we couldn't do it? They said we couldn't do one day! C'mon y'all, we can do another 24!" Day 2: Saturday, 5 August Forty-one hours into the Baltimore Ceasefire - after a day of peaceful marches, meat on the grill, basketball games - the spell is broken. It started with rumours, chatter over the police scanner about a possible shooting in a neighbourhood known as Pigtown. Then the rumours become fact - a 24-year-old man was shot and killed while walking down the street. His friends picked him up and rushed him to the hospital, but he died not long after. A woman with long dreads braided with purple cloth stands at her doorway just a few houses down from the crime scene, watching as the Baltimore police forensic team take pictures of the blood-stained sidewalk. She'd heard about the ceasefire, seen Bridgeford on television. She's dismayed that the weekend peace came to an end right at her front door. Neighbours say it's the third shooting on this block in the last year and a half. "Seven of my girlfriends have lost seven sons [in the last two months]," she says. "Never seen it this bad, never." "Tell 'em to put a [recreation centre] here," calls a man in the street. "Y'all saying, 'Ceasefire,' but how do you ceasefire? You take the kids out of the streets. The kids got something to do other than being in the streets." Not long after the police remove the crime scene tape and begin opening the street back up, Erricka Bridgeford and her children arrive. She received the dreaded text message from her contact at the police department and rushed over, just as city firefighters are hosing the blood off the sidewalk. Staring at the place where the man fell, Bridgeford wears a shattered expression. A television reporter with a microphone asks her for comment, but Bridgeford recoils and refuses. "This means a lot to her," her son Paul says quietly. "This was very likely to happen. We were hoping for the best, but expecting the worst." Slowly, more and more ceasefire participants begin arriving - a way to show the community support and to shake up the mundanity of these deaths. Bridgeford calls them over to join hands around the wet spot on the street. A few of the neighbours who'd already gone back to their normal Saturdays filter over, including the woman with the purple dreads. As an ice cream truck rolls slowly past playing a tinny, lachrymose version of Korobeiniki, Bridgeford makes a point to pray not only for the young man, but also for his killer. "They were not born with a gun in their hand. Their mother didn't push them out saying, 'I can't wait 'til my baby grows up and shoots somebody on a ceasefire weekend,'" she says. "What has been done to us?" she cries, her voice breaking. "What has been done to us?" Darkness settles on the city. At another cookout on the west side, lawyers again gather to help fill out expungement paperwork. Brittany Oliver and some friends burn sage. PFK Boom and bow-tied members of the Nation of Islam stand guard in stony silence. At 10pm, the police radios crackle to life again - there's been another homicide, a 37-year-old man found dead on an eerily quiet block of south Baltimore. In the car park, one of the ceasefire organisers who goes by Ogun ponders something a tough young man told him during their canvassing. "He said a lot of people have a beef with someone where there's no mediation. If they see this person somewhere, they're not going to think," he says. "That's a problem that we can't fix." There is no victory cry come midnight - the moment passes without comment. There are already articles posted online that the ceasefire has "collapsed" and Twitter trolls crow that the effort has failed. Around 1am, Bridgeford climbs into the backseat of her car and lets her kids drive her home. In the dark, she switches on Facebook Live. "That first one - it just knocked the wind out of me. Like it was someone I grew up with got killed. I still don't know the people's names," she says. "I am extremely blessed and extremely heartbroken." Day 3: Sunday, 6 August In 2001, a 27-year-old man named Antoin Lamont McKnight was shot to death on a desolate corner in the Sandtown neighbourhood of west Baltimore. He was transported to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died of multiple gunshot wounds. His killer was never caught. Sixteen years later, Antoin McKnight's son Devrone was rushed to the same hospital with a gunshot wound to the face. Unlike his father, Devrone survived. On the final morning of the ceasefire weekend, he sits in his mother's living room, recalling the moment three days ago when a man charged him and his uncle as they sat on the porch. There's a picture of his father on a desk directly beneath a bullet hole punched through the wall from the attack. He was only seven years old when his father was murdered, but Devrone remembers carving pumpkins with him on Halloween, he remembers birthday parties. He doesn't know much about what his dad was involved in, but concedes that like many Baltimoreans, he may have been tangled up in some type of criminal activity. "I didn't want to be like that so I did everything in my power to stay away from the street life," he says. Devrone works at the same hospital where his father died and attends Morgan State University, studying construction management. Before this point, he'd figured if he just went to school, went to work, and minded his own business, he'd never end up like his father. But the bullet fragments embedded in his face and neck prove otherwise - the shock of that fact sent him running into the street on the first day of the ceasefire in his thin hospital garments, trying to convince strangers to care. In 2017, 404 people have been shot and survived according to figures from the Baltimore Police Department. McKnight feels extraordinarily lucky that, unlike the two men who died on Saturday, he has the opportunity to get involved. "I just want to be the voice of the victims who can't talk right now. It's sad that two days into the ceasefire programme somebody else got killed," he says. "I kinda feel sorry and bad because I didn't react sooner." Devrone and his mother head for church, where he thanks God for sparing his life and prays for the hands of the surgeon who will eventually be tasked with removing the bullet still lodged in his neck, close to an artery. Then he heads to downtown Baltimore, where one of the final marches of the weekend is taking place. About 150 marchers gather at the foot of the 234-foot-tall Phoenix Shot Tower, a 19th-Century edifice where molten lead was dribbled from the top into a cold water bath at the bottom - an early technique for fashioning bullets. They march solemnly past Baltimore City Hall, and file into a television studio draped in black curtains where the organisers and marchers take turns reading the names of the more than 200 men and women who were murdered in 2017, beginning on the very first of the year. Sheamon Pearlie James Williams Davonte Jackson Jamal Washington Timothy Stephens Men with hand drums strike two beats after each name. Charles Frazier Tyrell Matthews Carlos Montgomery Channon Simpkins Tony Tingle As name after name after name is called in the stuffy room, people start to cry. There are sighs at the reading of "unidentified man". Timothy Campbell Tyione Brown Emmanuel Johnson Marco Stevenson Antonio Griffin Finally, Bridgeford leads the crowd in reading two final names, which are still only partially known, from Saturday: Trey Donte, also known as EA At midnight that evening, the official close of the ceasefire weekend, Bridgeford is home, exhausted, eating pizza. But she is back in high spirits. "No murders happened in Sandtown. People who called and said my crew won't - their crew didn't," she says. "What Baltimore was able to pull off was a 41-hour stretch of no murder, and then from 10 o'clock last night to 12 am now, that's another 26 hours with no murder. But that five hours in between is what I want you to remember." The next day, a meeting called Baltimore Ceasefire 365 is planned. The organisers are adamant that their work does not end with the ceasefire - one of the first orders of business is to help pay for the burials of the two men who died. Although six people were shot over the course of the weekend, two fatally, Bridgeford still declares the ceasefire a success. For one single weekend, she says, some of the most beaten-down communities in Baltimore allowed themselves to hope. "I was born with one hand … I've had to experience what it's like to be Baltimore. To look broken and have to find wholeness," she says. "Don't be numb ... We need to remember that feeling of how it was when we cared." Early the next morning, the Baltimore Police Department finally releases the names of Saturday's victims: Lamontrey Tynes Donte Johnson They also report yet another murder, the city's 212th. . |
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has set out Scotland's "cautious" route out of lockdown and her approach over the next few months will be guided by six tests, including evidence that the epidemic in Scotland is controlled. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Christopher SleightBBC Scotland news Using a system outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), what can we tell about the state of Scotland's Covid-19 epidemic? When it comes to judging the level of Covid-19 transmission within a community, the WHO uses a seven tier scale ranging from "no active cases", all the way up to a "very high incidence of locally-acquired cases" that are also "widely dispersed". The Scottish government has previously indicated it wants to get a "moderate" level of community transmission before significantly relaxing any restrictions. So how far away is Scotland from this goal? Cases per 100,000 still indicate 'high' levels of transmission The WHO advises governments to look at their weekly confirmed cases per 100,000 people and then average the figure out over a 14-day period. By this measure, Scotland had a rate of 105 cases per 100,000 on 24 February. This puts the country firmly in the middle of the WHO's CT3 level - a high incidence of community transmission - and well above the "moderate" threshold. There's been a sustained fall in this figure since the middle of January, but the decline does now appear to be slowing. The last time Scotland was below 50 cases per 100,000 was at the beginning of October. It's difficult to compare this rate with the first outbreak in the spring as there was no mass testing earlier in the pandemic. The percentage of positive tests has almost reached 'moderate' levels The Scottish government measures the positivity rate by dividing the number of positive tests per day by the total number of tests carried out. The 14-day average on 24 February was 5.2% - still in the "high incidence" category, but only just above the 5% threshold for "moderate" incidence. It's worth pointing out that WHO's preferred way of measuring positivity is through "sentinel surveillance", or random community testing, which is not how the Scottish government measures it. However, the organisation lists overall test positivity as an additional measure if a comprehensive testing system is in place. Death rate shows sharp decline The WHO says governments should look at the number of weekly deaths "attributed" to Covid-19 per 100,000 people and average them out over 14 days. According to this measure, Scotland experienced "very high" levels of community transmission from 15 January. The rate reached a peak on 3 February and has now gone below the threshold that indicates a "high" incidence of transmission. A death rate of two per 100,000 people or less needs to be achieved to indicate "moderate" levels. This chart counts deaths in Scotland within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19. If the wider definition of all death certificates mentioning the virus were used, the rate would be slightly higher. The full lockdown in the spring ended on 28 May, although the easing of restrictions was phased over several weeks during the summer. Hospital admissions are also dropping steeply Figures on Covid-19 hospital admissions are currently available up to 18 February, when the 14-day average of weekly admissions was 11.4. This figure has more than halved over the last month. The rate is still in the WHO's "high" level, but it's close to the threshold of 10 cases per 100,00, indicating a "moderate" level of transmission. What's the risk level in Scotland? The WHO use a risk uses something called a "risk matrix" which factors in both the state of an epidemic in a country and the local capacity to respond to the outbreak. So for instance, if Covid transmission is at a moderate level, but there is very limited testing or hospital capacity, then the risk may still be high. At the highest level, the WHO considers the epidemic "uncontrolled", with an overwhelmed healthcare system and deaths spiralling. If Scotland's response can currently be judged as "adequate" that would put the country in roughly the middle of the risk scale. This is where the organisation recommends that schools and businesses can open up, with limits remaining on social and mass gatherings and home working still encouraged. But given the recent high case and death rates, it's likely Scotland was closer to the top end of the risk scale in January and early February. With signs that the decline in cases is now slowing, this may have helped persuade the first minister to choose a slow and cautious route out of lockdown. What about vaccinations? So far, 1,515,980 people in Scotland have received their first dose of either the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is about a third of the population aged 16 and over. And the good news is there are early signs that even just receiving the first dose has a significant impact on preventing serious illness. Ms Sturgeon says the aim is to have everyone in this group offered a first dose of the vaccine by the end of July. But crucially good progress is also being made vaccinating the highest risk groups in Scotland - those who are most likely to become seriously ill or die with Covid-19. The priority groups were set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The virus was suppressed to low levels in the summer entirely through public health and social restrictions because there was no vaccine. This time the vaccine could be a useful tool if the Scottish government does want to take more risks and begin to open the country up faster. But for now there's every sign the government will stay on its "deliberately cautious" path, allowing the level of risk to drop to the lower end of the WHO's scale. |
International law regulates the use of military force by states and the conduct of hostilities. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Guglielmo VerdirameDepartment of War Studies, King’s College London As in virtually every modern conflict, there is intense debate on the legality of the actions of the two main sides involved here - Israel and Hamas. Self-defence As in previous operations in Gaza, Israel is likely to argue that its actions are justified under the right of self-defence. Enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, the right of self-defence is a fundamental principle of international law. While aspects of this principle are disputed, it is universally agreed that a state can defend itself against an armed attack. There is some debate as to the intensity that an armed attack should reach before a state can lawfully resort to self-defence. Most international lawyers would agree that rockets launched against civilians that disrupt the social life of part of a country constitute an armed attack for the purposes of Article 51. However, the facts underlying self-defence are often in dispute. Parties to a conflict seldom agree on who is the attacker and who is the defender - and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are no exception. In this case, critics of the Israeli position also advance two legal arguments. First, they argue that the right of self-defence is available only against another state, but not against a non-state entity like Gaza. State practice, especially since the attacks of 11 September 2001, militates against this interpretation of self-defence, but the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice has not settled this question. Secondly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others, considers Gaza is still subject to Israeli occupation because of the degree to which Israel exerts control over and around that territory. Israel maintains that it has not occupied Gaza since its withdrawal in 2005 and that a territory cannot be occupied without "boots on the ground". The right of self-defence is no blank cheque. International law allows states to defend themselves in the right circumstances, but only with force that is necessary and proportionate. A common misperception is that proportionality in self-defence means an eye for an eye, a rocket for a rocket, or a casualty for a casualty. This is not so: there is no place in international law for using force in revenge. In some cases, a necessary and proportionate response will entail the use of greater military force than was involved in the original attack; in other cases, it will be possible for a country to defend itself effectively with less force. The law of armed conflict The principle of self-defence belongs to the body of international law that regulates resort to force or "going to war" (often referred to by the Latin term jus ad bellum, that is, "law to war"). A separate category of international law regulates the conduct of hostilities once the conflict has started. It is known as the law of armed conflict (or the jus in bello that is "law in war"). The law of armed conflict applies only to situations that can be classified as armed conflicts, with different sets of rules governing international or non-international armed conflicts. The law of armed conflict applies regardless of the reasons that prompted a party to resort to force. Starting a war off on the "right" side of the law does not give a state more rights in the conduct of hostilities than its enemies. It is possible for a state that resorted to force lawfully to commit unlawful acts in the course of an armed conflict - and vice versa. The law of armed conflict includes detailed rules on different aspects of the conduct of hostilities (protection of civilians, treatments of prisoners of war, occupied territory, etc). All of these rules rest on the balancing of four key principles: humanity and military necessity, and distinction and proportionality. Humanity and military necessity The principle of humanity requires belligerents to avoid unnecessary suffering and cruelty. The counterweight to it is military necessity. The legal manual used by the British armed forces says that military necessity allows a state to use force, unless otherwise prohibited, which is "required in order to achieve the legitimate purpose of the conflict, namely the complete or partial submission of the enemy at the earliest possible moment and with the minimum expenditure of life and resources". The argument that the Israeli bombardments on Gaza are ineffective because they have always failed to stop rocket attacks may, in one sense, evidence the futility of the use of force in this context. But, from a military necessity angle, it may justify the use of greater force as is necessary to achieve the objective of averting the attacks. Of course, the fact that the law permits a certain action does not make it wise in a political, moral or strategic sense. In any event, military necessity cannot justify actions that are prohibited under specific rules (e.g. those applying to the protection of civilians and the choice of permissible targets) or that, more generally, result "in the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge" (in the words of the Lieber Code, one of the first codifications of the rules of armed conflict enacted by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War). Distinction and proportionality A cornerstone in the law of armed conflict is the principle of distinction: parties to a conflict must distinguish between combatants and civilians at all times. Various specific rules flesh out the content of this principle. Attacks on civilians and civilian objects are always banned. Attacks may be conducted against combatants or non-combatants who directly participate in hostilities, and against military objectives. The principle of distinction also prohibits acts or threats of violence aimed at spreading terror among civilians, as well as attacks carried out with means which, by their nature, cannot target a specific military objective. The launching of missiles against southern Israel, for example, is said to breach distinction because of its inherently indiscriminate nature. But when does an object become a legitimate military target? International law defines military objectives as "objects which... make an effective contribution to military action... and whose total or partial destruction... offers a definite military advantage". Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks or Hamas rocket launchers are in this category. Problems arise with so-called dual-use targets, such as the Serbian TV station bombed by Nato during the 1999 Kosovo War. But the most difficult issues arise when a permissible military objective, such as a rocket launcher or an ammunition depot, lies in the proximity of civilians or civilian objects. Virtually every targeting decision in a densely populated area as Gaza will involve such situations. This is where the principle of proportionality also comes into play. While proportionality is an important concept in other areas of law, including human rights law, it has a distinctive meaning in the law of armed conflict. Whenever there is a risk of loss of civilian life or damage to civilian property, belligerents are required to balance the anticipated military advantage with the risks posed to civilians and their property. In some cases, this will mean - as the former president of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, wrote in a judgment - that "even a legitimate target may not be attacked if the collateral civilian casualties would be disproportionate to the specific military gain from the attack". An attacker is also under a duty to call off an attack immediately if, in the course of it, it realises that civilians would face excessive risk. Any attacker targeting military objectives in densely populated areas will have to do everything feasible to verify the nature of the targets and avoid errors. The practice of dropping leaflets or calling residents before a bombing is presented by Israel as evidence of its efforts to comply with these rules, although critics reply that these methods are not always effective at preventing loss of life and that, even when they are, they cannot avoid the destruction of civilian property as well as the infliction of suffering and distress on civilians. Conversely, a frequent accusation levelled against Hamas is that it deliberately endangers its own civilians by placing military objectives in their midst. If true, this would doubtless be a serious breach of the laws of armed conflict, but it does not mitigate Israel's obligation to continue to take all necessary precautions to minimise loss of civilian life. All modern armed forces, including the Israel Defense Forces, have specialists on the law of armed conflict who are involved in the approval of targets. The legality of a particular targeting decision will often depend on the facts. Was there a genuine military objective? Was it possible in the circumstances to hit that target while avoiding any loss of civilian life? What did the attacker know or should have known? Establishing these facts during an armed conflict, or in its aftermath, is no easy feat. However, when the attacker deliberately targets civilians or civilian objects, there is no version of the facts capable of justifying his actions under the laws of armed conflict. Human Rights The International Court of Justice has repeatedly ruled that the application of human rights law does not cease in times of war, while also maintaining that the law of armed conflict is the special law that governs this area as it was developed specifically to address the unique challenges of war. What this means in practice is not always clear, particularly as regards targeting decisions. When it comes to the clashes in Arab villages in Israel, there is, however, no concurrent application of the law of armed conflict: whether the response of Israel's law enforcement and security forces is consistent with international law in those cases will depend exclusively on the application of human rights law. East Jerusalem is a more complex situation because, while Israel annexed it to its territory, it is still considered part of the occupied Palestinian territory by virtually everyone else, including the International Court of Justice which gave an Advisory Opinion in 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory . Last, but certainly not least, it must be remembered that the law of armed conflict can only mitigate the horrors of war. A war fought with a scrupulous observance of all the rules in the book - if there ever was one - would still be a scourge. Guglielmo Verdirame QC is a professor of International Law at the Department of War Studies and Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London |
An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after two men suffered suspected stab wounds in a "serious assault". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Staffordshire Police confirmed that the man was arrested on Saturday. A 16-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were also arrested in connection with the incident which took place on Minton Street, Wolstanton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, at about 02:20 BST on Saturday. All three suspects have been released under investigation, police said. Two men, aged 20 and 50, were injured during the incident. The 19-year-old from Newcastle-under-Lyme was arrested on suspicion of assault, grievous bodily harm with intent and affray. The 16-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent was arrested on suspicion of assault, actual bodily harm and affray. |
People who refuse the coronavirus vaccine should not feature in the government's calculations about lifting restrictions, according to the leader of a group of Conservative MPs who are campaigning for an early end to the lockdown in England. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Adam FlemingBBC News Political Correspondent Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery group of backbench Tories, told the BBC's Newscast podcast that the rest of the population should not be held back by those who choose not to get a jab. "You can't say 'I'm not going to take the vaccine, but I need everybody else to change their lives to protect me,'" he said. "I'm afraid that risk you run - it's on you. It's not on everybody else." He said take-up of the vaccine had been high so far and the injections should not be mandatory. The former Home Office minister made the comments after the government confirmed earlier this week that two million people in the priority groups for vaccination in England had not come forward or had not been reached. 'Complex evaluation' The number of people unprotected had to be taken into account when planning policies, according to Professor Adam Finn, who advises the government as a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation. "Moves towards lifting restrictions will depend on levels of population immunity to the variants of the virus circulating at the time," he said. "This will be influenced by multiple factors including the proportion of people who have received vaccine and the duration of protection following vaccination or infection. "It's a complex evaluation and we are all in this together." About 70 Conservative MPs belong to Mr Harper's Covid Recovery group, which is enough to defeat the government on a vote in Parliament if the opposition also opposes the motion. He called for all coronavirus-related legal restrictions on activities to be repealed and replaced with non-binding advice once the most vulnerable groups in the population had been vaccinated, which the government aims to do by the end of April. "At that point, I don't think you can justify legal restrictions at all," he told Newscast. The Coronavirus Recovery Group will seek to influence ministers next week, as they study data on the impact of the vaccination programme on transmission of the virus around the country. ahead of the prime minister' announcement of plans to gradually lift lockdown. Around the BBC Newscast - Meet the Covid Recovery Group... - BBC Sounds |
A preliminary hearing on Thursday sees the beginning of a planning inquiry into a controversial new "super-sewer" under London - which would be 15 miles (25km) long, cost £4.2bn to build and create the UK's biggest sewerage system - but do we need it? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tom BatemanReporter, Today programme Deep below the City of London is a world few people ever see. Iron girders span the length of a vast subterranean space - the floor is thick with river silt and the Victorian brick walls drip with condensation. Workers here in the Fleet mainline sewer call this the "viewing gallery" - a space the size of a church hall cut into the earth, from where you can see millions of litres of raw sewage flowing from 500,000 homes on its long journey to treatment works in the east. The sewers are part of a 20,000-mile network owned and run by Thames Water - and are a unique piece of British history. They were built in the 1860s by the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette to intercept raw sewage that previously ended up being flushed straight into the Thames. It followed a series of outbreaks of cholera that killed 40,000 people in the first half of the 19th Century - the Victorians believed the disease was contracted through airborne "miasma" due to sewage in the open air. Their solution was a 1,000-mile network of underground sewers, the construction of which caused much controversy thanks to the £4.2m cost (the equivalent of £430m today), but prevented sewage being dumped in the river. It was not until after the vast project was complete that the Victorians finally understood that cholera was waterborne - the deaths had actually resulted from pumping drinking water straight from the river into which raw sewage had been flushed. "They got the right answer to the wrong problem," says Dr Stephen Halliday, author of The Great Stink of London. He says: "One of the things about cholera and typhoid and other waterborne diseases is that they affect everyone - they affect the rich as well as the poor," he says, explaining what drove the decision to build the Bazalgette sewers. "Waterborne diseases, unlike the diseases of urban filth carried by rats and fleas, [affected] members of parliament and the Royal Family as well as the poorer people, who in those days of course didn't have the vote." Today Bazalgette's network remains in superb condition - the lack of sunlight, the moisture and the regular temperature are perfect for maintaining the Victorian brickwork, according to one worker. But there is a problem - the sewers are being deluged. They were built to take not only waste water from people's homes, but to act as London's drainage system - when it rains, the sewers fill up. The population they serve has quadrupled since the 1860s and vast areas of land have been concreted or paved over. Where storm water once drained into the earth, now it surges straight into the sewage system. The sewers overflow on a weekly basis, flushing 39 million tonnes of raw sewage straight into the Thames each year, according to Phil Stride from Thames Water. He says: "It is absolutely not consistent for a world-leading city to be using its river as an open sewer. "We need to build a project that will intercept those flows and take them off to east London for treatment before they are discharged into the river," says Mr Stride, who is overseeing the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. The 15-mile tunnel would start in Acton, west London, and follow much of the route of the river, capturing raw sewage and taking it to a pumping station in Stratford in the east of the city. Those in the engineering business call it a "megaproject" - a 200ft (60m) deep tunnel, as wide as the Channel Tunnel, which will take 10 years to build and cost £4.2bn - nearly half the cost of the 2012 Olympics. It would eventually add up to £80 a year to Thames Water customers' bills. A preliminary hearing on Thursday will start the Planning Inspectorate's long inquiry process before a final decision could be taken by the government next year. If the tunnel gets the go-ahead, it is due for completion in 2026. But the scheme faces strong opposition. Much of the building work will take place around the clock, causing "mayhem" for people who live near the tunnelling sites, says Christian Sarrasin, from the environmental group, Clean Thames Now and Always. "We've concreted over all the cities and that's why we've got this issue with the Thames Tunnel," he says. He says there are cheaper, greener alternatives to it that involve preventing storm water flooding into the sewers in the first place. So-called "green infrastructure" projects - often involving rooftops being covered in soil and plants - are being used extensively in the US city of Philadelphia where officials say they provide a "model" for flood and sewage management. "You actually get massive benefits from this," says Mr Sarrasin, "it improves everybody's quality of life." His group claims another green innovation - porous asphalt roads that soak up or store water - are a better alternative, and believe that converting half of the roads in central London would mitigate the entire need for the Thames Tunnel. Both sides of the argument will be fully aired during the planning inquiry but there is no doubt that without some help the Victorian sewers will continue to struggle to meet the demands of 21st-Century London. |
Fidel Castro ruled Cuba as a one party state for almost half a century. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
As communist regimes collapsed across the world, Castro kept the red flag flying right on the doorstep of his greatest enemy, the United States. A divisive figure, his supporters praised him as a champion of socialism, the soldier-politician who had given Cuba back to the people. But he faced accusations of brutally suppressing opposition and pursuing policies that crippled the Cuban economy. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on 13 August 1926, the illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Angel María Bautista Castro y Argiz, who had emigrated to Cuba from Spain. His mother, Lina Ruz González was a farm servant who became his father's mistress, and later, after Fidel's birth, his wife. Castro attended Catholic schools in Santiago before going on to the Jesuit-run El Colegio de Belen in Havana. However, he failed to excel academically, preferring to spend his time in sporting activities. It was while studying law at Havana University in the mid-1940s that he became a political activist, honing his skills as a passionate public speaker. Marxism His targets included the Cuban government, led by the president Ramon Grau, which was mired in accusations of corruption. Violent protests became the order of the day and Castro found himself targeted by the police. He also became part of a plot to overthrow Rafael Trujillo, the right-wing leader of the Dominican Republic but the attempt was thwarted after US intervention. In 1948 Castro married Mirta Diaz-Balart, the daughter of a wealthy Cuban politician. Far from encouraging him to join the country's elite, he turned increasingly to Marxism. He believed Cuba's economic problems were a result of unbridled capitalism that could only be solved by a people's revolution. After graduating Castro set up a legal practice but it failed to prosper and he was continually in debt. He remained a political activist, taking part in a series of often violent demonstrations. In 1952 Fulgencio Batista launched a military coup which overthrew the government of the Cuban president, Carlos Prío. Attack Batista's policy of closer ties with the United States and the suppression of socialist organisations ran counter to Castro's fundamental political beliefs. After legal challenges had failed Castro formed an organisation called The Movement, which worked underground in a bid to overthrow the Batista regime. Cuba had become a haven for the playboy rich, and was run largely by organised crime syndicates. Prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking were endemic. In July 1953 Castro planned an attack on the Moncada army barracks near Santiago in order to seize weapons for use in an armed uprising. The attack failed and many revolutionaries were killed or captured. Castro was one of a number of prisoners who went on trial in September 1953. Castro used his court appearance to expose atrocities committed by the army which further raised his profile, particularly among members of the foreign press who were allowed to attend the hearing. Guerrilla warfare He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In the event he was released in a general amnesty in May 1955 having served just 19 months in relatively comfortable conditions. During his short time in prison he divorced his wife and immersed himself in Marxist texts. As Batista continued to crack down on his opponents, Castro fled to Mexico to avoid being arrested. There he met a young revolutionary named Ernesto "Che" Guevara. In November 1956 Castro returned to Cuba with 81 armed companions on board a leaking cabin cruiser designed to carry just 12 people. The party took refuge in the Sierra Maestra mountains. From this base Castro launched a two-year guerrilla campaign against the regime in Havana. On 2 January, 1959, the rebel army entered the Cuban capital and Batista fled. Hundreds of Batista's former supporters were executed after trials that many foreign observers deemed as less than fair. Ideology Castro responded by insisting that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction". The new Cuban government promised to give the land back to the people and to defend the rights of the poor. But the government quickly imposed a one-party system. Hundreds of people were sent to jail and labour camps as political prisoners. Thousands of mainly middle class Cubans fled into exile. Castro insisted his ideology was, first and foremost, Cuban. "There is not communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy," he said at the time. In 1960, Fidel Castro nationalised all US-owned businesses on the island. In response, Washington put Cuba under a trade embargo that was to last into the 21st century. Invaders Castro claimed he was driven into the arms of the Soviet Union and its leader, Nikita Khrushchev, although some commentators say he entered the USSR's embrace willingly. Whatever the motive, tropical Cuba became a Cold War battleground. In April 1961, the US attempted to topple the Castro government by recruiting a private army of Cuban exiles to invade the island. At the Bay of Pigs, Cuban troops repulsed the invaders, killing many and capturing 1,000. Fidel Castro had bloodied the nose of a superpower and it would never forgive him. A year later, American reconnaissance planes discovered Soviet missiles on their way to sites in Cuba. The world was suddenly staring into the abyss of all-out nuclear war. "A series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western hemisphere," warned President John F Kennedy. Bizarre The superpowers stood eyeball to eyeball, but it was President Khrushchev who blinked first, pulling his missiles out of Cuba in return for a secret withdrawal of US weapons from Turkey. Fidel Castro, though, had become America's enemy number one. The CIA tried to assassinate him, most infamously with Operation Mongoose. Getting him to smoke a cigar packed with explosives was one idea. Others were even more bizarre, including one to make his beard fall out and make him into a figure to be ridiculed. The Soviet Union poured money into Cuba. It bought the bulk of the island's sugar harvest and in return its ships crammed into Havana harbour, bringing in desperately needed goods to beat the US trade embargo. Despite his reliance on the Soviets' help, Castro put Cuba at the head of the newly-emerging Non-Aligned Movement. Shortages However, he also took sides, especially in Africa, sending his troops to support Marxist guerrillas in Angola and Mozambique. By the mid-1980s, however, global geopolitics were shifting. It was the era of Mikhail Gorbachev, glasnost and perestroika, and it proved catastrophic for Castro's revolution. Moscow effectively pulled the plug on the Cuban economy by refusing to take its sugar any more. Still under the US embargo and with its Soviet lifeline cut off, chronic shortages and empty shelves in Cuba were inevitable. Tempers grew shorter as the food queues grew longer. The country Fidel Castro called the most advanced in the world had, in fact, returned to the age of ox-drawn carts. By the mid-1990s, many Cubans had had enough. If earlier waves of exiles had been as much about politics as economics, thousands were now taking to the sea in a waterborne exodus to Florida and the dream of a better life. Many drowned but it was a crushing vote of no-confidence in Castro. Caribbean communism Yet Cuba registered some impressive domestic achievements. Good medical care was freely available for all, and Cuba's infant mortality rates compared favourably with the most sophisticated societies on earth. In later years, Castro seemed to have mellowed. 1998 saw a ground-breaking visit by Pope John Paul II, something which would have been unthinkable even five years earlier. The then Pope condemned Cuba for its human rights abuses, embarrassing Castro in front of the world's media. Fidel Castro had created his own unique brand of Caribbean communism which, in his last years, he was forced to adapt, slowly introducing a few free-market reforms to save his revolution. On 31 July 2006, just days before his 80th birthday, Castro handed over power temporarily to Raul after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery. His health continued to deteriorate. Early in 2008, Castro announced that he would not accept the positions of president and commander-in chief at the next meeting of the National Assembly. In a letter published in an official communist newspaper, he was quoted as saying: "It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer." He largely withdrew from public life, writing articles published in the state media under the title Reflections of Comrade Fidel. He re-emerged in July 2010, he made his first public appearance since falling ill, greeting workers and giving a television interview in which he discussed US tensions with Iran and North Korea. The following month Castro gave his first speech to the National Assembly in four years, urging the US not to take military action against Iran or North Korea and warning of a nuclear holocaust if tensions increased. When asked whether Castro may be re-entering government, culture minister Abel Prieto told the BBC: "I think that he has always been in Cuba's political life but he is not in the government. He has been very careful about that. His big battle is international affairs." President Obama's announcement in December 2014 of the beginning of an end to US trade and other sanctions saw the beginning of a thaw in what had been half a century of hostile relations between the two countries. Castro welcomed the move stating it was it was "a positive move for establishing peace in the region", but that he mistrusted the US government. While many Cubans undoubtedly detested Castro, others genuinely loved him. They saw him as a David who could stand up to the Goliath of America, who successfully spat in the "Yanqui" eye. For them Castro was Cuba and Cuba was Castro. |
Muhammadu Buhari has been re-elected for a second four-year term as president of Nigeria - Africa's most populous nation, which faces a range of problems including corruption, an economic slowdown and security threats. BBC Africa Editor Fergal Keane examines the challenges. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
This was never an election that promised the possibility of a new era. The 76-year-old president and his defeated rival, Atiku Abubakar, 72, have been around the Nigerian political scene for decades and represent two parties often associated with cronyism and corruption. Indeed Mr Buhari's victory may in part have to do with public mistrust of his opponent who had to reject allegations of corruption during the campaign. The president did make some efforts in his first term to counter the graft which has seen tens of billions drain out of the exchequer. His personal financial integrity has never been questioned. But he has been widely criticised for not going fast or far enough. Will he be more vigorous in his second term? 'Baba Go Slow' A dose of realism is needed: the breadth and depth of corruption is so great, it affects so many aspects of public life that making serious inroads into the problem would require a focus, energy and application that was lacking in President Buhari's first term. His absence from the country for long periods due to ill-health - he sought treatment in London for a still undisclosed illness - gave the impression of an administration that often crawled rather than strode. President Buhari has been lucky in his choice of deputy. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo showed himself to be dynamic and brave when he stood in as acting president, notably reining in the security services and acting to stabilise the naira, the local currency, at a time of deep economic uncertainty. By contrast Mr Buhari has been nicknamed "Baba Go Slow". It took him six months to appoint his cabinet first time around. More on Nigeria's vote Can he end looting? The second problem he faces in fighting corruption is having the necessary political support. There is undoubted public backing but Mr Buhari's party is compromised by senior members suspected of enriching themselves through graft. The fear is that across the board the looters will carry on pretty much as normal, undermining economic development. Determined disciplinarian Economically, the country remains dependent on oil prices for 70% of government revenues - a long-term vulnerability that helped pull Nigeria into recession between 2016-17. The World Bank has predicted sluggish economic growth: 2.2% for the coming year in a country with unemployment of more than 20% and nearly half the population living in extreme poverty. Ending the dependency on oil revenues needs to happen at a much faster pace. President Buhari also faces an array of security threats from clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the Middle Belt, continuing instability in the oil-producing Niger Delta and - most worrying of all - a revived threat from Islamist extremists in the north of the country. There, the Boko Haram offshoot - Islamic State West Africa Provice (ISWAP) - used the elections period to stage a series of high-profile attacks including an attempt to fire rockets into the city of Maiduguri on polling day. Militant muscle Low turnout concern For a president at the height of his powers these would be a formidable array of challenges. But Mr Buhari is in his seventies with a history of health problems. It may be that he is rejuvenated by victory and his second term is more dynamic than the first. If not the danger is that Nigeria succumbs to the politics of drift with growing frustration among the young who make up more than half the population. For faith in democracy to endure those elected need to be seen to bringing tangible gains. This might - at least partially - explain why voter turnout was a record low of just under 35%, down from 44% in 2015. This is the statistic that should worry all political parties in Nigeria. |
A man has denied murdering a mother of two. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Helen Bannister, 48, died a week after being taken to hospital last month after being injured in the Mayhill area of Swansea. Swansea Crown Court heard the 37-year-old defendant admitted to an "unlawful assault" but there was "no intention of causing really serious harm". A trial date was set for June, which is expected to last between seven and 10 days. His defence barrister Stephen Donnelly told the court he was unable to advise his client on a plea for manslaughter as the post-mortem report had not yet been finalised. Prosecuting barrister Carina Hughes told the court the crown hoped to be in receipt of the preliminary post-mortem report shortly. Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service |
Land for one of the UK's largest NHS specialist heart and lung hospitals has been bought on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Work on the new Papworth Hospital is now expected to begin early in 2015. Seven acres (2.83 hectares) have been bought ready for the move from Papworth Everard, 13 miles (20km) west of Cambridge. The 310-bed cardiothoracic hospital is expected to become operational in 2018. The move will cost £165m, partly paid through a 30-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal, and partly through the public sector. In 1979, the UK's first successful heart transplant was carried out at Papworth and the current hospital has 276 beds. |
A 16-year-old boy has been reprimanded for shining a laser pen at a police helicopter to distract the pilot. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The teenager was arrested in Crabtree Place, Cheltenham, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Sgt Mark Stephens said shining lasers at aircraft or vehicles was dangerous and could have serious consequences. "This person now has a criminal record but more importantly understands the potentially serious consequences of his actions," he said. |
A man accused of spitting at police officers while claiming to have symptoms of coronavirus has been charged with assault. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Paul Leivers was arrested on Thursday in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Mr Leivers, 48, of Tideswell Court, has been charged with two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, and is due to appear before magistrates. Police said the general response to social distancing in Nottinghamshire had been "phenomenal". The government has introduced emergency legislation which means people can be fined for ignoring the measures. However, police said this would be done only "as a last resort". Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk. |
A fundraising event is being held to get a North Yorkshire heritage railway back up and running after a landslip. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Wensleydale Railway is not able to operate trains to Finghall Lane, Leyburn or Redmire after heavy rain caused the landslip earlier this year. More than £30,000 is needed to repair the embankment at Akebar between Leyburn and Bedale. A range of activities are being held this weekend at Leeming Bar Station to boost the appeal. The Wensleydale Railway Association said it was hoping repair the track so a normal service could resume ahead of the Easter holidays. |
A new administration has been unveiled on Scottish Borders Council. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A coalition of Conservatives and independents is to replace the previous SNP/Lib Dem/independent alliance. The Tories won most seats last week with 15, ahead of the SNP on nine, eight independents and two Lib Dems. The administration has to be officially approved by full council on 18 May. It will see newly elected Conservative Shona Haslam take over as leader from independent David Parker. Conservative group leader Michelle Ballantyne said she was delighted with the proposed coalition. "We have worked hard to ensure that our administration will use the skills of its members to deliver the best services for the people of the Borders," she said. "At last week's local elections, the Scottish Borders voted for change and the new administration will bring a fresh approach to providing that change. "We have a lot of new members and we are not going to be afraid to use their skills from the outset." Independent group leader Sandy Aitchison said he was also pleased with the outcome. 'New opportunities' "It is fantastic to have 19 new elected members with fresh thinking and new ideas," he said. "All of us in the new administration are keen to make the most of the new opportunities and energy of the council." Ms Ballantyne is set to take up a position as a list MSP in the weeks to come but she has yet to decide whether she will continue in her role as a councillor after taking on that post. Former leader David Parker will move to the role of convener, with responsibility for health. Ms Ballantyne said: "We are delighted that David will be appointed to the role of convener, a not insignificant position, that is vital for the smooth and effective running of the council. "David will play an integral part in assisting the new administration in embracing the challenges ahead." |
This latest Stormont split over schools feels all too familiar. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jayne McCormackBBC News NI Political Reporter On Thursday the executive said it had agreed a phased approach, even though DUP ministers had been advocating a quicker return. Stormont's health officials advised that a gradual, staged process would be the best way of managing the spread of the virus. But five days later and we are witnessing more friction over the issue within the executive. First Minister Arlene Foster wants Stormont to revisit its schools strategy in light of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to get all pupils in England back to classrooms on 8 March. But Sinn Féin's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill described the phased approach as "responsible". There was some support on social media for Mrs Foster's comments but the DUP has also faced accusations of wanting to simply follow England's lead, as opposed to sticking to advice issued by Northern Ireland's health advisers. There are other reasons why the DUP feels inclined to push again on this issue. The plan agreed by Stormont on Thursday was not roundly welcomed, with some critical of the decision to bring a limited number of primary school pupils back for a short period before returning to remote learning for a week, while leaving other year groups to wait until after Easter before deciding when they might return to classrooms. TUV leader Jim Allister called it a "hokey cokey" approach, a view shared by some DUP politicians who have since taken to Twitter calling for other executive parties to reconsider the plan. The DUP may also have been listening carefully to the comments by England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty on Monday, who pointed to the damage being done to students the longer they are not in class, and that data showed there was a "minimal risk" to children of contracting the virus. It's not clear what officials in Stormont's Department of Health made of what Mrs Foster had to say or whether they'll now be inclined to speed things up. For Sinn Fein's part, there doesn't yet appear to be a desire to move faster, with South Down MP Chris Hazzard critical of how the return of schools last September was managed. The party's chair of the Stormont health committee, Colm Gildernew, argued that the executive should be doing what "suits the situation" in Northern Ireland, as opposed to moving in lockstep with Great Britain. Some teaching unions have said they want to ensure students can return quickly but it must be done safely and they remain hesitant about a full return next month. Calls for teachers to be prioritised for the vaccine continue to get louder too. Special schools in Northern Ireland have begun to be offered weekly testing but plans to introduce testing at secondary schools here, like in England, have yet to emerge. The move to remote learning for most pupils after Christmas was the result of the number of coronavirus cases spiralling out of control in Northern Ireland, and executive ministers were fully aware of the pressures it would create for teachers, parents and pupils. Alliance Party, SDLP and Ulster Unionist ministers on the executive will likely be concerned that tensions between the largest parties - the DUP and Sinn Féin - on schools could bubble over when ministers discuss their pathway-to-recovery blueprint on Thursday. The make-up of Northern Ireland's five-party executive has repeatedly made it more complicated to tackle the pandemic. How Stormont handles this developing row over schools will indicate what might come down the track with managing wider plans to exit lockdown. That too could end up feeling familiar. |
There are calls for the US and Canada to put a woman on a banknote. A similar campaign in the UK successfully convinced the Bank of England to put Jane Austen on the £10 note. But is just one woman per country enough? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Elle MetzBBC News Magazine American bills have portraits of the country's Founding Fathers and former presidents. Chinese notes have Mao Zedong and Indian ones have Mahatma Gandhi, but none of them feature any women. Many other currencies also stick to men, sometimes including a token woman or two. Now there are calls for the US to put a female on the $20 bill. "The United States needs to show the world that we, too, recognise and value the contributions of women," says Susan Ades Stone, executive director of the campaign group Women On 20s. "Our money says something about us and what we represent as a society. So if we're all about gender equality and diversity and inclusion, let's walk the walk." The US currently has seven bills in circulation, all of which feature distinguished, deceased American statesmen. Women On 20s conducted an online poll and asked people to choose which of 15 historical female leaders they would most like to see on the note. The candidates included civil rights activist Rosa Parks, birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, suffragette Susan B Anthony and Harriet Tubman who escaped slavery and went on to lead other slaves to freedom. More than 200,000 people voted in the first round, and the second round - set to last a few weeks - is currently underway. Once the final poll closes, the group will petition President Obama to replace Andrew Jackson with the chosen woman. Many wonder why Jackson - the seventh president of the US - hasn't been removed from the $20 bill already. He is especially unpopular with Native Americans due to his signing and enforcing the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced tribes off their land. Thousands of Native Americans died on the journey west - known as the Trail of Tears - from exposure, starvation and disease. His controversial legacy is one of the reasons why Women On 20s chose to target this particular bill for change. Meanwhile in Canada, more than 54,000 people have signed a petition to put a woman on a banknote there after the sole female to appear on the country's currency, Therese Casgrain, was replaced in 2011 by an icebreaker ship. "When we open our wallets and see the faces of four male prime ministers and Queen Elizabeth, the subtle message is that Canadian women aren't worthy of being celebrated," says author and historian Merna Forster who started the Canadian campaign. "Sexist banknotes are unacceptable in a country that boasts of being a world leader in promoting gender equality… If women are equal to men in Canada, they should be equally represented on our banknotes." A similar petition was launched in the UK in 2013 after it was announced that Winston Churchill would replace Elizabeth Fry - a social reformer and philanthropist - on the £5 note. More than 36,000 people signed it and convinced the Bank of England to put the author Jane Austen on the £10 note from 2017. In both the UK and Canada, the Queen's portrait is on many banknotes. But, critics say this doesn't count because she appears as a monarch rather than for her achievements. Plus, she will eventually be replaced by a male heir. Although the UK petition was a success, campaigners in all three countries - the US, Canada and the UK - have called for only one woman on a note. But is that enough? Should half of all portraits on currencies be of women, better reflecting the makeup of the population? That's what's happened in Sweden. "We thought it was very important to feature an equal number of men and women," says Susanne Eberstein, the chairman of the General Council at the country's Riksbank. "It was well in line with our aims. It was very natural." Women appear on three of the banknotes there, although one of those depicted is Mother Sweden. A new line of Swedish notes, to be introduced in 2015 and 2016, will feature three men and three women - actress Greta Garbo, Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, and opera singer Birgit Nilsson. Australia, too, has an equal number of men and women on its banknotes - each one has a male on one side and a woman on the other, apart from one with the Queen on it which has parliamentary buildings on the reverse. So why isn't Women On 20s petitioning for more than one woman to appear on American dollar bills? The organisation does believe there should be more women on notes but wanted to be realistic about its initial goal. "We hope this is just the beginning," says Stone. But if bills should equally represent men and women, shouldn't they also reflect a nation's racial diversity? Again, this isn't usually the case, although there are exceptions. Australia, for example, has five bills in circulation, one of which features David Unaipon, an Aboriginal man. Unaipon was a pioneer for Aboriginal rights as well as a distinguished inventor and writer. Every US note features a white man, albeit one of the country's presidents or Founding Fathers, even though the US population comprises many races - notably, 13% are black and 17% Hispanic. The US Census Bureau lists seven different races, although Americans no doubt identify with many more ethnic backgrounds. When the Women On 20s selection committee compiled their list of female candidates, they were conscious of diversity, but they did not set out to fill any particular quota, Stone says. Instead, they focused on the candidates' overall impact and trusted that a diverse group would result from the selection process. It did. The 15 female candidates include African, Asian and Native Americans as well as Caucasians. "I feel that the money that we have now is very last century," says Stone, adding that the US has changed enormously. "We're more diverse. We're more inclusive. And the money should reflect that." However, "It would be unrealistic to imagine that we could have a female representative of every ethnic group on the bills," she says. "That's for another campaign." Perhaps a country can't fully represent the diversity of its population on a handful of notes. Euro bills - tasked with representing a huge span of people, cultures and history - depict stylised images of windows, doorways and bridges. Not even actual monuments, let alone portraits of real people. So could this be the solution - no portraits at all? Norway currently has women on two of its five banknotes. "In a society where gender equality is an important value, having both male and female portraits on the banknotes is a matter of course," says Hilde Singsaas, from Norges Bank. However, Norway will soon be getting rid of both men and women when it introduces a new series of notes which will have a sea theme. The specific designs are not yet finalised but proposed motifs (below) feature ships, water and fish. This wasn't because of difficulty reflecting the diversity of Norway's population through portraits though, Singsaas says. "All the previous banknote series featured portraits as the primary motif, without any clear connection between them," she explains. "This time, the aim was to find a recurrent theme binding the banknotes together into a coherent whole." Similarly, Denmark recently introduced a new series of notes featuring bridges and prehistoric objects rather than people. Its previous series of five bills had women on two, men on two and one with a woman and a man. On its website, the Danish National Bank explains that the bridges symbolise links between various parts of Denmark and between the past and present. Putting bridges instead of people on the notes did not have anything to do with difficulty depicting a diverse population, says the bank's spokesman Lars Luth Mikkelsen. Another reason it might be easier to choose landscapes or buildings over people is that prominent figures are often controversial in one way or another, like Jackson in the US. Every person that you put on a banknote will garner some negative and some positive feedback, says Sweden's Eberstein. She and the Riksbank received criticism about the decision to put opera singer Birgit Nilsson on one of Sweden's new notes. Nilsson is pictured singing an opera by Richard Wagner, whose works are sometimes associated with Nazi Germany. Eberstein pointed out that Nilsson most often performed Wagner, who is still very popular today. "She was a world famous singer," Eberstein says, "and a good representative of Sweden at that time." And Women On 20s' Stone admits, "You can never please everyone." 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