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The recession means that Welsh companies have to be ever more inventive and determined due to difficult world trade conditions. According to the latest figures, the value of exports for Wales for the four quarters up to and including the first quarter of 2013 fell by £1,235 m compared with the previous four quarters. But the Welsh government says the long-term trend in Wales is positive with exports increasing by 97.8% since 1999. Four Welsh exporters explain how they have managed in the downturn. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Concrete Canvas The company based at Treforest, Pontypridd, produces a unique fabric shelter which when sprayed with water turns to concrete in just hours and is selling it to over 40 countries worldwide with exports making up 85% of its sales. The canvas is used mainly in civil infrastructure and mining applications. Last year the firm, which employs 20 people, won a £1.2m deal to Chile, to supply the material to a gold mine 4,000 metres high in the Andes where it was used to line water channels carrying off the glacial melt. But there are more artistic uses - the canvas was exported to Iceland and used in a set design for Ridley Scott's film Prometheus. Director Peter Brewin explained how they have multiplied exports since launching in 2008. "Because our product is unique and has generated so much international interest we receive regular enquiries from companies wished to represent Concrete Canvas from all over the world," he said. "Additionally, we regularly attend trade shows internationally to meet new distributors for markets that are particularly promising. "Once we have an in-country distributor we support them heavily with training, technical support, marketing material and by participating with them at trade shows. "We also facilitate transfer of knowledge and project case studies internationally between our distributors." He said they had received Welsh government support including funding which helped them take part in trade missions to Japan and Australia, as well as advice and guidance on entering new markets like Brazil and Russia. Mr Brewin said the company had maintained 100% turnover growth year-on-year since its launch and expected to maintain a comparable growth rate in the future. "Consequently, we anticipate our exports increasing dramatically both in magnitude and as a proportion of overall turnover," he added. "For all companies who add value in the UK and export overseas the recent decrease in the value of the pound relative to many currencies has helped to offset comparatively high labour, tax and regulatory costs. "All of Concrete Canvas Ltd's tier one suppliers are UK-based, allowing us to add significant value within the UK throughout our supply chain. "A fall in the pound adds significantly to our cost advantage compared to the cost of locally sourced concrete in many export markets. "However, in most markets Concrete Canvas is sold based on its technical superiority as well as its cost advantages." Tomos Watkin beers Eleven years ago the Tomos Watkins Swansea brewery was in liquidation, but then Connie and her brother Phil Parry stepped in to buy it, turning it into a success story. The company now employs 69 and has an annual turnover of about £10m, and according to chief executive Ms Parry, the beer is one of the fastest growing brands in Wales. "We put all of our heart and soul into reinvesting in plant and equipment and staff training," she said. "There is a uniquely Welsh quality to their products. From the names of the ales - Cwrw Idris , Cwrw Haf, Cwrw Braf - to the labels. "Our Cwrw Braf for instance depicts a daffodil - our national flower. "And our Magic Lager which was voted the best beer in Wales by Tesco." Exports are a growing area and earlier this year, after taking part in a trade mission to China, the company shipped its first consignment of the hand-brewed beverage to Shanghai. Now they have clinched a second order, double the size of their first. "The first order was for a 20ft container. And this one if for a 40ft container," explained Ms Parry. They also export to the United States, Hong Kong, and Spain but are concentrating on Australia and China, she said. The firm first broke into the export market when they were invited to New York to take part in a Welsh Week. "We will continue to explore new markets by taking advantage of the trade missions that are organised and subsidised by the Welsh government," said Ms Parry. "We do see our exports increasing. At the moment they are a relatively small part of our turnover." Ms Parry added that exchange rates are a factor for their American importer as they are paid for goods in sterling as opposed to dollars. She added: "Our most surprising event has been the amount of companies that have contacted us for an order. We did win the World Beer Championship in Chicago. "And we are consistently recognised in the brewing industry as one the forerunners of quality and excellence. So I think that this is major contributing factor." Melin Tregwynt Pembrokeshire-based Melin Tregwynt's distinctive Welsh woollen blankets have become increasingly visible in stores in the UK. But company partner Eifion Griffiths said while home sales continue to do well, exports have fallen from about 30% of total turnover in 1997/98. Mr Griffiths said the fall had been partly driven by the increasing value of the pound and fell to its lowest level during the financial problems of 2008. After sales in the US and Europe declined, the company started to investigate Japan and found they were not so price-sensitive and more interested in the authenticity and story behind the blankets. Mr Griffiths said: "This gave us an opportunity to begin to rebuild our exports. "Recently despite the volatile exchange rate we have found exports increasing both in Europe and the US as well as Japan. "We have begun to show in these markets again in the last few years. In addition, there are new opportunities in counties like China, Korea and Singapore." He said exports are currently 10% of turnover which sounds like a big decrease but in fact turnover has more than doubled since the 1990s. He also praised the help they have had to support their international export campaign from the Welsh government, but said one of the problems with the support mechanism is that it appeared to "be too driven by short-term political goals". Mr Griffiths said: "The assembly strategy changes too often and this can confuse our overseas partners. We need to provide at national level, a consistent, well-thought through policy with a brand that develops but doesn't keep changing every year." The unique Welsh flavour of the product was not something the emphasised in the beginning, Mr Griffiths said, because they felt that might limit its appeal. But as times changed, they found that Welshness was a driver for their sales. Selling Melin Tregwynt products to Japanese company Muji and having their directors visit the west Wales mill to see production was a surprise, Mr Griffiths added, as was working with Birkenstock providing fabric to be made into shoes. Hajj Safe Kamal Ali came up with the idea of manufacturing safety bags for the millions of pilgrims going on the Islamic pilgrimage of the annual haj and umrah after he gave up his design and technology teaching job and moved home to Newport, south Wales. That was four years ago, swiftly followed by the setting up of the company two years ago. It sells secure waist bags and other bags for Muslims who are making the pilgrimage to Mecca. It also works to supply airline kits with anti bacterial hand wash that does not contain alcohol. The bags are manufactured in China where costs are cheaper and shipped back to the UK. Hajj Safe currently exports about £15,000 to £20,000 of products a year, mainly to Europe, the US and Nigeria which Mr Ali says is a really big market with 100,000 haj pilgrims, to Indonesia and Australia. "We would like to break into the Middle East, India and Pakistan markets," said Mr Ali, who has just returned from a trip to Morocco. "That would be brilliant news for us." Most of the sales are direct to shops in the UK where transactions can be completed quickly but Mr Ali said he has secured a deal with a major luggage company which gives them access to all the UK's airports. Mr Ali said while the firm is currently small he hoped to employ Welsh designers. "I spent my childhood here and graduated from Newport university in fashion design," he said. " And I would like to help bring jobs into the area where I grew up." Mr Ali said they had secure a good manufacturer in China for their products, but the costs of importing them were affected by exchange rates. Initially, he said it had been a massive risk "giving £15,000 to this company in China and we hadn't seen a single product." His biggest business surprise had been about working with wholesalers, who were taking about 60% of the recommended retail price of his goods. "In two years' time I would like to be settled with 10 or more employees firmly situated in lots of markets in Europe," he added. "I would like to be a really known brand in the industry." |
A cannabis farm consisting of more than 500 plants with a street value of £300,000 has been found. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Cleveland Police said an officer discovered the farm in a property on West Road in Loftus. Officers are trying to find the people responsible for growing the plants, a spokeswoman said. Police have also issued a list of "tell-tale signs which often give cannabis farms away" for which members of the public "should be vigilant". These include: |
Police are investigating what they call a "serious incident" at the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot, which left a worker badly injured. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The ambulance service said it was called to the plant at 16:50 BST on Wednesday where a man had been trapped. The injured worker was airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, for treatment. South Wales Police said a joint investigation had been launched with the Health and Safety Executive. Officers would not confirm the nature of the incident. |
There is an urgent need to tackle a decline in male fertility and address the "absurd" reliance on giving female partners expensive and invasive IVF treatments to try to overcome the man's lack of quality sperm, a leading fertility expert has said. For men, being told you are infertile can be a crushing and lonely experience. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Adam EleyBBC Victoria Derbyshire programme Male infertility is now the most common reason for couples in the UK to seek IVF - but when Craig Franklin was told bluntly that he had no sperm, he felt alone and emasculated. "The GP essentially said, 'You're producing no sperm, you won't be able to have children. Out the door, away you go,'" the 39-year-old explains. "There was no support whatsoever." The effects hit him hard and almost led to him breaking up with his partner Katie. "I was very angry for a long time. I went mad with money," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "My performance at work deteriorated quite significantly to the point that I lost my job late last year." "It broke my heart. I saw a man break, basically," says Katie. "He didn't feel like a man, and that's so unfair." Leading fertility expert Prof Sheena Lewis - chairwoman of the British Andrology Society that aims to improve care in men's reproductive health - says the lack of focus on male infertility within the health system is an "urgent" problem. "Men are not being looked after properly, not diagnosed, and not cared for," she says. The quality of men's sperm in the Western world is in decline, but little is known about how to improve it - and there are few treatments available on the NHS. This has led to an "absurd" case, says Prof Lewis, where women routinely have to undergo IVF - even if there is nothing wrong with their own fertility. "The woman actually acts as the therapy for the man's problem [of poor sperm]," she says. "We are giving an invasive procedure to a person who doesn't need it, in order to treat another person. That doesn't happen in any other branch of medicine." Prof Lewis adds that it is also a "huge expense for the NHS", at a time when IVF is being rationed in many parts of the country. DNA damage One couple, who spoke to the Victoria Derbyshire programme anonymously, might never have had their son had they not explored other options privately. On the NHS, they were given a round of IVF - despite the female partner having good fertility - but it failed due to the man's poor sperm. "It was really unpleasant. Injecting yourself with needles that don't go in the first time is not a walk in the park," she explains. So instead, the man sought the help of a private clinic and had an operation - cheaper than a round of IVF - to treat varicocele, an abnormality in the scrotum that affects up to 40% of men with fertility problems. His wife conceived naturally. For Stephen Harbottle, a consultant clinical scientist who helped develop the fertility guidelines for health watchdog NICE, while varicocele treatment will not work for every man, the NHS must ensure other options are explored before IVF is offered to a couple. This includes simple solutions such as dietary supplements, or tests to check for sperm DNA damage. The reason this does not happen currently, he says, is that "doctors don't have any other options available other than to refer patients for IVF". "Men in some ways are just being farmed through the system," he adds. Some men with fertility problems also report feeling sidelined by GPs, who they say focus on the women. Mark Harper - from Ilkeston in Derbyshire - has two children through donor sperm. But when he was originally found to have no sperm, it was his wife whom the doctor called with the news rather than him. "If you're talking to a male about his infertility problems, you ought to be talking to the male about it," he says. "I'm here, I'm a person, I was the one sitting in front of you, and I'm the one you need to be talking to." The Royal College of GPs said in a statement that its members were "highly trained to have sensitive, non-judgemental conversations with all our patients... including why someone might have problems with their fertility and the best options for them going forward". Men's biological clock Prof Sheena Lewis says the lack of attention on male fertility also means men are not educated on their reproductive health, and may wrongly take it for granted. "Men do have a biological clock. As time goes on, because of their lifestyle, there are more and more opportunities for mutations to occur in their sperm. "Men who are over 45 when they have children are more likely to have children who will have childhood cancers, or may have psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder or autism," she says, adding that she believes this is also likely to be the case for younger men with poor sperm quality. Katie and Craig say doctors presumed the reason they were not able to conceive was because of Katie - and she was tested before Craig's fertility was ever considered. The couple are now looking for donor sperm privately, having been denied IVF on the NHS. The stigma surrounding male infertility means this is the first time Craig has ever spoken openly about the issue - until now, even his friends did not know. "It's not a manly thing to discuss," he says. "It's boxed up... and not spoken about." The couple say it took them a year-and-a-half to come to terms with not being able to have children without donor sperm - made worse by the fact emotional support was never offered to them. But now they are coming through it. "We're stronger than ever," Katie says. "But other couples might not be as strong as us. They might not be able to work through that and I can see why - it's so hard for the man to be able to come to terms with not being able to give his wife a child." Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 BST on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel in the UK and on iPlayer afterwards. |
A new poll from Ipsos MORI for STV has suggested that 58% now say that they would vote Yes in another independence referendum. Just 42% state that they would vote No, and thereby back staying in the Union. What conclusions can we draw? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sir John CurticeProfessor of Politics at Strathclyde University No previous poll has put ever support for independence so high. More importantly this is the ninth poll in a row since June to put Yes ahead. On average, these polls have put Yes on 54%, No on 46%. It is the first time in Scottish polling history that support for independence has consistently outstripped backing for staying in the Union. However, we should be careful about drawing the conclusion from today's poll that support for independence has now risen further. A poll from Savanta ComRes released over the weekend, the interviewing for which took place at the same time as today's headline grabbing poll from Ipsos MORI, put support for independence at 53%, one point down on the company's previous poll in August. We will need further evidence before we will know whether the higher level of support for Yes in today's poll represents no more than the kind of random variation that we might expect in the polls given that Yes are well ahead, or whether it signals a further significant shift in favour of independence. In any event, today's poll provides valuable further clues as to why Yes are now ahead. First, it confirms that over the course of the last year Nicola Sturgeon's popularity has soared back to the very high level she enjoyed in her early weeks and months as first minister. As many as 72% say they are satisfied with the way she is doing her job as first minister. Crucially, her popularity extends deeply into the ranks of those who voted in 2014 to stay in the Union, over half (55%) of whom are satisfied. In contrast, only 33% of No voters are satisfied with the job that Boris Johnson is doing. It looks highly likely that this contrast has persuaded some former No voters to change sides. Second, younger voters are firmly in favour of independence. No less than 79% of those aged 16-24 - most of whom were too young to vote in 2014 - say that they would vote Yes. No is still well ahead among the over 65s, but the foundations of support for the Union are seemingly gradually being eroded by demographic turnover. Gender gap disappears Third, the gender gap, which in 2014 resulted in women being markedly less likely to support independence then men, has seemingly disappeared. Today's poll, in which 60% of women back Yes compared with 57% of men, is in line with other recent polls, nearly all of which have revealed little or no gap. Fourth, the poll suggests that some of those who voted No in 2014 are now attracted by the prospect that an independent Scotland would be able to head in a different direction from England. As many as 38% of former No voters find this argument for independence convincing, while 28% are persuaded in particular by the fact that Scotland is being required to leave the EU even though it voted to Remain. However, only 15% of former No voters think the claim that Scotland's economy would be stronger outside the UK is convincing, while even among those who say they would now vote Yes as many as 30% believe that leaving the UK would be a major risk for Scotland's economy. There is evidently still plenty left to argue over in the debate about Scotland's constitutional future. John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University and Senior Fellow, ScotCen Social Research and 'The UK in a Changing Europe'. |
Welsh Lib Dems would cut the basic rate of income tax to help "ordinary workers" once the power passes to Wales, its leader has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Kirsty Williams promised a costed plan to cut the 20% starting rate to 19%. She said the Lib Dems had cut taxes for low and middle-income earners during the UK coalition government. She denounced the Welsh Tories for promising to prioritise tax cuts for higher earners, and expected Labour and Plaid Cymru to defend the status quo. During his Autumn Statement last Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne said control of some of the income tax levied in Wales could be devolved without a referendum. The sharing of tax powers between ministers in Cardiff and London would mean the Welsh government controlling £3bn of taxes a year by 2020. |
We've been warned repeatedly about the health perils of being out-of-sync with our body clocks. Are we eating in the right way for these circadian rhythms, and could changing our mealtime habits boost our health and help us lose weight? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alex TherrienHealth reporter, BBC News 'Breakfast like a king' What did you eat this morning for breakfast or lunch? The chances are it wasn't steak and chips, chickpea curry or anything else you might normally have for dinner. Yet some scientists believe eating more of our daily calories earlier in the day - and shifting mealtimes earlier in general - could be good for our health. One study found women who were trying to lose weight lost more when they had lunch earlier in the day, while another linked eating later breakfasts to having a higher body mass index. "There's already a very old saying, eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper, and I think there's some truth in that," says Dr Gerda Pot, a visiting lecturer in nutritional sciences at King's College London. Now scientists are trying to find out more about what's driving those results and are looking at the relationship between eating and our body clocks, dubbed "chrono-nutrition" by some, for answers. When you eat You may think of the body clock as being something that determines when we sleep. But in fact there are clocks in virtually every cell in the body. They help prime us for the day's tasks, such as waking up in the morning, by regulating blood pressure, body temperature and hormone levels, among other things. Experts are now looking at whether our eating habits - including irregular mealtimes and eating too late - are far from optimal for our internal rhythms. Dr Pot, who studies chrono-nutrition, said: "We have a body clock that determines that every 24 hours each metabolic process has an optimal time when something should happen. "That suggests that having a large meal in the evening is actually, metabolically speaking, not the right thing to do because your body is already winding down for the night." Dr Jonathan Johnston, reader in chronobiology and integrative physiology at the University of Surrey, said although studies suggest our bodies are less good at processing food in the evening it was not yet understood why this is. One theory is that it's linked to the body's' ability to expend energy. "There's a little bit of preliminary evidence to suggest that the energy you use to process a meal - you use more of it in the morning compared with if you eat in the evening." Properly understanding the link between when we eat and our health is important, Dr Johnston says, because it could have big implications for helping to tackle the obesity epidemic. "If we can come up with advice to say, 'Well actually you don't necessarily have to change so much what you eat, but if you just change when you eat,' that little subtle modification might in itself be a really important part of how people can improve health across society," he says. Beyond this, the timings of our meals could also have implications for people with disrupted body clocks, such as shift workers, who are estimated to make up about 20% of the workforce, Dr Johnston says. Animal studies have shown that eating at certain times can help re-set circadian rhythms, and now research is looking at if this applies to people too. In a study of 10 men, Dr Johnston found that delaying their mealtimes by five hours clearly shifted a biological marker of their body clocks. While it was a small study, Dr Johnston said it suggested that eating at specific times could form part of a strategy to help people cope with a disrupted body clock, something that has been shown to be particularly harmful for health. More questions So should we all start eating earlier? Experts say there are a lot of questions that need answering. For example, what are the optimum times to eat and avoid food? How is this affected by our own individual body clock types - be it morning lark, night owl or something in between? And are there foods that are particularly bad to eat at certain times? Both Dr Johnston and Dr Pot said the evidence suggested we should be consuming more of our calories earlier in the day, for example by making lunch the biggest meal. However, Prof Alexandra Johnstone, a nutritionist who is now starting to study in the field of chrono-nutrition, is slightly more cautious. She says that while there are studies showing that shifting our mealtimes earlier might boost our health, she'd like to see a clearer explanation of what's causing this. But she hopes forthcoming research can show this and lead to clear guidance for people around when to eat. Follow Alex on Twitter. |
With Islamist militant groups across the Sahara region still able to flex their muscles despite the French intervention in Mali, former UN diplomat and security expert Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah considers their threat to Africa. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The countries of North and West Africa have become embroiled in a new war waged by violent Islamist militants - a conflict that has no front line. Last week's suicide assaults in Niger on a military base and French-run uranium mine, and a siege in January of the gas plant in Algeria reveal the insurgents' ruthless tactics. And the start of the withdrawal of French troops from Mali, four months after recapturing northern cities from Islamist insurgents, is being touted by the militants on internet forums as the beginning of their victory. But this is no sudden development. Militants and armed radical groups have expanded and entrenched their positions throughout the Sahel and Sahara over the last decade under the umbrella of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (AQIM). They move from one country to another - a hard core of operatives working in an area that covers parts of south-west and south Libya, southern Algeria, northern Niger, north-east Mauritania and most of northern Mali. Poorly administrated, these vast desert spaces provide the groups with an ideal terrain. They also have connections in northern Nigeria, especially with home-grown militant group Boko Haram. Cocaine Analysts believe there are dormant cells in many large cities, including most capitals in the Sahel region. There are several reasons that this network of militancy has flourished. One significant factor is the perceived arrogance and corruption of urban elites. The marginalisation of poorer communities - both in rural areas and smaller towns - and minority ethnic groups has further alienated them from the governing classes. Disgruntled young men have been happy to join radical groups that not only offer them an ideology, but money. And it is the widespread drug trafficking in the region that is believed to have enriched militant groups. Details about the operations are sketchy - large amounts of money are involved to ensure secrecy and loyalty. Drugs from South America are taken across Africa to Europe, where they are more profitable and marketable. A kilogramme of cocaine bought in Latin America for $3,000 (£1,990) can be sold in the capitals of West Africa for about $16,000; in North Africa it sells for $25,000 and can fetch about $45,000 in Europe. Getting involved in the transit business as the conveyor or security agent provides not only a good salary but also the social recognition that money brings. This is a tantalising prospect to many unemployed young men. Western hostage taking is no less profitable for militant groups - and is another "business" that has grown in the last 10 years. Between 80m-100m euros ($103m-130m) is estimated by the Center for Strategy and Security in the Sahel Sahara to have been paid in ransoms in this time, despite both the United Nations and the African Union discouraging such payments. Information technology has been a great help to a hard core of between 350 and 450 experienced AQIM fighters estimated to work within the coalition of Islamist militant groups in the Sahel and Sahara region. Co-operation The leadership and high ranking officers are mostly Algerians and Mauritanians, but increasingly the Sahelians are moving up the ladder. They are very mobile and knowledgeable about the region, can often avoid detection and the monitoring of their communications, and can count on hundreds of determined militias and armed sympathisers. AQIM has its roots in groups in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia. One of its key affiliates is the well-disciplined Mujao group, which was active in Mali and claimed responsibility for last week's Niger attacks. There is also believed to be a connection between AQIM and the growing piracy of the Gulf of Guinea - similar to the situation in Somalia where the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabab group has strong links with pirates operating in the Indian Ocean. In both cases the main objective is to expand the source of their funding and to enlarge their popular support through redistribution of the loot. Last summer also saw reports of a liaison between the Islamist militants in the Sahel, al-Shabab and a few other "informal units" operating in the porous borders area between Chad, Libya and Sudan. Al-Shabab militants were reported to have travelled overland to Mali disguised as Koranic students or merchants. En route it is believed they stayed in safe houses in major cities before joining groups in the AQIM network to share experiences. The groups interact on more of an informal than a co-ordinated basis - facilitated by lax border controls and territorial continuity. They also exploit the tribal systems and relationships between ethnic groups, using them to their advantage. Most rebel groups' supplies and logistics come down from the Maghreb or the fighters seize them by force from local armies. Frustrated border populations either help the combatants or fail to report on them to government officials, despite being given Thuraya satellite phones to do so. Today, however, the Sahel and Sahara region is at a crossroads. There is an opportunity for the region's governments to get a grip on the situation and take advantage of France's gains. Improving economies coupled with nascent freedoms in North Africa could also help improve weak governance, a major ingredient of terrorism. In coalition with the private sector and civil society organisations, they could fight poverty and disenfranchisement, which could help quell the rebellion. But there is only a short window of opportunity. Combatants presently fighting on far fronts, such as Syria, may well return - whether victorious or defeated - to boost the morale and numbers of the Saharan radical groups confronted by French troops. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah is the former UN envoy for Somalia and West Africa and now runs the Center for Strategy and Security in the Sahel Sahara in Mauritania |
Tennis coach Judy Murray, pop star Emeli Sande and Harry Potter author JK Rowling are among the well-known faces in Scotland to have received awards in the Queen's Birthday Honours. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rowling, who was made an OBE in 2001, has now become a member of the elite Order of the Companions of Honour. Judy Murray, mother of world tennis number one Sir Andy, was made an OBE. And Brit Award winner Sande, who was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, was made an MBE. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly was given a knighthood. Judy Murray adds to the honours already handed to her two sons. The tennis coach and former captain of Great Britain's Fed Cup team is being recognised for her work to grow the sport and for encouraging more women into sport. Sir Andy Murray, was knighted in the New Year Honours List, while his brother Jamie was made an OBE last year. JK Rowling Harry Potter author Rowling, who was made an OBE in 2001, becomes a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, which has a maximum of 65 members, in light of her services to literature and philanthropy. It comes days before fans of her boy wizard mark 20 years since Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone was first published. As well as being one of the world's best-selling authors she has set up a charitable trust which supports projects that alleviate social deprivation and founded Lumos, a charity working to transform the lives of institutionalised children. Emeli Sande The 30-year-old musician from Aberdeenshire will be made an MBE. Sande was born in Sunderland to a Zambian father and English mother but moved to the north-east of Scotland when she was four. She released her first solo singles Heaven and Read All About It, for which she gained her first number one, in 2011. The following year she kicked off the opening ceremony of 2012 Olympics in London. Prof Anton Muscatelli The principal of Glasgow University has been awarded a knighthood for services to higher education. Known as a world-class economist, he chairs the Standing Council on Europe which advises the Scottish government on securing Scotland's relationship with the EU. Prof Muscatelli said: "I'm absolutely delighted to receive this honour, but this is, of course, an award for the whole of the University of Glasgow as much as it is for me." He added: "I am also pleased, and proud, as someone who came to the UK from abroad and who believes that science and knowledge transcends national boundaries and borders that this honour has been bestowed upon me." Prof Muscatelli was born in Bari, Italy, and has both Italian and British citizenship. He has been principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow since October 2009. The Very Reverend Dr Lorna Hood Dr Hood, a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has been made an OBE. She was recognised for her "exceptional and long service to the Church of Scotland and promoting tolerance and understanding" through the Scottish board of the Remembering Srebrenica charity. The 1995 Bosnian massacre was the worst atrocity on European soil since World War Two. Dr Hood, who lives in Paisley with her husband Peter, stepped down from her role at Renfrew North Parish Church in October after 37 years. She first visited Srebrenica in 2013 when she was Moderator. She said she was "gobsmacked" but delighted with her award. Deputy chief constable Rose Fitzpatrick Rose Fitzpatrick, Scotland's highest ranked female police officer, has been made a CBE for services to law and order. She joined the City of London Police in 1987, rising to the rank of Chief Inspector. In 1998, she transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service where she was awarded the QPM in 2007 and rose to the rank of Deputy Assistant Commissioner. In 2012, she was appointed Deputy Chief Constable for Police Scotland with overall responsibility for local policing across Scotland. She said: "This is a great and very humbling honour." Mel Young Mel Young, the co-founder of the Big Issue in Scotland and the founder of the Homeless World Cup, has been made an MBE for services to sport and social entrepreneurship. He said he was "pleased and humbled" by the award. Mr Young said: "It does help raise the profile of the issues we are involved in. "First of all that sport is a real power for change and we should invest more in it and secondly that we should not have any homelessness in the world. "If it helps raise the morale of people who are walking on the streets with people who are marginalised then that's fantastic." Cara O'Donnell Cara O'Donnell, is the co-founder of SAMS which brings support, care and respite to many families with disabled children. SAMS works, voluntarily, with about 40 young children with Additional Support Needs (ASN) ranging from Down's Syndrome to Angelman Syndrome and many more complex needs. Cara was honoured with British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to charity in Glasgow. She told BBC Scotland that SAMS was like "a big family". She said that when she got the letter about her award she thought somebody was playing a prank on her. "Now that I know it is real, it is starting to sink in but the reality isn't there yet," she added. Peter Nicol The 82-year-old, from Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, was awarded the MBE for services to the Highland Games, the economy and voluntary service in the north of Scotland. He said his first experience of a Highland Games was in 1947 when they started up again after the war, when he sold programmes at Aboyne. He later became involved with the running of the games and spent half a century as one of the Highland Games' leading lights. He said: "It's been a privilege and absolute pleasure working for the association." Hugh Shaw Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, has become an OBE. He hit the headlines last year when he oversaw the operation to recover the Transocean Winner oil rig that ran aground on Lewis. Mary Scanlon From the world of politics, former Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon becomes a CBE. A former education spokeswoman for her party, she was among the first intake of MSPs in 1999 and stood down at the last Holyrood election. Richard Simpson Former Labour health spokesman Dr Richard Simpson, who also retired from the Scottish Parliament in 2016, is made an OBE. Bill Buchanan Prof Bill Buchanan, head of Edinburgh Napier University's Cyber Academy, is made an OBE. He was recognised for his services to cyber security and innovation. A Fellow of the British Computer Society, the university describes him as an international authority on cryptography and the criminal use of hacking software. A number of others are awarded MBEs for services to their communities. They include Eunice Olumide - a fashion designer, actress and one of the first black Scottish models - and Carolyn Little, volunteer director with Support in Mind Scotland, for services to mental healthcare. There are more than 100 Scottish recipients in this year's list. Others receiving awards include Nora Senior (CBE), for services to the Scottish and UK business community, Polly Purvis (OBE), for her work on the digital economy in Scotland, and Paralympian Angie Malone (MBE), for services to wheelchair curling. Queen's Police Medals go to Deputy Chief Constable Johnny Gwynne and Chief Superintendent Gillian Imery of Police Scotland. Three members of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service - group manager Andrew Watt and watch managers Linda Coughlan and Kenneth Simmons - will receive the Queen's Fire Service Medal. Lewis Campbell, general manager for the Scottish Ambulance Service's East Central Division, receives a Queen's Ambulance Service Medal. The full list The Order of the Companions of Honour Ms Joanne Kathleen ROWLING, OBE Author. For services to Literature and Philanthropy. (Edinburgh) Knighthoods William (Billy) CONNOLLY, CBE For services to Entertainment and charity. (East Sussex) Professor Vito Antonio MUSCATELLI, FRSE Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Glasgow. For services to Economics and Higher Education. (Bearsden, Dunbartonshire) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) Dr John Colin ADAMS Lately Director of Commercialisation and Director of Informatic Ventures, University of Edinburgh. For services to Innovation and Entrepreneurship. (Edinburgh) Ms Rose Mary FITZPATRICK, QPM Deputy Chief Constable, Police Scotland. For services to Law and Order. (Edinburgh) Alasdair George HAY, QFSM For services to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. (Dundee) Robert KEILLER Chairman, Scottish Enterprise. For services to Business and Entrepreneurship. (Aberdeen) William Mackendrick MANN For services to Sport, Recreation, the Arts and charity. (Glasgow) Professor John Halstead Hardman MOORE, FBA FRSE Professor of Political Economy, University of Edinburgh and Professor of Economic Theory, London School of Economics. For services to Economics. (Edinburgh) Ms Mary Elizabeth SCANLON For political and public service. (Edinburgh) Professor Charles Pirie SKENE, OBE For services to Business and Enterprise Promotion. (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire) Professor Graham Charles Murray WATT, FRSE Norie Miller Chair of General Practice, University of Glasgow. For services to Healthcare. (Glasgow) Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) Ms Dawn Ailsa ADAMS Clinical Director, Public Dental Service, NHS Fife. For services to Dentistry. (Glenrothes, Fife) Professor Michael Calvert APPLEBY Lately Chief Scientific Adviser, World Animal Protection. For services to Animal Welfare. (Edinburgh) Professor Polly Louise ARNOLD Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh. For services to Chemistry and Women in STEM. (Edinburgh) Professor William BUCHANAN Professor of Computing and Director, Centre for Networking, Security and Distributed Systems, Edinburgh Napier University. For services to Cyber Security. (Edinburgh) Professor David CLARK Wellcome Trust Investigator, University of Glasgow. For services to Education in Dumfries and Galloway and Research into End of Life Care. (Dalswinton, Dumfries) Professor Belinda Jane DEWAR Professor of Practice Improvement, University of the West of Scotland. For services to Nursing. (Hamilton, Lanarkshire) Dr Thomas Nicholas DIXON For services to Underwater Archaeology, Public Engagement and the Economy in Scotland. (Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross) William Alexander FINLAYSON Founder, MBM Commercial. For services to Entrepreneurship and voluntary service in Scotland. (Edinburgh) Professor Brenda Elizabeth Simpson GIBSON Lead Clinician for Haematology and Oncology Service, Glasgow Royal Hospital for Children. For services to Child Healthcare. (Glasgow) Linda, Mrs GREGSON Head, Primary Care Transformation Team, Scottish Government. For services to Education and Social Care. (Edinburgh) Asif Abdul HASEEB For services to Racial Equality, Health and Education in Scotland and Pakistan. (Giffnock, East Renfrewshire) Elizabeth Lorna HOOD For services to the Church of Scotland and charity. (Paisley, Renfrewshire) Dr Patricia Denise JACKSON For services to Children with Additional Support Needs and charity. (Edinburgh) Miss Morag Dorothy MACKELLAR Allied Health Professionals Children's Services Manager, NHS Forth Valley. For services to Dietetics, the Dietetic Profession and Public Health. (Doune, Perth and Kinross) Ms Judith Mary MURRAY For services to Tennis, Women in Sport and charity. (Bridge of Allan, Stirling and Falkirk) Polly Susannah Athenais, Mrs PURVIS Chief Executive, ScotlandIS. For services to the Digital Economy in Scotland. (Edinburgh) Ms Emily RAMSAY For services to Improving Health and Safety in the Forestry and Arboriculture Industries. (Edinburgh) Margaret Katherine, Mrs ROSS Lately Senior Lecturer for Dental Care Professionals, University of Edinburgh. For services to Dentistry. (Haddington, East Lothian) Dr Richard John SIMPSON For services to Scottish Politics and Public Life. (Bridge of Allan, Stirling) Hugh SHAW Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, Department for Transport. For services to Maritime Safety. (Newport on Tay, Fife) Miss Laura Ann Pender SMITH For services to Disability Sports. (Forfar, Angus) Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) Evelyn Isabel, Mrs AITKEN Owner, Fergushill Riding Stables. For services to Equestrianism and Riding for the Disabled in North Ayrshire. (Kilwinning, North Ayrshire) Sharon Margaret, Mrs AITKEN Principal Teacher, Special Education Department, Buckie High School. For services to Children with Special Needs and the community in Buckie, Banffshire. (Buckie, Banffshire) William Bruce ALLAN Principal Teacher, Physical Education, Buckhaven High School, Levenmouth. For services to Youth Rugby and charity. (Dunfermline, Fife) Miss Samera Jabeen ASHRAF For services to Sport and Diversity. (Edinburgh) Katrina, Mrs BRENNAN Stroke Managed Clinical Network Manager, NHS Lanarkshire. For services to Stroke Care in Scotland. (Carnbroe, North Lanarkshire) Jacqueline, Mrs CAIRNIE Unit Manager, Greendykes Early Years Centre. For services to Vulnerable Children and their Families in East Edinburgh. (Edinburgh) Professor David COATES Director of Life Sciences, Learning and Teaching, University of Dundee. For services to Biology. (Nethergate, Dundee) Miss Patricia Mary CUNNINGHAM For voluntary political service. (Glasgow) John Anthony DELANEY For services to the Teenage Cancer Trust. (Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire) Gillian Mary, Mrs DINSMORE Lately Vice-Chair, Music in Hospitals UK and Convenor Music in Hospitals Scotland. For services to Music and charity. (Glasgow) Professor Claire Alice Mary DOMONEY Head of Department, Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre. For services to Crop Science and Improvement of the Pea Crop (Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire) John DUNN Marine Scientist. For services to the Promotion of Marine Science and Education. (Portlethen, Aberdeenshire) Claire Rashleigh, Mrs GARNETT Founder, Peebles Orchestra and Peebles Youth Orchestra. For services to Music in the community in the Scottish Borders. (Peebles, Tweeddale) Jeanette Gilchrist, Mrs GORDON Higher Executive Officer, Department for Work and Pensions. For services to DWP and the community in East Ayrshire. (East Ayrshire) Margaret Patricia Stuart, Mrs HENTON Lately Non-Executive Director, Coal Authority. For services to the Environment and Professional Education. (Edinburgh) Keith HOPKINS For services to charity and the community in Kirriemuir, Angus. (Kirriemuir, Angus) John Wallace HOWIE For services to Business and the Economy. (Kilmarnock, Ayrshire and Arran) Dr Kenna KENNEDY (a.k.a. Kenna Campbell) For services to Promotion of the Gaelic Language, Music and Gaelic Medium Education. (Pollokshields, Glasgow) Ms Fiona Margaret LARG Chief Operating Officer and Secretary, University of the Highlands and Islands. For services to Education in Scotland. (Nairn) Carolyn, Mrs LITTLE Chair, Support in Mind Scotland. For services to Mental Healthcare. (Dumfries) Professor Rebecca Jane LUNN Professor, University of Strathclyde. For services to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. (Renfrewshire) Professor Richard Mark LYON Consultant in Emergency Medicine, The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. For services to Emergency Healthcare. (Edinburgh) William John Mcleod Reid MACKIE Lately Convenor, Peterhead Port Authority. For services to the Fishing Industry. (Peterhead, Aberdeen) The Reverend Roderick MACLEOD For services to the Gaelic Language and voluntary service in Argyll. (Inveraray, Argyll and Bute) Isabella Macgregor, Mrs MACRAE Community Councillor, Dores and Essich. For services to the community in Inverness and the Highlands. Ms Angela Patricia MALONE For services to Wheelchair Curling. (Glasgow) Professor Leo MARTIN Chairman, St Margaret of Scotland Hospice, Clydebank. For services to Healthcare and Education. (Giffnock, East Renfrewshire) Mary Elizabeth, Mrs MATTHEWS For services to the Girl Guides and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. (Alloa, Clackmannanshire) Neil David MCALLISTER Chairman, Lanarkshire Branch, SSAFA. For voluntary service to Service Personnel. (Strathaven, South Lanarkshire) Dr John Pender MCCLURE Chairman, the Scottish Cot Death Trust. For services to Paediatric Healthcare. (Ayr, Ayrshire and Arran) Miss Linda Ann MCCONNELL Founder, The Symphony of Dreams Charitable Trust. For services to charity. (Scotstoun, Glasgow) James Crawford MCLAREN Chair, Quality Meat Scotland. For services to the Farming Industry in Scotland. (Crieff, Perth and Kinross) Mary Elizabeth, Mrs MCNULTY Headteacher, St Roch's Primary and Hearing Impaired School. For services to Education and the Deaf community in Glasgow. (Bearsden, Dunbartonshire) Mohammad Ajman (Tommy) MIAH Chef and Restauranteur. For services to the Hospitality Industry and charity. (Edinburgh) Katherine Ann McKenzie, Mrs MILNE For voluntary service Abroad. (Elgin, Moray) Robert John MITCHELL Emeritus Curator, St Andrews Botanic Garden. For services to Horticulture and Horticultural Education in Scotland. (Elie, Fife) Peter Arthur NICOL For services to the Highland Games, the Economy and voluntary service in the North of Scotland. (Aboyne, Aberdeenshire) Miss Eunice OLUMIDE For services to Broadcasting, the Arts and charity. (Edinburgh) Richard Archer PORTER For services to the community in Glasgow. (Glasgow) Jean Hamilton, Mrs PURVES For services to Girlguiding and the community in Moffat, Dumfriesshire. (Largs, Ayrshire and Arran) Dr Bharti RAJPUT Director, Sole Body Soul. For services to Podiatry and the Economy in Dundee. (Dundee) Dr John Rooney RICHARDS Director, Kilbryde Hospice. For services to Palliative Care in South Lanarkshire. (Stirling, Stirling and Falkirk) Sylvia, Mrs RUSSELL Chair, Lanark Community Development Trust. For services to the community and Heritage in Lanarkshire. (Lanark, Lanarkshire) Stephen John RYDER For services to the Highland Games, the Economy and voluntary service in Perthshire. (Crieff, Perth and Kinross) Dr Alan Campbell STANFIELD For services to Curling. (Nairn) James STRETTON Lately Chairman, Lammermuir Festival. For services to the Arts, Finance and charity in Scotland. (Haddington, East Lothian) Catherine, Mrs WALKER War Poets Collection Curator, Edinburgh Napier University. For services to Education, Heritage and Public Engagement. (Edinburgh) Una Maria, Mrs WIATREK Senior Executive Officer, Scotland Lead, Devolution Strategy, Advice and Legislation Team, DWP. For services to DWP. (Falkland, Fife) Dr John Alasdair WILSON Consultant Gastroenterologist, Fife Health Board. For services to Healthcare. (Cupar, Fife) John Melville YOUNG Lately President, Homeless World Cup. For services to Sport and Social Entrepreneurship. (Edinburgh) Medallist of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) James Campbell ANDERSON Honorary President, 1st Stonehouse Company. For services to the Boys' Brigade and the community in Stonehouse, Lanarkshire. (Larkhall, Lanarkshire) Ms Catherine Rachel BACHE Founder, Secret Garden Outdoor Nursery. For services to Early Years Play and Education in Fife. (Cupar, Fife) Bryan Logan BAIN Volunteer, Nairn Citizens' Advice Bureau. For services to the community in Nairn. (Auldearn, Nairn) Paul James BREEN For charitable services to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Therapeutic Roof Garden. (Bridge of Don, Aberdeen) Miss Grace BROWN For voluntary service to the community in Langholm, Ewes and Westerkirk. (Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway) Ian Elliott BROWN For services to Badminton. (Scone, Perth and Kinross) Eileen Fiona, Mrs BUCHAN Management Team Chair, Peterhead Unit, Sea Cadet Corps. For voluntary service to Young People. (Peterhead, Aberdeenshire) Denise, Mrs BURGIN Sessional Supervisor, ParentLine Scotland. For services to the Welfare of Children and their Families. (Earlsferry, Fife) Alistair CASSIE For services to the community in Ballater, Aberdeenshire. (Ballater, Aberdeenshire) Connal Murray COCHRANE Director, The Cochrane Foundation. For services to the community in Alva, Clackmannanshire. (Clackmannanshire) Lillian, Mrs COOK Co-Owner, Perth and Dundee Tuition Centres. For services to Education. (Doune, Perth and Kinross) Margaret McCall, Mrs DRISCOLL For services to the community in Burnmouth, Berwickshire. (Eyemouth, Berwickshire) Brian Wynn EVANS For voluntary service in the Scottish Borders. (St Boswells, Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale) Eileen Anne, Mrs GARDNER Art Tutor. For services to Adult Education and the Arts in Fife. (Newport-on-Tay, Fife) Robert Edward GLASGOW Secretary, Cockenzie and Port Seton Amateur Radio Club. For services to Amateur Radio, the community and charity in South East Scotland. (Port Seton, East Lothian) Sheena Mhairi, Mrs GLOVER For services to Music and charity in Angus. (Arbroath, Angus) Ms Mary Ishbel HAGGARTY Secretary, Arrochar and Tarbert Community Council. For services to the community in Arrochar, Tarbet and Ardlui, Argyll. (Arrochar, Dunbartonshire) Hugh Arthur HUTCHINSON Captain, 1st Vale of Leven Boys' Brigade. For services to the Boys' Brigade and the community in Vale of Leven. (Clydebank, Dunbartonshire) Mohammed Tauqeer MALIK Councillor, Aberdeen City Council. For services to the community in Aberdeen. (Aberdeen) Ms Dorothy Mary MARKHAM Director, Cairn Mhor Childcare Partnership. For services to Children, Young People and their Families in Fife. (Falkland, Fife) Anne Isabel, Mrs MASINO For voluntary service to Young People through the UK Scout Association. (Argyll and Bute) Margaret, Mrs MATHER Secretary, Inveraray Highland Games. For services to the community in Inveraray. (Inveraray, Argyll and Bute) Mary, Mrs MCGOWAN First Aid Volunteer, British Red Cross. For Mari voluntary service to First Aid in Aberdeen. (Bridge of Don, Aberdeenshire) Miss Elaine MCHAFFIE Volunteer, North East Sensory Service, Aberdeen Branch. For services to People with Disabilities and Charity. (Aberdeen) Frank MCHUGH Group Scout Leader, 33rd Ayrshire Scout Group. For services to the Scouting Movement and the community in East Ayrshire. (Dalmellington, Ayrshire and Arran) Ms June MCINTOSH Deputy Charge Nurse, Edinburgh Cancer Centre. For services to Young People with Cancer and to Charity in Edinburgh. (Edinburgh) Iris Ann Hume King, Mrs MCNAB Secretary, Friends of Victoria and Whyteman's Brae Hospitals. For services to charity in Kirkcaldy, Fife. (Kirkcaldy, Fife) Jacqueline Fraser, Mrs MCNAIRN For services to Young People and the community in Pathhead, Midlothian. (Pathhead, Midlothian) David MELDRUM For services to Rothesay Brandanes Amateur Football Club, Argyll and Bute. (Rothesay, Argyll and Bute) Andrew Johnston MICHIE For services to the Safety of Outdoor Adventure Activities. (Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire) Miss Cara O'DONNELL Co-Founder, SAMS. For services to charity in Glasgow. (Glasgow) Michael John PATTIE For services to charity in Dumfries and Galloway. (Dumfries) Mary Ellen, Mrs PHILLIPS Director, Motherwell and Wishaw Citizens' Advice Bureau. For services to the community in Lanarkshire. (Wishaw, Lanarkshire) Alice Victoria, Mrs RANKIN Owner, Baker's Oven Café. For services to the community in Newarthill, North Lanarkshire. (Bellshill, Lanarkshire) Fiona Florence, Mrs RUSSELL Shop Volunteer, Capability Scotland. For services to charity in Edinburgh. (Edinburgh) Alexander Douglas RUTHVEN Trustee, Therapet. For voluntary service to the community in Edinburgh and the Lothians. (Edinburgh) Miss Ann STEWART For voluntary service to the Arts, Healthcare and Steam Railway Preservation in London, Edinburgh and Derby. (Kirkcaldy, Fife) Christine Helen, Mrs SUTHERLAND For services to the community in Banff and Buchan. (Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire) Mary Olivia, Mrs TEBBLE For voluntary service to Wildlife Conservation and the community in East Lothian. (North Berwick, East Lothian) David Noel TOD Vice Chairman, Scottish Fisheries Museum. For services to Preserving the Heritage of the Scottish Fishing Industry. (Cellardyke, Fife) Effie, Mrs WALKER School Crossing Patrol Warden, Colgrain Primary School. For services to Education and the community in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute. (Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute) |
After reporting a significant drop in the number of Covid-19 cases for months, some Indian states have seen a sharp uptick in infections in February. The BBC's Vikas Pandey and Soutik Biswas report. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In early February, physicians in Amravati district, some 700km (435 miles) from India's commercial capital, Mumbai, noticed a sudden surge in the number of people suffering from Covid-19. Life in this cotton-growing district in the western state of Maharashtra had almost returned to normal after the first wave of infections last summer. The ICUs of the 1,600-bed state-run hospital and half-a-dozen private hospitals were nearly empty. "But everything changed in February," says Anil Jadhav, a local journalist. "And now there's panic in the district." Since the beginning of February, Amravati has recorded more than 10,000 cases and over 66 deaths from Covid. More than 1,000 were receiving treatment for the disease this week. The positivity rate is in frightful double digits. Amravati and a few other districts in Maharashtra have been again locked down. The hotspots in a district of 2.5 million people are mainly congested urban areas, say locals. "We really don't know what the cause of the surge is. What is worrying is that entire families are getting infected. This is a completely new trend," Dr Shyamsunder Nikam, civil surgeon of the district, says. A number of neighbouring districts have also seen a sharp uptick in cases and Maharashtra recorded nearly 9,000 cases on Thursday, the largest single-day spike in four months. It reported 80 deaths on the same day. "People here have been not wearing masks. They have been attending unregulated mass gatherings such as marriages and campaigns for local elections. There is free intermingling of people, carriers are not getting isolated, and testing and tracking is low. This has led to this situation," Dr Sanjay Oak, a member of the state's Covid task force, told the BBC. It's not just Maharashtra where cases have grown recently. Some areas in Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab states have also reported surges. This comes at a time when much of India is reporting a sharp fall in cases - with daily infections for the county falling to less than 20,000 from a peak of over 90,000 in September. And that has baffled scientists, disease modellers and epidemiologist. The most common reasons given for the spikes in some states are the same as in Maharashtra - big weddings, people not wearing masks, reopening of cinema halls, gyms and swimming pools, and large political rallies in states like West Bengal where elections are due soon. Is India staring at a new Covid wave? Epidemiologist Dr Lalit Kant says a "false sense" of normalcy has "swept the country". "We cannot afford to drop our guard and we have to be cautious about opening places of mass gatherings. Testing, tracing and isolation has to be again scaled up massively in all states - we cannot wait for things to get worse." Dr Kant adds that the rise in the number of cases in some states was expected because it followed the global pattern. "We have seen spikes in several countries after a lull of two to three months." Disease modelling expert Gautam Menon agrees that the spike was expected. "Modelling work and sero survey results would suggest that much of India should be still susceptible to the disease, so a resurgence of the sort we are seeing is not very surprising." But why is the resurgence happening only in a handful of states, particularly in Maharashtra? Mr Menon says the only reasonable conclusion is that surveillance in these states is stronger and that a similar rise in other states may simply have gone undetected so far. Another possible reason, experts say, could be mutation. Viruses often mutate to change their genetic code, which is like their instruction manual. Mutations allow viruses to spread faster and, in some cases, render antibodies less effective. This has been seen in the UK, South Africa and Brazil - new variants from these countries have spread much faster in large clusters. Cases linked to these strains have been detected in India, but there is no evidence yet that they have spread in the community. "This is at once good and bad news," says Mr Menon. "[The absence of foreign variants in the community] is good because they are known to spread faster and can potentially escape immunity generated from a prior infection . Bad news because we know little about whether the Indian variants may behave similarly." Several Indian states have started genome sequencing to identify new variants. Officials have said hundreds of new mutations have been identified. "But that is not enough to attribute the surge to mutations," says prominent virologist, Dr Shahid Jameel. He adds that isolated mutations happen with viruses, but we need more data and research to come to a definitive conclusion. "Unless there is enough data to link a new variant to large epidemiological clusters, we can't attribute any surge to mutations." So, Dr Jameel says, at present, mutations can't be blamed for the surge in Amravati and other places, though "it could all change in a matter of days". "We may see more localised surges in different part of the country in the coming weeks, and the only way to stay on top of the situation is to be vigilant. We need to be concerned but we are not at a stage where we need to panic," he adds. Experts say that India needs to scale up genome sequencing to quickly identify new variants that can potentially be more dangerous. Doctors also say that this is the only way to stop a new variant from wreaking havoc in India, like the Kent variant did to the UK. Dr A Fathahudeen, who is part of Kerala's Covid task force, says his state has been reporting a persistent rise in cases in the past few weeks, but it's largely because of improved testing. "The RT-PCR testing is considered to be the gold standard of testing and around 75% of testing is now being done through this method in the state." He advises other states to follow the same measures. "Not finding new cases doesn't mean Covid has gone away. It simply means that the virus is burning through the population until it finds weaker victims like the elderly and people with co-morbidities." Experts say a strategy involving faster vaccination, genome sequencing and an increase in testing are the only way to stay ahead of the virus. "Otherwise, surges in other states are inevitable," says Dr Fathahudeen. And that will be a "terrifying scenario" for healthcare workers who are tired and exhausted after battling the pandemic for a year now. "There's no doubt that hospitals are more prepared now, but we are at a delicate phase at the moment and missteps can again put pressure on healthcare workers, and the population too. "Let's hope we don't get to that point," he adds. Data analysis and charts by Shadab Nazmi |
The President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has stressed the importance of different parties maintaining a clear policy towards the betterment of the country. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
He said the parties should approach talks with the Tamil Tigers armed with experience from others and respecting others’ opinion. The president made these remarks after launching a series of workshops to discuss the forthcoming talks with the Tigers in Geneva, Switzerland. Senior ministers from ruling SLFP, Minister Ferial Ashroff, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, JVP and JHU representatives, senior officials of the government and the commanders of the security forces attended the workshop. A statement issued by Chandrapala Liyanage, Co-ordinating Secretary to the President said the president is to meet professionals, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, civil society leaders and representatives from the north east before January 22 talks. |
The psychedelic powers of a traditional Amazonian plant medicine called ayahuasca are attracting more and more tourists. It's said to bring spiritual enlightenment and to help with addiction, depression and trauma. But a string of allegations suggests there's a darker side to the ayahuasca scene. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Simon Maybin and Josephine CasserlyBBC News, Peru Warning: this article contains details of alleged sexual assaults Rebekah first tried ayahuasca on a "complete whim" when she was travelling in Peru in 2015. "I thought it sounded interesting and I thought I might as well give it a try," says Rebekah, a New Zealander in her 20s who asked the BBC not to use her surname. "So I found a retreat centre that I felt was good and I just went for it and it was amazing." Ayahuasca can induce visions of things like serpents, palaces, and alien beings - and bring up long-forgotten memories. Like many who've drunk the brew, Rebekah has a wide-eyed distant look as she reminisces about the experience. "It was like being guided very gently and very kindly through some really awful experiences that I'd had in the past," Rebekah says. "And returning back home after that, I felt like my relationships were a lot stronger. I felt it was a lot easier to share and receive love. "They do say that ayahuasca is like 20 years of psychotherapy. And I completely believe that." Ayahuasca is usually taken in ceremonies at night, led by a healer - sometimes called a shaman. He or she will drink the sticky brown liquid - a brew of two Amazonian plants - then dole out helpings to the participants. It's been used by tribes in the Amazon region for centuries but now there's a boom in what's become known as "ayahuasca tourism", with ever more specialist retreat centres opening. Travellers often come for help dealing with mental health problems - and a growing body of scientific research suggests ayahuasca could be an effective treatment. About half an hour or so into a ceremony, the medicine takes its effect and the healer will start singing sacred chants, known as icaros, which guide the participants through their visions. Drinkers usually "purge" during ceremonies too, vomiting and sometimes getting diarrhoea as well. When Rebekah went on her first ayahuasca retreat, she was the only single woman there and noticed that the male healer was paying her special attention. "How he treated me was very different, which I didn't find suspicious at the time. But upon reflection, now I do." A year later, by now a more experienced ayahuasca drinker, Rebekah returned to the same retreat in Peru. The same healer was leading the ceremonies. Once again, she says, she was treated differently from everyone else. There was a lot of flattery. Then the healer began confiding in Rebekah. "He constantly told me that he had a lot of troubles," she says, "and he said he was having problems with his wife, that he wasn't sexually fulfilled, and that I was the one who was able to cure him of that." Rebekah was 20 at the time; the healer in his 50s. "He also promised me a lot of spiritual advancement or a lot of spiritual power, if we had a relationship - while his wife was down the road." Find out more Rebekah says the healer sexually abused her, coercing her into sexual acts. "It's disgusting," she says. "Because he was a shaman, I thought he had moral superiority in a sense and I trusted him." After she was abused, Rebekah left the centre - and the country: "I booked a flight and got the hell out of there." She was left with a tangle of painful emotions: "Disgust, repulsion, betrayal - confusion, as well as to why a guide would do this, why a teacher would do this and why they would exploit their power like that." Rebekah's alleged abuser is still the head shaman at his centre - which gets five-star ratings on review sites. "He is still there," Rebekah says, clearly deeply angered by the situation. Her hands are visibly shaking. "There are other centres that I know of as well that are still operating. There've been multiple women that have been sexually abused in these centres." Experiences of sexual abuse seem to be widespread in this world. We've heard numerous allegations against numerous healers and read many testimonies of sexual abuse on online forums. One name that comes up repeatedly is Guillermo Arévalo, a well-known healer who's been honoured by the Peruvian Congress for his work on sustainable development. "He came to Canada many times," says a woman in her 40s whom we're calling Anna. "It was quite lucrative - big ceremonies. They'd fill up fast, people paying C$300 (£175) to come and sit with Guillermo. He had kind of a status. It was an honour to sit in ceremony with him." Anna, who had long been interested in alternative medicine, hoped ayahuasca might help her deal with her addiction to heroin. At first, she was impressed by Arévalo. "Like a lot of people, you're flabbergasted by the man's presence and power and ability to lead the ceremony - it's quite profound," she says. "The chanting. He is a good healer." But a ceremony about seven years ago dramatically changed Anna's opinion. "It was completely pitch black, the room had no windows. There were a lot of people. "I was under the effects of the medicine. When you're under the effects there's lots of different sounds. People are crying, verbalising things that make no sense at all, purging or moaning. "Even if I had been able to say something, nobody would respond." Anna was having a difficult time. She recalls lying down, moaning and groaning. "Guillermo came and he sat with me and at first it was a sense of relief because I think I'm going to get some help," she says. "He started to chant to me and put his hands on my stomach over my clothing which is normal. And then he put his hands down my pants. And there's this sense of feeling frozen. I lay there in fear and then he put his hands up my shirt and felt around my breasts." She remembers thinking: "'What the heck was that all about?' Just a sense of disbelief and confusion." It's taken six years for Anna to feel able to speak out about what happened to her. "Women are conditioned to accept this behaviour. For myself, coming from a history of addiction - and I've had abusive relationships with men that I've tolerated in my life - and a history of childhood sexual abuse, there's a sense of familiarity there, of normalcy. "And also this weird co-dependent relationship for me where the medicine was helping me so I didn't want to speak up because I was afraid I would be ostracised from the community and then I would be kind of cut off from the medicine." Risks and benefits? While preliminary scientific studies have suggested that ayahuasca could have therapeutic benefits, it contains DMT, which is illegal in the UK, and there are potential risks. A 2015 report found six volunteers with depression showed a decrease in symptoms after taking it. A separate study two years later indicated that it held promise as a treatment for eating disorders. Psychologists have also speculated that it could help those with PTSD. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office warns that some people have "suffered serious illnesses and in some cases death" after taking part in ayahuasca ceremonies. It points out that retreats are typically some distance from populated areas and that while some have basic medical facilities, others do not. Could ayahuasca have health benefits? Around the same time, a group calling themselves Ayahuasca Community Awareness Canada - which included senior academics - put their names to a letter about Arévalo's behaviour and circulated it within the ayahuasca scene. The letter-writers say they took action because of the number of complaints made against the healer, citing reports of non-consensual or inappropriate sexual behaviour. When further named signatories were added to the letter in 2015 and it was made public, Arévalo stopped visiting Canada to lead ayahuasca ceremonies. But when we track him down it seems he's been active all around the world in the intervening years and is now based at a retreat centre in Peru. The place used to be called Anaconda but when we're there has its first group of foreign guests under a new name, Bena Shinan. They're milling around in a dining room behind us when we put the allegations of sexual abuse to Arévalo, a slight 71-year-old with silver hair and gold teeth. "I don't accept the allegations because they're not true," he says firmly. "Because sometimes people just imagine these things." He says he's heard about the letter by members of the Canadian ayahuasca community, but has never read it. "It doesn't interest me because the allegations aren't true," he says. "It doesn't bother me because I don't think an allegation's going to kill me." The claims against him, he says, are "the imaginings of the unwell person". "When you touch someone who's been abused or raped, they think you're the same. That's what happens. That's how I make sense of it." When we put Anna's specific allegation to him, he says he doesn't remember ever touching a patient during a ceremony in Canada, saying she too must have imagined it. "What else is he going to do other than just lie and deny it," Anna responds. "Otherwise he would have to step up and take responsibility and be accountable for the way he has acted." What about his claim that she just imagined the sexual assault? "It sounds like gaslighting to me, really," she says. "That's what it feels like." Although Arévalo denies having sexually abused anyone, he does admit that healers working under him have had sex with "unwell people". He says he no longer works with those healers, but that in some cases it was the patients who initiated the relationships. "Western women, when they come, they're also seeking out healers," he says. Anna's experience with ayahuasca and abuse doesn't end with Guillermo Arévalo. Despite her experiences with him, she didn't want to give up the benefits she received from the brew and continued taking it under the guidance of other healers. She says that in 2014 she was raped in ayahuasca ceremonies in Peru by a healer who is a member of Arévalo's extended family. She says again she "just froze" and "let him do whatever he wanted to me". "I think he probably raped me four or five times and I noticed he was doing it to other people." Afterwards, Anna says she was in shock. She doesn't remember much about that period of her life. "I started to develop symptoms of psychosis and ended up relapsing and becoming addicted to fentanyl and overdosed and almost died. I think I really blamed myself for a long time - why I couldn't say no, why I couldn't move, why I let him do those things. Those were the things that were going through my mind." We've spoken to another guest who was at the same retreat as Anna, who says the healer was later sacked from the centre, because of allegations made by other clients. We're not naming him because, despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to reach him to give him the chance to respond to the allegations. Emily Sinclair, a British doctoral student researching ayahuasca, is part of a group trying to raise awareness about the problem of sexual abuse in the ayahuasca world. Working with the Chacruna Institute, an organisation set up to share research on plant medicines and psychedelics, Sinclair helped put together the Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse. The guidelines highlight typical scenarios in which abuse happens. They also encourage people to drink with trusted companions and to research retreats by checking out review websites before they visit. Sinclair has been distributing the little green booklet to cafes, tourism offices and ayahuasca centres in the Iquitos area of Peru, known as the hub of ayahuasca tourism. "A lot of abuse we've found occurs in the context of individual healings where a woman might be asked to remove her clothes unnecessarily," she says. "And when she's in this unfamiliar context, she doesn't know if that's normal or not." Sinclair points out that it's not just indigenous healers abusing Westerners. "Abuse happens across cultures and within them," she says. "But one of the big problems is that a lot of people who come here romanticise shamans. So we put them on a pedestal. And it's very easy for that image to be taken advantage of. "There's also assumptions that some of the people here may have about Western women and culture." Some of the red flags Sinclair warns people to watch out for echo Rebekah's experience. Information and Support "If he's overly touchy with you, he tells you his wife doesn't mind him having sex with other women, he encourages pacts of silence and secrecy between you, he says he wants to teach you 'love magic'. This kind of thing. And also that having sex with them will increase their power and energy. These are all things that have been reported to us as being said to women in this context." Those affected by sexual abuse understandably find it difficult to talk about openly. On top of that, there's a strong sense within the ayahuasca world that any kind of negative publicity could result in government intervention, which creates an additional pressure to stay silent. But Rebekah and Anna are speaking out because they hope it will prevent other women being abused. "I think the only thing we can do is just speak out about it and talk about it," Rebekah says, "make sure people know that it's happening." Rebekah says that after she was abused there's been "a lot of sadness and a lot of therapy". It's been hard work for her to trust a healer again, but now she's back in Peru, taking ayahuasca and researching her master's thesis on indigenous medicine. "Regardless of everything that happened, obviously ayahuasca's great," Rebekah laughs, "because I keep going back to it." |
A lack of clear information is making it difficult for disabled people to travel independently, with 40% of the country's 2,560 train stations inaccessible for some people, according to analysis by the charity Leonard Cheshire. Here, Team GB Para athlete and freelance reporter Chloe Ball-Hopkins describes her experiences using a wheelchair on Britain's railways. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
When I saw that 40% of disabled people struggle at train stations because of a lack of steps, my first thought was that my experiences have been OK. I catch the train from Bristol Parkway to London Paddington quite regularly now and other than one train not having an accessible toilet on it, I have never had a problem with the stations either end. But then I thought a little more, and that isn't all true. I thought about the route I take to Manchester Piccadilly, and how the Cheltenham station I use to get there had a really steep ramp down to the platforms. In a manual wheelchair that's great fun to go down - but you can't get back up again when you return. Dilemma! It means if you wheel your own chair you're reliant on help. People are normally happy to give you a hand, but that isn't really the point is it? Although I say my regular Bristol to London journey is manageable, when I arrive at Paddington I don't head to the underground like most people do - I head outside to the taxi rank. When I was in London for some of the events at the Paralympics in 2012, using the tube was the easiest way to get from A to B. I was so lucky to be with people who helped me use the escalators - how naughty. But that was the only way we were going to be able to do all the things we wanted without having to pay a lot of money for taxis everywhere. Lots of stations just don't have step-free access. I think that's the point... Just because people like myself can't use steps and some stations don't have alternative options, it means we end up paying a lot of money just to be able to get about like everyone else does. Many people with disabilities may not be able to drive, have a vehicle suitable for them, or be able to drive long distances even if they do have a car. Using the train is supposed to be an easy and relaxed way to get about but instead it ends up being frustrating and deflating. I know some stations that are older buildings struggle with putting things like ramps and lifts in place, but that doesn't give them an excuse not to try and find a way to cater for everyone. Whether that's someone like myself who can't use the ramp they have put in place because it's too steep, or a blind person who has to try and manage flights of steps that they cant see. The staff at the stations can be the friendliest people going but it doesn't resolve the situation if someone in a wheelchair is sat at the top or bottom of the steps with a train to catch in a matter of minutes. Commuting on a train should be an easy way to get about your day - and that should apply to people like me too. Newsbeat has contacted National Rail for comment. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here. |
The House of Commons that resumes business on Tuesday will be neither virtual, nor normal. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent After several weeks when MPs were actively discouraged from attending Westminster, they will be back, but the strictures of social distancing will mean normal parliamentary socialising - chats in the Tearoom, coffee-filled gossip sessions in Portcullis House, meals in the Members' Dining Room, and all the rest, will still not be possible. Mr Speaker Hoyle has already made clear that he will not permit a crowded chamber, either. So the atmospherics will be a bit weird and MPs may feel more isolated in the Covid-19 Parliament than they ever did participating from home. The first business will be to find some kind of middle ground that allows MPs to perform one crucial function - voting - while avoiding the dangers of infection posed by their normal method of trooping through the division lobbies. To this end, the government has recalled the House a few hours early to debate the issue, although, as I write, no motion has emerged. Depending on how long those deliberations take, this manoeuvre could have knock-on effects on the rest of the week. The early recall (an 11:30, rather than 14:30 start) means the business previously set down is lost, starting with Justice Questions, which are definitely cancelled, and possibly extending to the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill, although it could be put back again, if there is time for a Second Reading debate. If not, there could be a cascade of rescheduling through the rest of this short Commons week - so the programme described below is subject to change. And there is quite a lot of important law-making to get through, including emergency legislation to protect Covid-19-hit companies from their creditors, due to be rushed through on Wednesday, and a very important measure to help the courts, by tidying up the hopelessly confused law on sentencing. Of course, there will doubtless be major statements from ministers on the pandemic and its ramifications, and possibly something on the ominous state of affairs in Hong Kong. Plus a goodly helping of important committee hearings, not least a fascinating-looking session of the Treasury Committee, with three former chancellors giving their view on what their successor should do. Bring popcorn... Here's my rundown of the week ahead. Tuesday 2 June The Commons is back, earlier than usual (11:30) and will plunge straight into considering a motion on its method of voting. Nothing has been published yet, but the word is that the government is insisting that voting must be restricted to those physically present, while nodding to Mr Speaker's insistence that the advice of Public Health England, that the normal process is unsafe, must be respected. This makes no concession to those MPs unable to attend during the pandemic, although, if they are no longer to be permitted to vote remotely, it may be that opposition parties will press for them to be allowed to use the proxy voting system already available for pregnant MPs. It seems highly likely there will be opposition amendments of some kind. There will be considerable pressure to reach all-party agreement on the solutions, but the atmosphere is more than a little unpromising, because opposition parties were annoyed by the way the government forced through the ending of the virtual parliament. So what if there is no agreement? MPs could be in the awkward position of having to vote on how they should vote, before having agreed a safe method of voting, which may require Mr Speaker to step in and ordain a safe voting method on his own authority. The Speaker's role is so shrouded in custom and practice that he would be able to do this. And keep an eye on the politics of this vote. This is House rather than government business, and it may provide an opportunity for Conservative backbencher angry at the Cummings affair (60-plus have called for the PM's adviser to go) to blow off a bit of steam and signal that they should not be ignored. It is certainly possible for ministerial statements to be taken on a Recall day - I'm not so sure about Urgent Questions. All this will probably still leave time for consideration of the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill, which finally kills off the Cameron government's attempt to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600. It was based on the complaint that Labour seats tended to have smaller electorates than Conservative ones, skewing the electoral system in Labour's favour. This has been stalled since the Lib Dems joined Labour to block the new constituency boundaries needed, and has always been unpopular with the troops. Labour has an amendment down to oppose the bill, even though it welcomes the move to keep 650 MPs. Its complaint is that the rules on constituency size are too inflexible and that attempting to base boundaries on the next electoral register would mean using an incomplete list, thanks to the pandemic. On the (still virtual) Committee Corridor, Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs (09:30) takes evidence on how to remove another constitutional legacy of the Cameron years, the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, with evidence from academic experts, while Justice (14:30) has a series of panels giving evidence on the impact of the pandemic on the courts, prisons and probation service. In the Lords (11:00) questions to ministers cover removing the five-week wait for Universal Credit payments (a subject that may be raised with Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey when she appears before the Lords Economic Affairs Committee at 15:00) and free TV Licences for over-75s. The main legislating is the detailed committee stage scrutiny of the Telecoms Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill. Wednesday 3 June The Commons opens (11:30) with half an hour of Welsh Questions, followed by half an hour of PMQs - where the Covid-era solemnity may break down a bit as MPs get their first chance to tackle the prime minister about the Cummings affair. Mr Speaker will be continuing to limit attendance in the chamber, but, even so, noise levels may increase. The day's ten-minute rule bill, from Conservative Fiona Bruce, aims to amend the 1967 Abortion Act to exclude correctable conditions like cleft lip, cleft palate and clubfoot as qualifying physical abnormalities for the purposes of medical termination of pregnancy. Then comes the day's main business, the rushing through of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill. This includes a series of long-term reforms that had been in the pipeline before the pandemic, but the main focus now is a series of measures to provide temporary protection for otherwise viable companies hit by the pandemic - it suspends parts of existing insolvency law. It gives companies that are insolvent or in danger of insolvency a 20-day moratorium to allow them to seek new investment and restructure, subject to supervision by a "monitor" who must certify that the company could be rescued as a going concern. There will be restrictions on winding-up orders and aggressive tactics by landlords. On the Committee Corridor, the Treasury Committee (14:30) ponders the economic impact of the pandemic with the aid of Lord Darling, the last Labour Chancellor, George Osborne and Philip Hammond. This should be interesting from a number of points of view, and may provide a useful glimpse of the economic medicine that may follow the pandemic. I imagine an early questions will be about the PM's comments before the Commons Liaison Committee, ruling out income tax rises or an end to the "triple lock" on the state pension. My eye was also caught by the Education Committee session (09:30) on the impact of the pandemic on education and children's services. In the Lords (11:00) questions to ministers cover the impact of the pandemic on local democracy, and the timings, chair and terms of reference of the proposed Royal Commission on Criminal Justice - that's from the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham. The main business is the continued committee stage scrutiny of the Private International Law (Implementation of Agreements) Bill. This deals with the process for adjudicating disputes between individuals in different countries, notably over child custody, and is shaping up to be pretty controversial. The snag at the moment is that the Lords do not yet have an online voting system in place, so it may be a while before they can move beyond the "shadow boxing" phase at Committee, and hold actual votes at Report Stage. Thursday 4 June The Commons day opens (09:30) with 40 minutes of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport questions, followed by a mini-question time for Attorney General Suella Braverman. And then the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees Mogg, will announce forthcoming Commons business. Then comes a rather technical-sounding, but highly significant measure, the Sentencing (Pre-Consolidation Amendments) Bill. This is a measure which paves the way for the new sentencing guidelines created by the Law Commission to be put into action, finally sorting out the massively confused law on sentencing in the courts. This is Secret Barrister territory, an area where the legal system is deep in the mire, and a huge chunk of cases sent to the Appeal Court are to sort out mistakes in sentencing by judges mired in complex and conflicting law. As a Law Commission Bill, this is subject to a special fast-track process involving a joint parliamentary committee, to speed it onto the statute book. Then comes an interesting parliamentary curiosity, a 90-minute debate under Section 13A of the European Union Withdrawal Act, on a motion from Sir Bill Cash and the European Scrutiny Committee, calling on the government to report back to MPs regularly on the progress of the "future relationship" talks with the EU. The European Scrutiny Committee has produced a report which sums up the concerns of all the select committees about their aspects of the talks - and the motion simply asks ministers to respond to them. But there's always the chance of an amendment, for example, calling for an extension the transitional period before the UK leaves the EU Single Market. The day's committee hearings include Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (09:30) looking at the impact of the pandemic on business and workers, and the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Sub-Committee on Online Harms (looking at the proposals in the government's Online Harms White Paper) quizzes witnesses from Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (14:30). The other interesting committee action is the opening of the committee-stage consideration of the Domestic Abuse Bill (11:30 and then 14:00. These are the early hearings involving evidence from witnesses, before the process of line-by-line consideration kicks in, and there has been some controversy over the refusal to allow victims of domestic abuse to give evidence remotely. This is now routine for select committees, but no provision has been made for public bill committees to do the same. In the Lords (11:00) question time includes Baroness Benjamin asking about how 18-to-25-year-olds can be prevented from becoming online child sex predators. The main debate is on the economic lessons of the pandemic, and has attracted a healthy 57 speakers, including former Chancellor Lord Lamont and former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett. There's also a short debate on the situation in Hong Kong, and the impact on human rights of the Chinese government's new national security legislation. |
More than 400 black cabs are back on the road after a steering fault was fixed, the administrators of the firm where they were made has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
LTI in Coventry went into administration in October with 99 out of its 176 workers losing their jobs. Price Waterhouse Coopers said work would now get under way to fix the same problem on 600 new and unregistered vehicles. It said this work should be completed by late February. Union leaders and MPs are hoping to get assurances that black cab-maker LTI will remain in the UK. Members of Unite and Coventry MPs asked Business Minister Michael Fallon to support their campaign for LTI to continue production. |
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with plotting an "Islamist" terror attack, police have said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The teenager, from Eastleigh, who cannot be named, faces one count of preparation of terrorist acts. Hampshire Police, which arrested the boy on 12 June, said it believed the investigation was "isolated". The boy was later re-arrested by counter-terror police. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. |
A UKIP councillor has been chosen to contest Clacton in the general election for the party after earlier nearly abandoning his bid over a Twitter row. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Jeff Bray, who won former party donor Arron Banks's support, decided not to compete for selection after the Huffington Post claimed on Tuesday he had posted controversial tweets. He then later changed his mind and stayed in the selection race. The district councillor told the BBC his Twitter feed had been doctored. Mr Bray won by three votes against London-based barrister Paul Oakley. Clacton's sitting MP Douglas Carswell had been UKIP's only MP until he quit the party and later announced he would not stand for re-election. |
Plans for something like it have been around for decades - and Hollywood has seen several planned opening dates come and go. But in Los Angeles this September the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally to open, with some online programmes kicking in next month. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC News So after the endless arguments over funding and design and purpose - what will visitors actually find when the doors open? For decades, starting in 1939, what sat in Los Angeles at the junction of Wilshire and Fairfax was the May Company Building. The department store was a classic example of US "Streamline Moderne" design. In the 1990s, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art took up residence in the building but it never found the cash to complete ambitious redevelopment. Then the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took on the site: it was the Oscar organisation's chance finally to build the big, world-class museum it has wanted almost since it began in the 1920s. There followed the traditional unfathomable arguments about finance, design, how well the project was being led and why on earth the city needed a museum like this anyway. Covid-19 added to the delays. In 2019, Kerry Brougher - the fine arts curator brought in to lead the museum to opening - departed. He was replaced as director by Bill Kramer. Culture-loving Angelinos followed the crises with rapt interest. But most tourists and visitors to the city (assuming by September there are any) will have one thought: Movies are great but does that necessarily translate to a brilliant museum? Now journalists around the world have been given an extended virtual tour to show off the glitzy new building and explain what will be inside. The Academy describe the museum as a two building campus. As well as the five-storey 1939 site, now totally reworked, there is an entirely new spherical building next-door designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (co-designer of the Pompidou Centre in Paris and much else). One of the great attraction draws is expected to be the attractive viewing terrace on top of the new building. Between the buildings run two bridges, one known as the Barbra Streisand Bridge. That's far from the only star name: there's also the Debbie Reynolds Conservation Studio and a Shirley Temple Education Studio. The Spielberg Family Gallery will feature a 10-minute filmed introduction to cinema and its history, featuring bits of some 700 films. Though Kramer is thought to have pushed the museum more towards temporary installations, the Spielberg Family Gallery will be part of the longer-term offering. There will be two cinemas - a 1,000 seater and a compact 288-seat venue - with several screenings daily. The bigger cinema has space for a large orchestra but it's far too small ever to hold the Oscars ceremony there. One of the obvious key notes is an attention to diversity, both in today's cinema and over the past century. The museum says it's going to celebrate film but also explore "less proud moments in the histories of the Academy and the film industry". Those whose work will be celebrated when the museum opens include well-known names such as Bruce Lee, Orson Welles and film editor Thelma Schoonmaker. But also featured will be Oscar Micheaux (born 1884), less familiar to the public but one of the first African Americans to make an impression as a film producer and director. Some of the galleries will celebrate particular aspects of movie-making - from production design and casting to make-up and sound mixing. That may suggest the parts of Oscar Night which tend to get short shrift from the media. But the Academy also promises it won't dodge heavy political issues such as the decades-long under-representation of women and ethnic minorities and the #OscarsSoWhite campaign which began in 2015. The museum is trying to give the broadest possible picture of movie history. To open in September there will be an exhibition devoted to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz and others on the work of Spain's Pedro Almodovar and of Japanese film-maker Hayao Miyazaki. One popular feature is bound to be the Virtual Reality exhibit which allows you to pick up an Academy Award on the stage of the Dolby Theatre (in your dreams). For the moment the impressive list of what the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will feature when it opens in September is just that - a list. It's hard to get a sense of what a visit will feel like. But the Academy has persisted through plenty of squabbles and tricky times to get to this point - with Covid-19 thrown in latterly to make things even tougher. Despite the problems along the way there's a will in Hollywood to make the new museum work. Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. |
Since October, almost 700,000 people have been detained crossing the border from Mexico into the US, a huge jump on previous years. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The reasons people give for trying to reach the US are varied - family, better economic opportunity, or the chance to escape the threat of violence. In the interactive bot below, we have focused on the story of one woman, Maria, who represents many of those seeking to make the journey. Maria is fictional. But everything that happens to her here is based on the real experiences of migrants who have travelled to America, experiences that have been documented by rights groups, journalists and lawyers. See for yourself the decisions and dangers a migrant like Maria may face. Follow Maria's journey Share this chatbot. Produced by David Molloy and Roland Hughes |
Four out of 10 current UK MEPs are not contesting the European Parliament elections. That means at least 30 of those elected from 23-26 May might either never take their seats or serve only a few months if the UK leaves the European Union by the end of October. However, voters are being urged not to see the elections as a "joke", as Brexit dominates the agenda. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Who can I vote for? There are 72 UK MEPs currently serving, with one seat vacant. Of those, 43 are seeking re-election and there are 548 other new candidates. In London 88 candidates representing 11 parties, including independents as one group, are vying for eight seats. That compares with 10 parties for three seats in Northern Ireland. There are 23 parties in total, including independents as one group, but only 10 of them are standing in more than one region. The Yorkshire Party is standing in Yorkshire only, the Animal Welfare Party and Women's Equality Party have only put up candidates in London and the Independent Network is only standing in the East Midlands. The Socialist Party of Great Britain has candidates in the South East only. Three parties are standing in all 12 nations and regions - the Conservatives, Greens and UKIP. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Change UK and The Brexit Party are standing in all regions apart from Northern Ireland. Who can't I vote for? Half of the existing MEPs in the North West, West Midlands and South West are not standing again. Two Scottish MEPs are not standing for re-election and another, Catherine Stihler, resigned her seat in January to take up a new role. Mary Honeyball, from the Labour Party, and Julie Girling, formerly a Conservative but now an independent, are two of the 30 MEPs who will not be standing for re-election. Despite the possibility of a very short term for newly-elected MEPs - or even no term at all - they still think the election is important for the UK. Ms Girling, an MEP in the South West, said people should not see the vote as a "joke" because Brexit was not "a done deal". She also said new or returning MEPs may find the job more difficult than in previous terms, as British politicians might be passed over for "important committee positions" if they are not expected to be in their seats for long. Ms Honeyball, an MEP for London, said it would be "very disappointing" for a new MEP to have to leave after a few months. But, she added, candidates had entered the election in full knowledge of the situation with Brexit. How does an MEP's pay compare with the average worker? While it may be a short term job, an MEP earns about three times the median full time monthly salary for the UK. This does not take into account other allowances MEPs have access to. They are paid €8,757.70 (about £7,599) a month before tax and insurance. The largest gap between the monthly earnings of an MEP and a UK region was in the North East, where a middle-earning full time worker is paid £2,206, about £5,393 less than an MEP. What pay-off will they get when they leave? When MEPs leave or are voted out of office they are eligible for a "transitional allowance", worth the equivalent of a month's salary for every year in office, up to two years' pay. However, newly-elected MEPs in the 2019 elections will not qualify for the allowance if the UK leaves the EU by the end of October, as currently planned, because they will not have served a full year. What do they talk about? MEPs work on a range of issues, from copyright to mobile phone roaming, fishing rights, data privacy and more. For UK MEPs, however, Brexit appears to be the overriding issue of concern. Analysis of their tweets over the past year shows the word "Brexit" was used more than any other. What is the gender balance in the European Parliament? Currently, the average MEP is 55 years old while women make up about a third of members. The proportion of female MEPs varies from country to country, from 69% in Finland to 17% in Cyprus. How many people vote? Across the European Union just over four in every 10 voters (42.6%) turned out in the 2014 elections. In the UK it was about a third, which is similar to the proportion of people who vote in local council elections. Turnout was highest in Belgium and Luxembourg but both of these nations had compulsory voting. It was also officially compulsory in Cyprus but more than half of people still did not vote. What would you like to know about the forthcoming European Elections? Let us know and a selection will be answered by a BBC journalist. Use this form to ask your question: If you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic. |
Bosses at East Midlands Airport have reported an increase in passenger numbers over the Easter period. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
About 70,000 passengers used the Castle Donington-based airport, an increase of 1.1% from Easter 2010. An airport spokeswoman said top destinations for travellers were Palma, Alicante, Malaga, Faro and Tenerife. The airport said about 151,000 people were expected to travel in and out of the airport over Easter, Royal Wedding and May Day bank holidays. That compares to 124,903 passengers for the same period last year, an increase of 20.89%. Related Internet Links East Midlands Airport |
Four climate change activists are risking their lives inside a network of manmade tunnels near Euston station in protest against the £106bn HS2 rail project. One of them is 18-year-old Blue Sandford, who has vowed to be underground for as long as it takes bailiffs to evict her. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Thomas MackintoshBBC News, London It was early on Tuesday when a group of HS2 Rebellion protesters heard a team of bailiffs marching towards their Euston Square Gardens campsite. The campaigners have occupied the land since August, but HS2 requires possession of it so it can build a temporary taxi rank outside Euston station. It was an eviction attempt the protesters knew was coming, so to thwart their forcible removal they have spent the past two months digging a tunnel they claim is 100ft (30m) long. The tunnel has been widely condemned by officials and drew criticism from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who said the protesters' actions were "reckless, irresponsible and deeply concerning". But it was criticism Ms Sandford and her fellow activists knew would be coming. "I was already awake; we were doing stuff through the night when they came very suddenly," she recalls. "I heard the shout and I just jumped down and stayed down in the tunnel. "I couldn't really hear people and there was so much adrenaline. Everyone is safe and fine. "My mum is really scared and worried about me. Both parents feel quite heartbroken that I need to do this but also really proud and [they are] trying to support me and help me in any way they can. "We have had some communication with them [the National Eviction Team]. They are going to be as safe as possible and say there will be no surprises [while digging the protesters out]. "We have been working on this for so long, getting organised. It has been a secret until the BBC published an article." Ms Sandford, a published author on climate change, says digging the tunnel - codenamed "Kelvin" - is the activists' "best defence" against being evicted, but admits it is a very dangerous, even life-threatening, thing to have done. Planks of reclaimed wood have been used to shore up the tunnel, but that hasn't prevented partial collapses already and the authorities have warned that the protesters risk being buried alive. Ms Sandford, from London, maintains the activists are not intent on "martyring themselves" - their sole intention is delaying - or even stopping - the HS2 project, she says. "HS2 is a waste of money and time," Ms Sandford adds. "By the government's own admission, it will be heavily polluting and carbon intensive while demand for mass transit is falling and home working is the new norm for many people. "I'm angry that the government is still effectively ignoring this crisis despite declaring a Climate and Ecological Emergency two years ago. I'm in this tunnel because they are irresponsibly putting my life at risk from the Climate and Ecological Emergency. "I shouldn't have to do this - I should be in school - the trouble is, they are stealing that future and I have to stop them." Ms Sandford would only say her school was in London, but that it had "not taught her the truth" about the ecological emergency facing the planet. In the summer of 2019 she joined thousands of Extinction Rebellion protesters in central London as parts of the capital ground to a halt. She draws inspiration from her father Roc Sandford, who is the laird of the Hebridean isle of Gometra and describes himself on LinkedIn as an "Extinction Rebellion catalyser". Located off the west coast of Scotland, the few residents of the remote island live off the grid with no electricity or cars. "My dad is an environmental activist and has been for some time," she says. "He has been involved in Extinction Rebellion and I went along in 2019 and started hearing all these facts and got terrified and depressed. "One that I heard was that by 2050, 5bn people will be facing water shortages which was from a UN water report published 2018. I couldn't believe it." Despite the growing profile of Extinction Rebellion, the teenager still feels that not enough people see climate change as a real problem. Her activism led her to take part in the second set of Extinction Rebellion protests in October 2019, when police arrested more than 1,100 demonstrators. This time Ms Sandford was one of them. "It was for obstruction of the highway," she says. "I was on a scaffolding tower glued on in the middle of The Strand and [was] carried down and taken to Dagenham police station." While in the cell overnight, Ms Sandford turned 17 years old. She used the time behind bars to think about her future and realised this was a fight she wanted to continue with. She adds: "I thought about it for a long time and just thought I couldn't vote at that time so I felt like voting wasn't working. "I didn't have any options. I saw these people getting arrested, making a difference, and I just threw myself at it." In recent months Ms Sandford has joined up with other HS2 Rebellion protesters, spending two months in Euston Square Gardens and also in camps along the line which will link London and the Midlands. Ms Sandford says she is currently on a long-running school strike - something inspired by an initiative called FridaysForFuture that was started by young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. A Sunday Times article described Ms Sandford as Britain's answer to the famous Swedish campaigner, although it's a comparison she wants to distance herself from. "It irritates me a bit, but I put up with it," she says. "It is a compliment to be compared to her as she is amazing. But I don't like the comparison because it is not about individuals and that could be detracting from our message. "I don't want to be a role model, but I think it is an amazing thing to inspire people. What I learned through activism was to break the rules and do what I wanted to do, so I want to spread that." Breaking the rules might draw attention to the activists' cause, but it can also be dangerous. Water mains run through Euston Square Gardens and if these are damaged the protesters risk being drowned or suffocated, Department for Transport officials warned on Thursday. Nevertheless, Ms Sandford and the other protesters have no intention of giving up. "When we are out I think we will all be arrested pretty quickly," she admits. "There are four of us down here now but I am not chained, although some people are. "The longest tunnel eviction was six weeks. I'm prepared to stay here for as long as it takes." |
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have signed a document following a landmark summit in Singapore - the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader. Here is the full text of the statement: | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Joint Statement of President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit. President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new US-DPRK relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Convinced that the establishment of new US-DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following: 1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity. 2. The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. 3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 4. The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified. Having acknowledged that the US-DPRK summit - the first in history - was an epochal event of great significance in overcoming decades of tensions and hostilities between the two countries and for the opening up of a new future, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in the joint statement fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit. President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have committed to cooperate for the development of new US-DPRK relations and for the promotion of peace, prosperity, and the security of the Korean Peninsula and of the world. DONALD J. TRUMP President of the United States of America KIM JONG UN Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea June 12, 2018 Sentosa Island Singapore |
Two men and a woman have been charged as part of an investigation into the sexual exploitation of girls and young women in the Yeovil area. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It follows raids on businesses and residential properties on Wednesday in which six people were arrested. A police spokesman said the arrests were made on suspicion of rape and trafficking offences. Three other men, aged, 70, 63 and 28, have been released on bail until January. Those charged are: All three appeared before South Somerset Magistrates' Court earlier and were remanded in custody. It follows a police investigation that started in August. |
A plan to develop Porthcawl into an "iconic waterfront location" has moved a step closer after £1.5m of funding was secured for the project. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The project was approved in August 2017, and includes a water sports facility at Rest Bay, a refurbishment of the harbour and a new cycle path. The EU funding is part of a Wales-wide plan to create 13 must-see destinations across the country. Bridgend council said it would help turn the town into a "thriving" resort. Porthcawl Civic Trust Society objected to the two-storey building when it was approved, saying it was "out of accord" with the area's character. |
A Canadian helicopter has gone missing over the Ionian Sea off Greece, officials say. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Contact was lost after the CH-148 Cyclone took off from the frigate HMCS Fredericton during a Nato exercise on Wednesday. Canadian officials gave no further details. Greek media say there were between three and six people on board. They say rescue teams are searching international waters off Greece's Kefalonia island. |
Nepal's devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake on Saturday was primed over 80 years ago by its last massive earthquake in 1934, which razed around a quarter of Kathmandu to the ground and killed over 17,000 people. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kate RaviliousScience writer This latest quake follows the same pattern as a duo of big tremors that occurred over 700 years ago, and results from a domino effect of strain transferring along the fault, geologists say. The researchers discovered the likely existence of this doublet effect only in recent weeks, during field work in the region. Saturday's quake, which struck an area in central Nepal, between the capital Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara, has had a far-reaching impact. More than 4,000 people have lost their lives, with victims in Bangladesh, India, Tibet, and on Mount Everest, where avalanches were triggered. Death tolls and casualty figures are likely to rise over the coming days, and the risk of landslides on slopes made unstable by the quake mean that the danger is far from passed. Trench investigations In a sadly prescient turn of events, Laurent Bollinger, from the CEA research agency in France, and his colleagues, uncovered the historical pattern of earthquakes during fieldwork in Nepal last month, and anticipated a major earthquake in exactly the location where Saturday's big tremor has taken place. Down in the jungle in central southern Nepal, Bollinger's team dug trenches across the country's main earthquake fault (which runs for more than 1,000km from west to east), at the place where the fault meets the surface, and used fragments of charcoal buried within the fault to carbon-date when the fault had last moved. Ancient texts mention a number of major earthquakes, but locating them on the ground is notoriously difficult. Monsoon rains wash soils down the hillsides and dense jungle covers much of the land, quickly obscuring earthquake ruptures. Bollinger's group was able to show that this segment of fault had not moved for a long time. "We showed that this fault was not responsible for the great earthquakes of 1505 and 1833, and that the last time it moved was most likely 1344," says Bollinger, who presented his findings to the Nepal Geological Society two weeks ago. Previously, the team had worked on the neighbouring segment of fault, which lies to the east of Kathmandu, and had shown that this segment experienced major quakes in 1255, and then more recently in 1934. The deadly pattern of quakes around Kathmandu When Bollinger and his colleagues saw this historic pattern of events, they became greatly concerned. "We could see that both Kathmandu and Pokhara would now be particularly exposed to earthquakes rupturing the main fault, where it likely last did in 1344, between the two cities," explains Paul Tapponnier, from the Earth Observatory of Singapore, who was working with Bollinger. When a large earthquake occurs, it is common for the movement to transfer strain further along the earthquake fault, and this seems to be what happened in 1255. Over the following 89 years, strain accumulated in the neighbouring westerly segment of fault, finally rupturing in 1344. Now, history has repeated itself, with the 1934 fault transferring strain westwards along the fault, which has finally been released today, 81 years later. And, worryingly, the team warns there could be more to come. "Early calculations suggest that Saturday's magnitude-7.8 earthquake is probably not big enough to rupture all the way to the surface, so there is still likely to be more strain stored, and we should probably expect another big earthquake to the west and south of this one in the coming decades," says Bollinger. You can follow Kate on Twitter |
The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a hard blow to businesses around the world. In the US alone, economists project that more than 100,000 small businesses have permanently shut because of the health crisis. Among those are iconic institutions that have survived for decades. Stan's Donuts in Los Angeles is one of them. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alice CuddyBBC News Stan Berman says there are three reasons his doughnuts were so good. The first was the sea air that blew into his shop from the Pacific Ocean some five miles away - he never used air conditioning, even at the height of the LA summer, to avoid spoiling the perfect atmospheric conditions. The second reason was the skill that went into making the doughnuts. And the third, simply, was love. Stan took over his shop in the heart of LA's bustling Westwood Village neighbourhood more than 55 years ago. The unassuming one-storey white-block building sits on the corner of two busy streets. Stan described it as "the smallest little shop you've ever seen". It was prime real estate: less than two blocks away from the UCLA campus and opposite the Fox Bruin and Fox Village cinemas where glamorous premieres would frequently take place. The exact date it all began is a matter of debate. He believes it was Christmas time 1963, while others in his family think it was 1964. What everyone can agree on is that it quickly made its mark. When Stan first took over it was called The Corner Shoppe - a distributor for pastries, pies, cookies and "everything else like that". Everything, that is, apart from doughnuts. Stan came from a long line of Jewish bread bakers. As a child, he would wake up before dawn to fry doughnuts at his father's little Philadelphia bakery, finishing them off with a generous coating of granulated sugar. When people came in to buy a loaf of bread in the morning, they'd pick up one of Stan's doughnuts too. He later learned how to make intricate European-inspired pastries. The Corner Shoppe had equipment for baking, but when Stan first took over it only sold other people's food. Then fate stepped in. One Sunday morning when the shop was closed, Stan popped in to clean up and, noticing the heavy footfall in the area, saw an opportunity. He called a friend in the bakery business who brought him flour, yeast and everything else he needed. He made a piece of dough and fried a batch of doughnuts, then sold them through the shop's window. It soon became a routine. Every Sunday, Stan would head into work at about 04:00 to make doughnuts; his wife would drive his three children down a few hours later to sell his creations; and with the money they made, the family would go out for dinner in the evening. On Monday mornings people started coming in looking for doughnuts. "They'd say 'Stan why aren't you making doughnuts?'" Stan, now 90, recalls. "And I'd say 'Well you know, we're not really doing that'. Then, before you know it, we were doing that." The Corner Shoppe became The Corner Donut Shoppe and eventually Stan's Donuts. Doughnuts were considered at the low-end of the bakery business, but Stan applied the techniques for making fine pastries learned in his youth to create a new product. "They were so different from most doughnuts, even though I used the same flour, and shortenings and toppings," he says. "My idea was I'm going to make something you really like. Tell me what you like and I'm going to try and make something for you as a doughnut so you will come in for yours - I did that for hundreds of people." He packed his array of flavours - cherry, chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter - into a display case that "blasted" people when they walked into the tiny room. Before long, Stan was selling thousands of doughnuts every day. His growing reputation and proximity to the two LA cinemas meant some of Hollywood's biggest stars were among his customers. When one of her movies was playing across the road, actress Ali MacGraw and her partner Steve McQueen would frequently drive up to Stan's shop on a motorcycle, get a cup of coffee and a doughnut and sit outside on the kerb to watch people going into the cinema. Elizabeth Taylor - one of Hollywood's most glamorous women - ordered coffee and doughnuts with a group of friends. Not that Stan recognised her - a passer-by pointed her out. Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder and Hollywood filmmaker Mel Brooks were also regulars. But Stan had one rule: he never took photos of the stars coming into his shop. "I wanted them to be comfortable to come in and share my doughnuts," he says. Cementing its place in Hollywood history, the shop's original signage was restored for a scene in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In more recent years, Stan's Donuts has been frequented by a Nobel laureate and senior staff at the nearby UCLA - as well as many students. "For generations, numerous UCLA departments have shared boxes of Stan's Donuts to celebrate special occasions, myriad student groups have sold them as fundraisers for worthy causes, and so many on our campus have had their days brightened by one (or more) of your delicious treats," the chancellor of the university, Gene Block, said in a recent letter to Stan. When the animated show The Simpsons turned 20, producers ordered batches of Stan's Homer Simpson doughnuts - pink frosting, sprinkles - for Fox affiliates. Simpsons writer Carolyn Omine tweeted that the shop was among her first memories of LA. Stan's cherry cheesecake doughnut was her favourite. While the doughnuts themselves might have been the biggest reason for the shop's success, Stan also became a star in his own right, and he revelled in the attention. "We would bump into people all over the world, people who knew us from the doughnut shop," he recalls with glee. "We couldn't go to a movie, we couldn't go anywhere where someone wouldn't tap me on the shoulder and say 'Hey Stan'." His shop's success and longevity earned it iconic status in LA. The city declared 3 May 2014 "Stan's Donuts Day", and the shop was named a "Monumental Business". Looking back, Stan says he has had "the most unbelievable life and it all came from the doughnut shop". He believes part of his success was due to him always being "the finisher". Even in old age, he would go into the shop every day - he'd make the icing, clean the pots and sweep the floors. He was a perfectionist and expected the same attention to detail from his small team of staff. His favourite doughnut was his raisin buttermilk bar because as soon as he took a bite he could tell whether the fryer had been cleaned. It was also the doughnut he'd give away to customers after a friendly chat at his shop. He gave away plenty over the years - he could never bear to throw any away at the end of the day. But as well as being responsible for his successes, he says there were "one or two events" in his life where his shop caused problems. Stan's first employee was a close friend called Norman. Together they were known as "the doughnut men". But the pair fell out when Stan missed Norman's wife's funeral because he was making doughnuts. They were never able to reconcile. "The problem was that the shop was so important to me that I couldn't see other things around," Stan says. Stan was still frying doughnuts into his 80s, but he had a stroke about three years ago and was forced to take a step back from his business, going to the shop once a week with his son. Without Stan there every day, sales were not what they used to be. Despite the struggles, Stan hoped that he would still have the business when he turned 100. But he couldn't have anticipated the coronavirus pandemic, or the impact it would have on his little shop in LA. Restaurants in the city were ordered to close in mid-March in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, with only takeaways and deliveries allowed. UCLA moved its classes online. Sales dropped dramatically. Since 2014, Stan has been making money in royalties from Stan's Donuts & Coffee - a successful line of shops in Chicago with a range of doughnuts inspired by his Westwood creations. But that money has dried up in recent months, with business there also suffering under the pandemic. With so much uncertainty about the virus, Stan and his family worried how long it would go on for. "We did a bit of business, maybe 40%, but 40% didn't pay the labour," Stan says. His daughter Pam says coronavirus "killed the business". "We had to make the choice of whether to stay open by going into my father's savings and it wasn't worth it," she explains. Without the pandemic "we would have continued. The store would have stayed open until my father passed away." For Pam it has left a "sweet and sour feeling". "It was so much aggravation trying to run the store without my father there - that's what made it a bit easier to close the doors. But it's been very sad." With a stay-at-home order in place in LA, there was no party to bid farewell to the shop when it closed its doors in April. Stan has been left to settle reluctantly into retirement, while trying to come to terms with losing the two loves of his life - his doughnut shop and his wife of 68 years, Ina, who passed away in January. He has received scores of letters from people mourning the loss of the shop and celebrating their memories there. He likens it to witnessing his own obituary. His grandson, who has a tattoo of the shop's logo, took the equipment and is now learning to make doughnuts himself. "It's not going to be Stan's Donuts but he wants to continue my father's legacy with making and selling doughnuts. That's what he's hoping to do," Pam says. At the Westwood Village shop, a note announcing its closure remains stuck to a window - a quiet end to a business loved by so many. "I hope that you will remember how our donuts made you smile for many years to come," it says. The note ends: "With Love, Stan Berman." |
Ironman Wales will be staged in Pembrokeshire for a further five years after a new deal was struck with Pembrokeshire council. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Tenby has been the starting and finishing point of the annual triathlon since 2011. A report said the event, which had almost 2,000 competitors last year, was worth £3.7m a year to the economy. It attracts athletes and visitors from around the world and "places Pembrokeshire on the global scene". The triathlon, which is due to be held on Sunday, comprises a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike ride and a full marathon. |
A retired priest has been charged with 18 offences allegedly committed at schools in the Highlands and East Lothian between the 1950s and 1980s. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Robert MacKenzie, 87, from Cupar, Saskatchewan, in Canada, has been accused of sexual and physical assaults. The offences allegedly took place at Fort Augustus Abbey and a preparatory school in North Berwick. He made no plea when he appeared in private at Inverness Sheriff Court. The case was continued for further examination and Fr MacKenzie was remanded in custody. Most of the charges allegedly happened at Fort Augustus Abbey, a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands. Fr MacKenzie was extradited from Canada to Scotland earlier this month. |
When Melissa Ohden was 14 she learned a shocking secret - her mother had tried to abort her. She was saved by a nurse who heard her crying as she lay among medical waste at a US hospital. This is the story of her survival, and of the mother who thought she was dead. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Adam Eley and Jo AdnittBBC Victoria Derbyshire programme "I grew up knowing I'd been born prematurely, that I had been adopted," Melissa Ohden, now 41, tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "What I didn't know was that there was this great secret behind all of this. That I should have been delivered dead, and instead I was born alive." In 1977, in a hospital in the US state of Iowa, Melissa's 19-year-old mother had undergone an abortion using a toxic saline solution over five days. Born at eight months and weighing less than three pounds (1.3kg), Melissa was placed among medical waste. That was, until a nurse heard her weak cries and slight movements. Melissa was rushed to an intensive care unit, where - against the odds - she survived. Doctors thought she would be blind, and at one stage believed she had a fatal heart defect. But she has gone on to live a perfectly healthy life, being brought up by an adoptive family. "It is astonishing", Melissa admits. "I pinch myself some days." Melissa - who has written a book about her experiences - says she only found out she was an abortion survivor when her sister in her adoptive family let it slip during an argument. "You know Melissa, at least my biological parents wanted me," she had shouted, without thinking. At first Melissa was confused, but as the realisation kicked in - and she sat down with her adoptive parents - it led to a downward spiral in her mental health. "I turned my pain upon myself," she explains. "It was a lonely place. "I developed an eating disorder, struggled with alcohol abuse. I didn't want to be me." The pain continued to build, until five years later - aged 19 - she took the bold decision to track down the mother who had aborted her. It was a process that took more than a decade, but eventually she found her - and discovered a truth that shocked her. "The biggest secret truly is that my birth mother had spent over 30 years of my life believing I had died that day at the hospital. "She was not told I survived. It was kept a secret from her," she says. "I was placed for adoption without her ever knowing. "She never knew if it was a little boy or a little girl she had delivered." It was for this reason that when the two first met face-to-face, three years after they had begun emailing, Melissa was most struck by the "regret" in her mother's eyes, which she says haunted her for some time. She struggles to describe the moment they first met, but says "it was absolutely surreal. "It was one of those defining moments of your life." But the shocks continued to come. Her birth mother, Ruth, told her she had never wanted to have an abortion, and that she had been put in a position of feeling forced to go through with the termination. "What I learned was my grandmother - her mother - was a prominent nurse in the community, and that the local abortionist was a friend of hers. "Together they literally forced the abortion on my birth mother against her will. "They were able to bypass the hospital regulations and procedures that my birth mother would have had to go through. "So people at the hospital thought it was her choice, and she had no opportunity to fight back." Melissa's survival had been even more unlikely as her grandmother, who worked at the hospital where she was born, had instructed her colleagues to "leave the baby in the room to die" that day - a fact she had openly admitted among family members. "It's not been easy for me to live with," Melissa says, reflecting on her grandmother's comments. "But I'm not angry with her. We all make mistakes in this life. I don't hold that against her. "My heart breaks for her," she continues, "because I will always wonder what it was in her life that made her take that decision on mine." 'One of the luckiest' In fact, Melissa insists she is "one of the luckiest people in the world", to firstly have survived, and then to have both her adoptive parents and her birth mother in her life. By complete chance, Melissa and her birth mother now live in Kansas City, as well as one of her half-sisters. They see each other "as often as we possibly can", Melissa says, with joy. "My biological family is a huge part of my life." It means that having seen the regret in her mother's eyes on that first meeting two years ago, she now gets "to experience her joy". Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel in the UK. |
Developers behind plans to turn Edinburgh's old Royal High School into a luxury hotel are to appeal the council's decision not to grant planning permission. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels want to redevelop the site on Calton Hill, which has lain empty for almost 50 years. They want to turn the A-listed building into a 127-bedroom hotel. Conservationists objected to the scale of the proposals. Last week, the local authority's development sub-committee voted unanimously to reject the revised plans. |
A man has admitted shining a laser at a police helicopter flying over Bristol. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Gavin Hoskins, 26, from Bristol, pointed the laser at the helicopter while it was overhead in the Fishponds area at about 19:30 GMT on 20 January. He pleaded guilty to recklessly or negligently acting in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft or a person in an aircraft. Hoskins will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on 19 March. |
The revelation on Panorama this week that Dubai's Princess Latifa accused her father of holding her hostage in the city since she tried to flee in 2018 has the potential to create diplomatic tensions between the UK and the United Arab Emirates, a key strategic ally. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Dan RoanBBC sports editor Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said he was acting in his daughter's best interests, and the royal family insist she was brought back to Dubai in a "rescue mission". The UAE have previously said Princess Latifa was safe in the care of family. But this controversy has left British horse-racing facing some deeply uncomfortable questions. Over the past 40 years, Sheikh Mohammed has become synonymous with the sport, its most prominent and influential owner. Indeed, it has become very hard for many in British racing to imagine the sport here without him. The royal blue silks of Godolphin - the illustrious and hugely successful racing and bloodstock operation he founded and owns - are a constant presence on racecourses during the flat season. Many jobs are thought to depend on Sheikh Mohammed's investment, especially in Newmarket - where Godolphin and his Dalham Hall breeding operation are based. More than 130 of his horses are trained here in Britain, with many of his millions spent on yearlings at the Tattersalls auction. This week's allegations have renewed scrutiny on the sport's links with him. But at a time when racing's finances are already under huge strain due to the pandemic, and fears that possible new affordability checks on gamblers could cost the industry more than £60m, many are loathe to do or say anything that could push the 71 year-old away. It is perhaps unsurprising therefore, that neither Godolphin, nor the sport's governing body - the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), nor the Jockey Club - of which the sheikh is an honorary member, have made any comment since Panorama was aired. But this is not the first time that British racing has faced tough questions over its association with the sheikh. Last March, after hearing extensive witness statements over a period of time, the family division of the High Court found Sheikh Mohammed to have been responsible for a campaign of intimidation against his former wife Princess Haya and for the abduction and forced return of two of his daughters from a different marriage - including Princess Latifa. The sheikh insisted at the time that, as a head of government, he was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process, resulting in a judgement that "inevitably only tells one side of the story". He denied the allegations. But the damage had been done. Previously, the Queen had invited the sheikh to join her in the royal box, and even share her carriage at Royal Ascot. Following the scandal, she reportedly decided she would not be photographed with him again, despite their shared love of racing. With the sport only continuing behind closed doors since March, any attempt at distancing has yet not been tested, with any awkward potential meetings so far avoided. The problems for racing do not stop there. The BHA's rules for assessing the suitability of owners includes the following: "The criteria to which the authority will have regard in assessing honesty and integrity, include… whether the applicant has been the subject of any adverse finding by a judge in any civil proceedings." The authority, which is meant to regulate the sport, refuses to say whether an investigation has been launched into the sheikh in the wake of last year's judgement, but insiders say the governing body's "honesty and integrity" criteria are only part of what it considers when assessing the suitability of owners. The distinct sense from within racing is that with these latest allegations relating to overseas matters involving a head of state of one of the UK's strategic partners and purchaser of arms exports in the Middle East, and with the government referring the matter to the UN, it is unfair to expect the sport to make a stand and speak out against one of its most important benefactors. Others however, disagree. "No matter how much money he pays to race his horses, no respectable race should touch Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum until he releases his daughter" tweeted Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, this week. Beyond racing Despite such views, racing is unlikely to cut ties with the sheikh any time soon. Indeed, on Saturday alone, in a sign of just how extensive his investment in the sport has become, as many as 27 Godolphin horses are scheduled to race at seven meetings across four countries. The ruler of Duabi's sporting connections in Britain extend beyond racing. The airline Emirates, which he launched, has a shirt sponsorship deal with Arsenal, worth £200m over four years. It has naming rights to the club's stadium, along with Glasgow's Commonwealth Arena, and Lancashire cricket club's Old Trafford. Emirates also became the first ever title sponsor of the FA Cup in 2015. But pressure is now mounting on racing in particular to reconsider a relationship that has been hugely lucrative, but which is becoming increasingly controversial. |
You wouldn't necessarily expect the European Union to be such a rallying cry in Ukraine, but Ukrainians are so enraged by a government decision to suspend trade deal negotiations with the EU that they have been rallying protesters under the hashtag #євромайдан ("European Square"). | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why First tweeted early on Thursday morning, the hashtag had been used more than 21,000 times by Friday as overnight opposition demonstrations were held in the cities of Donetsk, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lutsk, Uzhgorod and Lviv. Kiev's Independence Square is a focal point for protests - just as it was during 2004's so-called Orange Revolution. Then, protesters were bolstered not just by their strength in numbers but also by SMS messages: Mobile phones were key for organising protests, avoiding police cordons and ordering supplies. Now the protests are mostly being galvanised by social media. Ukrainian digital marketing expert Maksym Savanevskyy says there has been an explosion of calls-to-arms online since the government's decision on EU talks. WBC heavyweight boxing champion and would-be Ukrainian president Vitali Klitschko tweeted: "Friends! All those who came to Maydan [Independence Square], well done! Who has not done it yet - join us now!" The protest hashtag was also gaining traction on the VKontakte social media network, and Mr Klitschko tweeted a link to a speech he made on the square saying that once the protest was 100,000-strong, "we'll go for Yanukovych" - referring to President Viktor Yanukovych. But although Facebook, Twitter and other social media are buzzing with rallying calls for a major protest on Sunday, questions remain as to whether that will translate into big numbers on the rain-soaked streets of Kiev. "Many people tell you of their protest fatigue, and many believe that not just the numbers but the spirit of the Orange Revolution will hardly be repeated - whatever the tools," says the former head of the BBC's Ukrainian service Olexiy Solohubenko. Reporting by Michael Hirst |
The Royal Welsh Show posted a profit of nearly £210,000 last year after record-breaking visitor numbers, says the society behind the event. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The four-day show in Llanelwedd, Powys, attracted its highest ever attendance of 241,099 in July 2012. The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society said the event made a surplus of income over expenditure of £209,247 which is slightly up on the figures for 2011. The society's Winter Fair and Spring Festival also made a profit. |
The BBC's Sally Nabil has been given rare access to Awamiya in Saudi Arabia, a town in the east of the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom that has been rocked in recent months by deadly clashes between security forces and Shia militants that were triggered by the demolition of its old quarter. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"You will have only a few minutes on the ground. When we say 'go', you will have to leave at once," a Saudi police officer told us firmly as we got on an armoured vehicle heading to Awamiya. As we approached the town, escorted by special forces, officers kept talking to their commanders over the phone to make sure the convoy was safe to proceed. The security situation in Awamiya remains unstable, although the government says it is in control. When we got to Awamiya, the scale of devastation was shocking. It looked like a war zone - as if we were in Mosul or Aleppo. The town, which lies in the Qatif region of oil-rich Eastern Province, was home to about 30,000 people, most of them Shia. Now, there is nothing left of the once vibrant residential area but bullet-riddled houses, and burned-out cars and shops - a testament to the heavy fighting. Members of Saudi Arabia's Shia minority have for years complained about what they perceive as discrimination and marginalisation at the hands of the Sunni monarchy. But their protests have always been met by a crackdown. "The Saudi regime does not accept opposition, whether it comes from a Sunni or a Shia. They are just intolerant," Ali Adubisi, the director of the Berlin-based European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, told me. As I walked around Awamiya, I saw a few bulldozers standing in the middle of the wasteland. In May, the authorities started demolishing the 400-year-old al-Musawara area, as a part of what it says is a "development project". "Eighty houses were demolished, and we still have about 400 more to go. These are dilapidated buildings, they should be modernised," acting mayor Essam Abdullatif Al-Mulla told me. "Families have been relocated after being generously compensated and offered alternative houses." As soon as the demolitions started, the confrontation in Awamiya took a violent turn. Shia groups accused police troops of forcing people to leave, with the aim of crushing dissent. Activists say security forces sealed off the town's entrances and exits in late July, denying remaining residents access to essential services such as medical care. The violence has killed more than 20 civilians, among them a three-year-old boy who died on Wednesday, in addition to at least five militants, according to activists. The Saudi authorities say eight police officers and four special forces personnel have died, but did not release any information on civilian and militant deaths. The interior ministry has blamed the unrest on "terrorist groups who have been in the area for years". A statement said government forces had been attacked repeatedly with rocket-propelled grenades, Molotov cocktails and machine guns. "Terrorists indiscriminately killed civilians, and used them as human shields. People fled because they felt threatened by the militants," it added. But there is another version to this story. I managed to find a Saudi man who recently fled Awamiya, and is now seeking asylum in Germany. "Security forces would shoot everyone - a man, a woman, an elderly person, or even a child," he said. "For days I couldn't step out of my house. I was too scared." The man, who asked us not to identify him as he feared for his life, told me he had never personally taken up arms but that he understood why some people had chosen to do so. "You can be sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia just because you are a Shia and you belong to a different religious sect." "The people are deprived of their freedom and dignity and might even be executed in unfair trials. They won't remain silent forever. If someone shoots you, you will have to shoot back." The man recalled the start of the Shia protests in Awamiya in early 2011, when people emboldened by the Arab Spring uprisings across the region took to the streets. "We were peaceful protesters, but security forces used to disperse us with live ammunition," he said. Since then, hundreds of people have been arrested. Human rights groups say Specialised Criminal Courts, set up for terrorism cases, have sentenced more than three dozen men and boys to death after convicting them of protest-related crimes following unfair trials. Activists fear that 14 protesters, including four found guilty of offenses committed when they were children, could be executed at any moment. They include the nephew of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric and vocal critic of the government who was convicted of terrorism offensives and executed in January 2016. Our brief visit to Awamiya was interrupted by gunshots, fired from a distance. We did not know whether it was the police, or the armed groups. But we had to leave at once, just as the commander said. On our way back, I looked through the car window, and wondered if life would return to this ghost town any time soon. It is very difficult to tell, as the reasons for the unrest are still very much present. |
A family of geese brought the A1 to a standstill after walking on to the northbound carriageway for a gander. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Traffic Officers held vehicles near Catterick for about 30 minutes while the geese were herded off the road. It happened shortly after 09.00 BST on Saturday. Highways England tweeted that the road was reopened at about 09.35, saying: "Good news! The family of approx. 20 geese have been herded off the motorway to greener pastures". You may also like: |
You can now buy 100% cocoa chocolate on the High Street and sales are said to be on the rise. It's a rather acquired taste, so why is it becoming more popular and does real chocolate have to be high in cocoa to be good? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Denise WintermanBBC News Magazine A "demanding and very powerful experience" is one description of eating chocolate with 100% cocoa content. "Pretty gruesome" is another. The people who make it say it has flavour hints of anything from leather and tobacco to olive oil and oak. If that's what you want from a chocolate bar then you're in luck . Chocolate with a very high cocoa content is increasingly being stocked in High Street shops, having largely been sold by specialist or artisan chocolatiers in the past. Hotel Chocolat sells four different bars with 100% cocoa content in its branches, while Swiss company Lindt has 99% cocoa bars in UK shops and supermarkets. The companies don't release sales figures for commercial reasons, but say there is a growing demand for the stuff. "It's been a bit of a surprise success for us and at times we have found it difficult to keep up with demand," says Angus Thirlwell, co-founder of Hotel Chocolat. "The bars are now the strongest selling part of our premium range. "People often try the bars out of curiosity and stay with them, others gradually migrate up the cocoa scale to the nirvana that is 100%." Two of the nation's most popular milk chocolate bars, Cadbury's Dairy Milk and Mars Galaxy, have a minimum 26% cocoa and 25% respectively. Cadbury's dark chocolate Bournville has a minimum of 36% cocoa. It's what most people are used to eating, so what is with this growing obsession with 100% cocoa chocolate? "People are waking up to the fact that chocolate is not a generic product," says Willie Harcourt-Cooze, owner of Willie's Cocoa, which also produces 100% cocoa chocolate. "They are realising that different beans have different flavours, you can also use the same bean and change the way it tastes in the production process. "You get wine connoisseurs, you get cheese connoisseurs, now there is a growing number of chocolate connoisseurs. A chocolate can be as complex and specialist as a fine wine." It's helping boast the sales of most premium chocolate. Market analysts Mintel say "a notable pool of consumers are becoming more discerning when it comes to their choice of chocolate and are actively seeking out more top-end brands". And with chocolate sales reaching £4bn in the UK in 2011, according to Mintel, even a niche market can create big profits. But does a high cocoa content mean high quality chocolate? Does the rise in chocolate purism all come down to superior taste? Absolutely not, say experts. "The problem is people confuse the two things," says Alasdair Garnsworthy, head chocolatier with the Chocolate Society. "Chocolate with a high cocoa content can still be made using cheap beans. You can get chocolate with a lower cocoa content that is far better because it has been made with quality beans." Using the best ingredients is much more important than cocoa content, say chocolate makers. The origin of beans plays a big part, with certain types having a better flavour than others. Then there's how the beans are harvested and stored. After that they are roasted and blended, then "conched". This is a process when beans - and other ingredients if used - are kneaded. The longer you do it, the better the flavour, says Garnsworthy. "With cheaper chocolate the beans are conched for about 24 hours, with better quality chocolate it is done for around three days." A lot of people are wrongly influenced by cocoa content because they don't know enough about chocolate to judge if it actually tastes good or not, say connoisseurs. It was the same with wine in the 1980s and coffee in the 1990s. Better quality cacao tends to grow in places like South America, says Dom Ramsey, editor of Chocablog. "If you're going for a high percentage chocolate bar, you should look for one that mentions the origin of the cocoa bean too. Single origin bars, from one country or even a single estate, have unique and distinctive flavour notes where bulk beans have very few." The lower quality bulk cocoa beans are usually grown in West Africa, adds Ramsey. The trees produce a high yield but the beans don't have a lot of flavour. Manufacturers add a lot of sugar to them in order to make them taste good. But the higher the cocoa content, the less sugar can be added to disguise bitterness. "There is no place to hide when it comes to 100% cocoa chocolate," says Hotel Chocolat's Thirlwell. "The recipe is cocoa beans, nothing else. No sugar, no vanilla. You can have different flavour profiles with different beans but they all have to be amazing quality to taste good." Even among high-end brands, 100% cocoa chocolate divides opinion. Green & Blacks is acknowledged by some chocolate makers as "opening people's eyes to dark chocolate in the the UK". Its biggest selling product in Britain is a 70% cocoa dark chocolate bar. Again, it won't release sales figures but says in the last year it has sold a bar every 10 seconds in the UK. You do the mathematics. "We would never launch a 100% or 99% bar," says James Holloman, business leader for Green & Blacks in the UK. "This is because there is no balance in terms of the taste profile. "Balance is about that cocoa hit and then the smooth feeling after. You get this by adding some sugar, vanilla and other elements. We think any dark chocolate with over 85% cocoa loses that perfect balance." Others dismiss the increasing number of high-cocoa chocolates as "more of a gimmick" than anything else. One thing is for sure, you can't stuff it down. Hotel Chocolat say it is best to eat two small pieces in succession, the first prepares your mouth and the second reveals the flavour. Harcourt-Cooze, of Willie's Cocoa, says it is best used as an ingredient in food. He sells to many of the UK's top chefs who use it in dishes like venison with chocolate sauce. But in general, the makers and lovers of fine chocolate are welcoming the move of high-cocoa chocolate from artisan chocolate shops to High Street ones. "I think it's positive that the likes of Lindt has a 99% chocolate bar being sold in the local corner shop," says Ramsey. "Not because this particular bar is great, but simply because it raises awareness and opens people's eyes to the fact that there's a world beyond Dairy Milk." You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
Plans to save about £24m and increase council tax by almost 5% have been approved by councillors. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The £490m budget was backed by a full meeting of the Conservative-controlled Suffolk County Council by 45 votes to 17. The rise breaks down as a 2.99% increase in general tax, with an additional 2% for adult social care. It means an average band D council tax property owner will have to pay £1,242 a year. Savings of £1.7m will also be made from resource management, as well as £240,000 from fire and public safety budgets. The fire service savings would be achieved by the sharing of facilities with the police and ambulance services, the council said. |
The Stormont Deputy Speaker David McClarty has been deselected by the Ulster Unionists in East Londonderry. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The party has chosen former Westminster candidate Lesley Macauley and the Coleraine councillor David Harding to fight the Assembly election next May. Mr McClarty, who has been an MLA since 1998, said he was "devastated" by the decision of the East Londonderry election committee. The UUP said the decision has to be ratified by its Executive Committee. The East Londonderry election committee is made up of representatives from the local constituency association and the central party election committee. |
A man has appeared in court charged with attempted murder after a woman suffered severe burns in a fire at a property in Skegness. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Lincolnshire Police said the woman remained in a critical condition in hospital as a result of the blaze in Firbeck Avenue, on Thursday. Leigh Pateman, 42, of Firbeck Avenue, appeared at Lincoln Magistrates' Court earlier. He was remanded and is due to appear at the city's crown court on 24 May. Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. Related Internet Links HM Courts Service |
A woman in Essex has has told police she is unable to find a pet snake that lives in her home. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rosie the Royal Python, who measures about 4ft long, is housed at the woman's address in Butlers Way, Great Yeldham. Rosie has black and brown patches and an arrow-shaped head. She is "not aggressive". The owner said she had thoroughly checked her home and believed Rosie might be lurking in a tree outside. |
There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike. The BBC's Hague correspondent, Anna Holligan, who rides an omafiets - or "granny style" - bike complete with wicker basket and pedal-back brakes, examines what made everyone get back in the saddle. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 70s velo-rution Before World War II, journeys in the Netherlands were predominantly made by bike, but in the 1950s and 1960s, as car ownership rocketed, this changed. As in many countries in Europe, roads became increasingly congested and cyclists were squeezed to the kerb. The jump in car numbers caused a huge rise in the number of deaths on the roads. In 1971 more than 3,000 people were killed by motor vehicles, 450 of them children. In response a social movement demanding safer cycling conditions for children was formed. Called Stop de Kindermoord (Stop the Child Murder), it took its name from the headline of an article written by journalist Vic Langenhoff whose own child had been killed in a road accident. The Dutch faith in the reliability and sustainability of the motor vehicle was also shaken by the Middle East oil crisis of 1973, when oil-producing countries stopped exports to the US and Western Europe. These twin pressures helped to persuade the Dutch government to invest in improved cycling infrastructure and Dutch urban planners started to diverge from the car-centric road-building policies being pursued throughout the urbanising West. Path to glory To make cycling safer and more inviting the Dutch have built a vast network of cycle paths. These are clearly marked, have smooth surfaces, separate signs and lights for those on two wheels, and wide enough to allow side-by-side cycling and overtaking. In many cities the paths are completely segregated from motorised traffic. Sometimes, where space is scant and both must share, you can see signs showing an image of a cyclist with a car behind accompanied by the words 'Bike Street: Cars are guests'. At roundabouts, too, it is those using pedal power who have priority. You can cycle around a roundabout while cars (almost always) wait patiently for you to pass. The idea that "the bike is right" is such an alien concept for tourists on bikes that many often find it difficult to navigate roads and junctions at first. Early adopters Even before they can walk, Dutch children are immersed in a world of cycling. As babies and toddlers they travel in special seats on "bakfiets", or cargo bikes. These seats are often equipped with canopies to protect the children from the elements, and some parents have been known to spend a small fortune doing up their machines. As the children grow up they take to their own bikes, something made easier and safer by the discrete cycle lanes being wide enough for children to ride alongside an accompanying adult. And, as young people aren't allowed to drive unsupervised until they are 18, cycling offers Dutch teenagers an alternative form of freedom. The state also plays a part in teaching too, with cycling proficiency lessons a compulsory part of the Dutch school curriculum. All schools have places to park bikes and at some schools 90% of pupils cycle to class. Behind the bike sheds In the university city of Groningen, a cyclists' dream even by Dutch standards, the central train station has underground parking for 10,000 bikes. Cyclists are accommodated in the way motorists are elsewhere, with electronic counters at the entrance registering how many spaces are available. Bike parking facilities are ubiquitous in The Netherlands - outside schools, office buildings and shops. In return you are expected to only lock up your bike in designated spots - if you chain your bike in the wrong place you could find that it is removed and impounded, and that you will have to hand over 25 euros to get it back. At home, even people who live in flats without special bike storage facilities can expect to be allowed to leave their bikes in a communal hallway. In the 16th Century, houses in Amsterdam were taxed according to their width, a measure residents countered by building tall, narrow houses. So hallways get filled with bikes - but so many people cycle, no-one really minds, and just clambers past. It's not about your ride Cycling is so common that I have been rebuked for asking people whether they are cyclists or not. "We aren't cyclists, we're just Dutch," comes the response. The bike is an integral part of everyday life rather than a specialist's accessory or a symbol of a minority lifestyle, so Dutch people don't concern themselves with having the very latest model of bike or hi-tech gadgets. They regard their bikes as trusty companions in life's adventures. In that kind of relationship it is longevity that counts - so the older, the better. It's not uncommon to hear a bike coming up behind you with the mudguard rattling against the wheel. If anything, having a tatty, battered old bike affords more status as it attests to a long and lasting love. No lycra, no sweat The famously flat Dutch terrain, combined with densely-populated areas, mean that most journeys are of short duration and not too difficult to complete. Few Dutch people don lycra to get out on their bike, preferring to ride to work, the shops or the pub in whatever clothes they think appropriate for their final destination. Of course, the cycle paths lend themselves to sauntering along in summer dresses in a way a death-defying, white-knuckle ride in rush-hour traffic does not. It is also partly because of this that people don't need showers at work to be able to commute by bike - it's a no-sweat experience. Dutch people also tend to go helmet-free because they are protected by the cycle-centric rules of the roads and the way infrastructure is designed. If you see someone wearing a cycling helmet in The Netherlands, the chances are they're a tourist or a professional. I bought a helmet for my ride to the UK reporting for BBC Newsnight on the differences between cycling in The Netherlands and the UK. My local bike shop had just one on display, which the shop assistant said had been there "a few months or maybe a year". Right not might The fact that everyone cycles, or knows someone who does, means that drivers are more sympathetic to cyclists when they have to share space on the roads. In turn, the cyclists are expected to respect and obey the rules of the road. You may be fined for riding recklessly, in the wrong place or jumping red lights. Police (often on bikes) will issue a 60-euro ticket if you are caught without lights at night, and you will have to shell out even more if any of the mandatory bike reflectors - of which there are many under Dutch law - are missing. Accidents do still happen of course, but in the event of a collision involving a cyclist, insurers refer to Article 185 of the Dutch Road Safety Code which deals with something called "strict liability". It is often mistakenly interpreted as a law that establishes guilt. What it essentially means is the driver will usually be expected to cover at least 50% of the financial costs to the cyclist and their bike. When out on the road, Dutch cyclists feel powerful and protected, making the whole experience much more enjoyable. There are dangers on the roads, but very rarely do they involve heavy goods vehicles, poorly designed junctions or dangerous drivers. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
Plans to introduce car parking charges in mid Wales will be reviewed after community concerns were raised. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Powys council had hoped to bring in the fees at car parks in Brecon, Llanfair Caereinion, Presteigne, Sennybridge and Talgarth. Councillor Liam Fitzpatrick said he had been contacted by residents who were concerned about the impact on communities of the proposed charges. Plans to introduce residents' parking schemes will also be reviewed. |
Parts of a Scottish ski centre have been almost completely buried under snow following six weeks of snowfalls. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Staff at Glencoe Mountain said the depths "massively exceeded" those experienced in the winter of 2009-10, one of Scotland's best ski seasons. The resort's ski patrol shed, which is a log cabin, is one of the areas at the site which has been buried. Glencoe Mountain is one of the five snowsports centres in Scotland hoping for a good winter season this year. |
A new ferry built for the Stornoway to Ullapool route has made its first passenger sailing. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The £42m MV Loch Seaforth had previously done berthing trials at the two harbours. The ferry has capacity for 700 passengers, 143 cars or 20 commercial vehicles. It was named after a mail boat that sailed between Lewis and the Scottish mainland from the 1940s until the 1970s. Related Internet Links Calmac Transport Scotland |
French President Francois Hollande has announced the award of the country's highest award - the Legion d'honneur - to six passengers who tackled a suspected radical Islamist on board a train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Here's what we know about what happened. How it started The drama took place on board a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris, via Brussels, on Friday afternoon. The journey was apparently uneventful until the train, operated by Thalys, reached Oignies in northern France, having just crossed from Belgium. French prosecutor Francois Molins said a French passenger in carriage 12 who was trying to access a toilet cubicle was faced with an individual who emerged from the cubicle "bare-chested, wearing a backpack on his chest and carrying a rifle slung across his shoulder". Mr Molins said the man was also in possession of an automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips, a bottle of petrol and a box-cutter. The unnamed French passenger tried to overpower the man. Seeing the struggle, 51-year-old French-American passenger Mark Moogalian also tried to intervene. But the gunmen fired several shots and Mr Moogalian was hit in the neck. How the gunman was subdued Three American friends on a tour of Europe - off-duty military servicemen Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler - were also in the first class carriage. They had initially been unable to find their first class reservations and had moved to this carriage to get a better internet connection. They were all sleeping when the commotion woke them. Seeing the suspect had freed himself from the Frenchman who first tackled him, the Americans charged the gunman. "Alek just yells, 'Spencer, go!' And Spencer runs down the aisle," Mr Sadler said. "Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times." Mr Stone was slashed in the neck and eyebrow with the box-cutter and had a thumb almost sliced off. Mr Stone held the suspect in a chokehold and Mr Skarlatos hit him in the head with the butt of one of the weapons. The three men tied him up with the help of British businessman Chris Norman. Mr Stone - despite having sustained injuries himself - then went to the aid of Mr Moogalian, who was losing blood. Mr Stone said: "I just stuck two of my fingers in the hole, found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and the bleeding stopped. I just said 'Thank God' and held that position until the paramedics got there." Mr Hollande said Mr Stone had "probably saved Mr Moogalian's life". Meanwhile, the train staff alerted authorities as to what had happened. As the train slowed down and passed through Henin Beaumont station, several frightened passengers broke the windows and escaped the train, according to Mr Molins. The gunman was held until he could be arrested at Arras station. Who is the gunman? The suspect was named as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a 25-year-old Moroccan. Investigators say Mr Khazzani was born on 3 September 1989 in Tetouan in Morocco and lived in the Spanish city of Algeciras. They say he frequently attended the city's Takwa mosque, "known for its radical preaching", according to Mr Molins, and for which his brother was the treasurer. Mr Molins said he had been convicted of several offences in Spain, including drug trafficking and traffic offence, and has been given at least two prison sentences. According to Mr Molins, Mr Khazzani had travelled through several European countries in recent years. Mr Molins said Mr Khazzani had returned to Europe from Turkey in June 2015. Prosecutors believe his presence in Turkey may indicate he went to war-torn Syria. Mr Molins said he had also spent "five to seven months" living in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers in 2014, during which time he had worked for a mobile phone company for two months. The suspect was flagged up to France by the Spanish authorities in February 2014 as affiliated to a radical Islamist movement. Mr Khazzani says he was left homeless after his identity documents were stolen. In the last six months, he says he travelled to Spain, Andorra, Belgium, Austria, Germany and France, but denies travelling to Turkey or Syria, according to his lawyer. Mr Khazzani apparently did "not understand why this story has become so inflated," his lawyer told Le Parisien newspaper (in French). "He said he wanted to extract money from the passengers on this Thalys train and nothing else. He denies any terrorist intent to his actions. This is almost laughable, he says." The lawyer added that Mr Khazzani said he had found the rifle and Luger gun he used in the attack in a suitcase left in a park, near the Brussels station where he used to sleep. Mr Molins said that this had been Mr Khazzani's initial version of events under questioning but that his explanation had grown less and less lucid and that he eventually stopped speaking to investigators at all. He said that analysis of Mr Khazzani's phone revealed he had watched a YouTube audio file whilst already on the Thalys train "in which an individual called on the faithful to fight and take up arms in the name of the Prophet". Mr Khazzani's father, Mohamed el-Khazzani, told the Daily Telegraph in Algeciras, Spain, that his son was a "good boy" interested in "football and fishing". He later told El Mundo: "They are saying Ayoub is a terrorist but I simply can't believe it. Why would he want to kill anyone? It makes no sense. The only terrorism he is guilty of is terrorism for bread; he doesn't have enough money to feed himself properly." Train staff French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who injured his hand as he tried to activate the train's alarm, told Paris Match (in French) that members of staff ran through his carriage (next to carriage 12 where the melee took place) to the guards' van at the end of the train. They opened the door with a special key and locked themselves in, he alleged. "We shouted for the staff to let us in, we yelled 'open!'", he said. "There was no response." However Agnes Ogier, the boss of Thalys, denied Mr Anglade's allegations, saying train staff "fulfilled their duties". One member of staff found himself under fire and took five or six passengers with him into the baggage car, where he sounded the alarm, she said. Mr Hollande praised the actions of the staff when handing the Legion d'honneur to four of the passengers. |
Four women from North Yorkshire are about to set off on a rowing race across the Atlantic which will see them spend Christmas Day away from their families, battling waves and surviving on basic rations. If successful, the friends, whose ages range from 44 to 51, will become the oldest all-woman crew to row any ocean. BBC reporter Jayne McCubbin caught up with the quartet as they arrived in Tenerife to register for the 3,000-mile race which starts on 15 December. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Walking across San Sebastian marina with the Yorkshire Rows foursome, they spot Phillip and Daley from the American team Beyond and jump at the chance to ask for some advice. ''She says we can only take two pairs of knickers," says mother-of-two Niki Doeg, pointing to her fellow rower Janette Benaddi. "One to wear and one to wash - plenty. What do you think?" asks Mrs Benaddi of the American Phillip Theodor. Straight-faced, he replies: "Well, I'm not wearing any." The women fall about laughing. The women behind Yorkshire Rows Janette Benaddi, 51, clinical researcher, mum of two. Duty - skipper Frances Davies, 47, solicitor, mum of two. Duty - chief navigator Helen Butters, 45, NHS communications expert, mum of two. Duty - making drinking water Niki Doeg, 44, business owner, mum of two. Duty - in charge of electronics on the boat They never seem to stop laughing. You'd easily forget that they are just about to embark on what is billed the world's toughest row and won't see their families or another human being until they hit Antigua in mid-February at the earliest. At registration a white board lists all of the 26 teams about to take part in the Talisker Atlantic Challenge. Team Beyond are up at the top. The name Yorkshire Rows is scribbled at the bottom. The underdogs? They couldn't care less. Team Beyond are super wealthy, super athletic, extreme sport enthusiasts. They've got 15 ultra-marathons, 12 marathons and 10 triathlons under their belts. When the Yorkshire women signed up they didn't even have a 5k fun run under theirs. As team Beyond prepare their ocean crossing boat, Mr Theodore tells me: ''We have the ambition, the drive, the determination to finish first." Yorkshire Rows' attitude is somewhat different. Mrs Butters says: "To be honest, we just want to finish friends. If that means going slower to stop and eat together once a day as a group, that's what we'll do. Oh, and it would also be good if we could time the finish with the school holidays, get back in time to see the kids." Ever practical Yorkshire mums, this they hope will give them an unlikely edge over the men. Of course it means saying goodbye to their children. Mother-of-two Frances Davies tells me she doesn't want her children to wave her off at the start line. "I don't want to be rowing away from them. I want to be rowing back to them," she says. Drinking oil Friend Mrs Doeg agrees. She's batch-cooked three months worth of meals and stocked the family freezer to make sure her two boys and husband all eat well while she's away, something team Beyond didn't think of doing. Ten days into the challenge and Christmas Day will be marked with a tin of tuna, pineapple chunks and a small bottle of homemade mango gin. But speed is everything and speed needs a light boat. Team Beyond tell me they're swapping carbohydrates for oil rich calories so will be drinking olive oil instead of eating pasta because it weighs less. Yorkshire Rows laugh at the amount of crystals, charms, holy water and St Christophers that are weighing their boat down. All donated by well wishers, one of whom told them in a broad Yorkshire accent: "I hope you don't come t'harm love." The women, who are raising money for charity, didn't look anything like other teams on the quayside as they registered for the race, but they have just as much determination and self belief. While others will row across the Atlantic powered by muscles and brawn, they'll be powered by laughter. |
I recently visited a refugee camp for Syrians, spending time in the home of 12-year-old Sidra, accompanying her to a makeshift school, meeting her friends and watching children playing football on a rubble pitch or pass the time in a woefully ill-equipped gym. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jane WakefieldTechnology reporter It brought home to me the reality of life for the millions of displaced Syrians, trying to make the best of daily life in the face of an uncertain future. But I did not go to Jordan, where the Zaatari camp is based, to experience all this. Instead I made my visit via a virtual reality (VR) headset at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver. Film-maker Chris Milk spoke at the event in the Canadian city about how he wanted to use technology as an empathy tool - and delegates got a chance to watch for themselves the film that his team had made. An estimated four million Syrians have become refugees since the conflict began, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), of whom a million are children. 'Changing lives' Clouds Over Sidra, which shows life for refugees from one child's perspective, was made in partnership with the UN and Samsung, which supplied the Gear VR headset. It was made using a 360-degree camera with scenes then stitched together. It was shown at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where a series of state and business leaders were given the chance to watch it. For Mr Milk, being able to show the film at Davos was important. "We took it there to show to people who can change the lives of the people in the film," he said during his Ted talk. Film-makers are increasingly seeing the benefit of using virtual reality to give viewers a far more empathetic view of things than has ever been possible before. 'More human' Film director Rose Troche made a film about sexual assault on college campuses, which invited viewers to experience the reality of rape from the male and female perspectives. And in 2012 film-maker Nonny de la Pena, seen by many as the godmother of virtual reality films, showed off her "immersive journalism" piece Hunger in Los Angeles, which won plaudits at the Sundance Film Festival. She has since made a follow-up film, also highlighting the civil war in Syria. She told the BBC: "Virtual reality, as a journalistic medium, will follow a similar trajectory as newspaper, radio and television. "And like those different platforms, virtual reality has its own affordances, the most exciting being the embodied feeling of being 'on scene'. This can give the audience a deep and more visceral understanding of a story." For Mr Milk, VR offers a way to "connect humans to other humans in a profound way". Virtual reality, he said, had the power "to change the world. "It is just a machine but through it you can become more passionate and empathetic and ultimately more human." Gabo Arora, senior adviser at the UN, who also worked on the project said: "By leveraging breakthrough technologies, such as virtual reality, we can create solidarity with those who are normally excluded and overlooked, amplifying their voices and explaining their situations." They are bold claims for a technology that many remain sceptical about. VR has long promised and never quite delivered but, in recent months, it has stepped up a gear with a series of announcements and demonstrations suggesting that the technology is nearing maturity and mass-market adoption. Sony, Samsung and the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift all have headsets that provide a good consumer experience. But it still has some technological hurdles to overcome - a lot of people testing the current headsets on the market report that it makes them feel sick or woozy. My own experience of watching the Syrian film was that it was somewhat blurry - something that was not rectified by adjusting the focus or even by wearing glasses beneath the headset. The focus of developers making content for VR is currently on gaming, so can it also play a role in film-making and journalism? "The technology is just at the beginning of being used as a story-telling medium," said Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games research at analyst firm IHS. Visceral reaction "When you experience films such as Clouds Over Sidra, it makes quite an impact. It is not a passive experience and there is a small amount of interactivity because you can look around you. Like any piece of journalism this can be quite powerful. It adds a dynamic to the storytelling." Increasingly, he said, Hollywood studios are looking to the potential of VR as a entertainment medium, and short promotional films are already being shot using the technology. Using virtual reality as a tool for empathy is an interesting way to elicit a visceral reaction from audiences that are now more than familiar with surround sound, 3D and special effects. I can testify that watching the film was a very moving experience. You really believe you are walking alongside the children and experience the details of their lives as if you were with them. If you reach out your hand you believe you can touch them. And when you take the headset off and find yourself in the Vancouver Convention Centre you feel a little disorientated and rather silly particularly if, like me, you have tears streaming down your face. |
As every patient knows, hospitals are complicated. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Nick TriggleHealth correspondent Just thinking about the network of different departments, rows and rows of beds, state-of-the-art equipment and armies of staff busily working away is enough to make anyone feel dizzy. So sometimes it helps to think of them in simple terms when trying to understand the pressure they are under in England. This year it has become abundantly clear that there are problems at the front-door (A&E) with more people facing long waits to be seen. Then last month it was reported that the back-door (the discharge process) was getting clogged up too. With that in mind, it is not surprising that other parts of the hospital system are struggling. The annual hospital guide produced by the Dr Foster research group, which is published on Monday, will point to evidence which suggests the NHS is starting to ration access to the most life-enhancing non-emergency operations, such as knee and hip replacements. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wherever you look, there are signs of trouble. 'Feeling the pinch' Even when people do get access to these treatments they are now facing longer waits for the care than they were a year ago. According to the latest data, covering the month of September, the average wait for all types of non-emergency treatment is now 9.2 weeks compared to 8.8 in 2012. Patients are also more likely to have their operations cancelled. In the three months leading up to September there were nearly 15,000 operations cancelled at the last minute - up by about 1,800 on the same period the year before. But it is not just non-emergency care that is feeling the pinch. Even cancer departments - where waits cost lives - are showing early signs of strain. They are meant to ensure patients with an urgent referral from their GP start treatment within 62 days. The latest data shows the numbers seen this quickly have fallen slightly in the past year down from 87.3% of patients from July to September 2012 to 86.8% in the same period this year. Despite this, ministers continue to claim the NHS is doing well. And that is understandable. After all, nationally all the major waiting time targets covering cancer, elective operations and A&E are being met. However, the problem is that the national figures mask what is actually happening on the ground. Many individual centres are struggling. The major A&E units (known as type 1) have not hit the four-hour waiting time target since July. One in five hospitals are failing to achieve the target of seeing 85% of cancer patients within 62 days following the urgent GP referral. But could this be just a short-term blip? Probably not, according to Prof John Appleby, who regularly monitors NHS performance for the King's Fund think tank. "Hospitals are under pressure and with the number in deficit growing things could get worse before they get better," he says. |
Labour has suspended MP Naz Shah over comments she made about Israel. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Bradford West MP has been heavily criticised over the Facebook posts, including one suggesting Israel should be moved to the United States. In a Commons statement she offered a "profound apology" for the posts, which were made before she became an MP. Earlier party leader Jeremy Corbyn warned her about the "offensive and unacceptable" posts and David Cameron called for her suspension. Labour said: "Jeremy Corbyn and Naz Shah have mutually agreed that she is administratively suspended from the Labour Party by the general secretary. "Pending investigation, she is unable to take part in any party activity and the whip is removed." 'Fulsome apology' Apologising in the Commons, Ms Shah, who had already quit as an unpaid aide to shadow chancellor John McDonnell, said: "Anti-Semitism is racism, full stop. As an MP I will do everything in my power to build relationships between Muslims, Jews and people of different faiths and none." The announcement of her suspension came after pressure mounted on the MP, with Mr Cameron saying during Prime Minister's Questions it was "quite extraordinary" that Labour had not withdrawn the whip from her over what he suggested were "racist" comments. Analysis by Iain Watson, BBC political correspondent Saying sorry three times didn't prevent Naz Shah's suspension. Number 10 are taking credit - but one shadow cabinet member, Lisa Nandy, had already called for her suspension and I'm told other Labour figures had approached party officials privately to call for the same thing. Ten days ago Labour's general secretary had reassured MPs those accused of anti-Semitism would be expelled or suspended. Insiders say that once the Labour leader had decided to hand the matter to party officials, suspension - and an investigation - became inevitable. Most Labour MPs recognise few members hold anti-Semitic views but that some high-profile cases have been toxic, and have been pressing their leadership to be more proactive in uncovering and rooting out unacceptable views. And some on the party's right are keen to force a leader who has opposed "witch hunts" of party members to use disciplinary procedures to erect, however reluctantly, some walls to Labour's broad church - and to make clear that the views of some recent members and supporters aren't welcome. Minutes before PMQs, Mr Corbyn issued a statement, saying: "These are historic social media posts made before she was a member of parliament. Naz has issued a fulsome apology. "She does not hold these views and accepts she was completely wrong to have made these posts. The Labour Party is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism." Labour MP Lisa Nandy had called for Ms Shah's suspension, while another Labour MP, Kate Hoey, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One she should resign "right away" from the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into anti-Semitism. Who is Naz Shah? Sabbiyah Pervez, BBC Look North Naz Shah burst onto the political scene during the 2015 general election, where she ousted Respect MP George Galloway. Her selection as a candidate proved controversial with divisions emerging in the local party. The candidate who was chosen first stood down four days later, before Ms Shah was imposed by the ruling National Executive Committee. A bitter campaign followed, with Mr Galloway sparking anger by questioning Ms Shah's account of her forced marriage. After her victory, she was celebrated locally and nationally for her unique background and life experiences. Growing up in poverty in Bradford, Ms Shah and her family were abandoned by her father who eloped with a neighbour's teenage daughter. She has spoken openly about her experience of surviving a forced marriage and domestic violence. In a Facebook post in 2014, Ms Shah shared a graphic showing an image of Israel's outline superimposed on a map of the US under the headline "Solution for Israel-Palestine conflict - relocate Israel into United States", with the comment "problem solved". The post suggested the US has "plenty of land" to accommodate Israel as a 51st state, allowing Palestinians to "get their life and their land back". It added Israeli people would be welcome and safe in the US, while the "transportation cost" would be less than three years' worth of Washington's support for Israeli defence spending. Ms Shah added a note suggesting the plan might "save them some pocket money". The post was brought to light by the Guido Fawkes website, which also highlighted a post in which she appeared to liken Israeli policies to those of Hitler. In a statement, the MP said: "I made these posts at the height of the Gaza conflict in 2014, when emotions were running high around the Middle East conflict. "But that is no excuse for the offence I have given, for which I unreservedly apologise." She set out a more detailed apology in an article for Jewish News. "The language I used was wrong," she wrote. "It is hurtful. What's important is the impact these posts have had on other people. I understand that referring to Israel and Hitler as I did is deeply offensive to Jewish people for which I apologise." The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the comments were "simply appalling", calling for an urgent meeting "for clarification of her views on Israel and the UK Jewish community". |
Rail passengers with season tickets who have been hit by long-running disruption on the Southern network are to be repaid the equivalent of a month's travel . So who's eligible for a refund, and how do you go about getting it? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Department for Transport says more than 84,000 passengers are to be compensated following "extraordinary disruption" caused by Network Rail track failures, engineering works, unacceptably poor performance by the operator and the actions of the RMT union. Who gets a refund? Season ticket holders will be able to claim a refund for the equivalent of a month's (4 weeks) travel. That means an annual season ticket holder will be able to claim a refund against their 2016 ticket. Those claiming against quarterly, monthly or weekly tickets must have bought travel for at least 12 weeks between 24 April 2016 and 31 December 2016 to be eligible. How do you claim? Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - the parent company of Southern - has the details of most season ticket holders who will have given their details when buying their tickets. Ticket-holders will be sent an email inviting them to log into a website to claim compensation - which can be transferred directly to their bank account or claimed as vouchers. GTR will also be able to consider proof of purchase from people claiming this compensation who are not registered with the company. Customers do not need to contact Southern directly at this stage. How long will it take? In early January 2017 Southern will contact all customers on its database it believes qualify for a refund to confirm the amount due and the method of payment. It is has not been outlined how long it will take for refunds to be made but current refund claims normally take 20 working days. How much are they expecting to pay out? The refund scheme is being funded by the Department for Transport, not Southern. The total amount will depend on how many people claim and for what routes. Passengers with a Brighton to London annual season ticket, for example, will get £371 back. Quarterly, regular monthly and weekly season ticket holders will also qualify for a one-off payment. In response to a BBC inquiry, Southern said it did not have a definitive figure worked out. |
Port Talbot steelworks has been granted permission to build a new gas-fired power plant to help generate its energy needs. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It will use gases produced by the steelmaking process to generate power. The Department for Energy and Climate Change confirmed the project had been approved on Tuesday. In its community newspaper in September, bosses said the new plant would make the "works nearly self-sufficient in energy" once complete. Last year, they partly blamed "uncompetitive" energy costs as a reason for 400 job losses at the Neath Port Talbot plant. A Tata spokesman said the development still has a long way to go but it could play an important part in securing the future of Port Talbot. |
Ronnie Corbett has been made a CBE for services to entertainment and charity in the New Year Honours. One of Britain's best loved comics, he has been performing for more than 60 years and puts success down to his family. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Famous for his rambling monologues and jokes about his short stature, at 81 Ronnie Corbett already has an OBE - picked up in 1978. He is best known for starring in the BBC's TV sketch show the Two Ronnies alongside his late comedy partner Ronnie Barker. It began in 1971 and ran for 12 series over 17 years. But the Edinburgh-born comedian began his career in the early 1950s. He decided to go into showbusiness after playing the wicked aunt in a youth club pantomime in his home city, and after doing his national service in the Royal Air Force his first jobs were bit parts in film and theatre. It was while performing as part of Danny La Rue's cabaret show at Winston's in London - a spell he describes as "very important" to his career - that he was first spotted by David Frost, who asked him to appear in 1960s satire The Frost Report. 'Extremely happy' He first rose to fame alongside John Cleese and Ronnie Barker on the show. Corbett has not been shy of joining forces with the next generation of comic talent. Much to the public's delight, he appeared as a mischievous version of himself in an episode of Extras five years ago, in which he snorts cocaine during the Baftas. This summer he presented a two-part series, Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain, in which he delved into the comedy archive to find out who inspired stars such as The Office's co-creator Stephen Merchant, sitcom star Miranda Hart and Peep Show duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, among others. He has supported several charities during his career including the RNLI and Comic Relief, for which he teamed up with comedian Peter Kay in the charity video of Is This The Way To Amarillo? In August he said that the secret to his success has been his happy family life. Corbett, who married actress and dancer Anne Hart in 1965, said then: "My extremely happy marriage is the spine of the whole thing. "I have a contented life with two lovely daughters, so that makes it all rather special." |
It was by common consent the standout smartphone of 2013. The HTC One, with its sleek steely looks and its zippy performance, won all kinds of awards. But what it didn't do was sell enough to pull HTC out of its downward spiral. So can the new version, the catchily named HTC One (M8), pull off the trick of delighting the critics and proving a massive sales hit? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter HTC certainly needs some good news. Last year it had just 2.2% of the smartphone market according to the analysts IDC - down from nearly 9% two years earlier. The company made its first ever quarterly loss last year, though it was in good company - apart from Samsung and Apple, everyone is struggling to make money in this business. I got a brief chance to try the new HTC One this morning in the company of the firm's co-founder Cher Wang. It's another good-looking, nice feeling, all-metal device with one standout feature - a camera that allows you to perform all kinds of tricks with a picture after it has been taken. The Duo camera enables you to change which area of the picture is in focus, so that those photos where you find you've focused on the building in the background rather than the person in front of it won't be such a problem in future. The phone also has excellent speakers, producing the kind of sound you used to expect from something much bigger, and it features the latest version of HTC Sense, the software overlay that provides a customised version of Android. A quick demo revealed an experience not unlike the Flipboard app, delivering news, weather and your social media comings and goings with a few swipes of a finger. Here's the problem. I've no doubt that for the kind of people who pore over the list of technical specs when choosing a new smartphone, the HTC One (M8) will prove a popular choice. But that's a minority. To most of us, these days just about every smartphone looks the same - an oblong pane of glass with some icons. I rather suspect that if you walked out on the street and showed this phone to a crowd, many would struggle to distinguish it from a Samsung Galaxy S5 or a Sony Xperia Z1 or an LG G2. So in the end it all comes down to marketing - how big a budget you have to make your phone stand out from the crowd. Cher Wang admits that this is a challenge for HTC. "We have to communicate better. If we go out and actually communicate with our customers, I think they will love it." It is hard to see how HTC can outspend the mighty Samsung, although Ms Wang contends her firm will win by spending its money more smartly. Some, however, may question whether the name HTC One (M8) is such a smart piece of branding. She made a brave prediction that HTC would increase its market share this year - "2014 is HTC's year", she told me. Right now, the firm is in 10th place in IDC's smartphone league - Samsung with 31%, and Apple with 15% are way ahead of the rest of the pack. Four Chinese firms, Huawei, Lenovo, Coolpad and ZTE, are all ahead of HTC, and they, too, are likely to have more to spend on marketing - and a bigger base in their home market - than the Taiwanese phone-maker. Then there's Nokia, which under the new ownership of Microsoft should also have quite a substantial war-chest. The smartphone business is beginning to look a bit like football's Premier League - only the richest have any chance of winning. The concern for HTC must be that it will continue to muddle along in the middle of the table - and that looks like a very unprofitable place to be. |
A 12-year-old has been seriously injured after falling through the roof of a swimming baths. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
He is in a "serious condition" in hospital after he fell at Parr Swimming and Fitness Centre in St Helens on Sunday night at 18:20 BST. He had been seen on the roof with two other youths on Ashcroft Street before he "fell through", police said. "Enquires are ongoing to establish the full circumstances," a Merseyside Police spokesman added. |
Sherry Huang, a retired accountant and grandmother, is not someone you would expect to get worked up over international arms sales, but ask her why Taiwan needs advanced fighter jets from the United States and she will give you an earful. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Cindy SuiBBC News, Taipei "Without them, people are worried. If China gets stronger, we won't even have the strength to protect ourselves. It's like you have a thug living next door, with guns pointed at you, threatening you not to speak or he'll shoot you," she says. The US has provided weapons to the Republic of China, now in Taiwan, since World War II. It is the only country which has sold arms to Taiwan in recent years and is required by US law to provide the island with weapons to help it maintain a sufficient self-defence capability. But in the past year there has been growing concern that the US resolve to help Taiwan defend itself may have weakened, as Washington increasingly needs good relations with China. What Taiwan wants in particular are 66 F-16 C/D fighter jets to upgrade its ageing fleet. This week, three air force personnel were killed when two older generation aircraft crashed into a mountain. An investigation is under way, but officials told the BBC that problems caused by ageing equipment are one of the main causes of accidents involving fighter jets. Pressured by some US politicians, the Obama administration has agreed to announce its decision on the sale by 1 October. It is not a topic that comes up in casual conversation, but most Taiwanese people agree that the island needs more weapons to defend itself in case of an attack by China. That is not to say they expect a war to break out between Taipei and Beijing - who have enjoyed warmer relations in recent years. But China still has 1,500 missiles targeting Taiwan, and has not renounced the threat of force to take back the island, which it still claims as its province. Taiwanese people know they must be prepared. Foot-dragging Critics have blamed US President Barack Obama and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou for not agreeing a new package of arms. Some critics say Mr Obama has been dragging his feet and that Mr Ma has not actively sought the weapons. But the last time a significant package of weapons was approved was in 2001 - including Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and equipment for Taiwan's existing F-16 fleet, but no submarines or new fighter jets. Some sort of weapons sales and military personnel training have occurred every year, according to analysts, but most of the weapons are parts replacements and not more advanced weaponry. Alexander Huang, a professor at Taipei's Tamkang University specialising in China-Taiwan defence issues, says the US changed its handling of weapons sales to Taiwan after the 11 September attacks. At that time, President George W Bush scrapped annual weapons talks between Taipei and Washington. "After 9/11, and [with] the rise of Chinese influence and the lack of the annual talks vehicle, it gave Washington a way to postpone Taiwan's [weapons] requests," he said. "When China exerted pressure over the US government, there were times when the US asked Taiwan not to file a request." Mr Huang believes the Obama administration's hands are tied. "The US does not want to antagonise China. China has made arms sales to Taiwan the number one irritant of the US-China bilateral relationship," he says. "This kind of dilemma is bothering the Obama administration. You can cite various reasons: China's large holdings of US treasury bonds, collaboration on North Korea, Iran; there are a lot of issues over which the US doesn't want to antagonise China." In recent days, China has issued a stern warning to the US, through the Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, that US-China relations will be damaged if Mr Obama proceeds with an arms sale to Taiwan. However, analysts say China's reaction is not likely to be as severe as its threats. In the past, the most China has done is react angrily and cancel military exchanges between Washington and Beijing, as well as not allowing US ships to make calls at the Hong Kong port. It did just that after a $6.4bn (£4bn) weapons deal authorised by Mr Bush was approved by Mr Obama in 2010, but Beijing has since resumed high-level military exchanges with the US. Analysts say they do not believe Beijing will cancel economic contracts, as a worsening US economy will also hurt China. 'Wrong message' Taiwan's air fleet currently consists of two-decade-old F-16 A/B fighters (there are few countries still flying them), French Mirage 2000-5 fighters that are also about 20 years old, and 35-year-old F5 fighters that it wants to retire soon. The fighters Taiwan seeks - F-16 C/Ds - can carry more bombs for each sortie and conduct more efficient attacks against ground targets. Taiwan's deputy defence secretary Andrew Yang says a US refusal to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan could send the wrong message to China, and affect regional security. "It encourages China to stop Taiwan's self-defence activity," he says. Since the 1950s, Taiwan has patrolled the region, including areas of the East China Sea and South China Sea bordering China, and shared information it collects with the US, Mr Yang said, adding that this role is little known and often taken for granted. "We're not just protecting the island itself, we conduct daily patrols of a much bigger region, beyond Taiwanese territory," Mr Yang says. "If we don't get replacement or new aircraft, we don't patrol these areas. They will see there's a vacuum here. Of course it will give more leverage to whoever wants to cause problems. Then the US will have to make extra effort to fill the gap." In recent days, local and international media have reported that the US is more likely to help Taiwan upgrade its fleet of F-16 A/B fighter jets, rather than selling the more advanced F-16 C/D fighters. This week, US Senators Robert Menendez and John Cornyn introduced a bill in an attempt to force Mr Obama to approve the deal on the argument that the US is bound by a 1979 law to sell the island sufficient weapons for its defence. They argue that the sale would benefit the US economy and save jobs. The deal is estimated to cost $8bn. Another politician, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, has introduced similar legislation in the House of Representatives, arguing China must not be allowed to dictate US policy in the Pacific. Earlier this year, American politicians including 45 senators and 181 members of the House of Representatives wrote to Mr Obama to support a sale of F-16C/Ds. Sherry Huang is hopeful the US will come through for Taiwan, but she cannot contain her scepticism. "We believe Americans have a sense of public welfare, but that often loses in the face of economic considerations," she says. |
A man has been charged with assault amid far-right protests against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
West Midlands Police said they were called to Coventry Hill Hotel, in Rye Hill, at 12:50 BST on Saturday following reports of disorder. James White, 30, of St Michaels Crescent, Southam, has been charged with common assault. He has been bailed to appear at Coventry Magistrates' Court on 22 October. A 23-year-old man also arrested has been released without charge. Britain First confirmed two of its members had been arrested. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk |
The Ford plant in Bridgend will shut down for the last time later, bringing to a close four decades of production at the site. The closure, announced in June 2019 , will have a major impact on the local community in Bridgend, with the loss of hundreds of skilled, well-paid jobs. When opened in May 1980, it was seen as an industrial landmark in Wales. And for those living there, such as BBC Radio Wales presenter Gareth Lewis , its blue logo loomed large over life. 'Synonymous with Bridgend' | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Gareth LewisBBC Radio Wales It was impossible to grow up in Bridgend in the 1980s and 1990s without a connection to Ford. One of your family worked there, you knew someone who worked there, or you were lucky like us and knew Pete, who worked at the factory and did car services on the side. Even now, in 2020, there are still boys I went to school with working at the plant. The house I grew up in looked down on to the industrial estate and the two big names that for decades now have been synonymous with Bridgend: Sony on the right with its big neon sign, and to the left the sprawling Ford building with its unmistakable oval logo towering above it. Motown in my home town, the pride of Detroit in south Wales. But how? Why here? Even as a child it seemed pretty incongruous. But when the deal was struck back in 1977 they were different times. It came down partly to a personal meeting at Chequers where the then Prime Minister James Callaghan wooed Henry Ford II, grandson of the original Henry. Wales wanted Ford, and in the end Ford wanted to come. We did not even have the ironic cheek to specify the colour of the factory. But now Ford - like Sony - is gone. Someone I spoke to this week called it "tragic." Manufacturing they said, is "under immense threat and it will only deteriorate further". 'End of an era' And the future does look more uncertain than it did back in 1977. It feels pretty hard to take that something which started in the year I was born is now over. An industry that provided so many jobs when those in coal were starting to burn out. The end of an era in Welsh manufacturing and despite that concerted wooing 43 years ago, the end of the marriage between Bridgend and Ford. |
Vandals have daubed 68 swastikas across a memorial to Russian slave workers who suffered during the German occupation of Jersey in World War Two. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Shane Boschat, of History Hunters Jersey, said he found the swastikas, along with a number of others, at former German bunkers at Noirmont. "The slave worker memorial is the most upsetting of them all. It shows a massive lack of respect," he said. Jersey Police are investigating the vandalism. Thousands of slave workers who built the bunkers suffered at the hands of the German forces during World War Two. Gary Font, the son of a Spanish slave worker on Jersey, said: "It shows a lack of understanding of what happened in the island. "It's horrifying and I hope police find the perpetrator." |
"Put back those roaming charges we've just scrapped? We wouldn't dream of it!" That's the public message coming from the UK mobile phone operators about the threat of higher costs for travellers from a "no deal" Brexit. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter But off the record there is a subtler message - it all depends on what our continental colleagues do. Roaming may be free for customers but not for the operators. Every time you use your phone abroad your home operator is charged a fee by the one you are using abroad. That rate has been capped by the EU as part of the abolition of roaming but once the UK leaves, all bets are off. "If we leave the market they wouldn't be bound by the directive," says one operator. "They could treat our customers like someone from America or Australia and double or triple the charge." The government's own document on what would happen in the event of a "no deal" Brexit says "surcharge-free roaming when you travel to the EU could no longer be guaranteed". While it stresses that this is an unlikely scenario, it also promises to introduce a monthly cap of £45 on any roaming charges. UK operators may feel that this puts them at an unfair disadvantage to their EU counterparts who will be free to charge UK firms whatever they like. And some may be more tempted than others. Millions of UK travellers visit Spain each year while far fewer Spaniards come here, so Spanish operators may decide it is time to start recouping the cost of letting them roam on their networks. Europe's mobile companies reluctantly accepted the abolition of roaming charges by the EU while warning there would be a cost. While they may have been charging excessive amounts when you travelled abroad in the past, that allowed them to keep prices down at home. Now, they have the opportunity to profit from UK travellers who have enthusiastically taken up the opportunity to "roam like at home". UK operators will undoubtedly be under great pressure from the government to just absorb any higher costs from roaming customers. But they are also being told to find the money to invest in new 5G networks. So expect them to be among the fiercest opponents of a "no deal" Brexit. |
On 6 June 1944, World War Two allied forces launched one of the most ambitious amphibious attacks in history, landing along 50 miles of the heavily fortified Normandy coast in France and creating a significant dent in Hitler's Atlantic Wall. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
More than 70 years later, Lynda Laird photographed the remnants of Normandy's bunkers using infrared film, a medium used by the military in WW2 to detect camouflage by exposing a visual spectrum that's invisible to the naked eye. The images were taken along the Normandy coast, from Utah beach to Deauville. Accompanying Laird's photographs is Odette Brefort's diary entry from 6 June 1944. A member of the French Resistance, Brefort lived in Deauville throughout WW2, providing military intelligence on the German defences by drawing intricate maps to send to her comrades in Paris. Diary of Odette Brefort, 6 June 1944 "Oh, what a night! My little head is all shell-shocked. "Since midnight it's been impossible to sleep: the humming from planes, the anti-aircraft bombs, the machine gun noise. "I went downstairs because I couldn't sleep and after 15 minutes it went quiet. Thinking it would be better, I went back to bed. What a mistake! "All night, the humming from planes, it was non-stop." "What a joy when waking this morning, someone announces there was a landing at Dives." "At 8:20am a bomb falls on the Printemps store, another one on the Normandy." "By rule we don't have the right to leave Deauville, or to ride our bicycles. "The weather remained foggy until midday, the sun shone from 4pm. It must be the English who brought the clouds! The defence volunteers will be able to move freely tonight." "Around 6:00pm, what a tremendous bang! It is the Mont Canisy. The English navy must have blown up a large artillery battery that was shooting at them. It had been deafening us since this morning. I think the shot hit the target, as we can't hear a thing anymore." "What on earth will happen to us when the Navy and Air Force take care of our region? "There is no electricity. Deauville is in the dark." Photography by Lynda Laird as part of the Dans Le Noir installation. |
Real estate has long been an Australian obsession and sharp spikes in house prices across Australia's major cities in recent years have fuelled the passion for property. But it is not easy working out who or what is to blame. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Phil MercerBBC News, Sydney Fluctuating prices, and what triggers them, are studiously followed in a country where two-thirds of the population own their own home. The most spectacular growth has been in the notoriously fevered Sydney market, which has grown 15% over the 2013-14 financial year, compared with a combined 10% across all the state capital cities, according to figures from property information firm RP Data. The median house price in Sydney has now reached a jaw-dropping A$800,000 ($697,000, £440,000), many times the average wage. Hardly surprising, therefore, that Australian house prices are among the least affordable in the economic bloc of more than 30 OECD countries, leaving a generation of renters with dwindling prospects of achieving the dream of home ownership. Prime International Residential Index - Square meters US$1m will buy Source: Knight Frank Clearly, the boom reflects market forces: demand has outstripped supply in Sydney and Melbourne but what is stimulating this ferocious appetite? Is it moneybags investors looking to boost their retirement incomes, cashed-up buyers from China, low interest rates, preferential tax regimes or planning laws stifling development? The truth is complicated, and what affects one city, or suburb, almost certainly will not apply to places and properties elsewhere. Chinese demand For example, while residential markets in Sydney and Melbourne performed well, sales this year in Perth have been subdued. "The resources-based economy, which is largely affected by fluctuations in iron ore, gold and precious metal prices, is very slow. There has been a big reduction in employment opportunities in Western Australia and that has fallen back into the property market," says David Airey, president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia. On the other side of the continent, it is a very different story. "Buying pressure in Sydney has come from overseas investors literally buying everything they can, particularly from Asia," Mr Airey says. "Sydney prices look cheap to them. They look expensive to Australians but A$1m really doesn't buy you very much." The impact of Chinese investment is the subject of on-going studies at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Dr Adrian Lee, a postdoctoral research fellow at UTS Business School, says Chinese nationals are only allowed to buy new, not established properties in Australia. But he questions whether Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board "has adequately enforced the restrictions". Dr Lee believes the flow of money will increase. "I think Australian property will continue to be favourable to China's growing middle class as they perceive Australia as a great place to eventually live in for themselves and their families," he says. 'Fraught with danger' Another culprit in climbing house prices is Australia's so-called negative gearing, which offers a tax break to more than a million investors who make a loss on their property investments, says Dale Boccabella from the University of New South Wales, who describes negative gearing as a "defect in the system". "No-one is going to be able to tell us the extent to which the continuing of negative gearing is putting pressure on house prices but it must be making some contribution," says Mr Boccabella. "It is so entrenched. People have just latched onto it. It is part and parcel of the culture." With some of the world's most expensive bricks and mortar, Australians are often warned the housing market is a bubble that will eventually burst. In September, federal treasurer Joe Hockey rejected those grim projections as "lazy analysis", adding that he didn't "see at the moment any substantial risk" because supply wasn't meeting demand. But real estate agents do see the potential for trouble ahead because of reckless lending to some buyers. "The flow of credit for first-time home-buyers is far too easy," says Mark Wizel, a director of real estate firm CBRE in Melbourne. "I think that it is a market that is fraught with a bit of danger because if there is a correction in the housing market buyers that have over-extended themselves to take up the opportunity of the great Australian dream may be left exposed." Predicting where the market goes from here is a national pastime but agents in Sydney believe booming sales will begin to slow towards the end of the traditional peak spring period. The Reserve Bank of Australia is also considering reforms to prevent what it believes is excessive speculation by investors that has helped to drive prices higher. |
A search is continuing for a man who went missing in the sea in Pembrokeshire over the weekend. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Dyfed Powys Police received reports of a man entering the water in Neyland on Sunday afternoon but he has so far not been found. A woman attempted to assist the man in the water but returned to shore alone. A large-scale search of the area including police, fire and coastguards was launched just before 16:00 BST on Sunday. The search was scaled back on Sunday evening to be resumed on Monday. |
No one doubts the right of Prime Minister Theresa May to claim an emphatic win in the local elections. The Daily Telegraph calls the outcome a "massive victory" and the Sun says she "turned Britain blue". The i talks of a Tory "blue tide". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By BBC NewsStaff However, the Guardian looks at the maths and argues that Britain was, in fact, evenly-divided. The Conservatives and UKIP, it says, took 43% of the votes - while Labour and the Liberal Democrats received 45%. This leads the paper to conclude that "the country has not fallen in love with Mrs May". The Daily Express believes that "the public has warmed" to the PM. But it, and others, explain that Mrs May's triumph has resulted from the "collapse" of the UKIP vote. "UKIP died as a political force", says the i, while the Daily Mail apes the tone of an old-style announcement: "Today," it says, "the Mail is sad to report the death, at just 26, of one of the most effective forces ever to shake up British politics." "UKIP disappeared", says the Telegraph, "and its vote went to the Conservatives." The Times calls UKIP "a gateway drug", saying it first drew votes away from Labour, then passed them on to the Tories. Labour, says the Sun, had been in a panic about the rise of UKIP - now it looks set to panic about the consequences of the party's collapse. Diesel drivers 'clobbered' Few things, away from politics, receive much close attention - but the prospect of a crackdown on polluting diesel cars and vans has stirred up feeling. The Daily Mirror worries that the government is about to "clobber" diesel vehicle owners with financial penalties. It points out that people bought them in good faith, many believing they were less damaging to the environment. The Mail believes those owners were "monstrously misled and betrayed" by the Labour government. It warns its readers: "Never trust gimmick-prone politicians who tell you science is on their side." An expert quoted in the i points out that modern diesel cars can be as clean as petrol engines anyway. As the Sun comments, it is not a problem that can be "sorted overnight". Half of Saturday's papers use their front pages to report the death of the boyfriend of BBC Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball. The Express says the body of Billy Yates was found at his flat in south-west London. Several papers suggest he took his own life. The Star says Ms Ball has been left "heartbroken". Say it out loud Talking to yourself, reports the Telegraph, "may actually be a sign of intelligence." The paper says that researchers at Bangor University have found people who, for example, read instructions out loud actually perform the task they are engaged in better than those who stay silent. "Speaking out loud", echoes the Mirror, "helps the brain to absorb material". The Mail adds the researchers think their study has shown that, far from being "the first sign of madness", talking to yourself is a way of using all the means at your disposal to increase your brain power. Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning |
The jury in the trial of a man who was accused of murder, after a body was found on an industrial estate, has been discharged for legal reasons. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Tomas Lazdauskas, 24, of Milner Road, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was on trial at Cambridge Crown Court accused of the murder of Mindaugas Arlauskas, 28. Mr Arlauskas's body was found on Sandall Road in Wisbech on 9 May. The jury was discharged on Thursday. A retrial will begin at Peterborough Crown Court on Monday. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk |
Consumer and government pressure is growing on oil and gas producers. They've seen off protests before, but this time could be different and permanent, and there are signs that they know it. In addition to emissions, plastic has become a dirty word - the reaction from Grangemouth is that Ineos sees producing being separate from environmental impact of waste. Shell has chosen to prioritise conventional oil and shareholder return over a transition in energy. More acreage of UK seabed has just been released for drilling. Government has to decide what climate emergency will mean, in transport taxation and in constraining the oil and gas industry. The industry, for its part, is stepping up efforts to align itself with the climate change campaign. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland A Swedish teenager with an unnerving calm and clarity of message, delivered in her second language, has governments and industries quaking. The campaign she leads has climate emergencies being declared, the first national one by Nicola Sturgeon. No industry is more at risk from the growing pressure for radical change than the oil and gas industry. Deirdre Michie, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, representing and leading the industry, said on Tuesday it's listening to Greta Thunberg, and also wants to act for a better world. The oil industry has seen green activists before, and it's seen them off. A recent trawl through the archives for BBC Radio 4 reflected on the fact that oil majors knew emissions were causing damage to the atmosphere, and potentially to climate, before scientists had started publishing research on it, back in 1975. Is this time going to be any different? Perhaps. There is now a credible alternative to oil-fuelled transport, through battery power, and it may be emerging as a technology faster than you'd think possible. Don't forget that the transition from horse-drawn to horseless carriages was not gradual. The Attenborough effect is also galvanising people into action. The Blue Planet 2 whale with its calf apparently killed by ingesting plastic drew attention to the despoiled state of the oceans. Not only emissions from burning fossil fuels, but detritus from the throwaway economy, is focussing minds of consumers, and therefore also politicians and producers. So maybe this time will be different. But on the evidence of one day's news, on Tuesday, it'll take a long time to turn this oil tanker round. Plastics Shell set out a strategic review which included a commitment to investment in electricity generation. The Dutch-British oil major didn't say if that's in renewables, but oil companies have been making significant moves in that direction. But that's only the last of its reset priorities. The others show little sign of a change of focus. It remains oriented not to conventional oil and gas extraction, but shale and deepwater. Downstream, it wants to continue being a big player in petrochemicals, at a time when plastics production is no longer the clean industry you perceive from the polythene wrap. A campaigning BBC TV programme against plastic waste fronted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has this week pitted him against Ineos at Grangemouth, with senior director Tom Crotty dismissing the programme's approach as "pathetic". The question for both campaigner and producer is whether the disposal of plastic waste can be wholly separated from its manufacture. The big change for Shell is not that it is re-directing its efforts to meet consumer pressure, but that it's opened the taps on a far higher return to shareholders, through dividends and buy-back of shares. In 2011 to 2015, that amounted to $52bn. In 2016 to 2020, it's up to $90bn. From 2021 to 2025, it is targeting a staggering $125bn for shareholders. However, the chief executive acknowledged it can't all be about shareholders. He told Bloomberg business news: "We want to position the company for the future of energy. The future will involve oil and gas, by the way. But it will also be a future where much more of the dynamics of the market are dictated by the customer." Mopping up Also on Tuesday morning, the Oil and Gas Authority was announcing the companies that have succeeded in their bids to win new licences to explore blocks of the UK seabed. This is a "frontier" round, and the 31st such round of licensing since the UK government started encouraging explorers into its waters. A 32nd is soon to get under way, focussed more on developments around mature fields. In the south and central North Sea, and far to the north of Shetland, what is striking is how few blocks have gone to the big majors. They are there, notably Equinor (formerly Statoil of Norway) with five licences. But far more of the acreage has been won by the smaller independents who are mopping up the smaller opportunities and mature offshore fields that the majors - including Chevron last week - are exiting. Crude And then there's the oil price. As the USA recently boosted production beyond that of even Saudi Arabia and Russia (which have held back production in an effort to support the price), oil traders are reading into the Tweet-rattling of Donald Trump the prospect of a damaging trade dispute ahead. Global growth has slowed anyway. That's clear in the eurozone. Inflation there has dropped more than expected. Germany is barely growing. Australia, after an unprecedented 28 years of sustained growth, is very close to stalling. Piling on top of that a trade dispute with China, and another with Mexico, and warning Europe on its car exports, President Trump has the clout to choke off growth altogether, and push up prices for his own consumers in the process. That can cut both ways on oil and gas production. The price of a barrel of Brent crude has fallen from nearly $72 to below $61 in only two weeks. That may choke off investment plans, until oil companies feel reassured that the price has reached a floor. We learned from Equinor on Tuesday that the Rosebank field, north-west of Shetland in 1,100 metres of the Atlantic, is not to have a final investment decision made until spring of 2022. That's while it takes more time to learn from other deepwater developments about ways to design cost out of it. The UK regulator has given it a three-year extension to its licence. But cheaper oil also means more people getting behind the wheel in old gas-guzzlers to burn the stuff, and to buy cheap air tickets. In the US and the UK, the fall in driving costs were accompanied by tough times for the bus operators. The Scottish government incurred the fury of airports and airline managers with a U-turn on its plan to halve air departure tax. It now has to make clear what it's going to do about ground transport - building roads and pricing road use to discourage mileage, or at least to put a marginal price on transport so that the polluter pays. Emergency Then if it is serious about "climate emergency", it has to say something about oil and gas production. Ministers acted swiftly, said a spokeswoman, after being told of the growing imminence of dangerous climate change. They set a new target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 at the latest. "We are now looking across our policies to make sure that they align with that increased scale of ambition. "The domestic oil and gas industry and its supply chain can play a positive role in supporting the transition. We are committed to achieving a net-zero emissions economy in a way that is fair for all." That may mean being "fair" to those who have invested heavily in the fossil fuel sector, including much of north-east Scotland and the northern isles. It would not be politically easy to turn the taps off. What role for Westminster, once a new Conservative prime minister is in charge? Who knows? But this does not look like a leadership race that will feature damage to the environment, and nor will it be uppermost in the mind of the eventual winner. Brexit, immigration and winning back friends in business are likely to be higher priorities. Better world Back at the Aberdeen conference where Deirdre Michie was seeking a new way of engaging with the environment lobby, she took the offshore engineers' approach: find a way through the challenge. Be inventive. Innovate. Find better ways to cut the industry's own very high use of fossil fuels. Put offshore skills to work on marine energy. And find ways to capture carbon and store it, economically. But facing pressure to "keep it in the ground", and investors pressured into divesting from oil companies, the message is to keep drilling in the North Sea and Atlantic waters, rather than rely on importing it over long distances, adding the carbon footprint of the tankers that bring it here. "While we continue to advocate with facts and evidence, I appreciate that it can sound like corporate speak that doesn't have the emotion or the urgency that society and we, as part of society, are all feeling," Michie told industry figures. "Anyone and everyone who wants to change the world for the better can work with us to help ensure a fair and just and managed transition and at a pace that will also be required. "Later this year we'll publish the road map which will set out how we can successfully deliver the vision and our industry's sustainable future, to ensure it continues to contribute to the country in terms of hundreds of thousands of jobs, security of energy supply, billions of pounds in taxes and investment levels, for decades to come." If that lives up to the advance billing, it will be an important moment for the country's economy, and possibly a turning point for the climate change campaign, at least in this corner of this endangered planet. |
Despite having one of the largest Asian populations in England and Wales, politicians say Blackburn has never elected an Asian woman to its council. Areas with a similar demographic have managed it, so why hasn't this town? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rahila Bano & Nafeesa ShanAsian Network & BBC News "I was told to look like a Muslim. I was a woman with a stigma, I'd left a forced marriage. "Comments were also made about my sexuality, there were other much worse things said." Saima Afzal stood as a Labour candidate in different Blackburn wards in 1999, 2000 and 2001 - coming second each time. The former Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire claims some Asian men in the community were unsupportive. And 15 years on, it seems little has changed - Blackburn with Darwen Council is yet to have an Asian woman represent one of its wards. The authority's leader Mohammed Khan believes it is because they have "other priorities". "Their jobs, their house and caring responsibility," explains the Labour councillor of 25 years. "We do so much to encourage them to come forward, we give them training and tell them how the system works. "But this is not paid, it's a voluntary job. It's their choice, we can't force them to come into the council." Blackburn saw an influx of Pakistani and Indian immigrants move to the area in the 1960s, many of whom went to work in the textile mills at a time the town was known for its booming cotton industry. Fast forward 50 years and the borough now has the 11th largest proportion of Asian residents out of 174 local authority areas in England and Wales. At the 2011 census, nearly a third of its 147,500 residents were recorded as Asian, of which half were women. Yet the demographics are not fully reflected by the area's political make-up. Of the 39 men elected to represent Blackburn, 19 are Asian men; there are no Asian women councillors. "When I stood, it was to raise issues that women face," says 46-year-old Ms Afzal, who is standing again in May's local elections. "We should be able to work and have a full education. I felt the [issues] weren't prevalent at the time and we needed to raise them." But the town's MP Kate Hollern believes it is "more difficult" for Asian women from traditional families to get involved in politics. "Asian women play a prominent role in many local organisations - all of which feed into the decision-making process of the area. "It may be however that the structures of elected politics, with frequent evening and weekend meetings, make it difficult for women who remain generally the main carers in families, to get more involved." But is it really as simple as a difference in culture which traditionally casts men as the dominant breadwinner and decision-maker, while the women focus on family and home? Some political parties would disagree. They say they have been trying for years to change the landscape in Blackburn by fielding Asian female candidates in local elections. But their attitude for change has so far not been matched at the polls. You might also be interested in: Homeless 'devastated' by doorway death India mourns Bollywood superstar Sridevi NZ reacts to 'creepy' PM Ardern interview Malcolm Doherty, who was on the council from 1980 to 2012, claims that during his tenure he detected an "anti-woman feeling" and "the men [in Asian wards] wouldn't vote for them". The former Labour councillor said: "It was quite strong at that time, they didn't want [Asian] women councillors. I could never understand it. "It was very difficult, we tried to get them [elected] in Asian wards and then to wards which weren't Asian, but weren't successful. "Saima stood and she was a very good candidate. It was a sad loss she wasn't elected." Blackburn, neighbouring Darwen and parts of Turton joined in 1998 to form a unitary authority, which is currently Labour-run with 48 male and 16 female councillors. While Darwen and Turton has a Middle Eastern female councillor of Jordanian descent, it has no representation from the Asian community, male or female. It is in stark contrast to similar towns not far from Blackburn, such as Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, where at least one Asian woman has been elected to the council. The nearby Chorley authority has two - Hasina Khan and her daughter, Zara, 23. The former became interested in politics in 2003 after she had "absolutely had enough" of the monotony of "cooking, cleaning and school runs". "Blackburn has this biradari [tribal/clan network] system more like the Pakistani politics back home, which is of course male-dominated and where the heads of families are men who make most decisions. "This is one of the main reasons why there are no Asian female councillors." Encouraged by her MP Lindsay Hoyle to go out canvassing, she joined Labour before standing as a candidate - going on in 2006 to become the first Asian female councillor in Lancashire outside the unitary authorities. She accepts women have a "caring responsibility" in their culture, but said when she stood the support from her family, in "particular the men, [was] excellent". "The electorate [in Chorley] was 99% non-Asian, there was no tribal system here to try block me." She describes hitting a brick wall when trying to recruit other Asian women to stand. "The biggest hindrance is family themselves, fathers, brothers, husbands. They say 'what's the community going to say?' and 'politics isn't for women, they should be looking after the home'." Political activist Farzana Afzal, who is based in Manchester, says some Asian women are "too occupied in their house work, children and household duties", while others face a language barrier. "The women who've come from abroad, they don't watch BBC News or mainstream channels because they can't follow it. They watch Pakistani channels about politics over there." The knock-on effect, according to teenagers in the town, is that there are no female role models in Blackburn. At the West End Girls group - set up to help youngsters develop leadership skills - Taybah, 15, thinks Asian women are "not being represented". "I think culture is potentially holding them back," adds Huma, 15. "It's a full time job, Asian women are attached to their families. "The idea isn't put into your mind when you're young [to be in politics]." Conservative group leader John Slater believes the "cultural issue... seems to be a trait in Blackburn". "I'm quite sad about it, the opportunities are there but they're not being taken up," he says. Parliament is currently at its most diverse with 52 of the 650 MPs elected from ethnic minorities. Of those, 26 were women - representing just 4% of all MPs. With those figures, "it is therefore no surprise that Asian women at the grassroots level of politics do not think [it] is an arena for them," says Rushanara Ali, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. She believes there should be more government help to encourage ethnic minorities to get into local politics. The mantle is being taken up in cities where there are large Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities such as Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester and Bradford, where there are up to eight Asian women on their councils. But unsociable hours and commitments to constituents could still prevent Asian women in towns like Blackburn from getting involved, says Dr Victoria Honeyman, British politics lecturer at the University of Leeds. "This all eats into family time and, again, as the caring responsibilities tend to fall unevenly on women, particularly in traditional family units as is common in Asian communities, it can create additional barriers to women engaging in politics. "The local elections will be the next opportunity for Asian women to challenge the status quo through the ballot box." |
In a year where much of the world has been brought to standstill, BTS stands out. Unable to perform live and show off their electric choreography on some of the biggest stages across the world, they took a fresh approach: disco. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Laura BickerBBC News, Seoul Not only has it proved to be a success, their single Dynamite has broken records and they've become the first all-Korean pop act to top the Billboard 100 singles chart. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook told me how their fans - and a hit single of course - had helped them through the recent uncertainty. They didn't manage to answer all of my questions, including the one most fans ask- when are they going to do their mandatory military service in South Korea. But judging by their tweets, they have been overwhelmed and even in tears at the success of their single. Even the South Korean President, Moon Jae-in tweeted to call it a "splendid feat." BTS keep in contact with their fans - or "ARMY" - on social media. It's a constant conversation with a stream of pictures and videos. This year, more than any other, it seems that may have proved invaluable connection for both the band and their followers. Congratulations on the success of Dynamite. How does it feel to rise through the world charts including in the UK? RM: We are so humbled to achieve all these incredible feats, including the Official Singles Chart. A big thank you to our ARMY! "Dynamite" was created in the hopes of bringing some vibrant energy that the world needs right now. We are extremely happy to see people around the world enjoying it. Jung Kook: Thank you ARMY for being so awesome! You said that "due to Covid-19, people in the world have been going through tough times and you wanted to share some positive energy with your fans". Do you feel the final product has achieved that goal? RM: We would dare say that it has, to some extent! The only thing we want for them is to forget everything and just rock their head and move their body to the beat. One of the real joys of BTS is seeing you perform live. I can speak from experience that it is electric. How are you coping without those live performances? Suga: Our world tour plans had to be altered due to COVID-19 and honestly we felt dispirited. We missed the stage and our fans. In order to alleviate this sense of frustration, we planned an online concert in June. Even though we couldn't see each other in person, our fans' heartfelt support from all around the world reached us. This made us realise that there are various ways to support and comfort each other even such times. Did you enjoy the disco element to the track? J-hope: Because we are not the disco generation, I did my research by watching videos and tried to embody that vibe as much as possible. It was really fun and had me hooked. Haven't you been hooked as well? How difficult has this year been for you as a band? Jimin: It's been a tough year for everyone, and we're not an exception either. We were unable to do many things that we had planned. And as artists who need to connect with people on stage, this was most disheartening. But we are finding ways to cope with this situation, and "Dynamite" was one way for us to do that. Can we talk a bit about your donation to Black Lives Matter. Why did you decide to donate the money? And what was your reaction when you saw your fans had matched the donation? RM: We think our Twitter message speaks for itself. We stand against racial discrimination and condemn violence, and all have the right to be respected. We were really thankful to know that the fans were also with us. Why after all these years did you decide to release a song in English? V: We all loved this song when we first heard it. It felt fresh, different from what we've done so far. In a musical aspect, we thought that singing in English will best fit the song. So there was a unanimous consent amongst us to do it in English. What message do you have for fans who are struggling around the world? Jin: I'm not sure if this can be of any help, but I want to tell you to cheer up and stay strong no matter how hard life is now. Let's try to find together our small joys in the midst of this. Also, listen to Dynamite that will make your time at home more fun! |
The baked goods chain Greggs has confirmed it is planning to open as many as 50 branches across Northern Ireland. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By John CampbellBBC News NI Economics & Business Editor The details are contained in a planning application for what the firm describes as a 'flagship' store on Donegall Square in Belfast city centre. The company plans to take a unit which is currently occupied by a home furnishing store. The application states the firm has a "vision" to roll out up to 50 stores. It currently has one branch in Northern Ireland in a service station on the M2. The Belfast Telegraph first reported the firm's intention to open up to 50 stores last year. |
A group of young women seen sitting on the edge of a cliff on the East Sussex coast would have had no chance of surviving a fall, lifeguards have said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The woman were photographed by local artist Patrick Goff while they sat on Seven Sisters near Seaford. The Newhaven lifeboat team told the BBC the actions of the women were "really stupid", and the situation was an accident waiting to happen. That stretch of coast has seen regular cliff falls as the chalk erodes. Last autumn, walkers were warned to keep away from the cliffs at nearby Seaford Head after a crack appeared, and in the same year, sections of cliffs fell into the sea at Birling Gap and at Rock-a-Nore near Hastings. |
Staff at Dundee City Council's headquarters have been asked to work from home after the building was hit by a power failure on Tuesday. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The authority said limited public counter services would be available at Dundee House, but the majority of the building remained closed. IT services, including the council's website and email, which had previously been affected, have been restored. The council said updates would be issued on its social media pages. |
In July 1962, Algeria won its independence from France after eight years of violent struggle. Fifty years on, one revolutionary re-tells her story and says that, despite an explosion in which she lost both legs, she has never regretted a single moment. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Chloe ArnoldBBC News, Algeria Yasmine Belkacem was just 14 years old when she joined the independence movement. The year was 1959 and the battle was well under way. Four years earlier, members of the fledgling National Liberation Front (FLN) had killed 123 civilians in the town of Philippeville. Known as "les pieds noirs" - black feet - they were settlers of French origin who had worked the land since France's occupation of Algeria, more than a century earlier. In retaliation, the French army and pieds-noirs gangs killed as many as 12,000 Algerians. But Yasmine was just a schoolgirl with a beautiful face and long black curls, living in the Belcourt district of the capital. It was a neighbour who persuaded her to join the cause and for months she carried messages between members of the FLN, along with money and food to the freedom fighters in prison. Her father had died three years earlier and her mother and elder sister knew nothing of her risky activities. "Then one day I was taken into the mountains to meet some of the leaders of the movement," she says. "They were making bombs to be placed in French cafes and police stations in the capital." Yasmine had a fierce desire to play a bigger part in the conflict and to help oust the occupiers who, she says, had forced her countrymen into poverty and humiliation. "I still remember the sign that hung over the entrance to one of the beaches near Algiers," she says. "It read, 'No dogs or Muslims'." She begged the FLN to let her plant one of the homemade bombs. Reluctant at first, they finally relented and dropped her off near a police station. With great care, she carried the bomb in a little black suitcase, towards the gendarmerie. But something went wrong. The timer malfunctioned and, before she got the chance to deposit the suitcase, it exploded in her hands. Two police officers were slightly injured in the blast. Yasmine, just 14, lost both her legs. We are sitting in Yasmine's house in the centre of Algiers, sipping freshly squeezed orange juice and looking at old black and white photographs of the war years. Outside in her garden, the bougainvillaea and hibiscus are in full bloom, and her collection of colourful canaries is chirping noisily. The tranquillity of her life today is a world apart from the chaos that followed the explosion which injured her, when she was imprisoned for two years. "Of course, after it had happened, I thought to myself, 'Now I will never be able to walk again, to swim or dance again'," she says, her hands smoothing her trousers which cover the prosthetic legs she had fitted in the US, two years after the bomb went off. "But I knew that I had done the right thing." It goes without saying that the families of those killed in attacks like Yasmine's might not agree. Yasmine was the youngest in prison but by no means the only girl. She was transferred to a jail in Paris. "There were more than 20 of us women in prison," she recalls. "The oldest was only 21. They were terribly kind, they used to carry me everywhere because I didn't have my new legs at that point." In 1961, months before a ceasefire was signed, Yasmine was released and an American doctor arranged for her to be treated in New York. "He spent $60,000 (£40,000) of his own money paying for my treatment," she says. "I was so grateful." On 5 July 1962, after the signing of the Evian Accord which ended the hostilities, Algeria won its hard-fought independence. Yasmine was not there to witness the celebration. "But the following year, sitting in my chair beside the president as he raised the Algerian flag, I just cried and cried," she remembers. "I was so happy." Fifty years on Algeria has, in some ways, disappointed the aspirations of the people who fought for its independence from France. They dreamed of building a just, democratic and peaceful state. The 1990s saw a bitter struggle between government security forces and Islamist insurgents bent on changing the direction of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Today, the authorities maintain a tight grip on power and, despite the oil and gas the country exports, millions of people are unemployed and live in squalid housing. Though she could have done, she says, Yasmine never married. "I hated the idea that one day my husband would wake up and think, 'I married a cripple,'" she tells me. But despite everything that has happened since Algerian independence, for Yasmine it was worth the struggle. "It was what God wanted me to do," she says, brushing a little dust from another old photograph. "I have no regrets." How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 11:30 BST. Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 11:00 BST (some weeks only). Listen online or download the podcast BBC World Service: Hear daily 10-minute editions Monday to Friday, repeated through the day, also available to listen online. Read more or explore the archive at the programme website. |
Poppi Worthington was found lifeless by her father at their home in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 2012. A three-week inquest - held after the first was deemed inadequate - has resulted in a coroner deciding she was sexually assaulted in the hours before her death by her father. During the inquest, Paul Worthington was asked more than 250 questions and declined to answer all but a handful of them. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News It was 11:30 GMT on 30 November - the fourth day of the inquest being held at County Hall in Kendal. Paul Worthington, seated in the witness chair at his daughter Poppi's inquest, had finally been asked the question many wanted answering. "Why did you hurt your daughter?" said Kate Stone, solicitor for Poppi's mother, who cannot be named. It was towards the end of his second day appearing as a witness. The press benches were filled. A court artist scrutinised Mr Worthington's features and appearance. His reply was, by now, familiar. "I refer to my previous statements," he said. "I rely on my rights not to answer that under rule 22." Mr Worthington was referring to inquest rules which protect witnesses from potentially incriminating themselves. However, the three-week inquest heard sufficient evidence for the senior coroner for Cumbria, David Roberts, to decide that Mr Worthington had taken his daughter to his bed and assaulted her before laying a duvet or blanket over her and going to sleep. He said: "The deceased died as a result of her ability to breathe being compromised as a result of an unsafe sleeping environment." It follows a ruling in January 2016, by family court judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson, that on the balance of probabilities Mr Worthington had subjected his daughter to a "penetrative sexual assault" - an allegation he strenuously denies. Mr Worthington had been the last person to see Poppi alive. Poppi's mother told the inquest she heard her daughter cry out in the night, while Mr Worthington was upstairs. He later carried her lifeless body down the stairs, frantically shouting for his partner to call the ambulance. Poppi 'sexually assaulted before death' What the coroner heard Key dates in Poppi's story His lawyers had argued, in vain, for their client to be hidden by screens from the public and press when he gave his evidence. They told the coroner Mr Worthington had received numerous threats and been publicly vilified since Poppi's death. He was living in hiding, enduring a nightmare, accused of sexually abusing his infant daughter but unable to clear his name. When he arrived at the inquest venue, it was through a back door with a police escort, his head covered. A decoy van had even been deployed in the car park in an attempt to bamboozle the waiting media. The coroner declined his request though and, with reporters poised with pens and laptops, the questioning had begun. Was it right that his relationship with Poppi's mother began in 2009, Alison Hewitt, counsel for the coroner, asked him. "I refer to my previous statements," he told the court, stumbling slightly over the words. "I rely on my rights not to answer that under rule 22." The coroner told Mr Worthington rule 22 did not apply to scene setting questions and the question was put to him again. He said yes. Further scene setting questions followed. He said yes, it was right it was an on and off relationship and that Poppi's mother was unhappy with his gambling on sports and his cleaning-related obsessive compulsive disorder. However, as the questioning continued, he declined to give more answers. He refused to answer a total of 69 questions during his first day. The second day was a copy of the first. His voice broke, he sobbed, he drank water from a glass on his table, he refused to answer question after question, some 252 in all across the two days. At the end, Mr Roberts told the court no inference should be drawn and Mr Worthington should not be criticised for his stance. He then asked Mr Worthington if there was anything else he wanted to tell the coroner, to help him understand what happened to Poppi. "No sir," Mr Worthington replied, his body shaking slightly. And with that he left the same way he had arrived, bundled into a police van, his face masked, heading back into hiding. The previous statements he referred to, though, were often contradictory and raised questions. What time had he gone to her? When did he take her leggings off? What position did he leave her on his bed? All remained unanswered. At least the questions were being asked this time. A first inquest held in 2014 lasted just seven minutes and coroner Ian Smith said the death could not be explained. Poppi had not even been named at the hearing and had instead just been referred to as a 13-month-old girl. Mr Roberts agreed to hold a second inquest after receiving representations from the media. This time every detail would be gone into, although many of the questions could not be answered. This was thanks, in no small part, to a police investigation that the force itself admits fell below the proper standard. Dr Alison Armour was the Home Office pathologist who examined Poppi. She was certain Poppi had been abused and it was her findings that Mr Justice Peter Jackson based his conclusions on. She told the inquest that external and internal marks she found on Poppi's body were consistent with abuse. Though she could not find a cause of death, Dr Armour said she believed either the abuse triggered a fatal reaction or Poppi suffocated on bedding, possibly as a result of being laid face down. However, other experts said some of the marks could have occurred naturally while others may have been caused by resuscitation attempts. Mr Worthington's lawyers questioned her conclusions. How could she be sure there had been abuse when others were not? Had she been tainted by the police who, before she carried out her examination, told Dr Armour there had been previous unsubstantiated allegations against the father? She was, in short, unprofessional and lacking objectivity, they argued. Dr Armour disagreed - very strongly. She said she appreciated other experts held different views, but she stood by her conclusions. She was sure, based on the marks she had seen, that Poppi had been abused. However, the coroner was told other experts, who were asked to look at the case by the National Crime Agency and representatives of Poppi's family, were less certain. Home Office pathologist Dr Nat Cary said had Poppi been abused, he would have expected to see much more evidence of it; more bruising and injury. The evidence was just not there to say anything untoward had happened, he argued. What evidence there was could be explained away, often as a result of the police's poor investigation, the coroner was told. For example, Poppi's DNA had been found on her father's penis. However, in the eight hours between her being taken to hospital and swabs being taken from him, he would have gone to the toilet, thereby transferring the DNA, his lawyers argued. The expert who analysed the DNA said the place where it was found was not consistent with evidence an assault had taken place. However, the coroner ruled that Poppi had suffered anal penetration before her death. The failings of the Cumbria Police investigation were highlighted throughout the inquest. In addition to the eight-hour delay before taking a swab test from Mr Worthington, officers also failed to find Poppi's last nappy, failed to secure the house quickly enough and failed to seize other vital evidence, such as the sheet from Mr Worthington's bed or the laptop he had been using, and looking at pornography on, the night before Poppi's death. Amanda Sadler, who had been the detective inspector in charge, admitted she was not qualified or experienced enough to lead such an investigation. Not only had police not found enough evidence to prosecute Mr Worthington, they had also failed to find the evidence which could categorically prove him innocent in the eyes of the public, his lawyers argued. It was hard, they said, to point to anything the police actually did right. The police agreed. Catherine Thundercloud, the officer who took over the case in 2014, cited a list of her colleagues' failings. These included not keeping proper logs, not following procedure, and failing to investigate Poppi's death in the first instance as a possible crime. The protocols had been there but, for whatever reason, senior officers had not followed them, she said. They failed Poppi, said Gillian Irving QC, another representative of Poppi's mother. Mr Worthington has never been charged with any offence relating to Poppi's death and it is unlikely that any charges will ever be brought. However, it appears that to some extent, questions Poppi's relatives had surrounding her death may have been answered. |
A town centre Christmas tree labelled "a twig" by critics has been replaced by a new specimen twice the size. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The original 15ft (5m) tree was given to Clacton by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and put up in the Town Square. But Tendring District Council took it down saying it was "not man enough for the job". Speaking about the new tree, council leader Peter Halliday said: "Christmas is truly back on in style." Ian Wickes, of the FSB, said the new tree was "lovely" adding the organisation had been "needled appropriately" about the previous tree. The smaller tree will be donated to charity. |
21 October marks Theresa May's 100th day as prime minister and Conservative leader. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
She was catapulted into power following David Cameron's resignation in the wake of the EU referendum and fittingly, the prime minister is spending the day in Brussels, at a summit of EU leaders. Brexit has been the defining theme of Mrs May's premiership so far. In her first statement as outside No 10, she coined the catchphrase "Brexit means Brexit", insisting that "we're going to make a success of it". Mrs May's transition from quiet Remainer to committed Leaver has set her apart from her predecessor, a theme that she has continued with returns to more traditional Conservative positions on immigration and grammar schools. Gone is the cosy relationship between prime minister and chancellor. George Osborne has gone, along with much of his economic policy including the commitment to a budget surplus by 2020. In its place, there are reports of cabinet splits over the nature of Brexit, with ministers torn between "hard" and "soft" varieties of Brexit - prioritising either membership of the single market or control over immigration. In managing this division, the Daily Telegraph writes that Mrs May "has been unafraid to stamp her personal authority on the Cabinet, applying firm leadership at a time when it was urgently needed". As the next 100 days of Theresa May's term as prime minister unfold, and the self-imposed deadline to trigger Article 50 approaches, we may see even more of Mrs May's personal authority in action. But how have other recent prime ministers and opposition leaders fared? DAVID CAMERON Not since Tony Blair had a new opposition leader enjoyed such positive media coverage. David Cameron's first 100 days as Tory leader, starting in December 2005, passed in a blur of headline grabbing activity. Previous Tory leaders had tried to project a more youthful image, or deliberately picked fights with the party's right wing, only to be met with disaster, but the media were hungry for a good news story about the Conservatives and "collaborated in portraying him as a winning guy in touch with the 21st century", noted Andrew Rawnsley, in The Observer. What happened next: Became Prime Minister in 2010 after forming coalition with Lib Dems. First 100 days: David Cameron Gordon Brown's first 100 days were close to perfect, in the view of most pundits - even those who had been highly critical of him in the past. "Confounding his critics and defying his own character, Gordon Brown has, in fewer than 100 days, proved to be a vote-winner," said Tom Bower in The Evening Standard. As the 100 days ended the newspapers were full of reports that Labour was preparing for a snap election although the Conservatives had started to close in the polls. What happened next: Decided at the last minute against a snap election, led Labour to defeat in 2010 election. First 100 days: Gordon Brown With a 17 point opinion poll lead over the Conservatives, and glowing plaudits from the press, everything was going swimmingly for Tony Blair as he reached his first 100 days as Labour leader in the autumn of 1994. Even a party conference defeat over scrapping Clause IV of the party's constitution - a battle he would go on to win the following year - and a shadow cabinet election which left many of Labour's old guard in place failed to dent his momentum. There was some sniping from the press about the high moral tone of his first conference speech, as he sought to contrast Labour with the "sleazy" Tories. What happened next: Won 1997, 2001 and 2005 elections before standing down in 2007. First 100 days: Tony Blair "Mr Major emerges from his hundred days the best-loved prime minister in living memory," wrote Peter Jenkins in The Independent in early 1991. The new Conservative prime minister was widely praised his for steady, statesmanlike handling of the Gulf conflict and the aftermath of the IRA's failed mortar attack on Downing Street. And while his first 100 days had not exactly been a blur of activity, the Conservatives had edged ahead in the opinion polls wiping out Labour's previous nine-point lead. What happened next: Pulled off surprise victory in 1992 election, but hammered in 1997. First 100 days: John Major The biggest complaint about Margaret Thatcher, 100 days after winning control of the Conservative Party in February 1975, was that she was too timid. In a scathing editorial, headlined The Lady Vanishes, The Sun said "she has been driving a growing number of Tory MPs to quiet despair by her half-heartedness about taking up a frontline position in the economic war". She was also attacked for declaring an effective truce with Labour during the referendum campaign on Britain's membership of the EEC. What happened next: Won 1979 election, prime minister until 1990. First 100 days: Margaret Thatcher "Sunny Jim" received an almost universal thumbs up from the press after 100 days as Labour leader and prime minister. Commentators praised his calming influence and straight talking approach. But with no working majority, his government was expected to be short-lived and speculation was rife about a snap election. It was widely expected Mr Callaghan would win, with Mrs Thatcher's Conservatives seen as weak and ineffective. What happened next: Lost 1979 election First 100 days: James Callaghan. He may not be loved by Tory activists or MPs but "he simply looks like a man who can do the job," noted Julia Hartley Brewer in the Sunday Express, in a piece marking Michael Howard's first 100 days as Conservative leader. There was a palpable sense of relief in the Conservative-supporting press about Mr Howard's business-like, disciplined leadership, after what was seen as the fiasco of the Duncan Smith years. But the opinion polls stubbornly refused to register the sort of lift-off in support needed if Mr Howard was going to win the 2005 election. What happened next: Stepped down after Tory defeat in 2005 election. First 100 days: Michael Howard With the Conservatives at a low ebb after their second successive election defeat, the right wing press did their best to focus on the positive as they ran a rule over the largely unknown Iain Duncan Smith's first 100 days as party leader. But there were also signs of the sort of personal criticism and sniping that would bring his leadership to a premature, and bitter, end. "The frog in his throat has a long way to go before it can hope to turn into prince," noted The Times, in a jointly authored piece by Mr Duncan Smith's future cabinet colleague Michael Gove and Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband's newly-appointed communications chief. What happened next: Forced out as leader in November 2003. First 100 Days: Iain Duncan Smith The knives were out for William Hague from the moment he was elected Conservative leader in June 1997. In-fighting over Europe and sniping from the party's old guard, still reeling at the drubbing they had received at the polls, ensured he had one of the shortest honeymoon periods of any party leader in history. He did not help his cause by being pictured in a baseball cap on a trip to a theme park - an image that came to define his doomed attempt to rebrand the Conservatives as a more youthful force. What happened next: Quit as leader after defeat in 2001 election, now a Conservative peer in the House of Lords First 100 Days: William Hague Jeremy Corbyn spent much of his first 100 days battling his own party, despite having won almost 60% of votes cast in the election for Ed Miliband's successor. The veteran outsider had never before held office or a front bench position in parliament. He sparked controversy within his first two months when he was seen not singing the national anthem at a service to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. He later faced rebellions over a Commons vote on military action in Syria, led by the then-shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn. What happened next: Benn triggered a wave of resignations from the shadow cabinet, setting in motion a second leadership election which Mr Corbyn won. Ed Miliband assumed the role of opposition leader after a dramatic campaign against his older brother David. His victory came as a surprise to some - the Guardian writing that even Miliband himself was "not thought to have plotted out winning." His political focus in his early days was on inequality, with policy proposals like the 'mansion tax', on homes worth more than £1 million, raising the top rate of income tax and restoring the lowest 10p tax rate. What happened next: Led Labour to defeat in 2015 election, retired to the backbenches. The press were in a restless mood as John Smith celebrated his first 100 days as Labour leader in the autumn of 1992. He was failing to land enough blows on a chaotic and divided Conservative government, most pundits reckoned. He was accused of "coasting" and of being "dangerously complacent". "Though there is no doubting his courage, both his boxing skill and his punching power are questionable," wrote Alan Watkins in The Observer. What happened next: Died in 1994. First 100 days: John Smith Could do better was the verdict of many pundits on Neil Kinnock's first 100 days as Labour leader, in late 1983. He was "a vast improvement on what went before," noted the Sunday Times, but, echoing a common complaint about the loquacious Welshman, he "talks too much when he has nothing to say". Hugo Young, in The Guardian, praised Mr Kinnock for steadying the Labour ship and claimed that what most pundits had seen as a negative, his lack of focus on policy detail, was a shrewd move. What happened next: Leader for nine years - but lost 1987 and 1992 elections. First 100 days: Neil Kinnock Michael Foot got off to a disastrous start as Labour leader, losing a battle with the unions over the selection of future leaders and failing to control the bitter war with the hard left that was threatening to tear the party apart. He was, arguably, in an impossible situation. But as he passed the 100 day mark, in early 1981, commentators were in no mood to spare his feelings. "There has been a kind of hectic feebleness about his every move which is beginning to awaken pity rather than anger," wrote his former newspaper, the Evening Standard, beneath the headline "Let's Admit It: Foot's a Disaster". What happened next: Labour suffered crushing defeat in 1983 election. First 100 days: Michael Foot |
A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will mount an assault on the world land speed record. Bloodhound will be run on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2015 and 2016. Wing Commander Andy Green, the current world land-speed record holder, is writing a diary for BBC News about his experiences working on the Bloodhound project and the team's efforts to inspire national interest in science and engineering. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder So much to do, so little time. As we race to get Bloodhound ready to run this year, we're still ordering the last of the parts that we need, and putting them together as fast as they arrive. With the usual technical and financial delays (both of which are a standard part of any Land Speed Record attempt), we're still trying to work out exactly when the car will be ready for its first runs. Despite the inevitable problems, the whole team is very clear about one thing - short of the end of the world, we will be running Bloodhound this year! Have a look at our latest Cisco BHTV video, "Building Bloodhound in 90 seconds", to get a (very) quick snapshot of all the work going on right now. Last week, with the expert advice of specialists from the FIA Institute, we finalised the installation of the seat harness and restraint systems in the cockpit. We're using off-the-shelf equipment including a standard six-point race-harness, head-and-neck restraint "HANS" device, full-face race helmet, and so on. However, we've got to make all this fit around a bespoke carbon-fibre cockpit seat in the unique Bloodhound cockpit. Thanks to the FIA's advice, we've finally got there. The URT seat, Willans harness, Simpson hybrid HANS device and Arai helmet are all fitting together like they were made for each other. Then Camlock turned up with my "Adom" breathing air mask, usually used in the RAF's Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Uniquely, this will fit under the full-face helmet, giving the best of impact and breathing protection. The mask also fitted perfectly, right down to the length of the air hose. I love it when a plan comes together. The Royal Air Force technicians are hard at work on Bloodhound's titanium floor and the rear "delta". It's not strictly speaking a delta: the two rear lower suspension fairings, one on either side of the car, suggest a triangle shape (or delta) at the back of the vehicle. This delta shape is a critical part of the car's aerodynamics, which must keep the Bloodhound safely on the ground all the way up to 1,000+ mph. To help us realise that shape, we've asked the experts from 71 (Inspection and Repair) Squadron to build it. We're using a lot of titanium under the car, to protect it from the furious storm of desert dust and grit that will blast Bloodhound at supersonic speeds. The problem is that titanium is hard (which is why we're using it!) and difficult to work - hence we are lucky to have the world-class expertise of the Royal Air Force on the case. The titanium floor alone has 200 separate pieces (including ribs, stiffeners, stringers, edge members, straps, buttstraps, doublers, brackets and cover plates) held together by 50 bolts and nearly 5,000 rivets. Each rivet hole involves pilot drilling, de-burring, pinning, drilling out to full diameter, de-burring again, pinning again, counter sinking and de-burring a final time. You can see why we've asked for help with this mammoth task. However, I was slightly concerned to see a picture the other day of one of our most recent "assistant technicians": Adrian Chiles, doing some drilling for BBC Radio 5Live. I did ask if Adrian had any qualifications to do this. The polite suggestion was not to ask questions I didn't want to know the answer to. Last week, all of the aluminium fin components returned from being anodised. Anodising is the process of protecting the aluminium from corrosion. Aluminium naturally protects itself with a very thin layer of oxide, which forms with exposure to air, but chemicals like salt cause the aluminium to corrode despite this. As our desert track in South Africa has a relatively high concentration of salt in the alkali playa surface, we need to protect the car from corrosion. We may only be running the car for a limited period of time, but we can't afford it to start rotting away before we're done. Each aluminium component is submerged in an electrolyte bath and a current is passed through it. The aluminium is the positive electrode, or anode (hence the term "anodising"), which has the effect of making the protective aluminium oxide layer about 1,000 times thicker. This anodised layer is still thinner than a human hair, but now protects the surface against corrosion. When we get Bloodhound up to 1,000mph next year, I want to know that the car is still as good as new, and having everything corrosion-protected is part of making that happen. I've just seen the last big parts of the suspension, the rear uprights, being anodised before delivery to the Bloodhound Technical Centre in Avonmouth, Bristol. The uprights are the big aluminium bits that carry the wheel and wheel bearings, and bolt directly to the rear suspension arms (including the rear delta mentioned above). It's going to be a big moment when we finally put Bloodhound on its wheels for the first time. I can't wait. As well as the Land Speed Record vehicle, we're busy preparing all the support equipment for record breaking. This includes a towing arm, refuelling equipment for jet and rocket motors, hydraulic and electrical power supplies, air starters for the jet engine - the list goes on. One of the more exciting bits of support equipment is our fleet of Rapid Response Vehicles. Jaguar has just unveiled the F-Type R in Bloodhound colours, with its sister XJ vehicle to be shown for the first time (appropriately) at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. If you're going to Goodwood then come and see us, and visit the new Bloodhound Driving Experience on the Jaguar stand. I've spent a fair bit of time with the software development team in the last few weeks and the Driving Experience is going to be exactly that - a real experience! Bloodhound continues to excite a much wider audience than just our engineering team. I've just come back from China, where I was invited to by the Institution of Engineering and Technology to give Bloodhound lectures in Shanghai and Beijing. After much debate about national achievements past and present, we agreed that the Bloodhound and the Great Wall both qualified as "liao bu qi" ("amazing"). Wherever we go in the world, there is huge enthusiasm for the way that Bloodhound brings science and technology to life. Right now we've got Bloodhound team members, plus a full-size Education "Show Car", spreading the word at a science event in Montreal, as part of the government's "GREAT Britain" campaign. Apparently, they've just been visited by the Dutch Royal Family, which reinforces the impressive level of global interest. As part of the Bloodhound Education Programme, we've just launched our new Model Rocket Car Challenge, with a great fun event at Santa Pod race track. There are four categories to compete for in the rocket car challenge, depending on how many rockets you can afford (and how long your school playground is). The top class is the "unlimited", with the current record set last year by Joseph Whitaker School in Mansfield, at an unbelievable 533mph. I still think the first 'Bloodhound' car to go supersonic is likely to be in a school playground somewhere. Maybe at your local school? If so, good luck! As I write, a fair chunk of Bloodhound appears to have been stolen from the Technical Centre. The cockpit and much of the front end of the car has simply disappeared from the workshop in the past few days. The good news is that it's all coming back next week, painted in the distinctive Bloodhound blue-and-orange colours. Every week we get a little closer to being finished. There are a number of challenges still to overcome and, since this is an "Engineering Adventure", this will include lots of minor problems that we don't even know about yet. Whatever happens, we've got an exciting few months ahead of us. |
A pedestrian who died after being hit by a taxi in Jersey has been named. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Norman Dean, 48, was injured in a serious crash on Mont les Vaux in St Brelade at about 20:19 GMT on Sunday. He was taken to hospital following the collision with a black Mercedes, where he died shortly after. The States of Jersey Police said investigations were "ongoing" and officers shared their "thoughts and condolences" with the victim's family "at this very sad time". |
Flights linking Aberdeen with Cardiff are to be re-introduced a year after ending, Eastern Airways has announced. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The airline said its Flybe franchise service would offer a weekday connection between the Scottish and Welsh cities from 11 November. The service had been withdrawn in October last year. Roger Hage, Eastern Airways' general manager commercial and operations, said it was aimed at the energy sector and leisure market. Meanwhile, Eastern said it was also temporarily reducing its service between Aberdeen and Wick from 11 November into March. |
Opera star Russell Watson has been added to the line-up that will see Robbie Williams flick the switch on this year's Blackpool Illuminations. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The singer will also be joined by X Factor finalist Olly Murs. Strictly come Dancing star Alesha Dixon will also be appearing at the launch on Friday 3 September. Blackpool council said demand for tickets to the event had been overwhelming with 120,000 applications for 15,000 places. Successful applicants will find out if they have managed to get a ticket in just over a week's time. Blackpool Council leader Peter Callow said: "This is an absolutely brilliant star line-up. It will be a fantastic event and a wonderful evening for everyone." The illuminations will remain switched on for 66 nights until 7 November. |
Wales' only native cheese has joined the ranks of Welsh lamb, Anglesey sea salt and Pembrokeshire early potatoes in being awarded a special status. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The name Traditional Welsh Caerphilly is protected from imitation, misuse and fraud under the European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). Gwynfor and Thelma Adams started making the cheese in 1987 when milk quotas were introduced. Thirty years on it is still made with the same original recipe. The EU protected food name scheme covers regional and traditional foods whose authenticity and origin can be guaranteed. It recognises foods which are produced, processed and prepared in a specific region using recognised expertise. There are currently 84 protected food names in the UK. Mr and Mrs Adams' son, Carwyn runs the family business, Caws Cenarth based in Carmarthenshire. Welcoming the status, he said: "It's a guarantee of its quality and authenticity, and the skill and passion involved in the making". |
Swiss National Radio says one of its journalists has been ordered to leave Sri Lanka within forty-eight hours. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The journalist, Karin Wenger, said she had been sent a letter telling her media accreditation had been denied even though she already had accreditation valid for several more weeks. Ms Wenger said she feared she had been asked to leave because she had asked uncomfortable questions at a government media conference. There has been no reaction from the Sri Lankan government. Meanwhile, the editor of the Lanka newspaper, Chandana Sirimalwatte has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). |
A 15-year-old boy is to face trial for murder after the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old man in Birmingham. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Troy Paul was attacked at about 13:00 BST on Saturday in the Kingstanding area of the city. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday and spoke only to confirm his identity. Two men, aged 20 and 24, arrested in connection with the investigation, have been released on bail. See more stories from Birmingham and the Black Country here The boy has been remanded in custody until a plea hearing on 25 September. The trial is expected to begin on 2 January 2018 and to last three weeks. |
Places of worship, wildlife and wells are among ten projects in Wales to have been awarded a share of £2.6m. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant has been invested in sites of natural, industrial, maritime and sporting heritage. It includes opening up the historic pilgrimage site at St Dyfnog's Well, Denbighshire, and documenting Connah's Quay's maritime history in Flintshire. The HLF grant aims to celebrate Wales' "rich and diverse past". Grant awards include: |
The styles of the contending campaigners are contrasting, but the goal is the same - the capture of power in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, where multi-stage elections could hold the key to national polls in 2014. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Amit BaruahEditor, BBC Hindi A lot is at stake for Rahul Gandhi, the fourth-generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty; Mulayam Singh Yadav, the old warhorse of Uttar Pradesh politics; and Ms Mayawati, a champion of India's oppressed Dalit underclass and currently chief minister of the state. As Rahul Gandhi's helicopter descends from the skies at one of his many campaign stops, several thousand people are waiting to see this aspirant for India's top job in the 2014 parliamentary elections. But, here, in Morava village, just outside the state capital of Lucknow, Mr Gandhi is fighting a semi-final battle to the big game in 2014. Even a moderate success in the Uttar Pradesh elections would mean that a tottering Congress party, which has been out of power in the state for more than 20 years, is seen flying its flag again. Clad in a flowing white tunic and white pyjamas, Rahul is constantly rolling up his sleeves, signalling that he is in the thick of political battle. His speech is direct, to the point and is aimed at Ms Mayawati, accusing the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader of pilfering money sent by the Congress-run government in Delhi for the poor in Uttar Pradesh. "Where has all the money gone?" he asks the audience. He then answers his own question - the money from the central scheme has been eaten up by the "hathi" or elephant, the electoral symbol of the BSP. He scorns former chief minister and Samajwadi (Socialist) Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's promise of providing electricity to every household in this power-starved state. There is the positive as well. The central government in Delhi has ensured that every unemployed person will get 100 days of employment a year at 120 rupees ($2.40, £1.54) per day. The Congress party has also introduced a food security bill in parliament which, if passed, will provide 35kg of grain to every poor family in the country. He repeatedly refers to the women at the rally. Clearly, he is confident that women will play a crucial role in how his party fares. Many in the audience tell me that they are seeing Mr Gandhi for the first time. Others say they have come to not just see him but to hear him out. But merely being present at the rally of a political leader does not mean that a vote for the party is guaranteed. 'No comment' From the direct message of Rahul Gandhi, the scene in Chhibramau, Kannauj district, where Mulayam Singh Yadav is to speak, is quite different. Local leaders heap praise on this veteran politician, and full-throated slogans in support of the party are the flavour of the day. Unlike in Rahul Gandhi's rally, where security was heavy, Mr Yadav's rally is quite relaxed. In his brief speech, the Samajwadi Party leader promises not just electricity but free treatment for those suffering from heart, kidney and liver-related illnesses. And, to loud cheers, Mulayam Singh Yadav says he always implements what he promises. Red-capped party supporters rush towards the man, only to be pushed back by the police. Just before he boards the helicopter, I manage to ask him what he thinks about Rahul Gandhi and his campaign. "No," he says firmly, "I don't want to comment." I persist with my question, but he refuses to answer. Careful politician that he is, Mr Yadav does not want to personalise the election especially since there is a possibility of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party forming an alliance government after the elections. A warning The third day of this election tour is reserved for a Mayawati rally. She is an unlikely woman politician who has risen to be chief minister. Unlike the other two, Ms Mayawati reads from a prepared text. It sounds more like a sermon than a speech. She is speaking to her underclass Dalit electorate, which makes up 18% of the state's population. Ms Mayawati is speaking in Etawah, considered to be a stronghold of her political rival Mulayam Singh. After a frontal attack on the central government for not providing her state with funds, Ms Mayawati does what Indian politicians do not often do. She sounds a warning - telling her flock that if they are misled by the propaganda of other parties they would be responsible for her defeat. In a country, where politicians usually go around begging for votes, she is certainly different. Her supporters, often at the receiving end of upper caste anger, are also told that their women and daughters would not be safe if Ms Mayawati and party do not return to power. Ms Mayawati is unfazed by the allegations levelled against her; and her confidence in her support base appears supreme. The crowd is large, many of them poor. Unlike in Mr Mulayam's rally in Chhibramau, there are many more women here in Etawah. Much more than the fortunes of any party or individual leader are at stake here in India's most politically crucial state. The results of these elections could well set the course for the country's national politics for the next five years. |
Daniel Craig says he is coming back as James Bond. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The actor was asked whether he will play the secret agent again during his appearance on US chat show The Late Show. "Yes," Daniel Craig told host Stephen Colbert, before standing up to shake his hand. The actor, who has played 007 in the past four Bond films, has until now refused to say whether he will do it again. But on the show he revealed he's known for a "couple of months". "We've been discussing it, we've just been trying to figure things out," he said. "I always wanted to, I needed a break." The next Bond film, the 25th in the series, is due out in November 2019. He said it will be his last outing as the spy. ""I think this is it. I just want to go out on a high note, and I can't wait." The 49-year-old was still refusing to confirm speculation about it as late as Tuesday. "No decision has been made," he told Boston radio station Magic 106.7. "I know they're desperate to get going and I would in theory love to do it, but there is no decision just yet." In 2015 he caused controversy for saying he'd "rather slash [his] wrists" than make a fifth Bond film, a statement for which he later apologised. Daniel Craig is the seventh actor to play James Bond on film. Scottish star Sean Connery first took on the role in 1962 and played him seven times, ending with Never Say Never Again in 1983. Roger Moore matched that total, between 1973 and 1985. David Niven and George Lazenby each played him once during the 1960s, while two films were released with Timothy Dalton in the lead role, The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). Daniel succeeded Pierce Brosnan as Bond and made his debut in Casino Royale in 2006. He has since played the spy in Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat |
A survey of English councils has revealed that some are continuing to make huge cash surpluses from parking charges. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The study for the RAC foundation is based on annual returns to the Department for Communities and Local Government, and includes revenue from on-street parking permits, off-street charges and parking penalties for 2012-2013. These are offset against the cost of running parking operations, leaving some councils with a deficit. Not all councils made a large surplus, but only 15% reported a deficit. |
The war in Yemen had been going on for just two months when Abdullah al-Ibbi sat down for a late-night meal with his two wives, their children and grandchildren. It was then, in an instant, that his world shattered. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sumaya BakhshBBC Monitoring The air strike that hit Abdullah's home killed 27 members of his family. He survived, but only learnt about their deaths six weeks later when he woke up in a hospital bed. "If I didn't fear God, I would have committed suicide at that moment," he recalls. "I would have jumped off a building... but God gave me patience." The family had lived in the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada, which has come under intense aerial bombardment by the Saudi-led coalition supporting the exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The air strike hit their home at around midnight, says Abdullah. Rescuers with bulldozers worked until morning to retrieve the bodies buried under the rubble. Seventeen were children - the youngest, Abdullah's granddaughter, Inas, was one month old. Three of his adult sons also made it out alive. Since the war in Yemen began early last year, civilians have paid a heavy price, with more than 4,000 killed, the vast majority by Saudi-led air strikes alone, according to the UN. Surviving on memories Abdullah spends most of his time alone now, in the room in a local mosque where he lives. He looks forward to visits from his sons, who live elsewhere in the city. The nights are particularly difficult. Abdullah sustained injuries to his head, spine and jaw and needs treatment that is not available in Saada, but it is not just the physical pain that keeps him awake. He is haunted by the memories of the life he had. "Sometimes I sleep two, three hours and then I wake up and stay up until morning... I remember my children and my home," he says. "Our lives were humble but it was a quiet life, a good life, we were happy... we lost everything." Abdullah had grown up in the central province of Ibb and later moved to Saada, opening two barber shops where he and his sons worked. "I struggled and worked over the years and built our home brick-by-brick," he said. Hope for future In the 18 months since the tragedy, despite numerous interviews and visits from representatives of various organisations, Abdullah's remaining family have received no financial support. They have been left in debt, after they were forced to borrow money to pay for medical treatment for Abdullah's son, Yunus. Yunus spent six months in hospital, having suffered heavy shrapnel wounds and the loss of one eye. "I want to give my sons their lives back. I want to see them settled in their own homes," says Abdullah. He is distraught as he names his youngest children - Ismail, Ibrahim, Ishaaq and Yaaqoub - who were always at his side. But the recent birth of his grandson has brought Abdullah joy in the midst of his unfathomable loss. His son, Ayman, has named his baby boy Ismail, in memory of his youngest brother, who was two years old when he was killed. Abdullah describes seeing Ismail for the first time: "I felt like I'd been given the world... I felt that God had compensated us for what we've lost." He says his hope is that Ismail will not see what his family has witnessed. "I hope he doesn't see this humiliation and war... I hope he has a better future." 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. |
A schoolgirl's murder has gone unsolved since she was brutally killed more than 70 years ago. Police had been hopeful forensic evidence - thought to be among the oldest such specimens in the world - may finally prove who killed her. But the mystery still remains. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Gwyneth Rees & Jordan DaviesBBC News Twelve-year-old Muriel Drinkwater was singing as she walked along the mile-long path to her home after getting off a school bus. Her mother Margaret watched from the house as the youngest of her four daughters went among the trees and disappeared from sight. It was the last time her mother saw her alive. The next day the child's body was found. Muriel had been brutally raped, battered around the head and shot twice, with her killing dubbed the Little Red Riding Hood murder by the national press. Thousands of men were questioned over the shocking death of Muriel, a schoolgirl at Penllergaer Grammar School on the outskirts of Swansea. Posters featuring the weapon used and a description of a man wanted for questioning were circulated widely but yielded no results. Despite the effort and resources ploughed into finding the killer, the inquiry remained unsolved. It had been hoped a vital piece of forensic evidence might finally lead police to the identity of Muriel's killer. A semen stain found on her coat is thought to be one of the oldest pieces of crime scene evidence in the world. It was discovered during a 2003 case review, and was used to rule out a boy who passed Muriel before she was attacked as a suspect. South Wales Police were looking into whether Harold Jones, who murdered two young girls in a town about 45 miles away, also killed Muriel. But after re-examining the forensic evidence and considering theories that Jones was responsible, they have confirmed he was not the killer. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Lewis, head of the South Wales Police's Specialist Crime Review Unit said: "The results of the forensic examination categorically confirm that Jones was not responsible for the murder of Muriel Drinkwater. "Due to advances in forensic technology, we have been able to look again at evidence from the murder in 1946 and I am now able to rule out Harold Jones completely as a suspect in this case. "I have spoken to Muriel's family to bring them up to date with the latest details of this investigation." The news will be a blow to historian Neil Milkins, who has spent 12 years researching Muriel's murder and took his theory to the police. Speaking before the results of the DNA sample were known, he said: "Harold was a convicted double child murderer - suspected of being one of Britain's most notorious serial killers. "He would have had no problem committing this murder." Growing up in Abertillery in a poor family, Jones left school in his early teens and began work as a shop assistant. But in February 1921, aged just 15, he lured eight-year-old Freda Burnell to a seed store behind the shop and killed her in a vicious attack. He hid her body and dumped it in an alley during the night. As the last person to see her alive, Jones was arrested and put on trial at Monmouth Assizes. But local people believed he was "fitted up" by the London detectives and campaigned for his release. After being found not guilty and released, he was paraded through the town shoulder high by his supporters and presented with a gold watch. Yet within days of his acquittal, he struck again. This time it was Freda's friend, 11-year old Florence Little. He lured her to his home, slit her throat, then hid her body in the attic. Upon the discovery of her remains, Jones admitted both murders and was jailed for 20 years. When he was released in 1941, he joined the army, serving in Libya before his military service ended in February 1946. Muriel was murdered four months after he left the forces, leading Mr Milkins to suspect it may be him. Mr Milkins said: "Just before he was released from prison, he told authorities he didn't want to lose the desire to kill and rape. "So it seems to me, and also psychologists, he may have gone on to kill many more times. "He was a psychopath, so calm and cool. "It seemed he could kill someone, walk away, and talk to people with no nerves at all." There is a school of thought that Jones was also Jack the Stripper, a notorious killer who strangled six women in London in the 1960s. Jones lived in the area at the time of the killings, and a 2018 investigation led by criminologist Prof David Wilson, named him as the prime suspect. Jones later went on to have a daughter, who knew nothing of his crimes, and he led an "unassuming life" until his death from cancer in 1971. As for the unsolved murder of Muriel, the re-opening of the cold case involved examining very old DNA was something that was highly unusual, according to one expert. Speaking before the DNA results were known, Dr Jane Monckton Smith, a forensic criminologist who grew up near Muriel's home town, said: "Personally, I don't know anyone using a sample so old. "It's amazing that we have come so far that we can extract a profile from it. "From what I know, Harold Jones was a sexual sadist and from my limited knowledge, I think it's highly likely he is a good suspect in a number of murders." For Muriel's niece, Margaret, she is back at square one, still waiting for an answer to who killer Muriel. She said: "Muriel was my aunt, and my mum and her had a very happy childhood on the farm. "The murder of her little sister had a massive effect on my mother and family. "Ideally, I would like to put it to rest, because it's an open case. "We still need justice for Muriel." |
New salary figures released by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) have documented that the gender gap in basic salaries has increased at senior levels. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The pay gap between men and women is exacerbated by bonus payments given to male managers which are on average double those for women, says the CMI. Male managers' average bonus payments were £6,442 last year compared with £3,029 for women. The gender pay gap increases with each rung of the management ladder, says the CMI, with male salaries already almost 25% higher than women's before bonuses are even taken into account. Male managers' earnings across all levels are rising faster than women's for the first time in five years, according to the study, while male directors' earnings rose 5.3% over the last year, compared to just 1.1% for female directors. The gender pay imbalance has remained in place despite the 1970 Equal Pay Act being in force for several decades. Experts give differing opinions below on whether equal gender pay should be enforced and how the gap should be addressed. Charlotte Bowyer, of the Adam Smith Institute The gender pay gap persists for complex reasons, and legal enforcement of equal pay risks harming women. Sexism does exist in the workplace: some employers undervalue less traditionally "masculine" attributes and skills, leading them to compare women unfavourably against conventionally "male" skills. But that isn't the only reason for the pay gap. Less women occupy senior positions, which can be reflected in terms of bonus payouts, whilst women are less likely than male counterparts to single themselves out for rises and financial rewards. Women can also be costly to employers in terms of maternity leave, getting "back up to speed" and higher days off dealing with domestic emergencies. Lower pay can therefore compensate for the opportunity costs sometimes incurred when hiring women. Blunt enforcement of equal pay doesn't address these problems, and can instead have the perverse effect of discouraging employers from hiring women. If taking women on simply becomes more expensive, some employers will be less inclined to do so. Addressing the gender pay gap should be a social issue and not a legal one. The market is amoral and well-intentioned attempts to make it fairer will fail if they come from the top down. As having women in senior corporate positions becomes less of a novelty and more of a given, workplace discrimination is likely to diminish. Furthermore, shifts towards flexible childcare choices and increased paternity leave uptake are likely to level the playing field and reduce "maternity risk". Enforcing equal pay does little to tackle the reason behind pay inequality and can easily be invasive, costly and distortionary. It's an easy answer, but it's the wrong one. Geraldine Healy, professor of employment relations at Queen Mary Although individual pay is shrouded in secrecy, it is well established that the gender pay gap has been resilient over time, despite improvements claimed in recent years. The overall pay gap is 19%, 15% for full-time workers but 34% for part-time workers. Given we have had an Equal Pay Act in force since 1975, we have to conclude that legislation has not been sufficient. The problems with the Equal Pay Act lie in its construction and implementation, not in its intention. The law has required greater diligence from the public sector through the Gender Equality Duty and now the Public Sector Equality Duty requirements, which should also cover the private sector. The introduction of fees to take a case to tribunal in July 2013 has made implementation more difficult. Individual claimant costs to lodge equal pay and discrimination cases are now £250 plus an additional £950 to hear a case, prohibitive for all but the well-paid. The current legislation is loaded against the claimant who needs huge courage and tenacity to pursue an equal pay case. There is little doubt that the law is important and needs to be strengthened and simplified for it to be effective. However, the underlying institutions of the law need to be more, not less, accessible. It is undoubtedly the case that, unless we have greater transparency in pay and in bonuses in both the public and the private sector, the prospect of equal pay remains a laudable aim rather than a target to be achieved. Thus equal gender pay regulation, not voluntarist approaches, remain essential and should be protected and strengthened, not diluted. Roger Ellis, of the British Business Alliance I would prefer the market to decide. I do certainly agree with equal pay for equal work, and I've done that throughout my career, but I'm not too certain that I like the idea of legislation to enforce it. Then you start getting quotas, saying you have to have "so" many women and "so" many men. I'm not sure that by forcing quotas necessarily means you get the right person. When you give somebody an increase [in salary] you do it for performance purposes hopefully, and that is obviously very subjective - and if you start saying equal pay then you're really saying: "Forget the idea of doing performance-related pay - just scrap that and give everyone the same salary," and I don't agree with that either. The only thing I can think of is maybe something along the lines of companies getting certain tax or capital gains advantages, according to the percentage of the women they employ - in certain bands or certain categories - and the differential in average salaries between the male and female side. [You could] give the company some sort of tax advantage or, if you like, disincentive if the gap is too wide. I think it's better done with a carrot rather than a stick. Sophie Goddard, of Cosmopolitan magazine Laws on equal pay have existed for more than 40 years, but women are still paid less than men - and it's getting worse. At the current rate of change, a baby girl born this year won't achieve equal pay until she's 97 years old. Something obviously has to be done - no woman should be paid less than a man doing the same job simply because she's a woman. But I don't think enforcing equal pay is the answer - comparing jobs and salaries across the board is mind-bogglingly complex and it's never going to be as simple as giving both sexes who share a job title the same salary. Last year, Cosmo ran a campaign calling on the government to make equal pay auditing compulsory. If companies employing 250 people or more had transparency operations in place, sharing the average wage of women employees compared to male employees (say on companies' websites), then we could finally begin to tackle the problem. After all, if we can't see how much less women are getting paid on a smaller scale, then how are we expected to take measures to close the gap? It's by no means a simple solution and needs to be paired with things like flexible working hours and better sponsoring and mentoring for women in the workplace. But it would be a good start. Suzanne Horne, partner at law firm Paul Hastings LLP Notwithstanding almost 40 years of legislation and case law, the difference between men's and women's average earnings is still 20.2%. Therefore, the report today by the CMI comes as no real surprise. In 1975 the government implemented the Equal Pay Act 1970 in line with European Treaty obligations. It was replaced by the Equality Act in 2010. Over the years, there have been notable cases where the legislation has been enforced but case law is still developing even decades later. Only last year, a hugely significant ruling by the Supreme Court found that female workers of Birmingham City Council could have six years from termination to bring their claims in the High Court, rather than six months if the claim is before an employment tribunal. The claim arose from the fact that they were denied bonuses paid to male workers. The decision means that the Council had to pay millions of pounds in back payments but it sets a precedent that can be applied to others, right up to female senior executives at board level. After all of these developments, why then do we not have pay equality? The answer is that a legal rule alone will not result in permanent cultural change. There needs to be business-led initiatives to drive a change in attitudes and pay practices. The solution to this from the companies' perspective is merit-based pay (whether salary or bonus) that stands up to objective scrutiny. If they are not willing to do this, then they leave themselves exposed to the risk that the women can decide if they wish to enforce equal gender pay in the courts. Anna Bird, deputy CEO of The Fawcett Society Today's CMI survey shows that even when women have supposedly "broken through" the glass ceiling, they still face entrenched discrimination when it comes to pay. Women at all levels of the workforce face a lifetime of earning less than their male counterparts - on average, women in the UK earn about 15% less than men. That means that for every £100 men take home, women are typically earning about £85. A range of things contribute to the pay gap - these include the undervaluing of "women's work", where jobs traditionally done by women are generally less well paid than those where men dominate, a lack of flexible work opportunities - this means mothers, who still tend to do the bulk of unpaid caring for children, can find it hard to combine paid work with family responsibilities. A sizeable proportion of the gap can be attributed to plain old discrimination - where women are paid less than men for doing the same work. This disparity in pay is one of the starkest indicators of how far we have to go before we achieve equality between women and men. The UK lags behind much of Europe on this issue. Stamping out this injustice once and for all means ushering in a more modern approach to work with greater access to flexible models of working, a more open and transparent culture around pay, and more effort to ensure women are enabled to play a full role in the workforce. Given the lack of progress in narrowing the gap in men and women's pay, the government should show leadership on this issue. The coalition's action to increase access to flexible working and shared parental leave is a step in the right direction and signals to businesses that they must also do their bit. The Fawcett Society would urge the government to match this with similar action on pay transparency. |
Emergency officials in Nigeria say more than 40,000 refugees have poured over the border from Cameroon since last October - and their numbers are growing by the day. They are fleeing violence in the country's south, where the military launched a bloody crackdown after separatists declared a breakaway state - "The Federal Republic of Ambazonia". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ishaq KhalidBBC Africa, Agbokim village, Nigeria In Agbokim village, in southern Nigeria, the BBC met father-of-four Frank Okoro, who has welcomed 28 refugees into his five-room home. Frank, 57, is a secondary school teacher and a deeply religious man. He uses his salary and what he earns from his cocoa and cassava farms to cater for his many house-guests. Some are related to his wife, who is from the Cameroonian side of the border - but others are not. He decided to take them in because their situation was so dire. But it's a squeeze to find room for so many. 'We place mats on the ground," he says. "Almost all the children are on the ground, either on mats or their mothers' wrappers - provided they sleep and wake up peacefully in the morning." The newcomers try to help with whatever he does - perhaps on the principle that there's "no food for a lazy man". As farmers, they have enough to go round. "God is helping us greatly," says Frank. But he concedes: "As the father of the home, I have to add more struggle to be able to cope." Without support from wider family or kind-hearted strangers, the refugees face chronic food shortages. They rarely get aid from local or international agencies, and lack basic healthcare services. Their children have no access to schools. But the alternative was staying in Cameroon while the military wreak havoc, they say. 'I trekked eight days in the bush' One young father, Rene, told the BBC he was separated from his wife and children when soldiers completely destroyed their village, killing several people. His loved ones managed to cross into Nigeria after a long trek, he says, with help from good Samaritans on a motorbike. But he trekked for more than a week in the bush to escape the violence - surviving only on wild fruit and water from streams. He wandered for more than two days before he found a footpath that led to the village of Bashu in Nigeria's Cross River State - where he was lucky enough to find his family. They are now hosted in the town of Ikom, about 27km (16 miles) from the border with Cameroon. "We were living in our village peacefully. All of a sudden, soldiers just invaded our community. After a few minutes we started hearing gunshots, so we were running left and right... I spent eight days in the forest, running." The 32-year-old says it was the worst experience of his life. He showed me some deep wounds on his leg which he suffered while staggering through the forests and hills. Like many refugees, he says he doesn't want to go back to Cameroon until peace returns to his community. 'I was stripped naked and thrown in the river' The women who fled speak of being assaulted by the security forces in Cameroon. Nguma, in her 20s, alleges that she and some other women were "beaten, stripped naked and thrown into the river" by Cameroon military personnel. They made it to Nigeria in boats carrying other refugees. Another woman, Regina, told me she was accosted by three soldiers while rushing home to get her children after riots broke out in her village. She alleges that a soldier grabbed her as she reached her home. "When somebody is not your husband and is holding your breast, holding you tight onto him... I was really afraid as they say soldiers used to rape people, so I started shouting. "When the army man saw my children coming out, then he left me in the house corridor." Many of the refugees who fled to Nigeria say they are still traumatised by the violence they witnessed. "If we have our independence I will go back," says Regina. "But if the war does not end, I will not go back, because I fear soldiers. Because of those heavy guns, I have some pains in my heart now. "If I hear the gun [go] boom, my heart goes inside like I want to die. I will not live with those guns inside Cameroon." There is a strong sense of uncertainty among the refugees - about Cameroon, which they have fled, and Nigeria where they are taking refuge. There are now limited routes for refugees to cross over into Nigeria because of the violent military operation on the Cameroonian side. The official routes are not accessible, so desperate people can only cross into Nigeria through the bush. What is the fighting about? Cameroon is dominated by French-speakers and the English-speaking minority has long complained about being marginalised. In late 2016, some Anglophones began protesting, saying they were excluded from top civil service jobs, and that the French language and legal system had been imposed on them. The government responded with a security crackdown and even shut off the internet to English-speaking regions for several months. But the protests have continued and some have started demanding independence for what they call the "Federal Republic of Ambazonia" - the Anglophone North West and South West provinces. Some have taken up arms and several members of the security forces have been killed. The government denies allegations of abuse. It says the military is only trying to protect the territorial integrity of the country. Find out more: Cameroon's government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary told the BBC the state was open to dialogue on any grievances, but would not tolerate any secession attempt or violent movement. Nigeria is already grappling with more than two million people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in the north - so the influx of Cameroonian refugees has added to its challenges. Most are in the southern state of Cross River and the central state of Benue. John Inaku, head of the Emergency Management Agency in Cross River, told the BBC: "So far it is a very hectic experience, and a sad one indeed for you to see an influx of people - especially when you have not budgeted for them. It becomes difficult to assemble them, not to talk of feeding them. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and the International Committee of the Red Cross are among the groups trying to help the thousands of refugees. The UNHCR has warned against any forceful repatriation of Cameroonian asylum seekers in Nigeria, saying it would be against international law. Tensions remain high in the English-speaking areas of Cameroon, and it is not clear how long the refugees will stay in Nigeria. Emergency agencies say they are considering setting up permanent camps for the swelling number of refugees, which they say could reach more than a million in the coming months if peace does not return. So it looks as though Frank's house-guests are here to stay for some time yet. |
Energy firm Talisman has awarded a £300m five-year North Sea contract to service solutions company Sodexo. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The deal, for food and facilities management services, spans 11 offshore installations, as well as Talisman's Flotta terminal, their Aberdeen office premises and the Gyda installation off Norway. It is said to have secured 300 jobs. Sodexo said its aim was for clients to enjoy the best quality of life wherever they were. |
Workers from McDonald's, JD Wetherspoon and TGI Fridays are joining UberEats riders in a strike over pay. Three women taking part in a rally in London explain why they think staff should be paid £10 an hour. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ian MurphyBBC News 'Everyone I worked with was scraping to get by' Lauren Townsend, who has worked as a waitress at a TGIs in Milton Keynes since 2010, earns £7.83 an hour - which is the minimum wage for over 25s. She thinks a wage of £10 an hour "would be enough for everybody to support themselves". "I don't think it's too much to ask in a multimillion-pound company," the 27-year-old said. "The way I see it, if they could legally pay us less they would." University student Elsie Bradley Middle has worked at a Wetherspoons in Brighton since September last year. The 20-year-old says the average wage for staff is not much more than £8 an hour which "isn't sustainable to live on". "I've had a few occasions where I've worked late nights and then had to get up early for uni. "It's difficult to find the balance and make enough time for my degree." Lauren McCourt, who worked in a McDonald's in Manchester from September 2016 until May, is joining the rally to support her former colleagues. "Where I worked we were paid 5p above the minimum wage and then they put it up to 13p when they announced the strike ballots," says the 23-year-old. "McDonald's is a multibillion-pound company and most people that work there are struggling to get by. "It's a massive struggle; everyone I worked with was scraping to get by, living in shoddy accommodation. "People end up over-working because that's the only way they can pay their rent." 'We've only got one pair of hands' Lauren McCourt says staff hours get cut at McDonald's during low sale periods like the summer and after the new year. "They cut it to a point where you can't manage. We are having to run around and do the jobs of three or four people at once. "And then you get blamed when things go wrong. You end up with worse quality food and longer waiting times." Elsie, who works about 20 to 25 hours a week at the pub, adds: "We have quite a high staff turnover. "There are a lot of times where there isn't enough staff on shifts, especially busy weeks like freshers' week or bank holidays. "It can feel quite discouraging working in [those] conditions." Lauren Townsend says she used to cover a section of about six or seven tables during a shift but that has almost doubled over the past eight years. "You try your best but if the food is taking longer because the kitchen is understaffed, and we've got extra tables and you're expected to give every child an animal balloon and do magic tricks at the table, it just becomes ridiculous. "A lot of us take pride in our work, we keep a smiley face but we've only got one pair of hands and feet. "TGIs used to retain staff which is unusual but with this last couple of years we've seen a lot of long-term members of staff leave." 'Work becomes your life' McDonald's calls its contracts "flexible" instead of zero hours, but according to Lauren McCourt staff don't know how to get a "fixed" - or permanent - contract. "We only get our schedule a few days in advance. We have no say in what days we work, which leaves you with no control over your life. "Work becomes your life, which you don't want. You can't plan anything." McDonald's says it has offered staff a choice between fixed and flexible contracts and "80% have made the decision to stay on a flexible contract". Lauren Townsend says TGIs tells workers they are not on a zero-hours contract. "But in the small print it says they reserve the right to increase or decrease your hours," she adds. Lauren also says changes to TGI's tipping policy have meant she no longer "doubles her pay in a good week" as she used to. "We really shouldn't have to rely on the generosity of the public to make ends meet, we should be on a good enough wage," she says. McDonald's does not allow employees to receive tips, which Elsie says is the same at Wetherspoons, though their website says different. "We are literally just working for the wage we get which makes it more important," she added. |
A cow had to be rescued by fire crews in Cumbria after falling 30m (100ft) down an embankment and getting stuck in a tree. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Farmer Phillip Armstrong discovered the shorthorn heifer down the steep drop of a quarry after noticing it was missing from the farm in Sheriff Park, Penrith. The 300kg cow was saved from plunging to the bottom after getting stuck on a sapling, the fire service said. The animal was sedated by a vet and winched to safety using slings. The 11-month-old bovine was left "sore and bruised" but is now back on its feet after Tuesday's fall. Mr Armstrong's mother Sandra said it was a "happy ending in the end after a very stressful afternoon". |
Use the links below to see details of who has been elected in the 2019 local elections in Northern Ireland. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Northern Ireland local elections 2019 - overall scoreboard Council breakdowns Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Ards and North Down Borough Council Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Belfast City Council Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Derry City and Strabane District Council Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Mid and East Antrim Borough Council Mid Ulster District Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council |
How much more obscure can a war get? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent@BBCAndrewHon Twitter Deep in the Sahara desert, in the vast emptiness of northern Mali, several hundred rebel fighters have overrun, and outmanoeuvred a small number of army garrisons. So what, you might ask? So a lot. The humanitarian impact of the conflict is already being felt not just in Mali, but in neighbouring Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Niger, as tens of thousands of civilians - many are nomads, but that's beside the point - flee the fast spreading insecurity that has erupted close to Mali's borders. The refugees are putting extra pressure on communities already struggling with high malnutrition rates and the likelihood of a devastating "hunger season" in the coming months. As for the Tuareg rebellion itself - it has evolved into more than a purely local quarrel. Its latest eruption is a direct consequence of last year's events in Libya. Some Tuareg tribesmen fought alongside Muammar Gaddafi's troops. Others may have fought with the opposition. They have since returned home, armed to the teeth with looted weapons, and seemingly determined to transform a half-hearted rebel movement into a serious - if probably unrealistic - drive for an independent Tuareg state, which they call Azawad. The rebels are a coalition of different factions and agendas united under a new name - the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). In a complex environment, the catalytic factor appears to be the arrival of so much new weaponry from Libya. "Why do we need to fight for independence? We already own the desert," a Tuareg friend of mine in Timbuktu grumbled down the phone this week. It is not clear yet how much popular support the rebellion enjoys. But the Sahara is not what it used to be. As the world has found quicker, cheaper ways to move goods around the continent, the Tuareg and their increasingly redundant camel trains have been left to survive on the dregs - gun-running, drug smuggling, and ferrying would-be immigrants north towards Europe. And now even the tourist trade has been taken from them. Al-Qaeda's local affiliate (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; AQIM) has found that the desert makes a convenient place to hide and to raise money. The extent and nature of AQIM's links to the MNLA is hotly disputed - some Tuareg groups appear to be close, financially if not ideologically, to the Islamist militants. But al-Qaeda's presence and its growing appetite for kidnapping foreigners for ransom have left the region even more isolated. AQIM's influence can now be seen in Algeria, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria. As for Mali itself, the rebellion is aggravating old tensions between northerners and southerners to potentially explosive levels. The army's military failures against the MNLA rebels could also have serious political repercussions, not least on the upcoming presidential election, scheduled for next month. President Amadou Toumani Toure insists he will still step down as planned, but analysts and diplomats are quietly starting to wonder whether the generals will allow him his dignified departure at such a precarious moment. Foreign interest in Mali's future extends far beyond the crackdown on terrorism and smuggling in the Sahara, with rich gold, oil and uranium deposits at stake. |
Imagine a car boot sale and you probably think of wallpaper tables covered in cheap tat. But the Art Car Boot Fair is a spin on the traditional sale. Instead of bric-a-brac, limited edition artworks by top British artists are sold from the back of their motors. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Genevieve HassanBBC News entertainment reporter Created and curated by Karen Ashton, the one-day fair spawned from an idea to hold a London-to-Brighton car rally with a boot sale afterwards. It has been running annually in London since 2004 and has just held its ninth edition. More than 70 British artists participated this year including Sir Peter Blake, Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Polly Morgan, Mat Collishaw and Bob & Roberta Smith. Artists can only have a pitch by invite and, although they don't have to pay a fee, they have to be in attendance on the day to sell their work. The event is sponsored by Vauxhall, who provide the motors - both new and classic - for the stalls to be set up around. The other similarity with the traditional car park jumble sale is that the artworks are sold for knockdown prices - with pieces changing hands for as little as £10. With the draw of big-name artists, more than 4,000 art-lovers attended the event with some queuing for hours to get their hands on affordable works. Some even camped overnight. First in line were Taylor Wright and Josh Wright, both 18 years old from High Wycombe (although unrelated, despite the surname). They started the queue at 01:00 on Sunday morning to ensure they would be the first in line. "We wanted to grab a bargain and meet some artists," said Josh, who was armed with a wishlist of artworks. "I'm quite poor so I'm only going for a Peter Blake today," Taylor Wright added. A quick straw poll of the queue found most people were also after a print by the 79-year-old, best known for his Sgt Pepper's record sleeve. His work - revealed on the day - was an A4 souvenir poster of the car boot fair which this year also celebrated the Queen's Jubilee. Limited to a signed edition of just 250, they were being sold for a mere £40 - and all were snapped up in just over an hour. Sir Peter has been to the fair every year since it began (excluding last year, when he was too ill to attend) and first sold wood engravings before becoming known for prints marking the event. 'Democratising art' For Sir Peter, the fair was a "nice day out"; a chance to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. Gavin Turk, who rose to prominence during the so-called Young British Artists wave during the 1990s, shared his sentiment. "I love the fact that the artists themselves come and sell their own work," he said. "It somehow democratises art and makes it available to more people and helps the audience understand art." Taxidermy artist Polly Morgan agreed: "It means people who can't normally afford to buy your bigger work can get something and it's a fun day out." As well as giving artists the chance to meet the people who buy their artwork, the fair also allows them to create pieces they may not ordinarily produce for an exhibition. Morgan presented a new edition at the sale, giving her take on the furry dice - pheasant chicks being strangled by octopus tentacles. Just the sort of thing you'd want to hook on your rear-view mirror. Some artists also created live works at the fair, including graffiti artist Pure Evil - recently featured on BBC One's The Apprentice - who produced signed screen prints for £20 out the back of his bright orange van. Jessica Albarn, sister to Blur frontman Damon Albarn, also gave a drawing performance in a garden shed. As well as creating some limited edition packets of wildflower seeds to raise funds for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, she spent the day drawing the insects and sold them as originals. "I like the spirit of the fair," Albarn said. "It's nice for artists to represent themselves and sell our wares without going through a gallery and you have a bit of freedom to have fun." Secondary market With art up for grabs at relatively cheap prices, a proportion of it inevitably ends up on auction sites with sellers hoping for a quick profit. Last year, limited edition Damien Hirst prints sold at the fair for a meagre £300. They were changing hands just days after for £3,000. "The whole point of selling them cheap is you hope people like and keep them, and it gives them the chance to buy something," said Sir Peter. "Certainly in the first years there were people who would come and buy four or five, but we recognise them now so we only sell one. They go on eBay and I don't like that, but it's going to happen." Morgan added: "It's a shame some people do it quite so cynically but I guess if they've been queuing for many hours or camped out overnight maybe they deserve a bit of money back." "People that buy it for twice the price are quite foolish because they could probably buy something direct from the artist for less than that." Turk also suggested immediate sales on the secondary market may not be a bad thing: "In a way, the fact the art ends up on eBay is almost quite exciting as it means the marketplace carries on even after the fair." "But on the whole, most people are buying it for themselves." Early queuers Taylor Wright and Josh Wright said they had no intention of selling their purchases after managing to snap up exactly what they wanted. "I got a Sir Peter Blake Jubilee print so I'm very happy," Taylor said. "I'm going to try and get a nice frame and keep it at home because I like it." Josh added: "I got a Peter Blake as well and a Marcus Harvey edition of five - so it paid off coming really early." The fair is expected to return next year with a retrospective to celebrate its 10th birthday. |
Europe's largest balloon festival is staged this weekend in Bristol. We trust there'll be no repeat of the scenes in Leicester in 1864. Author Jeremy Clay tells the little-known tale of Britain's balloon riot. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts The distinguished gentleman ran for his life - his clothes ripped, his hair dishevelled, a furious mob hot on his heels, baying for blood. Behind him lay the ripped-up, burning remnants of his livelihood. What with one thing and another, his balloon display hadn't gone quite as well as he'd expected. It had all started so promisingly, too. A crowd of about 50,000 people had gathered on the racecourse in Leicester that summer's day in 1864 to see the feted aeronaut take to the skies. Henry Coxwell wasn't just an aviation pioneer, he was something of a celebrity too. Two years earlier, accompanied by the meteorological scientist Dr James Glaisher, he'd soared up to the stratosphere, curious as to what might happen next. What actually happened next was Dr Glaisher went temporarily blind, then passed out. Coxwell, who had lost all sensation in his gloveless hands, could well have followed suit, had he not saved them both by opening the valve-cord with his teeth. Such shivering dash and derring-do made him a hero, so when he agreed to appear with his fancy new balloon Britannia at the Order of Forester's fete in Leicester, admirers arrived from as far and wide to see him soar into the skies. But as the punters gathered, and Coxwell made his pre-flight preparations, there was trouble afoot. "Early in the afternoon, a gentleman, reported to be a professional man, gave it out that the balloon then present was not my largest and newest balloon but a small one," Coxwell would later write to the Times. "This was a cruel libel," he added, but the rumour spread all the same. "This Coxwell," they muttered, darkly, "he's taking us for mugs." As the mood soured, the masses pressed in. With barely any police on duty to control the huge throng, "a perfect sea of clamouring spectators" broke into his enclosure, "everybody demanding an instantaneous ascent". If he expected better behaviour from the well-to-do Leicester folk who were to accompany him into the air, he was sorely disappointed. "Those who had paid their money and obtained tickets pounced into the basket in such a rude and unceremonious manner that all operations were stopped and the passengers themselves were preventing their own departure," wrote Coxwell. "One person seated in my car was a disgrace to his town, as by his gestures and foul language he excited the mob and induced the belief that there existed on my part a disinclination to ascend. "The pressure of the mob was now so great that my car was damaged, the network broken in several places owing to persons hanging on to the lower meshes, and a bottle was thrown into the balloon." Enough was enough, thought Coxwell. He appealed to the nobler instincts of the crowd and warned that unless they eased back, he would be forced to let out the gas. In return, they shouted abuse. "I forthwith executed my threat," he said. "To the astonishment of everyone," reported the Leicester Chronicle, "the canvas which a few moments before appeared, every inch of it, to be well filled with gas, began to hang loose, and flapped in the wind so much it was soon apparent that the gas was fast escaping. "All doubt on this point was soon dispelled, more especially in regard to those people immediately surrounding it (for the stench became intolerable) and every moment the size of the balloon became less and less; the wind filling its loose folds, and causing it to pitch and toss about considerably, and threatening every moment to fall on the heads of those who stood near it. "Finally, the whole structure fell into a shapeless mass on the ground." And that's when it really kicked off. "The crowd who stood around immediately seized upon the net-work and material of the balloon and tore it into a hundred shreds," said the paper. "The car was next - set fire to and burnt to ashes." Insp Haynes and Sgt Chapman, stalwarts of the Leicester force, battled manfully with the rabble, but they were horribly outnumbered. "It was brave but hard work," Coxwell wrote, "for nothing short of the destruction of my balloon, and indeed an attempt on my own life, appeared a sufficient sacrifice. "While the work of demolition was proceeding, Sergeant Chapman led me away amid yelling and derision. My clothes were soon torn and then the cry was raised, 'Rip him up,' 'knock him on the head', 'finish him'." Dashing for safety, Coxwell found sanctuary in the nearby home on the Town Clerk. Back on the racecourse, a man who had been taken for the aviator was attacked, and his coat pulled to bits. The more entrepreneurially-minded, meanwhile, began selling remaining pieces of the balloon as souvenirs. "I never witnessed such barbarous ignorance, baseness and injustice in my life," a letter-writer complained to the Chronicle after returning from the ruckus. "I feared Mr Coxwell would be killed. I was knocked down thrice myself simply for endeavouring to defend him." The correspondent added a PS: "They have burnt the balloon and are parading its remains through the town, having just passed my window." Condemnation of the brouhaha swiftly followed. A report of The London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art and Science said: "No man who commits himself to the science of ballooning can tell where or amongst what people it will carry him, as Mr Coxwell has just discovered. "It set him down on Monday amongst a horde of savages as fierce and untamed as South Sea Islanders and differing very little from them except in their habitat, which was at Leicester. "It is humiliating to think that after all the civilising influences which have been exerted upon them, so much of the savage should still linger in the blood of our working classes." In Leicester, the blame for the uproar was put on out-of-towners. Excursionists. From Nottingham, perhaps. But to no avail. The town was stigmatised. And so, a short-lived nickname was born. People from Leicester are known as Leicestrians. For reasons that needn't trouble us here, you might also hear them called Chisits. But for a while in 1864, thanks to Punch magazine, they had a new title - Balloonatics. Discover more about what life was like in Victorian times and 10 truly bizarre Victorian deaths Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. Penny Illustrated Paper image provided by The British Library Board. |
A family have paid tribute to a man who was killed when he was hit by a van, saying he would be "missed immensely". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Anthony Brown, 38, from Wolverhampton, died on the A493 between Bryncrug and Tywyn, just before 21:45 BST on Saturday. He was "loved by all" and would be "missed immensely", his family said in a statement. North Wales Police asked for any witnesses, or anyone with dashcam footage or CCTV to contact them. The family said he was staying in north Wales after arriving by train. "We know he had enjoyed a night out in Tywyn on Friday evening and was looking forward to the rest of his weekend," they said. The vehicle involved was a grey Mercedes Vito, police said. Senior investigating officer Sgt Raymond Williams said the force's "thoughts" were with Mr Brown's family and friends. |
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