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A ceremony has taken place in Invergordon to remember the Battle of Jutland, the biggest naval engagement of World War One. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The battle fought near the coast of Denmark during 31 May and 1 June 1916, involved about 250 ships. The Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in Orkney, clashed with the German High Seas Fleet. Many of the Royal Navy's casualties were taken to Invergordon in Easter Ross. Tuesday's commemoration coincided with a visit to the town on the Cromarty Firth by HMS Sutherland, a Type 23 frigate. Youth organisations, including the Sea Cadets, joined the ship's crew in a march through the town. |
Neil Armstrong will be forever known as the first person to walk on the Moon. But less well known are his early exploits as a test pilot. Armstrong risked life and limb in a variety of experimental vehicles before he became an astronaut - a career that very nearly didn't happen. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Amy Shira TeitelAuthor, Breaking the Chains of Gravity In the centre of a large, bright hangar at California's Edwards Air Force Base was a large cross made of two iron girders balanced on a universal truck joint. Six thrusters on the ends of the cross's limbs shot spurts of compressed nitrogen every time Neil Armstrong, sitting in a makeshift cockpit on the cross's forward end, moved the control stick in his left hand. It might not have looked it in 1956, but this barebones simulator was the future Moonwalker's first step into space. Armstrong's love affair with aviation began when he was six years old and skipped Sunday school to take an airplane ride with his father. Inspired, Armstrong devoured books and magazines about flying, built model airplanes, and eventually earned his private pilot's licence at 16 before he even learned to drive. In 1947, he began his formal training, enrolling at Purdue University, Indiana, in a four year engineering programme in exchange for three years of service with the US Navy. It was an interesting time for aviation. Just a month after Armstrong started college, US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. It seemed to Armstrong that he was entering aviation too late; the aircraft he'd fallen in love with growing up were being replaced by rocket-powered designs, and there were no new records to break. But it was exactly the opposite. The advent of rocket-powered flight opened a new era of flying where aviators had to be both pilots and engineers testing experimental aircraft in real-time in the sky. And the best place for this new breed of pilot-engineer was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), America's leading body for aviation research. Degree in hand and three years flying in the Korean war under his belt, Armstrong arrived at the NACA's High Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in 1955. He joined four other pilots flying anything from bombers to experimental rocket planes to futuristic simulators. The simulators included the Iron Cross. Traditional airplanes have flight control surfaces; ailerons, rudders, and elevators move a plane by pushing against the air as it flies. But a rocket plane flying above the atmosphere has no air for these surfaces to push against. Instead, they used reaction controls, small jets of compressed gas that nudge the airplane in a near-void to maintain its orientation. It was a kind of flying Armstrong needed to learn. He was training to reach the fringes of space in the X-15. The X-15 was a joint NACA-Air Force vehicle incepted not long before Armstrong arrived at Edwards to answer questions about how a man would fare flying hypersonically — faster than Mach 5 or five times the speed of sound — at altitudes so high that landing would be a close comparison to returning from orbit. Just 15m (50ft) long with a 7m (23ft) wingspan, the X-15 was launched from underneath the wing of a B-52 bomber so it could conserve all its fuel for either a high altitude or a high speed run. Armstrong only flew seven missions in the X-15, reaching a top speed of Mach 5.74 and a peak altitude of 63km (39.2 miles). He didn't reach space — the cutoff of space was set at 80km (50 miles) — but he was already on his way there. In the early 1960s, the Air Force's next step after the X-15 was to fly in space in a vehicle eventually called Dyna-Soar. Another joint program with the NACA that was transferred to Nasa when it was established in 1958, Dyna-Soar was a flat-bottomed, roughly triangular-shaped glider designed to launch vertically atop a Titan missile. It would circle the Earth before firing its engines against its direction of travel to start its fall back through the Earth's atmosphere. From there, the pilot would land it like a regular airplane on a runway. And Armstrong was one pilot selected to fly it into space, but first he had to figure out how to save himself and his fellow astronauts from an exploding launch vehicle. In launch configuration, the Dyna-Soar glider was oriented with its nose up, meaning that if the pilot ejected he would be expelled laterally and his parachute wouldn't have time to open before he hit the ground. The better option, Armstrong saw, was to use Dyna-Soar's aerodynamics. He reasoned that if the glider's engines could launch it away from an exploding rocket, any skilled pilot would be able to land it safely. Theory in hand, Armstrong put it to the test. In a Douglas 5FD Skylancer fighter jet modified so that its aerodynamics mimicked the Dyna-Soar's, he flew it low over the desert terrain until he reached a square painted on the ground to represent a launch pad. At that moment, he pulled the aircraft's nose up to begin a steep climb to about 2,130m (7,000ft), which was roughly the altitude that the Dyna-Soar's engines would carry it to. From there, he did what any pilot would naturally do: he pulled the plane over in a loop and rolled it upright before making a smooth unpowered landing on a strip drawn on the desert floor to represent a runway. It was a manoeuvre Armstrong later said he was happy he never had to fly in a real Dyna-Soar. Both the X-15 and the Dyna-Soar dealt with technologies ahead of their times, but neither was the most experimental programme Armstrong was involved in while at Edwards. In the early 1960s, Nasa was keen to move away from ending orbital spaceflights with splashdowns in the ocean; astronauts were accomplished pilots who didn't need an armada of Navy ships to pull them out of the water. The space agency was researching using a paraglider wing to land the second-generation Gemini spacecraft on a runway at the end of its missions. This novel landing system caught the attention of Milt Thompson, another test pilot at Edwards who eventually convinced Armstrong to help him build a homemade test vehicle. More from Science & Environment Armstrong's simple yet brilliant refrain about small steps and giant leaps - its intonation betraying such acute awareness of the historic nature of the moment - remains forever etched into the minds of a generation who witnessed the moon landings first hand. Neil Armstrong: 'Diffident' emissary of humankind The pilots' self-guided project was eventually approved as an official programme to spare either man dying in their own creation. With input from others at Edwards, the pair eventually built a barebones paraglider research vehicle called the Parasev. It took to the skies in 1961 with Thompson in the cockpit towed behind Armstrong in a small airplane, and though the Paresev proved paraglider landings were feasible the system was never implemented. Though Edwards had been Armstrong's ideal workplace when he arrived in 1955, things changed in April 1962 when Nasa announced it would be selecting a second group of astronauts. The agency received 253 applications by the 1 June deadline, and a week later Armstrong's was quietly added to the list; a simulation expert from Edwards was so convinced of Armstrong's potential as an astronaut that he added the late application to the pile before the Nasa selection committee's first meeting. After a series of gruelling medical and psychological tests, Armstrong was selected on 17 September. It was fortuitous timing. Dyna-Soar, Armstrong's previous ticket to space, was fast falling behind schedule and any Air Force space program was looking increasingly unlikely to leave the ground. As one of Nasa's "New Nine" astronauts, Armstrong was firmly on the path to space. Amy Shira Teitel is the author of "Breaking the Chains of Gravity," which tells the story of America's nascent space programme before Nasa's creation. Selected Sources: James Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. Simon & Schuster, New York. 2005. Robert Godwin ed. X-15: The NASA Mission Reports. Apogee, Burlington. 2000. Robert Godwin ed. Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapon System. Apogee, Burlington. 2003. Richard P Hallion. On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington. 1984. |
When popes travel, there are three levels of communication. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By David WilleyBBC News, Rome First there are the crowds, the gut reaction and the enthusiasm of the millions of faithful and of the simply curious who turn out to see the new man in white, the latest successor to Saint Peter. In Rio, the welcome Pope Francis received on the streets and particularly along the Avenida Atlantica at Copacabana beach was rapturous. Three million people gathered on the sands to hear and see him project his image of a poorer, simpler church. Then there's the religious message. During his week-long visit to Brazil, Pope Francis laid down a revolutionary blueprint for the future of the Catholic Church, not only in Latin America but worldwide. Using very simple, direct language - in contrast to the sometimes obscure and wordy "Popespeak" of his immediate predecessors - he challenged common notions of modernity and progress, and asked difficult questions of his more than 1.3 billion followers. He spoke mainly in the language in which he feels most comfortable, his native Spanish, often eschewing Brazilian Portuguese, the language spoken by his hosts. But his message came across with startling clarity. He told a crowd of 30,000 young Argentine Catholics attending World Youth Day in Rio to "make a mess" in their dioceses, to "stir things up", to shake up the comfort, self-satisfaction and clericalism of a Church closed in upon itself. "Don't forget to disturb complacency, but please don't water down the faith!" Francis said. "The Church must be taken into the streets," he said in the cathedral of Rio. "If not, the Church becomes an NGO. And the Church cannot become an NGO." This was not a call to revolution, simply an endorsement of the frustration experienced by millions of young people, both in the developing world and in industrialised countries, who have no jobs nor any immediate prospect of dignified work. In the huge beehive-shaped Cathedral of Rio, illuminated by strips of brilliant stained-glass windows, he suggested that the Catholic Church should also slow down its pace a bit. "People today are attracted by things that are faster and faster, rapid internet connections, speedy cars and planes, instant relationships," Pope Francis told the biggest gathering of Catholic bishops in half a century. "At the same time, we see a desperate need for calmness, I would say even slowness. Is the Church still able to move slowly, to take the time to listen, to have the patience to mend and reassemble? Or is the Church itself caught up in the frantic pursuit of efficiency?" Disarming frankness The third level of communication is when the Pope talks off-the-cuff to journalists. Speaking on the plane which brought him back to the Vatican from Rio, he fielded questions on a wide range of subjects ranging from how he intended to resolve the money laundering scandal at the Vatican Bank to allegations about a "gay prelates lobby" inside the Church's headquarters. He was disarmingly frank. He said he didn't know yet how the story of the Vatican Bank was going to end. A Vatican accountant is currently in jail being questioned by Italian prosecutors who believe that some Italian businessmen may have been using the Vatican as a sort of fiscal paradise and tax haven. On the question of the existence of a so-called "gay lobby" inside the Vatican, Pope Francis quipped that he still had to find anyone whose Vatican ID described him as gay. He denied outright Italian media reports about a long-ago gay scandal involving a prelate who is now in charge of the Vatican residence which is the Pope's new home. Pope Francis, the first ever pontiff from Latin America, has struck an unusual new tone at all levels of communication. Now that he is back at his desk in his modest Vatican quarters, he has some important decisions to make about the future governance of his Church. Normally the cardinals who run the Holy See are off on their long summer holidays at this time of year. But Pope Francis' seasons are not the same as those of his predecessors. In the Southern Hemisphere, where the bulk of his international flock now lives, it is winter. Pope Francis plans to spend the month of August preparing for some radical changes in the future governance of his worldwide Church. Be prepared for some big surprises. |
A couple were "extremely lucky" to be rescued from a fire at their flat which did not have working smoke alarms. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was alerted to the blaze on Chester Street in Flint on Thursday by a worker from the shop below. The fire is thought to have started in an immersion heater. Senior Fire Safety Manager Kevin Roberts said: "The couple received oxygen therapy at the scene and were extremely lucky to escape unharmed. "This fire could very easily have gone unnoticed and have resulted in more serious injuries or even fatalities." He said it was "vital" homes were fitted with smoke alarms. |
The sacking of Pakistani Taliban (TTP) spokesman Shahidullah Shahid for supporting Islamic State is the latest sign of divisions in an already fragmented militant movement. Over the years Pakistan's insurgents have spawned a bewildering array of splinter groups and factions, reports M Ilyas Khan. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Shahidullah Shahid, as he was known, was the third TTP spokesman to part company with the leadership in recent months. Before him, Azam Tariq left with the Mehsud faction of Khan Said Sajna that quit the TTP in May. Another predecessor, Ehsanullah Ehsan, became the chief spokesman for a group of Mohmand tribesmen that goes by the name Jamaat-e-Ahrar. This splintering of the TTP shows that like any other social entity, large and geographically inclusive militant groups also contain sub-groups. Back in September when the spokesman of the Pakistani army blamed an unknown group of militants - the al-Shura - for carrying out the October 2012 attack on education activist Malala Yousafzai, few eyebrows were raised. After nearly 35 years of conflict involving non-state actors, Pakistanis are used to insurgent groups breaking from the herd to launch an attack which grabs the headlines, often under one of those spiritually inspiring names from the Islamic texts. In most cases, they disappear from the scene just as quickly. The trend started in the post-9/11 period, when elements within the militant network that were uprooted from Afghanistan started to hit targets in Pakistan. These groups comprised fighters from the Pakistani tribal militants, the Punjabi Taliban, Central Asians, Arab fighters and militants from East Asia. Most of them gravitated towards the umbrella militant alliance called the TTP which was formed in 2007. The earliest such group to make headlines was Harkatul Mujahideen al-Almi, which was blamed for a string of attacks in Karachi in 2002, including an assassination attempt on then President Pervez Musharraf, the bombing of the Sheraton hotel and a car bomb explosion outside the US consulate. The group's name was similar to that of a major Kashmir-focused Punjabi Taliban group, but the addition of a suffix - al-Almi, or international - appeared to give it wider scope. It faded away soon afterwards and has not been heard of since. In 2004, a group calling itself Jundullah surfaced with an audacious ambush of the Karachi Corps commander. Then it took an eight-year sabbatical. Soon after it re-emerged it seemed to fall out with the TTP over who carried out the 2013 killing of nine foreign climbers on Nanga Parbat. Jundullah claimed the credit for itself, but the TTP said a specially established unit called Jundul Hafsa had done it. Police in Karachi have blamed some recent attacks on Jundullah, but the group itself has made no comment. As for Jundul Hafsa, it has turned out to be another one-hit wonder, at least so far. Other short-lived groups include the Asian Tigers and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Almi (LeJA), another group with a familiar name but a differentiating suffix. Both were briefly in the news during the spring of 2010. Apparently, the Asian Tigers claimed that they had captured two former ISI officials and a British journalist of Pakistani origin. Later, one of the ISI men was beheaded for "spying". Some weeks after the killing, there were reports of a series of attacks in North Waziristan in which two top leaders of the Asian Tigers were said to have been gunned down by someone calling himself the chief of LeJA. This man himself was killed along with two others by unknown gunmen two months later. The killers left a note written on a TTP letterhead accusing the dead men of kidnapping former ISI officials who "during their active service had been kind to Taliban". Make of all that what you will - it's not straightforward. More recently, the group calling itself Jamaat-e-Ahrar (JA) has broken away from the TTP. It is not clear if JA is some kind of successor to a TTP-linked group called Ahrarul Hind, which represented those elements within the TTP who believe in the "final battle for India" in which, according to them, a Muslim victory was foretold by Prophet Mohammad. The recent launching of al-Qaeda's South Asia wing is seen by many as a continuation of this strand of militant thought. All these groups seem to have grown from a common source - the Afghan mujahideen of the 1980s and their Arab and non-Arab allies who later morphed into al-Qaeda and the TTP. This process was born in the shadows of a military regime that ruled Pakistan during the 1980s and hosted a seven-party alliance of Afghan mujahideen - called the Peshawar Seven - to destabilise Kabul under Soviet occupation. The regime's ideological tilt created room for fundamentalist groups to dominate the Afghan jihad, ultimately giving rise to the Taliban movement in 1994. By 1996, when Taliban had captured Kabul and put an end to the Afghan civil war, the Arab Wahhabi groups and Salafists who had earlier left for Africa, the Caucasus and the Balkans began to pour back into the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, thereby completing the toxic mix that has characterised local militancy in the region. Since 9/11, the number and numerical strength of these groups has multiplied, and many of them have Pakistan - an ally in the US-led "war on terror" - near the top of their hit-list. Earlier this year, Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar told parliament the main TTP movement included more than 35 groups. Later, a security policy document listed around 60 groups that successive Pakistani governments had proscribed since the late 1990s. But there are dozens of others - all vying for limelight and funds. Most of them have local interests. They are natives of the areas under their control, and tend to organise into regional groups to form territorial entities. They are often named after their top commander or their area of operation, such as the Mullah Nazir group, or the Mohmand Taliban. Others have broader ideological aims. They mostly comprise fighters from Punjab province with a background in the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which exists to wipe out Shia Muslims. These fighters have links with al-Qaeda and its affiliates, especially the TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). They move in and out of larger groups either due to tactical or operational reasons, ideological considerations or internal group rivalries. Many shine for brief periods, then fade away only to re-emerge in new avatars. |
The sweeping approach along a slick set of motorway junctions is convincing enough - although there is curiously little traffic. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Chris BowlbyBBC News Then, the main terminal building comes into view - its statement entrance with huge expanses of glass and exits from a large railway station below emerging into a piazza in front. To one side stands a smart hotel. As a structure, it looks impressive enough. Until you pause, look around you, and absorb the silence. This is Berlin Brandenburg or BER, the new, state-of-the-art international airport built to mark reunified Germany's re-emergence as a global destination. It is a bold new structure, costing billions, and was supposed to be completed in 2012. But it has never opened. BER has become for Germany not a new source of pride but a symbol of engineering catastrophe. It's what top global infrastructure expert Bent Flyvbjerg calls a "national trauma" and an ideal way "to learn how not to do things". No passengers have ever emerged from the railway station, which is currently running only one "ghost train" a day, to keep the air moving. No-one has stayed at the smart airport hotel, which has a skeleton staff forlornly dusting rooms and turning on taps to keep the water supply moving. Enter the grand terminal building itself and the spooky atmosphere intensifies. Huge luggage carousels are being given their daily rotation to stop them from seizing up. There are several of them, designed to process constant arrivals. Round and round they go, smooth - but pointless. They have never processed a single piece of real luggage. Find out more What has gone so wrong in a place supposed to be the capital of efficient engineering? Listen to The Berlin Airport Fiasco. Indicator boards show flights arriving and departing. But they are using data from other airports, elsewhere in Berlin. Some of the boards tested since the airport was supposed to have opened have now had to be replaced, worn out without ever having shown a flight landing or taking off from here. The company running the airport promises it will finally open next year, which would make it at least eight years late as well as billions over budget. So what on Earth has happened in Germany, meant to be one of the world's leaders in efficiency and engineering? This is the story of how a noble ambition to transcend a troubled past was slowly suffocated by political wrangling, bungling incompetence, and the world's worst tangle of badly installed cabling. The story has its roots in the long years of Berlin's Cold War isolation. Divided by a concrete wall, marooned behind the Iron Curtain, its links with the wider world were sharply restricted by tensions between the Soviet Union and Western Allies. For West Berliners, air links to the West, which had kept their part of the city free from Soviet domination during the Berlin Airlift in the late 1940s, were something precious but precarious, highly limited and expensive. When I lived in West Berlin the 1980s, I came and went by train. For East Berliners, imprisoned by their Communist government behind the wall, the idea of flying West or around the globe was nothing more than wild fantasy. Then, US President Ronald Reagan came to West Berlin in 1987. His headline sound bite was to call on then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". Much less noticed by the outside world was Reagan's promise, later in the speech, of a new aviation future. "We look to the day," he said, "when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all Central Europe." It was a dream all Berliners could share. And after the wall did come down, in 1989, one of the first political priorities was new infrastructure - to bind Berlin together again, celebrate its status as the capital of a reunified country, and make it a new global destination. And a lot of highly impressive things were built. From a giant hole in the ground near where the wall had stood emerged a towering new central railway station, linking the city and the rest of Germany and beyond in every direction. When it came to air travel, most politicians agreed the city's existing airports - Tempelhof and Tegel in the west of the city, and Schoenefeld, in what had been the Communist East - urgently needed replacing. So, they set up a company to build an ambitious new airport. "The supervisory board was full of politicians who had no idea how to supervise the project," says Prof Genia Kostka, of the Free University of Berlin. "They were in charge of key decisions." When the global financial crisis in 2007-08 made it harder to attract a large specialist contractor to build and fund the airport, the politicians ploughed on, using public money. Martin Delius, a former Berlin city politician who later headed an extensive inquiry into what went wrong, says those in charge decided "to give 30 to 40 contracts to smaller companies which they thought they could pressurise into giving them lower prices". "They built a very complex controlling system which didn't work," he says. Most disruptive of all were decisions to change the size and content of the new airport - while it was being built. As he shows me around the interior of the new but unused airport, Michael Dorn from the company running it, FBB, says the capacity inside the terminal building was doubled - after construction began. One simple problem, bizarrely enough, was the airport architect, Meinhard von Gerkan's dislike of shopping. Joel Dullroy, a Berlin-based journalist with Radio Spaetkauf, who produced a podcast telling this airport's story, says Mr Gerkan wrote disdainfully about passengers "dragging around unwanted bottles of whisky like a beggar" and wanted to have as few airport shops as possible. But when the airport company realised this - very late in the day - it insisted on adding whole new floors of shopping into the design, as the company now makes up to 50% of its revenue from retail. Extra capacity for things such as sprinklers and smoke extraction had to be crammed in, no-one knew any more what exactly had been installed where. It was, says Prof Genia Kostka, of Berlin's Hertie School of Governance, "like fixing an aeroplane while it's flying". The constructors were also racing to keep up with a low-cost revolution in the airline industry. At first, Dullroy says, "they didn't have any gates intended for low-cost flights", only the much more expensive "jet bridges". However, the politicians supervising the airport - especially Berlin's then-mayor, the extrovert Klaus Wowereit - hated the idea of scaling things down. They insisted new departure gates were added to accommodate giant Airbus A380 aircraft, whose production has ended before the airport can open. But as low-cost carriers became increasingly influential, the airport had to add new sections to accommodate them. All these changes added to chaotic supervision meant the airport builders simply lost control of what was being done, especially the hugely complicated technical infrastructure. After a first postponement, the airport was set for a grand opening in 2012. Many involved in the construction had begun to warn of fundamental problems. But the politicians in charge, fixated on their dreams of a glamorous party announcing Berlin's new connection to the world, ignored the bad news. After invitations to an opening ceremony with Chancellor Angela Merkel in attendance had been sent out, the local official responsible for certifying the building's fire safety called a halt. He had discovered that a supposedly sophisticated system of detectors and automated alarmed fire doors was not functioning. Those running the building had instead been working with makeshift systems, which included temporary employees sitting by doors to raise the alarm with mobile phones. Mayor Wowereit and colleagues from local, regional and federal government had to announce, in a humiliating press conference, the grand opening could not take place. Suddenly, the astonishing scale of the new airport's problems emerged. New construction boss Hartmut Mehdorn made a list of all the faults and failures, Mr Delius tells me. "Small ones like the wrong light bulbs to big ones like all the cables are wrong," he says. The final total was 550,000 - more than a half a million problems to fix. What you might call chaotic cabling has been the curse of this project - and it's still dangling over the whole enterprise. They have had to put in "many hundreds of kilometres of new cables", Mr Dorn says, to replace what was originally installed. And costs have gone up all the time, with millions spent each month maintaining the building. There were some who believed - as the scale of the problems emerged - that it would be best to abandon the new airport altogether and start again from scratch. Mr Delius was one. But he has changed his mind. "There's a point of no return," he says. "It's public money. If you spend it, you need to get something out of it." So, the airport of no arrivals has, in financial terms, passed the point of no return. The management company now says the overall cost of the project will be 6bn euros (£5.3bn) - if it opens as planned next year - up from an original projection of about 2bn euros. The final sum will be paid mostly by German taxpayers, who have come to view the whole saga with emotions ranging from rage to boredom to very black humour And some have even turned this black humour into a business opportunity. Philipp Messinger and Bastian Ignaszewski have invented a board game based on the Berlin airport disaster. The main object of the game is to waste as much public money as possible. I pick up a card saying some of the escalators from the train station were built too short, needing very expensive additions. "Everything on these cards," Mr Messinger says, "has really happened." Intense attempts are now being made, Mr Dorn says, to ensure all the official permissions are obtained before the planned opening, in October 2020. And he is hoping if it does finally open, its traumatic history will swiftly fade from memory. |
Wales is bracing itself for strong winds across Sunday and Monday, with gusts of up to 80mph (129km/h) expected in coastal areas. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind between 15:00 GMT on Sunday and 06:00 on Monday. The warning covers the whole of Wales, with the Irish Sea coast set for the worst of the winds. The Met Office has said there will be "some travel disruption and possible dangerous conditions". It added that Storm Freya could cause injuries and "danger to life" from flying debris, while damage was possible to buildings and trees. It comes less than a week after Wales basked in its warmest ever February day. |
While David Cameron's officials have been frantically negotiating the draft terms of a deal with the rest of the EU, his Cabinet colleagues, those who favour exit at least, have patiently been keeping their counsel. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter Last month after all, they were instructed by Number 10 that it wouldn't be appropriate to get stuck into the arguments before the deal was actually done and the government had taken its final position. But now the prime minister has been extolling the virtues of what's been achieved without that final agreement, can that truce hold? One senior government minister told me tonight "the 'deal' is a mess" - and I understand there is debate behind closed doors over whether those who favour exit should stick to the previous deal and keep quiet until the middle of the month or gingerly begin to make the case for exit. There will be relief in Number 10 tonight that the home secretary has signalled strongly that she will back the PM. But she is not the only one with reservations about the EU. And while she broke her silence to state qualified support, others may, in the coming days, speak out to say something very different indeed. |
Polish President Andrzej Duda is a loyal ally of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) and his re-election means the party's socially conservative programme can continue unhindered for another three years. It was a narrow victory, but the high turnout means President Duda won a clear mandate, the BBC's Adam Easton reports from Warsaw. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
PiS policies, strongly influenced by Catholic traditions, are very controversial both inside Poland and in the EU. President Duda supports the government's legislative changes to take greater control over independent institutions, most prominently the public media and judiciary. But in 2017 the European Commission took the unusual step of launching a rule-of-law case against Poland, accusing PiS of undermining basic EU values - a procedure that could lead to Poland's EU voting rights being suspended. Poland is the largest net recipient of EU budget funds, and some in the EU favour tying those payments to Polish compliance with EU principles, as enshrined in the treaties. Under the current government the justice minister is also prosecutor general, giving him extraordinary power over the conduct of prosecutions. The president has the power of veto over legislation - and victory for Mr Duda's rival, liberal centrist Rafal Trzaskowski, would have jeopardised PiS ambitions. 'Our inviolable tradition' Mr Duda, 48, said he would continue strengthening the Polish state, "built on our inviolable tradition, which is sacred to all of us and in which we have been brought up for generations". He once described the EU as "an imaginary community from which we don't gain much". He is a lawyer by training, and won a surprising victory in 2015, after PiS had lost a string of elections under all-powerful party leader and candidate, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Mr Duda was close to Mr Kaczynski's twin brother and former president Lech, who died in 2010 when the presidential jet crashed in Smolensk, Russia. After PiS first came to power in 2005, Mr Duda served as an aide to Lech Kaczynski. Later he was elected to the Polish parliament and the European Parliament. He is a socially conservative Roman Catholic, who supports the government's popular and generous welfare scheme. It is symbolised by the 500+ programme, under which families receive 500 zloty (£100; €110; $125) per month for each child until the age of 18. Many Polish families have been lifted out of poverty as a result of the government's policies, and, for the first time since the end of communism in 1989, feel there is a party that cares about their needs. This is especially true in villages and small towns, where PiS has its bedrock of support. On the other hand, he has vowed to protect Polish families from what he calls an imported "LGBT ideology" that he says is aggressively trying to sexualise Polish children. He came under fire during the election, including for a speech in which he said LGBT rights were an "ideology" more destructive than communism. In practice, sex education classes in Polish state schools do not exist. Instead students have more wide-ranging "family life education" classes, which may include sex education, often led by priests or nuns. Mr Duda favours making Poland's anti-abortion law even tougher. It is already among the most restrictive in Europe. Power over media Poland's public broadcaster, Polish TV, is funded by the taxpayer and is bound by its charter to present balanced coverage of political events. Instead, in the run-up to the vote, its main evening news bulletin praised the government and Mr Duda daily and attacked Mr Trzaskowski, accusing him of being in cahoots with Jewish and LGBT interest groups. Our correspondent says PiS may want to use Mr Duda's victory to pursue greater political control of local government and the private media. But passing legislation to limit foreign ownership of critical private media is difficult under EU rules. Mr Duda, born in 1972, grew up in a family of professors in the southern city of Krakow. His wife Agata is a German language teacher and they have an adult daughter, AFP news agency reports. |
By the end of this year, HMP Oakwood in Staffordshire will be the largest prison in the UK, with more than 2,000 inmates. Run by private firm G4S, Oakwood's reputation was dented in 2014 when a wing in the prison was taken over by inmates. Sima Kotecha has been inside. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sima KotechaReporter, BBC Radio 4 Today programme This jail is big. From a distance, it looks like a warehouse. But close up, the high fences and barbed wire project an image of incarceration. The site covers 50 acres and has two workshops, one the size of a football pitch. Through security and the first set of large iron gates, we are presented with five housing blocks, or wings, as they are referred to in jail-speak. The three largest wings house more than 400 prisoners. By the end of this year, this jail will be the largest in the country with more than 2,100 prisoners. Currently there are just over 1,600. As the inmates make their way around the estate, they stop to talk. Many are quick to tell us how much they like the prison, including one who is inside for supplying class A drugs. He said: "In my cell I have a toilet and a sink, a TV, somewhere to put my pictures. It's fantastic for a prison, it's really up to date." HMP Oakwood is one of five prisons in the UK managed by G4S and the company has been battling reputational damage since a part of this prison was taken over by inmates a couple of years ago. This resulted in the jail being branded by its critics as Jokewood, a name that stuck with the media. So what is the team doing differently, if anything, to move away from that image? The staff who work here say its unique approach is based on prisoners helping prisoners to rehabilitate, and that is done through an enhanced mentoring scheme. There is also a health and legal service on site run by inmates who have relevant qualifications so that they are able to help and advise prisoners with any problems. The prison has a no surname policy here: both staff and inmates use first names only to create an informal environment. But not everybody agrees with a friend-like relationship between officers and inmates. A middle aged man who is doing time for sex offences told us such an attitude was bound to lead to more violence. "Personally I don't find it helpful to call them by their first names because I think that's almost too familiar, there is a potential breakdown in the barrier between authority and prisoner and I've seen where it's got out of control because of that." he said. In his 2015 report into HMP Oakwood, the chief inspector of prisons said levels of violence had reduced and that the use of mentoring was impressive. But he also said incidents of self-harm were high and that illicit drugs were easily available. Profit worries Violence behind bars has been an ongoing problem on a national scale with more than 20,000 assaults recorded over the last year in England and Wales. Across the lawn from Ash wing, which houses mostly sex offenders and those deemed vulnerable, a prisoner collects rubbish. He was on what is known as a basic regime, when privileges such as TVs in your cell and family visits are taken away as a form of punishment for bad behaviour. He rushed up to me to complain about life at Oakwood. "It's all about profit here. Private prisons benefit prisons more and don't help the prisoners because it's about making money," he said. "In a public prison, there is more of a routine and staff who are experienced. Here everyone is young and they don't know what they're doing." I put that question to the G4S management team, is profit the main objective here? Managing Director Jerry Petherick replied: "I never put profit before taking care of the prisoners." It is arguably an easy answer to give but some of the prisoners we spoke to were worried that a desire to make cash was driving the management to take more inmates. "We're already seeing resources being stretched because more prisoners are coming in," one prisoner told us. "And it's only going to get worse as the numbers go up. And that could lead to more disorder." A prisoner serving a life sentence for murder disagreed. He believe that larger prisons like this one give the inmates more independence to take part in the various projects and workshops on offer. He said: "I think we've been given a bit more freedom in here and trust to start the projects. "The project we run is a basic intervention group which is not running anywhere else in the country, but in fact all the prison governors are visiting us now to try and copy what we're doing here up and down the country in every other prison." Of course incarceration is not supposed to be a five star experience. But campaigners argue most prisoners will be released and that some form of affective rehabilitation in jail could prevent them from reoffending once they get out. As the number of prisoners increases here at HMP Oakwood, there is a concern among some prisoners the housing blocks will become overcrowded, which could lead to more violence and disorder. Overcrowding is a problem facing many jails in the country, and the management here tell me they are determined to bring in more staff so that the system does not crash as a result of more inmates. |
One hundred years ago this weekend, a fortnight after Armistice celebrations brought people to the streets across Great Britain and Ireland, a killer that claimed more lives globally than the four-year conflict reached its peak in Belfast. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Hannah GayBBC News NI In the week ending 23 November 1918, the death rate in the city had tripled from the yearly average for all causes. Although the recorded reasons varied, historian Dr Patricia Marsh said that the vast majority of deaths were undoubtedly related to a much-feared global pandemic - the Spanish flu. According to Dr Marsh, it is no coincidence that the death toll soared in the two weeks that followed Armistice Day. The virus was, by this stage, in its "second wave" in Ulster. "The Spanish flu had returned in October in a much more virulent wave than the previous one, and so the public were advised to avoid cinemas and other confined spaces," said Dr Marsh. "The authorities were doing their best to try and contain it, but you can't expect people not to come together to celebrate the end of a war. "You can see from the photos that there were thousands of people on the streets on 11 November. We know now that this is how viruses spread, but back then, people weren't as knowledgeable about the causes of illness." Across the whole island of Ireland, there were more than 23,000 recorded deaths as a result of the virus - approximately 7,500 of those were in Ulster. However, due to a lack of diagnosis and documentation, it is thought that up to 800,000 people in Ireland could have been infected, according to Dr Ida Milne, of Maynooth University. The pandemic is estimated to have killed up to 100 million people worldwide, reaching countries across the globe, as well as remote pacific islands and even the Arctic. The movement of troops and goods in a post-war world allowed the respiratory illness to be transported trans-nationally. In the shadow of World War One, many people were left malnourished and with weak immune systems, making them more susceptible to illness. Unusually, the virus also affected the 20-40 age group more than any other section of the population, so "strong, young adults, parents and workers, were wiped out by it", said Dr Marsh. To make matters worse, many doctors and nurses had been killed while working on the Western Front, so the medical industry was not fully equipped to deal with another disaster. Public places, such as cinemas and schools, were closed to prevent the spread of the flu and people were advised to keep their hands clean and to refrain from spitting. According to Dr Marsh, Belfast was the first location in Ireland where signs of Spanish flu were detected. From there, it spread across the rest of Ireland, thriving in densely populated towns and cities; factories, where workers gathered in close quarters, encouraged the virus to spread. "Newry also had a high mortality rate, which remains more of a mystery, but the nearby port, with its merchant ships, could have been the reason as to why the death rate was so high," said Dr Marsh. "It was recorded as returning to Northern Ireland on 9 October in Larne - probably because of the harbour." Despite being a rural farming area, County Donegal also experienced great losses. According to Dr Marsh, the Catholic tradition of holding wakes for the deceased is likely to have been a primary cause of death within the county. "Many believed an infected corpse would have been contagious, but it was actually the gatherings in confined spaces that would have caused the spread," she explained. "Many members of the farming community died in Donegal. If one infected person entered a small cottage at an event such as a wake, the disease would spread like wildfire." Rosaleen McQuillan Crilly, whose family descended from Hannahstown village on the outskirts of Belfast, has some knowledge of the horror the virus caused. Her father, John McQuillan, was born in September 1918. "Tragedy struck the McQuillan family when my father was eight weeks old, as they were caught by the epidemic that was sweeping across Europe," she said. Triple funeral "My grandfather, Johnny, died from the flu on 12 November 1918, aged just 30 years. His sister, Elizabeth, passed away the very next day, aged just 32 years, as well as their mother Mary, aged 58 years. "Both granddad and Elizabeth's death certificates state the cause of death to be influenza and septic pneumonia, and great-grandmother Mary's stated influenza and heart failure." Their gravestone is a subtle reminder of just how badly the 1918 influenza pandemic devastated both society and communities in the post-World War One world. Today, there remains no official commemoration site marking the pandemic and it is rarely included in school history curriculums. However, evidence of the lives lost can be found on gravestones, in obituaries, in newspapers and within stories passed down through the generations. "There was death everywhere," said Dr Marsh. "When you think about 23,000 deaths in Ireland in the space of nine months - more than the total for the War of Independence that followed - when you think about whole families dying together, countless children left orphaned across Ireland, the horror of that is quite unimaginable in this day and age." *This is an amended version of the original report. The reference in the second paragraph to the number of people who died in November 1918 has been corrected. |
BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru both ended 2016 with a small rise in the number of listeners compared with the rest of the year, figures have shown. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Radio Wales attracted 375,000 listeners while Radio Cymru had 114,000 people tuning in during the last quarter. The weekly reach figures released by audience researcher Rajar were up on previous quarters in the year. Between April and June, listening numbers were at their lowest level since 1999. |
A man has been arrested after a boy suffered life-threatening injuries when he was struck by a car in a hit-and-run. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 13-year-old pedestrian was taken to hospital with head injuries following the crash in Melbury Avenue, Poole, Dorset, at 14:27 BST on Friday. Dorset Police said it was reported the driver did not stop at the scene. A 28-year-old man, from Poole, has since been arrested on suspicion of driving offences. Police are appealing for witnesses. |
Ten jobs could be lost with the closure of the Aberdeen Journals shop in the city's Union Street, it has been announced. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Owners DC Thomson said its intention was to close its retail shop in March. The company said the shop was "no longer financially viable to sustain", placing about 10 positions at risk. A company spokesperson said: "We intend to work with our staff to ensure the best possible outcome for each individual." The statement added: "In the current economic climate our Aberdeen shop was becoming increasingly less viable so we're concentrating on what we do best." |
As 75-year-old paedophile Douglas Slade is jailed for child abuse and rape, the BBC examines his links to notorious 1970s group the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which campaigned to legalise sex with children. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It is hard to comprehend now but in the 1970s Slade openly ran a helpline for child sex abusers from his parents' home in suburban Bristol. As he was sentenced at the end of his recent trial, the judge said Slade had "boasted of his involvement" with PIE. The group campaigned for "children's sexuality", calling on the government to axe or lower the age of consent so that adults could have sex with children without breaking the law. It existed for more than 10 years and received invitations from student unions, won sympathetic media coverage and found academics who supported its campaign. It was even affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties - now Liberty. Joining PIE was easy; according to a Times report in February 1977 just an application and a cheque for £4 was needed. By October 1976 it was reported that the group had 200 members. But behind this questionable veneer of respectability, Slade was a "manipulative and dangerous man," who helped members of PIE groom vulnerable children; passing victims between themselves for sex. Det Sgt Paul Melton, from Avon and Somerset Police, spent years building a case against Slade. He said Slade "was one of the main instigators" of the group, seemingly impervious to the law, who were running a "helpline" for paedophiles, passing on advice to other members about how to groom and abuse children. "They took advantage of the trends of the time," said Gabrielle Shaw, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood. "In the mid-70s it was all about the fight for civil liberties and the trend towards sexual freedom... what it was really about was to normalise sex with children." Victim's story Robert - not his real name - met Slade in 1980 when he was 15 years old. He was repeatedly raped and offered to other men during visits to Slade's Bristol home. "I was in a desperate situation at home," he recalls, "I was looking for somewhere that would be a refuge for me." But instead of a sanctuary, Robert unwittingly found himself at the centre of an organised network of paedophiles who systematically raped and abused him. It was a combination of mistrust and conflicting emotions that prevented Robert reporting his abuser: "Slade showed me what I thought was affection and, because of my home life, it was something I was desperate for... he treated me very kindly. "He groomed me so I was malleable and would be used for the sexual gratification of him and other men." Slade's sexual abuse of boys was exposed in 1975 when a Sunday newspaper described him as one of "the vilest men in Britain". They named him and two other men, linking them to PIE, but, despite the headlines, Slade continued abusing children and the group carried on campaigning. A series of explosive investigations in the 1980s finally triggered the group's demise. In 1983, Scotland Yard was handed a dossier about PIE by a headmaster, Charles Oxley. He said he had infiltrated the group, which he claimed had about 1,000 members. Finally the authorities acted and PIE's chairman Tom O'Carroll was jailed for two years. By 1984 the group had disbanded. However, Slade himself managed to evade prosecution and in 1985 moved to the Philippines. He boasted he could pay off anyone who became suspicious of him. Avon and Somerset Police would later fight a six-year battle to have him deported, and he was finally arrested by Filipino immigration authorities. In 2015, he arrived back in the UK to face eight charges of sexual abuse. During police interviews, Det Sgt Melton said Slade "possessed a certain arrogance" and was in "complete denial" about his actions. "He's an extremely manipulative man... he's a dangerous man." For the victims of the PIE paedophiles, the conviction of Slade provides some form of closure. "They are sexually driven and have no compassion, not for me or the many, many children they have abused," said Robert. "I don't believe they have any thoughts for what they have done; they don't believe they have done anything wrong - for them it's perfectly natural." |
For more than a month, Rajeshwari, a 42-year-old temple elephant in India, lay desultorily on a patch of sand, her forelimb and femur broken and her body ravaged by sores. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent An animal lover went to the court, seeking to put her down. The court said the pachyderm could be "euthanised" after the vets examined her. On Saturday afternoon, she died anyway. Rajeshwari had led a hard life since she was sold to the temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in 1990. She would stand on stone floors for long hours to bless devotees and perform rituals like pouring or bringing water to the deities. In 2004, she fell from an open truck on the way to a "rejuvenation" camp for captive elephants and broke her leg. She lived in pain ever since with a misshapen limb. Recently, she broke her femur when authorities used an earthmover to flip her and treat her. After that, say activists who visited the temple to check on her condition, the largely disabled pachyderm just wasted to death. Rajeshwari's tragic story mirrors the sorry state of many of 4,000 captive elephants in India, mostly in the states of Assam, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. India, according to a World Animal Protection report, is widely considered the "birthplace of taming elephants for use by humans" - a practice which began thousands of years ago. (In comparison, India has 27,000 elephants in the wild.) In southern India, pachyderms are rented out during religious festivals for noisy parades and processions, including weddings and shop and hotel openings. They travel long distances in open vehicles and walk on tarred roads in the scorching sun for hours. (They have often gone on the run at temple festivals and killed devotees.) Elsewhere, chained and saddled elephants are used for rides, sometimes carting tourists up and down steep forts, or entertaining tourists who wish to touch, bathe and ride them. They are also hired by political parties for campaign processions, and by companies for promoting their goods in trade fairs. They are rented out for tourism in the national parks, used for anti-depredation squads, logging activities and lately even for begging on highways. According to media reports, more than 70 captive elephants have died under "unnatural conditions and at a young age" in private custody in just three states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan - between 2015 and 2017. Some 12 captive elephants have died this year in Kerala alone. "Most of these deaths are due to torture, abuse, overwork or faulty management practices," says Suparna Ganguly, president of the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. 'Gross ignorance' It's not surprising to see why. Lack of space and habitat to exercise and graze in natural surroundings means elephants lodged in captivity are shackled for long hours in concrete sheds with stone floors. This is enough to make the animal sick. They usually get foot rot, a condition where their feet develop abscesses and thinning pads, sometimes leading to severe infection. When outside, constant exposure to the glare of sun can affect their eyesight. Ms Ganguly blames this on "gross ignorance on part of the keepers and managers". Then there's the poor diet. Elephants are slow eaters, and in the wild typically eat more than 100 kinds of roots, shoots, grasses, foliage and tubers. In captivity, their diets are severely restricted. In parts of northern India, for example, the animals have access only to glucose-rich dried sugarcane fodder. Vets say many of them suffer from intestinal infection, septicaemia and lung-related infections. The life expectancy of captive elephants in Kerala, according to a report, has dipped to below 40 years from 70-75 years a couple of decades ago. There's not even enough places to shelter rescued and ailing elephants. There are five of them in India - including three private rescue centres - that house some 40 elephants, not enough considering the high population of captive animals. Tamil Nadu holds month-long rejuvenation camps for temple elephants, where the animals can rest, get treated and interact with other elephants in a natural environment. Elephants are trucked into these camps from distant places and many elephants have had accidents resulting in deaths due to their inability to cope with road transport or because they fall down from trucks. India's Supreme Court has outlawed the sale and exhibition of elephants at a well-known animal fair, and directed authorities to ban the use of elephants in religious functions to reduce their demand. More than 350 captive elephants in Kerala and Rajasthan are "illegal" - they don't have any ownership papers. Despite adequate laws - including a powerful animal protection law and guidelines to protect captive elephants - not enough is being done to protect them, say activists. Lucrative trade One reason is captive elephants are a lucrative trade. The owner of an elephant in Kerala, for example, can easily make up to 70,000 rupees ($1053; £754) for a single day's appearance at a religious festival during the busy season. "For the first time in the history of India's captive elephant business, the murky underworld of elephant trade has been split wide open - decades of elephant trafficking, the ghastly nexus between poachers capturing young elephants and their collusion with private trade coupled with neglect, corruption and apathy on part of government departments have led to the unacceptable conditions today," says Ms Ganguly. The top court is expected to pass further - and final orders - on protection of the mistreated elephants soon. There may be hope yet. |
A railway timetable introduced to help train drivers cope with leaves on the line in south-east England has come into effect. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Southeastern Trains, which runs services in Kent and East Sussex, said its autumn "leaf fall" timetable would run until 7 December. Drivers have to take extra precautions, such as braking and accelerating more slowly, with leaves on the line. Routes with more trees have been described as "particularly vulnerable". Network Rail said it operated a fleet of special trains throughout autumn that regularly clean the rails to remove fallen leaves, but wet, cold and frosty weather could exacerbate the problems. |
Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Where do they come from? The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia. Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims. Kurdistan: A State of Uncertainty Why don't they have a state? In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan". After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed. Aiming to change the outcome of World War One Why were Kurds at the forefront of the fight against IS? In mid-2013, the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) turned its sights on three Kurdish enclaves that bordered territory under its control in northern Syria. It launched repeated attacks that until mid-2014 were repelled by the People's Protection Units (YPG) - the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). An IS advance in northern Iraq in June 2014 also drew that country's Kurds into the conflict. The government of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region sent its Peshmerga forces to areas abandoned by the Iraqi army. In August 2014, the jihadists launched a surprise offensive and the Peshmerga withdrew from several areas. A number of towns inhabited by religious minorities fell, notably Sinjar, where IS militants killed or captured thousands of Yazidis. In response, a US-led multinational coalition launched air strikes in northern Iraq and sent military advisers to help the Peshmerga. The YPG and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades and has bases in Iraq, also came to their aid. In September 2014, IS launched an assault on the enclave around the northern Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee across the nearby Turkish border. Despite the proximity of the fighting, Turkey refused to attack IS positions or allow Turkish Kurds to cross to defend it. In January 2015, after a battle that left at least 1,600 people dead, Kurdish forces regained control of Kobane. The Kurds - fighting alongside several local Arab militias under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, and helped by US-led coalition air strikes, weapons and advisers - then steadily drove IS out of tens of thousands of square kilometres of territory in north-eastern Syria and established control over a large stretch of the border with Turkey. In October 2017, SDF fighters captured the de facto IS capital of Raqqa and then advanced south-eastwards into the neighbouring province of Deir al-Zour - the jihadists' last major foothold in Syria. The last pocket of territory held by IS in Syria - around the village of Baghouz - fell to the SDF in March 2019. The SDF hailed the "total elimination" of the IS "caliphate", but it warned that jihadist sleeper cells remained "a great threat". The SDF was also left to deal with the thousands of suspected IS militants captured during the last two years of the battle, as well as tens of thousands of displaced women and children associated with IS fighters. The US called for the repatriation of foreign nationals among them, but most of their home countries refused. In October 2019, US troops pulled back from the border with Turkey after the country's president said it was about to launch an operation to set up a 32km (20-mile) deep "safe zone" clear of YPG fighters and resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees there. The SDF said it had been "stabbed in the back" by the US and warned that the offensive might reverse the defeat of IS, the fight against which it said it could no longer prioritise. Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels made steady gains in the first few days of the operation. In response, the SDF turned to the Syrian government for help and reached a deal for the Syrian army to deploy along the border. The Syrian government has vowed to take back control of all of Syria. What has Kobane battle taught us? Raqqa: The city fit for no-one Why does Turkey see Kurds as a threat? There is deep-seated hostility between the Turkish state and the country's Kurds, who constitute 15% to 20% of the population. Kurds received harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities for generations. In response to uprisings in the 1920s and 1930s, many Kurds were resettled, Kurdish names and costumes were banned, the use of the Kurdish language was restricted, and even the existence of a Kurdish ethnic identity was denied, with people designated "Mountain Turks". In 1978, Abdullah Ocalan established the PKK, which called for an independent state within Turkey. Six years later, the group began an armed struggle. Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. In the 1990s the PKK rolled back on its demand for independence, calling instead for greater cultural and political autonomy, but continued to fight. In 2013, a ceasefire was agreed after secret talks were held. The ceasefire collapsed in July 2015, after a suicide bombing blamed on IS killed 33 young activists in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc, near the Syrian border. The PKK accused the authorities of complicity and attacked Turkish soldiers and police. The Turkish government subsequently launched what it called a "synchronised war on terror" against the PKK and IS. Since then, several thousand people - including hundreds of civilians - have been killed in clashes in south-eastern Turkey. Turkey has maintained a military presence in northern Syria since August 2016, when it sent troops and tanks over the border to support a Syrian rebel offensive against IS. Those forces captured the key border town of Jarablus, preventing the YPG-led SDF from seizing the territory itself and linking up with the Kurdish enclave of Afrin to the west. In 2018, Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels launched an operation to expel YPG fighters from Afrin. Dozens of civilians were killed and tens of thousands displaced. Turkey's government says the YPG and the PYD are extensions of the PKK, share its goal of secession through armed struggle, and are terrorist organisations that must be eliminated. Turkey's fear of a reignited Kurdish flame Profile: The PKK What do Syria's Kurds want? Kurds make up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population. Before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011 most lived in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in three, non-contiguous areas around Kobane, Afrin, and the north-eastern city of Qamishli. Syria's Kurds have long been suppressed and denied basic rights. Some 300,000 have been denied citizenship since the 1960s, and Kurdish land has been confiscated and redistributed to Arabs in an attempt to "Arabize" Kurdish regions. When the uprising evolved into a civil war, the main Kurdish parties publicly avoided taking sides. In mid-2012, government forces withdrew to concentrate on fighting the rebels elsewhere, and Kurdish groups took control in their wake. In January 2014, Kurdish parties - including the dominant Democratic Union Party (PYD) - declared the creation of "autonomous administrations" in the three "cantons" of Afrin, Kobane and Jazira. In March 2016, they announced the establishment of a "federal system" that included mainly Arab and Turkmen areas captured from IS. The declaration was rejected by the Syrian government, the Syrian opposition, Turkey and the US. The PYD says it is not seeking independence, but insists that any political settlement to end the conflict in Syria must include legal guarantees for Kurdish rights and recognition of Kurdish autonomy. President Assad has vowed to retake "every inch" of Syrian territory, whether by negotiations or military force. His government has also rejected Kurdish demands for autonomy, saying that "nobody in Syria accepts talk about independent entities or federalism". Will Iraq's Kurds gain independence? Kurds make up an estimated 15% to 20% of Iraq's population. They have historically enjoyed more national rights than Kurds living in neighbouring states, but also faced brutal repression. In 1946, Mustafa Barzani formed the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to fight for autonomy in Iraq. But it was not until 1961 that he launched a full armed struggle. In the late 1970s, the government began settling Arabs in areas with Kurdish majorities, particularly around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and forcibly relocating Kurds. The policy was accelerated in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, in which the Kurds backed the Islamic republic. In 1988, Saddam Hussein unleashed a campaign of vengeance on the Kurds that included the chemical attack on Halabja. When Iraq was defeated in the 1991 Gulf War, Barzani's son Massoud and Jalal Talabani of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led a Kurdish rebellion. Its violent suppression prompted the US and its allies to impose a no-fly zone in the north that allowed Kurds to enjoy self-rule. The KDP and PUK agreed to share power, but tensions rose and a four-year war erupted between them in 1994. The parties co-operated with the US-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam and governed in coalition in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), created two years later to administer Dohuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya provinces. Massoud Barzani was appointed the region's president, while Jalal Talabani became Iraq's first non-Arab head of state. In September 2017, a referendum on independence was held in both the Kurdistan Region and the disputed areas seized by the Peshmerga in 2014, including Kirkuk. The vote was opposed by the Iraqi central government, which insisted it was illegal. More than 90% of the 3.3 million people who voted supported secession. KRG officials said the result gave them a mandate to start negotiations with Baghdad, but then Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi demanded that it be annulled. The following month Iraqi pro-government forces retook the disputed territory held by the Kurds. The loss of Kirkuk and its oil revenue was a major blow to Kurdish aspirations for their own state. After his gamble backfired, Mr Barzani stepped down as the Kurdistan Region's president. But disagreements between the main parties meant the post remained vacant until June 2019, when he was succeeded by his nephew Nechirvan. Iraqi Kurdistan: State-in-the-making? Iraqi Kurdistan profile |
On the Falls Road, heart of Republican Belfast. there's a new sense of purpose. Sinn Fein pulled the plug on Stormont, did well in the elections and are now, like the Scottish government, demanding a referendum on their future destiny. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mark MardellPresenter, The World This Weekend@BBCMarkMardellon Twitter Brexit - rejected by 55.8% of voters in Northern Ireland - is seen as just the latest imposition by England. It has given a new momentum to their whole reason for existing: the belief the island of Ireland should be one country. Everywhere down the Falls there are reminders of those who killed and died for a united Ireland: here a mural of a young man with a rifle, there a huge sepia portrait celebrating the provisional Irish government set up in 1922. But there are new signs too, lots of them. Sinn Fein's latest posters say West Belfast stands against Brexit. The referendum has changed politics here, as all over the UK, even on party night. The West is gyrating in a sea of joyous green on St Patrick's Day. The social club on the Falls Road in Belfast is packed full of people dancing and drinking. Some merely wear a token green T-shirt or badge, but several women are in elaborate emerald dress, men in bowlers or stetsons of the appropriate shade: any culture you like as long as its Irish. Inevitably one man is dressed as that most emerald of animals, a crocodile. Here even the plush is political. It's the greatest day of the year, says one woman: about Irishness, about all of Ireland. Does she feel British at all, I ask . "Not at all, definitely Irish." British as well as Irish? I ask another reveller. "No, no, pure Irish." And another tells me: "Irish 100%." What Mrs May calls the UK, the "precious union of nations… the most successful the world has ever known", is seen very differently here. They are in no doubt about Brexit, either - they are against it, unless you mean exiting from Britain, casting off what they see as the last shackles of the English Empire. "We're not the UK, we're Ireland. We should have the right to vote. Theresa May is a fascist," one man tells me. They fear a return to a real border between the Republic and Northern Ireland. "Borders! Nobody wants 'em. We're nationalists here. Loyalist don't want it. Business people don't want it." Hence the renewed demand for an all-Ireland referendum is being made by Sinn Féin as they look to exploit their success in the recent elections. You can believe they pulled out of Stormont in a row over an obscure environmental scheme if you want. But the real story is deeper. Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister over the handling of the botched energy scheme that could cost £490m. But others forces were also in play. Sinn Fein activists were increasingly feeling they got little out of devolution, that their partners in government, the DUP, were treating them without respect. So they brought the whole thing crashing down. If they do not do a post-election deal in the coming weeks then there will have to be new elections or London will take over: that's called "direct rule". The prime minister appears to have ruled that out. The negotiations are a poker game but Sinn Fein has little to lose by blinking first. Their supporters want real movement on issues dear to their hearts, and a re-run of the election might see them increase their vote. The real thorny issues are old ones, about the role of the Irish language and what are known euphemistically as "legacy issues'': whether people should face criminal prosecution for what they did during the Troubles. The DUP's Nelson McCausland, who lost his assembly seat at the recent election, say this is not an opportunity for Sinn Fein, but a full stop. "There has been over a number of years within Sinn Fein a concern they had not delivered on their united Ireland dream. What they have used over the years is the European Union and European harmonisation to promote the idea that we are being harmonised with the Republic. Brexit puts a stop to that." Unionists hardly need to argue against the call for a referendum. The British secretary of state only needs to agree to one if, in the words of the act "it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting" want a united Ireland. Pretty hazy. And not a single opinion poll or commentator suggests there is that majority. But the next day I return to the Falls and find a different picture at a language school from the hard line espoused by some of those at the West social club. Five people and their teacher sit around the table practising their Irish conversation. Among them, Linda Ervine who's been learning the language for six years. "Because I am from the Protestant community I never had the opportunity to engage with the language and I fell in love with it." She says there are many links with her own heritage. "We've been very separate, British identity, Irish identity but in the last few years a Northern Irish identity is coming through more and more. For me I see myself as Irish and British, I don't see that as a contradiction." And there's the flood of people - including many Unionists and Protestants - applying for Irish passports in the wake of Brexit. The Belfast Newsletter newspaper's Sam McBride sees big changes under way. "Unionism is facing a crisis at the moment, a seismic change.," he said. "The fundamental question is that there is a significant number of Catholics who support the union with the United Kingdom - why are they not voting for unionist parties? I think the answer is the trappings of Orangism and Protestantism put those people off." There are straws in the wind across the border too. The cabinet in Dublin decided that eventually all Irish passport holders, including in the North, will be able to vote in presidential elections. The opposition party Fianna Fail is preparing is own white paper on plans for a united Ireland. But Republican commentator Chris Donnelly, like most observers on both sides of the divide, thinks there will not be a referendum, and it couldn't be won because many from that tradition feel more economically secure in the North. "I think Sinn Fein know in their heart of hearts they are 20, 25 years away from when a border poll could actually have a credible chance of being won. It's an example of "Hail Mary" politics. It's a lottery move, its not going to happen but it is keeping the issue alive at the centre of political discussions." While we all get used to all new politics of identity, it has been the language of debate in Northern Ireland for centuries. Brexit has muddied the political waters. And a new political space may be up for grabs. |
"Did you see me at Comic Con?!" | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
That's the question Lupita Nyong'o asked her Twitter followers last night after she'd appeared on the panel for her new film. But they probably weren't expecting her to reveal herself as the pink Power Ranger who'd been running around the San Diego convention last week. She posted a video of herself dancing and posing with other fans, who had no idea that they were actually meeting a Hollywood actress. Watch the video of Lupita Nyong'o at Comic Con. The 34-year-old is the latest in a long line of stars to attend the world famous event in cosplay. Given Comic Con is a huge gathering of superfans from around the globe, it's the only way celebrities can get around without being swamped. And given Lupita Nyong'o is in Star Wars and the new Marvel film Black Panther, she's likely to be top of people's selfie lists. She even managed to track down a figurine of Maz Kanata, her character in Star Wars. Fan Cat Staggs passed by Lupita Nyong'o without even knowing. Carrington J Tatum imagins what it would be like to "have Lupita Nyong'o unmask herself" to you. Meanwhile, Noah J Nelson says that this disguise will become "iconic". In 2013, Breaking bad actor Bryan Cranston decided to conceal his identity with a mask - of his own face. The same year, Doctor Who star Matt Smith disguised himself as Bart Simpson to avoid being recognised. Matt Smith also put on an American accent to cover his identity. A year later, Maisie Williams donned a Spider-Man mask to blend in with the other cosplayers. Maisie Williams reveled her identity on Instagram. And in 2015, Ryan Reynolds went with a Star Wars theme for his disguise. Ryan Reynolds claimed he donned the mask because he was late for his panel. Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat |
Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte's defence team have closed their case in his fraud trial after deciding not to call any witnesses. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mr Whyte's QC Donald Findlay read a joint minute of agreed evidence at the High Court in Glasgow. Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC will now sum up on Thursday, before Mr Findlay concludes on Friday. Mr Whyte is accused of acquiring Rangers by fraud. He denies the charge and another under the Companies Act. The trial, before judge Lady Stacey, was adjourned for the day and will continue on Thursday. |
A man and woman in their 60s have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was found with stab wounds on an industrial estate. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 37-year-old is in a critical condition, police in Birmingham said. He was found on Camp Hill Industrial Estate in Bordesley at 06:30 GMT on Friday, following a disturbance earlier in Priestley Road, Sparkbrook. A man aged 65 and a woman, 60, are being questioned over what detectives believe is a domestic incident. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. |
Charlie Sheen's character in US TV show Two And A Half Men is to be given a funeral when the series returns in September, according to reports. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
US website Deadline Hollywood said Charlie Harper's home would also be sold off and Sheen's replacement, Ashton Kutcher, would be introduced. The storyline comes after Sheen was sacked from the show in March after criticising its producers. Broadcaster CBS and programme makers Warner Brothers declined to comment. Sheen lost his job after months of reported drug and drink-fueled partying and repeated spells in rehab. The studio said it had acted after "careful consideration". At the time Sheen was the highest paid actor on US television. The star has since signed a deal for a new series called Anger Management, but the show has yet to be taken up by any TV networks. |
A man has appeared in court charged with murdering his 38-year-old wife who was found dead in their home. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The asphyxiated body of Sarbjit Kaur was discovered on 16 February in Rookery Lane, Penn, Wolverhampton. Gurpreet Singh, 42, her businessman husband, appeared before Birmingham Magistrates' Court earlier charged with Mrs Kaur's murder. Mr Singh, of Rookery Lane, will appear before Wolverhampton Crown Court on Monday 14 May. Related Internet Links HM Courts & Tribunals Service |
It's no good bailing out the banks if you can't bail out the economy. That, in a nutshell, is the judgement that financial markets seem to have been making about Spain in the past few days. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Stephanie FlandersFormer economics editor For weeks, all we heard from financial analysts was that Spain's banks needed rescuing, and the Spanish government didn't have enough money to do it. Finally, this weekend, the prime minister swallowed his pride and asked for that support. But the market relief has been short-lived, even by the standards of past eurozone "bailouts". At one point today the interest rate on a 10-year Spanish government bond had risen to 6.8% - the highest since the euro began. The gap between Spanish and German long-term borrowing rates also reached a record high, as did the cost of insuring against a Spanish sovereign default. Why are investors still so gloomy about Spain? One part of the explanation is probably our old friend, political uncertainty. The Greek election looms large on the horizon, and the agenda for the European summit at the end of next month looks painfully ambitious. No-one knows, yet, what Chancellor Merkel will be willing to sign up to at that meeting - if, indeed, she is ready to sign up to anything at all. As Robert Peston has succinctly reminded us, she has good reason to be wary of the talk of a European "banking union" now coming out of Brussels. And so has the Bundesbank. But the core of the problem for Spain - reflected very clearly in the market movements of the past few days - is economic growth. In Italy, too - worries about the state of the economy helped push up the Italian government's cost of borrowing at the start of the week. It's largely the grim prospects for the Spanish economy that has led Fitch and other ratings agencies to downgrade so many Spanish banks in recent days. Emergency lending is helpful. But it can't make the recession go away, and it can't take away the need for many more years of fiscal austerity. An extended period of economic depression and fiscal austerity can trash the balance sheet of the healthiest bank. As the IMF pointed out so helpfully in their recent assessment of Spain's financial sector, Spain does not have the healthiest banks. And, by raising Spain's national debt by up to 10 percentage points, the new 100bn-euro ($125bn; £80bn) European loan could actually make the clean-up job for the public finances last even longer. We've seen, throughout this crisis, how different countries have been hit by the close, mutually destructive relationship between banks and their sovereign governments. In Spain, as in Ireland, it is the debts of the banks that have fundamentally weakened the government's balance sheet. In Greece, Portugal and to some extent Italy, the debt problems have largely spread in the other direction - from the government to the banks. Either way, it's been a toxic mix. Now Spain's enfeebled banks are being made even weaker, by the broader economic consequences of tackling the government's debt problem - a problem created, in no small part, by the banks themselves. In that sense, the vicious circle is complete. And not just in Spain. |
During the summer riots in 2011 police officers came under attack from thousands of people involved in civil unrest and looting. Lawlessness broke out in cities across England in perhaps the largest example of disorder in post-war Britain. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Here, two former Metropolitan Police officers describe what it was like policing London, where the riots began. The view from the front line The riots began following a protest in Tottenham over the shooting of Mark Duggan by police. Sgt Simon Willmott and a fellow officer filming the disorder found themselves facing a violent mob of several hundred people. He only had a see-through plastic shield to protect himself. "I was on the front with the shields with the other officer who was doing the filming, and we were getting hit," he said. The pair were hit with bottles and fruit. "It just seemed surreal. We were then getting attacked with tins of baked beans and soup. We weren't trained for that. "We were getting hit all the time with missiles. I thought it is only going to be a matter of time when we will get hit with something that will cause me serious injury." While not specifically afraid for his life, at the back of his mind was the knowledge he could be shot at too. "Being in an area such as this [Tottenham, north London] with the link to firearms that it has, there's that risk of threat as well," he added. Flitting through his mind was the thought: "Is a gunman going to come out of the rioters and suddenly shoot at you?" Years of training and experience stopped him from being paralysed with fear though. "You are working with your colleagues who you trust and you're there to do a job. At the end of the day, whilst there were several hundred, if not thousand, people causing destruction on the streets of Tottenham, we were there to protect many other thousands that were in that area." Mr Willmott, a police officer of 32 years, retired from the Met in 2013, but for him the memories of 2011 are still vivid. "I was involved in policing many violent disorders in my career, but this was without doubt the most serious one. "It went on for the longest, the intensity was quite overwhelming and the destruction on the night will forever stay in my mind." Buildings burned down, windows were smashed and glass, bottles and other debris clogged the roads. In his experience "serious disorders don't last long". "I expected this one to sort of peak-out quite soon, but it just seemed to go on, and on, and on." It was light when we he started his shift and it was light when he and his colleagues finished the following morning as more officers moved in to replace them. He said walking down Tottenham's High Road on the second day of the riots was like surveying a "war-torn scene". Afterwards he spent hours poring through the tapes he and his colleague had filmed to see if they could identify any of the rioters and looters. "It was an opportunists' night, people came and seized what was a peaceful demonstration - and in some eyes a justifiable one - and turned that around and attacked the community." "They wanted to hurt people, regardless, I think, of who they were." The view from the control room Former Croydon Borough Commander Adrian Roberts said he felt helpless many times as he watched events unfolding on the screens in front of him in the police control room. Five years on, he recalls the moment when he thought the situation had escaped from police control. "We had received some intelligence of looting taking place and we got there as the looters were entering the premises," he said. "The looters made their getaway with a series of police officers chasing after them down the street, and I was watching this all on camera. The next thing I saw was two vehicles driving back running over police officers. "I think for the first time in my career I felt, we've lost police officers. That just sent a cold chill through the rest of my body, but then remarkably those officers got up and they only suffered minor injuries. "That was a rude awakening, you felt responsible. You felt you were leading this and when you saw that, you just thought 'this is out of my hands and I can't do anything to put it right'." Mr Roberts, who retired as a chief superintendent after 30 years in the Met, praised the bravery of the officers. "The thing that still stands out for me now, from those four or five days in August, was we saw the very worst and best of society. "On the one hand, we had brazen criminality and lack of regard to property and life in some respects, and tremendous losses by communities which were devastating. "On the other hand, we had outstanding bravery and leadership by the emergency services, not just by police, and communities coming together. They were making a very clear statement that they are not going to tolerate this and we want to get back to normality as soon as possible." "My job is to protect people and that was probably the only time in my career that it had come to the point where the police service was really stretched so far that we weren't able to achieve that everywhere. "People, largely yes, but property, no. "It felt awful. There came a point when I had to make a decision about life over property in some areas. That's not a difficult decision to make, but to see the videos of people, criminals, targeting outlets and stealing property and us not having the resources to deal with it, that was soul destroying." On a personal level he found it particularly upsetting to see his borough suffer over the course of a couple of evenings. "I was brought up here in Mitcham. Croydon was my local town. I was married in Croydon. My wife's from Croydon. "I was at Croydon for the best part of four years, worked with the local communities and chief executives and we had really made a difference in Croydon. In a couple of nights this had all been threatened." After the third night of riots on Monday 8 August, his wife called to chide him about not contacting her for hours during the unprecedented levels of disorder. "[She] rang me up and told me off for not speaking to her for 12 hours on the phone, and was in tears, and said 'do you remember that was where we bought our first sofa, from Reeves Corner that got razed to the ground'. "That got me very upset. Just like the carpet store in Tottenham, it was a symbol for local communities. It had always been there. It was somewhere we always used locally. And the fact that had been razed to the ground was evidence about how serious it was and how unique this whole tragic event was. "When I went back to Croydon at the end of the week and walked the town and saw the absolute devastation, thankfully it seemed as if the local communities had quickly restored themselves and moved forwards." The loss of the 144-year-old furniture shop House of Reeves is something he says he will never forget. "We had never experienced anything like this in the UK before, such widespread criminality, in such large areas, driven by social media. "What doesn't make the press was the many places we managed to get to and save," he adds. |
The Northern Ireland unemployment rate has hit another record low. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By John CampbellBBC News NI Economics & Business Editor In the three months between May and July 2019 it was just 2.8% compared to to a UK rate of 3.8%. Meanwhile, the employment rate was recorded as 72%, which is the second highest on record. This is a measurement of the percentage of working-age adults who are in employment and compares to the recession when the employment rate in Northern Ireland dropped to 64%. The UK employment rate is 76.1% - its joint highest on record. Northern Ireland's economic inactivity rate is also continuing to show improvement. Economic inactivity is a measurement of those people who are not in work and not looking for work - that includes students, retired people and sick or disabled people. Northern Ireland has an inactivity rate that is significantly and persistently higher than the UK rate. The latest figures show the inactivity rate has fallen by 1.3 percentage points during the year to 25.8% - which is one of the lowest rates on record. However it is still the highest of the 12 UK regions. The Northern Ireland Statistics Agency (Nisra) says the strong job market has had a notable impact on inactivity and long-term unemployment. "The number of people aged 16 and over who have been unemployed for one year or more is approximately half the level estimated this time last year, while the number of economically inactive has decreased by 15,000," said a Nisra spokesman. "The continued improvements in the Northern Ireland labour market are consistent with the UK experience. "It is worth noting, while the Northern Ireland unemployment rate is the joint second lowest of all the UK regions, NI has the second lowest employment rate and highest inactivity rate." Recession warning Meanwhile, professional services firm EY has cut expectations for economic growth next year in Northern Ireland and warned a no-deal Brexit scenario would push the local economy into recession. Its forecast has been revised down from 1.2% to 1.1% growth next year, based on the assumption of an "orderly" Brexit. But in a no-deal scenario, it suggests the Northern Ireland economy would contract by 0.6%. EY also said a no-deal Brexit would result in 60,300 fewer jobs across the island by 2022; 41,500 fewer in the Republic of Ireland and 18,800 fewer in Northern Ireland. Prof Neil Gibson, chief economist at EY Ireland said: "A no-deal Brexit has the potential to push Northern Ireland into recession and to lead to a contraction in the labour market, which so far has consistently proven wrong some of our gloomier predictions. "Although estimates of a no-deal impact vary considerably, they all suggest there will be a cost in the form of disruption across the island," he added. The report said that in the event of a "difficult" Brexit, there would be jobs lost, but added these were unlikely to be in the locations or with the skills profiles that are in demand from employers for whom Brexit is not a major consideration. |
Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas's will.i.am and U2's Larry Mullen Jnr are just some of the stars lending their voices to new Family Guy cartoon spin-off The Cleveland Show. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Greg CochraneNewsbeat music reporter The series, showing on E4 in the UK, and created by Family Guy boss Seth MacFarlane follows the adventures of Cleveland Brown and his family. Mike Henry, who voices the main character said: "Kanye could not be a cooler guy at our show - we do definitely have some jokes where he makes light of himself." "He does some things out in public that stir up controversy and opinions. He knew that and we contacted him and he was totally up for doing the part." 'Cool' guy The show, which began in the US last autumn and is already commissioned for a second season, has managed to enlist a number of big name musicians including the outspoken rapper. "He's a recurring character," says Henry of Kanye West, who voices a character called Kenny West in the show. "He does an extended rap-off with Cleveland Jnr in an episode first season and he and Cleveland hook up and do another rap in season two. "The first time we had actually written a rap for him. Five of our writers sat down to write this rap and they were like, 'I wonder how he's going to like it?'. "But he was genuinely laughing. He very humbly asked if we could change one line which didn't feel right. He was even joking that we should write a song for his next album." More stars Of course, this isn't a new idea. Over the past two decades we've seen cameos from the likes of Green Day, Aerosmith and, most recently, Coldplay in shows like The Simpsons. Other music stars lined up to take part in season two of The Cleveland Show are Black Eyed Pea's will.i.am and rapper T Pain - who'll play sidekicks for Cleveland Jnr. "We just recorded him last week and he was absolutely hilarious. He could do his own animated show he's got so many voices," says Henry of Will.i.am. U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jnr also got in touch with the programme's creators through a mutual friend and asked to be involved. "He came in and we hung out for a couple of hours. We just recorded him doing a couple of different parts and he was very funny. "It's a thrill for me to do all this. U2 is my favourite band of all time and David Lynch the film director plays a part on our show. "He [Mullen Jnr] plays a mobster in one episode; he plays a bad Elvis impersonator by design in another episode. "He's got his own studio so we just record it from Dublin. You don't have to record at a certain time. It's an easy gig and one that people like to do. "It's very cool to have all these people from different walks of entertainment participating in what we're doing." The Cleveland Show airs at 10pm on E4 every Monday. |
It used to be known as the "brain drain". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tara MillsBBC Newsline The phenomenon during the Troubles whereby Northern Ireland's brightest and best students would leave to study elsewhere and never return. Now, with more than 600 days without a government and Brexit fast approaching, are students who study elsewhere in the UK and the Republic of Ireland less likely to settle back in Northern Ireland? I travelled to Liverpool to ask students from home for their views on the political stalemate. Katherine Parke, from Londonderry, has been in Liverpool since 2012. "I came here to get out of my comfort zone and to broaden the horizons a bit," she said. 'Stuck in the past' A politics student, who is currently completing a master's degree, would the ongoing failure of Stormont influence where she settles in the future? "It would be the opposite," she said. "It would have a sort of a galvanising effect. I've come here and had all these opportunities." That's not how Lucy Buller sees it. Originally from Holywood in County Down, she is in her first year studying Geography. "I just feel Northern Ireland is stuck in the past and stuck in such an old traditional way and we can't move out of that," she said. "We can't think about the future because we're so stuck in the past." 'Lack of opportunities' For other students, the lack of an executive to push forward an economic programme was the biggest issue. Asa Mallon, from Lisburn, feels that's where the shame should be felt by politicians. "If they're not looking after us and creating jobs for us then that's the real tragedy," he said. Jacob Hussein was born in Birmingham, but moved to the Shankill area of Belfast with his mum and dad at the age of two. His dad is Pakistani and his mum considers herself to be British Asian: "I'm the son of a first-generation migrant and my dad came to Belfast for the opportunities and now as a young person I'm leaving because of the lack of opportunities." 'Progressive place' Prof Peter Shirlow is from Lisburn and lectured at Queen's University for years. He's now heading up the Centre for Irish Studies at Liverpool University. He attended the same university in the 1980s. "Back then students came here to study to take those skills and talents back home, but I now get the impression that's not the case," he said. "They come here, they feel more comfortable here, they sense that this is a very progressive place and that it's a place you'd get a higher paid job and the availability of work as well. "I get a sense now that the people who come here are very rooted and they sense this is the place they want to be." Prof Shirlow feels the last 10 years in particular in Northern Ireland will influence today's undergraduates in Liverpool. "This a comfortable place to live," he said. "We don't have the legacy of the conflict, we don't have the proxy war about victims, no suspended parliament, no questions about RHI and that is one thing you do get with young people - they're fed up with the constant reference to the past." Over in the department of electrical engineering and electronics, Belfast native Prof Alan Marshall believes students in Liverpool are much better placed for job opportunities. "The range of opportunities for ICT-type students is much wider and broader than Northern Ireland from the automotive industry, to the aerospace industry, the defence industry, the security industry, the opportunities are much, much wider," he said. The verdict from the students is clear - ultimately it's the economic climate, rather than the political one, which will influence their decision on where to call home. For the full story, watch BBC Newsline on Wednesday 9 October at 18:30 BST. |
The world's longest - and deepest - rail tunnel opens in Switzerland on Wednesday. The Gotthard rail link has taken 20 years to build, and cost more than $12bn (£8.2bn). It will, the Swiss say, revolutionise Europe's freight transport. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Imogen FoulkesBBC News, Geneva The Alps are sometimes described as Europe's natural trade barriers. From Roman times, the routes across them have been mapped, and fought over. In the Middle Ages, mule teams trekked painstakingly up the alpine passes, carrying everything from salt to wine, metal and leather goods. Accidents were common, and, in winter, the routes were closed. So, when the first rail tunnel through the Gotthard opened in 1882 the then president of Switzerland, Simeon Bavier, could not contain his euphoria: "A triumph of art and science, a monument to work and diligence! The barrier which divided nations has fallen, the [Swiss Alps] have been breached. Countries have moved closer to each other, the world market is open!" Today, Italian olive oil destined for the Netherlands or German cars for Greece all still have to cross the Alps. So too do many thousands of tonnes of goods from China or India: they may dock in Rotterdam, but their final destination could be Rome, Vienna or Zagreb. The existing routes across the Alps cannot cope: the old rail tunnel is slow and the Gotthard road tunnel, opened in 1980, now sees more than a million freight lorries a year. Communities in the alpine valleys have long complained about the air and noise pollution. Lorry drivers don't like the tunnel's single-lane structure. In 2001 two lorries collided in the tunnel, causing a fire which killed 11 people. Engineering feat Plans for a better rail tunnel have been around since the 1940s, but it was not until 1992 that Swiss voters backed their government's plan to build a new high-speed rail link through the Alps. Two years later the project got added impetus, when Swiss voters also backed a proposal from environmental groups to move all freight travelling through Switzerland from road to rail. But the plan was ambitious, costly to the Swiss taxpayers who had agreed to pay for it, and fraught with engineering challenges. The first geologists surveying the proposed route suggested it might be impossible to bore a tunnel straight through the Gotthard, because of the unpredictable quality of the rock. Once work began, those challenges soon became apparent. In some areas the rock, one engineer remembers, was "as soft as butter" meaning excavation inched along at no more than half a metre a day. In other places things went more smoothly. A massive 10m (30ft) diameter tunnel-boring machine could, on a good day, dig out 40m of tunnel a day - a world record. But the Gotthard is also the world's deepest tunnel, and with 2.3km (1.4 miles) of mountain pressing down on it, gravity constantly tried to close up the space which had been excavated. And so, along the tunnel's length, reinforced steel rings had to be inserted, to prevent it collapsing in on itself. For 17 years, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, more than 2,000 people have worked on the tunnel. There have been accidents: nine tunnel miners have died. A tunnel for Europe But now the tunnel is ready, and Europe's leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, are all arriving to take a look. Twin tunnels running in both directions north-south should transport Europe's freight not only much more safely, but much faster. With no danger of collision, trains will race through the tunnel at speeds of up to 250km/h (155mph). Where older alpine tunnels corkscrewed their way up through the mountains, the new railway line, from Zurich in the north all the way to Lugano in the south, is completely flat and straight. The ultimate goal is a high-speed rail link, with the Gotthard at its heart, connecting Rotterdam to Genoa. It is a project the Swiss are immensely proud of. Switzerland's transport minister, Doris Leuthard, is especially happy that her country, not in the European Union but in the heart of Europe, can contribute something so important to the European economy. "We are a small country, we are landlocked," she explains, "and we know co-operation is key, and this is a very nice project of co-operation... I think it is very important for Europe. "I think it symbolises what Europe, and what Swiss engineers can do... and they did a fantastic job." For the engineers themselves, the opening of the tunnel is going to be a little strange, admits the head of construction company Alptransit, Renzo Simoni, "Well, it's a milestone," he says, "and of course all of us who worked on it are proud. "But on the other hand things will be different... the tunnel will be handed over to the railways, and we will just be passengers like all the others." |
After Caitlyn Jenner's picture appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, social media sites exploded in an outpouring of support. But not everyone was part of the overwhelming positive reaction and even a day after the big reveal, Jenner and transgender issues were dominating the discussion on Twitter and elsewhere. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why Drake Bell was one of Twitter's top trending terms this week, but the former child star may have wished he wasn't. The former Nickelodeon actor tweeted "Sorry… still calling you Bruce" on Monday as a response to Jenner's cover shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Bell's tweet was met with a massive backlash on Twitter and other social media sites. He quickly deleted the comment and tweeted "I'm not dissing him! I just don't want to forget his legacy! He is the greatest athlete of all time! Chill out!" The tweet, which continued to address Jenner as a he, was also deleted. Bell was not the only one who publicly opposed Caitlyn Jenner's picture and change. Ben Shapiro a conservative political commentator expressed his opposition to Jenner as well as the transgender community in a series of tweets. One of his tweets read "Your biological sex is completely mutable, but your sexual orientation is completely immutable. #ThingsILearnedFromTheLeft" while the other claimed that anyone who supported Jenner was "part of the problem." Some figures did not wait for Jenner's reveal to express their stand on the transgender community. While speaking at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, last February, Mike Huckabee joked that he wished he could have pretended to be transgender in high school so he could "shower with the girls." The former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate's remarks quickly spread after being uploaded on YouTube over the weekend and picked up by Buzzfeed on Tuesday. By Tuesday evening, Mike Huckabee was trending and Twitter was awash in people cringing at Huckabee's joke. "Mike Huckabee is one of the truly great imbeciles of our time, representing the lowest common denominator of American politics," tweeted Megan McCain, Senator John McCain's daughter and frequent critic of Republicans on social issues. Others made more jokes - but at Huckabee's expense. "Look. I think we can all agree that no one, male or female, should have to shower with Mike Huckabee," tweeted Jill Twiss, a writer for the HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Blog by Elena Boffetta Next story: Protesters target Facebook's 'real name' policy Follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. |
A body has been found on a beach in Suffolk. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Officers were called to Orford Ness just before 11:00 BST by the National Trust, which reported the discovery at its nature reserve. A police cordon is in place on the beach and an investigation is under way. The death is currently being treated as unexplained and the body has not yet been identified. |
Reynhard Sinaga is thought to be the UK's "most prolific rapist" ever. For several years, until he was caught in 2017, he preyed on young men enjoying a night out. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Daniel De SimoneBBC News Warning: This piece contains accounts of sexual assaults Princess Street, in the heart of Manchester's city centre, is rarely quiet. If you follow it down from the impressive Victorian town hall on Albert Square, past bars, shops, restaurants, and converted textile warehouses, you reach the borders of two of the city's most popular destinations - Chinatown and the Gay Village. Beyond that, you come to a stretch of road bordered by nightclubs - Factory, Fifth, Joshua Brooks - a big part of the city's vibrant nightlife. With its close proximity to two of the city's universities, the road is also a popular area for student accommodation. Reynhard Sinaga, a 36-year-old postgraduate student, had made this his home for more than seven years, living in a rented flat just a few moments' walk from Factory Nightclub. Sinaga, originally from Indonesia, was a perpetual student. He already had four degrees and was studying for a doctorate. By night he was a serial sex offender. He has been found guilty of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting 48 men, but police believe they are among at least 190 victims. They are able to be so precise about these numbers because Sinaga filmed his attacks and collected what detectives call "trophies" - items or information stolen from his victims. Sinaga typically approached his victims in the street. The rapist operated in a small area surrounding his flat. His targets were men mostly in their late teens or early 20s who had been out drinking, often in the nearby nightclubs. Some were on their way home, others had become separated from friends. Many were too drunk to remember their conversation with Sinaga, but for those who did there was no indication of a sexual motive. Sinaga used various pretexts to entice each to his flat. Some victims could recall being provided with a drink and then blacking out. Are you affected by this? BBC Action Line has support and more information on emotional distress Greater Manchester Police said anyone who believes they might have been attacked by Sinaga can report information online or call its police line on 0800 092 0410 from inside the UK or 0207 158 0124 from abroad. The force said anyone in need of support from specialist agencies could call 0800 056 0154 from within the UK or 0207 158 0011 from abroad. Sinaga presented himself as a flamboyant, churchgoing academic who used the nickname "posh spice". A thin man of slight build and short stature, physically he appeared unthreatening. Several victims recall him smiling a lot. It was this apparent harmlessness that enabled Sinaga to pose as a "good Samaritan", coaxing men he approached back to the flat. We know about the benign impression Sinaga created because dozens of victims gave testimony to police, with 48 of them appearing in court over the course of four trials. Of the victims who went to court, the vast majority were heterosexual. Ian Rushton, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said he thought Sinaga took "a particular pleasure in preying on heterosexual men". Most of his victims were living in Manchester at the time and, in all, 26 were students when they were attacked. Their accounts explain how Sinaga operated. One was waiting for his girlfriend outside Fifth Avenue nightclub - since renamed Fifth Manchester - when he was approached by a "small Asian guy" who seemed harmless. The man was invited back to Sinaga's flat to wait for his girlfriend, but recalled nothing further after being given a shot of clear liquid to drink. Another man described being "approached by a young Asian gentleman". He said he had a "vague recollection of explaining that my phone was dead and that I was trying to get a taxi but the taxis were passing me". He added: "I think I can recall a conversation along the lines of, 'Would you like to come inside and charge your phone and have a quick chat,'" he told the court. To him, Sinaga "didn't seem like an imposing character" and during their conversations in the apartment, he appeared to be "an honest, motivated person" with an interest in academic research. The man told the court that soon after being offered a drink, he couldn't remember "a single thing until the next morning". After waking, confused and disoriented, he left within five minutes. Like almost every victim, he had no idea he had been raped until being approached by police. Another victim remembered his friends putting him in a cab outside a club. His next recollection was waking up in a strange apartment. When he asked Sinaga what had happened, he described providing care and shelter after finding him lying in the street. Another victim believed Sinaga had been "really nice and had looked after him". One victim, a teenage university student, managed to get Sinaga's mobile number as a precaution after waking up in the flat, and then having concerns that something might have been stolen from him. When he rang to ask for more information about what happened, Sinaga described himself as a "good Samaritan" who had found him unconscious on the pavement. Another man remembered waking up on the floor, covered in a blanket, before thanking the flat's occupier for letting him stay over. He suspected nothing, even though the person "refused to give me personal details" in order to assist with an insurance claim for a lost mobile phone. The phone, like many others stolen from their owners, was later recovered from Sinaga's home by police. Some victims felt incredibly unwell after regaining consciousness, sometimes naked and covered in vomit. Unknown to them at the time, Sinaga had given his victims a drug - almost certainly GHB - which rendered them unconscious before he assaulted them. What is GHB? One victim, who woke up naked on Sinaga's floor feeling nauseous and panic-stricken, came to the conclusion he had been drugged, telling his fiancé about that suspicion but not about the condition in which he awoke. Another man, who was told he could sleep on the floor, recalled waking twice during the night, on one occasion to be sick. He remembered that on one of the occasions he was unable to move his arms and could feel himself being penetrated, before passing out again. In the morning, he briefly spoke with Sinaga before leaving. He did not report what happened to police, until being approached by them. It was the largest rape investigation in UK history. Police found more than 100 of the men from clues in Sinaga's flat. But the identities of 70 men have not been established and police are now appealing for anyone who believes they may been abused by Sinaga to come forward. The CPS's Ian Rushton says that Sinaga is probably the most prolific known rapist "anywhere in the world". One of four children, Sinaga comes from a wealthy Indonesian family who live in Depok, a city within the Jakarta metropolitan area. His father is a banker and also a prominent businessman in the palm oil sector. After obtaining a degree in architecture at the University of Indonesia in Depok, he moved to the UK in 2007 to study urban planning at the University of Manchester. He went on to gain three degrees there before embarking on a doctorate in human geography at the University of Leeds - travelling there from Manchester when required. His family wealth meant that he rarely worked, although he claims to have had stints in employment in hospitality at both Manchester football clubs and in a clothes shop. Manchester United have since said they have no record of him working at the club. He worked for a period at a bar in the city's Gay Village, the area where he spent much of his time socialising. He was also a regular at a local church. After originally living in student accommodation, Sinaga moved to a rented flat in Montana House on Princess Street in 2011. While his convictions cover a period of two and a half years, police believe his offences predate 2015. But they say they may never know the true extent of his crimes. It came to an end in the summer of 2017. Sinaga was offending with abandon, sometimes night after night. In footage recovered from CCTV cameras covering his block of flats, he is seen leaving one evening only to return with a man 60 seconds later. It was just after midnight on 2 June 2017, when he approached his final victim. A teenager, who left The Factory nightclub to get some fresh air after becoming separated from friends, agreed to go to Sinaga's flat after it was suggested he could try to contact them from there. The man recalled nothing further until waking several hours later being sexually attacked by Sinaga. He immediately pushed Sinaga away, who responded by screaming "intruder" and "help", before repeatedly biting the teenager. The man hit Sinaga several times, escaped from the flat, and then called police, who arrived to a chaotic scene. Sinaga, who was discovered semi-conscious with serious injuries, was at first viewed sympathetically, and the teenager was arrested for assault. But Sinaga's behaviour in hospital began to arouse suspicion. He kept asking officers to have a mobile phone brought to him from his flat. Police asked him to confirm the pin number before they would hand it over. However Sinaga gave a series of false numbers, then tried to grab the phone after providing the correct one. The officer became so suspicious that he seized the phone as potential evidence and, when it was checked, a video recording was found of Sinaga raping the arrested teenager. It was the start of what the officer overseeing the investigation, Assistant Chief Constable Mabs Hussain, calls "an absolutely unprecedented case". He says the inquiry has been like "piecing a jigsaw together without the picture". Another of Sinaga's mobiles had somehow ended up in the pocket of the final victim. Between them, the two phones had been used to capture about 800 videos of Sinaga raping or sexually assaulting unconscious men. The victims, usually snoring loudly, were often repeatedly raped over several hours. In some of the films, Sinaga is seen to forcibly hold men down who, though unconscious, were visibly distressed or made attempts to push him away. In others, victims are seen to vomit while being attacked. To find the men, detectives used both the films and "trophies" collected by Sinaga - phones, watches, ID cards from their wallets, images that Sinaga had downloaded from their social media profiles, searches about them he conducted online. When they lacked identifying information, investigators tried facial recognition technology, approached local universities, and asked other police forces around the UK if they knew any of the men. Officers also considered whether Sinaga might have killed any of his victims with fatal drug overdoses, examining potential links to unsolved deaths or missing people, but there was no evidence to suggest this was the case. When officers made a positive identification, that person would be approached and told he had been a victim of sexual offences. Lisa Waters, of the St Mary's Sexual Assault Referral Centre, says their crisis workers accompanied detectives on these visits in order to "offer immediate emotional and practical support". She says that being told what happened "can be quite overwhelming, very confusing". "What we didn't want to do was to drop the bombshell and then just disappear and leave these men with no support," she says. A large programme was put in place to provide ongoing support. Waters says many of the men have chosen not to tell anybody else about what happened to them. "That might be because they might want to protect their own psychological health; it might be because they're ashamed to tell other people; it might be because they're fearful of other people's responses," she says. Dozens of those approached did not want to go through the court process. Sinaga was found to have told unsuspecting friends about some of the rapes, passing them off as consensual sexual conquests. In messages about the first victim who went to court, Sinaga boasted about the attack on New Year's Eve in 2014. "I didn't get my new year kiss, but I've had my first sex in 2015 already," he wrote, adding that the man was "straight in 2014. 2015 is his breakthrough to the gay world hahaha". During another boast about what he presented as his prowess with "straight" men, Sinaga wrote: "Take a sip of my secret poison, I'll make you fall in love." Police officers have spoken to other men, tracked down as a result of still images discovered in the flat that date from before 2015. These men recall being there, but not what happened. There is no other evidence available to show that they were sexually assaulted. Only one previous report to police was linked to Sinaga after his arrest, dating from April 2017, when the victim had woken disorientated and unwell in a strange room with an Asian male. He quickly left, but later that day had flashbacks of being sexually assaulted and - two days afterwards - he called the police. However, the man was unsure of the property in which he had been assaulted, meaning inquiries focused on two nearby hotels, neither of which had had any guests who matched the suspect's description. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Sinaga pleaded not guilty to all 159 charges, forcing a series of four trials in which his victims had to give evidence and jurors had to watch hours of distressing videos. Court rules meant that nothing could be reported in the media and each jury was unaware of the wider case against him. Sinaga gave evidence in the first and last of the trials, running what the judge called a "ludicrous defence" which involved him claiming that each victim had agreed to fulfil his "sexual fantasy" by being penetrated while being filmed and pretending to be asleep. When this scenario was suggested to one victim in court, he responded by saying it was "absolutely farcical". Sinaga changed his story during the trials. In the first trial, he denied that the loud snoring heard in some films was snoring at all, insisting it was just "breathing sounds". But, by the time of the final trial, he claimed the snoring was actually just "role-play". It was only halfway through the first trial that he admitted penetrating most of the victims on that indictment. In the witness box he came across as vain and self-absorbed, telling jurors: "I make myself available all the time… I may look like a 'lady boy' and it seems very popular amongst curious men who are looking for a gay experience." When entering and exiting court he often appeared cheerful, as if he was enjoying the process. In the absence of the jury, the judge repeatedly asked defence counsel whether any of the evidence could be agreed, to spare jurors watching every video. But Sinaga would not agree and, because he insisted each victim was conscious and consenting, the videos had to be played to demonstrate this was a lie. The prosecution case was that Sinaga used the drug GHB to incapacitate his victims. No trace of the drug was found in his apartment and - due to the circumstances of Sinaga's arrest - the final victim was not tested quickly enough for its presence to be established. However, the symptoms shown by the hundreds of videos were all consistent with GHB intoxication, as were the descriptions of him providing clear liquid shots, and each trial heard expert evidence about its effects. GHB was used by Stephen Port, who murdered four men between June 2014 and September 2015. The men were given fatal overdoses of the drug. Port was also convicted of raping or assaulting several living victims using GHB. The impact on Sinaga's victims is vast. Waters says that "some of the men have found it very difficult to function in everyday life". This has resulted in substance misuse, people unable to go to work, students unable to finish university, and others having to leave home after feeling unable to function any longer within their families. She adds that "some men have been suicidal and we've had to try to help them come to terms with that and how we can make them safe". Dr Sam Warner, author of a report about the psychological impact on Sinaga's victims, says a loss of power coupled with an absence of memory can be "extremely frightening, disturbing, upsetting because that goes to the heart of how you make sense of yourself, how you understand your experiences". "In a situation where people have been incapacitated through drugs they may have no flashback to that particular event," she says. "What they will have is the flashback to being told, however sensitively done, because suddenly they become a rape victim at that point." She says the stress and trauma "may continue throughout people's lives". In a series of statements read in court, the men themselves described the impact. "I felt numb. I was totally shocked, embarrassed, betrayed and very angry," one said. "His actions were disgusting, unforgiveable. He has massively abused my trust in humanity." Another man said: "I want Sinaga to spend the rest of his life in prison. Not only for what he has done to me but for what he has done to the other lads and the misery and stress he has caused them." A further victim said: "I remember the day the police contacted me, it is a day I will never forget because it changed my life forever." Another: "I wish the worse for him, I want him to feel the pain and sufferance I have felt. He has destroyed a part of my life." Throughout all four trials, Sinaga displayed not a glimmer of empathy or contrition. His persistent smile, so often used to comfort and disarm, was instead revealed to be a mark of his cruelty. In a message to Sinaga, one victim said: "I'm not going to let you ruin my life." |
While the UK has sustained far, far fewer casualties from jihadist violence than France, all of the available evidence indicates that the terrible events inflicted upon Paris could happen here - and security chiefs have long planned for that possibility. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter The statistical chances of being caught up in a terrorist incident are pretty low - but the official government position is that there is a "severe" threat from international terrorism. That means security chiefs think an attack is highly likely - just one notch down from "critical", the level reached in the extreme situation of an attack being imminent. How do security chiefs reach this conclusion? Cold, hard analysis of the intelligence picture at home and abroad - events that we see in public, such as arrests that lead to criminal convictions, and intelligence operations in the shadows that we never hear about. How serious is the terrorism threat in the UK? Every event is considered for whether it can provide a clue to the threat faced by the UK. The deaths in France, the downing of the Russian jet over Sinai, the tourism attacks in Tunisia and the dozens killed in suicide bombings in Beirut on the same day as the Paris atrocities, are fed into this analysis which is conducted by Whitehall's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre. British security planners have progressively widened their focus as the threat landscape has changed. Al-Qaeda style mass-casualty bomb attacks - once the primary international threat - are hard to organise because they take manpower, technical know-how and a long time to prepare. The harder something is to organise, the more opportunities there will be for security services to spot it. A marauding attack on the streets is, in contrast, far more random and, at its worst, completely unpredictable if the individuals never featured on a security radar. What will concern many security planners greatly about the Paris attacks is that the assailants combined an element of substantial planning - large public targets, substantial weaponry and a suicidal endgame - with the unpredictability of a marauding assault. At the same time, many security chiefs will not be surprised at all because the signs have long been apparent that this kind of attack was possible. The self-styled Islamic State is now the leading jihadist group thanks to its unparalleled territorial gains, resources, manpower, funding and, critically, multi-lingual online media operation. It projects a vision that it is "winning" (despite severe setbacks like the loss of entire towns ) that have augmented its "brand power" among would-be recruits. Most importantly, in September 2014, its leading public ideologue called on followers overseas to launch attacks without waiting for permission or specific direction. This call to action - IS styles it a "fatwa", or religious ruling, so they can convince followers of their divine righteousness - had a profound and immediate effect. It can be directly linked to a series of attacks in Canada, Belgium, Australia, Denmark and, of course, France. So, it's now clear that gun attacks - marauding or focused - in Europe are an enduring security challenge rather than just a random one-off event. UK reaction to Paris attacks: Live coverage Paris attacks: Latest updates Who were the victims? So here's the question - how prepared is the UK? Earlier this year, parts of London were sealed off for a major Metropolitan Police exercise called Operation Strong Tower. The two-day role-play event involved counter-terrorism officers, MI5, the military and emergency services hunting down a jihadist cell shooting and bombing its way across the capital. In short - it was an attempt to "stress-test" how they would all respond to exactly what has happened in Paris. Fairly obviously, the results are secret - but that kind of live training has been complemented with physical and organisational changes to the city. Many of London's buildings are surrounded by bollards designed to withstand lorry bombs. CCTV and number plate cameras are everywhere. Specialist armed police - trained to a military standard - carry out daily patrols designed to strategically cover as much of the capital as possible. One major difference with continental Europe is guns. The availability of firearms in the UK is very low compared with other countries because of the country's strict gun-control laws. It is hard to smuggle them in - although not impossible - and operations to disrupt organised criminals from doing so rely on both the UK's border controls and secret intelligence techniques. Only two weeks ago, on the publication of the government's proposed plan to expand investigatory powers, did we learn that MI5 and GCHQ have been running "bulk" sifts of communications flowing across the internet as they search for potential threats. Were Paris-style attacks to happen in the UK, the police and security agencies would immediately want to launch a major analysis of communications data to identify the network around the perpetrators. So supporters of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill will urge its opponents to think about Paris. How would a city like London respond? In theory, better than in the wake of 7/7. During the inquests into the 2005 bombings, there was evidence that the emergency services were both overwhelmed and, at times, incapable of communicating properly. All of that has now supposedly changed - underground stations and tunnels, for instance, are now all categorised and numbered with agreed meeting points for first-responders. Across the rest of the UK there are specialist response teams involving all of the emergency services. And dotted across the capital in secure locations are special emergency trauma kits - which mean that police who rush to a scene of an attack may have a greater chance of saving lives. Would they save lives? The evidence suggests they would - but then the devastation of Paris shows how difficult that job ultimately would be. |
A competition to design a flag for Caithness has attracted 327 entries - including 10 ideas from the US and others from Brazil and Australia. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The contest, which involves Highland Council, has also had submissions from across Scotland and England. The judging panel met in Wick last Friday to whittle the entries down to a short-list. Four ideas are now being created in a digital format for an online public vote later this month. The vote would run until 31 July. Caithness Civic Leader Gail Ross said: "The flag will be the public symbol of Caithness so I was delighted that so many creative and inspiring designs were submitted. "As well as entries from our local schools, 10 designs came from America and there were also entries from Brazil, Australia, England and elsewhere in Scotland." Related Internet Links Highland Council |
Stephen Ward was one of the most controversial figures in 1960s Britain. He was at the centre of an extraordinary sex scandal that brought down the minister for war, John Profumo, destabilised a government and, in August 1963, led to his own suicide. Now Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a musical about him - but will audiences find Stephen Ward sympathetic? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Vincent DowdBBC World Service The life of Ward is complex and full of ambiguities, and Andrew Lloyd Webber says that's what made him want to put him on stage. "I found this a fascinating story, once I realised I didn't want to write about the Profumo scandal as such," he says. "Stephen Ward is the centre of our story and in the new show what happened to John Profumo doesn't really take up much stage time. "There's a growing view that Stephen's death came after a complete mistrial. Huge pressure was put on the police to get a conviction. You may not approve of everything Stephen did but he wasn't a pimp, which is what he was accused of. "It's a really interesting area of history to delve into and some people will be hearing it for the first time. So why shouldn't we do it as a musical?" Sideline of history For a younger generation, Ward stands on the sidelines of British history - vaguely recalled as the man involved 50 years ago in the downfall of senior Conservative politician John Profumo, who died in 2006. He was a London osteopath who used his practice to make contacts with showbiz figures and high society. "There's no doubt he was a skilled medical practitioner," says the academic Stephen Dorril, who has just revised the book he co-wrote about Ward. "Otherwise, people as varied as Winston Churchill and Ava Gardner wouldn't have turned to him for treatment." "His work gave him an entree into the smart set and he relished that. If there was an element of the snob to him at times, that's what English society was like in those days. "Initially his had been a very fusty, post-war world. The people he associated with were foreign royalty, figures in the film business now largely forgotten and various journalists of the day. And then he found ways to make himself useful to some of his male acquaintances, which had little to do with osteopathy." Ward introduced selected male clients, and others he met through them, to attractive young women. Sometimes this led to sex. "But what he did wasn't for money," Dorril says. "I think the best term for it would be social pimping. I imagine it amused him to see some of these relationships develop, or he enjoyed wielding a bit of influence in high places. But he wasn't procuring young women in the sense people usually mean." Yet at the end of his life, to his horror, Ward found himself charged with living "wholly or in part on the earning of prostitution". By then his name was known worldwide and linked permanently to that of Britain's Minister for War, John Profumo. Ward lived some of the time in a house in the grounds of Cliveden, Lord Astor's grand Italianate home in Berkshire. In July 1961, Ward invited the 19-year-old Christine Keeler to Cliveden and took her to a poolside party at the main house. Through him, she met Profumo and soon began an affair with him. But Keeler was also involved with Yevgeni (Eugene) Ivanov, a naval attache at the Soviet embassy in London, whose real masters were Soviet Military Intelligence. Accounts vary as to how far the Ivanov relationship went but, says Dorril, "certainly Christine Keeler saw him several times and Ivanov was a visitor to Stephen Ward's London house at a time when she was involved with Profumo". Dorril says Ward already had connections to British intelligence. "He wasn't an agent but an asset at arm's length who might at some point become useful. It was a relationship MI5 more often had with journalists. "Even now we don't really know if they encouraged Ward to befriend Ivanov, hoping the Russian could be lured into sexual indiscretion. Or was the connection between Ivanov and Keeler a chance encounter which complicated the affair with Profumo?" 'No impropriety' The press had their suspicions but the Keeler-Profumo affair was unknown to the public until well after it was over. In December 1962 Keeler's stormy relationship with club-owner Johnny Edgecombe (in fury he shot six times at the locked door of Ward's mews house in central London) gave journalists an excuse to dig into her background. An astonishing story started to unfold. Profumo told Parliament there had been "no impropriety whatsoever" in his relationship with Keeler. Two months later he admitted he had lied to the House of Commons and his political career was finished. In August 1963 Ward was prosecuted for living off immoral earnings. On the evening of the trial's final day he took an overdose at a friend's flat in Chelsea and died. An inquest found he had committed suicide. In October, the then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan stood down, partly as a result of the pressures the scandal had created in the country and within his party. It's a fascinating tale, with some elements still not fully explained. But does it make a musical? The show's lyricist Don Black doesn't doubt it. He says: "When someone comes to me with a project I always ask, 'Is it a fresh idea and will it work for audiences?' And soon I realised the answer to both those questions was yes. "Just look at the subject matter. Chequebook-journalism and the role of a free press, the sexual morality of the rich and famous, celebrities who aren't quite what they seem, police corruption, the class system and social change. All those things resonate today. "Lots of the ideas that people pitch to me are basically re-treads but there's never been a musical like this one. "The more I learnt about Stephen the more I sympathised "He may have led an unconventional life but really he did nothing wrong. I was in my 20s when he died so I remembered the basics. But reading about Stephen now I realise what a victim he was." Stephen Ward opens at the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End on 19 December. |
Of the 365 Conservative MPs elected last week 14 were of South Asian heritage and four of them were women. It's a far cry from 1983, when Pramila Le Hunte became the first British South Asian woman to stand for parliament as a Tory, writes the BBC's Kavita Puri. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In the late spring of 1983, Cambridge University student Bem Le Hunte was on her way to watch an address by Margaret Thatcher. She was with a group of friends, carrying a basketful of eggs. That's when the news reached her. It was about her mother - she had just been selected as the first British Asian female Conservative Parliamentary candidate in the forthcoming election. The announcement caused huge media excitement. Bem, however, was unimpressed, although it did make her think she'd better not pelt the prime minister with eggs, as she'd been intending. Pramila recalls that Bem felt "terribly ashamed to be my daughter". Unlike Pramila, nearly all British South Asians in the early 1980s voted Labour. Pramila says it was in their genes when they arrived in the UK. "Because who gave them independence? Clement Attlee [the Labour prime minister]. Who was against us? Winston Churchill… So Labour was deified from day one. "The good people of Britain were Labour. And the baddies were the burra sahibs, the important white gentlemen." When thousands came to post-war Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, many working the most difficult shifts in mills, factories and foundries, these early settlers also felt that the Labour Party "stood for the working man" like themselves, Pramila says. She had lived a charmed life. Born in 1938, she had spent her early years in British India in "the jungle" in Mosaboni in Bihar. Her father supplied timber to the British copper mine there. They were the only Indian family living among "Britishers", as they were known then. She recalls hearing Mahatma Gandhi speak publicly about taking a stand against the British, during the Quit India movement. She decided, as a little girl, to try that out one late afternoon, at the company tennis courts where she used to meet her English friends. She picked up a stone and, throwing it, said, "All right, Margaret, quit India." She hit her target. Margaret responded by throwing a stone at Pramila, striking her on the head. It was to be Pramila's first political foray. Pramila's first language was English. She still remembers the first poem she learnt: A beetle got stuck in some jam, he cried "Oh how unhappy I am!" His ma said, "Don't talk, if you really can't walk, you better go home in a tram." She was an avid reader throughout her childhood, and in 1957 she went to Cambridge University to study English literature. There were few Indians around in those days and she liked to ride her bicycle wearing a sari. "I felt rather special. Must be a little bit of showmanship. I quite liked the idea of bombing around in a sari in King's Parade." She was delighted to be in the UK, free of all parental controls. Find out more She admits she was not a typical Indian girl. She says there used to be a Poppy Day with celebrations and street parties, and she took charge of her college float, basing it on the Paris cabaret club, the Moulin Rouge. She got people to chant: "A shilling a kiss, a bob for two." Men would jump on the lorry and get a kiss, she says, shaking her head and smiling. "Now which Indian girl would do that?" She met her English husband in her third year. They lived in India together for a number of years with their four children, before settling in Richmond, south-west London. There weren't many South Asians there then, she remembers, and it was the time of the Conservative MP Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech, in which he criticised mass migration, especially from the Commonwealth countries. Her children suffered a lot from racism at that time, she acknowledges. Pramila went on to study further to become an English teacher. It was important to her to be "top notch". She felt that "for an Indian wanting to teach English to the English… you have to have credibility." She went on to be a teacher at some of the most prestigious London day schools. She also supported the Conservative Party, becoming chairman of a Richmond Council ward. She was asked if she would consider putting her name forward for a number of seats with large British South Asian populations, and in 1983 she got selected to stand in Birmingham Ladywood, a staunch Labour constituency. Even though Margaret Thatcher was known for anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, she also saw potential voters among the million-plus British South Asians of the time. She praised the community for its family values, hard work and entrepreneurial spirit. Local and national press were fascinated by Pramila. "I think it was an oddball interest… they asked me, 'Is this tokenism?' I remember saying, 'What's wrong with it?' Someone has to start somewhere." Ladywood had a large British South Asian population - mostly Sikhs, and Mirpuris from Pakistan-administered Kashmir. When she met with them she would wear salwar kameez - baggy trousers with a long shirt - and she would cover her hair with a veil, so she could "mix and merge". Pramila's parents were Hindu Punjabis, and she felt there was a natural connection with the Sikh community, the majority of whom were Punjabi too. "I dressed like them. It's the same ethic, ate the same food. We were no different." Even though they were all Labour supporters, they told her they would vote for her. She rationalises it by saying, "I'm Punjabi. Their culture. Their person." They told her no politician had ever come to speak to them before. She would eat lunch sitting on the ground in their Sikh temples. Some of the community offered to protect her as she went around canvassing. She refused. While campaigning, Pramila also met members of the Mirpuri community, whom she had never met before either on the Indian subcontinent or England. "Never met a single one until I went there. I was not moving in those circles." Yet she says they also perceived her as one of them. "I look the same." Her father was from northern India, growing up near the borders of the North-West Frontier and she says she could almost speak their dialect. Even though she was Hindu and they were Muslim, the affinity was instantaneous, she says. "It was like striking a match." She mostly spent time with the women. They knew what she ate, she would speak to them about clothes, jewellery, arranged marriages, "girly stuff". And as their lives were quite restricted, they had many questions for her. "They were curious about the world outside and India." The outfits changed when Pramila was canvassing in the leafier suburbs. She laughs as she says the English middle class would not take well to a woman in Asian clothing. "I never wore that. Never. I dressed in what would make them comfortable." She says she swapped the salwar kameez for trousers, a top and a scarf, while she was sipping sherry with the women of Ladywood in their twin sets and pearls. There was hostility towards Pramila. One day, close to the election, she was going around with a loudspeaker on the back of an open-roofed lorry when a stone came flying towards her. "It happened so fast," she makes a whooshing sound. "It touched my hair. A bit of breeze came with the stone." She doesn't know who it was - or the motivation. "So in my life I've had two stones hurled at me. One in Birmingham, and one as a little one being political. Two political stones." Female British South Asian MPs Pramila admits it was tough canvassing in a Labour stronghold. She remembers that it was a time of huge unemployment. She recalls going to homes in the tower blocks around the Bullring area. People were at home she says because they didn't have jobs. "And you got abuse because Thatcher wasn't flavour of the day." There were even death threats. She admits she also got abuse for being non-white, though she doesn't like to dwell on it. Pramila was at the count on election night. Clare Short - who would go on to be a Cabinet Minister years later - won for Labour. Pramila did, however, nearly double the Conservative vote in Ladywood. She says she knew she was never going to win such a Labour stronghold, but "I thought I would make an impression." She didn't stand in 1987. She and her husband had divorced by then and she knew the only seats available to her were ones with a South Asian population. These voters would not be able to accept an unmarried woman as an MP - so she felt it unlikely she would be selected. Pramila went back to teaching. She is a published playwright, and is writing a book about her life. She is still a member of the Conservative Party, but thinks it must have forgotten her part in history. In the 2015 general election she approached her local Conservative office offering to help out behind the scenes, as knocking on doors is difficult for her now. They declined. She says she sent an email to the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, when he was standing to be the leader of the Conservative party, to help him with delivering speeches, but "not a dickie bird". Now aged 81, looking back she acknowledges that by standing in the 1983 election she was "making footsteps in the sand for the next generation". "More than that, somebody has to trailblaze," she says. "And I had the kind of mentality to do that. And the lack of fear. I was quite gutsy." You may also be interested in: It was unusual for first-generation Asian women to learn to drive after arriving in England in the 1960s and 70s, but some were determined to ignore convention. The Asian women who defied the driving taboo |
A 31-year-old man has been charged with an immigration offence over the arrival of 27 migrants who crossed the Channel in two dinghies. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Sarbast Mohammad Hama, of no fixed abode, is charged with conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. The allegations relate to two boats, one on Christmas Day 2018 and another on 27 March, which were intercepted by Border Force off the Kent coast. He has been remanded in custody to appear at Lewes Crown Court on 15 May. On Christmas Day, 13 people were picked up off the coast of Deal, while 14 people, including two children, were stopped in a boat near Folkestone on 27 March. At least 457 people, including 35 children, have crossed the Channel in small boats since 3 November 2018. |
I haven't even made it to America yet but my head is full of its electoral maths after two days working out Donald Trump's potential routes to power on the BBC's giant election touchscreen. We have a calculator button which is great fun and highly useful for the innumerate among us. It imagines the way a candidate can get to the White House once they've lost a big swing state along the way. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Emily MaitlisPresenter, BBC Newsnight What's already clear is that Clinton - on current poll projections - has many ways of getting there. Let's call it a five-lane highway. Trump's path is pretty narrow - more of a country lane - and almost automatically fails without either Florida and Ohio/Pennsylvania. It's tight. On election day, the first state-wide polls shut at 19:00 Eastern Time, and we will wait for results then from Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. The safest seats should come pretty quickly - based on a mixture of real ballots and exit polls. Places like Virginia - where it's closer - will take much longer. It was never actually called last time around. Don't be surprised if Trump seems to quickly take a lead in terms of his electoral votes tally - the "deep red" states like Kentucky and South Carolina should come pretty quickly. Anything that doesn't come soon means - possibly - it wasn't as predictable as we thought. And that's where the races get exciting. This stuff can become slightly contagious. Last night, I got home to find my 12-year-old had spent his penultimate day of half term - and my phone bill - cold calling the US to do his own telephone polls. We posted the findings on Twitter, where many of you asked to know more about his choice of states and approach. Who is ahead in the polls? So here's what I gleaned of his methodology over breakfast: He and his friend Dom went to a website called 50states.com It appears to contain a lot of American phone numbers. Data nirvana. They borrowed Dom's mobile phone. A Nokia brick. And looked up the state dialling codes. They thought up funny fictional people (Pete Griffin from Family Guy) and hunted down real people with the same name (in Rhode Island). They put on (appalling - I've heard them) American accents and told those whom they called that they were students (not technically a lie in the broadest sense). They woke people up in Oregon as they forgot the time difference. It seems even when disturbed in their beds, Americans were extremely friendly or at least receptive to phoney phone pollsters and no-one slammed the phone down. Questions: They asked them their profession, ethnicity, marital status and level of education. They promised them "aminomity" - which I'm informed is akin to anonymity if you're speaking in a cod American accent. They yielded some interesting new demographics: ie the white-female-married-lumberjack for Hillary (I guess that's what happens if you call Oregon, I guess not many pollsters do). They seemed to focus more on safe states than swing states for reasons best known to themselves (but may have something to do with the aforementioned quest for Funny Fictional Characters in Real Life Places). I offer up some of their data below: So? The big question - who comes out on top? Well, truth be told, my son Milo admitted he thought his polls were skewed as he hadn't found enough, "Sandistas or powerful Republicans". Nope, I didn't entirely understand it either. But I'm not getting involved. And Dom, I imagine, is running away as fast as he can before his Nokia brick takes another long distance battering... If you're reading this and you're American and you answered the phone, thank you. If you live in Oregon and never got back to sleep, I apologise. You were still a tremendous help. Emily Maitlis is presenting BBC Newsnight's coverage on the US presidential election. You can follow her on Twitter here, and watch more of her reports here. |
As popular as chat apps have become, they all suffer from the same flaw - if you board an underground train, head into the wild or find yourself in a situation where the authorities block the mobile networks, you're likely to end up cut off. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Richard TaylorNorth America Technology Correspondent Now a new technology is promising to keep such "off-the-grid" smartphone owners chatting. It has been hailed as having the potential to trigger nothing less than a second mobile revolution. Mesh networking is the kind of techie term that, quite understandably, would elicit blank stares were one to mention it en passant. But in the past few months, unprecedented anxiety over state surveillance of internet traffic allied with the incorporation of the technology into Apple's latest mobile software, iOS 7, has meant the novel communications protocol has itself been creating a lot of chatter. So what's all the fuss about? In short, the technology potentially allows communication "off the grid" from the mainstream internet. Its potential is huge - ranging from communication during disaster relief efforts through to the promotion of democracy. At risk of simplification, it is helpful to think of a traditional network as a bicycle wheel - where every spoke connects at some point to a central hub, be it a mobile phone network, internet service provider or computer server. By contrast, a mesh network has no central connection point to speak of. Instead, each point on the network acts as a "node" in a kind of webbed mesh, able to efficiently route traffic on to any other node within range. That means messages can pass from one point to another, without the need for the regular internet - incredibly useful in times of disaster, where traditional communications are often limited or severed entirely. Should even a single node be internet-connected, traffic can be shared with all other nodes to give internet access to all on the mesh. Secret messages But a mesh network can also be an incredibly useful tool for those worried about others monitoring their online activity. Since there is no central authority, it is inherently more difficult to shut down than a traditional network and impossible to monitor unless one is directly connected to the network itself. Mesh networking is a very well-established idea. Originally established for the military, today it is being used in projects around the globe - in villages, towns and cities, largely to help spread connectivity where only limited internet access exists. But a little-advertised feature in iOS 7 called "multi-peer connectivity" now means that app developers can easily put mesh technology in the hands of us all, turning our once-humble handsets into makeshift routers - no setup expertise or additional hardware required. Staying alive One app, Firechat, is already creating a buzz. Firechat was only launched in March but already boasts millions of downloads around the world. In essence it lets users exchange messages, photos and videos among each other, as long as there are intermediary devices nearby to relay the signal along the chain. The app has just been released on Android too - though here it faces some competition from a well-established though less user-friendly app called the Serval Mesh, which draw attentions to its potential in relief efforts and providing connectivity to underserved rural areas. Firechat's founder Micha Benoliel says his app is primarily aimed at entertainment, though he concedes it does have other uses. Some are already being played out - when faced with the threat of internet restrictions and limited cell coverage, protesting students in Taiwan intent on occupying the parliament recently turned to Firechat to keep their lines of communications alive. If that kind of use-case prevails, there's little doubt apps such as Firechat will attract the attention of governments and law enforcement agencies keen to neuter or at least monitor traffic going to this kind of off-grid network. But right now its main challenge is to grow its user base to a stage where contemplating that kind of problem even becomes a possibility. After all, Firechat's technology is essentially "all or nothing". Without a critical mass of users, Firechat's promise to keep users connected wherever they may be will remain unfulfilled. And all the talk of "a second mobile revolution" may ultimately prove to be hot air. |
Last year seven inmates killed themselves at HMP Woodhill, more than in any other prison. A coroner has now called for the government to act, following an inquest into one of the deaths. But how unusual are suicides in prisons and what can be done to prevent them? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Laurence CawleyBBC News The numbers It is not the first time spikes in suicides have been seen in prisons. Seven suicides were reported at HMP Wandsworth, in Milton Keynes, in 2000, six in Durham in 2003, Manchester in 2004, Leeds in 2006 and Birmingham in 2010. What makes HMP Woodhill different is that the number of self-inflicted deaths has been consistently high. Twenty inmates have killed themselves at the 819-capacity Category A prison in the past five years - the next highest suicide numbers were recorded at HMP Liverpool (1,300 capacity) with 14, and Leeds (1,212 capacity) with 13. Tom Morris One of those Woodhill inmates was Tom Morris. The 31-year-old, who was serving a short sentence for shoplifting, died in June 2016. Fellow inmates told the inquest into his death he was moved after throwing his television across his cell. He ended up in a single cell. The decision to move him proved fatal, according to his fellow inmates. "He shouldn't have been moved off the wing," said Peter Hance, who was on the same unit. "If he had been kept on the wing where people knew him, he'd have had someone to talk to." His father Ralph Morris told the BBC how he wrote to the prison in April 2016 warning his son was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. After Mr Morris died, dozens of inmates sent his father a letter which they also copied to the prison authorities. The prisoners stated that everyone knew that Mr Morris was ill: "And by everyone, we mean inmates and staff and health professionals". Senior coroner Thomas Osborne, who oversaw Mr Morris' inquest, said government intervention was required. He called for mistakes to be learned from and for systems to be changed if, and when, they fail. But do the issues go deeper than that? 'Systematic failings' The circumstances of Mr Morris's death - as with all suicides in prisons - were unique and particular to him. But there are common themes in such deaths, say groups involved in the justice system. "Too many of these deaths are preventable and highlight systemic failings in care," said Deborah Coles, director of the support charity Inquest. She believes deaths such as that of Mr Morris can only be prevented with "concrete, lasting change" within the prison system. "However, concrete, lasting change can only happen if there is a dramatic reduction in the prison population, an end to the criminalisation of people with mental health problems, and diversion from prison and investment in alternatives. "These problems are system-wide and the lack of learning and action continues to contribute to preventable deaths." Suicides in England and Wales Source: ONS Samaritans Prison numbers There are currently 85,863 people in English and Welsh prisons. According to the Prison Service's own data, 69% of prisons were classed as "overcrowded". "Until we get the sheer numbers down we will continue to have deaths, self-injury and violence," says Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform. She believes that procedures such as highlighting those deemed at risk of self-harm are important, but argues that relieving "overcrowding" is even more so. Glyn Travis, deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, says it is not just the numbers of inmates coming into the system but how often those prisoners have mental health issues. "The current system is not fit for purpose," he said. "There are far too many prisoners coming in with mental health issues and we have not got the staff to care for them. "The solution is about training, about awareness, it is about systems and it is about staff." 'Boots on the ground' "It's about boots on the ground," says Prof Pamela Taylor, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Forensic Faculty. "The level of suicides is now the highest since 1978 and only then because that was the year we started recording the numbers. "Since 2011 the number of prison officers have been slashed. No, you cannot prove one causes the other but it seems highly likely that they are related because of course with fewer staff you can do less things. "There are some very simple problems arising, like there not being enough staff to take inmates to mental health clinics, either within prisons or outside. "Clinics are reporting lots of cancellations. In severe cases with somebody in great distress, when a clinician will go to a patient's cell, you need several prison officers to open the door. For safety reasons, that's absolutely right - but when there are not enough staff it is a real nightmare." Time outside in fresh air, or simply to exercise or associate with other people are vitally important to sustaining mental health, argues Prof Taylor. "But even these basics are in short supply," she said. "And with so few prison officers you cannot do things like drug screenings, and people with mental health problems are particularly vulnerable both to taking drugs and being pressured by others to bring drugs in." Former inmate Jamie Blyde knew seven of the prisoners who took their lives at HMP Woodhill. Speaking previously to the BBC he said the quality of prison officers was also very important. "We're getting the wrong sort of staff," he said. "We used to get all the ex-forces, guys that could be annoying and hard to be around, but you knew where you stood with them. "They were safe and would do everything by the book. "We don't seem to have as many of them any more, we're getting a lot of under-qualified people, a lot of people that are not meant for the job." Giving evidence to Mr Morris's inquest, the current acting governor Nicola Marfleet highlighted issues with prison staffing. "I'm working with 50% of officers who are on probation or just off probation. Every time I check the database more staff have left, new staff have arrived. It's incredibly difficult. "We're still in deficit in (terms of) numbers and I'm seeing a regular trickle of resignations, which means we are routinely short of officers. "We use detached duty staff from other prisoners for three months at a time." Data from the past 15 years shows how rises in prison deaths are nearly always followed by a sharp reduction. "In any prison you can argue that when there has been a serious incident they do look at it and ask what can be done to improve the situation," says Prof Taylor. Such seems to be the case at Woodhill, where no suicides have been reported so far this year. "No-one has been able to identify the root cause of our clusters of deaths but something has changed," said Ms Marfleet. "I hope and pray that this turns into a year with no self-inflicted deaths, and then two years." Most at risk Newcomers are the most at risk of suicide in prisons, says Prof Taylor. It means staff shortages are felt most acutely in local prisons, such as HMP Woodhill, which have higher proportions of inmates on pre-trial remand. "You will have relatively more people becoming very distressed when they are experiencing prison for the very first time," she said. Inmates serving longer sentences not only develop into the routine of prison life, she said, but tended to be more able to take advantage of the various opportunities offered through the prison system, such as treatment programmes or educational courses. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The safety of those in our custody is a priority and all prisons have procedures in place to support those at risk of committing self-harm or suicide. "We have increased the support available to vulnerable offenders - especially during the first 24 hours in custody - and have invested more in mental health training for prison officers. "We are working closely with NHS England and Public Health England to improve mental health services for offenders at all points of the criminal justice system and to address these issues in our establishments." |
While most of the country looks to Downing Street for guidance on the coronavirus crisis, there is one corner of England whose fortunes are also influenced by the decisions of the US government. How are the communities that rely so heavily on the US airbases coping with the pandemic? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Laurence Cawley & Orla MooreBBC News There is no defined border for "Little America" - arriving there is mostly signalled by a preponderance of large, American cars and signs bearing the Stars and Stripes. It is an area of north-west Suffolk largely reliant on the custom of those occupying the US military bases at its heart - RAF Lakenheath, Mildenhall and Feltwell. Between them, the bases employ more than 12,000 US and UK nationals - and the United States Air Force claims their presence is worth a combined £700m ($910m) to the surrounding economy. When the BBC visited in 2017, it found a community where the American dollar thrived. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, these businesses are as much affected by the dictates of the US military as those of the British government. Before the crisis hit the UK, Terry and Sylvia James would see a steady flow of air service personnel perusing the automatic cars at their showroom, Mildenhall Car Sales. The firm also usually carries out up to 40 MOTs a week and offers advice to its customers about driving on the "wrong" side of the road. But the couple has temporarily shut up shop. About 80% of their business came from the US air bases, which have suspended their usual service rotations under Stop Movement Orders made by the US Department of Defence banning movement or travel, except in exceptional circumstances. "We have furloughed five staff," says Mr James. "The government's scheme to pay 80% of salaries has been fantastic, and I am going to pay them the other 20%. "I could have kept the MOT centre open but there was no point because I could not have got the parts for repairs anyway." A dramatic drop in custom was one aspect behind his closure; the other was that because of social distancing, showing customers prospective cars was not an option. He believes the pandemic will fundamentally change the way people work in the future - the "personal touch" offered by businesses such as his might become a thing of that past as employees continue to work remotely. As for when his own business will reopen, Mr James remains uncertain. He says it will be dependent on what the government requires and when his suppliers are back up and running. He has a tentative target of 1 June, but that is not set in stone. "We have to rely on what Boris says, but I'm trying to keep positive," he adds. "Social distancing will make it very difficult. But we have the 'welcome back' banners and flags ready to put out once we get the OK." You might also be interested in: 'If one of us gets ill, we're all getting it' The rise of the lockdown milkmen and women Coronavirus: Single, pregnant and self-isolating In the town of Mildenhall, which lies at the south-eastern side of the base, most shops are closed until further notice. It is usually a bustling centre serving both those living in the town and the numerous outlying villages, but only its Co-Op supermarket, which houses its post office, regularly opens its doors. Town centre manager Mark Knight says the bases are a crucial part of life in the area and the absence of US personnel on the town's streets had been noticed and felt. "The base and the town are closely entwined," he explains. "For example, when we were having an issue with a bridge here the base sent out a team of engineers to help out. They come and help us out for our summer events." "Everyone is feeling the pressure. People have been told to stay away, whether they're Americans or locals." Also feeling the effect is Bill Flynn, the managing director of a removals firm in the town. In a normal year, his company Safepac handles about 2,000 US house shipments, helping service families move their belongings back and forth "across the pond". Because base staff are currently unable to move, business has "disappeared" and he has had to furlough 30 people. "Cash-flow has been a killer," he says. "What has happened is 50% of my business has gone and we are staring down a barrel." The haulage side of his business is still functioning and his costs - as a result of the drop in the price of fuel - have decreased. But Mr Flynn remains concerned about the general economic future. "Even when the furlough scheme ends and people return to work, what will the consumer confidence level be?" The Stop Movement Order came into effect at the bases on 25 March, four days after their first confirmed cases of coronavirus - one, an active duty airman at RAF Lakenheath, the other a dependent of a service member at RAF Mildenhall. The US Department of Defense recently extended the order to 30 June. A spokesman for the base says the restrictions were implemented to help stop the spread of coronavirus and base leaders were reminding airmen to follow both the UK government's guidelines and the US order. "[We are] communicating to Liberty Airmen and families the importance of adhering to UK lockdown measures regarding physical distancing, limiting travel to/from work, and travelling for essential needs only." Mr Knight says that planning for the end of lockdown, and the re-opening of the business bearing the brunt of their disappearing customers, is not an option at the moment. They - as with much of the country - are looking to Sunday, when the prime minister will reveal whether any restrictions can be eased. "We are holding our breath," says Mr Knight. "And keeping positive." Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk |
A man who knocked out a 72-year-old National Trust volunteer in a "mindless" attack has been ordered to do 120 hours of community service. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Scott Wade, 26, of Woodthorpe Road, Sheffield kicked and punched the parking warden in a row over a space at East Portlemouth, Devon, a court heard. The unnamed man was working at the car park near Mill Bay beach last August. Wade admitted assault and was ordered to pay £500 compensation and £250 costs by Plymouth magistrates. A spokeswoman for the National Trust said: "This was a senseless and mindless act on a much loved member of staff who was just doing his job helping people to enjoy their visit to the coast in South Devon, we are pleased that the legal process has recognised this." Related Internet Links HM Courts Service |
Wendy Taylor and her husband Steve have fostered more than 1,000 children since they took in their first child 34 years ago. As charities call for all Welsh councils to exempt young people leaving care from paying council tax until they are 25, Wendy describes the challenges faced by her children as they leave home for an independent life at 18. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
My husband Steve and I decided to foster children after we had our daughter, Becky, in 1984. We were unable to have any more children but did not want her to be an only child - now she jokes she's been brought up with half of Swansea. At the last count, we'd fostered 1,000 children and on the whole it's a rewarding job, although it can be very difficult as you're taking on other people's problems and trying to manage them. There was a time in the 1990s when all my boys were involved in car crime - car theft, that sort of thing, which was quite prevalent in Swansea at the time. Steve and I were in police stations and courts daily - we were on first name terms with the solicitors and they knew us well at Swansea Prison. There is a bypass that goes behind our house and if the boys had stolen a car they would beep all along the bypass - I would hear it and know to expect a call about 20 minutes later from the police after they'd been arrested. But that's when Steve and I would do a lot of our work to help those children. When they were locked up in a police cell I would ask to go and sit in there with them. We're talking about hardened criminals here, but at that point they would be at their most vulnerable - their defences would be down and they would just sit and put their head on my lap - that's when I felt I was really making a difference. Not all made it out of that cycle okay. Sometimes I'm in Swansea shopping and I walk past a few familiar faces who are now homeless and live on the streets. I have also lost about 20 children over the years - some through suicide, others through drugs - and that is sad. It devastates me. They are just children who don't have a good start in life. And that's why I think we need to do all we can to help these kids - and giving them one less bill to pay by exempting them from council tax when they first leave home would help. We mainly take in teenagers and a lot of what I do is to try to equip them for life on their own when they leave us aged 18 or 19. Some choose to leave at 16 and they then go into supported lodgings. Unlike most children, they do not have a mum or dad who they can turn to for help or money - they don't have the luxury of a mother at the end of a phone. They have also been through a lot in their lives already - many are immature and struggle in school. So I feel I have a lot to cram in to prepare them for living on their own at such a young age. I usually start when they are about 15 with basic things like teaching them to do their own washing, to tidy up after themselves and to do their own shopping. I give them £25 a week and with that they have to buy everything they need - toiletries, clothing, food... they have their own cupboard in the kitchen and an area in the fridge and freezer. It takes a while for them to get to grips with it and I have to stay firm - it's thinking about tomorrow, not today. A lot of them are keen to leave - they want to live on their own. Initially when they do, they are put in a little studio flat - or a bedsit as I would call them - in a shared house owned by the local council. But when the reality hits, we often get calls from them in tears saying they want to come back to us. Your instinct is to mother them and at first I would find it hard. But now I know you have to hold firm. 'Guiding hand' Every child is different but facing the world as an adult can be very stressful and it's a shock for them. Just grasping the concept of bills is hard. All of a sudden they are having to pay things like water rates and it's funny because they say to me "don't be silly, you don't pay for water, it comes out of a tap". And they really don't understand council tax - it's really hard to explain it to them. They might come from a background where maybe their parents didn't pay this stuff anyway - they would just move from place to place to avoid it. They have been brought up to think you don't pay, you vanish. Equally, many have come from a background where education isn't seen to be important so going to school and college can be very frightening for them. But sometimes, when they are given an opportunity and a guiding hand, they can surprise you. We have been so proud to see some of our children go on to college and make a good life for themselves. We keep in touch with lots of them - you never know who will show up at Christmas time and that's lovely. I must admit, I find it hard to remember all of their names - sometimes someone comes to the door and I recognise the face but just can't find a name, so I just say 'come in, come in' and get chatting and hope the name pops into my head. 'Feeling of belonging' I would say it's been a huge learning curve - I took in my first foster child when I was just 28 and he was 15 and I wasn't really old enough to be his mother. I was more like a sister. But I've grown in confidence and learned a lot over the years - I used to feel threatened by their families, for example, but now I love working with them. Our second foster child is 46 now - but I still call him my child - and he always comes for Sunday lunch. One of our other boys has just come out of prison, which I'm so pleased about. I'm 61 now and I suppose I'm thinking of retiring in the next few years - Steve retired from his job on a youth offending team last year. But I think I'll have to do it gradually - go down to two children at a time perhaps - because I know I will miss it all so much when it ends. It's a lovely feeling having them all - I suppose it's a feeling of belonging. It's a strange circle we have here, but it's our own little bubble and we love it. |
The electoral statistics suggest the Conservatives have enjoyed a significant if gradual improvement in fortunes since 1999 - but the numbers only tell part of what has been a sometimes bumpy and often colourful journey back to the front line of Welsh politics. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tomos LivingstoneAssistant political editor, Wales Having opposed devolution in 1997 and having lost every one of their Welsh MPs in that year's general election, expectations were low for the Conservatives in the first devolved elections two years later. The party won nine of the 60 seats - a modest total, but a platform from which to rebuild. The group was led by former MP and Welsh Office Minister Rod Richards, whose pugnacious style enlivened the assembly's early proceedings. But Mr Richards stepped down as leader after being accused of assaulting a young woman. Subsequently cleared, he stood down as an AM in 2002. His successor, law professor Nick Bourne - these days a peer and UK government minister - set about healing the rifts caused by the devolution referendum. He saw little point in retaining the party's anti-devolution stance, gradually moving the party (despite some internal resistance) to the position it now holds - in favour of a Welsh parliament with the fiscal powers to reduce taxes and boost enterprise. So committed was Mr Bourne to his project that he came within a whisker of leading the Conservatives into government in Cardiff Bay in 2007. Having increased the party's share of the seats to 11 in the 2003 election, the Tories went one better four years later, winning 12. A three-way coalition with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats was on the cards - years of behind-the-scenes work meant a joint programme for government was put together relatively easily. But reluctance in the other two parties meant the grand plans eventually came to nothing. There was a silver lining - Plaid Cymru's decision to form a coalition with Labour instead meant the Conservatives cemented their position as the main opposition party in Cardiff Bay and, with the party's fortunes reviving across the UK, the 2011 assembly election saw the Conservatives win 14 seats, overtaking Plaid as the second largest party. The gains came at a cost, as Mr Bourne lost his seat on the regional list for Mid and West Wales. The subsequent leadership contest saw Andrew RT Davies defeat Nick Ramsay; Mr Davies continued Mr Bourne's direction of pushing for greater devolution as a means of implementing a Conservative vision for the economy and public services, albeit in a larger-than-life style than that favoured by his predecessor. Having enjoyed some success in highlighting perceived failures in Welsh Labour's record on the NHS, and making dramatic gains in last year's general election, the Welsh Conservatives are hoping for further gains in May. But with relations with Plaid Cymru having cooled considerably since 2007, it seems that getting into government will remain a tall order. |
Chile is one of the countries embroiled in a worldwide scandal about child sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church. The country's top cardinal, Ricardo Ezzati, has been summoned to a hearing for questioning over allegations he covered up the abuse, which he denies. In total, more than 150 members of the Roman Catholic Church in Chile are under investigation for allegedly committing or covering up sexual abuse from 1960 onwards. BBC Mundo's Constanza Hola spoke to two of the more than 250 victims of clerical sex abuse and also to Gonzalo Duarte, one of the five Chilean bishops whose resignation Pope Francis accepted in the wake of the scandal . Our reporter spoke to Bishop Duarte before he resigned. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
'If you rejected them, they got angry' Mauricio Pulgar was member of a Catholic youth group and was thinking about becoming a priest when he was invited to a Church-run retreat in a small town in central Chile in 1993. He was 17 at the time. The retreat was led by two priests, and when one of them had to leave, the remaining one was left in charge. Mr Pulgar says that on that first night they were left alone with him, the priest told the boys in the group to go swimming naked in the pool. "I and another friend said 'no' but he forced us. He told us that if we didn't do it, it was because we had sexual problems," Mr Pulgar told BBC Mundo. "He came into the pool and touched us. He said it was good for building trust and self-esteem." Two months later, Mr Pulgar started studying to become a priest. He says that he also suffered abuse at the seminary. "They hugged you from behind (…). If you rejected them, they got angry. You were bullied if you didn't allow them to kiss you," he says about his experiences at the seminary. He remembers a traumatic episode with one particular priest, whom he was helping out in a nearby town. "He asked me why I didn't want to be 'initiated'. I didn't understand what he meant. He said heterosexuality didn't exist, that we were all gay and had to try everything." The BBC approached both priests but neither responded to our requests for comment. The BBC also put Mr Pulgar's allegations to Gonzalo Duarte, who from 1998 until his resignation in June 2018 was bishop of the diocese of Valparaíso. Valparaíso is the diocese where Mr Pulgar was a seminary student and the alleged abuse took place. However, the incidents took place before Bishop Duarte was put in charge of the diocese. Bishop Duarte said that he had heard that the priest who had spoken about "initiating" Mr Pulgar had had "serious homosexuality problems" in his new diocese. But Bishop Duarte told the BBC that as those reports came from another diocese, they did not fall under his supervision. Mr Pulgar says that the same priest had once asked him to stay overnight in his parish. "He gave me some refreshments and I started feeling sick. He told me: 'Lie down on my bed, get some rest.'" "I fainted and woke up to the sound of panting. He was abusing me. I tried to move my arms and legs, but I couldn't. I finally was able to move one hand but he grabbed it and…," Mr Pulgar's voice breaks. "He then opened a drawer full of money and told me I was now part of his circle. I told him I didn't want to belong to any circle and left." Mr Pulgar eventually left the seminary, but it took him 20 years to open up about what he had gone through. In 2013, he lodged a formal complaint with the Church authorities as well as in a civil court. Bishop Duarte said that a canonical investigation was carried out, but he told the BBC that there had been "no crime". The priest in question is now living in a residence where church retreats are held. 'He became obsessed with me' Sebastián del Río knew he wanted to be a priest from the age of 12 and joined the seminary in 1999, after graduating from high school. The seminary's dean was the same priest who Mr Pulgar said had forced him and his friends to get into the pool with him naked six years earlier. Mr del Río says the dean became obsessed with him. "He used to come to my room for small talk. I started leaving the door open when he came in, I was afraid." At some point he reported him to the bishop responsible for the seminary, who told him that the dean had "emotional issues". "I asked what he meant and he told me that the dean had fallen in love with me." The bishop encouraged Mr del Río to confront the dean. "I thought he was going to deny everything, but instead he started crying. He told me he had never meant to hurt me." The dean was eventually transferred. He continues to work in a parish to this day. Mr del Río says that after he had finished his studies, Bishop Duarte summoned him to his flat to discuss his ordination. "We were chatting and he suddenly got half naked and asked me to apply anti-inflammatory ointment on his back. It was so humiliating," Mr del Río recalls. Asked about the incident, Bishop Duarte denied any wrongdoing and labelled Mr del Río's account "a dirty trick". Bishop Duarte says that he received Mr del Río on the request of the assistant bishop, who had told him that the young man was crying. Bishop Duarte says that after a long day at the cathedral his back ached. "I told him [Mr del Río]: 'Apply that ointment here while I listen to you', that was all." Mr del Río says that following that incident, Bishop Duarte refused to ordain him arguing he was "a gossip and a busybody". In 2010, Mr del Río filed a formal complaint against the dean and Bishop Duarte but he says he never received an answer. When the BBC showed Bishop Duarte the complaint, he said he had never received it. Daniel Pizarro contributed to this report. |
The starting point for Europe's trade relationship with the UK has begun, separately from a trade deal, with "third country status" vital to keep agricultural goods flowing across the English Channel and North Sea. However, the European Union has taken out of that deal at least one crop, the seed potato, as a penalty for British refusal to align its business regulation and standards with those set in Brussels. That points to the use of political pressure on the Conservative government, and we can expect lots more of that to come. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland We knew fish was a big issue for Europe's future dealings with the UK, and reportedly continued that way into the final hours before unveiling a trade deal. But chips as well? The humble tattie has become a part of the negotiation, and as a significant Scottish export, it's been targeted to put pressure on the government in London. This has to do with "third country" status being approved, as part of the UK's dealings with the European Union. That isn't part of a deal on removing tariffs and quotas as obstacles to trade, but instead a necessary starting point for any trading relationship that Britain has with the EU. It's particularly important for agricultural exports. And ahead of the trade agreement being unveiled, in all the glory of its technical jargon (watch out for cross-retaliation, a ratchet clause, data adequacy and pelagic zonal attachment), it allows exports of meat, dairy and crops to cross the border. But not all crops. At least one item has been left out of the deal, and deliberately so. Seed potatoes are not included, while "ware" potatoes are. Ware potatoes are the ones consumers buy and boil, or roasted with other trimmings with the Christmas turkey. Seed potatoes are sold to farmers in warmer climes, where yield on potatoes is affected by year-round bugs and disease. With its colder, wet climate, Scotland gives potatoes a disease-free start in life, and those seed potatoes are exported to Mediterranean countries, to replenish perpetually depleting production. North Africa has the biggest customers, while 20,000 tonnes - around a fifth of the UK's total exports - have gone to the European Union. The reason given, in a letter to the agriculture sector seen by the BBC, is that the UK has not complied with the EU's demands on "dynamic alignment". This has very little to do with tattie farming, and everything to do with the level playing field, which has been a major bone of contention in negotiations. It's about the EU's requirement that future upgrades in the levels of regulation for environmental or labour protection by the European Union should be matched by the UK. Carrot and stick The UK has pushed back, saying it doesn't want its standards to be set by the EU. That was the point of Brexit for many Brexiteers. There may be some compromise, but not enough for the Europeans, so they're exacting a price - and choosing to target seed potatoes. Why? Well, trade is about the incentive for both partners to become better off, but also about pressure for each other to give ground. The EU is experienced in picking the pressure points in its trading partners, such as the United States. That is why there's a 25% tariff on bourbon and other US whiskies, in retaliation against US tariffs on steel and aluminium. The Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, represents the whiskey distilling state of Kentucky. So when it sought a product that would put pressure on the UK government, it alighted on one that is grown mostly in the counties of Perthshire, Angus, Aberdeenshire and Moray. What do they have in common politically? They are where you're most likely to find Scottish Tories. The politics of Brexit doesn't finish with a deal. Much of it starts from a deal. As with Switzerland, the relationship with the European Union is going to be a near-constant negotiation - offering economic carrot and wielding a political stick. |
"I didn't want to overbuy as I didn't want to be a part of the problem. So I placed an online order on Amazon for 30 rolls for £18 - I thought that would definitely cover her for three months." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Lora JonesBusiness reporter, BBC News Josh, a 25-year-old carer from Nottingham, is one of the many UK shoppers who have been trying to get their hands on a highly sought-after commodity: toilet paper. He looks after his mum, a disabled cancer patient, and has been trying to make sure that she has enough supplies to last for 12 weeks - the amount of time people most at risk of coronavirus have been told to stay at home. But Josh's delivery never came. He says it was listed as out for delivery by Hermes on several different days, but eventually it just disappeared from the portal. Josh believes it was stolen. He says that he was offered a full refund for the purchase, but found the whole situation frustrating: "Panic buying just instigates panic buying, and we need to make sure that there's enough to go round for people like my mum." Hermes told the BBC that it doesn't receive any information on what is inside the parcels it delivers, and that nearly all of its deliveries are successful. Lulu, a university graduate, lives with her mum who is a nurse. She had a similar experience with a delivery from ethical toilet roll company Who Gives A Crap. She's had a subscription with the firm for about six months. She believes that the £36 package of 48 rolls, which was clearly labelled as toilet paper, was stolen. The Australian firm, which uses half of its profits to help build toilets in developing countries, told the BBC: "We've seen a small increase in concerns that deliveries may have been stolen, but nothing drastic. In most cases we are finding that the delivery just hasn't been completed yet." Avant Garde Brands, which sells household products on Ebay and Wowcher, told one UK customer that it was starting to receive reports of toilet roll deliveries going missing too. It said that the coronavirus pandemic had led to an "unprecedented" spike in demand for retailers. 'Crazy' loo roll sales Shoppers are turning to online shops and more niche toilet paper companies so that they aren't caught short. Bumboo offers subscriptions for its toilet rolls made from bamboo. For every box purchased online, it plants a tree. Although the firm has only been trading for seven full months, managing director Fay Pottinger said that sales had gone "crazy" since the beginning of March, when "the full impact of panic buying set in". She told the BBC that so far this month, sales have jumped by about 325% against the last. She adds this could have been much higher, had the company not run out of stock. US firm No. 2, which also sells bamboo toilet paper, said that in the month-to-date, it had seen more than a 5,000% increase in its sales on Amazon's website before it sold out too. Meanwhile, Who Gives A Crap's chief executive Simon Griffiths said that at the beginning of March, sales were up to five times higher than on an average February day. He added that although consumers might be worried, "it's important to show compassion to each other right now, including to delivery drivers who are out there every day ensuring people can get basic necessities delivered to home". 'Snowball effect' of panic buying Being stuck on the toilet with only one square left is seemingly one scenario most panic buyers are trying to avoid. Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a consumer psychologist at Anglia Ruskin University, says when people are anxious, "they need to do something practical to make it feel like they are in control". The focus on toilet roll "likely started on the basis of some people trying to be practical in that they wanted to stock up on basics in case they could not go out. There's then been a snowball effect as consumers observed each other stockpiling - they also had to do it." She adds that seeing photos of empty shelves online "further fuels a vicious circle". While stockpiling might ease some consumers' anxieties around the virus, people need to remember to stay "community-minded", said Tony Richards of Essity, one of the UK's largest toilet paper producers. He reassured consumers: "Don't panic...we can get toilet roll on the shelves. We just need time." |
We're living in the age of the spoiler alert. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Elena CresciNewsbeat reporter Everyone knows it's bad form to "spoil" a TV show or a film for someone who hasn't seen it by divulging plot details or a surprise twist. But there are some people who go out of their way to read spoilers, devouring Wikipedia synopses with as much enthusiasm as most would have for the source material. Why do they do it? And does it actually spoil the story or make it better? 'It's just a habit I've got into' Karina Young, a project manager from Bournemouth, admits the first thing she does when watching a film is whip out her phone, look it up on IMDB and Wikipedia, sometimes missing the first 10 to 15 minutes of the film while reading the synopsis. "I never think of it as spoiling though, it's just a habit I've got into," she told Newsbeat. The 28-year-old is a big fan of the Saw films. When Jigsaw, the latest instalment in the franchise, came out last year, she was determined to kick the habit. "I vowed not to look it up, to save myself for the screening and enjoy it like it was meant to be watched," she said. But Karina only made it to the snack bar before giving in. "We got there early and while my sister was buying a drink, I read the full synopsis." Karina's not alone. Back when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was first published, comedian Ros Ballinger from Manchester flicked to the last few pages and (spoiler alert) found out Professor Dumbledore died before she'd even finished the first chapter. "I always click the white-out on TV tropes and read spoileriffic articles on series," she admitted. "I've heard a big spoiler for the first series of Jane the Virgin and I'm still enjoying it because it's such a dense series full of people and things, you almost forget." Sometimes spoiler hunting is reserved for big series - the ones which dominate the headlines for weeks whenever they air. Student Bridie Kennerley, 24, said she used to be a "chronic binge watcher" - but now she doesn't have the same amount of time to watch everything, she'll keep up by looking up spoilers. "My worst is Game of Thrones, probably like a lot of people. "I've also definitely done it with shows like Poldark, where I've just missed loads and can't face going all the way through and want to just catch up quickly so I can drop back in." She added: "I think some people get it, but sometimes people will be talking about a show and say: 'Oh I don't want to spoil it for you' and I'll just tell them they might as well, because I'll do it for myself otherwise anyway." So why do it? Delving into the Wikipedia pages of series or films you're not planning to watch is all well and good, but why do it for pop culture you actually enjoy? Dan Selcke, the editor of WinterIsComing.net, a Game of Thrones fansite, has a theory. He's not someone who actively goes looking for spoilers, but, unlike a huge part of the Game of Thrones fandom, he really doesn't mind spoilers - not that he's able to avoid them in his line of work. "I don't really have a choice; if they're out there, I will come across them," he said. "But even if that wasn't the case, I've always thought that when it comes to this show, or any show, the journey is more important than the destination. "It doesn't matter what happens so much as how it happens." Each season of Game of Thrones has been plagued by leaks. HBO is reportedly going to extreme lengths to ensure a spoiler-free final season. But Reddit and other social media are teeming with speculation and potential spoilers. Dan says being a spoiler-hungry Game of Thrones fan sniffing out potential storylines is one way people engage with the fandom. "I also think there's a community aspect to it," he said. "It's fun to stumble on a secret about what's coming and then freak out about it with your friends." 'Be prepared for what's happened' Then there are those who feel better if they know what's going to happen in a film or TV series - particularly horror films. Writer Rob Harvilla recently reviewed the Hereditary Wikipedia page, admitting he regularly looks up the plot lines of horror films he's too afraid to watch. Dr Pam Thurschwell of the University of Sussex's English department says she feels the same when it comes to horror films. "Sometimes you just want to be prepared, and it means you're more relaxed when you're watching," she said. She believes social media has also played a role - because people want to take part in the conversation about a popular TV show or film even before they've seen it. "Before social media, spoilers weren't really a problem because when it came to TV, people were probably watching it at the same time," she said. The psychology of spoilers Back in 2011 researchers Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt from the University of California, San Diego conducted an experiment with 12 short stories, two of which had paragraphs which explained the story's ending. They were asked which stories they preferred - and they chose the versions where they knew the ending, even when the story contained a twist or a mystery. When the study was released, Professor Christenfeld told the BBC: "It's sort of as if knowing things puts you in a position that gives you certain advantages to understand the plot." Funnily enough, that's exactly how spoiler addict Karina feels about it. "If I watch a film without reading about it I sometimes wonder if I'm missing things that should be important," she said. "The irony is, when I watch a film I know about I pay more attention than to a film I haven't read about." 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. |
This table lists the 202 primary schools with the lowest Sats results in England in 2012. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
At these schools 49% or fewerYear 6 children achieved Level 4 in English and maths. The average point score - the average number of points per pupil in the tests - is used as a tie break. The list does not include schools with fewer than six pupils. |
As Zimbabwe's military held its President, Robert Mugabe, under house arrest, and tensions ran high in a nation that had only ever known one leader, a figure from the country's recent past touched down in the capital Harare. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai - who stood against President Mugabe in 2013 but lost in a landslide, an election Mr Tsvangirai alleges was rigged - flew in from South Africa, reportedly to take part in negotiations over the country's future. Mr Mugabe has been detained by the military at his home, in a move that has all the hallmarks of a coup. Mr Tsvangirai has called for the president to stand down, a call that has so far gone unheeded. In the mid 2000s, Mr Tsvangirai was the symbol of resistance to Mr Mugabe's ageing, repressive regime. A former mineworker and trade union chief, he founded the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000 and challenged for the presidency in 2008. He gained the most votes, but, according to official results, not enough to win outright. Before the second round was held in June, Mr Mugabe's security forces carried out a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, and Mr Tsvangirai withdrew. Mr Mugabe was declared the winner, but international outrage over allegations of violence and vote-rigging led to a power sharing agreement in which Mr Tsvangirai would serve as prime minister. After months of tortuous negotiations, while the economy collapsed, he was sworn in in February 2009. The story in full A charismatic public speaker, Mr Tsvangirai is also a brave man who routinely ran the risk of arrest or assassination to challenge Mr Mugabe's regime. As the leader of the opposition, he was brutally assaulted, charged with treason, and labelled a traitor. He has reportedly survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 in which he was nearly forced out of the window of his 10th-storey office. In 2007 he was arrested and beaten by police for taking part in a prayer meeting which they said was illegal. One person was said to have been killed in the raid, and shocking pictures emerged of a bloodied Mr Tsvangirai. Mr Mugabe said at the time that he "deserved" the beating for disobeying police orders. In 2013, Mr Tsvangirai challenged Mr Mugabe for the presidency and lost in a landslide, despite being widely regarded as the favourite. International observers, including the US and UK authorities, expressed concerns about the legitimacy of the incumbent's 61% share of the vote. Critics of Mr Tsvangirai said he should have been able, as prime minister, to prevent electoral fraud. His image was also tarnished by a complicated personal life following the death of his first wife, Susan, in a car crash soon after he became prime minister, in which he was injured. Two women went to court to try to block his marriage to Elizabeth Macheka, 35, in September 2012. The court agreed that he had already wed one of them in a traditional ceremony, so he was obliged to marry Ms Macheka in a "customary" union which recognises polygamy. Bizarrely, all three of the women had close family links to members of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, lending credence to suggestions that he was the victim of dirty tricks. Humble beginnings The eldest of nine children, Mr Tsvangirai left school while a teenager to help support his parents. He has also had a large family - fathering six children with Ms Macheka. He left school early to seek work and in 1974 took work at a mine. Mr Mugabe would later take to calling Mr Tsvangirai "ignoramus" because of his humble background and lack of education. After working as plant foreman at the Bindura Nickel Mine for 10 years, he rose through the union ranks and in 1988 he was elected secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). As the nation's economy declined and workers' living standards plummeted in the 1990s, the ZCTU took an increasingly political role. When Mr Mugabe tried to raise income tax to pay pensions for veterans of the 1970s war of independence, a ZCTU-organised nationwide strike forced him to back down. In apparent revenge for his part in defeating Mr Mugabe and the war veterans, a group of men burst into Mr Tsvangirai's office, hit him on the head with a metal bar and attempted to throw him out of his 10th floor office window. It would come to be a foretaste of the war veterans' campaign of violence ahead of elections in 2000 and 2002, which led to the deaths of more than 100 MDC supporters. Contradictions Buoyed by its initial victory, the ZCTU held further strikes against the government's economic mismanagement, but Mr Mugabe stood firm and after intense debate, the ZCTU helped establish the MDC in September 1999. Its nationwide structures were crucial in helping the young party campaign for the June 2000 parliamentary elections, in which it won 57 seats - then the best opposition showing in Zimbabwe's history. Mr Mugabe characterised the MDC as a puppet of white farmers and the UK government, despite its foundations in the country's black working class. Many white farmers had financially supported and campaigned for the MDC. The state-controlled media used to regularly remind voters that Mr Tsvangirai did not participate in the guerrilla war against white minority rule. As a former miner and unionist, his heart is social democratic - roughly in the middle of Zimbabwe's deep economic and political divide. He has in the past blamed Zimbabwe's economic woes on the IMF's structural adjustment programme, calling the IMF "devils". But many in his party are industrialists who believe in the power of the free market, while Mr Mugabe and his allies see the world through socialist eyes. Branded a traitor Just before the 2002 presidential elections, a mysterious videotape emerged, allegedly showing Mr Tsvangirai discussing how to assassinate Mr Mugabe using a Canadian consultancy firm, Dickens and Madson. The head of the consultancy, Ari Ben-Menashe, used to work as a lobbyist for the Zimbabwe government and, in the tape, he appears to call Mr Tsvangirai "stupid" for even speaking to him, let alone allegedly discussing an assassination plot. Mr Tsvangirai was eventually acquitted of treason, but for 20 months the possibility of a death sentence hung over his head. He was charged with treason for a third time in 2003, after calling for mass protests to oust Mr Mugabe - protests which fizzled out under the force of police truncheons. Despite his image as a freedom fighter, some of Mr Tsvangirai's closest allies have accused him of behaving like a dictator on occasion. He overruled a decision by the MDC leadership to take part in elections for the Senate in 2005 and ordered a boycott. This led to a split in the party and another blow to his chances of toppling Mr Mugabe. He has also been accused of being impulsive, and at the same time too passive during his tenure as prime minister. He once said that his strategy to unseat Mr Mugabe was to wait while the president mismanaged the economy to such an extent that he would be forced out of office. After he lost in 2013, it seemed unlikely the world would ever find out how Mr Tsvangirai would take to being a leader, but that may be about to change. |
It's well known that identical twins are not totally identical - they can, usually, be told apart, after all. But up to now it has been almost impossible to distinguish their DNA. It's claimed that a new test can do it quickly and affordably, however - and this could help police solve a number of crimes. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alison GeeBBC World Service At the end of 2012, six women were raped in Marseille, in the south of France. Evidence, including DNA, led police to not one, but two suspects - identical twins Elwin and Yohan. Their surname was not revealed. When asked to identify the attacker, victims recognised the twins but couldn't say which one had assaulted them. Police are struggling to work out which one to prosecute. They have been holding the brothers in custody since February - each twin says he didn't carry out the attacks, but neither is blaming the other. When the twins were arrested, media reports said tests to determine who to charge with the crimes would be prohibitively expensive, but that looks set to change. Scientists specialising in genomic research at the Eurofins laboratory in Ebersberg, Germany, say they can now help in cases like this. "The human genome consists of a three-billion-letter code," says Georg Gradl, their next-generation sequencing expert. "If the body is growing, or an embryo is developing, then all the three billion letters have to be copied. "During this copying process in the body there are 'typos' happening," says Gradl, referring to slight mutations. In standard DNA tests only a tiny fraction of the code is analysed - enough to differentiate between two average people, but not identical twins. Gradl and his team took samples from a pair of male twins and looked at the entire three-billion-letter sequence, and they found a few dozen differences in their DNA. The scientists also tested the son of one of the men, and found he had inherited five of the mutations from his father. Having analysed the results, they are confident that they can now tell any twin from another, and from their children. And the speed of the test is important - it can be carried out in about a month. Forensic institutes and police from Europe, Latin America and the US have already asked Eurofins if it can help them solve some 10 different cases. Gradl says cases of rape or sexual violence involving a twin are "more frequent than we expected". Often there are traces of sperm "and in these cases we can really differentiate," he says. The company can't reveal which cases it is working on, but Gradl admits Marseille is "certainly one of the cases that we would like to help… and we are very convinced that we would get [a result]". A number of other cases present similar difficulties. A court in Argentina recently suspended a trial so further investigations could be carried out, after a man charged with rape blamed his twin. There have also been a handful of cases in the US. Sometimes a tattoo or an alibi has enabled investigators to work out which twin to prosecute, but there have been times when both suspects have walked free. One of these cases occurred in 1999 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, when a female student was hit over the head and raped. Five years later, police matched DNA from the attack to Jerome Cooper - but he has an identical twin, Tyrone. Both brothers already had records for sexual assault. "Both gave us statements, both denied it," says Captain Jeffrey Hertel of Grand Rapids Police Department. "We were naively hopeful that one of them would come forward and say, 'I don't want my brother falsely accused of something - it was me,' but that never happened." "At one time we put them in the same room together to see if they would come to some type of conclusion between the two of them. That didn't occur - they just talked small talk," he says. "We're all hoping that science is going to catch up to this case… we've taken deep breaths, we know it's going to happen, it's just a matter of time." More than a decade after the assault, he says the victim is "still waiting for her day in court". Another case occurred in 2009, in Malaysia, when police in Kuala Lumpur stopped a car containing 166kg (366lbs) of cannabis and 1.7kg (3.7lbs) of raw opium, and arrested the driver. A little later another man arrived at the house to which the car had been heading. They arrested him too. It turned out they had picked up identical twins, Sathis and Sabarish Raj. Only the first one had a key to the house and would have known for sure what was in the bags in the car. But when the case came to court, there was reasonable doubt which twin was which. A DNA test that might usually have been able to link a suspect to the car was of no use. "I can't be sending the wrong person to the gallows," said the judge, according to the New Straits Times. So both walked free, escaping the death penalty that is mandatory for convicted drugs traffickers in Malaysia. It's not just crimes that could be solved by the new test - doubts about paternity could also be laid to rest. In 2007, a court in Missouri heard a case concerning Holly Marie Adams, who had sex with identical twin brothers and subsequently gave birth to a child. A DNA test gave a nonsensical result - there was a 99.9% probability that Raymon Miller was the father, and also a 99.9% probability that his twin, Richard Miller, was the father. In the end, the judge had to rely on Adams' testimony to find out the exact dates she had slept with each man, how this corresponded with her menstrual cycle and whether either had used a condom. In the end he ruled that Raymon was the legal father. The standard of proof was lower than in a criminal trial. For all of these scenarios, Eurofins' test offers "a very exciting development… a significant step forward in forensic DNA analysis," says Laura Walton-Williams of the Forensic and Crime Science Department at Staffordshire University in the UK. She says she could also imagine a situation where police would use the test to determine whether a twin had been involved in the murder of an identical sibling - as for the first time they could differentiate between the DNA of the victim and the suspect. Walton-Williams cautions, however, that courts will want to know how rigorously the method has been tested before they allow it to be used as evidence. The cost of the test will also influence how widely it will be used, she says - and it will therefore probably be used more often in criminal trials than paternity cases, she predicts. Eurofins won't say publicly how much their test costs Other companies have said they can do something similar in the past, but for one reason or another it has never proved to be the breakthrough that police and prosecutors need. And there will always be some cases where no DNA test would be sufficient. In 2009, jewellery with a retail value of six million euros ($8.2m) was stolen from Berlin's KaDeWe department store. Traces of DNA were found in a glove found at the crime scene, and once again the DNA led police to twin brothers, who walked free. But even if police had been able to tell which one the DNA belonged to, they still might not have been able to get a conviction. The defence could have argued that even though the suspect had once worn the glove, someone else might have left it at the crime scene, and that neither of the twins was ever at the department store. Georg Gradl spoke to Newshour on the BBC World Service. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
Coronavirus shutdowns around the world have pushed countries into crisis-mode, prompting a massive rescue spending in an effort to soften the blow from what is expected to be the worst economic contraction since the 1930s. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
As of 7 April, countries around the world had approved more than $4.5tn worth of emergency measures, according to the IMF. That figure has only grown in the weeks since. So how do the responses compare? New spending Columbia economics professor Ceyhun Elgin has been working with colleagues around the world to track the responses in 166 countries. By his calculations, Japan's response has been among the most aggressive, with a spending package estimated at roughly 20% of the country's economy. (It is topped only by Malta, which benefits from European Union funds.) That compares to rescue spending estimated at roughly 14% of GDP in the US, 11% in Australia, 8.4% in Canada, 5% in the UK, 1.5% in Colombia and 0.6% in Gambia. But that ranking looks different if measures beyond spending, such as central bank actions, are considered. In the biggest European countries, for example, government pledges to guarantee new loans provided to businesses hurt by the shutdowns - a move meant to keep banks lending and stave off bankruptcies - has accounted for a major part of the response. America's central bank has also stepped in with lending programmes with a similar aim. Factoring in those kinds of actions puts France at the top of the pack and moves the UK into fifth place, instead of 47th. Prof Elgin says the biggest responses have occurred in countries that are richer, older - and have fewer hospital beds. Countries like the US and Japan are also in a better position to finance new spending, since investor willingness to buy their bonds means they benefit from low borrowing costs. However Prof Elgin says size shouldn't be mistaken for effectiveness, noting that countries are deploying funds differently. "All the different contents in these packages, they might have different multiplier effects, creating different outcomes," he says. Relief directed at companies tends to be a phenomenon of "advanced economies", says Paolo Mauro, deputy director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department. While the sums involved are potentially significant, he says such programmes tend to be relatively low risk, since many firms will be able to repay the loans as planned. Meanwhile, some poorer countries have prepared responses, but will need to get money from international organisations and other donors to execute. Direct payments Some strategies can be found in relief plans around the world, such as cash transfers. In many countries, the aid is targeted at the poor or people working in the informal economy and unlikely to get assistance through other programmes; or else conditioned on a person's job having been affected by shutdowns. Canada, for example, is providing CAD 2,000 (£1,150; $1,400) per month for up to four months to those who have lost income due to the pandemic, while Costa Rica is funding a monthly allowance of $220 (£177) for people who have lost their jobs due to the virus. The US and some countries in Asia have taken an even broader approach. All Americans earning under $99,000 - an estimated 90% of households - are due to receive as much as $1,200 (£964) per adult, while South Korea's central government is sending cheques of up to KRW 1 million (£659; $820) to families in the bottom 70% income bracket. Hong Kong in February announced a handout of $10,000 Hong Kong dollar ($1,280; £985) per adult; Japan is sending its citizens JPY 100,000 (£752; $931) per person, and Singapore $S600 (£340; $422). In Europe, in contrast, many countries have opted against one-off bonuses and are relying on relatively strong existing safety net programmes, like the UK's Universal Credit, to meet the increased needs. "The difference is in what economists call the automatic stabilisers," says Mr Mauro of the IMF. "The discretionary response is very large in the United States but when you're comparing you need to take into account that actually more needs to be done in the US because the social safety nets are smaller." Wage subsidies Another common strategy has been government programmes that help cover payrolls for companies suffering from lockdown measures. The hope is that if firms retain staff it will help the economy bounce back more quickly once the restrictions are lifted. The Netherlands has put forward one of the most generous plans, pledging to replace up to 90% of wage costs for eligible companies, while France is offering to cover 84% of the gross wage - and up to 100% if a worker makes minimum wage. The UK's scheme will pay 80% of earnings of furloughed staff up to £2,500 per employee per month, for at least three months, while Canada will cover 75% of wages for up to three months. Many of these plans build on existing "short-term work" programmes. The US, where such programmes were not already widespread, has taken a less direct approach, dedicating more than $650bn to business loans, which do not have to be repaid if firms maintain staffing levels and spend the majority on wages within two months. The so-called the Paycheck Protection Program has been overwhelmed by demand but it has also been roiled in controversy. There has been widespread outcry about large companies sucking up much of the money, which had been pitched as relief for small businesses. Other firms have criticised the rules focusing the spending on payrolls, arguing that it is other expenses that threaten their survival, while low-wage staff may be better off receiving newly expanded unemployment benefits. Providing wage subsidies makes sense if the shutdowns are brief, says Daniel Bunn, vice-president of global projects at the Tax Foundation, a Washington think tank. But they are likely to be less effective if they persist, and significantly alter the contours of the economy. "The challenge is not knowing how long the economic shutdown is going to last or what position businesses or families or workers will be in on the other side of this," he says. For now, he says many countries with the funds on hand have decided to err on the side of doing too much - and it's too early to tell whether even that will be enough. |
Photographers love to travel but sometimes it pays to look at what is close at hand and document the community you live in. Richard Beaven has done just that, turning his lens on the residents of Ghent, about 120 miles north of New York. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Phil CoomesPicture editor@philcoomeson Twitter Beaven has worked on the project for a year or so and in that time he has made 275 portraits, about 5% of the population of Ghent. "The catalyst for the project was the town's bicentennial in 2018 and creating an archive for it," says Beaven. News of the project spread through the town, with one shoot leading to another and only a handful declining the opportunity to take part. Each portrait is accompanied by the subject's name and the amount of time they had spent living or working in Ghent at the time of being photographed. Beaven says: "My intent was to include as diverse a cross-section of the community as possible, with everyone who was photographed receiving a handmade print. "Smartphone technologies have enabled us to capture billions of fleeting moments yet only a tiny fraction are intended to have lasting impact or to be printed and archived in any way. "Photographs from the 19th and 20th Centuries are more readily to hand, often serving as our only tactile document of history. "I printed a complete set of prints, which, along with a list of all subjects' names, will soon be given to the Ghent town historian for safekeeping in the town-hall attic. "We're lucky in such a small town to have a historian who is diligently recording details and archiving for the future. "I am also looking into the possibility of producing a book this year, which I believe would have broad appeal both locally in Ghent and with wider geographical audiences." Beaven himself has lived in Ghent since 2005, though was born and grew up in Exeter, Devon. "It's been fascinating to be able to observe and document the Ghent community, not to mention a privilege," he says. "In many ways I see it simultaneously as an insider, because I live here, and as an outsider, as I am a British expatriate. "At the core, it's my interest in and respect for the people here that has driven the work. "It's hard to do this unless people understand that's your motivation. "People gave much of themselves for the portraits and trust was very important. "The portraits are of individuals. While I take care to select appropriate environments, I provide minimal direction in terms of clothing or what the subjects happen to be carrying at the time. "The viewer is left to imagine and question for themselves what makes each subject unique or familiar based only on gesture, expression and setting. "I arrived at Jean's house - she has been a resident here for 56 years - one day in June. "She emerged from her house carrying a photograph of her husband, Walt, who had recently passed away. "Walt was part of a long-standing Ghent family and well known in the town. "She asked if she may hold the photograph for her portrait. "At that point, my task was simply to find a simple background and nice light. "Along the way I worked with piglets, sheep, rabbits, cats and dogs, which is a little more challenging when shooting on film and aiming for a single roll of film per person - 10 images. "For me, there's a little bit of magic that happens in each and every portrait." You can see more of Richard Beaven's work on his website. |
Two bombs ripped through the Kuta area of the Indonesian tourist island of Bali on 12 October 2002, leaving 202 people dead. Among those killed at Paddy's Irish Bar and the nearby Sari Club were people from 21 countries, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons. BBC News looks at the background to the bombings 10 years on. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The seeds of the October 2002 Bali bombing plot were probably sown in a hotel room in southern Thailand 10 months earlier. At a secret meeting of operatives from South East Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, was believed to have ordered a new strategy of hitting soft targets, such as nightclubs and bars rather than high-profile sites like foreign embassies. But it was not until August 2002 that Bali was chosen as the place to strike. According to Ali Imron, who was jailed in 2003 for life for his part in the attacks, it was at a meeting in a house in Solo, Central Java, that "field commander" Imam Samudra announced the plan to bomb Bali, and the main agents in the plot first came together. Bali was chosen "because it was frequented by Americans and their associates", Ali Imron said. He quoted Imam Samudra as saying it was part of a jihad, or holy war, to "defend the people of Afghanistan from America". In fact, more Australians and Indonesians died than Americans, prompting speculation that the plotters were poorly informed or manipulated by other people. Hambali, who is currently in US custody in Guantanamo Bay, is believed to have been the South East Asian contact for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. But he is not thought to have played an active part in the Bali plot. Terror attack Instead, 43-year-old Islamic teacher Mukhlas - also known as Ali Ghufron - was convicted as the overall co-ordinator of the attacks. Prosecutors said he approved the targets and secured financing for the bombings. Mukhlas himself claimed he just gave the bombers religious guidance. He also recruited two of his younger brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron, to play key roles in the attack. Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are said to have chaired preparatory meetings in western Java during August and September. Ali Imron said that the Bali attacks were originally planned for 11 September, to mark the first anniversary of the terror attacks on the US. But the bombs were apparently not ready in time, and the plans had to be postponed. The details of the attack were finalised in Bali between 6 and 10 October. Suicide mission? The bombers apparently all had separate roles. A man called Idris, who was later jailed for another bomb attack, was accused of gathering funds and arranging transport and accommodation for the bombers. Amrozi admitted to buying the chemicals and the minivan used in the Sari Club blast. He also named Dulmatin as the man who helped assemble the bombs. He also said that a man called Abdul Ghoni mixed the explosives. Another man, Umar Patek, was also convicted in June 2012 of helping make explosives. Ali Imron said he helped make the main bomb that was used at the Sari Club. He said a van loaded with explosives had been driven to Sari by a man called Jimi, who died in the blast. A man called Iqbal wore a vest with a bomb in it, which he detonated at Paddy's Bar. "Their duty was to explode the bombs," Ali Imron had said. "They were ready to die." Iqbal is known to have died in Paddy's Bar. But Ali Imron also told police that the two bombs exploded prematurely, which could have caught Iqbal out, so it is unclear if he was on a suicide mission. Different reactions All the individuals detained for playing a major role in the attacks have been sentenced - and Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra were executed in November 2008. Other key suspects are believed to have been killed by police before facing trial. Azahari Husin, a Malaysian who was alleged to be JI's top bomb-making expert and to have helped assemble the Bali bombs, was killed in eastern Indonesian in November 2005. Another alleged bomb-maker, Noordin Mohammad Top, was killed in a raid in November 2009. Dulmatin was killed by Indonesian police on March 2010 during a raid at a Jakarta internet cafe. Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, seen as the spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia, was jailed for conspiracy over the bombings, but his conviction was later quashed. He is currently behind bars on different charges. While the Bali attacks were a team effort, its aftermath provoked different reactions from those involved. Police said Imam Samudra stayed in Bali for several days after the bombing to survey the devastation he wrought and observe the reactions of people he affected. Ali Imron shed tears in court, and repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions. Amrozi laughed and joked about his case, giving a thumbs-up sign when he was convicted. He said he was happy to die a martyr. |
Oil giant Shell will not sell off any more North Sea assets. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kevin KeaneBBC Scotland's environment correspondent A senior figure at the company has told BBC Scotland he has no plans to sell resources despite the chancellor announcing measures to make the process easier. Shell has just completed the sale of a package of assets to the company Chrysaor for $3.8bn. It included stakes in the Buzzard, Beryl, Elgin-Franklin and Schiehallion fields. Director of Shell's Upstream Commercial business, Steve Phimister, said he would now invest in what remains. Strong core business He said: "We have, in the last year, conducted quite a significant divestment of a package of assets. It's been done very intentionally and very clearly with an intention to focus on our core business. "So, we today have a good strong core piece of business. It's about 150,000 barrels a day so still a very significant producer in the basin. "And that is the portfolio we will take forward and intend to invest in in the coming years." Following a campaign from the industry, Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced changes in decommissioning relief to make it easier for smaller operators to invest in older assets. Although it will take a year to implement, the hope is that it will stimulate investment and prolong the expected life of the North Sea. Mr Phimister said: "I think it's going to help the basin immensely. "I think there are still assets that may not attract investment from certain companies who may not want to hold them for the long term and want to move them on. "I now have the portfolio today in the UK that we set out to achieve at the beginning of the year and that's the one I intend to invest in." Abandoned platforms Shell's most iconic field, Brent, is currently going through the process of decommissioning. It lent its name to the benchmark of North Sea oil, Brent Crude. Some environmental groups have objected to their plans to leave some of the legs from abandoned platforms in the sea to collapse. The company said it is has listened to the concerns raised and that "it is possible to have derogations" from the original plan. Shell's 1,500 strong workforce will be pleased to hear reassurances about its future in the North Sea after the recent downturn. Since the oil price crashed about 700 jobs have been lost in Aberdeen and the North Sea. |
Schools and colleges in Northern Ireland are closed for a second day following advice from the Department of Education (DE) about the "potential severity" of Hurricane Ophelia. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Permanent secretary Derek Baker said the decision was taken "to avoid any potential risk to life". However, with the worst of the storm over, some parents said the decision was "ridiculous". Others said the closures would ensure damaged properties were repaired. The Republic of Ireland was worst hit with three people killed in separate incidents. The announcement to keep schools closed in Northern Ireland on Tuesday was posted in a tweet from the DE account on Monday afternoon. Some parents welcomed the decision, saying the safety of children was paramount. Others called for schools to be closed for even longer due to potential travel dangers. Some parents suggested that the half-term break should be adjusted to make up for the extra days lost as a result of the storm. However, children will be back at their desks on Wednesday, according to a tweet posted by the DE account. |
Photojournalist Sean Sutton has worked for Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a not-for-profit humanitarian organisation, since 1997, after almost a decade covering conflicts as a freelance photographer. To mark International Landmine Awareness Day, he has written about his work and selected some of his pictures from his archive from the past 25 years. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Phil CoomesPicture editor I started my career as a photographer back in 1988 and found myself drawn to conflict and the impact it had on people's lives. My initial work in Burma over a two-year period led to assignments in many countries affected by war. Landmines were part of the story wherever I went, and in the early 90s I decided to focus on this issue while working on other stories in these countries. I got to know the actors involved, especially MAG, who were one of only two charitable organisations clearing landmines at the time. To my complete surprise, in early 1997 MAG offered me a staff job to act as the interface between the situation on the ground with decision makers and the public - to use my photography, design and page-layout skills to communicate on the issues. The problems and the solutions. It has been an extraordinary journey and a pretty unique one for a photographer. When I was freelance I worked for many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations (UN) agencies as well as the international press. This was amazing work, but it certainly had its frustrations. It was also getting increasingly hard to publish stories, so I jumped at the chance to focus on the issue I cared so deeply about. I had experienced the horrific impact of landmines first hand for a number of years and the issue stood out to me due to the indiscriminate nature of the hidden weapons. Primed like coiled explosive springs under the ground for decades - waiting patiently for their unsuspecting victims. Mine clearance is a prerequisite to any normal activity in so many areas after conflict. People can't safely farm, they can't safely build a house and their children can't safely play. Aid agencies can't drill water wells, can't build schools and in many cases can't deliver medical assistance or food aid. People don't want to survive on aid handouts. Many are subsistence farmers and they need land to survive. In my experience the vast majority of people who stood on a landmines knew they were in a minefield. They had no choice. They had to get to the stream for water, they had to collect the firewood and they had to use the land to grow food. This is the tragic situation still affecting thousands today. In many places, such as Cambodia, villages became military positions. This is due to a water source, shade from trees, solid structures and so on. The occupying military would surround the village with defensive minefields. The other side would take it, clear some of the mines and also lay more around the village for defence. This would go on for many years - villages would be taken by different sides time and time again - and you end up with a patchwork quilt of contamination. After the war when people returned they had no choice but to go to their ancestral lands. They would have to pay someone to use other land - and they had no money. Also there was a risk that people would take their land. The pressures were massive. As a result Cambodia has one amputee for every 290 people. After World War Two there was extensive contamination across Europe, but the countries involved had the resources as well as the resolve to deal with it. More recent conflicts mean that the poorest countries are now affected and they don't have the resources themselves to pay for clearance. As a result MAG, prioritises those areas where the humanitarian need is greatest, land for farming, rebuilding homes, safe access to water and other resources. Children are a specific cause for concern - every day a child is killed or injured by a landmine. Children often look after animals and herd cattle and goats across land in other countries, so that also makes them particularly vulnerable. But the biggest thing really is that children are naturally inquisitive, kids are likely to pick up shiny metal objects they might find in the bush or in the rice field. The results are horrific. One day, the husband of a family I met was walking to the rice field and a few hundred metres from their house he stood on a mine, he went to hospital and had an amputation. Six weeks later, he returned to the village and asked his wife if she could go and get him some medicine for his pain. So she went to a neighbour's house, got some medicine and on the way back - just a few metres from their house she stood on a mine. She laughed as she said to me: "So I took the medicine instead of him because I needed it more." The couple told me they were the poorest family in their village of Chisang because neither parents could work as hard as others, due to their injuries. But they said the most important thing of all for them was their children and their future and that if MAG hadn't come and cleared the village and surrounding area it would be a very different scenario. So it was a message of happiness in a way, despite the sort of tragic scenario they found themselves in, at least their kids were not going to stand on a mine going to school. I have seen the village change dramatically over the years. Now it is lush and full of life with a school, a clinic and a busy market. |
The newspapers have delivered their verdict. Tidal lagoon 'would need large subsidy' to cut costs - The Times . Swansea Tidal cost claims crumble under questioning - The Daily Telegraph . | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales Both reports of Wednesday's committee hearing at Westminster will add to the frustration already felt at Tidal Lagoon Power's Gloucester headquarters, although that might be lessened slightly by the Telegraph website's inability to spell its chief executive's name correctly. Mark Shorrock's admission that the project could only match the cost of energy produced at Hinkley Point through Welsh Government investment prompted BEIS committee chair Rachel Reeves to question whether this was an "additional subsidy" on top of that required through the contract for difference. While Mark Shorrock was largely among friends - some MPs told him their constituents were rather keen on the project - Ms Reeves raised the bar for scrutiny by challenging Mr Shorrock on his sums and the way he made them add up. Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies (a parliamentary aide at the Wales Office) joined in: "Whichever way it's packaged this is taxpayers' money coming from Westminster which goes to the Welsh Assembly which is then being repackaged, which is then coming in as an additional taxpayers' allowance to your lagoon - do you think that's fair on the taxpayer?" Mr Shorrock (unsurprisingly) replied: "I don't see it like that. I see it as the Welsh Government making a commercial investment. They're making a return and what they're really doing is they're creating an enormous new industry for jobs." Former Energy Minister Charles Hendry repeated the cost comparison he made in his review published 16 months ago. "It is a pint of milk a year for 30 years," he told the MPs. "It is 30p a year." Mr Hendry is probably paying around 40% less than the rest of us for his milk and his argument was challenged by Richard Howard of Aurora Energy Research who said that "pint of milk" added up to tens of millions of pounds a year. Mr Howard wondered why there was no representative of consumers on the panel of four. Having allocated only an hour to grill four panellists that might have made proper scrutiny even more challenging. Wednesday's was the first session in this inquiry, although some MPs appear to have made up their minds already. Both Geraint Davies and Tonia Antoniazzi stressed the local support for the scheme. 'Expensive' The morning afterwards, Ms Antoniazzi told the Commons: "In Swansea and Gower, we are absolutely desperate for some good news, following the tragic job losses this week. Please can we have some good news for south Wales, and please will the Leader of the House find time to discuss the urgency of a decision on the tidal lagoon?" Andrea Leadsom was sympathetic but reminded MPs it is "a very expensive and complex project". So what happens next? Ministers from the Welsh and UK governments are due to be questioned but there is no agreed date yet - it is unlikely to before the Whitsun recess. Could an announcement be made before then? There have been rumours that the go-ahead could be announced at the Welsh Conservative conference on May 18. That may prove to be another false deadline, rather like previous spending reviews and Budgets, but I could be wrong. The lack of contact between Tidal Lagoon Power and ministers suggests an announcement is not imminent although much of the work is being done by officials. Charles Hendry said he wasn't disappointed by the delay as we are now "nearing the end game". As the MPs took evidence, Energy Minister Lord Henley said the UK government will give its response to the Hendry review "shortly" - which is an update on the usual "in due course". My colleague Steffan Messenger has a comprehensive report on Wednesday's hearing here. You can also listen to my report for Radio 4's Yesterday in Parliament here (it's 24 minutes into the programme). |
The low-cost airline, EasyJet, is starting a new service from Belfast to Birmingham. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Direct flights will begin on 22 October from Belfast International Airport. Initially the service will be daily and will increase on 29 October to twice daily on weekdays only. The new route will increase EasyJet destinations from Belfast International to 23. Tickets go on sale on Monday. |
The daytime speed limit on Dutch roads is to be cut to 100km/h (62mph) in a bid to tackle a nitrogen oxide pollution crisis, according to cabinet sources widely quoted by Dutch media. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was a "rotten measure" but necessary. The existing limit of up to 130km/h will still be permitted at night. The new limit is set to come in next year along with several other measures. Ministers have been grappling with ways of responding to the emissions problem. "No-one likes this," Mr Rutte told a news conference. "But there's really something bigger at stake. We have to stop the Netherlands from coming to a halt and jobs being lost unnecessarily." He said it was the deepest crisis he had ever dealt with in nine years in power and the refugee crisis in 2015-16 bore no comparison. Why are they acting now? The crisis is so severe that big infrastructure projects have been put on hold. A ruling in May by the top court in the Netherlands on nitrogen oxide emissions affected thousands of plans for roads, housing and airports. The Council of State said Dutch rules for granting building and farming permits breached EU law protecting nature from emissions such as ammonia and nitrous oxide. The government wants to build 75,000 homes next year, so for the past week the cabinet has tried to find a solution to cutting the pollutants. Among the options discussed by ministers was a ban on vehicles on Sunday. Drivers will be allowed to revert to the current maximum between 19:00 and 06:00. Only 8%-10% of cars are thought to travel between those times. Even with the lower 100km/h speed limit there could still be emissions problems in areas such as the congested Randstad central-west belt, home to the biggest Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Bringing the motorway speed limit down to 100km/h will make the Netherlands the lowest in Europe, on a par with Cyprus which has far fewer motorways. The most common maximum speed limit in Europe is 130km/h while in the UK it is 70mph (112 km/h). Although the Dutch measure is being seen as temporary, Mr Rutte said he would not make any promises on limiting it. While ministers want to introduce the reduced speed limit soon, it will have to be co-ordinated and road signs changed. Why farmers will be affected too Last month, farmers reacted angrily to claims that intensive farming was partly to blame for the emissions problem, after a report called for drastic measures to reduce livestock as well as action on the roads. A tractor protest caused the worst-ever morning rush hour in the country as farmers argued they were being victimised. Another of the measures announced on Wednesday is a plan to change livestock feed to include an enzyme that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions from cows. Farmers are also set to be affected by plans next month to cut emissions in protected areas of the country that are part of a European network known as Natura 2000. A project to bring the Formula 1 Grand Prix back to Zandvoort next year was criticised by some environmentalists, who raised concerns about emissions from the race as well as from work to extend the circuit. |
One man was killed and another injured when a glider crashed on school playing fields in Gloucestershire. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Cotswold Gliding Club said "one of the pilots received fatal injuries" in the crash at St Edward's prep school in Cheltenham at about 13:20 BST. The other pilot in the club's two-seater glider "suffered minor injuries" and was taken to a local hospital. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has sent a team of investigators to the scene in Charlton Kings. The gliding club said it had no further information about the injured man but added "our thoughts are with the pilots' families". |
Fifty years ago police stormed across a makeshift drawbridge to evict hundreds of squatters from a prestigious Mayfair address. The three-week-long occupation of 144 Piccadilly had symbolised the stand-off between mainstream society and 1960s counter-culture and made headlines around the world. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Mariam IssimdarBBC News By the time several hundred "unwashed Hippies" decided to make it their home, the 100-room mansion in London's West End had stood empty for years. While squatters had been taking over derelict properties in central London for years, this was a prime address in the heart of establishment London. Next door to 144 was another mansion where the Queen had spent the first five years of her childhood. After a decade in which rock music, drug-taking and radical political ideas had become increasingly prevalent, to some the occupation symbolised the final breakdown of society. Reporters on a British Pathé newsreel from the time refer to the squatters as "scroungers and drop-outs" who "thought they could snub the conventions of decent society… doing the real homeless a disservice". "It sort of dramatised a lot of the public's fears about the counter-culture, the alternative society," says Phil Cohen, now an emeritus professor at East London University but then the squatters' leader and known as "Dr John". "It was something that was beyond their control, and [represented] a whole generation of people who were against their society." The squat was the culmination of an alternative movement that had, for several years, taken advantage of the capital's large number of empty properties. The demolition of war-damaged properties and general slum clearances had created a housing shortage. At the same time, there were areas of planning blight as owners deliberately left properties empty until their development value increased. The law at the time allowed disused buildings to be used as emergency shelter for the homeless. Squatters would make the most of this legal leeway, moving on to another property - often around the corner - if the bailiffs arrived. A "derry" - slang for a derelict building - offered an option to young people seeking an alternative to the "taxpaying nine-to-five" lifestyle, says Prof Cohen. To protect themselves against the threat of eviction, some decided to organise. The resulting group became known as the London Street Commune (LSC). It was the LSC that broke into 144 Piccadilly in September 1969. They barricaded the doors and installed a makeshift drawbridge through a ground-floor window over the dry moat that surrounded the building. Word spread and hundreds of young people who hung around the West End, including runaways, ex-borstal kids, rent boys and drug dealers, moved in. The house soon became known as "HippyDilly". "It was an extraordinary place - it was palatial," says Prof Cohen. The squatters would sleep in the mansion's extensive servants' quarters, while house meetings were held in one of the two large ballrooms. Inside, there was a degree of organisation. People would be tasked with various roles, including sourcing food from sympathetic catering staff at nearby restaurants and hotels. As fascination and media coverage grew, onlookers would turn up, with some chanting: "Monkeys, get back to the zoo." Newspaper reporters were an almost constant presence outside. Gangs of skinheads would also gather but were faced by the squatters' "security" - Hells Angels stationed at the mansion's drawbridge. Eddie Doughton, a 19-year-old anti-war poet who had quit his job at the Admiralty after realising he was "part of the war machine", was among the residents. He remembers it as "a good place to kip" that became "way bigger than it was supposed to be". "Famous people were coming and going in legion numbers," he adds. "They just wanted to be seen to be hip. Actor Oliver Reed floated in, got his picture taken, then left." Many of those squatting were motivated by radical politics, but some were more interested in partying and staying somewhere rent-free. "We were a bunch of stoners, mate - Phil [Cohen] was the agitprop," says Richie Gardener, another squatter who went on to be a roadie for the likes of Paul McCartney and Nina Simone. Now 67 and living in Hay-on-Wye, on the Powys-Herefordshire border, he says his time in squats was the making of him. "You walk away from the streets knowing you are going to be OK, you can survive anything." Prof Cohen agrees many just wanted to "enjoy their puff and their music", but he maintains the squat had a political aim. "We were acting as sort of urban guerrillas," he says. "The city could belong to us, belong to everybody, it didn't just belong to the rich." He would tell reporters stationed outside that the group wanted to become a "real people's forum, a resistance movement against all the institutions, like the family, schools, detention centres, borstals". However, the scale and location of the squat led to a media-organised moral panic, he says. "There was the idea that your property was no longer sacrosanct. Actually, I remember one of the newspaper headlines - 'What to do if hippies come to your house tonight'. "Somehow there was this new generation that had come out of nowhere. It was outside the family, it was even hostile to the notion of the family. "It couldn't be controlled and your own kids could run away and join us." So, on 21 September, after the squatters had ignored an eviction order and remained inside the mansion for three weeks, 144 Piccadilly was successfully raided by police. Officers persuaded the squatters' security to allow them over the makeshift drawbridge to attend to "an ill pregnant woman inside". Once inside, they let their fellow officers in and the house was soon under the control of the authorities. "There was rubbish everywhere. People had written on the walls and things like that," says Graham Harris, the Under-Sheriff of London, who went into the building after the police stormed it. The occupants, most of whom decided not to resist, were evicted. Despite all the arrests, very few were charged. Prof Cohen and other LSC members moved into another squat, about a mile away, on Endell Street. He later returned to his studies at a university in London. A luxury hotel now stands in the place of 144 Piccadilly, which was demolished in the 1970s. The LSC revolution may not have come about, and widespread squatting is also a thing of the past, but the issues around the availability and affordability of housing have not gone away. Previously a civil matter, in 2012 it became a criminal offence to squat in residential properties. Prof Cohen, who eventually rented a housing association flat where he still resides, says squatting is not a viable option for today's homeless. "People who become homeless are, on the whole, isolated. They don't have the same kind of support structures, the same kind of network that would enable them to take collective action. "It's much, much more difficult now. The whole thing has been criminalised." |
In the light of Ed Balls's speech today, which claims that the Tories would cut public spending by a further £70bn if they were to win the general election, I need to slightly amend my judgement that next week's Budget is bound to be the dullest on record. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Robert PestonEconomics editor Because Balls's analysis has nudged me to remember that there is one big policy judgement that George Osborne and David Cameron have to make between now and Budget day on March 18 - which is whether to stick to the plan outlined in December's autumn statement to generate an overall budget surplus of £23.1bn in 2019-20. Colossal sum This really matters, because it is the Tories' pledge that they will stick to the "fiscal aggregates" of that Autumn Statement, which include that £23.1bn surplus, which means that the cuts they would have to make are so much bigger than a Labour government would have to do. The point is that Labour has promised only to balance the current budget - ignoring investment - by the end of the next parliament. That would give Labour £50bn more to spend than the Tories every year from then on - which is a colossal sum, equivalent to half the annual budget of NHS England. But here is the thing. The Tories' more general fiscal policy is to generate a budget surplus in all normal years. So in theory they could revise their fiscal plans for the next parliament and simply go for a miniscule surplus by 2019-20. One consequence would be they would have to find £23bn less in cuts. 'Rule' Even so, there would be a sizeable difference between the cuts the Tories would have to find and those required by a Labour government. As a minimum, Labour would have £27bn odd more to spend every year than the Tories - because of its "rule" allowing it to borrow to finance investment. In practice, given the prime minister's desire for personal tax cuts, a Tory government would probably have to find around £40bn more cuts than Labour. And although cuts on that magnitude would not be painless or easy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates that the current government has already announced and legislated for tax increases and cuts to welfare spending that should deliver a third of these savings. Wiggle room? To be clear, finding a bit less than £30bn of additional spending cuts, as a Tory government would have to do, would be challenging - in that departments have endured years of squeeze already, and welfare savings are notoriously hard to deliver. But Ed Balls's central argument today that it would be completely impossible for a Tory government to protect health spending is probably not quite as watertight as he implies. |
The Rector of Trinity will be Jersey's Acting Anglican Dean for the next three months. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Reverend Canon Geoff Houghton will be deputising for the Very Reverend Bob Key as head of the island's Anglican Church. Mr Key will be on sabbatical until April. Mr Houghton has been given permission to lead prayers in The States of Jersey but will not be able to join any debate. The Dean of Jersey has a seat in the States of Jersey as a non-voting member. |
Protesters across the US have taken to the streets in the wake of George Floyd's death to demand an end to police brutality and what they see as systemic racism. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News In response, Democrats have proposed legislation to address inequities and reduce deaths in custody, including measures that would require police to wear body cameras, ban chokeholds and make it easier to prosecute officers. Here's a look at some of these proposed solutions, and other potential ways to reform policing. 1. Rewrite "use of force" policies Most police departments have a "use of force" policy which dictates how and when officers can use force. These policies vary substantially from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, the type of "neck restraint" or chokehold that Officer Derek Chauvin used on George Floyd has been banned in New York City since 1993. After high-profile police killings, many departments are forced to re-examine and rewrite their use of force policies by federal consent decrees. The city of Baltimore revamped its policy in 2019 as a part of its consent decree with the US Department of Justice after the death of Freddie Gray. The new version requires officers to report use of force incidents and compels them to intervene if they see another officer improperly using force. After Floyd's death, the Minneapolis city council forced the police department's hand by banning chokeholds and making it mandatory for officers to intervene if their colleagues are using improper force. Advocates acknowledge that simply rewriting these policies would not effectively prevent deaths like Floyd's, and that force is still disproportionately used against communities of colour. A New York Times analysis showed that the Minneapolis police use force against black residents seven times more often than white residents. 2. Defund the police Protesters believe that cities and states spend far too much money on their police departments without sufficiently funding education, mental health, housing and other community-based social services. A growing demand is for political leaders to "defund" the police - that usually means reducing funding not cutting it altogether. These calls have been heeded by the mayor of Los Angeles, who slashed $150m from a proposed budget increase for his city's police. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also pledged to divert money from the NYPD towards social services, though he did not cite a figure. In Minneapolis, a group called the Black Visions Collective is asking the city council to pledge not to increase the police department's budget, and to divert $45m of the force's current budget to shore up the city's coffers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. "Now is the time to invest in a safe, liberated future for our city," the group wrote. "We can't afford to keep funding MPD's attacks on Black lives." 3. Dismantle the police On Sunday, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council signed a pledge in front of a crowd of demonstrators promising to "begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department". They vowed to create a "new, transformative model for cultivating safety". Earlier in the week, two council members used the word "dismantle" to describe their plans for the department, as did Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. The statement did not make it clear if the council is merely pledging to remake the department, or if they were heeding some demonstrators' calls to "abolish the police," which would obviously be the most radical course of action. The council president said she could imagine a scenario where the department enters state receivership, and a team of medics and health care professionals respond to 911 calls instead of police. A group called MPD 150 is calling for a "police-free future" in Minneapolis, in which mental health professionals, social workers, religious leaders and other community-based advocates would do the work of police. There is some historical precedent for a wholesale dismantling of a department. In 2012, the Camden, New Jersey, police department was fully disbanded and all of its officers lost their jobs. However, it was certainly not abolition - a new, countywide police force was formed in its place, and about 100 former Camden officers applied for and regained their jobs. The move actually put more police on the streets of Camden. The new department adopted a very strict use of force policy and made it easier for the city to fire rogue officers. The department has reported a steep decline in homicide and use of force complaints since. 4. Demilitarise Since the 1990s, the military has transferred over $5bn-worth of equipment, ranging from sleeping bags to ammunition and armoured vehicles, to local police departments through a special acquisitions programme with the US Department of Defense. As a result, many advocates for police reform argue that police today function more like domestic soldiers, using techniques and equipment designed for battle, than community peacekeepers trying to keep people safe, and that this approach costs lives. President Barack Obama put limits on how police could use the programme in 2015, but most of those were overturned by the Trump administration a few years later. Not only have police acquired more weapons over the past two decades, but many are taught military-style tactics. This so-called "warrior training" often spins a narrative where police are heroes fending off danger at every turn, who must learn how to protect themselves at all costs - even if that means killing civilians. Critics say it teaches cops to be afraid, and to shoot first, think later. In 2019, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey banned cops from attending "warrior-style" training, even on their own time with their own money. But the local police union called the ban "illegal" and continued to offer the training. There is research to show that militarisation leads to police violence. In 2017, a study published in Research and Politics found that the more military weapons police have, the more likely they are to use them. 5. Sue the police Citizens who try to sue the police in civil court for excessive force frequently see their cases thrown out because of a legal doctrine known as "qualified immunity". It was designed by the Supreme Court to protect government employees from frivolous lawsuits and give police legal breathing room surrounding their split-second decisions. In order for a case to move forward, the court directs that it must ask two questions: first, was excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment used? And if so, is there a "clearly established" prior court ruling on the behaviour that would mean the officer knew his or her conduct was illegal? This second question is where advocates say courts give officers a free pass, throwing out cases if there has been no previous, precedent-setting case with an almost identical set of facts. A Reuters analysis found that more than half of excessive force cases in the US get thrown out on "qualified immunity" grounds. A portion of the sweeping Justice in Policing Act introduced this week by House and Senate Democrats would eliminate qualified immunity for police. Supreme Court Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas have both said they believe the doctrine needs to be revisited. There are currently eight qualified immunity cases before the country's highest court. 6. Police the police Sometimes, police violence against black people is attributed to a "bad apple" - an angry and racist cop who overreacts in the line of duty. In an effort to keep them out, some forces have fired police officers who publicly admit to racist ideas. Last July, the Philadelphia Police Department fired 13 officers who posted racist, violent messages on social media - but only after an advocacy group brought the messages to light But the reality is a bit more complicated than just one bad apple ruining the bunch. Police work in what social researchers call a "closed system" where there is little external oversight and loyalty is highly prized. If one officer crosses the line, others will back him or her up. Without a video of the incident, it often comes down to just the word of an alleged "criminal" and a respected police officer. That's why many are pushing for police to be required to wear body cameras, to record police interactions. They were adopted in New York a few years ago after the death of Eric Garner, and Congress is proposing making them mandatory nationally. But there is little evidence that shows they reduce violence, according to a recent analysis of 70 studies looking at their efficacy. Campaign Zero, the non-profit behind the #8cantwait hashtag pushing for police reforms, says they have limited use. While footage of police brutality has played a vital role in exposing the problem, most of it was filmed by citizens, not police. Body cameras can easily be turned off, and the footage is more likely to be used by prosecutors against civilians during criminal trials, than as a means of proving police brutality. 7. Start counting There is no doubt that black Americans are more likely to be killed by police and subjected to other forms of police violence. But what's still unclear is exactly how many victims there are, or which departments are the worst offenders. In 2014, Obama signed into law the Death in Custody Reporting Act to force police departments to report every time a citizen dies in custody. The law also required the data to be turned over to the attorney general, who would have to release a report on ways to reduce deaths every two years. Four years later, the Department of Justice's inspector general said the department still had no mechanism to collect data from the states and didn't expect to have one until 2020. Meanwhile, the FBI has launched the National Use-of-Force Data Collection project, to track not only people killed by police but every time a police officer uses force. They began collecting this data in 2019, but local law enforcement agencies are not required to participate and the information has yet to be made public. In this vacuum, non-governmental organisations and journalists have had to fill in the gaps. In 2015, The Washington Post began to log every fatal shooting by an on-duty police officer in the US. Since then, they have recorded more than 5,000 people killed by police, using a mixture of news reports, social media and police reports. Their data, which is often used by policy researchers, shows that black people were almost 2.5 times more likely to be killed than white people. (Additional reporting by Jessica Lussenhop) |
A stretch of the M1 and a sliproad for the M25 have been closed in a lorry fire which has led to 20 miles of traffic queues. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The M1 southbound sliproad at junction 6a, for the M25, has been closed since about 06:00 BST. Police, fire and highways officers are on the scene and drivers have been asked to avoid the area. Queues on the southbound carriageway are reported to be tailing back to junction 11 for Luton. Hertfordshire Police said a "multi-agency" operation was under way to reopen the route. Highways England warned that drivers could face queues of an hour, with "normal" traffic conditions not anticipated until about 17:30. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk |
Pakistan's government, the courts, the opposition parties and even the media have spent weeks hurling accusations at one another. As the country teeters on the brink of meltdown, writer Ahmed Rashid says early elections may be the only way out of the latest quagmire. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Just days after former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was forced to step down by Pakistan's increasingly interventionist Supreme Court, two new notices were issued by the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court against the president and the new prime minister. The case against President Zardari - which must be resolved by 5 September - revolves around whether or not it is lawful for him to be president as well as chairman of the governing Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - because under the 1973 constitution he cannot hold both posts simultaneously. Another case, dubbed "memogate", revolves around the treason investigation into Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, who is accused of trying to secure Washington's help last year to help avert a possible coup after the death of Osama Bin Laden. It has now been lodged as a formal case in the Supreme Court. Lawyers will try and prove that Mr Haqqani was not acting alone but on behalf of the president - so both would then be guilty of treason. If either case goes against him, he could be forced to step down immediately or be forced to confront the courts in a protracted legal battle. Both outcomes would deepen Pakistan's political crisis. Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court has made the same demand from Prime Minister Ashraf that it made from former Prime Minister Gilani - that he must write to the Swiss authorities to reopen old corruption cases against President Zardari. Mr Gilani chose to step down rather than accuse his party leader of corruption. 'Overbearing court' At the same time there is increasing anger among lawyers, jurists, politicians and civil society representatives that the Supreme Court is acting like a military dictator. It has been accused of interfering in constitutional issues which are better left to parliament and sacking elected leaders for which it has no mandate. Far from easing Pakistan woes, it is argued that the country's overbearing higher court has worsened them. A symptom of this stand-off is the paralysis shown by the beleaguered government in dealing with severe social and economic issues. These include a burgeoning electricity crisis that has left small towns without power for up to 18 hours a day, a massive debt crisis and the continued breakdown of relations with the US. This has dragged on for seven months and has meant that the road from Karachi that supplies Nato forces in Afghanistan has not been functioning. Economic collapse and relentless extremist violence have taken a huge toll on life and property. Minorities belonging to non-Muslim sects and even large numbers of Muslims belonging to smaller sects, such as the Shias, are being gunned down on a daily basis. Pakistan stands deeply isolated and intensely criticised among the community of nations. The second casualty could well be the democratic system as a whole. People ask why the courts cannot show patience when the government has to hold general elections within the next nine months. The opposition would like to see them held immediately, but it is co-operating with the government in appointing a consensus candidate as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). Once parliament is dissolved the CEC would appoint an interim government of neutral personalities for three months to oversee the vote. Nobody can say which of the three main parties would win an election. Success for the PPP is unlikely given its dismal performance in governance and handling the economy - but it is still likely to win many seats in parliament. What is certain is that there would be no decisive winner and Pakistan would have to undergo another coalition government. Loggerheads PPP officials are suspicious that not only is the Supreme Court intensifying its long running vendetta against President Zardari, but that the courts are playing into the hands of the army which may like to see an interim government extended by one or two years so that it can clean out corrupt politicians. There is however no direct indication of what exactly the all-powerful army desires. But it is clear that it has no interest in carrying out a coup. All Pakistan's major institutions of state are now at loggerheads and stand discredited except the army. The courts, the government, the opposition parties and the media have spent the last weeks hurling accusations against one another and accusing each other of corruption. To avoid another tussle with the courts, many of President Zardari's advisers are telling him to announce early general elections, which could be held this winter. At the same time there is rising criticism of the courts - they are accused of not allowing an elected government to finish its term in office and of interfering in the democratic transition which Pakistan so badly needs. No elected government in the past has ever fulfilled a full term and been replaced by another elected government - military coups have intervened five times. The public meanwhile is fed up with a government that appears horribly distracted and cannot deal with the day-to-day crises that people are facing. So far the president has avoided an out-and-out standoff with the judiciary by letting Mr Gilani resign. But Mr Zardari cannot allow the new prime minister also to step down while exposing himself to the court's demands. Far better that the president trump the courts by going for early elections, taking the stance of an aggrieved victim of the judiciary's machinations. Pakistan's economic and political meltdown may just be avoided by early elections, a new government and an improved relationship between all centres of power in the country. Working that out is not impossible - but it can only occur if all the centres of power realise how fragile and vulnerable the country is right now. |
Over the last month, Dalits (formerly untouchables) across India have been threatened, beaten and killed for seemingly mundane reasons, highlighting again how vulnerable the community is. On Sunday, a groom was threatened for riding a horse to his wedding - because doing so is considered an upper caste privilege. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Here are five reasons why Dalits have been attacked and threatened in the last month alone. Threatened for riding a horse On 17 June, Prashant Solanki, a Dalit man in his late 20s, was on his way to his wedding riding a colourfully decorated horse, as is common practice, when he was ambushed by a group of upper-caste villagers. They insisted that riding a horse was an upper-caste privilege and threatened to attack Mr Solanki and his family. Fearing for his life, Mr Solanki had the police accompany him to his bride's home and also to his wedding. This is not the first time a Dalit riding a horse to his wedding has been threatened. A similar incident occurred in 2015 when villagers hurled stones at a Dalit groom in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. Killed for sitting cross-legged Two Dalit men in the southern state of Tamil Nadu were killed by upper-caste Hindus after a Dalit man sat cross-legged in front of them during a temple ritual. The upper-caste Hindus called it a "dishonourable and insulting" gesture. About 15 of them went to the Dalits' neighbourhood and mounted an ambush. In addition to the two men killed, six others were injured and houses were damaged, according to police. "The men who suffered injuries had deep cuts on their bodies made with sickles," a senior police officer is quoted as saying in the Indian Express newspaper. Stripped and beaten for swimming Three Dalit boys were stripped, beaten and paraded naked by villagers in the western state of Maharashtra last week for swimming in a well that belonged to an upper-caste family, police said. In a video that was posted online, two of the boys are seen covering themselves with leaves as a man hits them with a stick and a belt. Laughter can be heard in the background. "We are still afraid of further attacks," one of the victims' mothers told BBC Marathi. She learned about the incident when she saw the video online. Police have arrested two of the men accused of involvement in the assault. Beaten for wearing 'royal' shoes Mahesh Rathod, a 13-year-old Dalit boy, was allegedly attacked in the western state of Gujarat for wearing a pair of "mojris" - leather shoes traditionally seen as royal footwear and worn by upper-caste members in some parts of India. According to local media, he was approached by a group of men who asked him which caste he belonged to and when he said he was a Dalit, they abused him for "posing as an upper-caste member by wearing jeans, mojris and a gold chain". In a video that went viral last week, a group of men can be seen beating Mahesh with a stick while he pleads for mercy. He is reported to have been given police protection after that. Violence over a Facebook name Dalit and upper-caste men attacked each other in a town in Gujarat after 22-year-old Maulik Jadav decided to add a suffix to his first name on his Facebook profile. Mr Jadav, a Dalit, changed his name to include "sinh" - a suffix that is traditionally used by an upper-caste community in the state. "I changed my name from 'Maulik' to 'Mauliksinh' thinking we are free to keep the name of our choice," Mr Jadav is quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times newspaper. He added that he received threats on Facebook and over the phone. "They told me to remove 'sinh' from my name or to face the consequences." The threats turned into violence when a group of men attacked Mr Jadav at his home the following day, leading to Dalit residents retaliating by storming the house of an upper-caste Hindu man. |
There was all the pageantry of a real space launch. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Richard GalpinBBC News, Moscow The six "astronauts" wearing bright blue jump-suits and even surgical masks, were paraded before banks of television cameras and hordes of journalists at a news conference before entering their mock spaceship. Amongst the long rows of VIPs at the news conference were senior officials from the United States, China and the European Union. If, as some experts believe, the main aim of the Mars 500 experiment is to publicise the concept of human flight to the red planet, then it has surely succeeded beyond all expectations. "I am very happy to be part of this project," said Diego Urbina, the Colombian-Italian and most extrovert member of the crew. "It will raise awareness of space flight so hopefully a few years from now there will be a real flight to Mars." He confessed that Elton John had been his inspiration. "I don't know if you know that song Rocket Man," he asked. "I want a future like that… where people will be going frequently into space and will be working there and it will be very usual." In front of the world's media, all the team spoke confidently about the chances of the experiment being successful - in other words that noone would crack under the stress of such lengthy confinement in such claustrophobic and bizarre conditions and demand to be let out. "The target is for all six of us to be here for 520 days," said the French crew-member Romain Charles who took a guitar with him into the cluster of brown and silver-coloured metal tubes which will be home until November 2011. After the news conference, the six crew disappeared, re-emerging an hour later by the entrance hatch to the mock spaceship, where they put on another high-spirited performance for the media. Finally, blowing kisses and waving to wives, girlfriends and relatives, they walked up the steps and through the entrance hatch. A solemn-faced official slowly closed and sealed it behind them. So now reality bites for the six-member volunteer crew. What will they be thinking as they sit inside their tin cans in north-west Moscow where outside the warm sun shines and the flowers blossom? There is no thrill of a blast-off and flight through space. There are no windows from which to watch the Earth gradually shrink away. And no anticipation of reaching a new world more than fifty million kilometres away. Instead, silent inertia, stale air and tinned food. And everywhere cameras watching their every move, looking out for signs of mental collapse. They have just one thing to cling on to, that they are playing their part in the history of space exploration. That their success in this experiment will mean a human flight to Mars is a step closer. And space experts already believe the first flight could be just 25 years away or even less if there is the political and economic will from countries with advanced space programmes. |
A man has appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the murder of a man in a street in Skegness in Lincolnshire. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Paul Barnett, 45, was discovered on Grosvenor Road in the resort on 22 September, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Paul Bodell, 37, of Grosvenor Road, Skegness, appeared at Lincoln Crown Court. A trial - due to last six days - has been set for 22 March and the defendant was remanded in custody. More news from across Lincolnshire Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. |
The organisers of a music festival held close to the shores of Loch Ness have urged fans to take public transport or car share to protect the environment. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
RockNess will be held at Dores from 10 to 12 June. Kasabian, the Chemical Brothers and Paolo Nutini are among the headline acts over the three days. Festival-goers have been asked to use the event's Go Green with RockNess discount coach scheme, travel by train or car share. In the newly published guide to the festival, organisers encouraged people to think about reducing their carbon footprint. More than 30,000 people attended over the three days last year, when headline acts included Fatboy Slim, Leftfield, Blondie and The Strokes. |
It all seemed to be going so well. Hampshire and Isle of Wight's bid for devolution was seen as a southern front-runner. An economy close to the scale of Wales bidding for control of its own destiny. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Peter HenleyPolitical editor, South of England@BBCPeterHon Twitter The architect of the plan, Hampshire leader Roy Perry, was singled out to speak at the Conservative Party conference in September and the Secretary of State Greg Clark seemed keen. As deals were signed with the North East, then the South West, it seemed the Southern powerhouse was just around the corner. But now I am told it will be January at the earliest before the plan will be looked at again. After initial meetings Westminster enthusiasm appears to have cooled. And back on the south coast changes that were ordered aren't going down well, in particular the concentration on new housing, overriding local plans. At least two of those who originally signed the original document have now tempered their commitment. Glossy Prospectus The glossy prospectus picked out the South of England's role as a driver of the UK economy, representing the largest "county area" economy in the UK, promising to add £3bn if productivity was raised. An impressive 24 signatures backed the bid, Hampshire County Council, Isle of Wight Council, Portsmouth and Southampton city councils and 11 district councils. They were working together on the project along with the Solent and Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnerships, New Forest and South Downs National Park authorities, Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue and NHS England Wessex. But keeping the leaders of all those organisations marching in the same direction has proved difficult. When the Leader of Hampshire County Council Roy Perry got top billing at a debate on devolution at the Conservative conference the call for 100% retention of business rates looked more distinctive than now that the chancellor has announced that was what he planned anyway. One council leader, Ferris Cowper from East Hampshire then admitted he'd only signed the bid reluctantly saying: "If it proved possible to stay in the project for the time being, then we had a chance of influencing the outcome to be more in our favour. "To remove ourselves from the bid at this early stage, would deny us that opportunity." Hardly a ringing endorsement. Then the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership sent a letter expressing some of its own reservations. In November, Secretary of State Greg Clark cancelled a planned visit to the South, summoning representatives from the region to London instead. A leader who was there described it as "a cross between Dragon's Den and the Apprentice". So who got fired? The government still wants to see an elected mayor at the helm of a new authority, so far the southern bid is offering just a board of leaders. The bid puts accelerated housing delivery at the forefront of its offer in return for certainty over infra-structure funding. But now several of the Conservative-led district councils are backing away from agreeing to vote-losing concreting over southern green fields. Far from one streamlined new administration, it's looking increasingly like devolution may end in tears - or the same old tiers - of local government. |
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has given gunmen opposing his third term five days to surrender and be granted an amnesty or face tough anti-terrorism legislation to be introduced by the end of the month. It follows months of shootings in the capital, which the BBC's Alastair Leithead says has raised fears of a return to civil war: | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
I have been receiving the photographs for several weeks now. Every few days they pop up on my phone - usually with a little note: "These are the latest found today." The person who is texting me is talking about bodies. Almost every day in Burundi a body is found, dumped in a storm drain or beside a road. Often they have been shot or stabbed in the chest; sometimes they have been tied up - usually somebody takes a picture. The photographs and videos are posted on Facebook, or messaged from phone to phone - it is how people share information now. The independent media is all but shut down. Many journalists and human rights activists have been scared out of the country. One of the photos which appeared on my phone was of a well-known woman who had worked for the opposition party. The picture was delivered two days after she had gone missing. Another was of Eloi Ndimira, a 54-year-old man who walked with a crutch and had tried to stop the police beating someone on the street. They turned on him. The photograph is truly horrific. I will not even describe it. We met his family as they were laying flowers on his grave; they were afraid to speak, to be seen with us. Cleaning up his body for the burial, they found he had been beaten, stabbed, shot. And his heart had been cut from his chest. Widespread terror They were not the only two people to die in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, in the last few weeks. I recognised the neatly painted blue house number from the video clip: Number 48 Buye street. Flies now buzzed at the foot of the red metal doors, where the video had shown a pool of blood-stained earth, marking the spot where Christophe Nkezabahizi had been shot twice, at close range, having done as the police asked, and opened the door. Mr Nkezabahizi was a cameraman for the state broadcaster. He was not like the underground activists we met who know the risks of photographing the latest body to have appeared on the street. He had not protested against the third term the president had gained after an election widely described as flawed. He had told the stories the government wanted telling. The policemen knew this - he told them just before he was killed. They knew this when they told his family to lie face down in the street - just before they were all murdered. Who is President Pierre Nkurunziza? Burundi's football-playing president Presidents who cling to power Like its close neighbour Rwanda, Burundi has a dark past. It was not called genocide here, but in the 1990s hundreds of thousands of people died in ethnic violence between Tutsis and Hutus. This time the killing, so far at least, has not been based on ethnicity but is connected to Africa's new fever - third termism, where presidents are determined to have a third term in office whatever the constitution says. It is sweeping the continent from Burkina Faso to the Congos, from Rwanda to Burundi. But here, where ethnic divisions run so deep, there is a real fear - expressed openly on social media, or whispered in the close communities of the capital - of what could happen if this spiral of violence is not stopped. Ethnic hate speech is starting to emerge from the shadows, the language of "us" and "them". Terror is widespread, and that is probably the idea. Politicians have been assassinated, perhaps the president's most powerful security figure was killed, and the country's best-known human rights campaigner barely survived after being shot in the face. Murder is sometimes tit-for-tat, but also can be as random as it is brutal. People are picked up and tortured. I met one man - a truck driver - still in great pain after being arrested in June. "His black week," he calls it. He was forced to sit in acid, to stand on nails, a jerrycan of sand was hung from his genitals. He escaped when the cell door was accidentally left open. Too weak to walk, his last hope was to crawl out on his hands and knees. He still does not know why he was picked on. They accused him of weapons training; he says he is just a businessman from out of town. Not all the killing is being done by shady police units aligned to the government. Those who were protesting on the streets have been driven underground and now are responsible for their share of murder. Grenades are thrown at patrol cars, police are kidnapped and killed. It provokes a brutal response and the cycle continues. Retaliation is why the police knocked at 48 Buye Street. Mr Nkezabahizi did not kidnap or kill a policeman, but not knowing who did, the police picked on him and sent a strong warning to the community… those who act violently in Burundi, act with impunity. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30. Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule or listen online. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
In March 1983, an unconventional series of books held the top three entries of the Sunday Times bestseller list. These were Fighting Fantasy books - stories "in which YOU are the Hero". All that you needed to take part was a pencil, eraser, dice and an active imagination, writes Peter Ray Allison. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Created more than 30 years ago by Games Workshop founders Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, Fighting Fantasy continues to remain popular. The forthcoming Fighting Fantasy Fest in London will see dedicated fans coming from as far as Taiwan and Australia. Fighting Fantasy came about after a representative of Penguin visited a "games day" event in 1980. "They were fascinated by a hall jam-packed with 5,000 people playing Dungeons & Dragons," says Livingstone, "They asked us to write a book about the hobby of role-playing." Instead, Jackson and Livingstone convinced Penguin that a game book, which simulated the experience of role-playing, would be more effective. This book was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the Fighting Fantasy series was born. Fighting Fantasy employed, ahem, a non-linear, second-person narrative with a branching storyline. After reading a section, the reader would be invited to make a decision about how the story progressed. These choices could range from deciding which way to head down a corridor or whether to help a fair maiden (an invariably fatal decision in Fighting Fantasy). Each decision would be associated with a section number that the reader would then subsequently read. These entries would continue the story into a series of branching narratives that would lead on to further adventures. Or an untimely demise. For example: "Walking along the path you hear footsteps and arguing voices ahead of you. If you wish to meet their owners, turn to page 317. If you would rather hide in the bushes and let them walk by, turn to 300." If you went to page 300, you saw "two pairs of pair of spindly legs in tattered cloth shuffle past you and the voices soon fade into the distance". But page 317? "You encounter a pair of hobgoblins which you must FIGHT!" Second-guessing such decisions were the essence of the fun. Would the apparently innocuous decision lead to a grisly encounter? Or would the dangerous-sounding option actually get you out of trouble? Livingstone recalls sitting on a bus during the 1980s watching people read Fighting Fantasy. He was amused to see them bookmarking pages with their fingers in order to undo decisions which concluded with failure or death. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was not an immediate success, but this soon changed. "Playground chat was the virality of the game," explains Livingstone, "Children became completely taken over by the roleplaying, as suddenly this was the chance to experience a book where they were the hero." Software developer Christopher Brind was a fan at the time. "The books had been out for a while by the time I started reading them, so I was able to hammer through a whole bunch of titles once I got addicted." Dr David Waldron, a lecturer in History and Anthropology at Federation University Australia, collected a complete set of Fighting Fantasy: "I started when I was eight years old in the early 80s. For 30 years I have pottered about thrift shops for old copies to make a collection." The Mechanics of Fighting Fantasy Before starting a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, readers created a character by rolling dice to determine their character's Skill (proficiency in combat), Stamina (damage tolerance) and Luck. The higher these statistics, the better you were (and the easier the gamebook became). Throughout the gamebook, readers would face various enemies and monsters, from bandits and mercenaries to zombies and dragons. Each of these opponents would also have Skill and Stamina statistics. Combat would be resolved by rolling dice and comparing the player statistics with that of the monsters (some readers would forego this mechanic, due to the practicalities of dice rolling whilst outside). In Jonathan Green's forthcoming book, You Are The Hero - A History of Fighting Fantasy, he notes that while the books were targeted at boys, the character's gender in the gamebooks was never identified. Thus large numbers of girls also read Fighting Fantasy. Not everybody liked the books. Livingstone recalls: "The Evangelical Alliance published an eight-page warning guide saying, because children were interacting with ghouls and demons, they would be interacting with the devil. One housewife phoned her radio station and said her son levitated having read one of my books. A vicar also threatened to tie himself to the gates at Penguin Books until Fighting Fantasy was banned." But there was a clear positive. "It got children reading," says Livingstone. With the success of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Penguin wanted more. Nearly 60 gamebooks would be commissioned, with writing duties delegated to authors such as Jonathan Green and Marc Gascoigne in later titles. More from the Magazine In an era of potent concern over internet pornography, cyber-bullying and drugs, it is hard to imagine a game being controversial. But 30 years ago Dungeons & Dragons was the subject of a full-on moral panic. The great 1980s Dungeons & Dragons panic (11 April) In Green's book, he discusses writers and creators who grew up reading Fighting Fantasy including novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland, author Joe Abercrombie and Moshi Monsters creator Michael Acton Smith. Labour MP Tom Watson was another fan of the series, and appeared in Ian Livingstone's Blood of the Zombies, released as part of the 30th anniversary. Neil Rennison, creative director of Tin Man Games, describes the books as "my first portable gaming experience - I remember family holidays where I would take along a stack of Fighting Fantasy books". Rennison was approached by Livingstone to develop app adaptations of the books. The influence of Fighting Fantasy continues to be felt today. "Without The Warlock of Firetop Mountain I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today," explains author Graham McNeill. "It was the first book I read that opened my eyes to the possibility of being a writer." Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
The fiercely-contested debate over US abortion focuses on the rights of the mother and foetus. But a lawsuit in Alabama by a man who says his girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes adds a third voice to the conversation, writes James Jeffrey. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
After the rage has dissipated, after overcoming alcoholism as a coping mechanism, even after a new and beautiful family comes on the scene, a great sadness still persists - and likely always will. That's the message from men talking about their experiences of abortion, a voice rarely heard among the passionate multitudes in the US abortion debate, though abortion rights supporters argue that this group is an outlier and does not speak for the majority of men involved in an abortion. Currently, the usual male perspectives that feature are legislators pushing to restrict abortion procedures, drawing the ire of pro-choice supporters accusing them of trying to legislate women's bodies. But now would-be fathers denied by abortion are speaking out. An Alabama abortion clinic is being sued by a man after his girlfriend had an abortion at the six-week stage, against his will in 2017. The case is the first of its kind because the court recognised the foetus as the plaintiff and the father as the representative of his baby's estate. "I'm here for the men who actually want to have their baby," the man told a local news agency in February. "I just tried to plead with her and plead with her and just talk to her about it and see what I could do. But in the end, there was nothing I could do to change her mind." Currently in the US, fathers have no legal rights to hinder the abortion of a pregnancy for which they are responsible. State laws requiring that a father be given a say in, or even notified of, an abortion have been struck down by the US Supreme Court. "I was in my 30s living the good single life in Dallas," says 65-year-old Karl Locker. When a woman he was seeing told him she was pregnant, he says he felt "like one of those wolves with its leg caught in a trap". Nevertheless, he decided he had to support her - and the pregnancy. "I tried everything, I offered to marry her, to take the baby myself, or to offer it up for adoption," Mr Locker says, explaining that he felt keeping the child would be the right thing to do. "She said she could never give her child up for adoption - it didn't make cognitive sense." Other voices in abortion debate In the end he drove the woman to the clinic and paid for the abortion. Afterwards he says he moved to California as he couldn't bear the knowledge of what he'd done. "I didn't know how I was going to survive; I wasn't going to jump off a bridge, but I probably would have drank myself to death," says Mr Locker, who believes that reconnecting with his faith and starting a family with another woman saved him. "I've thought about what happened every day for the last 32 years." Men are usually involved in an abortion in one of four ways, all of which can leave men traumatised when they come to reflect afterwards on their roles, say those running counselling groups for post-abortive men. Sometimes men coerce a woman into having an abortion against her will; others say they will support the woman's decision either way, while steering that decision towards abortion. Some men find out about the abortion for the first time after the fact, or the abortion goes ahead against their wishes. What polling has occurred indicates a majority of women say they do not regret having an abortion, but fewer studies have been done on men's reactions. What data there is for men comes from post-abortive support groups, which is dependent on men seeking them out, making it difficult to make any broad statistical observations. But the accounts include commonalities such as feelings of anger, guilt, shame and deep sadness on anniversary dates. "Men are meant to be protectors, so there is a sense of failure - failing to protect the mother and the unborn child, failing to be responsible," says 61-year-old Chuck Raymond, whose 18-year-old girlfriend had an abortion in the late '70s when he was a teenager. "There is incredible guilt and shame about having not done that." Mr Raymond says he thought a child would have interfered with educational plans and his military training at West Point military academy, where cadets are not allowed to be married or be raising children. "Once I was involved in training, I got caught up in everything and suppressed the event, keeping it out of my consciousness. Years later though, I realised that a tragedy had occurred, and we had made a tragic choice." He likens the mental and emotional anguish that can follow an abortion to battlefield post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Abortion in US - how we got here The Supreme Court's landmark Roe v Wade decision issued on 22 January, 1973, is the best-known case on abortion, for having legalised the procedure across the United States. But two later cases had more of an impact on men, says Allen Parker, president of The Justice Foundation, a conservative law centre in Texas. After the 1976 Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood v Danforth, the father's consent to an abortion was no longer required. In its 1992 Planned Parenthood v Casey decision, the court went further, saying fathers are not entitled to be notified about an abortion. "There's so many contradictions around all this - it's abortion first, and be damned if otherwise," says the Reverend Stephen Imbarrato, a Catholic priest and anti-abortion activist. Before entering the priesthood, Father Imbarrato got his girlfriend pregnant in 1975 and steered her toward having an abortion, finding out decades later she had been carrying twins. "Men regret lost fatherhood, as men are inherently called to be fathers." But others argue that the number of men traumatised by abortions are outliers. Gillian Frank, a historian of sexuality at the University of Virginia, says that the 1992 Planned Parenthood v Casey decision found that "in most contexts, where there was a stable and loving relationship, men and women made the decision together". "And when men are absent from the decisions, it is often because there is a risk of violence or coercion in the relationship. These decisions [by the courts] rested on the fact it is not a child, so the situation is not analogous to child custody." There is disagreement on the ratio of women who have abortions without telling men, or in spite of them, or because of them. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organisation that analyses abortion in the US, half of women getting abortions in 2014 said they did not want to be a single parent or were having problems with their husband or partner. "It has been recognised time and again that when people say they are arguing for men's voices to be heard it is actually more about being able to control women and to regulate their decisions," Mr Frank says. "And I don't see it as men have been absent, quite the opposite, men have always been vocal about women's ability to control their reproductive destiny." Before Roe v Wade, he notes, this took the form of women having to go in front of a panel of usually male doctors to plead their cases for an abortion, and it continues today with "the men controlling pharmaceuticals and the men behind desks making decisions". "Outside our clinics, it's typically men who are leading the protests and clambering on to cars to yell over the fence with bullhorns," says Sarah Wheat who works for Planned Parenthood in Austin, the Texas state capital and a major battleground over Texas legislation on abortion. Planned Parenthood is an organisation that provides sexual health care services, of which about 6% involves abortion, Ms Wheat says. "It's usually loud and intimidating, designed to shame, stigmatise and intimidate. And when we go to the Capitol it feels very similar with the legislators. From our perspective, it feels men are still overrepresented." Indeed, much of the pushback against men's involvement in abortion is steeped in the historical context of a patriarchy telling women what to do. "There is a disconnect," Mr Locker says. "Men have a responsibility - as they should do - hence their wages get docked with child support if a baby is born, but at the same time they get no rights on an abortion going ahead." "People don't see it, they keep men out of it," says Theo Purington, 34, whose pregnant girlfriend got an abortion in 2006 against his wishes, leaving him "depressed and a mess". The experience led to him becoming involved in pro-life advocacy and counselling post-abortive men enduring similar struggles. "If men had to sign off on an abortion, I think you would see a 50% drop, and that's why the [abortion providers] don't want men involved," says Mr Purington. "The greatest injustice in this country today is that a man cannot protect his unborn child from abortion [in the same way as] men protecting our children is part of our responsibility." Amy Hagstrom Miller, who runs Whole Woman's Health, a company that manages seven clinics that provide abortion in five states in the US, says: "Yes, men are clearly involved at the beginning, in terms of getting the woman pregnant." But she adds: "When it comes to her body, then there is a line that is drawn. It is the woman's pregnancy, she is carrying it in her body, and you don't get to tell someone what to do with their body and force them to carry to term - once you do that you start going into terrifying areas." Ms Hagstrom Miller says that the abortion rights movement hasn't helped itself by framing abortion as just a woman's issue. "Abortion benefits women and men and families. Millions of men have benefited from having access to abortion." She notes that over 60% of abortion patients are parents already - a figure supported by the Guttmacher Institute - and that at her clinic many couples turn up who are wrestling with an unplanned pregnancy and all the complex issues surrounding it. Some factors they consider are what size of family they want to have and how a new child would impact their current situation or family. But, counter those involved in post-abortive counselling, it's what can happen further down the line that is not being acknowledged or spoken about enough due to the politics and posturing. "Because of the rhetoric out there, people can't address what is there, which is a sense of loss, and affects men and women and whether you went into it pro-choice or not," says Kevin Burke, a social worker and co-founder of Rachel's Vineyard, which runs weekend retreats for post-abortive men and women. "But you are not given permission to speak about any of that, so you can't process it." Mr Burke adds how he has found through his counselling work with imprisoned men from racial minorities that the fallout from an abortion can be heightened if a man previously experienced difficulties growing up. "The abortion experience for men, especially with previous father loss, abuse and trauma, can contribute to the other issues that can lead men to express their grief, loss and rage from childhood abuse, and their abortion experiences, in destructive ways," Mr Burke says. "What we have learned is they seem to interact in a kind of toxic synergy." Commentators note you don't have to be an anti-abortion advocate to feel sorrow over an abortion, or be haunted about whether you did the right thing. Hence, Mr Burke explains, later on many men and women carry a huge amount of moral and spiritual wounding. Ms Hagstrom Miller says she would like to see the debate "moving away from a conversation of rights to a conversation about dignity and respect, empathy and compassion" - a point not that far from sentiments held by some of those against abortion. "I hate it when you have people outside abortion clinics shouting things like 'You are going to hell'," says Mr Locker, who has joined prayer groups outside clinics. "For one it's not getting the job done [of dissuading the woman], and it shows no compassion, and just condemns the mother, who is feeling just as much like she has a leg caught in that trap too." In the meantime, we could be hearing more from increasing numbers of post-abortive men, says Theresa Bonopartis, director of Lumina, an organisation that counsels post-abortive men and women. She puts this down to a combination of the technological advances in ultrasound revealing more of what is occurring in the womb and the revelations of the passage of time since the Roe v Wade decision. "It's changing now, men are fed up," Ms Bonopartis says. "Men had bought into how they have no say in this and that if they speak out, they are against women, but now the impact is being felt by more and more of them as the repercussions of 45 years of abortion are being seen." |
After the success of the London Olympics there's unprecedented excitement about the Paralympics. But what are the differences between the two sets of Games? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
No Olympic rings It may sound similar, and end in "lympic", but the Paralympics are not the Olympics. The iconic interlocking rings have no place here. Instead there is the Agitos, the three swoops in red, green and blue that represent the Paralympic motto "spirit in motion". The IOC and the IPC are different The two Games - and the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympics Committee - are separate entities. The first international Paralympic Games took place in Rome, a week after the 1960 Summer Olympic Games were held there. In 1964, they were held in Tokyo, again just after the Olympics. But in 1968, Mexico City, the host city of that year's Olympics, refused to host the Paralympics. They were instead held in Tel Aviv and from then until 1988, the Paralympics continued to be held in locations completely separate to the Olympics. Then in 1988, Olympics hosts Seoul took on the Paralympics, and they have been held together ever since. In 2001, it became official, and now host cities have to bid for both. There are rumours that one day the two might merge, but opinions are split on the merits of such a move. Classifications Sport is only fun or competitive if you pit like against like. At the Paralympics, you don't have a blind runner competing against one with cerebral palsy - but you may have a person with cerebral palsy competing against someone with restricted growth, which is perhaps a less obvious match. In order to stream the athletes, they have to go through vigorous testing of function and movement from a sporting medical professional who then gives them a classification. Swimming has 14 classes. S1-S10 are variations on physical impairments with 10 being least disabled - it covers everything from amputees and spinal cord injuries to someone with dwarfism. S11-S13 are allocated to visual impairments and S14 for those with an intellectual disability. The S-class refers only to freestyle, backstroke and butterfly whereas SB is breast stroke and SM is individual medley. An athlete classified as a 9 in freestyle could be a 10 in butterfly - you are classified according to the stroke you're using as swimming on your back could prove more challenging for you depending on your impairment mix. Classifications are also affected depending on whether you have the ability to dive in or start a race from within the pool. The knock-on effect of having more classifications is that this year's Paralympic swimming as a whole has 148 gold medals up for grabs compared with 34 at the Olympics. Classifications can be controversial. "There are some who try to cheat their class," says former Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. "When they deliberately cheat it's the same as taking drugs. But some do just fall one side or other of a line and can move up and down between classes." Sports that are the same but different Although there are sports that only disabled people play, you'll recognise most of the events at the Paralympics. Swimming, cycling and athletics will happen in a similar way to their Olympic equivalents, albeit split into many different classifications, and with added prosthetics, wheelchairs and human guides. Spectators at sports like wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball and blind football, who are familiar with their able-bodied equivalents, will quickly realise that the Paralympic versions bear little resemblance to the sports they know and love. The ball used in blind football is less bouncy than a regular one and contains ball bearings to make it audible. It is played on a hard surface by two teams of five players. The area of play is smaller than in regular football and is surrounded by boards. The boards not only stop the ball from going out, but also reflect sounds from the ball and from footsteps, which helps players to orientate themselves on the pitch. Outfield players, blind or partially sighted, wear eye covers to level the playing field. The goalkeeper is fully sighted but is not allowed to leave his area. A "guide", also sighted, directs players from behind the goal. In the absence of visual communication between players, they use specific terms. Shouts of "voy" - the Spanish word literally meaning "I go" but idiomatically "I'm here" - act as a warning that one player is about to tackle another. Teams rely heavily on numerous audible clues, so spectators must stay silent during play. Sports unique to the Paralympics There are two sports which are exclusive to the Paralympics - goalball and boccia. Goalball is played by two teams of three blind and visually impaired athletes, on an indoor rectangular court with tactile markings. The object is to throw a heavy ball filled with bells into the opposing team's net, while defenders try to block its progress with their bodies. Boccia features some of the most disabled athletes at the Games. Although it is played competitively in more than 50 countries, it is one of the least well-known Paralympic sports. A bit like bowls, boccia takes place on an indoor court. Playing individually, in pairs or in teams, athletes roll, throw or kick the balls, aiming to land them close to a target. It was originally introduced as a game for people with cerebral palsy, but over the years, boccia has been extended to include players with a variety of disabilities affecting motor skills. Boccia has four disability classifications, BC1 to BC4. The BC3 class players are unable to propel the ball themselves, so a lightweight ramp is put in place to aid its movement towards the target. "[BC3 players] are allowed to have an assistant on court with them," says ParalympicsGB boccia team captain Nigel Murray. "The person who is their assistant has their back to the court so they are unable to see any of the play and they're totally directed in the movement of the ramp by the athlete". Some players communicate with their assistant through blinking or head movements. Accessibility It took five days to turn the Olympic Village into the Paralympic Village. The venues have increased their wheelchair capacity by removing and rearranging the existing seating - the stadium will have 568 spaces compared with 394 during the Olympics. Blind spectators will be supplied with audio guides, while those with hearing impairments will be seated with a direct view of large screens so they can follow the action. "The village did have to be Paralympified," says director of Paralympic integration Chris Holmes. "It was planned from the start. The bathrooms, the signage, the pavement have been fully accessible from the beginning." Tappers One of the most important aids to the blind swimmer is the tapper. Standing at each end of the pool is a person holding a long pole with a soft circular ball on the end. As the swimmer approaches they are tapped on the head. It is a sign to the swimmer that the end of the pool is approaching, and the confidence gained by the tapper's presence means the swimmer can move at full pelt without fearing a painful crash at the end. "The pole looks a bit like a fishing rod," says Marcelo Sugimori, one of two tappers in the Brazilian Paralympic team. Sugimori used to tap for his sister Fabiana, who won gold in the 50m freestyle in Athens 2004. He now works with the team's two other blind and partially sighted swimmers. "We tap the swimmer when they are between two and four metres from the end of the pool," he adds. "It takes a lot of training together, and a lot of trust." He says that he aims for a single tap, ideally on the head or upper back. Guide runners for blind athletes Blind and partially sighted runners can compete with a guide. Usually tethered to the athlete by a rope, a guide runs with them, acting as their eyes. Sprinters Tracy Hinton and Libby Clegg will represent ParalympicsGB in this way. Clegg, who runs the 200m and 100m, maintains contact with her guide Mikail Huggins, using a loop of physiotherapy tubing, bound in the middle with electrical tape. She described the process of running with a guide as, "a bit like doing the three-legged race but attached by your hands rather than your feet". "To execute the run properly you need to be smooth and in time, with both the pace and the stride length correct." Clegg can run 100m in 12.41 seconds. The guide talks throughout the race, explaining to the athlete where they are on the track, flagging up bends and making a call on whether or not the athlete should accelerate, hold the pace or relax. They are allocated a lane each. The totally blind runners, T11 class, will always have a guide, but those categorised as T12 - who have some sight - can choose. Most blind or visually impaired female runners partner with male guides, as the guide must have the ability to go faster than the athlete. The golden rule of guide running is not to cross the line before the athlete, a crime punishable by disqualification. Both Clegg and Hinton have lost out on past medals when their guide unintentionally pipped them to the post. But it is not just runners who use a guide. Blind athletes competing in the long jump and triple jump also use guides, though here they stay stationary, shouting commands, clapping and directing athletes through the jump. Age Viewers new to the Paralympics may notice there are a number of athletes who excel in their field despite being a little older than you might expect sportsmen and women to be. At Wimbledon this year, commentators were questioning how long Roger Federer could continue at champion level being as he was then the ripe old age of 30. At the Paralympics, however, we find that GB's wheelchair tennis champ Peter Norfolk is 51. Norfolk won gold in Athens and Beijing, is presently ranked third in the world and will be the flag bearer for ParalympicsGB at the opening ceremony. Much was made of older Olympians as well this year. Hiroshi Hoketsu competed in the dressage at 71. Gymnast Yordan Yovchev, 39, finished seventh in the final of the men's rings. Yamile Aldama, 40, competed for Team GB in the triple jump. In sports like equestrianism and shooting there are plenty of competitors over the age of 40. But the effect is more pronounced in the Paralympics. GB blind football captain David Clarke is 41, boccia's Nigel Murray is 48, archer Kate Murray 63, discus thrower Derek Derenalagi is in his first Paralympics at 38 and the athletics captain and runner Tracey Hinton is 42. Athletes may have excelled later than their non-disabled counterparts as a result of choosing to use sport as part of their rehabilitation after acquiring a disability, like Afghanistan veteran Derenalagi. Other reasons are a little more complicated. The pool of disabled athletes is smaller than that of the Olympics due to lack of opportunity - be that about physical access to sporting facilities or lack of imagination from PE teachers or those supporting disabled people in their development. Self-esteem or simple lack of hands-on experience might mean it never really enters the minds of many who could be extremely capable if supported. Head of the British Paralympic Association Tim Hollingsworth acknowledges the age differences and says: "The routes into the sport for new athletes are more varied and less predictable than those who've been doing nothing but their sport until this age." Hollingsworth hopes that the Games will inspire disabled people, non-disabled PE teachers and those in charge to appreciate the possibilities out there. Hollingsworth is keen to point to a general diversity of age in the GB squad. At the other end of the scale we have wheelchair fencer Gabi Down at 14, sitting volleyball's Julie Rogers at 13 and swimmers Chloe Davies, 13, and Amy Marren, 14. Drug testing Paralympic athletes are subject to the same list of banned substances as Olympic athletes. Anyone who requires additional medication for pain or treatment must apply for an exemption. Each application will be considered on an individual basis by a medical committee. The same goes for Olympic athletes. "It's a common misconception that a lot of Paralympians will be on prescription drugs. That's not the case at all," says Nicole Sapstead, director of operations at UK Anti-Doping. "Obviously there are athletes with spinal injuries and they need pain relief. But mostly it is the same as the Olympics - things like asthma and diabetes." Therapeutic Use Exemptions are granted with a defined dosage for a specific period of time. The banned substances are the same in both the Paralympics and the Olympics, and athletes on prescription medication must prove that there is no suitable alternative that they could take instead. Reporting by Damon Rose, Emma Tracey and Lucy Townsend |
The Scottish government's draft budget for the coming year includes funds to study the idea of setting up a "citizen's income". So what is a basic income system, and how might it work in Scotland? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter What is a basic income system? The basic income system is a radical redesign of tax and welfare - completely redrawing the relationship between the state and the citizen. Under such a system, every individual would be given a cash payment at regular intervals, without any requirement to work or demonstrate a willingness to work. Several different figures have been suggested, mostly in the rough area of £100 a week for adults. As the name suggests, it would be universal - paid out to every citizen regardless of their wealth, employment or personal status - and would be enough to cover the basics of life. It would serve as a replacement for existing benefits payments such as jobseeker's allowance. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), a charity which has undertaken extensive studies about basic income, call it "a basic platform on which people can build their lives - whether they want to earn, learn, care or set up a business". Enthusiasm about the possibilities of a basic income has sprung up in several countries in recent years, but it is by no means a new idea. References to such a scheme date back as far as 1516, and have been debated by political theorists and philosophers ever since. What could the benefits be? The money distributed in a citizen's income system is given out with no strings attached, so the idea is that it affords the individual freedom of choice. Beyond the basics of food and shelter, people can put the money towards education or training, or launch entrepreneurial enterprises or creative endeavours. A guaranteed safety net could see more people take a punt on starting a business or volunteering in their community - or they could devote more time to caring for relatives or friends, something which may become more and more necessary with an aging population. Giving everyone money unconditionally also cuts out a huge amount of bureaucracy in the welfare system. No forms have to be filled in, no appointments kept at the jobcentre, no eligibility interviews held or home visits conducted. While there would be great cost and upheaval in setting up such a system, once established it would be relatively cheap and simple to run - in stark contrast to the current system. It could also cut out some loopholes in the current system which can disincentivise work. Because the payments would be guaranteed, jobless people would be able to take on limited or seasonal work without facing having their benefits cut off. Proponents also point to the looming issue of automation. If a significant number of workers are made redundant by machines, something like a basic income might become necessary as people go through retraining for different fields or find their new role in life. What could the downsides be? Opponents of basic income schemes baulk at the idea of paying people to do nothing; they fear it would be ruinously expensive and foster a generation of unmotivated couch potatoes. As noted above, backers hope that a basic income would make all work pay and encourage more people into work - but there are concerns it might have the opposite effect. The SAK trade union in Finland, where a pilot programme of basic income is currently being run, argue that the system might reduce the labour force by tempting new parents or those close to retirement to cut their hours. They also call the model being trialled "impossibly expensive", a criticism repeated by most opponents of the basic income. One Welsh economist voiced fears of a "tremendous tax" as a result of the "extremely expensive socialist experiment", suggesting that it would be a disincentive to work both for low earners and those on higher incomes who would effectively pay for the system via their taxes. On that latter point, concerns have been raised about social cohesion in a basic income society; at present the welfare state is justified on the grounds of people receiving redistributive payments on the basis of need, but would the taxpayer be as happy to fund a system where people could avoid contributing by choice? There are also questions over what this would mean for immigration and open borders. Say Scotland had a basic income system and England did not - would the jobless of Carlisle or even the continent flock north in search of a payday? The whole point of the basic income is that it is universal, so restricting it only to locals would run the risk of creating second-class citizenries - but leaving it open to all comers might not be practically possible. Another more political complaint is that the state would play a very central role in any country with a basic income system, involved closely in the life (and bank balance) of every citizen. And as for the job-stealing robots, detractors point out that concerns about technology are nothing new. The labour market has always evolved, with the workforce moving from the farm to the factory to the office - machines might yet prove the equal of humankind, but not yet. What are councils doing? The Scottish government has set aside £100,000 in the draft budget to help fund basic income pilots at local authority level. Four councils have been linked to potential pilot programmes - in Glasgow, Fife, North Ayrshire and Edinburgh. Even the most advanced of these are at a very early stage - mostly currently focused on feasibility studies of how a pilot could be carried out, rather than how a system could be rolled out across a council area or the country as a whole. In general, the pilot schemes would be limited to a specific area, with unconditional payments sent out to individuals for a period of about two years. However, the start of the pilots are still some time off. North Ayrshire Council, for example, set aside £200,000 in this year's budget to examine a basic income - but it is expected to take 12 to 18 months just to design a pilot scheme. Equally, work at Fife Council is "recognised as a long-term project", with initial work "focussed on desk research and engagement with interested groups", and that in Glasgow is "at the very early stages". Fife councillor David Alexander noted: "We must be realistic, this is a very complex issue which will take years of investigation and groundwork. "It's far too early to say where a pilot might happen - we don't even know if it will be the right thing to try. But it could be a game changer, so we're taking it seriously, because we know we have to try new things and learn as we go." And even once they get up and running, the pilots would have to run for several years before they could be evaluated - so any decisions about the wider future of basic income in Scotland is a long way off yet. In fact, it may well be for a future Scottish government, after the next election in 2021, to look at the matter in earnest. Could this really happen in Scotland? For all the trials in what is proving a rather long pipeline, is there a realistic possibility of Scotland actually adopting a universal basic income system? To get down to brass tacks, how much would it cost? Reform Scotland crunched the numbers for a £100-a-week system, and reckoned it would cost just over £20bn a year in Scotland. There's no getting away from it: that's a lot of money. But, by scrapping a raft of benefits which the citizen's income would replace, removing tax-free personal allowances and hiking all rates of income tax by 8%, they reckon £18bn could be raised. All of that would still leave a £2bn shortfall, but Reform Scotland argue this is not insurmountable via other savings and the hope that more people would join the workforce. It's not just about money, though - as with most other things in Scottish politics, there is a constitutional element. Anthony Painter from the RSA told MSPs on Holyrood's social security committee that there was a "basic problem" for them - a lack of powers. He said a citizen's income would be "a wholesale change to the system of social assistance and tax", a "holistic change" - and as such, "you need to have powers over the whole system in order to implement a full universal basic income". Siobhan Mathers from Reform Scotland told the same committee that it was "really quite difficult to run the numbers" even with newly-devolved welfare powers, adding that "it is easier to do pilots than it would be to roll out a wholescale change". The main problem for a Scottish system as it stands would be the interaction with the aspects of tax and welfare which remain reserved to Westminster, such as Universal Credit. Many of the benefits which would be replaced by a basic income are not under Holyrood's control. Effectively, any Scottish basic income scheme would have to be set up either in partnership with the UK government, or with its blessing via the devolution of further powers. Has this been tried elsewhere? As mentioned above, a two-year pilot programme is currently running in Finland, where 2,000 unemployed people are given a €560 (£490) monthly income, whether they wanted it or not. This is the largest and most advanced trial currently running, at least in Europe, but results will not be published until 2019. Nicola Sturgeon has recently tweeted out links to studies of the Finnish experiment. The government in Ontario, Canada is running a basic income project in three communities, focused on people on low incomes, although the payments vary, based on earned income. Charities in the US have also set up projects giving unconditional cash transfers to villagers in Kenya and Uganda. However, a proposal to introduce a similar system in Switzerland was comprehensively defeated in a referendum in 2016. There is dispute over whether or not many of these pilots constitute a "true" universal basic income - for example the Finnish scheme focuses only on currently unemployed people, rather than society as a whole. Another pilot programme ongoing in Holland has been criticised as amounting only to a minimum guaranteed income. To be a real test of a true UBI, a pilot programme would have to be mandatory, rather than voluntary, and include the already-wealthy too - something which may prove problematic, if the system penalises them through increased taxation. All of this will have to be borne in mind as councils draw up their plans for pilots of their own. |
A 55-year-old man has been arrested and charged after a gun and ammunition were found in a car stopped by police in Glasgow. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Officers pulled over a black Mazda 6 on Sauchiehall Street at about 18:30 on Friday. The search was said to be part of "an ongoing, intelligence-led operation" in the city. A Police Scotland spokesman said the arrested man is due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday. |
A four-year-old girl has been taken to hospital after being rescued by firefighters from a burning house. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Crews wearing breathing apparatus rescued the child from an upstairs bedroom in the property in Oldstead Avenue, Hull, just after 11:00 BST. Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said the girl's mother, who had escaped from the house before fire engines arrived, was also taken to hospital. The pair are suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation. A fire service spokesman said their medical condition was "unknown". Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. |
A woman was killed when she was hit by a bus in a West Midlands town centre. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The pedestrian was struck at about 07:30 BST on Poplar Road in Solihull. Ambulance service crews found her in a critical condition and she was confirmed dead by paramedics at the scene. Several 999 calls were received to reports of a collision and two ambulances and a paramedic officer were deployed. Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. |
Prison officers who take the equivalent of the Patten redundancy scheme could still apply to become custody officers under a new wave of recruitment. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The justice committee at Stormont heard an officer could take a £100,000 package, plus an £18,000 a year pension and still apply for new jobs. The redundancy scheme will cost about £60m over the next two years. Employees have to state their interest in redundancy by 17 February. The director-general of the Prison Service, Colin McConnell, said "solid progress" was being made on prison reform. Earlier this month, the BBC revealed that hundreds of retired police officers had been re-employed by the PSNI. The officers had left the police with generous Patten redundancy packages. |
Peter Robinson has said he will give full support to whoever eventually succeeds him as DUP leader. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mr Robinson, who is 66 next month, will address his party's annual conference on Saturday. Asked whether he plans to step down as DUP leader after next May's Westminster election, Mr Robinson reiterated that he has no particular timescale in mind. He told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics any future leadership change would be a carefully managed process. |
A Mori poll commissioned for a BBC investigation found the majority of Scots no longer cook for themselves, with more than half (55%) relying on ready meals or takeaways at least three times a week. Catherine Brown, author of Scottish Cookery, tells the BBC how the Scottish diet has changed over the decades. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"For dinner at one o'clock there was a plateful of thick meat and vegetable broth. Maybe a ham bone with lentils or the stock from a boiling chicken thickened with leeks and rice. Scotch Broth came with pearl barley and a piece of flank of beef or mutton. Always a small amount of the cheapest cut of meat. Fresh vegetables such as carrot, turnip, onion, leek and parsley were always a feature, as was some cereal. Always a warming meal-in-a-plate. Meat and potatoes were for Sundays. Perhaps an oxtail stew, tender meat sliding of its own accord from the sculptured bones left on the plate. Or it might be a plateful of rich brown oniony mince topped with misshapen mounds of fluffy suet dumplings instead of potatoes. Sometimes it was a plateful of chewy tripe surrounding a mound of mealy tatties. These were the dishes we ate at midday. All slow-cooked in the large pot which sat on a coal-fired, iron range in the cramped East End tenement kitchen of my Glasgow grandmother in the 1950s. Through two World Wars, and a depression which hit the urban population badly, I realise now how remarkable it was that she still hung on to these old Scots frugal but healthy eating habits. Her Highland counterpart did things differently. In the seven crofting counties where the rural population practiced self-sufficiency, meat was also a scarce item, eaten sparingly. For their Scotch barley broth, a small piece of their own salt mutton released its unique flavour. Their broth was also less meat than vegetable, their method the same. The tough cuts, with lots of bone and sinewy muscle, were simmered and stewed over the slow-burning peat fire in the big pot till tender and falling apart. Then the meat was cut up finely for adding later. If a less tough cut had been used, this was sliced and eaten separately, often with oatcakes or bannocks. Vegetables - mostly carrots, turnips, onion, leeks - might be joined at the end with finely chopped kale or nettles. In an age of fast and highly-processed food, this method of extracting maximum flavour from slow cooking with the minimum of fuel has several assets. But its greatest is that it ticks both the low-calorie and the high food value boxes. A sugary drink might provide an instant energy burst, but meals-in-plates from pots of broth have the power to sustain life." BBC Scotland Investigates: Scotland the Fat will be shown on BBC1 Scotland on Thursday 15 August, at 20:00, and for a week afterwards on the BBC iPlayer. |
One billion US dollars is a tidy sum of money. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tim WeberBusiness editor, BBC News website It would buy you some 2,100 Rolls Royce Phantoms. Or 200 million mosquito nets to fight malaria. Or the whole of the New York Times company (with $50m change to spare). If you are Microsoft, it buys you some 800 AOL patents to fight the next patent war. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg chose to spend $1bn on Instagram, a small web start-up just under two years old, with 13 full-time staff who work on a single smartphone app. The business model Yes, Instagram is very popular. The app's fancy "filters" give your photos a lovely vintage feeling, a bit like the faded Polaroids tucked away in the drawers of your parents' living room. They port mediocre photos into an alternate universe where they look kind of good; an online service allows users to share their pictures with friends. The drawback, of course, is Instagram's business model. The company has no revenue to speak of. Maybe its business model was to be bought by another tech firm with too much money in the bank. So is this the return of silly money to Silicon Valley? Is it a case of panic buying, with valuations pushed up in a bidding war with Google or another competitor? Facebook is certainly not spending $1bn on an app. Rather, it is buying three things: a potential rival with a rapidly growing user base; a weapon to fight other even bigger threats in the social networking space; and most importantly a better hook into the world of mobile computing. One user = $28 Instagram's growth is impressive indeed. The app has some 30 million iPhone users. A week ago it launched on Google's Android operating system and chalked up five million downloads in just six days. Still, it suggests that Facebook values an Instagram user at about $28. Cheap, you might say, given the fact that Facebook has a much-touted valuation of $100bn - or $118 per user (Facebook's listing on the Nasdaq stockmarket is imminent). Well, at least Facebook has revenue and is making a nice profit. Facebook's problem, though, is the fact that its days of rapid expansion are over, and that many see Facebook as something that's done on an old-style desktop computer. This is where Instagram comes in. The app's strength - mobile devices - is Facebook's biggest weakness. The social network simply has not got the same traction on smartphones as it has on desktop computers. This is an Achilles heel. The number of phones with web access is already outnumbering computers, and sales of tablet computers could soon outpace those of traditional PCs. Another YouTube deal? Don't forget that pictures were at the heart of Facebook's success; the easy sharing of pictures made it stand out against early rivals. Today, the social network is the world's largest photo-sharing website. Combine Instagram's mobile appeal with some careful Facebook integration (without annoying existing users too much), and Mark Zuckerberg could have made a very nifty move. It could be as clever as Google buying YouTube for $1.65bn in 2006, before it was totally obvious how important web video would become. Buying Instagram could also help Facebook to fend off new rivals like social photo-sharing website Pinterest, which is arguably the world's fastest growing social network yet (albeit still smaller than Instagram, with currently about 20 million users). Facebook will have to tread carefully, though. Instagram users are a passionate bunch, and already they worry that their app will go the way of many other clever online services that were swallowed by tech giants like Google and Yahoo: quickly sidelined, forgotten and closed down. Mark Zuckerberg promises to be different, and says he is "committed to building and growing Instagram independently". The winners The biggest winners of the Facebook deal are, of course, the people directly involved with Instagram. Founder and chief executive Kevin Systrom has reportedly netted $400m; his co-founder Mike Krieger is about $100m richer - all for just under two years' worth of work. Reports suggest that $100m will be shared out among the other 11 members of staff, some of whom joined the company just a few weeks ago. And then there are the investors, a roll call of Silicon Valley greats (including Facebook's first chief technical officer). Kudos, by the way, to the three venture capital firms that reportedly invested $50m in Instagram, valuing the company at just $500m. In less than a week they've doubled their money. Did I hear anybody say "technology bubble"? |
It started off on a piece of land about the size of a tennis court, 350 years ago. But now the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh occupies about 70 acres in the city, with other sites in Scotland and abroad, and is a leading research centre for plant science and conservation. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Joanne MacaulayBBC Scotland news As RBGE celebrates its 350th anniversary, it is holding various events to look back at its origins, and forward to 21st Century challenges. How the garden grew It all started back in 1670, when two Edinburgh doctors - Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour - set up a physic garden, to explore the links between plants and medicine, for the benefit of society. Today's Regius Keeper - the overseer of the garden who is appointed by the reigning monarch - Simon Milne says that ethos has endured and expanded. "From the size of a tennis court we now have four gardens in Scotland and are working in 35 countries around the world, and our education programmes go out to 50 countries," he says. "We've come a long way and we owe an awful lot to our founding fathers." The herbarium at the gardens in Edinburgh contains more than three million preserved specimens, gathered from around the world over three and a half centuries. There are thousands of species growing at the Edinburgh site and the other gardens in Dawyck in the Borders, Logan near Stranraer and Benmore in Argyll. The oldest living plant in the collection is thought to be the Sabal Palm, which came to Edinburgh in 1822. Cultivating science The keeper of collections, David Knott, says these are great places to visit, but there is also vital science going on. "We're cultivating a wide range of plants from across the world and some of these are grown in the research glass houses and perhaps survive in their native habitats and nowhere else," he says. "We're also cultivating a number of plants that are extinct in their native habitats." Events had been planned to celebrate the 350th anniversary, but many had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, a revised programme will go ahead this autumn, including an online global panel discussion covering issues such as plant extinction, conservation and global biodiversity. Flower show Part of the 350th celebrations included the RBGE's first ever trip to the Chelsea Flower Show, which also had to be cancelled. But Susie Huggins, who is the co-ordinating the anniversary events, says they will get another chance to exhibit in London. "The Royal Horticultural Society have invited us back next year. We'll go with the same magnificent display we'd been planning," she says. "We'll focus on our research and conservation work, looking at what we do to save the world's plants, what we do in the world that makes a mark." Visitors are once again allowed to visit the gardens, although in limited numbers at the moment. Lockdown has meant a loss of revenue, but Simon Milne is already planning long into the future. "We're launching the Edinburgh Biomes project which will see the rebuild of a lot of our mission critical facilities," he says. "The palm house needs to be renovated and restored. There will be new sustainable buildings, new educational facilities that will take us through the next 25, 50,100 years so we can remain at the forefront of plant science and conservation. "We'll be building a fantastic new glass house which will make an even better visitor attraction." Visitor memories As part of the celebrations, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh wants to hear from members of the public about their experiences of the garden. "We want to know everyone's memories," says Susie Higgins. "Did you come here as a child, bring your own children, get married here? Is there a favourite spot where you find solace? We want to say it's not just our RBGE, it's your RBGE." |
A seaman who saw a helicopter crash "like a torpedo", killing 16 men, has told a fatal accident inquiry the rotor blades came down several seconds after the fuselage of the Super Puma. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In a statement to the first day of the inquiry into the 2009 crash, Normand Aurora crewman Lidvar Olav Hildre said he heard the helicopter fly over his ship followed by a sudden silence. He saw "an oblong shape falling like a torpedo into the sea". Four rotor blades then landed. The statement read: "There was a big splash then white smoke. "I saw four black rotor blades falling out of the sky. It fell to about the same place." The ship then launched a fast rescue boat to the scene, where eight bodies were found floating on the water. Earlier, the sheriff refused a bid for technical logs to be produced for all Bond helicopters operating out of Aberdeen at the time of the Super Puma crash. The FAI was told a fault on the main gearbox was detected on 23 March 2009, eight days before the crash. The inquiry heard there was an initial view it should be replaced. It was not, and an investigation found it was the reason for the crash. The inquiry was asked to compel Bond to produce the documents to help determine whether workload was the reason the gearbox was not replaced. Derek Pyle, Sheriff Principal for Grampian, Highlands and Islands, refused the application. All 14 passengers and two crew lost their lives in April 2009, when the Bond helicopter came down in the North Sea. Relatives have said the FAI had been a "long, long time" coming. The inquiry, which is being held in Aberdeen Town House, is expected to last six weeks. The sheriff principal has said his determination will be released as early as possible. An Air Accidents Investigation Branch report blamed a catastrophic gear box failure for the crash, which happened 12 miles off Peterhead and left no survivors. Safety paramount A police investigation ended with the Crown Office deciding there was insufficient evidence for any prosecutions - a decision that angered families of the victims. Eight of those who died came from the north east of Scotland, seven from the rest of the UK, and one from Latvia. Audrey Wood, who lost son Stuart, 27, from Aberdeen, told BBC Scotland before the FAI got under way: "It has been a long, long five years. The suffering is exceptional, the families should not have had to wait this long. "The FAI is used as a fact-finding inquiry, we look at it as a fault-finding inquiry. "Hopefully we will get answers. Safety should be paramount." She added: "Woody was always a fun-filled guy, very family-orientated. We dearly miss him." The two crew who died were Capt Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick, Aberdeenshire, and co-pilot Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa, who worked for Bond Offshore Helicopters. The KCA Deutag employees killed were Brian Barkley, 30, of Aberdeen; Vernon Elrick, 41, of Aberdeen; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore, Aberdeenshire; Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus; David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld; James John Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich, and Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia. The other victims were James Costello, 24, of Aberdeen, who was contracted to Production Services Network (PSN); Alex Dallas, 62, of Aberdeen, who worked for Sparrows Offshore Services; Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, who worked for Weatherford UK; and Stuart Wood, 27, of Aberdeen, who worked for Expro North Sea Ltd. |
My Money is a series looking at how people spend their money - and the sometimes tough decisions they have to make. Here Anna Jackson, 27, takes us through a week in the life of her family's farm in Bottesford near Scunthorpe, where she has returned after the coronavirus outbreak brought her freelance photography work to a halt. Over to Anna.... | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Like most people, corona has really turned my life upside down. I've gone from being a freelance sports photographer in London to being a farmer in Lincolnshire. Rather than my life revolving around shoots, coffee meetings and cycling around the Big Smoke, I now wake up early for lamb feeding with Timmy our orphan lamb, learning about drilling and fixing fence posts with nosy cows trying to lick you. Currently I am not furloughed as I was freelance, so money is in short supply to say the least. I'm still paying £815 a month for rent plus bills for a London flat that I'm not living in, plus £114 for my monthly subscriptions. I'm volunteering for my Mum (Sally) doing photography, social media and videography at The Pink Pig Farm shop and park in Scunthorpe, whilst also working full time on the farm with Dad. Mum has furloughed 24 staff, so she only has my sister and me to help with her daily farm shop stall, where we sell everyday essentials. Our chickens haven't stopped laying. Weekly shop. Now that I'm back living with my parents (it's taken some adjusting to) we do a weekly shop, this includes all the meals throughout the week. We try to only go to the supermarket once a week. As my parents are older I don't want to add potential risk when we don't need to. One person is the designated shopper. My sister has been relegated as she buys too many naughty treats, my Dad has been kindly asked not to go because he deviates from the whole shopping list and I can't go anymore because I take too long. So Mum grudgingly does the weekly shop. Total spend: £88 for the weekly shop. (£22 per person). I've been one of the rare key workers who has been travelling around in the car ever since the virus was announced. When we first started driving to the agricultural suppliers the roads were empty apart from lorries. We, of course, had our government letter of authority to travel, just in case we got stopped. Since then the roads have definitely got busier. We aren't quite sure where people are going but it's definitely increased. Travel per week costs around £70. We travel to the abattoir once a month to deliver pigs or sheep, and to an outlying farm three times a week. Although I don't have to pay this as it's a business expense, it has made me realise how much it costs to be a farmer and how much of a risk you spend upfront before you get full payment from your harvested crops. Total spend: £0 Lamb chaos. We noticed one of the lambs had a swollen red eye so we took a photo and sent it to the vets. The vets said it was best to get an ointment to treat it. This isn't an easy feat as you need to first catch the lamb and then administer the ointment daily. Lambs are a pain to catch, they are nimble and speedy. However, first we needed to get the lotion from the vets, and vets are not cheap. This costs the business money but luckily not me. It's making me understand how much it costs to run a family business, it's not dissimilar to the money I was spending in London. Total spend: £0 Come quarantine with me. Every day has been blending into one, so we've decided to have a special dinner once a week as a family. There's a fancy dress theme and going over the top is advised. A different person hosts it each week and cooks food associated with said theme. This is a great way to be creative with food, share the cooking and it doesn't cost any extra dimes. We each get rated with a score, because there's four of us we pronounce the winner at the end of the fourth week. Dad is at a slight disadvantage as his cooking often comes with a health warning. As a family we've had to find creative ways to keep entertained that are low on cost: Total spend: £0 A tricky sell. I sold one of my cameras and lenses today for extra cash to pay rent, as a photographer you need at least two cameras for events or shoots. Two reasons: if one goes wrong you have a back up, and secondly, during events you want a different lens on each camera to capture moments quickly. This gave me an extra £450 which is great but doesn't even cover one month's rent. I've been doing some photo editing on the side with clients who need it/can afford it. This has helped immensely even though I only earn around £100 a month, every little helps. Total spend: £0 My Money More blogs from the BBC's My Money Series: Internal debate. Sadly since corona I've had three second-hand (borrowed) phones die on me, as my phone broke just before corona. Not through any fault of my own, they all just bit the dust one after another. A few thoughts came to my head: that I probably shouldn't buy a new phone when currently I'm only losing money, and in theory I won't receive money from the government as a self employed taxpayer until June. However, as I'm doing social media for my photography business (Anna Rachel Photography) and my Mum's farm park, I would struggle to do both without a phone (I've already been stealing my Mum's for a good week, she isn't too pleased). So I decided to bite the bullet and buy one. My savings have covered it and my theory is that I will need a new phone at some point anyway. Still a very scary decision, which took weeks of back-and-forth and an internal debate. Total spend: £400 Farming isn't cheap. Sunday is a slow day, we wake up, feed the lambs, Dad and I go on a bike ride spying on all the other farmers' fields and then run the stall from outside the cafe. Sunday is really the only rest day for farmers. My Dad wears his smarter clothes, and we try and not farm unless there's an emergency, like this week. We got a phone call from our next-door neighbours saying we had piglets on the road. We hopped in the car but after driving up and down the road we couldn't find any loose piglets. This left us stumped for ages trying to figure out how they had gotten out. Eventually we realised they were getting under a fence. Often on farms you need to spend money on repairs. This week we've bought lamb ointment, bolts for the tractor, lamb powder and a new nozzle for the sprayer. Expenses I know I couldn't afford this right now, but I feel fortunate that my Dad can keep the farm going. Total spend: £0 Pre-corona spend: *£261.21 *Since corona I've stopped paying for a workspace, unsubscribed from lots of subscriptions, and the Adobe software company has paused payment on memberships during corona. Post-corona spend: £22 Including new phone (an irregular expense): £422 How does Anna feel about her week? Whilst at the abattoir this week we got chatting to a 76-year-old farmer waiting in line (at a distance) and he mentioned how farmers are struggling so much during this crisis. Every farmer gets the single farm payment every year from the EU. This helps to covers costs as the supermarkets often don't pay farmers enough for their produce. However these farm payments often don't leave room for savings, so lots of farmers don't have pensions, they will work their whole lives with an uncertain retirement. When I say "work" I'm talking about 12-hour shifts every day, on their feet, in the cold, it's hard labour (as I've discovered). But they never complain and always greet you with a smile. This week I've realised I may be losing money and paying for things I can't afford but I feel very lucky to have learned so much about where our food comes from. Farmers are key workers that often get forgotten about. They are constant key workers as without them we'd all have empty bellies. I guess I feel grateful for the farmers we have in the UK and lucky that I am involved in the process. You may be eating some of the quinoa I've planted this time next year (if it rains)! |
A stranded pony has been winched up an 80ft (24m) cliff edge after becoming stranded on a shingle bed in Ceredigion. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
RSPCA Cymru said the animal, believed to have been trapped for a week, was rescued in Gwbert on Thursday. The pony was reached by boat and sedated before being lifted to safety by a team of 13 officers. A veterinary inspection found the animal to be fit and well despite being weak from the ordeal. Animal welfare officer Andrew Harris said: "This pony was in a hopeless situation and was facing certain death.. it was amazing to be involved in such a happy ending." |
Reports that Hollywood star Angeline Jolie is planning to make a movie about Sudan's history have sparked a row with Egypt, and BBC Africa's Mohanad Hashim says it is about much more than who has the biggest pyramids. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The latest twist in a long-running feud between Egyptians and Sudanese is over controversial claims that a film is to be made in Sudan to showcase the country's contribution to human civilization. Various media have reported that a Qatari production company would fund the film, which would apparently feature Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Leonardo Di Caprio. It is meant to promote historical tourism in Sudan by narrating the country's ancient Nubian history. The claims were so widespread that even the British ambassador to Sudan was caught up in the fray, tweeting on the story: Sudanese tweeters published memes showing Jolie depicted as a Nubian queen and shared reports of press conferences confirming the Hollywood star and UN ambassador would visit the country in May to scout the film's locations. An Egyptian TV channel even interviewed Sudanese designer Samar Darwish who was reported to be the costume designer for Jolie. However, none of this has been confirmed. A princess desert tour sparks controversy The row kicked off in March, when the wife of the former Qatari Emir, Princess Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, visited Sudan as a United Nations ambassador. Photos of Sheikha Moza's visit to the al-Bajrawyah pyramids, a site that houses several Meroitic pyramids that date from 320 BC - 50 AD, were widely publicised by Qatari-owned Pan-Arab networks. The pictures were widely circulated on social media too. But across Egypt's TV networks, the visit was ridiculed and criticised. Qatar's move to invest $135m (£100m) in projects to develop Sudan's archaeological sites is seen by many in Cairo as an attempt to undermine the struggling tourism sector in Egypt and part of ongoing efforts by the Gulf emirate to discredit Egypt and its leadership. Pyramid size matters? Reacting to the pictures of the princess by the Sudanese pyramids, Azmi Mujahid, a talk-show host on Egyptian Al-Assema TV mocked the Sudanese pyramids. "All the world's stars have had their pictures taken by the [Giza] Pyramid but Sheikha Moza had a picture next to two [cheese triangles] in Sudan," he said. The barrage of ridicule aimed at the size of the Sudanese pyramids made the Sudanese minister of information weigh in. Ahmed Osman said: "Sudan's pyramids were older than Egypt's by 2,000 years", a claim disputed by archaeologists. Other Sudanese were quick to point out that their country has a much larger collection of pyramids - 230 in total. Egyptians vexed: Sudan the 'mother of the world' Egyptians have always prided themselves in claiming that "Egypt is the mother of the world". Any visitor to Egypt would recognize the claim made and perpetuated by the official and popular narrative that Egypt is a "7,000-year-old civilization". This is why a hand-written note written by the Qatari princess that Sudan was the "mother of the world" fell foul of Egyptian commentators and social media users. Ketchup ban This war of words between the two neighbours shows increasing tension over conflicting positions on issues such as: Recently, President Omar al-Bashir accused Egypt of "stabbing his country in the back when it occupied" Sudanese territory in the mid-1990s. He was referring to the disputed Halayib triangle, a coastal area on the Red Sea between Sudan and Egypt, which both countries claim. After the row sparked by Sheikha Moza's visit, many Facebook pages sprang up in Sudan, calling for a boycott of Egyptian products, especially fruit and vegetables, claiming they were contaminated by raw sewage. Since March, the Sudanese ministry of trade has suspended imports of several items, including ketchup, tomato and fish. Khartoum's measures follow similar measures taken in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Some in Sudan have called for travel restrictions to be imposed on Egyptians. Although officials from both countries have downplayed the row in public and emphasised the historic ties between the two peoples, Sudan has imposed visa fees on Egyptian men. Why is Egypt angry? Cairo is nervous about Khartoum's position on various issues. First is Sudan's close ties with Ethiopia, where the newly constructed Millennium Dam could reduce Egypt's share of the Nile waters, which Egypt's rulers have long considered its biggest existential threat. The second matter is Sudan's ties with Egyptian Islamists and their Qatari backers. Qatar backs Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi after he deposed the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi as president in 2013. Why are the Sudanese so touchy? Egyptians often depict Sudan as Egypt's southern province, with Egyptians often recounting that both countries were one during the British colonial presence in the Nile Valley. Sudanese have long complained about racist sentiments displayed by Egyptian commentators ridiculing their country and government. One reaction to the ongoing row has been the launching of the hashtag #KnowSudan and its Arabic translation in an effort by the Sudanese to raise awareness of their country and its heritage. |
About 200 people dressed as Father Christmas set a new record for the Isle of Man's annual Santa Dash, held in heavy rain in Douglas. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In total, 206 people completed the one mile (1.6km) race, with Stephen Garret winning in four minutes 27 seconds. Last year's record of 131 people was well beaten despite the weather. Race organiser John Lindon said: "It was a fantastic spectacle and quite remarkable that so many braved the weather to compete." Last year's event raised about £14,000 for a variety of local charities. |
Police searching for a missing teenager have found a body in a canal. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Charlie Pope, 19, left the Zombie Shack on New Wakefield Street, Manchester, at 02:30 GMT on Friday. He was last seen on Whitworth Street two hours later. Following an underwater search in the canal just off Whitworth Street West, a body was found on Friday afternoon. Police believe the body found is that of the teenager, from Ponteland, Northumberland. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. |
Australia is the only Commonwealth country never to make a treaty with its indigenous peoples. Why has it proven so difficult? Kathy Marks looks at the vast challenges in Victoria alone - a state that is working towards a national first. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Every school holiday, the train would pick up Daria Atkinson and her four siblings, all aged under 10, and transport them - along with thousands of other Aboriginal children from the countryside - to Melbourne, where they would spend up to two months living with a white family. "We had to call the adults mum and dad," recalls Ms Atkinson, now 56. "We were told how to sit at the table, how to eat properly. We weren't allowed to get dirty. We had to forget we were Aboriginal. But at least we got to go home - the Stolen Generations didn't." Having experienced first-hand one of Australia's misguided assimilation programs, Ms Atkinson now works with members of the Stolen Generations in Victoria - people who were permanently separated from their families. Many of them are still trying to reconnect with their community, culture and traditional country. The quest has acquired a new urgency as Victoria paves the way for treaty discussions with the state's Aboriginal population - the first Australian jurisdiction to seek a formal agreement with its original inhabitants. What is a treaty in this context? Next year will see the creation of a statutory Aboriginal Representative Body intended to be the voice of indigenous Victoria, which will hammer out ground rules for treaty negotiations in conjunction with the state government. It has taken nearly three years of sometimes acrimonious consultations and more than $37m Australian dollars (£21m; $27m) of public funds just to get to this point. Now controversy surrounds the representative body, where - under an official model - 11 of the 28 seats would be reserved for officially acknowledged "language nations" which occupied particular regions before European settlement. There were, however, 38 such nations before colonisation. "So the other 27 will have to fight over the leftovers," says Gary Murray, an Aboriginal elder, referring to the remaining 17 seats, to be decided via an election of all Aboriginal residents. "And that's discriminatory." Also potentially problematic is that only "traditional owners" - proven descendants of a language nation or clan (extended family) - will be eligible to stand in the election, or participate in eventual treaty talks, or share in benefits flowing from a treaty. That means that some of the "stolen" people could be, in a significant way, excluded from the treaty process - a process that indigenous Australians have been demanding for decades, and which they hope will deliver them social justice and economic self-sufficiency while helping to heal the wounds of the past. Meanwhile, there is a more immediate issue: a state election this Saturday, which could lead to the process being junked, if the Labor government of Premier Daniel Andrews loses power. In South Australia, the conservative Liberal government abandoned treaty negotiations with three Aboriginal nations after winning an election in March. The Victorian opposition leader, Matthew Guy, is opposed to a state-based treaty, arguing that "a national approach would be a much better way to go". Australia is the only Commonwealth country yet to conclude a treaty with its First Nations, although the subject has been debated on and off for years. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty in 1988. With progress stalled at the federal level, several states and territories have embarked on their own treaty process. First off the block, in February 2016, was Victoria - where Mr Andrews' government has discovered how protracted and tortuous the process can be, even for just one state. "It's mind-blowing, the amount of work that has gone into this to date," says Janine Coombs, one of the traditional owners on the Aboriginal Treaty Working Group, which advises the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner. That work has included four state-wide forums, dozens of regional community consultations and "roadshows", a six-day "community assembly" in Melbourne, and legislation enshrining the route to treaty talks, which the government hopes would discourage an incoming Liberal administration from jettisoning the process. The election for the representative body, to take place across six voting regions, has thrown up multiple challenges. Should, for instance, traditional owners from interstate, now living in Victoria, be able to stand? What about indigenous Victorians living elsewhere - in some cases just across the Murray River, which forms a boundary with New South Wales? And how will the vexed question of who is eligible to vote - who is, in fact, Aboriginal - be settled? In Tasmania, in the early 2000s, bitter legal battles were fought over this issue, with the dominant Aboriginal community challenging the right of more than 1,000 people to vote in elections for an Aboriginal statutory authority. The difficulties involved in setting up a representative body in Victoria - in unifying all the disparate Aboriginal voices - are a legacy of the state's colonial history, which saw indigenous groups pushed off their land and dispersed to distant missions and reserves. Policies which later created the Stolen Generations severed yet more links with family, community and territory, resulting in a small, fragmented population which today numbers about 50,000. As in other southern states which were swiftly and brutally settled, most Aboriginal Victorians have mixed ancestry. Model criticised as 'symbolic genocide' The proposed model for the representative body, Ms Coombs believes, is the "fairest and most inclusive possible", with additional seats to be made available as more language nations complete a formal recognition process. Mr Murray, though, says that not giving automatic representation to all 38 nations is "offensive, repugnant and symbolic genocide". And he warns that if the model is not amended, he and other vocal opponents will lodge complaints with state and national anti-discrimination authorities. Treaty negotiations could still be years off, but they promise to be extraordinarily complex, with up to 100 different clan groups seeking separate treaties and, in some cases, disputing each other's territorial boundaries and ancestry. Nonetheless, some hope the Victorian process could kick-start a momentum that will lead to a federal treaty. Ms Coombs says: "This isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. The here and now is about setting the foundations and structures right, so that my grandsons and the next seven generations will get the outcomes and benefits. "Because this opportunity may never come around again." |
A rare Ferrari sports car found rusting in a French farmhouse under a pile of old magazines has sold for 14.2m euros (£10.5m; $16.2m) at auction in Paris. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The blue California Spider was hidden away for more than 50 years. One of only 37 ever made, it was once owned by the French actor Alain Delon and was discovered alongside dozens of other classic models. An auction house official said the find was the motoring equivalent of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. The name of the buyer was not revealed. |
A mariner who has spent years travelling "hundreds of thousands of nautical miles" to measure the impact of plastic waste in the ocean has estimated that a "raft" of plastic debris spanning more than 965,000 square miles (2.5m sq km) is concentrated in a region of the South Pacific. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Dr Charlotte BrasseyScience writer Capt Charles Moore has just returned from a sampling expedition around Easter Island and Robinson Crusoe Island. He was part of the team which discovered the first ocean "garbage patch" in the North Pacific gyre in 1997 and has now turned his attention to the South Pacific. Although plastic is known to occur in the Southern Hemisphere gyres, very few scientists have visited the region to collect samples. Oceanographer Dr Erik van Sebille, from Utrecht University, says the work of Capt Moore and his colleagues will help fill "a massive knowledge gap" in our understanding of ocean plastics. "Any data we can get our hands on is good data at this point," he told BBC News. Capt Moore explained that the space occupied by sub-tropical gyres - areas of the ocean surrounded by circulating ocean currents - is approximately the same size as the entire land mass of the Earth, but they are now being "populated by our trash". The phenomenon of oceanic garbage patches was originally documented in the North Pacific, but plastic has now been found in the South Pacific, Arctic and Mediterranean. "It's hard not to find plastic in the ocean any more," Dr van Sebille said. "That's quite shocking". Capt Moore is the founder of Algalita Marine Research, a non-profit organisation aiming to combat the "plastic plague" of garbage floating in the world's oceans. For more than 30 years, he has transported scientists to the centre of remote debris patches aboard his research ship, Alguita. Dragging nets behind the vessel, the crew sieves particles of plastic from the ocean, which are then counted and fed into estimates of global microplastic distribution. Although scientists agree that plastic pollution is a widespread problem, the exact distribution of these rafts of ocean garbage is still unclear. "If we don't understand where the plastic is, then we don't really understand what harm it does and we can't really work on solving the problem," said Dr van Sebille. Eating rubbish Capt Moore and his crew hope to address this lack of data through their research trips. On this latest voyage, Capt Moore and his colleagues are also investigating how plastic in the South Pacific Ocean may be threatening the survival of fish. Lanternfish, that live in the deep ocean, are an important part of the diet of whales, squid and king penguins and the Algalita team says that plastic ingestion by lanternfish could have a domino effect on the rest of the food chain. Christiana Boerger, a marine biologist in the US Navy, who has worked with the organisation, told BBC News that the problem of plastic consumption in fish can be "out of sight, out of mind". She explained that "scientists need to actually travel to these accumulation zones" in order to bring the issue to the world's attention. Ms Boerger has seen the impact of oceanic garbage patches first hand, aboard the Alugita and she says that some fish species "have more man-made plastic in their stomach than their natural food". Globally, most of the plastic that ends up in the oceans comes from the land. Litter is typically transported offshore by currents, which then form large revolving bodies of water, or gyres. But Capt Moore says the South Pacific garbage patch is different from those in the Northern Hemisphere, because most of the litter appears to have come from the fishing industry. Elsewhere, scientists are shifting their attention away from remote mid-ocean garbage patches to locations closer to home. "If you think about plastic in terms of its impact, where does it harm marine life?" Dr van Sebille posed. "Near coastlines is where biology suffers. It's also where the economy suffers the most." Dr van Sebille also says that future research efforts need to focus on ecologically sensitive regions along the continental shelf. Even though the garbage patches cover a very large area "they are not that ecologically important", he said. His team has previously studied the risk of plastics to marine animals, including turtles and sea birds. "Every time, we found that the risk is mostly outside of the garbage patches," he warned. In the future, Dr van Sebille hopes to understand more about how plastic ends up on the coastline and is then subsequently transported to the oceans by storms. Interrupting this process might be an important mechanism for halting the growth of ocean garbage patches. "A beach clean-up might turn out to be a very efficient way of cleaning up the ocean," he suggests. In the meantime, humanity's love affair with plastic is unlikely to end soon. Plastic "will never be the enemy", concedes Capt Moore, "It has too many uses". He explained that plastic pollution travels across national borders, so dealing with it required international collaboration. |
A full meeting of Aberdeen City Council on the future of Union Terrace Gardens has been delayed. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A row had developed between the Labour-led administration and the SNP opposition over the timing of the meeting. Labour want to overturn the decision of a referendum to approve the multi-million pound City Garden Project. A meeting to sort out the issue has been postponed from June until 22 August. |
Illegal off-road biking is damaging important wildlife habitats in the Lake District, say Cumbria Police. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
They have issued warnings to motorcyclists that their activity is not only illegal and dangerous but causing damage to agricultural land. Local trail bike groups are backing the warning in order to continue organised events in the area. A National Park spokesperson said it would "not be tolerated" and they would take action against offenders. Related Internet Links Cumbria Constabulary |
Yemen is fast descending into a violent cauldron where the competing interests of Shia Houthi rebels, Sunni tribes, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states, Iran, al-Qaeda and now Islamic State are forming a toxic mix. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Frank GardnerBBC security correspondent The situation has got so bad that the US and UK have closed their embassies and evacuated their staff, while Gulf Arab countries have moved theirs to the southern city of Aden. The Houthis are closing in on Aden, which controls the entrance to the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which about 20,000 ships pass annually. The city is also the base of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who has called for military intervention by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), including the imposition of a no-fly zone, while few people hold out much hope for the promised peace talks in Qatar. So, is Yemen about to embroil the region in a wider war? Sectarian strife At its heart, the current conflict in Yemen is one between the rebels and what remains of the elected Yemeni government. The Houthis are Shia, from the Zaidi sect. They are opposed not just by the government they have ousted but also by Yemen's many Sunni tribes. But above all, they are opposed by the jihadists of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State, who consider Shia heretics. On 20 March, IS marked its violent debut in the country with four suicide bomb attacks at mosques popular with Houthi supporters, killing more than 130 worshippers. The Houthis come from the far north of Yemen and have little popular support in most of the rest of the country. But they are effective fighters who seized the capital last September (having said they would not) and they are getting a lot of help from some quarters. The powerful former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is widely reported to be backing them, determined to make Yemen ungovernable by his successor, the UN-backed President Hadi. Iran is also alleged to be supporting the Houthis. The rebels officially deny this, but senior figures have been seen in Iran's holy city of Qom and there are unconfirmed reports of Iranian pilots flying Yemeni planes. All this is enough to seriously rattle the Saudis, who woke up too late to the prospect of a pro-Iranian rebel movement taking over their southern neighbour. The Saudis, who conducted air strikes against the Houthis on their common border in 2010, say they will not allow Iran "to sow sectarian strife in the region" and have vowed to back Yemen's beleaguered president. Saudi Arabia is still in the process of building a massive border fence with Yemen and is now bolstering its naval base at the southern Red Sea port of Jizan. Proxy war fears "The Saudi military preparation," says security analyst Aimen Deen from the think tank Five Dimensions, "signals, along with the increasing diplomatic efforts, Saudi Arabia's intent to stop the Houthis controlling the Bab al-Mandab strait. "The pressing question is whether the Royal Saudi Air Force will intervene to prevent Aden from falling to the Houthis. All indications are that the Saudis are preparing militarily to answer this question, but the political decision is not yet taken." Put bluntly, Yemen is in enough trouble with the ongoing fight between its own citizens. If Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states get drawn in one side, and Iran on another, the conflict risks getting exponentially worse. "The looming danger is seeing Yemen merely as a proxy war between the Gulf Co-operation Council states and Iran," says Jon Altman, Middle East programme director at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. "Iran is clearly giving some support to the Houthis, but over the last 10 years that support has been limited and slow to arrive. "There are no indications that the government of Iran sees Yemen as a strategic priority. If the proxy war route is pursued, the conflict is likely to rage for years." 'No exit strategy' Yemen is no stranger to outside interference. In the civil war of the 1960s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser sent his country's air force to support the Republicans against the Royalists, dropping chemical weapons from the air. Aden and its adjacent provinces were British protectorates until the British withdrawal in 1967. South Yemen was then ruled by communists with Soviet backing, and the Russians established bases there. In the civil war of 1994, Saudi Arabia allegedly supported the Southerners as they tried, unsuccessfully, to break away from the North. And for the last 20 years, the US military has maintained a small and discreet military presence in the country, mostly training and advising on counter-terrorism, a presence which has now ended in an abrupt withdrawal after al-Qaeda fighters overran a town close to the base used by US Special Forces. "The real danger of the civil war," says a senior Western official who asked not to be named, "is that of outside players getting involved." But outside powers will be thinking carefully before committing themselves to military intervention in Yemen. It is an expensive, difficult country for anyone to wage war in, the battle lines are blurred and there is no clear exit strategy for either side. |
Pete Shelley, lead singer of influential 70s punk band Buzzcocks, has died aged 63 of a suspected heart attack. The band are best known for their hit, Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've). | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Born Peter Campbell McNeish in Leigh, near Wigan, Shelley formed Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto while studying in Bolton. Impressed by the Sex Pistols' high-energy performances, they brought the band to Manchester. The Manchester gigs inspired a generation of bands from the city and Buzzcocks went on to support the Pistols on their 1976 Anarchy tour. The band's debut EP, Spiral Scratch - which they raised cash to record - is credited with being the first independently-funded punk record. The record proved hugely popular and Buzzcocks' stock rose even as Devoto quit the group, leaving Shelley to take over lead vocals. The band was signed by United Artists Records, releasing debut album Another Music in a Different Kitchen in 1977 and coming to the attention of TV audiences on Top of the Pops a year later. Buzzcocks performed and recorded prolifically and by 1979 had racked up enough singles for a collection to be released in the US. The band toured the US and Canada but, despite impressing critics, were met by underwhelming record sales. Finding himself in dispute with EMI, which bought out Buzzcocks' label, Shelley broke up the band. Shelley pursued a solo career, introducing more experimental electronic music into his repertoire, and had a club hit with Homosapien. But by the end of the 80s, Buzzcocks had reformed. They went on to win over a new generation of fans when joining Nirvana on the grunge act's final tour in 1994. The band had released its final LP, The Way, in 2014. Through various line-up changes, Shelley continued to perform with Buzzcocks and is pictured below at Sounds of the City, at Manchester's Castlefield Bowl, in July. |
Let's talk about Scotland's new fiscal framework. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Andrew BlackBBC Scotland News Okay, okay but before you nod off, it is worth pointing out this is a vital issue which goes to the heart of new powers for Scotland. The Scotland Bill, currently making its way through Westminster, stands to transform Holyrood into one of the world's most powerful devolved parliaments - or so we're told by the UK government. Edinburgh is on course to gain major new tax and welfare powers - but that's currently being overshadowed by a debate about whether it can be done fairly. Barnett barney At the moment, most of Scotland's £30bn annual budget is funded by the UK Treasury - known as the block grant - and the amount of cash which goes into the pot is worked out under the Barnett Formula. Once Holyrood gets more power to raise its own tax money, the amount of Barnett cash which comes north of the border will be cut. Year One of these powers is straightforward enough - if you get £10bn worth of cash-raising powers, £10bn is then deducted from the block grant. But things start getting complicated in future years, where tax policy in Scotland and the rest of the UK could begin to look very different. Potential options The Smith Commission, set up by UK ministers to agree which new powers should be transferred from Westminster to Scotland, said the final agreement shouldn't put Scotland at a disadvantage. It's been called the "no detriment" rule - but some experts argue that's a near impossible task. Economist Prof David Bell, said: "You have to have detriment. "If you are taking on new powers, then you take on the risk that something goes wrong in the economy and you don't get the tax revenues that you expected. "You cannot have a situation where, under all states of the world, things will be no worse than they would be under the current Barnett Formula." Prof Bell, of Stirling University, has co-authored a report by the IFS economic think tank, which has looked at various ways of adjusting the block grant. Each has its pros and cons - and getting your brain around the economic theory isn't easy. But three different options for working out how to cut the block grant have emerged: Getting it right is crucial. The economist and Glasgow University Principal Anton Muscatelli has warned a bad deal could leave Scotland hundreds of millions of pounds worse off within a few years. 'Messy fudge' The UK and Scottish governments are committed to keeping the Barnet Formula - which partly allocates money based on population - despite much debate over the years on replacing it. The political scientist, Prof Michael Keating, has a view on the ultimate outcome - and because politicians are involved, you've probably heard this one before. "It will be a political compromise - it always is," said the Aberdeen University academic, adding: "They'll get something in between and then they'll give it a name, like the Barnett Formula. "A lot of people said we should have a formula based on need, and you raise some of your own revenue. "But politicians have shied away from that one, and they're going to back away from it this time, because they'll never find it easy to agree what that formula should be. "So we'll get a messy fudge." And time is now running out. Talks to agree Scotland's new funding deal, being conducted behind closed doors between the Scottish and UK governments, have so far not produced a result. However, everything needs to be wrapped up well ahead of the Scottish Parliament election in May. Without a proper fiscal framework, there remains a question mark over the prospect of Holyrood getting new financial powers. |
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