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There's been a great deal of coverage of a study this week that suggested that women feel temperature differently in workplaces from men. Is there an explanation for why men and women might feel comfortable at different room temperatures, asks Chris Stokel-Walker. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Who, What, WhyThe Magazine answers the questions behind the news A study by two Dutch scientists has offered an answer to the longstanding question many office workers ask come summer - why when some men in the office are reaching for the air conditioning, are some women slipping on cardigans? According to the paper, women feel the cold more readily - one small sample test the researchers carried out suggests that women are comfortable at a temperature 2.5C warmer than men - between 24-25C. According to Prof Paul Thornalley, of Warwick Medical School, variation in average metabolic rate and body heat production between men and women "may explain why there is a difference in environmental temperature required for comfort between males and females". The body's metabolism is responsible for growth and the production of energy, including heat. Resting metabolic rate is the minimal rate of energy expenditure per unit of time while we are at rest, calculated through a standard set of equations. On average women have a lower metabolic rate than men. "A great determinant of resting metabolic rates is the fat free body mass in people's bodies," says Thornalley - accounting for around 60% of the individual difference in men and women's resting metabolic rates. Because men have more fat free body mass - all the components of the body like skin, bones and muscle, but excluding fat - than women, they have a higher resting metabolic rate. Major body organs, including the liver, brain, skeletal muscle, kidneys and heart are where most energy is consumed. Non-movement production of heat - where energy is expended outside of active exercise - occurs in the body in "brown fat", according to Thornalley. Humans have two types of fat - white fat, a store of excess calories, and brown fat, which generates heat. Brown fat produces heat involuntarily through a process called thermogenesis. It is regulated by the thyroid hormone and the nervous system, and may account for further variation of resting metabolic rate, particularly in men. (Babies have higher levels of brown fat than adults to stave off hypothermia while young.) This higher proportion of body mass which is able to produce heat involuntarily means that on average men don't feel the cold as easily as women - and, in sultry summer months, means they have a lower tolerance for hot weather because their bodies produce more heat at a resting metabolic rate, getting warmer quicker. But, as Thornalley is quick to point out, not every person is the same. Some men have lower metabolic rates than some women, and so in some cases it may be Dave on reception reaching for a jumper more readily than Ellie in the boardroom. Some people also have suggested less scientific reasons for the general gender divide over the air-con - while some women wear light dresses in August, some men are stuck in stuffy suits. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
A council has appealed for photographs from Storm Eleanor to help improve its new flood warning system. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Dumfries and Galloway was hit by winds gusting up to 77mph and significant coastal problems last week. The local authority has asked the public to send in images of the flooding experienced at the time. It said that would help improve its warning system by using evidence of "what actually happened" across south west Scotland. Anybody with photographs has been asked to send them to the council with details of when and where they were taken. |
Guernsey's government has agreed a new "open skies" policy, meaning airlines will no longer need an air transport licence to fly to and from the island. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
There are still two protected routes which will still require licences, with Alderney and Gatwick being classified as "lifeline routes". There are only four airlines operating in and out of Guernsey, one of which has suspended flights until September. The decision was voted through by 22 votes to 14. More on this and other Guernsey stories Licensing has previously been strictly regulated to preserve valuable landing slots at UK airports as well as ensuring service levels. |
It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a document, here published for the first time, reveals the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jon KellyBBC News Magazine All the ingredients of a gripping spy thriller are there - intrigue, espionage, lies and black propaganda. An elaborate British wartime plot succeeded in convincing Hitler that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast - a diversion that proved crucial in guaranteeing the invasion's success. An intercepted memo - which has only now come to light - picked up by British agents and decoded by experts at Bletchley Park - the decryption centre depicted in the film Enigma - revealed that German intelligence had fallen for the ruse. The crucial message was sent after the D-Day landings had started, but let the Allies know the Germans had bought into their deception and believed the main invasion would be near Calais. It was an insight that saved countless Allied lives and arguably hastened the end of the war. Now archivists at the site of the code-breaking centre hope that a new project to digitise and put online millions of documents, using equipment donated by electronics company Hewlett-Packard, will uncover further glimpses into its extraordinary past. Behind the story of this crucial message and its global impact lies Juan Pujol Garcia, an unassuming-looking Spanish businessman who was, in fact, one of the war's most effective double agents. The Nazis believed Pujol, whom they code named Alaric Arabel, was one of their prize assets, running a network of spies in the UK and feeding crucial information to Berlin via his handler in Madrid. In fact, the Spaniard was working for British intelligence, who referred to him as Garbo. Almost the entirety of his elaborate web of informants was fictitious and the reports he sent back to Germany were designed, ultimately, to mislead. But agent Garbo was so completely trusted at the top level of the Nazi high command that he was honoured for his services to Germany, with the approval of Hitler himself, making him one of the few people to be given both the Iron Cross and the MBE for his WWII exploits. "He was no James Bond - he was a balding, boring, unsmiling little man," says Amyas Godfrey, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. "But he had the Germans completely fooled. They thought the information he was sending was so accurate." To maintain his cover, much of what Garbo fed the Germans was absolutely genuine. But when it came to the looming Allied invasion of France, his "intelligence" was anything but. Ahead of D-Day, the British launched Operation Fortitude, a plot to confound the Nazis about the location of the landings. Garbo was an integral part of the plan. To establish his credibility, he sent advance warning ahead of the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 - but too late for the Germans to act on it. Then, in the days afterwards, he fed them entirely fictitious intelligence from his fake "agents" that the invasion had been a red herring and "critical attacks" would follow elsewhere - most likely down the coast in Pas de Calais. He also reported, again falsely, that 75 divisions had been massed in England before D-Day, meaning that many more were still to land in France. It was an account the Nazis took extremely seriously. As can be seen in the document reproduced by the BBC, it was transmitted to their high command by Garbo's German handler. As a result, German troops were kept in the Calais area in case of an assault, preventing them from offering their fullest possible defence to Normandy. But what truly gave the Allies the edge was the fact that they knew the Nazis had been duped. Unknown to Berlin, the Germans' seemingly foolproof Enigma code for secret messages had been cracked by Polish code breakers. In Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, some 10,000 men and women were employed deciphering the messages. And when the document above was cracked, the Allies knew they could press forward in the confidence that thousands of German troops would be tied up vainly standing guard at Calais. "The whole of the 20th Century might have been very different if it wasn't for this," says Kelsey Griffin, Bletchley Park's director of museum operations. "Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, said it was difficult to imagine how the D-Day landings could have happened without Bletchley Park. "We had an army of unarmed intellectuals here." The intercepted document - in its original, freshly-released, German language version - is all the more extraordinary for having been found by volunteers digging through Bletchley Park's archives. One of them, retired civil servant Peter Wescombe, 79, recalls the excitement of realising its significance for the first time. "It was like turning up a crock of gold," he remembers. "It was absolutely wonderful." It is a find archivists at the site, run by the Bletchley Park Trust, hope will be repeated after HP donated scanners and experts to provide technical expertise to the digitisation project. Many of the records at the centre have not been touched for years, and the charity hopes that by putting them online in a searchable format they can "crowdsource" the expertise of historians and amateurs alike. And surely then many more real-life tales of deception, double-crosses and painstaking effort will emerge. |
"I heard my mam shout my name. You know when someone shouts your name and it frightens you? I ran downstairs and there's my dad on the couch, blacked out, blue lips, blue ear lobes, his fingers - everything. I thought: 'Right, that's CPR time'." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Aaron Groves, from Liverpool, was 15 when his dad David suffered a cardiac arrest. His quick thinking saved David's life. CPR is when you press up and down on a casualty's chest and give them a series of breaths to help pump blood around their body when their heart can't. To mark the British Heart Foundation's Restart a Heart Day, both Aaron and David have spoken to Radio 1 Newsbeat about what happened. Aaron: He wasn't breathing, so I rang 999, dragged him down to the floor and started doing chest compressions on him. I'd had some informal training at the scouts and an NHS day in Liverpool with school a couple of years before. But I didn't know I could do it. I'd never practised. It was like an emotionless experience. I was speaking to the operator and he did talk me through it. After four minutes of doing chest compressions, the ambulance actually arrived. They got the defibrillator out. After about four blasts on that we got a heartbeat. David: I woke up in hospital, I had complete memory loss for a week. I felt very proud of Aaron really. Aaron: I actually wrote him a letter for when he woke up as the doctor said he might have some short-term memory loss. It just explained why he was there. It helped my dad and his recovery throughout the week, to try and get his head round it. It's really hard for him to understand. One minute you're on the couch, next minute you're in hospital with no clue why you're there. David: For me it was when I woke up and saw that note. Even now, when it gets read out, it sends a shiver down my back. In some respects I felt very emotionally traumatised. Waking up in hospital and learning I had complete memory loss for a week. I have a very special relationship with Aaron that's unique. I had no idea he had those CPR skills. In some respects that's what made me even more emotional. Had he not had those skills, I wouldn't still be here. Aaron: I think it's been strange for my dad to get over it. During the events he had no recollection of why he was there for a good two weeks. It's only when we got back to the house and he got his memory back that we learnt to deal with that emotion and trauma. It has brought us closer together afterwards. David: We've always had this wonderful relationship even before what happened. A lot of the things that have happened to me afterwards have been quite unusual. Having an internal defibrillator fitted and learning the psychological aspect of that. I've turned it round from being a negative to being a positive. Aaron's been a great inspiration for that. I was also surprised by his knowledge. He explains things to me. It just stunned me that he knew what he did and I can't get over it really. It's an amazing thing to be with him. Aaron: The way I looked at it was, if I do nothing he's no better but if I do something he might be better. That's my advice. If you do nothing they're not going to get better, but if you do something hopefully they will. So even if you don't know CPR, call an ambulance and they will tell you on the phone. You've just got to do it. It's a matter of life and death. For more information about CPR and Restart a Heart Day click here Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here. |
The England men's team has qualified for the World Twenty20 cricket final. Throughout the tournament, the flashing stumps have drawn plenty of interest from spectators. But how do they actually work, ask Harry Low and Hannah Sander. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Who, What WhyThe Magazine answers the questions behind the news Those watching this year's World Twenty20 cricket tournament will probably have noticed that the stumps and the bails, known as a wicket, sometimes start flashing a luminous red. Traditionally stumps and bails are made from wood, but the new flashing wickets are made from a composite plastic, which are embedded with LED lights. The use of flashing wickets in international matches was approved by the International Cricket Council in July 2013, and since then they have been used in hundreds of domestic and international matches. Flashing stumps add to the excitement of one-day cricket but they also have a practical use. The rules of cricket say that a batsman is out if they are beyond their batting crease when the stumps are "broken" - that is, when the bails are knocked off the stumps. Both ends of the bail have to come apart from the stumps. However, it can be hard for an umpire to detect this in real time. However, with the new equipment, known as the Zing wicket system, the stumps and bails will flash the moment contact is broken. It was developed by Bronte Eckermann, a former Australian grade cricketer who was inspired by one of his daughter's toys, which was roughly the size of a cricket bail and contained LED lights. The bails are powered by hidden low voltage batteries. They each contain a microprocessor that detects when contact between the bails and the stumps has been broken. The bails are illuminated within 1/1000th of a second. "They can be vibrated, knocked, rained upon, but will only flash when both ends are completely dislodged from the stumps," explains Eckermann. The microprocessors then send a radio signal to the stumps which also light up. Flashing bails might have reprieved Indian captain MS Dhoni in a Test against England in 2006. He was given out because it was unclear to the umpires whether he had been safely behind the crease at the moment the ball hit the wicket, knocking the stumps to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars have been spent developing the technology, turning the humble wooden stumps and bails into an expensive set of equipment. This means that the sight of players clutching stumps after victory could become a thing of the past. Follow Harry Low @harrylow49 and Hannah Sander @hsander365 on Twitter Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
A 15-year-old boy has been stabbed in the leg during an attack in a street. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The victim was taken to hospital after he was found injured in Ratcliffe Road, Loughborough, at about 04:40 BST on Sunday. The road, as well as Glebe Street and Burder Street, has been cordoned off to allow officers to carry out an examination of the area. Two men, aged 24 and 29, have been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Related Internet Links Leicestershire Police |
Think of coffee and you will probably think of Brazil, Colombia, or maybe Ethiopia. But the world's second largest exporter today is Vietnam. How did its market share jump from 0.1% to 20% in just 30 years, and how has this rapid change affected the country? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Chris SummersBBC News When the Vietnam war ended in 1975 the country was on its knees, and economic policies copied from the Soviet union did nothing to help. Collectivising agriculture proved to be a disaster, so in 1986 the Communist Party carried out a U-turn - placing a big bet, at the same time, on coffee. Coffee production then grew by 20%-30% every year in the 1990s. The industry now employs about 2.6 million people, with beans grown on half a million smallholdings of two to three acres each. This has helped transform the Vietnamese economy. In 1994 some 60% of Vietnamese lived under the poverty line, now less than 10% do. "The Vietnamese traditionally drank tea, like the Chinese, and still do," says Vietnam-based coffee consultant Will Frith. Vietnamese people do drink it - sometimes with condensed milk, or in a cappuccino made with egg - but it's mainly grown as an export crop. Coffee was introduced to Vietnam by the French in the 19th Century and a processing plant manufacturing instant coffee was functioning by 1950. This is how most Vietnamese coffee is consumed, and is partly why about a quarter of coffee drunk in the UK comes from Vietnam. British consumers still drink a lot more of that than of fancy coffees, such as espressos, lattes and cappuccinos. High-end coffee shops mainly buy Arabica coffee beans, whereas Vietnam grows the hardier Robusta bean. Arabica beans contain between 1% to 1.5% caffeine while Robusta has between 1.6% to 2.7% caffeine, making it taste more bitter. There is a lot more to coffee, though, than caffeine. "Complex flavour chemistry works to make up the flavours inherent in coffee," says Frith. "Caffeine is such a small percentage of total content, especially compared to other alkaloids, that it has a very minute effect on flavour." Some companies, like Nestle, have processing plants in Vietnam, which roast the beans and pack it. But Thomas Copple, an economist at the International Coffee Organization in London, says most is exported as green beans and then processed elsewhere, in Germany for example. While large numbers of Vietnamese have made a living from coffee, a few have become very rich. Take for example multi-millionaire Dang Le Nguyen Vu. His company, Trung Nguyen Corporation, is based in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon - but his wealth is based in the Central Highlands around Buon Ma Thuot, the country's coffee capital. Chairman Vu, as he is nicknamed, owns five Bentleys and 10 Ferraris and Forbes magazine assessed him to be worth $100m (£60m). That's in a country where the average annual income is $1,300 (£790). The expansion of coffee has also had downsides, however. Agricultural activity of any kind holds hidden dangers in Vietnam, because of the huge numbers of unexploded ordnance remaining in the ground after the Vietnam War. In one province, Quang Tri, 83% of fields are thought to contain bombs. Environmentalists also warn that catastrophe is looming. WWF estimates that 40,000 square miles of forest have been cut down since 1973, some of it for coffee farms, and experts say much of the land used for coffee cultivation is steadily being exhausted. Vietnamese farmers are using too much water and fertiliser, says Dr Dave D'Haeze, a Belgian soil expert. "There's this traditional belief that you need to do that and nobody has really been trained on how to produce coffee," he says. "Every farmer in Vietnam is the researcher of his own plot." Some people from Vietnam's many ethnic minorities also say they have been forced off their land. But Chairman Vu says coffee has been good for Vietnam. He is now planning to set up an international chain of Vietnamese-style coffee shops. "We want to bring Vietnamese coffee culture to the world. It isn't going to be easy but in the next year we want to compete with the big brands like Starbucks," he says. "If we can take on and win over the US market we can conquer the whole world." Watch The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve on BBC Two at 20:00 GMT on Sunday or later on the iPlayer. |
A man from Cheltenham has been charged with the murder of Gloucester hairdresser Hollie Gazzard. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Asher Thomas Maslin, 22, of Gloucester Road in Cheltenham, will appear before magistrates in Cheltenham on Friday. Twenty-year-old Ms Gazzard was attacked at Fringe Benefits in Southgate Street - where she worked - at about 18:00 GMT on Tuesday. She later died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Mr Maslin was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning. |
A double suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine in the Pakistani city of Lahore has been described as part of a growing trend of attacks on some of the country's minority Islamic sects. But as the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan reports, there is a long and bloody history of sectarian attacks in the country. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rival sects have traditionally been the main targets for Punjabi jihadist organisations and their Taliban descendants. In particular, Pakistan's Shias have been in the cross hairs since the rise of jihadist Islam in Pakistan in the late 1980s. Hundreds of people, most of them Shia Muslims, died in the 1990s in attacks on mosques and processions. Most of the attacks were carried out by an organisation which is now regarded as the deadliest militant group in Pakistan - Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ). The group broke away to continue an armed struggle along the lines of its parent organisation, Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP). That group envisages Pakistan as a Deoband (a sect of Sunni Islam) state - in which all other Muslims sects are treated as minorities. In addition to Shias, those minorities include Sunni sects with roots in Sufi (mystical) Islam. The main argument between the Deobandis and the Sufis centres around worship at shrines, which for Sufis involves music and mystical dancing. The Deobandis, like the Wahhabi-inspired al-Qaeda, deem this to be heretical and a divergence from what they consider to be pure Islamic rituals. However, the SSP has always maintained that it has adopted a political and constitutional route to implement its vision. "We do not agree with anybody who takes up arms," Ahsan Farooqi, a SSP spokesman told me in Karachi recently. "Anyone who takes up arms is expelled from the organisation." Dangerous cadre In the initial years, the jihadists confined their attacks to the Shia and other minority communities. The primary reason was probably because Barelvi Islam - another Sunni sect - is practised by a majority of Pakistanis, although Deobandis have much state support. But this sectarian violence declined considerably after the 9/11 attacks - and the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The jihadis were chased out of their strongholds in Afghanistan - and were subsequently captured or killed by Pakistani security forces. In one blow the entire leadership was wiped out - but only for a younger and even more dangerous cadre to take charge. Men like Riaz Basra, the founder of LJ, were killed - while others like deputy head Akram Lahori were captured and imprisoned. But those who escaped were now beyond the control of their former masters in the Pakistani intelligence services. Their numbers rapidly gained strength after then-President Pervez Musharraf banned Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Kashmir-based militant group, in 2002. "That was a landmark moment in the jihadist movement," a security official told me recently. "The decision had been taken in effect to withdraw all state support for them. But cutting them loose basically did away with any influence we had over them. "That they continued to be militants should have come as no surprise - they knew nothing else," the official said. "There should have been some sort of a rehabilitation programme or something to integrate these angry young men into society. Nothing however was done. "Even those who were locked up were eventually released - and they became our most virulent opponents. "Now we have no idea who they are - and what they are thinking." This fact is attested by the SSP's Ahsan Farooqi - who argues that it was the actions of the security agencies that helped create the new breed of militants. "The agencies pick up our boys and torture them. When they are released, all they can think about is revenge," he said. "We do not condone their activities - but after such treatment what can you expect?" Non-Deobands targeted Post-9/11 though, most of the ire was reserved for the security agencies, which came under attack. But the olds hatreds have remained - and now appear to have increased. While Shias have always been treated as the primary enemy - the attacks on Ahmadis and Barelvi are by no means unusual. In fact, one of the biggest attacks on a religious ceremony post-9/11 was on a Barelvi conference in Karachi in April 2006. Over 70 people died in that attack, which investigators later said was carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Since then, almost all non-Deoband sects have been the target of suicide attacks. Thursday's attack is only the most recent in a series. Shrines have been blown up across Pakistan, especially in the northern Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province. Attacks on Shias, and other sects, have also increased across Punjab province. Dozens have been killed in attacks which continue in the southern port city of Karachi. In many ways it seems, the militants have come full circle. As rumours continue of a possible rapprochement with their old allies in the security forces, attacks on military installations have declined. Increasingly, Pakistan's jihadist militants have started returning to their roots. Flush with their new-found strength, the militants are turning their guns to their primary task - to fight the "heretics" within and purify the country. |
Theresa May's plans to begin formal Brexit talks with the EU by the end of March 2017 have been widely discussed by the press on the Continent. The papers expect difficult talks on "operation Great Divorce", wondering whether the British prime minister has a clear vision of what she wants to achieve. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The French conservative daily Le Figaro welcomed Mrs May's "firmness" on the issue of negotiations "that promise to be tough", in particular with regard to migration control and the single market. But Liberation said she had "set the bar extremely high" ahead of the lengthy talks with 27 EU member states. "By actually ruling out free movement, Theresa May appears to be heading towards what some call 'hard Brexit', which would mean a complete exit from single market," the paper said. The centre-left daily Le Monde is sure Mrs May is a "hard Brexit advocate, wrapped in the flag of a 'Global Britain' that will sever its ties with the EU". It welcomes the clarity she has brought to the process, but asks for more detail from both London and Brussels. "If Britain aims to be 'Singapore across the Channel', then World Trade Organisation rules will apply. But if London wants a deal, then the EU faces the challenge of devising a status that doesn't encourage other member-states to act like the British," and opt to leave, the editorial says. German Sueddeutsche Zeitung agreed the Conservatives were lacking "a common line on the forthcoming negotiations". "There are heated discussions even within the cabinet itself on whether the UK should renounce access to the EU single market in favour of stricter migration rules for EU citizens," it added. The Romanian paper Revista 22 said: "In the course of negotiations London is counting on getting unlimited access to the single European market, although it is reluctant to accept free movement of European workers." The Italian economic daily Il Sole 24 Ore asked: "Will London be ready for a reasonable exchange of the movement of workers for access to parts of the single market? "She appeared firm but also aware that these are the real crucial issues in the talks that the UK has decided to open sooner than expected." The "timetable for operation Great Divorce" came as a surprise to Rzeczpospolita, a leading Polish daily. It said no-one had expected any such moves before next year's elections in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy. "Until then the EU's most important capitals will not want to agree on any concessions for the British, because… their departure from the EU could boost support for the populists", Rzeczpospolita added. The Italian paper Corriere della Sera envisions a painful "separation of property like in any divorce". "Given the aggravating circumstance it will be very difficult… to disentangle the financial complexities of a very crowded marriage such as the European one is," it said. "London certainly does not want to make concessions and demands everything it deserves. Starting with wine and artwork. "It is not a joke. There are 42,000 bottles of fine wines, cognac and other spirits in the cellar of the European Commission. "Of all of this, the British negotiators demand their share. As is the case for the rich contemporary artwork collection of the European Parliament." Holger Steltzner, the editor of Germany's conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, agrees a hard Brexit will be painful - but for the EU rather than Britain. He warns that tariffs on British goods would "hit the EU harder, because of our larger budget deficits", and the City of London would still be competitive as the "world's greatest financial centre". He calls on the EU to explain "how it will deliver on its promises of prosperity, instead of watching Britain prove that a medium-sized country can succeed on its own in a globalised world" and possibly encourage other EU states to follow its example. Some East European media pick up on Home Secretary Amber Rudd's pledge to make firms do more to employ British people. Hungary's Index news site notes the large numbers of Hungarian workers that this may affect, and warns that "some people are already saying the government is making racism almost compulsory in Britain". BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. |
The modern family is getting a new member. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor More than a dozen firms are promoting new kinds of home robots at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. None are the human-like automatons of science-fiction. But they do point the way towards how domestic bots might evolve beyond the robo-vacuum. South Korea's Furo-i Home is one of the more advanced examples. It's a sleek-looking sensor-laden cone on wheels topped by a tablet that displays a friendly-looking animated droid's face. You can verbally instruct it to take control of internet-controlled smart devices - telling it to turn lights, music and heating on or off - use it as a teaching aid for your children, or take advantage of its health check software to help care for elderly relations. "The robot has many sensors, facial recognition and can detect the temperature," explains Se-Kyong Song, chief executive of its maker Futurebot. "You can set it to wake up an elderly parent, remind them to take their medicine, eat breakfast and follow the rest of a schedule. "And if something unexpected happens, it can send a message to the family saying there might be a problem and then let them talk to their parent via video chat to ask if they are OK." The machine is set to cost about $1,000 (£660) and Futurebot hopes to make and sell about 10,000 before the year's end. Those looking for a cheaper alternative might be interested in Ukrainian start-up Branto, which has just announced a crowdfunding campaign for a robotic sphere priced at $399. Although it lacks a screen of its own, it promises broadly similar functions, including the ability to send you a notification if its motion sensor is triggered when your house is supposed to be empty. There is one important caveat - at present the prototype's battery only lasts for about three hours before it stops providing most functions. "We are trying to make it longer, but the device is very small and we want to keep it looking nice," says Alexandra Barsukova, the start-up's business development director. Garden bot Most of the other robots at CES are focused on doing a more limited set of tasks - and that may be a wise strategy suggests Casey Nobile from the Robotics Trends news site. "It's very hard to make a robot do everything, like in the Jetsons analogy that everyone likes to refer to," she explains. "You're going to see advances in robots controlling other smart home tech via software before you see something like a machine with an arm that makes you coffee and delivers it to your bedroom, just because of the limitations with manipulation technology and the issues with battery life." Droplet is one example of a more specialist robot. The machine is an internet-connected sprinkler that can be set to propel different amounts of water to different plants in its surrounding area. "We can accurately target two plants less than 6in [15cm] away from each other and give them very different amounts of water," explains Steve Fernholz, the firm's founder. "And we take into account weather data, so if there's an 80% chance of a thunderstorm tonight it'll delay and wait to see if the rain actually falls." He believes most people will be more comfortable with such a device at this stage rather than an automaton wandering through their home. "It's not about when the technology is ready, it's when consumers feel comfortable enough about having a robot in their home. It's a very personal space. "That's why even with Droplet we tried to make it look inviting - not something you would feel apprehensive going up to or might give you anxiety." Specialist droids The brush-spinning Grillbot is another niche robot on show - its speciality: cleaning your barbecue after a cook-out. "It took over two years to come up with the algorithm to get it to run over every grill surface," notes Grillbot's chief executive Ethan Wood. "It runs the three motors in a pattern that looks random, but there's an organisation to the madness." Another bot, Budgee, is designed to help elderly and otherwise infirm owners shift heavy loads around their homes. "We have a transmitter that the owner carries or wears and it pairs with the robot," explains Nick Lynch, lead engineer at Five Elements Robotics. "Once they activate that and put it into follow mode it will follow the sensor wherever it sees it. "I have a co-worker whose father uses it to move a five gallon water bottle about the house, and it can be used for anything like that where you need an extra hand." Other specialist home robotics at CES include: High-five One final home robotics trend is machines designed to help kids learn how to code The latest entrant to an increasingly busy sector is Canada's Spin Master, which owns the rights to construction toy Meccano, and has just announced the Meccanoid. Kids can build and program a robot to move in certain ways, and record and playback voices. "I think it's a no-brainer," says the firm's marketing executive Tara Tucker. "Once you have built a robot that can pick up your soda pop, hit you over the head or high-five you, it's much more engaging that coding at a computer screen, and it will create future visionaries." Whether those visionaries go on to build the nanny/cleaner/security guard/companion/carer all-in-one droid that many envisage when you suggest a home robot is another matter. "Maybe in the very long-term that could happen," reflects Droplet's Mr Fernholz. "But if you look at something that's been around for over a hundred years like the vehicle - there's still no one device that transforms from an airplane to a car. "So, while I think an all-in-one homebot is theoretically possible, it would either be cost prohibitive or in the act of trying to make it do everything, it could end up doing everything poorly." Click here for more coverage from the BBC at CES 2015 |
It's hard to go anywhere in the world these days and not find that Top Gear has got there before you. The programme may have begun on regional television in the UK - but it's now viewed in pretty much every region of the globe, writes Daniel Silas Adamson. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The taxi was a beaten up Toyota with half a million kilometres on the clock and an amulet of the Virgin Mary twirling from the rear-view mirror. The driver was a Quechua Indian called Ricardo, who knew every bend in the Peruvian dirt roads around the old Inca city of Sayhuite and who, when he found out I was British, had just one question: "Who is the Stig?" It was not the first time I'd been reminded of Top Gear in some far-flung corner of the world. A few years earlier I pulled over at an outdoor roadside cafe in the Jordan Valley, not far from Jericho in the West Bank. It was late at night, but there were 20 or so Palestinian men sitting around a screen on plastic chairs, smoking shisha pipes and watching The Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. Almost a decade before that, I'd seen a handful of Indian men gathered under a corrugated tin roof in Dharavi, Mumbai's biggest slum, watching the programme on a TV set rigged illegally into the power cables that ran above the shacks. One of the men had already incurred the undisguised contempt of his wife, who was hard at work, but he seemed to think this was a price worth paying for an hour with Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson would surely have approved. The formula - a macho, wise-cracking, stunt-filled show, fronted by by three ageing men with questionable taste in denim and a proclivity for infantile jokes - seems to float effortlessly across barriers of language, culture, and social class. In Iran, where Top Gear is broadcast by BBC Persian TV (PTV), the voice actor who dubs Clarkson into Farsi, Mozaffar Shafeie, has become a star in his own right. When an episode of the programme was dropped in 2012 to make space for an interview with Hillary Clinton, the channel was bombarded with complaints from Iranian fans. "Hillary Clinton has got many things to say about Iran," said Clarkson afterwards. "You'd have thought that Iranians would have found this relatively interesting - more interesting than three fat old men falling over." The show's appeal in Iran, says Darius Bazargan, a British documentary maker, comes not just from the cars and the stunts but also from Clarkson's vivid turn of phrase. "He once described a gear shift as being 'as smooth as licking honey from a woman's naked body', and the producers take a lot of effort to get the translation right… you would never hear a phrase like that on Iranian state television." One of Bazargan's friends recently found, as I did in Peru, that for many people around the world Top Gear is now an emblem of the UK - as much or more than Manchester United or James Bond. On a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, he found there were two pressing issues people wanted to talk about after discovering they had a British guest: the chances of British military intervention against the jihadists, and their favourite episodes of Top Gear. And it's not just the men. Given that Clarkson has been fending off accusations of sexism for decades, it's surprising to find that some 40% of the show's viewers are women. "My wife also watches the programme, not just because of the cars but because it's a fantastically entertaining show," says Hormuzd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India magazine. "A lot of Indians, men and women, find Jeremy very amusing. He takes the mickey out of a lot of people, and I can see why some of them might get upset. But there's nothing below the belt, I don't think." Top Gear's executive producer, Andy Wilman, put it this way in an interview with CBS News a few years ago: "It's a journey into the male mind, which I believe, is a really, potentially very funny place - because let's face it, nothing happens there." And if this is true anywhere, it is true everywhere. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
My virtual bagels certainly started some real conversations. Our story questioning the value of "likes" on Facebook pages , and the contribution ads could make, got a lot of reaction - much of it cries of rage from the social media marketing industry. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter They pointed out - fairly enough - that my ad for my imaginary business VirtualBagel was poorly targeted. That may be true, although when I targeted it more precisely at the UK, the results proved very disappointing. And is poor targeting by advertisers any justification for getting them to pay for traffic from thousands of fake customers? Small businesses that have tried Facebook ads have been telling me of somewhat lacklustre results. One beer retailer who targeted his adverts carefully at UK beer lovers quickly got 600 new "likes", only to find that they were then completely inactive on his own website. "Like 600 wooden soldiers," he told me. But the social media marketing industry was also united in telling me that chasing after "likes" was no longer considered best practice. On another blog, someone came up with this line: "Any marketing director still chasing "'likes'... shouldn't be a marketing director." That message does not seem to have reached some major brands. Look at the Facebook page for BMW's Mini. A banner across the top trumpets: "3,000,000! Thanks to all our Mini Facebook fans!" But look at where those "likes" come from - the Mini page is most popular amongst 18- to 24-year-olds in Bangkok. Is that the campaign's target demographic? And who told brands that "likes" were a valuable currency in the first place? Err, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg. In a speech in London last year, she told the world that 50 million users liked a Facebook brand page every day. Still, various people wanted to tell me about their very successful Facebook campaigns, and the social network itself points to companies such as Asos and Ford which have seen good results. Someone got in touch last week to tell me how well the government "GREAT" campaign to promote Britain abroad had used Facebook. A number of "GREAT" Facebook pages have been set up: And so on, and in all they have now attracted nearly half a million likes. So who are these fans of our country and its products? The lead page is most popular amongst 18- to 24-year-olds in Rio de Janeiro - perhaps not the target market? - but the music page is hot in Hong Kong, which may be nearer the mark. But has the campaign delivered value for the taxpayer? I asked the Cabinet Office how much of the campaign's £37m marketing budget had been spent on Facebook ads. I was told that this could not be disclosed, but someone close to the campaign reckons £70,000 has been spent so far with the social network. If true, that works out at about 14p a "like", which sounds reasonable value - if the "likes" are real people delivering that new marketing buzzword, engagement. Which brings me back to VirtualBagel. I gained about 3,000 "likes" with no content and an advertising spend of £40, but the level of engagement on my page was close to zero. In other words, people weren't posting, or asking questions or even visiting the page at all. Since I stopped advertising and started adding real content, I've only added about 300 "likes", but the level of engagement has soared, with vibrant discussions about the value of Facebook ads, and many more people listed as actually visiting the page. Which chimes with what some other small businesses have told me - that Facebook can be a powerful way of having a conversation with your customers, but you don't necessarily need to pay for that. "Our free marketing tools can be really powerful," a Facebook executive told me last week. I'm sure that is true - but it may not be the best message for a business that needs to convince investors that more and more companies want to pay for its advertisements. |
Engineers in Somerset are working to restore access to Cheddar Gorge after last month's heavy rain and floods damaged roads in the area. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The B3135 - the winding, main route through the gorge - has been closed for nearly two weeks. Somerset County Council has said that until the road surface dries out repairs are impossible. Andrew Turner, highways manager said he had "not seen it like this, ever", during his time working at the council. "The trouble we've got here, is that where we've got flowing water there is no fix at this point in time," he added. "We've got areas of carriageway where the tarmac is gone [and] water's still flowing through it, and we can't make a repair." |
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder after a body was found in a former bank branch. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Police forced their way into the disused building on Commercial Street in Batley, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. The body, believed to be a man, was found at the scene by West Yorkshire Police officers. Two of those arrested have been released under investigation and the third has been bailed. The building was previously used by the Yorkshire Bank, but the branch closed in 2016. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. |
Chris Sims has been reappointed as Chief Constable of West Midlands Police for a further three years. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
His re-appointment means that he will the force's top job until the end of May 2017. The decision was announced by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones. Mr Sims took up the post in 2009. In 2010 he received the Queen's Policing Medal for distinguished service in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. The 54-year-old, who began his policing career in 1980, said he was "delighted at this great honour". The force currently has a workforce of around 13,500 staff. |
Campaigners say chicken meat needs better labelling. How much do people really know about the life of a chicken before it reaches their plate? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tom de CastellaBBC News Magazine A long, low, metal shed, fed by large plastic drums, pipes and chimneys - to the layman it looks like a small chemical plant. Hidden in the folds of the Peak District, it's an incongruous sight. The only hint that living things are housed inside is the pungent smell from the extractor fan - like a mixture of a pet shop and manure. The facility is not a paint or fertiliser factory. It is called Lower Farm and produces chickens. In a period of between 33 and 38 days, the chicks grow to an average weight of 2.2kg - ready to be slaughtered. Lower Farm, just outside Chesterfield, is not what most of us would think of as a farm. It is run by a poultry company called Applied Group, which operates two other farms. The chickens never go outside. Everything happens in four large sheds. The interiors of the sheds are continuously filmed and key statistics recorded - every litre the birds drink, every 10kg of feed that has been dispatched by the feeder mechanism, how much the birds weigh. Lower Farm produces 1.25 million chickens a year. Nearly all chicken meat eaten in the UK comes from a place like Lower Farm. "This intensive chicken farming goes on behind closed doors," says Dil Peeling, campaigns director at charity Compassion in World Farming (CWF) . "It's hidden from people. They still have this image of chickens scratching around in a farmyard." Free-range accounts for 5% and organic 1% of UK chicken production, according to the British Poultry Council. The remaining 94% comes from intensively reared birds. This is in stark contrast to eggs, where free-range and organic together make up 45% of UK production. Of the eggs bought in shops by consumers - as opposed to eggs used in processed food - free-range is now half of the market. Egg-buying habits have changed radically. Farmers respond to consumer demand and free-range eggs accounted for just 11% of production in 1994. Ten years ago it was still only 27%. There's been no such shift on meat chickens. It's not uncommon to see free-range eggs advertised in sandwiches. Pret A Manger uses them. But its chicken sandwiches are not free-range but "higher welfare" indoor-reared chicken. Egg production and chicken meat are separate industries. Since the 1950s two distinct chickens have been bred by the farming industry - laying hens for eggs and broiler chickens for meat. Sophisticated breeding means that every year a broiler chicken lives one day less to deliver the same weight of food, the RSPCA estimates. They may be separate industries, but why do so many more people buy free-range eggs than free-range chickens? CWF recently ran a 39-day campaign - the average lifespan of an intensive broiler - to call for a chicken's method of production to be clearly labelled. Cost is probably the main reason. There is a bigger price hike in free-range for chicken meat than for eggs. At Sainsbury's, breast fillets - the most commonly bought chicken - vary from £6.95 per kg for Basics fillet portions, to £12.99 for standard, to £14.95 for free-range, to £19 for organic free-range. Excluding the fillet portions, there is still a difference of almost £2 per kg between intensive and free-range, and more than £6 per kg between intensive and organic. Six Basics eggs cost 90p, while half-a-dozen free-range eggs cost £1.35 and organic £2. This means it costs 50% more for free-range eggs - a significant price hike. But because eggs are fairly cheap items, it perhaps doesn't seem so bad, just an extra 45p to go for free-range. Opting for free-range chicken breasts works out at £1.96 more expensive. "You've probably got to be quite committed to trade up for meat - not to mention affluent - but the difference in eggs isn't so painful to the pocket," says Richard Griffiths, director of policy at the British Poultry Council. Chicken statistics Sources: CWF, Defra In the egg industry, battery farming was so widely condemned that the practice was banned in January 2012. Some food commentators argue that consumers would not buy cheap chicken if they could see how it was produced. Much of the poultry industry is nervous about arranging visits to farm - few ever get to see inside chicken sheds. After prolonged dialogue with the British Poultry Council, a visit is finally arranged to Lower Farm. So what is it really like? In the outer buildings, the first door leads to the control room. Farmer David Speller points at a TV screen with multiple CCTV camera views. One shows the shed we're about to visit and lists key information that is constantly updated. There are 33,426 chickens inside. Until a day ago there had been 45,000 birds but 30% have been taken to slaughter. The remaining chickens are aged 34 days. The temperature is 23.8C, and 159,000 cubic metres of air are being passed through an hour. Push open the door and for a second it's not immediately apparent what the moving creamy white mass at your feet is. Then you make out the individual birds. The shed is huge - 100m long and 23m wide. In the soft light, a sea of chickens stretches as far as the eye can see. It's not the grim battery environment some might imagine. There's natural light coming in through windows on the sides of the shed. The chickens can move around. Their constant chatter is calm and rather soothing. As we walk through, the chickens part slowly. There's no sense of panic or discomfort. They give you a few feet of space then carry on with what they're doing - sitting, milling around, eating or drinking. The ground is soft - a mix of sawdust and faeces. Underneath that is concrete and below that underfloor heating. It's incredibly efficient. Each shed has seven cycles of chickens a year, producing about 310,000 birds each. During rearing, some 3.3% of the total birds die of natural causes. After each cycle the chicken faeces and sawdust has to be cleaned out and the whole place disinfected. The shed is divided into aisles, about two or three metres apart, of automated feeders and drinkers, giving the birds constant access to feed pellets and water. At one point there's a loud clanking as the feeders are restocked - the chickens rush forward and cluck louder. They eat more when the feed trays have been topped up, says Speller. It is only after 10 minutes or so that the smell becomes uncomfortable - catching in the throat. It's the ammonia from the chicken faeces. Later I'll notice that my clothes are suffused with the smell of chicken faeces even though I was wearing overalls in the shed. The shed is ventilated to prevent dangerous levels of gases. Speller and his colleague say they are used to it. "We've monitored levels of ammonia, CO2 and other gases and actually it isn't very high," says Speller. "But it is a different type of smell." There are just a few gaps between the chickens. That's after 30% of the birds have been removed in the past 24 hours, so it must be crowded when full. It's legal though. The maximum allowed under EU rules is 42kg/sq m of chicken. The UK sets a stricter limit of 39kg/sq m and the Red Tractor scheme followed by 90% of intensive chicken farms states that farmers must not exceed 38kg/sq m. With the average chicken being slaughtered at about 2.2kg that equates to roughly 17 chickens per square metre. What labelling means Speller says he operates at 36kg/sq m. It's only at the end when the chickens are almost ready for the plate that space becomes tight, he says. In any case, they are used to it, he says. "It's all they've known." And to be fair, they don't look unduly bothered. The sun is shining outside - is he not tempted to let them out for a wander? He laughs. The birds wouldn't survive most of the year on the Derbyshire hills, he says. Genetically some free-range birds are not that different, he says, although their ability to peck around in the dirt may give them a different taste. "If it's outside eating worms, spiders, ladybirds and beetles it may well taste different," he says. Indoor birds cannot be fed animal protein. But it just isn't realistic to let animals loose like this if you want efficient production, he says. "Can we produce a nutritious animal protein meal on your plate for £3.50 or £4 a bird that will feed four people and probably do you a sandwich the next day? To do that and not have this level of control and sophistication is near impossible." As a farmer you have to know what they're eating and drinking, be monitoring their health, and protect them from bugs and bacteria outside, he says. The margins are so tight now. His predecessor at the farm could pay for a barn in two cycles worth of chickens. The cycles were twice as long then, he adds. Now it takes Speller 60 cycles. The price of chicken is far lower and the cost of the hi-tech sheds much higher. Chicken is big business. The US writer Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals, points out that animal protein has never been cheaper. Americans now eat 150 times as many chickens as they did 80 years ago. If China and India catch up with US consumption, the number of intensively reared birds will reach 100 billion a year. In the UK, chicken is about 46% of the protein consumed by the average person. More than half (55%) of chicken is sold as breast, 25% as whole birds and the rest - thighs, drumsticks, wings and mince - is 20%. Tom Wornham, a poultry farmer in Hertfordshire, says people have unrealistic expectations. "How on earth are we going to get protein on the plate unless we do it in an organised fashion?" His chickens have to reach a weight of either 1.9kg or 2.4kg in a period of 49 days. He uses a stocking density of 32kg of chicken per square metre - about 15 chickens by the time they are slaughtered. He provides bales of straw and pecking objects for the chickens - not a legal requirement. He has a mortality rate of 2.5% and says it's awful having to collect the dead birds. But he doesn't believe the system is cruel. "As an industry we have to compromise on what's ideal and what is practical to feed the nation," he says. He could use slower-growing birds but doubts there is a huge demand for it. "Would you be happy to pay double the amount so the chicken can live twice as long?" he says. In the UK, high-profile campaigns led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have backed free-range chicken, but consumption is still very low. Last year a survey of European consumers suggested that two-thirds of them wanted poultry to get the same kind of labelling as eggs. But consumers don't always practise what they preach, especially when presented with a £3 chicken. American writer Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, has written that "eating industrial meat takes an almost heroic act of not knowing, or, now forgetting". Deep down, he appears to suggest, most people prefer not to know. Some think the problem is one of language. The formulation "pink slime" severely damaged the "lean beef trimmings" industry in the US. It was only in 2004 when the European Commission made it mandatory to label eggs as coming from "caged hens", that battery chickens fell out of favour - they have now been banned. "I'd like to put words like 'industrial' and 'indoors' on the label," says Compassion in World Farming's Peeling. At the moment it's common to see chicken in the UK labelled "farm fresh" or "premium chicken" - terms that even the British Poultry Council admits have no meaning. In the US the situation is worse, he says - one company trumpets its cage-free chicken, which is "ludicrous because no poultry meat is kept in cages". Food writer Joanna Blythman believes that most consumers wouldn't eat an intensively produced chicken if they saw how the bird was reared. The smell, the crowding, the genetic speeding-up of a bird's life, the breast-heavy breeds - there are many things that upset people about intensive poultry. But because they are unaware, they follow a "safety in numbers philosophy", she argues. The attitude is: "If this is the normal thing then it must be fine. I don't want to think too much about it." Consumers need to assume that unless high welfare standards are on the label, it will be factory farmed, she says. Speller is one of the few intensive broiler farmers to welcome visits and is passionate about opening up chicken sheds to journalists and the public. "It's not something everyone sees. There should be more of it, there should be more school trips to farms. Let the consumer decide." But he acknowledges that there are contradictions, and questions whether people want to know how their Sunday roast was reared. But one thing people do want to think about is price. He says that there was a 5% decline in fresh poultry sales in January-May this year when production costs rose. "It's very price sensitive," he concludes. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
Guernsey's housing minister has admitted more could be done to help first-time buyers - but said it was not a priority for his department. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It follows a call for a subsidy on stamp duty from Dean De La Rue, a local mortgage lender. He said the burden of legal fees prevented people from getting on to the property ladder. Deputy Dave Jones said his department recognised the problem and would try to improve the situation in the future. He said: "It has never been easy to buy a house in Guernsey, it's always been expensive because we live in an island that has very little unemployment and it's a place where people want to live. "We will have to look at it and see what we can do more to help youngsters, but at the moment our job at housing is to level up the playing field and make sure that all tenures of housing are available to all people." |
Aberdeen Airport is rebranding itself as Aberdeen International. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The change comes after the terminal's parent company dropped the name BAA and allowed its individual airports to operate more independently. It is hoped the new title will help the airport's drive to expand its roster of destinations - particularly for holidaymakers. Airport managing director Derek Provan said: "This is an exciting time for the airport and for our customers." He added: "We have been successful in recent years in introducing new international routes to Aberdeen, and will continue to strive to do so." |
It's an unusual sort of speech. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Nick RobinsonPolitical editor This morning David Cameron says, in effect: "I'm in charge of the country. I have already promised radical welfare cuts which have yet to be implemented or examined for their impact but here's the sort of thing I'd want to do in three years time if you re-elect me without the need to rely on those pesky Liberals - but don't push me on the details yet." So, why is he doing it? There will be many theories, but here's just a few. It cheers up Tories in the week they're being asked to stomach Lib Dem plans to reform the Lords without a referendum; it gives Conservatives a way to highlight what they'd do if only they could; it helps get the Tory press back on side after the so-called omnishambles Budget and it poses real problems for Labour just as the housing benefit cap did. There is, though, one reason above all others which the Westminster village too easily forgets and is the key to all the rest - it's popular. A recent YouGov poll for Prospect magazine suggested a startling 74% of the public - including 59% of Labour voters and 51% of those on the lowest incomes (below £10,000) - thought that welfare payments should be cut. The most popular cuts are for, you guessed it, the unemployed and never-married single parents. The least popular cuts are for the elderly. The prime minister is using his position to spark a debate which he already knows he's won. Asked about the specifics he will, no doubt, do as Iain Duncan Smith did this morning and say "these are the details... that's the challenge... we'll have to be careful ...etc" One important note. David Cameron was careful to say - in the advance text we've seen so far - that he'd keep his promise to pensioners not to means-test their benefits, but Iain Duncan Smith made it absolutely clear that that promise lasts just for this Parliament - in other words not for the period the speech is talking about. |
The Treaty of Versailles, signed exactly a century ago, reshaped Europe in the wake of World War One. So why, within its many hundreds of clauses, does the treaty refer to the decapitated head of an African anti-colonial hero? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Damian ZaneBBC News Chief Mkwawa's skull now sits on a plinth, protected by a glass box, in a tiny museum in a small town in central Tanzania. But like a trophy, it once adorned the house of a colonial official in Germany's administrative centre in Bagamoyo, before being spirited away to Germany at some point at the beginning of the 20th Century. The skull was used as a symbol to intimidate the Wahehe people, who the chief had led in a fierce rebellion against the German colonisers. So successful was his campaign in the 1890s that a bounty was put on his head by the Germans. He is believed to have eventually taken his own life in 1898, rather than submit to the humiliation of being captured, as he sheltered in a cave that was encircled by German soldiers. Two decades later, the fate of his skull was on the minds of the diplomats who spent months arguing over the settlement of World War One. The Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations and detailed the reparations Germany had to pay for starting the conflict, runs to tens of thousands of words amounting to 440 clauses, or articles, plus several annexes. Chaotic negotiations Hundreds of diplomats from around the world, holed up in the French capital, Paris, drafted and redrafted the articles. The chaotic nature of the process may have allowed the fate of Chief Mkwawa's skull to be snuck into the text - largely thanks to the efforts of Horace Byatt, a British colonial administrator in East Africa. Historian Jeremiah Garsha has found a letter Byatt sent just three days after the end of the war in November 1918, which lobbied to have the skull returned from Germany, saying it would give "satisfaction" to the Wahehe people, offering "tangible proof in the eyes of the natives that German power has been completely broken". It is likely he had another motive - to show that the British, who had seized control of German territories in East Africa, were now in charge. But while the four leaders of the main allied powers gave the idea a sympathetic hearing, they were not convinced. Mr Garsha has found minutes from one of their meetings in February 1919, in which it was said that the impact on the Wahehe people was "hardly sufficient for the inclusion [of the skull] in the venerable peace treaty". 'Craniological curiosity' That should have been the end of it, but some in the British camp, including Colonial Secretary Viscount Milner, were keen on the issue and spotted an opportunity in the section of the treaty that dealt with reparations. Chief Mkwawa's full name: Some countries wanted to see Germany return artefacts and art works and Mr Garsha argues that it was Milner's description of the skull as a "craniological curiosity" that allowed it to be seen as an object of art. And so under a section headed "special provisions" and sandwiched between demands from France and Belgium sits article 246: "Within six months… Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's Government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa, which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany." However, the skull was not returned within six months - it took another 35 years for this to happen. What WW1's end meant for Africa By Martin Plaut The Treaty of Versailles helped shape modern Africa as Germany renounced sovereignty over its former colonies and Article 22 converted these into League of Nations mandate territories, to be run by the former allied powers. Togoland was divided between France and Britain, the French part becoming modern-day Togo and the British part joining Ghana. Kamerun (Cameroon) was also partitioned between the two allies. Ruanda (Rwanda) and Urundi (Burundi) were given to Belgium. Britain received German East Africa (Tanzania), while German South-West Africa (Namibia) went to South Africa. South Africa's mandate over Namibia became hotly contested because of the imposition of apartheid, and was finally terminated by the UN in 1961. The partition of Cameroon is a factor in the current conflict between the country's Anglophone and Francophone populations. Initially, Germany denied it had Chief Mkwawa's skull but for the British it remained an important symbol that they wanted to use to their advantage. So when it seemed the skull had resurfaced in the German town of Bremen in the 1950s, the British governor of what was then Tanganyika, Edward Twining, was quick to take action. He went to investigate the collection of human remains a curator had found as he catalogued artefacts that had been stored for safety during World War Two. Twining was keen to capitalise on the reputation of Mkwawa as a hero and brave warrior - the chief who in 1891 had led his troops armed with spears to victory over the Germans, killing 300 of their soldiers and capturing their guns at a battle at Lugalo. The Wahehe had been pushing north and winning territory in East Africa throughout the second half of the 19th Century as Germany sought to take control of the region. Three years later, the Germans marshalled their troops, this time bringing powerful cannons to overwhelm the Wahehe forces. But Mkwawa evaded capture for four more years, until surrounded at his hideout he decided to take his own life. Crude forensics Governor Twining believed that although Mkwawa had killed himself, the Germans shot him through the head to make sure he was dead. This was an important clue when identifying the skull, using crude forensics. He measured the diameter of a large hole in the skull and said it matched the calibre of the type of bullet the Germans would have used. At the ceremony that saw the return of the skull to Kalenga, Twining did not dwell on the chief's anti-colonial credentials, instead speaking of honour being restored and how he felt the skull had come back to the Wahehe as a source of protection. More on Germany's colonial legacy: But then he struck his bargain: "I hope too that you and your people will continue to give your unstinted loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors." For Twining that loyalty extended to fighting in Britain's colonial force known as the King's African Rifles (KAR) - a military and security unit that was recruited from East Africa. "It would be a great pity if the Hehe became soft and lost their martial qualities," he added. A recruiting officer from the KAR was at the ceremony, ready to sign up 70 young people. Mr Garsha told the BBC this happened in 1954 at the height of the anti-colonial Mau Mau rebellion in neighbouring Kenya - and KAR soldiers were being used to pursue a brutal crackdown. There is some irony that the memory of this anti-colonial figure was being invoked to help the colonialists. But 1954 was also the year that Julius Nyerere formed the Tanganyika African National Union, which successfully campaigned for independence from Britain, granted in 1961. While at one time colonialists may have hoped Chief Mkwawa's skull would help curry favour, it served as a symbol for an independent and proud Tanzania - and still sits in its own museum in Kalenga. "It gives us a chance to be proud of people who resisted the colonisers," Eric Jordan from the museum told the BBC. |
The Indian government has announced that it's extending its ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels of Sri Lanka for a further two years. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A statement by the Home ministry said the group was an unlawful association. India first outlawed the Tamil Tigers in 1992 following the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, which was blamed on the rebels. Some pro-Tamil rebel organisations in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been campaigning against the ban. The extension of the ban has come at a time when fighting between the Sri Lankan security forces and the Tamil rebels has intensified in recent months. |
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's view, expressed to the BBC Spotlight programme, that he "wouldn't like us to get to the point whereby we are changing the constitutional position here in Northern Ireland on a 50% plus one basis" has caused a backlash from northern nationalists. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mark DevenportPolitical editor, Northern Ireland@markdevenporton Twitter Sinn Fein's senior negotiator Conor Murphy has insisted that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is "absolutely clear" that "if a simple majority vote in favour of reunification, both governments are then obliged to legislate for it". Mr Murphy has argued that there's "an onus on the Irish government to plan for unity, to become a persuader for unity, to build the maximum agreement and to secure and win a referendum on unity. "As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement", the Sinn Fein politician continued, "the taoiseach should be seeking to defend the agreement in all its parts, not seeking to undermine it." The former SDLP leader and deputy first minister Mark Durkan, who was a key negotiator on the agreement nearly two decades ago, has been equally exercised. In a series of tweets, Mr Durkan said Mr Varadkar needs to know that when the SDLP and the other parties negotiated the 1998 deal the "principle of consent was to apply equally" to two legitimate aspirations, namely support for remaining in the UK or moving to a united Ireland. Mr Durkan made it clear that - in his view - "any other understanding would not have been agreed then. Nor should one be dubiously or dangerously inferred now". His tweets pointed out that any future border poll would also be a choice between being in or out of the European Union and that there shouldn't be one rule for the Brexit referendum and another for a border poll. By contrast former DUP MLA Nelson McCausland told BBC Radio Ulster's Talk Back that he sees the taoiseach's comments as "a recognition that the main political parties in the Irish Republic have no real interest in Irish unity". Mr McCausland said a future border poll would be not just a divorce from the UK but also a re-marriage with the Republic of Ireland, so argued the exercise would not exactly be the same as the simple majorities required in the Brexit referendum or a future Scottish independence vote The taoiseach may counter that he was simply trying to focus the Stormont politicians' minds on making the deal they now have work. He told Spotlight: "One of the the best things about the Good Friday Agreement is that it did get very strong cross border support - that's why there was a 70% vote for it." He added: "I don't think that there would be a 70% vote for a united Ireland in the morning, for example, or anything remotely to that. And I really think we should focus on making the agreement that we have work." The debate about a threshold for a border poll may appear rather academic right now, but it's clear northern nationalists won't buy the notion that such a border poll should be subjected to any kind of weighted majority. However there is also another stipulation of the Good Friday Agreement to bear in mind - it recognises that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone "to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, north and south, to bring about a united Ireland". The deal amended Article 3 of the Irish constitution to read that "it is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions". But Article 3 acknowledges "that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island." This means any future 51% knife edge vote for a united Ireland by people north of the border would also require the consent of a majority of people in the south. Can that be taken for granted? It would certainly be easier to guarantee if any border poll takes place in an atmosphere in which Northern Ireland appears stable and prosperous - in short a "good prospect" for a future marriage. |
Aberdeen's Union Terrace Gardens is to close for about five weeks. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Site investigations are to be carried out from Monday in preparation for a major revamp of the sunken park in the city centre. Councillors backed outline plans for the proposals in March. The plans, drawn up by LDA Design, include walkways, new buildings and tree planting. The site investigations will examine ground conditions and the heritage features. |
CCTV is to be installed at Aberdeen's derelict Broadford Works after a spate of fires, the city council has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Crews tackled four separate blazes in the disused factory on Thursday alone. Aberdeen City Council said it would install cameras following the fires at the former Richards textile mill, off Hutcheon Street. A spokesman said: "The building is surrounded by homes, businesses and busy roads so the consequences could have been devastating." |
For seven years, a police officer posed as an environmental activist and then sparked the collapse of a prosecution case against six other activists when he switched sides and offered to give evidence against the Crown. So what is it like living this kind of double life? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Dominic CascianiBBC News home affairs correspondent David Corbett has been in the loneliest place in the world - the place inhabited by undercover police officers. For weeks at a time, he would leave his home, wife and family and turn himself into someone completely different. His own clothes, the pictures in the wallet and the favourite CDs in the family car would be left behind. He would take to the criminal underworld as someone completely different: new hair, new clothes, jewellery and cars. David Corbett the policeman, the family man, would die - and Mr X, the hardened career drug dealer from Glasgow would be born. That's the world now under scrutiny after undercover police officer Mark Kennedy spent seven years infiltrating green campaigners only to then offer to give evidence in their defence at trial. Only Kennedy, known to his protest movement friends as Stone, knows how he got to that place. But Corbett, who wrote a memoir of his experiences under his assumed name, says that it is all too easy to lose sight of the exit signs when you're deep inside the mind of a fictional person. He became an undercover officer after a highly fulfilling career investigating organised crime in Scotland. He was picked out for the job and went through three days of special psychological testing in London to see if he was capable of living a lie without losing his mind. He passed and became one of the northern undercover officers working on organised crime investigations co-ordinated by Scotland Yard. His first weeks undercover, tasked with bringing down heroin dealers, gave him a high almost as powerful as the hit from the drug itself, he recalls with black humour. "It was like starting out in the police service again," he says, now in his 50s. "I was cutting my teeth again - I wanted to be exceptional in what I was doing but I had to start small and work my way up." His first proper undercover job involved buying a "parcel" - street drugs - from a dealer in Newcastle Upon Tyne. "It was a two-week operation and the target was very suspicious of being caught," he says. "But it was textbook. I got the parcel, I handed it over to my colleagues from the regional crime squad and then I disappeared into the shadows, never to be seen again. They moved in and made the arrest. The target would never know who I was or my role." Mission: Keep focused From there he moved to bigger and more complex operations, eventually creating a believable Scottish crime figure who won the respect and time of major criminals. But he was only able to do this, he says, because he kept to the rules. Undercover police work, he says, must be tightly focused on gathering specific evidence of a crime. It doesn't work as well as if the officer doesn't know what he is there to do. There has to be a reason for entering the world - and a planned point of exit. On drugs operations, Corbett would need to gather evidence proving that a major criminal was not only willingly selling drugs - but also willing to secure large quantities of them. He needed specific instructions - but also Home Office-backed guidelines on what he should do in various scenarios. He had to approach each target with a reasonable suspicion that they were up to no good, rather than go fishing or act as an agent provocateur. He had to become part of the target's world and witness things unfold. He would never offer to drive a targeted criminal to a meeting with other contacts. But if asked, he would be the driver because refusing to do so would look odd. Critically, he says, clear instructions and guidelines provide an officer with security and certainty in a world where they are being asked to behave ambiguously. At the end of an operation, he would return to his handler, usually a former undercover officer, and run through what he had experienced. He would do the paperwork including detailing any laws he may have broken. And most importantly, he would ditch the physical trappings of being undercover - the haircut, the clothes, and return to his normal world. "The most important thing that I learned was that first and foremost, whatever I was doing, I had to always remember that I was a police officer," he says. "Don't allow yourself to get psychologically mixed up in what you are doing and who you are. "During my time, I came across people who, I have to be honest, I felt sympathetic towards. There was one young kid [who was part of an investigation] who was on drugs and selling heroin. I felt sorry for his life. But you have to remind yourself that it was his decision to put the needle in his arm." The biggest challenge faced by an undercover officer is whether they can break the law. Corbett recalls situations where gang bosses are hosting parties with lines of cocaine ready for guests. In some cases officers talk their way out of it, claiming a pre-existing medical condition, such as heart palpitations. Others would align themselves with the criminals who stick to the hard drinking. Some officers, fearing for their own lives, take the drug. "If you have taken the drug, you have got to come out [of the personality] as soon as possible and say on tape [hidden on your body] or to the handler what has happened and why it was a life-threatening situation. You have to maintain that line between the job and the real person." That line is essential when it comes to enjoying the trappings of criminal wealth. Corbett regularly drove flashy sports cars - his character demanded it. But if officers start to look on those props as possessions, rather than tools, they can find themselves sucked into their self-created world. And after five years deep undercover, he knew he had to get out. He went to see the force's doctor for professional psychological help. "He was not aware that I existed - only three people in the force knew that I existed. That was enough and so I decided I had to stop." He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder - but counts himself lucky that he got out in time to rebuild his health. |
India's cabinet has approved plans to privatise Air India. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The debt-laden airline has been struggling to become profitable amid growing competition from low-cost rivals. Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government had given an "in-principle" approval for the stake sale. India will form a committee to decide on the details, including the size of the government's stake to be sold, he said. The committee will also decide whether India will write off some or all of Air India's 520bn rupee (£6bn, $8bn) debt pile. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been looking into ways to privatise Air India, which was given a $5.8bn bailout in 2012 and relies on taxpayer funds to stay afloat. Privatisation plans have been abandoned before, however, and unions have threatened wide-ranging protests if ministers push ahead this time. Once the country's only airline, Air India has lost market share to new entrants and suffered from a reputation for poor service and cancelled flights. It remains India's biggest international carrier, flying to 41 destinations, and has just under a fifth of the market. Air India has 14.6% of the domestic air travel market. |
"Condom snorting" - a dangerous activity that involves stuffing a condom up your nose until it comes out of your mouth - has been the subject of a number of recent viral news reports. It's a years-old trend that wasn't very popular even when it first surfaced - and now, in a bizarre twist, it's now being used as an argument against young gun-control advocates in America. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Ammar EbrahimBBC Trending The furore started in late March when KABB, a local Fox News affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, reported on an educational project teaching teens about a range of dangers, including risky viral challenges and trends. One example caught on tape during the workshop was "condom snorting" - a supposedly viral trend that became a focus of the TV report. From there, the story took off, prompting headlines such as "The condom snorting challenge is an actual thing people are doing" and "Condom Snorting Challenge' Returns, Doctors Warn of Dangers". Although snorting a condom is indeed foolish and dangerous (for the obvious reason that a condom lodged in your nose or throat might make it very difficult to breathe), many reports gave the false impression that the challenge is going viral in 2018. You may also like: Trend debunked The fact-checking website Snopes noted that the vast majority of condom snorting videos online were more than a year old, with most dating from 2013. Even then, the site noted, "the phenomenon was never that widespread and gradually petered out." But the current supposed revival of the challenge has been used to make a political point. Like the "tide pod" challenge before it, it's been used as an argument in the heated online debate around gun control in the United States. Some gun-rights advocates argue that the kinds of stupid and dangerous stunts that sometimes catch on among teenagers discredit the arguments made by the young activists behind the #NeverAgain movement which sprung up after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February. One social media star who started got a lot of comments on a condom challenge video that he uploaded four years ago, recently noticed that his old clip was suddenly getting a surge in traffic. "When I saw this I thought, 'I got to find out who is doing these challenges... is someone new going viral?'" he told BBC Trending. However, when he searched online he found no new examples of condom snorting. But the new surge in interest in his old video was being driven by gun enthusiasts. "I had hundreds of comments about gun control," he says. "It was like 'you're the generation taking away our guns and you're doing this?' It was hilarious. I'm Canadian and not very politically engaged but people were attacking me about gun control. "It doesn't make any sense as to why [these comments] are on my video in the first place. They're not related." He also adds that while his initial video was an attempt to grab attention, "it's a bad challenge that nobody should do." Do you have a story for us? Email BBC Trending. More from Trending: Two students brought together by gun violence Jackson goes to school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Alec lives near Parkland, Florida. Both of their lives were changed by school shootings.WATCH NOW You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. |
At least 2,800 people have now died in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organization has warned the number of infections will increase to 20,000 by November if efforts to control the spread are not stepped up. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The hardest-hit countries are Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The deadly virus is transmitted through body fluids such as sweat, blood and saliva, and there is no proven cure. This makes life feel very precarious for people living in affected areas. People from Liberia and Sierra Leone tell the BBC what it is like living in fear of Ebola. Abdul Kabia, Freetown in Sierra Leone One of the most shocking, sad and sorrowful experiences of my life was the death of my auntie. She was the woman who brought me up. She felt unwell for a short while and then was diagnosed with Ebola. A surveillance team came to confirm the death and told me that another team would come to take samples of her saliva and blood. When that team came, they were dressed in white medical overalls. They told us not to go near my auntie's body because the virus would still be very active. Then another team came. The burial team came. We told them that we would not give them her body until they could prove she had died from Ebola. The burial team then called for police enforcement and the corpse was taken forcefully. My auntie was put in the back of a van with six other corpses. We followed them to the cemetery where Ebola cases are sent to be buried but armed men did not allow us to enter because of infection. They buried 17 corpses in a mass grave. This was the one of the saddest days of my life. M Sahr Nouwan, Liberia My brother-in-law's wife became very unwell and she had to go to the hospital. But she died in the car before she got there. All my family were very upset but also very afraid of contracting the virus. The symptoms started to develop in people that had been in contact with her - about eight people developed signs and died. My wife's brother did not contract Ebola, nor did my wife - we were lucky. Many people who have Ebola are afraid to go to the hospital. I want to encourage people to get help. There are fewer clinics open and many deaths are due to the poor response of health officials. They need to increase the numbers of medics, social workers and facilities to fight this virus. Nyuma Bondi, Monrovia in Liberia I know people who have died from this deadly Ebola virus. A doctor who had been helping sick people in my community - even when public hospitals were closed - contracted the virus and died. A newspaper reporter has also died and one family lost three of its members. Since the outbreak, all hospitals have been closed throughout the country. There are virtually no treatment centres. The ones that exist are filled to capacity and are no longer accepting new cases. Nurses and doctors have abandoned the hospitals because of fear of the virus. People have a sort of denial mentality - most Liberians from remote and suburban areas of the country don't believe that the Ebola virus is real. Some confirmed Ebola patients are escaping treatment centres. A lady who was diagnosed escaped the quarantine centre in Lofa where the outbreak started. Everyone who had been in direct contact with her became infected and only one doctor survived. So lying about infection is also responsible for the huge death rates in Liberia. I wash my hands regularly with soap. I clean my clothes and I never shake hands with people. I try to protect myself and my family. Emmett P Chea, Liberia The Ebola outbreak has been like someone firing live bullets. Liberia is too poor to deal with this unaided. Thousands more will die if the international community does not come to our rescue. The closing of hospitals and clinics in and around Monrovia has been one of the major factors increasing the deadly Ebola virus death rate because people who are coming down with the symptoms of malaria, high blood pressure, diabetes and diarrhoea are not able to get adequate treatment with the closure of health facilities. Lionel Z Fredericks, Paynesville in Liberia The Ebola virus disease has upset my life. I'm a medical student and I should have sat my exams by now but the Liberian government closed all schools in August. We now live in fear and it is so intense that even having a small fever makes you very afraid. I tried to avoid mosquito bites as I don't want even getting the slightest illness. I have lost friends and colleagues. They should build a memorial to those who have died when this killer virus is eradicated. James Smith Wallace, Liberia A friend of mine died from Ebola. It is very frustrating - you never know when you are at risk even when we are all following the prevention guidelines. The health centres are too crowded. Relatives go there to see their loved ones die and they catch Ebola too. People are coming out of the isolation centres and are putting everyone at risk. |
The prospect of a judicial review into the Guernsey Airport redevelopment will not distract the contractor, the Public Services minister has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Public Services Department signed a £55m contract with Lagan Construction on Friday. Two deputies have said they would bring forward a judicial review of the planning process. However, Deputy Flouquet said: "We're legally obliged now to get on with the project." He said: "We're not going to know what a judicial review outcome would be for quite a few months. "If someone is minded to bring a judicial review to the Environment Department, well that is under a point of law and that's to do with the Environment Department and that individual." |
Police in Portugal have detained a man at Lisbon's international airport accused of carrying 1kg (2.2lb) of cocaine in fake buttocks. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Local media said the Brazilian citizen had arrived on a flight from the city of Belém, in northern Brazil. It was not immediately clear how police discovered the case. A second man, suspected of being the recipient of the drug, was detained at the city's train station. The suspects are aged 32 and 40, police say. The drug seized would have been enough to make 5,000 individual doses of cocaine, police said in a statement (in Portuguese). They did not give an estimate of how much the quantity was worth. The men could face charges of drug trafficking. Last month, police in Portugal and Spain seized cocaine hidden inside fresh pineapples that had been transported from South America. You might also find interesting |
Leftovers, hangovers and mountains of rubbish. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In the cold light of Boxing Day, the excesses of food, drink and gifting are apparent, with houses overtaken by cardboard, paper, bottles and packaging refusing to fit in the wheelie bin. A BBC survey has found only three council areas in Scotland continue collections and open recycling centres on the Boxing Day public holiday. So what can we do on Boxing Day when we are drowning in waste? Well, it depends on where you are in Scotland. A mixed picture across Scotland BBC Scotland surveyed all Scotland's local authorities to find out which waste services are provided on Boxing Day. The picture is mixed. Fifteen councils observed the traditional holiday and provided no kerbside collection or depot facilities at all. Fourteen had either collections or centres operating, while three - Edinburgh, Aberdeen city and Renfrewshire - had both services running. Councils rate the importance of the service differently. This could partly be down to staffing. The GMB union has said a fairer, more consistent approach is needed across Scotland for the workers who provided these services. Drew Duffy, senior organiser for public services in Scotland, told the BBC the majority of union members work on Boxing Day not by choice but because they are made to work. He said: "There's a discrepancy between terms and conditions across the 32 local authorities. Some councils deem it an essential service to the extent they actually have to work and give up time with their friends and family. ''They don't know what they're going to be getting paid in different areas so a more uniform approach across Scotland would be better. He also called for planning to be done further in advance. "We know it's coming, we know when Christmas is going to be, when Boxing Day is, and we know people will need some kind of refuse service to get their stuff picked up - so let's plan to make it more consistent and fairer across the country," he added. A spokesman for council umbrella group Cosla said: "The vast majority of conditions of service are determined at a local level by individual councils in negotiation with local trade unions representatives. "Rates of pay at holiday times falls into this category and, therefore rightly, is a matter for individual councils." Scots are also warned that rubbish must not be left outside bins, as this could lead to fines of £200, with penalties for fly-tipping up to £40,000. Can I recycle on Boxing Day? The services in your area. Aberdeen city - Operates uplift service every day except Christmas Day and New Years Day. Household waste recycling centres are open every day except 25 December and 1 January. Aberdeenshire - Households will only have their kerbside recycling or residual waste collected on Boxing Day if that is their normal scheduled day of collection. Household waste recycling centres will be closed from 15:00 on Christmas Eve until the morning of 27 December. There are unmanned recycling points around the area. Angus - Recycling centres will be closed on Boxing Day and no refuse collections will take place on 26 December. Argyll and Bute - The council operates 'Bring sites' across Argyll and Bute to dispose of excess recyclable material over the holidays. No collections or refuse centres open on the bank holiday. Clackmannanshire - Kerbside collections due on 26 December will take place on 28 December. The recycling centre is closed on 26 December, and reopens on 27 December. Dumfries and Galloway - No collections and all recycling centres are closed 26 December. Dundee - Tuesday collections will be carried out on 26 December. Recycling centres closed. East Ayrshire - No collections or recycling centres on 25 and 26 December, or 1 and 2 January. Catch-up collections will take place on 22 and 23 December and 29 and 30 December. East Dunbartonshire - No recycling or waste collections on 25 and 26 December. More than a dozen unmanned recycling points across the area during this period located at the local supermarkets, leisure centres or in and around town centres. East Lothian - No collections or waste depots open on Boxing Day. East Renfrewshire - Recycling centres closed on 26 December but staff will uplift from "bring sites" and continue normal Tuesday collections. Edinburgh - Kerbside rubbish and recycling collections as usual on Boxing Day. Several recycling centres open limited hours. Falkirk - No collections on Boxing Day. Denny and Boness recycling centres open. Fife - No collections and no recycling centres on Boxing Day. Centres will be open on 24, 27, 31 December and 3 January. Recycling points not serviced on 25, 26 December and 1, 2 January. Glasgow - No kerbside collection service on Boxing Day. Four household waste and recycling centres will be fully staffed from 08:00 to 20:00 (normal service). Highland - Normal kerbside collection on 26 December. Recycling bottle banks accessible across the region. Inverclyde - No kerbside collection on Boxing Day. Recycling centres open for reduced hours. Midlothian - All facilities, including the recycling centres, closed on 25 and 26 December. Moray - No depots or collections on Boxing Day. North Ayrshire - No kerbside collections and no depots on 26 December North Lanarkshire - Six household waste recycling centres will be open on Boxing Day and 2 January. No household bin collections. Orkney Islands - No collection service on Boxing Day. Perth and Kinross - No domestic or commercial collections on 26 December and recycling centres closed. Renfrewshire - Waste collections as normal on 26 December and 2 January. Recycling centres open (winter hours). Scottish Borders - Kerbside collections are normal. No staffed waste depot services. Shetland Islands - No waste collection or recycling services. No recycling centre service. South Ayrshire - Collections on Boxing Day and 2 January (reduced service). No plans to open recycling centres on any of the public holidays. South Lanarkshire - No collections on Boxing Day, recycling centres will be open. Stirling - No collections or recycling centres on Boxing Day. West Dunbartonshire - No collections but staffed household waste recycling centres are open. Western Isles - Boxing Day is a collection day. Household waste recycling centres are closed for both days. West Lothian - Food waste collections are planned as normal, but no other kerbside collections. Recycling centres are closed. Christmas waste advice In the meantime, if people are unable to get to recycling centres or have later bin collections, Zero Waste Scotland has issued advice on dealing with Christmas waste. Jill Farrell from Zero Waste Scotland, said: "We all tend to wake up on Boxing Day with loads of food left over from Christmas. Don't let it go to waste. Check out the great leftover recipe ideas on the Love Food Hate Waste Scotland website and you'll be able to give your sprouts and turkey a whole new lease of life. "If you've been given something for Christmas you're not too fond of, don't just put it in the bin. Re-gifting presents is a wonderful way of giving unwanted presents a second chance while making someone else's day. Alternatively, you could pass on the presents that you no longer want to a charity shop or someone else in need. "From wrapping paper and boxes to cards and empty bottles, Christmas can generate a lot of waste. Keeping tabs on the recycling can be tricky at this time of year so check out your local authority's website so you don't miss the festive collections." |
Looking at some of the latest tech news, it's tempting to wonder whether we've all jumped out of the same DeLorean famously driven by time travellers Doc Brown and Marty McFly in the 1985 film Back to the Future. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, BBC News In January 2015, the ZX Spectrum games console - originally launched by Clive Sinclair in 1982 - went back into production in the UK and will be sold pre-loaded with 1,000 classic games. The same month, Sony brought a 21st Century twist to its classic personal stereo the Walkman, a brand it launched in 1979 and retired in 2010, in the form of a high-end digital music player. Ion Audio also unveiled a new record player - the Air LP, a turntable equipped with bluetooth for music streaming. It also has USB connectivity so it can be plugged in to a computer. And in the gaming zone at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, nestling between the Xboxes, Playstations, 4K graphics and virtual reality headsets, was a machine with origins dating back at least 250 years. That device was the humble pinball machine - the earliest recorded being the bagatelles of 18th Century France. So why can't we let go of our old tech? 'Design v tech' "As is the case in fashion or furniture, retro is quite attractive," said analyst Carolina Milanesi from analysts Kantar. "With tech, however, it gets tricky as you need to deliver value. In some cases, vendors deliver new tech in a retro package while in others the technology, while improved in specs, remains pretty close to the initial offering." While using a brand like the Walkman is a good sales tactic, ultimately it is a long way from the original in terms of what it offers - and its price tag (£949) is steep, she added. "Personally, I believe, that design versus tech would work better as a retro offering - but even so the appeal would be limited." Arcade appeal In America, old arcade games are enjoying a revival thanks in part to the success of drinking establishments like the chain Barcade, where drinkers can quaff locally produced beers while indulging in some classic arcade entertainment. "Our most popular games are the classics like Ms Pac Man and Donkey Kong and also the multiplayer games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Simpsons, NBA Jam and X-Men," said Barcade CEO Paul Kermizian. "We only feature classic video games." Some traditional games have had to adapt to survive however. Pin power Chicago-based manufacturer Stern Pinball, founded in 1986, treads the line between offering a nostalgic product but with a contemporary hook - the firm has just released three new pinball tables based around cult franchises WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Star Trek and the Walking Dead. "We think we're part of the future," said founder Gary Stern. "It's not just a ball bouncing round - it's a game, there is a sport to this." While the majority of Stern's individual customers are "50 plus, used to play pinball in their 20s", the 25-30-year-old crowd is also becoming a target market. "We realised we had to make different games for different people - one size doesn't fit all," said owner Gary Stern. "We're trying to interest new players while keeping our core customers. "But it's still basically a bat/ball mechanical action machine," he added. "When you hit the door of the prison in the Walking Dead it opens and you see a zombie - it's not a programmed game." The mechanics underneath the bonnet certainly look more complex than they would have done even 20 years ago. Semi-smart node boards have enabled each game to have more features, and LED lights rather than fluorescent tubes are now the norm. As part of the design process, all of Stern's staff help out with the user testing. "Staff have to play for 15 minutes every day. If you don't want to play pinball, don't work for a pinball company," said Mr Stern. "I'm 69 - I'm old and slow. I represent the player in the pub who's had a bucket-and-a-half of beer." With the machines, retailing at between $5,000-$6,000, it is not a cheap hobby. Mr Stern says his biggest customers are arcade owners, cinemas, collectors - and record buyers. Record buyers are fast becoming a hot target market for other tech retailers too. 'Beautiful physical artefacts' Martin Talbot, managing director of the UK Official Charts Company, predicts that vinyl sales alone are set to soar from £3m five years ago to being a £20m business in 2015. Last year, more than one million vinyl record sales were made in the UK for the first time in 18 years. "In an era when we're all talking about digital music, the fact that these beautiful physical artefacts are still as popular as they are is fantastic," Mr Talbot told BBC Radio 5 live recently. "It's really remarkable." The Official Chart Company is now planning to relaunch a separate chart for record sales in the UK - and firms making and selling turntables are also feeling the love. "To be honest, we've always stocked and sold turntables at a fairly steady rate, but the past year has seen a 70% jump in the number of units we've sold," said Lol Lecanu, spokesperson for hi-fi specialists Richer Sounds. Celebrity endorsement always helps of course - rockstar Dave Grohl, whose bands include the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, has spoken about his love of records. In a podcast with comedian Marc Maron he described getting a turntable for his then six-year-old daughter and giving her some Beatles records. "I walked out of the room, an hour later she had all the records out on the floor, she had listened to them all," he said. "She was looking at the liner notes, she was dancing, it was unbelievable." Grohl added that he did not feel he was doing his daughter a disservice by introducing her to the Fab Four accompanied by the legendary scratch and hiss of the humble turntable. "This is what it sounded like when I was a kid," he said. "I'm not going to give her the audio file version." |
Since Iran's nuclear programme became public in 2002, the UN, EU and several individual countries have imposed sanctions in an attempt to prevent it from developing military nuclear capability. Iran insists its nuclear activities are exclusively peaceful, but the world's nuclear watchdog has been unable to verify this. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Iran and world powers agreed an interim deal in 2013 which saw it gain around $7bn in sanctions relief in return for curbing uranium enrichment and giving UN inspectors better access to its facilities. World powers also committed to facilitate Iran's access to $4.2bn in restricted funds. What do the sanctions entail? Several rounds of sanctions in recent years have targeted Iran's key energy and financial sectors, crippling its economy. The four rounds of UN sanctions included: The EU also imposed its own sanctions, among them: Japan and South Korea have also imposed sanctions similar to those of the EU. As well as more recent sanctions aimed at Iran's financial, oil and petrochemical sectors, the US has imposed successive rounds of sanctions since the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis, citing what it says is Iran's support for international terrorism, human rights violations and refusal to co-operate with the IAEA. The US sanctions prohibit almost all trade with Iran, making some exceptions only for activity "intended to benefit the Iranian people", including the export of medical and agricultural equipment, humanitarian assistance and trade in "informational" materials such as films. What has been the effect of the sanctions in Iran? As a result of the EU embargo and the US sanctions targeting other major importers, Iran's oil exports had fallen to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) by May 2013, compared with an average 2.2 million bpd in 2011. In January 2013, Iran's oil minister acknowledged for the first time that the fall in exports was costing the country between $4bn and $8bn (£2.5bn-£5bn) each month. Iran is believed to have suffered a loss of about $26bn (£16bn) in oil revenue in 2012 from a total of $95bn (£59m) in 2011. In April 2013, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that Iran's gross domestic product (GDP) would shrink by 1.3% in 2013 after contracting by 1.9% the previous year. The White House estimated that Iran's oil exports would remain at a level of about one million bpd during the six months of the previous interim agreement. It estimated that Iran would accrue $1.5bn during that period from sales of petrochemicals, trading in gold and other precious metals, and the renewed transactions with foreign firms involved in the automotive sector. How would lifting sanctions affect the Iranian economy? The "P5+1" group (US, UK, France, Russia, China plus Germany) has said that in the event of a deal being reached, sanctions should be eased in a phased manner, with restrictions on imports of nuclear-related technology remaining for years. Iran wants the UN sanctions suspended soon after any agreement is reached. The loss of oil revenue, which accounted for a half of government expenditure, and isolation from the international banking system, had caused Iran's currency, the rial, to lose two-thirds of its value against the US dollar and caused inflation to rise to more than 40%, with prices of basic foodstuffs and fuel soaring. Many Iranians therefore see the lifting of the sanctions as an essential first step in improving the economy. During his first election TV programme in 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying that "sanctions will... be resolved, and economic prosperity will also be created". "I said it is good for centrifuges to operate, but it is also important that the country operates as well and the wheels of industry are turning," Mr Rouhani said, in a documentary broadcast in 2013. |
Using a toilet is something most people take for granted - but about 1.1 billion people around the world defecate in the open because they do not have access to proper sanitation. Now a scheme in India is aiming to instil better toilet habits in children by "paying them to poo". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Suranjana Tewari BBC News Reporter, Mumbai Open defecation is a practice where people relieve themselves in fields, bushes, open spaces and into open bodies of water. It poses a serious threat to the health of children. Hundreds of thousands of children die every year because of diseases transmitted through human waste. In India, nearly half of the population - more than 590m people - relieve themselves in the open. For many it's a daily ritual and often something they do even when public facilities are available. Now a state council in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad has come up with a scheme where children are being paid to use public toilets. Campaigners hope it will improve the situation in a country where diseases such as diarrhoea kill about 200,000 children every year. Reshaping attitudes People who live in the slums of Chandoliya in Ahmedabad use the railway tracks to do what most would do only in private, especially early in the morning before the crowds and the heat develop. "We've made public toilets but people still don't use them," said Anil Prajapati, chairman of the Gujarat Sanitation Development Organisation. "Some of these people fear that there are witches inside or that their children will be kidnapped. "These people have come from small villages, and so they are not used to the practice." When people defecate in the open, flies feed on the waste and then carry small amounts away on their bodies. The flies then come into contact with food. Human waste can also run into wells and streams, contaminating water that may be used for drinking or bathing. Ingested bacteria and worms spread diseases, causing sickness and malnutrition. New approach Faecally transmitted infections are also the main reason why nearly half of Indian children under five are underdeveloped. So health officers at Ahmedabad Municipal Council came up with a new approach to try to encourage residents to use the toilets, some of which are free while others cost money to use. "We have 320 public toilets and we are not taking any payment in 143 toilets," said Dr Bhavin Solanki. "We have observed some children are still doing open defecation just in front of the pay-and-use. "So we realised we have to introduce some other scheme. We are giving one rupee (less than a penny) to the children per day, or we're giving them chocolates to encourage use of the toilets." It's a scheme that Bhumi Datadia is taking advantage of. The five-year-old lives in a tiny room with her two siblings and parents. Like many others in her neighbourhood, a nearby river or public toilets are her only options. "Look at the size of my house. Where do I have space to build a toilet?" said Bhumi's mother, Jayashree. Under the new scheme, Bhumi is making one rupee every time she uses a public toilet. Her visits are recorded on a card and she receives her money at the end of the month. "The toilets are good," said Bhumi. "I will use the money I make for school." Good behaviour The city council has plans to scale up the project and it might start paying adults to use public toilets. "The idea is to understand you are rewarded for good behaviour," said D Thara, commissioner of Ahmedebad Municipal Corporation. "Once children start using the toilets, adults won't do it any more. Children themselves will become the motivators." But people in another part of the city say it won't be easy to convince them to change. They say the toilets are not kept clean and that their children are often stopped from entering the facilities because some of them use too much water. Ambitious goal Open defecation also has wider effects on a country, affecting education, income, women's safety and dignity. "It's not safe for women to go to the toilet in the open," said Mr Prajapati. "When they go out at night, anything can happen. It's happening everywhere in India. We want to stop this." Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made eliminating open defecation in India a priority, and wants every home to be installed with a toilet by 2019. In recent years, India has implemented well-funded sanitation campaigns, but few have worked. Some campaigners say that building toilets is not enough and that more needs to be done to reshape attitudes. But the people behind this scheme hope their alternative approach could be a crucial first step towards ending open defecation in India. |
A murder inquiry has begun after a 19-year-old man was found dead with stab wounds in south London. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Met Police were called by an ambulance crew to Alpha Road, Croydon, just after 12:00 GMT on Wednesday. The teenager's family have been informed and no arrests have been made, police said. Crime scene restrictions remain in place as detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime South Command investigate. Related Internet Links Metropolitan Police |
In January 1996 an army of eco warriors took to the trees in Newbury to try to prevent the construction of the Newbury bypass. The road was eventually built, but 20 years on did the "Battle of Newbury" have a lasting impact? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Linda SerckBBC News "In other, less-civilised parts of the world, they might have had the machine guns out." These were the words of the Under Sheriff of Berkshire, Nicholas Blandy, as he surveyed the Newbury bypass protesters clinging to trees, determined to thwart the bulldozers. The trees, 10,000 of them, were eventually cut down to make way for the road that would get rid of a notorious bottleneck on the A34. But this did not happen without a lengthy protest from eco warriors who doggedly chained themselves to trees, dug tunnels and caused a mass disturbance of a kind rarely seen before in England. Six-hundred security guards were brought in to police the site, at a cost of £25m - one fifth of the total bill for building the road. During the January protests, some 748 people were arrested. Anti-bypass protests had been going strong in Newbury since the 1980s, but the eventual evictions of the protest camps, tree felling and undergrowth clearance work began on 9 January 1996. The clash received widespread coverage and protesting figurehead Swampy ended up a minor celebrity who appeared on satirical news show Have I Got News For You. Twenty years on, Mr Blandy said he could now laugh at some of the memories. "They had a certain amount of robust contempt for me," he says of the protesters. "They had a big sound system rigged up in the trees playing Bob Marley's I Shot The Sheriff at loud volumes, which I thought was terribly funny." Two decades later, Mr Blandy has been reunited with one of the main protestors, Phillip Pritchard, who spent two years campaigning against the bypass. They both admire an old oak tree that survived the cull, and chat in an amicable way, though they maintain a distance while talking. "I had such extraordinary respect for you because it was just so cold," Mr Blandy told Mr Pritchard. "It was a bitterly cold winter and I do not understand those who stayed here in the ground or tree houses in the trees. "Some of the protesters looked so unhealthy because in those conditions you needed [up to] 5,000 calories a day in order to live and you weren't getting it. "Some people were getting visibly unhealthier as it went on. It was a very hard environment in which to live so to a certain extent I tip my hat off to you." "There was definitely a lot of passion," Mr Pritchard remembers. "[We] were trying to act like an antibody for the Earth - trying to protect nature, to protect what was being destroyed in beautiful places. "Often people did let themselves become quite ill, [but] there was an amazing network of people from the town. "People brought food out, people came and had showers and baths in people's houses, that was really amazing although it was hard for people to walk a six-mile round trip just for a bath sometimes." "At the time we felt quite cross towards the Under Sheriff of Berkshire but I can see you're a person, you were doing your role. "I think it's been a really powerful part of my life and to be here talking to you is an interesting thing." The intervening 20 years has not mellowed either of them in terms of their views on the situation. "The years haven't made me in any way regret doing what I did, because I continue to think it's very important that the law is upheld," says Mr Blandy. "In a democratic society governments ultimately have to take decisions that are unpopular to some and they have to be carried out." Mr Pritchard points out that the law became a "shifting beast" for the protesters. "New laws [in 1994] were brought in to make what had been civil matters, such as trespass, into criminal matters - aggravated trespass, which meant that the police came in and arrested people and hundreds of people got criminal records for things that in the 1980s wouldn't have been criminal." One protester who fell foul of this new law was Becca Lush, who was arrested three times in the first week of the January clash. "Anyone who was arrested was given bail conditions that prevented them from going anywhere near the protest site, so I was out of action quite quickly certainly at the beginning of the protest," she said. "But I was able to do all the other millions of jobs that enabled the protest to become prominent. "It was a national issue, we were all over the national media for months and months, and the whole country knew what the government were doing." Despite the campaigners losing, Ms Lush, who now works as a charitable giving manager for an organic cosmetics company, said there was a lot that was gained. The protest was "absolutely crucial in changing transport policy", she says. "After Newbury, the Labour government came to power with a manifesto pledge to stop road building and look at the alternatives, which they did do. "Although there were 600 road schemes proposed initially by the Thatcher government, over the protest years it was whittled down to 150. "By the time the Labour government came in 1997 the road programme was scrapped completely. "So by anyone's standard that was an enormously successful campaign - over five years to reduce the multibillion-pound road building programme down to zero." The protesters' legacy - Paul Clifton, BBC South Today "I spent months reporting the battles at Newbury. One of the biggest tree camps was at Tot Hill. Today, it's a service area with a hotel and a McDonald's. "Middle Oak became a symbol of the campaign: a solitary tree in the middle of cleared woodland was allowed to remain standing, a minor concession to the protesters. "Driving past today you can barely notice it, tucked into a bend of the slip road between the A34 and the A4. Around it, some of the 200,000 new trees planted to replace the 10,000 cut down are starting to mature. "The protesters lost the battle. But perhaps they won the war. "There is no doubt the tree climbers swayed public opinion and, later, political policy changed too. It virtually halted the construction of major new roads for a generation. "In the 20 years since the bypass was built, only two significant new roads have been created in this part of England: the Hindhead tunnel on the A3, and the Weymouth Relief Road. "As Newbury was being built, a tunnel past Stonehenge in Wiltshire and a bypass for Arundel in West Sussex were being talked about. Twenty years later, they are still only being talked about." And with the memories of 20 years ago still fresh in the minds of both the protesters and law enforcers, the legacy of the trees that were felled also lives on - albeit it not in Newbury. Mr Pritchard says: "We collected tree seedlings that had sprouted where the trees had been cut down, and planted them in other parts of the country. "Some of them are now way taller than me." |
A two-day ancient game of mass football, where the two sides attempt to score at opposite ends of a town, has ended in a 1-0 victory. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Thousands of people took part in the annual Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Those born south of the river in the town are Down'Ards and those in the north are Up'Ards. After Tuesday's play ended without a goal, the Down'Ards emerged victorious the following day. Laura Dudley had come to the game from Dunfermline, in Scotland, as her dad was born in Ashbourne and it was a family tradition to attend the festivities. "It's really family time. I was brought down here since I was a kid for as long as I can remember," she said. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk. |
Facebook's staff feel like they are under siege. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor Every few days there seems to be a fresh accusation or leak that paints the social network in the worst possible light and calls into question whether it poses a threat to its members, wider society and even democracy itself. The latest barrage came in the form of a tranche of "confidential" internal emails published online by MPs, who have been smarting that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg refused to testify before them. As Damian Collins, the chair of the Parliamentary committee responsible, put it, if they could not get "straight answers" from Mr Zuckerberg then at least the emails could reveal how his firm treats users' data and protects its "dominant position". Mr Collins claimed the documents prove that the social network continued giving some favoured apps access to users' friends' data after a cut-off point that was supposed to protect its members' privacy. He added that the emails showed the firm had also sought to make it difficult for users to know about privacy changes, and had surreptitiously studied smartphone users' habits to identify and tackle rival apps. Overnight on Wednesday, Facebook has published a blow-by-blow response to these and other allegations. The main thrust of its defence is that the emails had been "cherry-picked" to paint a "false" picture of what really happened. But does its counter-attack stand up? White lists One of the key apparent gotchas from the documents was Facebook's repeated references to "whitelisting" - the process under which it grants special access to users and their friends' data to some third parties but not others. The context for this was that in April 2014, Facebook announced that it planned to restrict developers from being able to tap into information about users' friends as part of a policy referred to as "putting people first". Until that point, any developer could build products that made use of Facebook users' friends' birthdates, photos, genders, status updates, likes and location check-ins. While such access was to be cut off, Facebook said it would still allow apps to see who was on a user's friends list and their relevant profile pictures. However, if developers wanted this to include friends who were not using the same app, they now needed to make a request and pass a review. New apps needed to apply immediately, and existing ones were given a year's grace. But Mr Collins said the emails demonstrated that some firms "maintained full access to friends' data" after the 2015 deadline. The documents certainly show several apps sought extended rights - although it is not always clear what the final outcome was. But Facebook says it only gave "short-term" extensions to the wide range of information about friends and did so in cases when apps needed more time to adapt. "It's common to help partners transition their apps during platform changes to prevent their apps from crashing or causing disruptive experiences for users," it explained. In fact, Facebook already gave Congress a list in July of about 60 organisations to whom it granted this privilege, and said at the time that in most cases it was limited to an extra six months, The names excluded some of the bigger brands referenced in the emails, including Netflix, Airbnb and Lyft. The inference is that if they were indeed granted special long-term rights, it was only to access complete lists of friends' names and profile images. But since Facebook does not disclose which developers have these extra rights, it is impossible to know how widely they are offered. Value of friends' data Facebook has long maintained that it has "never sold people's data". Rather it said the bulk of its profits come from asking advertisers what kinds of audience they want to target, and then directing their promotions at users who match. But Mr Collins said the emails also demonstrated that Facebook had repeatedly discussed ways to make money from providing access to friends' data. Mark Zuckerberg himself wrote the following in 2012: "I'm getting more on board with locking down some parts of platform, including friends' data... Without limiting distribution or access to friends who use this app, I don't think we have any way to get developers to pay us at all besides offering payments and ad networks." Facebook's retort is that it explored many ways to build its business, but ultimately what counts is that it never charged developers for this kind of service. "We ultimately settled on a model where developers did not need to purchase advertising... and we continued to provide the developer platform for free," it said. But another email from Mr Zuckerberg in the haul makes it clear that his reasoning for doing so was a belief that the more apps that developers built, the more information people would share about themselves, which in turn would help Facebook make money. And some users may be worried that it was this profit motive rather than concerns for their privacy that determined the outcome. Android permissions Another standout discovery was the fact that Facebook's team had no illusions that an update to its Android app - which gave Facebook access to users' call and text message records - risked a media backlash. "This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective," wrote one executive, adding that it could lead to articles saying "Facebook uses new Android update to pry into your private life in ever more terrifying ways". In the conversation that followed, staff discussed testing a method that would require users to click a button to share the data but avoid them being shown an "Android permissions dialogue at all". Mr Collins claims the result was that the firm made it as "hard as possible" for users to be aware of the privacy change. Facebook's defence is that the change was still "opt in" rather than done by default, and that users benefited from better suggestions about who they could call via its apps. "This was a discussion about how our decision to launch this opt-in feature would interact with the Android operating system's own permission screens," added the firm. "This was not a discussion about avoiding asking people for permission." It previously defended its conduct in March after users had spotted saved call logs in archives of their Facebook activity and did not recall giving the social network permission to gather them. Whether you accept its explanation or not, it does not look good that executives were clearly worried that journalists might "dig into" what the update was doing in the first place. The risk is that this adds to the impression that while Facebook wants its members to trust it with their information, the firm has an aversion to having its own behaviour scrutinised. Surveying rivals Part of the way through the hundreds of text-heavy pages is a selection of graphs. They show how Facebook tracked the fortunes of social media rivals including WhatsApp - which it went on to buy - and Twitter's viral video service Vine - which it decided to block from accessing some data. This tracking was done via Onavo, an Israeli analytics company that Facebook acquired in 2013 - which provided a free virtual private network app. VPNs are typically installed by users wanting an extra layer of privacy. Mr Collins accused Facebook of carrying out its surveys without customers' knowledge. Its reply was that the app contained a screen that stated that it collected "information about app usage" and detailed how it would be used. It is true that the app's privacy policy stated that it might share information with "affiliates" including Facebook. But it is questionable how many of its millions of users bothered to read beyond the top-billed promise to "keep you and your data safe". In any case, if Facebook is not hiding anything it is curious that, even now, on Google Play the app continues to list its developer as being Onavo rather than its parent company, and only mentions Facebook's role if users click on a "read more" link. It is also noteworthy that Apple banned the app earlier this year from its App Store for being too intrusive. Targeting competitors You do not get to be one of the world's biggest companies just by playing nice. So, Mr Collins' accusation that Facebook had taken "aggressive positions" against rivals is probably unsurprising. Even so, it is interesting the degree to which Mr Zuckerberg is involved. "We maintain a small list of strategic competitors that Mark personally reviewed," disclosed one memo. "Apps produced by the companies on this list are subject to a number of restrictions... any usage beyond that specified is not permitted without Mark-level sign-off." As the case of Vine demonstrated, he is willing to take a tough line. When asked if Facebook should cut off Vine's access to friends' data on the day of its launch in 2013 - ahead of the later wider crackdown - his reply was brief. "Yup, go for it." Facebook suggests such behaviour is normal. "At that time we made the decision to restrict apps built on top of our platform that replicated our core functionality," it said in its response. "These kind of restrictions are common across the tech industry with different platforms having their own variant including YouTube, Twitter, Snap and Apple." But it added that it now believes the policy is "out-of-date" so is removing it. Too late for Vine, which shut in January 2017. And Facebook's problem is that politicians now have another reason for new regulations to limit anti-competitive behaviour by the tech giants. Digital rights campaigners also have new reasons to gripe. "Time and again, Facebook proves itself untrustworthy and incapable of building the world it claims it wants to see," Dr Gus Hosein, from Privacy International, told the BBC. "They show a pattern, fostered by market dominance, of deceptive and exploitative behaviour, which must be stopped." |
The family of a man who died in a crash in Portsmouth last month say he will be "deeply missed and forever loved". | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Benjamin Ringe, 30, died after his Vespa scooter collided with a Mini Cooper car in Copnor Road late on 29 December. His twin brother described him as the "best twin anyone could ever ask for", while his partner said he was an "amazing dad and a great step-dad". Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the crash. Anyone with information or dashcam footage should contact Hampshire Constabulary. Related Internet Links Hampshire Constabulary |
Donald Trump's extensive, international business holdings mean he will have to make decisions as leader of the US that also affect his businesses. Here's a look at some of his potential conflicts of interest. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Trump Organization is an umbrella company for Donald Trump's hundreds of investments in real estate, brands and other businesses. As head of the executive branch and a business owner, he has the ability to influence both US policy and government agencies to benefit his bottom line. Presidents are not subject to the same conflict of interest rules as other government employees, but previous commanders-in-chief have placed their investments into a blind trust to prevent any question of corruption. Ahead of the inauguration, Mr Trump placed his business holdings in a revocable trust managed by his two adult sons, Eric and Donald Jr. But while this removes him from the day-to-day decision making of his business, the president still retains a long-term interest in making sure his companies are doing well. Eric Trump told Forbes in March he may share quarterly reports with his father, despite a statement that they would not discuss business or government with each other. Shortly after, ProPublica reported Mr Trump could draw money from the trust at any time, without external disclosure. Ethics experts have urged Mr Trump to liquidate his business holdings so that he can avoid any appearance of a conflict, as the public nature of most of his businesses means it impossible to prevent him from knowing how government policies will affect his bottom line. Below is a list of known conflicts of interest for Mr Trump, both foreign and domestic. Because his business is private, the full extent of his holdings - and the potential for conflicts - is not known. American conflicts of interest Trump International Hotel The Trump Organization leases the Old Post Office Building from US government's General Services Administration (GSA) for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.Trump as president is both "landlord and tenant" of this building, says Steven Schooner, who along with Daniel Gordon, has called on Trump to end the lease. The 60-year lease will likely involve renegotiations - and the person responsible for setting the rent prices would ultimately report to the head of the GSA, a Trump appointee.In addition, the lease bars any federal employee, including elected officials, from benefitting from contracts with the government. But in a March letter, the GSA said it had determined Mr Trump was in "full compliance" with the lease because his interests in the hotel had been placed in a revocable trust, which he would see no personal benefit from during his term in office. The letter was written by the GSA employee who had done the initial negotiations over the building. The letter has not stopped criticism. "Donald Trump still owns the hotel, still will benefit from payments and still has a vested interest in its success," Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNN. Bookbinder's organisation sued Mr Trump shortly after he was sworn in over foreign conflicts of interests. Meanwhile, the hotel has already been pitched to foreign diplomats as a place to stay while in Washington, raising concerns that foreign governments could see booking expensive rooms at the Trump International as a way to gain favour with the Trump administration. 40 Wall Street The Trump Organization owns the right to lease the space in this office building in Manhattan - and makes money from the rent paid to the building. According to Bloomberg News, there are five ongoing federal investigations into current or former tenants of 40 Wall Street, mostly for securities fraud. Those investigations are headed up by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Mr Trump's appointee to head the SEC, Jay Clayton, has been criticised for his ties to Wall Street firms by Democrats during his confirmation hearings. Dakota Access Pipeline Sioux tribes and allies had protesting for months to prevent the Dakota Access pipeline from being built under water supplies near the Standing Rock reservation. Trump had a partial investment - somewhere between $500,000 and $1m - in the parent company of the firm building Dakota Access pipeline, Energy Transfers Partners. Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks says Mr Trump has sold his stock in Energy Transfer Partners. But another one of Trump's stock holdings, Phillips 66, owns a 25% share in the project. It's unclear if the president has also sold his stock in Phillips 66, as his last financial disclosure was in May 2016. Update: On 24 January, Mr Trump signed an executive order paving the way for final construction of the pipeline. ETP began work in early February and oil is expected to flow by early April. The pipeline remains the subject of a lawsuit by the Cheyenne River Sioux. Deutsche Bank One of Trump's major lenders on his real estate projects is Deutsche Bank. The bank is currently in negotiations with the US justice department to settle a case involving misleading buyers when it sold mortgage bonds backed by risky loans. Update: Deutsche Bank settled the mortgage bonds case for $7.2bn in late December 2016. The FCC The president has another job title beyond "commander-in-chief": executive producer. He will continue to have a "big stake" in The Celebrity Apprentice, which airs on NBC, linking Mr Trump's business interests with the network. NBC and its parent company, Comcast, is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Mr Trump's pick for the chairman, Ajit Pai, will be need to be reconfirmed by the Senate this year, in order to continue on at the commission. National Labor Relations Board On 3 November, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Trump International Hotel Las Vegas - which Trump co-owns - broke the law by refusing to negotiate with a hotel workers' union. The hotel appealed the case to a higher court. But three other labour disputes involving the Las Vegas hotel are currently before the board, as well as several others involving the Trump Organization. NLRB is facing an unprecedented situation on how to rule on disputes that will affect the president's business. Mr Trump has named current board member Philip Miscimarra as acting chair and will be able to appoint two new members to vacant spots. Secret Service During the campaign, Trump's airplane company, TAG Air, billed the Secret Service for flying on Trump's Boeing 757 while protecting the candidate. It is standard for Secret Service to pay their own way on private aircraft, and during the campaign, this was tracked by the Federal Election Commission through campaign finance reports. While Mr Trump flies on Air Force One and other US aircraft as president, if Trump or Pence family members are assigned protective detail and decide to fly on Trump planes, the Secret Service would need to reimburse TAG Air - and ultimately Mr Trump - for the flights. In addition, Secret Service will reportedly pay the Trump Organization for the space they use in Trump Tower while protecting Melania and Barron Trump as they stay in New York for part of 2017. The Washington Post has reported the Secret Service has requested $27m extra for the overall protective detail in New York. Secret Service has also paid to protect Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, as members of the president's family - even as they travel to take care of business for the Trump Organization. Stocks Jason Miller, the transition team's spokesman, has said the president sold all his stocks in June 2016, a month after the required financial disclosure, but the campaign did not furnish proof nor provide an updated list of Mr Trump's investments. Since his election, Mr Trump has singled out specific companies for criticism on Twitter, causing price swings on the stock market. If Mr Trump still owns these stocks, he could make money off of selling and buying before and after such tweets. Foreign holdings According to Trump's financial disclosure, as of mid-2016, he had investments in or owned companies in at least 20 countries. Unlike his domestic business, Mr Trump could run afoul of a clause in the US constitution by continuing to profit from these deals. The emoluments clause specifically prevents anyone who holds a US "office of trust or profit" from accepting gifts, payments or any benefit from a foreign nation. Even routine business benefits like tax breaks could violate the emoluments clause. One former White House ethics lawyer has argued Mr Trump would be violation of the constitution "on day one". In addition to emoluments, Mr Trump's foreign policy decisions could be called into question in any country in which the Trump Organization does business, especially when his policies would benefit the firm's holdings overseas.Here are some of Mr Trump's larger business deals that intersect with US foreign policy. BBC Monitoring contributed to this report Argentina An Argentine broadcaster reported that Mr Trump allegedly asked President Mauricio Macri for his support to build an office tower in Buenos Aires while on call during Mr Trump's transition period. Mr Macri's office and the Trump campaign have denied the report. However, several days later, the Buenos Aires firm building the tower announced construction of the project was going ahead after years of delays. Brazil A waterfront property in Rio de Janeiro, branded with the Trump name through a licensing deal, is the subject of a federal inquiry after two small Brazilian pension funds invested heavily in the unfinished project, with allegations of bribery. Update: The Trump Organization has reportedly cancelled their licensing deal with the developers in Rio. Trump lawyer Alan Garten told the AP in December this and a few other cancellations were "normal housekeeping" and not part of a strategy to reduce potential conflicts of interests. Canada The Trump Organization has licensing deals with two hotel towers in Canada - one in Toronto and one in Vancouver. The Vancouver building is now open, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by the Trump sons, but the Toronto tower is up for auction after the developer went bankrupt and was put into receivership by a Canadian judge in November. China The Bank of China is one of China's largest banks and also majority state-owned. It holds the title on a $950m loan for a New York Building in which Trump is a part owner. Mr Trump has previously labelled China a currency manipulator. Another largely government-owned Chinese bank - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China - has space in Trump Tower, paying rent to the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization has also previously attempted to open a series of hotels in the country, and Trump Hotels chief executive Eric Danziger told a Hong Kong media outlet in October they wanted to open 20 to 30 hotels in the country in 2017. Meanwhile, Trump's son-in-law and now senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was negotiating a deal with China's Anbang Insurance Group to redevelop 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City before backing out of talks in late March. Mr Kushner has been given a senior role inside the White House. His lawyer told the New York Times he "would recuse from particular matters that would have a direct and predictable effect on his remaining financial interests" without giving specifics. Ivanka Trump, who has her own non-paying position at the White House, has advised her father on a broad number of policy areas, including high-profile foreign policy meetings. On the same day she sat next to Chinese President at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the Chinese government approved three new trademarks for Ms Trump's firm to sell items in China. While Ms Trump has moved her firm to a trust and said she will not partake in decisions could led to conflicts, ethics experts are concerned with the broadening scope of both her business, which bears her name, and her advisory role at the White House. Dominican Republic Despite a promise to do "no new deals" while Mr Trump is in office, the Trump Organization is testing that definition in the Dominican Republic. The firm with developers of a beachfront planned community but the project stalled, and Trump sued in 2012 for unpaid licencing fees. After a settlement of that lawsuit, the developments did not use the Trump name or discuss any involvement with the Trump Organization. But in February, owners made a show of announcing Eric Trump had toured the project, saying "we are excited to be working with the Trump Organization in the future phases of the project". A Trump Organization lawyer has described the deal as "never dead" and said discussions were "very preliminary" but some investors were surprised to find the firm was still technically involved in the project. Georgia The Trump Organization cancelled a licensing deal to build a condo tower in the resort town of Batumi, Georgia, shortly after Mr Trump won the election. The deal had been originally inked in 2011 but stalled amid slow growth in the country. One of the business partners involved in the deal told Forbes the firm had expressly told him the reason the deal was cancelled was concerns over the Emoluments Clause, despite a Trump lawyer's earlier statement the cancellation was "not part of a strategy to reduce potential conflicts of interests". India Trump has a licensing deal for buildings in Mumbai and Pune. One of his deals is with the Lodha Group, whose founder, Mangal Lodha, is also a vice-president in the ruling government party, BJP. Shortly after Mr Trump won the presidency, some of his Indian business partners flew to the US to congratulate Mr Trump, who took time out of transition meetings to discuss "US-India relations". Indonesia Two building projects with Trump licensing and management deals have not begun construction in earnest but the Trump Organization continues to be part of the venture. Mr Trump's partner on the resort projects is Hary Tanoesoedibjo, who ran for vice-president and is well-connected politically in Indonesia. Mr Hary is forming a political party in anticipation of the 2019 elections, the New York Times reports. In addition, one of Trump's advisers, Carl Icahn, is a major shareholder of Freeport, which is looking to extend a mining contract with the Indonesia government. Japan Ivanka Trump sat in with a meeting with her father and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Ms Trump's own firm is currently finalising a licensing deal with Japanese clothing company Sanei International, although she has now stepped down from the firm as well as the Trump Organization. The firm's largest shareholder is the Japanese government through the Development Bank of Japan. Ms Trump's company says the deal has been in the works for a while, and the terms were agreed before the election. Philippines Philippines' newest trade envoy to the United States is the same man who is building Trump Tower Manila. Like many of Trump's branding projects, Mr Trump does not own the building himself, but licenses his name to the building in return for regular payments. Trump family members have previously promoted the project, including a promotional video. The trade envoy/business partner reportedly flew to US to hold a private meeting with Mr Trump after the election. Saudi Arabia During the course of the campaign, Trump created eight business ventures tied to a potential real estate deal in Saudi Arabia. Mr Trump told Fox News earlier this year, he "would want to protect Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically". Update: A Trump Organization lawyer has told the AP the eight firms have been dissolved or shut and that there is "no deal" in Saudi Arabia. However, the firm could easily re-establish business ties there. Taiwan In September, a woman claiming to be an envoy for the Trump Organization discussed potential real estate developments in Taiwan with the mayor of Taoyuan. The Trump Organization has denied any plans for expansion there and said there were no "authorised visits" to discuss business in the country. The Taoyan mayor's office said the woman had "authorisation documents" but did not specify what kind, the New York Times reported. A month after his election, Trump called the president of Taiwan directly, breaking decades of existing US foreign policy. It still unclear if the woman is connected with the Trump Organization Turkey In 2008, Trump entered a licensing partnership with Turkish conglomerate Dogan Holdings, who were planning to build two residential and business towers in Istanbul's business district. Relations between Dogan Holdings and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan have turned sour since the towers opened in 2012. The Dogan family, also own a paper critical of Mr Erdogan. An earlier story from Newsweek argues the poisoned relationship between Mr Erdogan and the Dogans means Mr Trump would have a direct conflict between his business interests and his relationship with a US ally. Turkey's importance in the fight against IS and the Syrian civil war makes the stakes much higher. UK golf courses Mr Trump owns two golf courses in Scotland and has recently asked Nigel Farage to oppose wind farms, not because he believed they were bad for the UK or contradicted US energy goals, but because a wind project would potentially lower the value of one of his golf courses. "He did not say he hated wind farms as a concept; he just did not like them spoiling the views," Andy Wigmore, the Leave.EU communications director at the meeting told the New York Times and the Express. The golf courses could also be affected as part of Brexit negotiations or a second Scottish independence referendum. |
Across the Mediterranean, people smugglers are advertising their services on Facebook, promising safe passage to migrants desperate to reach Europe. Their pages offer a glimpse into a smuggling network that spans three continents, generates hundreds of millions of dollars, and has become, in effect, an alternative asylum service for the EU. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Daniel Adamson and Mamdouh AkbiekBBC World Service "With the beginning of the new season we have a range of journeys on offer. Turkey Libya Italy, $3,800. Algeria Libya Italy, $2,500. Sudan Libya Italy, $2,500… The boats are all wood… If you have questions, contact me on Viber or WhatsApp." This is not an ad from a travel brochure. It's a Facebook update posted by a people smuggler, Abdul Aziz, from the Libyan port of Zuwara on 21 April. Abdul Aziz is just one of hundreds of smugglers now using social media to promote their services to migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe. Their pages advertise everything from fake documents to safe passage by land, air, or sea. Many are illustrated with photos of luxury cruise liners or crisp new passports, and include package deals - "Kids go free" is a popular offer - as well as glowing testimonies that purport to be from migrants who have made the journey. But behind the glib promises and the slick online communications is a ruthless real-world web of smugglers and con men who thrive on the vulnerability of the migrants. This web extends not only across the Mediterranean and the Middle East but deep into sub-Saharan Africa. Abdul Aziz alone claims to have agents in "almost every Arab state" and says "if people can't get here to Libya, I have legal and illegal ways to get them into the country." The network that links a boat-runner like Abdul Aziz to a passport forger in Istanbul or a truck driver in Eritrea is an underground, ever-shifting configuration of personal contacts, criminal gangs, and one-off business deals that runs across national borders and is almost impossible to police. The adaptability of this system only makes it more efficient: last year some 220,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean, most leaving Libya in smugglers' boats before being rescued at sea by the Italian coastguard or navy. Since the start of 2015, another 35,000 have reached Italy. More than 1,800 have drowned in the attempt. There is nothing new in this. African migrants have been sailing from Zuwara for at least 30 years. But the proliferation of Arabic-language smuggling pages on Facebook reflects a surge in demand from Syrian and other Arab migrants since the uprisings of 2011, as well as a growing confidence among the smugglers themselves, many of whom post their mobile phone numbers online or field enquiries via online messaging apps. Abdul Aziz, who spoke to the BBC via Skype, said that between 10 and 20 people contact him through his Facebook page every day. "Until 2012 we didn't use social media at all," he said. "Now, it accounts for between 30% and 40% of my business." The collapse of the Libyan state has also emboldened the smugglers, allowing them to promote themselves online without fear of arrest. Abdul Aziz laughed at the suggestion that his Facebook page might attract the attention of the authorities. "What authorities? There aren't any authorities. There isn't even a regime. There's nothing." Giampaolo Musumeci, an Italian journalist who has written a book about North Africa's smuggling gangs, sees their growing social media presence as "part of the marketing operation for the biggest illegal travel company in the world." According to Musumeci, this "company" made something between 300m and 600m euros (£235m-£470m; $215m-$430m) last year from those trying to get into Europe, and now constitutes an unofficial asylum service for people whose lives have been derailed by poverty, chaos, and war. "What I'm selling," a Pakistani smuggler in Italy told Musumeci, "is the dream of Europe." For many of those who arrived in the EU last year, it's a dream that could not be realized through legal channels. Take Ayham al Faris, a Syrian translator and anti-Assad campaigner who fled his country in fear for his life in October 2011. Before he left, Ayham tried to apply for a visa from the French and Austrian embassies in Damascus. He got nowhere. Later, after he had reached Turkey, Ayham approached the German, Australian, and Bosnian embassies with the same request. "They didn't even say, 'We don't have programmes for you, we can't give you a visa now,' or something like that… They just say, 'Send us an email,' but when I send them my email they just throw it away." Faced with this wall of bureaucratic indifference, Ayham made his own way into Greece, where he used Facebook to contact a Syrian smuggler called Hafez. "He said he can take me wherever I want, no problem, it's easy for him. The most important thing is that you have your money in your pocket." Despite the sales patter, Hafez failed to get Ayham out of Greece. Eventually, Ayham bought a fake passport from another smuggler and, at the 11th attempt, got on a flight to Paris. He has now been granted asylum in the Netherlands. It's a case that illustrates the crux of the problem: people smugglers are responding to a demand for asylum that Europe's politicians are unwilling to meet. As long as this situation persists, says Musumeci, the smugglers will always find a way into the fortress. "They're thinking about how to get into Europe 24 hours a day… They communicate. They stay in touch. They change routes… one of these guys told me, "We study Europe, we study the laws, and the more you close the borders the more money we're going to make.'" New EU proposals to distribute migrants across member states and break up clandestine networks might help to reduce people smuggling within Europe. But Musumeci says it will do nothing to stop the boats coming across the Mediterranean. Dealing with that, he argues, will require a whole new level of engagement with the political turmoil in parts of Africa and the Middle East. "Migration is going to force us to deal with these international issues… We need to focus on Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria. It may sound naive, but it's the only way to stop the influx… We'll never stop this just by closing the doors. I've talked to dozens of migrants, and these people are willing to die to get into Europe." Despite the obvious difficulties, European countries are still trying to solve the problem at the level of policing. Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, recently launched an intelligence program, JOT Mare, which is supposed to disrupt or dismantle the smuggling networks that are bringing so many migrants across the Mediterranean. A spokesperson for Europol confirmed that their agents will look at the online presence of the smugglers: "JOT Mare is focussing on all modi operandi used by facilitators of irregular migration in the Mediterranean Sea, including the use of social media." He conceded, though, that "Europol has no operational cooperation agreement with Libya" - the point of departure for the vast majority of migrants. In Zuwara, Abdul Aziz hadn't heard of JOT Mare, but didn't sound too worried. "It's just words on paper. I'm not afraid, because it's meaningless. How are they going to follow me? Are they going to come to Libya? If they try, it would be considered an invasion. Are they going to catch me outside Libya? I don't go outside Libya. And if I do go, they won't know about it." Facebook: a window into the people smuggling business |
A nine-year-old boy has been injured after being hit by a motorbike in a park. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
He was struck by the vehicle in Rosmead Park off Southcoates Lane in Hull at about midday. The boy was taken to hospital having suffered life-changing injuries, police said. A 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing injury by dangerous driving. He remains in police custody for questioning. |
A Devon hospital is missing an important cancer waiting time target. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The government target is for 85% of patients to be treated within 62 days of being referred by their GP. The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RDE) has missed this target for eight months. Last year saw similar delays. The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust said it was due to increasing demand for complex surgery, adding treatment was only delayed if "clinically appropriate". 'Appropriate treatment' The 62-day target measures the time taken from the GP referral for suspected cancer to the patient's first treatment. It applies to all types of cancer. The RDE's latest performance figures said the target was missed from January to August. Trust chief executive Angela Pedder said: "Nobody is coming to harm as a consequence of the delays of not hitting the targets. "The targets are important, but we are doing our very best to treat our patients appropriately." The trust said one major factor was more patients being referred to it for certain types of surgery. It said it was the only place in south-west England that had robotic-assisted surgery for complex operations, especially treating urological cancers such as prostate cancer. The hospital also said some cancers took longer to diagnose and treat than others, pushing some patients over the 62-day limit. |
A wanted man driving a stolen car knocked on a police station door asking for help, telling officers he was being chased. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 41-year-old called in at Newtown police station in Birmingham at about 08:00 BST. West Midlands Police said he is alleged to have made off from a petrol station without paying last week. Officers arrested the man and later described the incident on Twitter as an "epic fail". On Twitter, police described it as "unbelievable". It garnered a number of responses, with one user commenting that it would "save so much time and effort" if more criminals "came knocking on your door". Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. Related Internet Links West Midlands Police |
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that nearly a quarter of a billion Africans could contract coronavirus in the first year of the pandemic, with between 150,000 and 190,000 of them dying. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Africa has had less than 100,000 cases so far, but WHO experts believe the continent will have a prolonged outbreak over a few years - and, aid workers say, the huge focus on containing the virus has led to other health issues being neglected. Here, five BBC reporters give a snapshot of what is happening in their countries: Congolese 'probably had virus without knowing it' By Emery Makumeno, Kinshasa The Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed its first case of Covid-19 in early March, but a doctor in the capital, Kinshasa, believes the disease arrived earlier. "During December and January, I can't remember how many patients came for medical treatment, coughing and with fever and headaches," he said, referring to Covid-19 symptoms listed by the WHO. "I am convinced that we, the medical staff, have been exposed to coronavirus already, without knowing it, and we have built a sort of immunity," he added. But DR Congo has carried out few tests to check the Covid-19 status of people, because of a lack of medical equipment. Countries with successful testing strategies, such as South Korea and Germany, have rapidly reached at least 1% of their population, UK medical journal The Lancet points out. If equipment is available, many African states could ramp up tests - some, though not DR Congo, did more HIV tests between 1 October and 31 December than the 1% target for Covid-19 testing, The Lancet says. Sources: Africa CDC; The Lancet So far, DR Congo has recorded more than 1,600 cases of the virus - the ninth-highest number in Africa, according to WHO. The first Covid-19 case was detected in La Gombe, the main business district in Kinshasa. The government moved swiftly to introduce a lockdown, but the virus has since spread to seven of the country's 26 provinces - including the mining hub of Lubumbashi. The outbreak comes at a time when DR Congo - which has poor health services, and has been hit by decades of conflict in the east - is also grappling with an Ebola outbreak. It has killed more than 2,000 people since 2018. Covid-19 has so far claimed the lives of more than 60 people. The UN children's agency, Unicef, has also raised concern about a reduction in vaccination rates, saying gains made from immunisation over the past two years could be erased. Unicef said vaccinations were already declining at the beginning of this year, and that the effects of coronavirus will make it worse. Hundreds of thousands of children had not received polio, measles, yellow fever and other vaccines. DR Congo might lose its polio-free status and there could be a resurgence of other deadly diseases. Health workers lacked equipment to protect themselves or the children from Covid-19, and parents were afraid to bring them to vaccination centres. Kenya hospital has 'fewer patients but more corpses' By Mercy Juma, Nairobi A major public hospital in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, saw an almost 40% increase in respiratory illnesses such as tuberculosis, pneumonia and asthma between December and early March, a doctor who works there told the BBC. However, the hospital had a sharp decline in such cases since mid-March, said the doctor, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media. One reason was that the government had imposed a nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew to contain the spread of coronavirus. This has resulted in a drop in night-time admissions, but an increase in the number of dead people being brought to the hospital's mortuary, the doctor said. People also seemed to be avoiding hospital for fear of being diagnosed with Covid-19 and being sent to quarantine centres, he said. This is because quarantining has been controversial in Kenya, with the government forcing suspected Covid-19 patients to pay for their own confinement. The price ranges from $20 (£16) to $100 a night, depending on the centre, though the government has now promised to cover costs at public quarantine centres. Sources: Africa CDC; The Lancet Hostels at schools and universities as well as private hotels have been used as quarantine centres. A video clip went viral last month, showing several people scaling a wall to flee a centre in Nairobi. Those quarantined have complained that some centres are not much better than prisons, with poor hygiene and overcrowding making it impossible to practise social distancing. 'More patients and more corpses' in northern Nigeria By Ishaq Khalid, Abuja There have been reports of more people falling ill and dying in Nigeria's most populous state, Kano, since the outbreak of coronavirus nearly three months ago. So, it is not surprising that President Muhammadu Buhari has extended the lockdown in the northern state to the end of the month. A grave digger at the Abattoir Graveyard in the main city, also known as Kano, told the BBC: "We have never seen this, since the major cholera outbreak that our parents tell us about. That was about 60 years ago." Prof Musa Baba-Shani - the head of the department of medicines at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, the main hospital in the state - told the BBC that they have been treating more patients with illnesses such as asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, as well as chest pains and sore throats. The professor, who works with the respiratory diseases unit of the hospital, said there had been an increase of between 40% and 45% in the number of respiratory cases in about the last three months. He attributed the rise to the closure of many hospitals in the state, especially private clinics, because of a lack of protective gear for medics. This has forced more patients to seek treatment at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Prof Baba-Shani said some of those with respiratory illnesses were diagnosed with coronavirus, and referred to the treatment centres set up for Covid-19 patients. He decried the slow testing for coronavirus in Africa's most-populous country, which has a population of around 200 million. It would be better for both patients and hospitals if testing was speeded up, he said. Sources: Africa CDC; The Lancet Another doctor at the hospital, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said some people were avoiding seeking treatment because they feared contracting Covid-19 in hospitals. In north-eastern Yobe state, an unusually high number of people - 471 - have died in the past five weeks. It is unclear whether the deaths are linked to coronavirus, but the state's health commissioner, Dr Muhammad Lawan Gana, told the BBC that a preliminary investigation had found that most of the dead were elderly people with pre-existing health conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. Nigeria has more than 6,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the third-highest in Africa. The commercial capital, Lagos, is at the epicentre of the outbreak, but a lockdown imposed at the end of March has been partially eased, raising fears that the virus could spread. "It's tough decision, but I think it was the wrong call," said Dr Andrew Iroemeh, who works at a Covid-19 isolation centre in the city, "It's recommended [that] for a lockdown to be relaxed we should have a consistent reduction in the rate of infection for at least 14 days. We haven't seen that," he added. 'Few signs of virus' in Ethiopia By Kalkidan Yibelta, Addis Ababa Respiratory infections are common in Ethiopia, Africa's second most-populous state, with a population of more than 100 million. Research shows they are the third major cause of death each year, after neonatal disorders and diarrheal diseases. The coronavirus outbreak does not seem to have led to more patients with respiratory infections being admitted to hospitals over the past few weeks. A doctor in the capital, Addis Ababa, told the BBC that he was looking for signs of unreported Covid-19 cases but he did not detect anything unusual. Sources: Africa CDC; The Lancet There was no increase, for example, in the number of patients with pneumonia, a severe complication caused by the virus. Similar reports were given by a doctor and a nurse the BBC spoke to in eastern and southern Ethiopia respectively. In recent days, the number of cases detected daily has risen from single to double digits. This has raised some concern, but the overall number is still low - less than 400. This is despite the fact that Ethiopia, unlike many other states, has not introduced a lockdown, taking limited measures, such as a ban on sporting events and gatherings of more than four people, to curb the spread of the virus. The doctor in Addis Ababa said Ethiopians might have been spared the worst of the virus because of less foreign travel, or there may be other unknown factors at play. He said people should take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus as the possibility of a surge could not be ruled out. Uganda to focus on 'verbal autopsies' By Catherine Byaruhanga, Kampala Uganda has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in East Africa and so far it has one of the lowest number of Covid-19 cases in the region - around 260 - and no deaths. Most of the testing in Uganda has been on truck drivers who arrive from neighbouring states. Last week, Health Minister Ruth Aceng said that of the 139 confirmed cases at the time, 79 were truck drivers. The President of the Uganda Medical Association, Dr Richard Idro, said that doctors around the country had not reported seeing more patients with respiratory illnesses, though the lockdown - which includes a ban on travel - could have prevented them from going to hospital. People with mild symptoms of coronavirus might have also stayed at home, resulting in some cases going unrecorded. Sources: Ugandan government; The Lancet In a recent address, Uganda's President Museveni said the government planned to carry out "verbal autopsies" in communities to find out whether people might have died from Covid-19. The government has promised to distribute free masks to all citizens above six years old over the next two weeks before easing lockdown measures. Ugandans on social media have generally been sceptical about the plan, pointing to the delays in giving food to 1.5 million people in and around the capital, Kampala, after they lost their income because of Covid-19 restrictions. If the mask distribution is successful, Mr Museveni has promised that shops will be allowed to open, public transport will be back on the road but carrying half the number of passengers and food market vendors - who have been sleeping at their stalls under the president's orders - will be allowed to go home at the end of each day. |
Dorset fishermen affected by the winter storms, are now able to apply for up to £5,000 to replace damaged equipment. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Fishmongers Company Fund is being administered by the Dorset Community Foundation. It follows criticism of an EU fund application process for fishermen which Dorset South MP Richard Drax called "a bureaucratic mess". Commenting on news of the latest fund, he said that "any money the fishermen get is good news". The Foundation said it would accept applications from Dorset fishermen "whose trade has been severely affected by storm damage" during the period 1 December to 31 March 2014. |
A man has been jailed for a minimum term of 15 years for murdering a woman in Leeds. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Sarah Henshaw, 40, was found dead at her flat in the Redcourt apartments building in Athlone Grove, Armley, on 11 February. Kileo Mbega, 32, of Athlone Grove, admitted murder, when he appeared before Leeds Crown Court. A fraud charge, which he denied, will remain on file. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. |
Police investigations of gang murders are increasingly held back by a "wall of silence", the BBC has found, with witnesses across the country unwilling to give evidence. The trend emerged during the BBC's First 100 Killings project which has tracked homicides from the start of 2019 and monitored dozens of murder trials. Youth workers, police and prosecutors believe witnesses are afraid for their own safety. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Steve Swann & Danny ShawBBC News On a February evening in 2019, the Marcus Lipton youth club in Brixton, usually a place for children to socialise in safety, was about to erupt in violence. Outside, a BMW pulled up and two teenagers, armed with long knives, ran towards a group gathered near the entrance and chased them inside. David Marriott, 38, was in the sports hall running a football coaching session for Lambeth Tigers with children as young as three. "Everything happened really fast…The boys came running through the hall that we were working in. Everyone was really alarmed," he remembers. One of the young men who was being chased - 23-year-old Glendon Spence - fell over and was cornered by the two attackers near a table tennis table. He received stab wounds to his hand and arm as he fought to fend off the blows. Then a blade slashed his thigh, penetrating a major artery. His assailants ran out and back to the car, which was later burnt out and abandoned. Meanwhile Mr Spence managed to struggle to his feet, before collapsing in a heap. "He was bleeding really heavily," says Mr Marriott. "We found where he had been stabbed and where the blood was coming from and we tried to stop the blood coming out." But despite his best efforts and those of paramedics, the young man died on the floor of the youth club he had attended since his childhood. "It was very difficult. The young children saw blood everywhere," says Mr Marriott. "Some of them are still trying to get over it." Mr Spencer's killing was one of 100 in the first four months of 2019 which were tracked by the BBC as we looked into the reasons for the recent spike in homicides. The youth centre became a crime scene and a murder investigation was launched - but police hit an early obstacle as key witnesses would not talk to them. This made it difficult to understand the motive and whether Mr Spence or any of the people he was with, were the intended target of what police suspected was a gang attack. "It's unclear in this case who the intended gang were, or even who the attacking gangs are," says DCI Richard Vandenbergh, who leads a homicide team based at Lewisham Police Station. Officers focused on what they could prove and had an early breakthrough. In the melee a youth worker overheard a reference to "R1". A gang intelligence officer worked out this was the street name for Rishon Florant, then aged 17, who had links to a south London gang and a string of convictions for knife possession. He had also been excluded from school and banned from entering Lambeth at the time of the murder. Florant's name was immediately circulated to police and border officials at ports across the country. "He was actually found trying to leave the country at Heathrow Airport and was boarding a flight en route to Uganda," says DCI Vandenbergh. Fingerprints and CCTV Now the hunt was on for the second suspect. Sifting through CCTV at the youth club, officers saw he had touched an outside gate and the table tennis table close to where Mr Spence was stabbed. Unlike Florant, this suspect was not wearing gloves so police were able to extract a fingerprint. In the national DNA database they found a match to Chibuzo Ukonu, another 17-year-old youth with a criminal record for knife possession and drug dealing. He was tracked to Manchester where he was arrested. The pair were charged and put on trial at the Old Bailey. Florant was convicted of murder and jailed for a minimum of 18 years. As he walked from the dock to the cell, he smiled at his friends in the public galley when they shouted 'Free R1". He has lodged an appeal against his conviction. Ukonu was found guilty of manslaughter and will serve 14 years in a young offender institution. Although Mr Spence's parents can take some comfort from these verdicts, they are still no clearer as to why their son was killed. Not knowing the motive leaves a huge gap in understanding what this homicide was all about, "frustrating" for DCI Vandenbergh who wants to understand the background to help prevent others. The men's accomplices, such as the driver of the BMW, have still not been caught. But it's not the first time DCI Vandenbergh has come up against the wall of silence. "It's incredibly common, especially with some of the under-25 knife crime murders that we have where there may be gang links. We've had instances where people will just not talk to us," he says. Mr Marriott understands why: "No-one wants to be labelled as a grass or a snitch, and if people do go down that road there will be consequences." They "could be beaten up, someone could get killed" and "as much as the police will have an opinion that these boys should come forward, it's easier said than done. Because if they were to come forward, what would the police do to protect them?". His assessment is bleak: "I wouldn't advise that they come forward. They've got to turn a blind eye to it." For Mr Marriott, who grew up in Brixton, the key is to prevent the violence happening in the first place. That means offering more support for community groups like his, which help 500 local boys. "We do everything we can to get the kids off the street but lack of facilities is a huge problem," he says. In the 100 killings cases followed by the BBC we have seen how often gang disputes and turf wars escalate into deadly violence. In October, two men and three teenage boys went on trial accused of murdering a rival gang member in a north London hair salon. Kamali Gabbidon-Lynck, 19, bled to death in front of people, including children. Earlier his friend Jason Fraser, 20, had been shot and stabbed eight times in Wood Green in scenes that "were reminiscent of a Hollywood film", an Old Bailey trial heard. Murder convictions were secured but once again we glimpsed the price that can be paid for not keeping quiet. One of the teenage defendants was stabbed in prison because he had given an account to police, albeit very limited, of what happened that night. 'Stand up and be counted' "In most of the gang violence that we prosecute, there are witnesses who have plainly seen something which would be relevant to the prosecution but are not prepared to give evidence," says Julius Capon, head of the Homicide Unit of the Crown Prosecution Service in London. He believes it's getting worse. "We're getting more instances of knife and gang crime and as a result we're getting more people who are reluctant to come forward," he says. For prosecutors like Mr Capon their reticence is "an enormous handicap", meaning that "injustice is being caused, because those that have killed people are not facing the justice they should". He acknowledges that people are afraid: "Frankly anyone that has witnessed a murder will be frightened about the repercussions but there are measures that we can put in place to protect people." And besides, people have "a moral obligation to do your bit and come to court to give evidence". "If you are worried about the number of, usually kids, that are being killed you have to stand up and be counted." Back on the streets of south London, homicide detectives are struggling to breach another wall of silence. It is more than a year since the unsolved murder in Tulse Hill of 16-year-old John Ogunjobi, who was chased and fatally stabbed by a group of men. He died in front of his mother in a targeted attack. DCI Vandenbergh believes that some of John's friends may have vital information that they have not given police and appeals to their consciences to help a grieving mum to know why it was that her son was targeted. Jackie Sebire, national lead on serious violent crime at the National Police Chiefs Council, said there is a "group of disengaged young people" who do not trust "any authority figures", including police, teachers, and youth workers. She told Radio 4's Today programme it would "absolutely" help if more witnesses and victims could remain anonymous. But she said that decision was up to the judge presiding over the case, and that applications for anonymity may be rejected to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial. |
Two men were rescued from Guernsey's north-west coast after being trapped by the high tide. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The pair, believed to have been fishing, became stranded on rocks near Ladies Bay at about 09:30 BST. A member of the public alerted the coastguard, after which the Ambulance and Rescue inshore lifeboat was launched and the men returned to land. Jason Garnham, coxswain on the boat, said he thought the pair had been stranded for several hours. |
The Mafia has been part of Sicilian life for generations, and so has the battle by police to arrest its leaders. The elite unit that goes after them is called the Catturandi - from the word meaning "to catch" - one of its officers told Max Paradiso about the shadowy world in which he works, and how he kept his job hidden from his girlfriend until she recognised his bottom on TV. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The only time you are likely to see a member of the Catturandi is when they arrest a mafioso. They are the men "without a name and without a face" - when they carry out operations they wear balaclavas to ensure they can't be identified. "We prefer to be called 'The Band of Lions' because that's what we are: wild, free, and ready to attack at any given time in this jungle," says IMD. There are fewer than 20 of them, and there is an obvious reason why they keep a low profile. "Back in the day, you would receive death threats from the bad guys, goat heads sent directly to your house - it wasn't pleasant," he says. In the 90s he also received photographs of his car number plate, marked with a red cross. The threats drove some of his colleagues to leave the Catturandi but not IMD - and over the years the risk of assassination has reduced. He and his fellow officers find they often develop strangely intimate relationships with the criminals they track. They can wiretap and tail them for decades before making an arrest. "It's like living with these people. You hear them conceiving their children, you listen to their family issues, you see their kids growing up and their emotions become yours," says IMD. One of the men they bugged was a doctor in Palermo, who is now in jail. "He was really knowledgeable, we all learned Italian literature by constantly listening to him. We would take notes, get books he mentioned in his never-ending lectures to his kids. It was like listening to a radio programme and we were all fascinated by his manners, his way of thinking and his creativity. It was hard to believe he was a mobster." The weeks after an arrest can be unsettling. "You don't see them any more - it's psychologically hard to cope with and, as they were part of your daily life, you start missing them," says IMD. In his two decades with the police, IMD has helped to arrest nearly 300 mafiosi, including Giovanni Brusca, notorious for kidnapping and torturing the 11-year-old son of another mafioso who had betrayed him. Brusca had the boy killed and the body dissolved in acid - as a result, the child's family couldn't bury him. At the moment of arrest, when the Catturandi storm a mobster's house, IMD says he can have mixed feelings. "You want to ask them a lot of questions: Why do you kill? Why do you do that to another human being?" But the opportunities for conversation are limited, and any exchanges tend to be unsatisfying. "When we got Brusca, 'The Pig', he started weeping like a child. Provenzano, the boss of bosses, on the other hand, remained silent and whispered to me, 'You don't know what you're doing.' But we got them, and that's what matters." Brusca was a key player in the crime that inspired IMD to join the police. On 23 May 1992, the Mafia placed half a tonne of explosives under the road to Palermo's international airport, killing the leading anti-Mafia judge, Giovanni Falcone. Brusca was later identified as the man who pressed the button setting off the bombs. "I was at my girlfriend's 18th birthday party," says IMD, who was a biology student at the time. "Her father was the head of the Palermo police response team and when the bomb blasted, the pagers of all the police officers at the party went off at the same time and everybody left in tears. That was this girl's debut into society." IMD immediately wanted to find out what was going on but when he realised the road to the airport was sealed off, he decided to drive his motorcycle to the centre of Palermo instead to see how people were reacting. "Right there," IMD recalls, pointing at a little piazza, "I saw a bunch of guys laughing and cheering while eating their panini. I went up to them and I told them Judge Falcone got killed. They stared back at me and said, 'What the hell do we care?' "I knew what I wanted to do. The following day I joined the police force to catch as many bad guys as I could." At that time, few young Sicilians wanted to join the Catturandi - partly because the job was too dangerous - so IMD's application was accepted readily. "Most people you knew would stop talking to you or they would spit in your face because being a cop was considered an unspeakable betrayal," he says. He dropped his studies and while his old university friends were "chasing girls in nightclubs", as he puts it, IMD was tailing Giovanni Brusca and other Mafia bosses such as Salvatore "Toto" Riina, who ordered the Falcone murder. While following Brusca, IMD and one of his colleagues ended up in Cinisi, a small town near Palermo. "There was this group of girls so we approached them. The idea was to get introduced to people in Cinisi without raising suspicions. Of course it worked out… we got the fugitive but I had to marry her afterwards," he laughs. Their dates were unusual. His girlfriend - unaware of what was going on - provided useful cover. "Instead of taking my girlfriend, now my wife, to nice beaches to kiss under the stars, I would take her to horrible places, dead-end roads paved with garbage, just because I was following the fugitive's lover. We would start embracing and she would ask: 'Why here of all places?' "After dropping her off at her house, I would go back to the office and report." He used to tell his loved ones that he worked at the passport office. But when he and his fellow Catturandi caught Brusca, "everybody was in front of their TV screens, videotaping the arrest", he says. "When my wife [then girlfriend] saw those men wearing the balaclavas she noticed a familiar rear end and she called me. I couldn't hide the truth any more. I told her, 'Please don't say anything to Grandma otherwise the whole world will know.' Luckily, she was able to keep the secret." Italy's most wanted mafioso today is Matteo Messina Denaro, also known as Diabolik - a nickname he took from an uncatchable thief in a comic book. The head of the Sicilian Mafia, he has been in hiding since 1993 - police believe he is living abroad, possibly in South America. He once boasted that he could "fill a cemetery" with his victims, and last year it emerged that he had been communicating with fellow criminals using a code that referred to sheep. Messages between them included "The sheep need shearing" and "The shears need sharpening". Eleven men were arrested in Sicily - IMD was there - but Denaro himself is as elusive as ever. While the Sicilian Mafia is not as powerful as it was 20 years ago, it is still a problem for the island. "They know they can't kill people as they used to, so now the whole system has evolved into an intricate web of interests that entangles politics, finance and the very structure of Sicilian society," says IMD. For some, especially teenagers and tourists, the Mafia still holds a romantic aura. On Palermo's street corners stallholders loudly advertise Godfather T-shirts, gun-shaped cigarette lighters and statuettes of men with moustaches and shotguns with one hand placed over their mouths. Muto sugno, Mum's the word, it reads on the base of the miniatures. One of these stalls stands just a block away from Via D'Amelio, a dead-end residential road where, on 19 July 1992, a Mafia bomb killed another judge, Paolo Borsellino. He was known as the "the good man of Palermo" for his stand against organised crime. "These street stands are a paradox, just like this town," says IMD. "We would like to be as civilised as the rest of the world, but we never let go this perverse fascination with the criminal underworld." Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
Members of England's European Championship squad have visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camps. This comes as memorials and museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an increase in visitors. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Clare SpencerBBC News A delegation led by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II. Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar Schindler's factory in Krakow. The visits received a mixed reaction from commentators, with the Daily Mirror's Oliver Holt saying the "harrowing visit... made an extremely powerful statement" at a time "football is wrestling with new and grave concerns over racism among players and supporters". But for the Daily Mail's Melanie Phillips, it was a "deeply distasteful football PR stunt" , which was "intended to cleanse the besmirched reputation of English football". Yet England's players are not the first footballers to visit Auschwitz. Holland and Italy, who are also camped in Krakow, have already been, as have representatives of the German team. And they join the millions of tourists who have walked through the iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) to pay their respects. Last year, a record 1.4 million people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials all over the world are also seeing numbers soar. At the same time, other sites of massacres or genocide and cemeteries are becoming increasingly popular with tourists. Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda, are among the destinations on what has become known as the "genocide tourism" map. Ben and Nicole Lusher made it their mission to visit memorials when they took an unusual five-month trip around the world, starting at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial. Ben says that while the couple learnt a lot on their travels, it was Rwanda's main genocide memorial, overlooking Kigali, that stood out. "It was a new experience for us to be in a place where the genocide was still fresh and almost everyone we saw around the country had been affected," he says. The couple were both only 10 years old in 1994 when between 800,000 and one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, so they were also learning about it for the first time. More typical visitors to Kigali's memorial are tourists who have travelled to Rwanda to see the wildlife and the mountains. Aegis Trust attendance figures state that more than 40,000 foreigners visited Kigali's memorial in 2011. Canadian Laura Maclean, who went to Rwanda to go trekking, says she made the decision to visit the memorial during her holiday because she thought "it showed respect". Tour guide George Mavroudis, who charters planes to fly Americans around Rwanda to see the gorillas, says most of his clients ask to visit the memorial. According to Mavroudis, who has been to the Kigali memorial more than 20 times, tourists believe it is important to understand the country they are in. The memorial is not the only tourist spot that marks this dark chapter in Rwanda's history. The Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda is based on the story of the general manager of the five-star hotel, Des Milles Collines, who sheltered Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were in danger of being slaughtered. The current manager, Marcel Brekelmans, says tourists turn up every day to get their pictures taken by the entrance sign, and there is no escaping the country's past. "It's not only about gorillas and beautiful lakes. Something happened here and everything you encounter here on a daily basis has a history," he says. Brekelmans, who grew up near one of the largest World War II burial grounds in the Netherlands, says from his perspective, it is necessary to "stop and reflect from time to time". But how memorials choose to mark such events is a contentious issue. The main memorial in Kigali has cabinets full of skulls, carefully lined up one after another. Other cabinets display pile upon pile of bones. Similarly, some of Cambodia's memorials to those killed by the Khmer Rouge regime display skulls in a clear pyramid called a stupa. But exhibiting human remains in this manner is controversial, and a topic that has been debated at length by the very people who oversee such museums. Dr James Smith is the founder of the Rwandan memorial centre and the UK's Holocaust memorial. He says when he set up the memorial he worried that displaying skulls recently dug up from mass graves could have threatened the dignity of the deceased. But he says he decided that it was important to create something where there could be no denying what happened. As a compromise, Smith uses low lighting to make the display cabinets look like burial chambers. "In terms of the bones we said, 'instead of stacking them on shelves, [let's] put them in a darkened room, underneath cabinets so it's like a grave that people can look into'," he says. There have been times when foreign visitors have been insensitive, according to Smith. He says he had to put up a sign outside the memorial asking people not to stand on the mass graves. So why are tourists increasingly visiting such memorials? Psychologist Sheila Keegan, an expert in cultural trends, says what people want to get out of a holiday has widened. While they still want the relaxation they get from sitting on a beach, they also want to broaden their horizons. "People want to be challenged. It may be voyeuristic and macabre but people want to feel those big emotions which they don't often come across. They want to ask that very basic question about being human - 'how could we do this?'," she says. Keegan says holidays are also used as a talking point so people want to see something they can discuss when they go home. "It's about creating your own history, reminding yourself how lucky you are." But Keegan has a word of caution. She says she didn't give much thought to her own decision to visit Cambodia's "killing fields" and took her daughter there when she was just eight years old because they "happened to be in the country". She says it is now an experience she regrets. "I hadn't thought it through. We were in the country so we just went because it was a feature of the country. But I hadn't expected it to be so graphic. "It was the mid-90s, not long after the civil war. There was still blood on the floor and shackles on the bed." In the past decade, tourist curiosity about Cambodia's "killing fields" has grown and so-called "dark tourism" is set to become big business. |
Crieff Hydro has joined the hotels shedding staff, as the hospitality industry looks ahead to limited revenue and rising furlough costs. The coming week brings the deadline for larger employers of deciding between paying towards furlough or redundancy. The Crieff Hydro group is well placed to pick up on leisure breaks when they're allowed again, but those positioned for corporate travel will find it tougher going. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland Coming out of hibernation is when animals can be vulnerable, with their reserves of strength and food depleted. Nature provides a generous smorgasbord of goodies to greet them. Or at least, that's the idea. Not so with the current economy. Coming out of hibernation is going to be far riskier than staying in it. The coming week is likely to reflect that. Already, we're seeing hotel groups shedding jobs. They've looked at the terms of the second phase of furlough scheme. It's more generous than many expected, but it still forces questions and hard answers: will there be a market for these workers when we re-open, and if not, can I afford to take on the payroll costs until there is? That's why several landmark hotels last week announced they're shedding some of their staff, to match costs with expected revenue when they reopen. They included the Blythswood in Glasgow, and the George in Edinburgh. 'Drastic and devastating' This weekend, we've learned that Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels is doing the same - 241 jobs are "at risk". That means people could be out the door at the start of August. With 950 staff, all but 50 of them furloughed, owner Stephen Leckie says he's already spending £500,000 per month on keeping buildings secure and insured. The fifth generation of his family to run Crieff Hydro, he now operates 11 properties, including Peebles Hydro, and has borrowed to improve facilities and to expand his rural leisure-based product into Lochaber. Seeing it as a business built on the quality of its people, personnel feels personal: "When we closed our doors at the end of March, it was one of the darkest days in our 150 year history and this is another," says Leckie. "The impact coronavirus has had on our industry and business has been immediate and drastic. "As a family-run business built on the strength of our people, discussing potential redundancies is the toughest step we've ever had to consider. I am personally devastated for every one of our team who could lose their job." To help pay bills, he's taken on £6.5m of additional debt, most of that through the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). That will take perhaps a decade to bring down to comfortable levels, he tells me, meaning other investments will have to be put on hold. And so it is for businesses across the economy, let alone the many expected to default on their share of more than £30 billion in loans backed by the UK government. Deadline looms So as Crieff Hydro burns through cash, it was one of the businesses asking about the additional Estimated £30,000 per month of costs that would come with National Insurance Contributions, pensions and holiday accrual from the start of August. Is there any point in paying that to keep people on the payroll, with little expectation there will be jobs for them come October? In September, employers will have to pay 10% of the furlough pay bill. From October, it's 20%. As November starts, the scheme is due to be over. And will the revenue be there for that? It doesn't look likely. At Crieff Hydro, they expect bookings to be down by 30 to 50%, and that revenue will be around 50%, or £17m down on last year. So if the answer is "no - there's no point" in keeping people on for that reduced demand, then redundancy is likely at the start of August. For a larger employer, with more than 100 people on the books, they have to give 45 days notice: for less than that, it's 30 days. So for the big companies, notice is going to be served in the next 10 days. Ghost at the banquet Don't expect Crieff Hydro to be the end of this, and particularly in hospitality. For hotels, restaurants and bars, they are now missing out on peak earning season. Even when they are allowed to re-open, they can't expect customers to flood back. People will be cautious about travel, about infection, and about household finances. However, Stephen Leckie, who is also chairman of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, points out that he's relatively lucky. More than 60% of his business is in the leisure trade, and half of UK leisure business is from Scotland. So he'll do OK out of staycations, and he was already well established for repeat business. The rest of income is from conferences, meetings, events and big dinners. He doesn't expect to see much of that, if any, returning this year. The banqueting team won't have anything to do, except plan for next year. So things look worse for those who don't have that balance, such as city hotels that rely on corporate travel, conferences, events and concerts. The sector is pushing hard to get the Scottish government to reduce the two-metre distancing rule, to one or 1.5m, as in most of continental Europe. Without that, few restaurants or bars could be viable. Air bridges Boris Johnson is expected to say more about that this week. The prime minister is reported in the Sunday Times to have realised only last Tuesday the severity of the problems facing Britain's tourism and hospitality industry. It's claimed Downing Street is pivoting to much more concern about the economy than about viral infection. The report goes on to outline changes to planning controls on outside dining and drinking in England, using the crisis to cut through bureaucratic delays. The creation of air bridges in and out of less infected countries are being prioritised, so that some Brits can avoid quarantine when they return from foreign holidays. If the PM chooses to ease the two-metre rule, it will raise pressure for the Scottish government to back business with a similar relaxation of infection controls. To help tourism, there would have to be an easing of the five-mile advisory limit on travel. The Scottish Tourism Alliance would like an extension of the school holiday in October. And depending how much it is willing to borrow, government could go further: for instance, a temporary VAT cut, as Germany has just announced, or a voucher for staycations, as in France. |
Nigeria's inspector general of police has banned a notorious unit from carrying out stop and search duties and setting up roadblocks amid growing anger at routine harassment and atrocities allegedly committed by its officers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Mohammed Adamu also said members of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) must always wear uniforms. Videos shared recently on social media appear to show officers extorting money and even shooting people. Nigerians want SARS disbanded. The hashtag #EndSARS is trending on Twitter, triggered by the alleged killing of a young man by officers from the unit in the city of Lagos on Saturday. Many people are also using the hashtag to share stories of brutality attributed to the police unit. Lagos Governor Sanwo-Olu tweeted on Sunday: "Appropriate actions will be taken, and speedily too". SARS and other tactical police units have been banned from "invasion of privacy of citizens particularly through indiscriminate and unauthorised search of mobiles, laptops and smart devices," Mr Adamu said in a statement on Sunday. They should, he said, focus on cases of armed robberies, kidnapping and other violent crimes. He also said that police commissioners and commanders would be held liable for misconduct of officers in the areas they were in charge of. Three years ago Nigeria's police chief ordered an immediate re-organisation of the SARS after public outcry, but little, if any, changed according to an Amnesty International investigation published in June. The rights group accused SARS officers of using "torture and other ill-treatment to execute, punish and extract information from suspects". It documented 82 cases between January 2017 and May 2020. Amnesty found the group allegedly targeted men between the ages of 17 and 30. "Young men with dreadlocks, ripped jeans, tattoos, flashy cars or expensive gadgets are frequently targeted by SARS," the organisation said. "The Nigerian authorities must go beyond lip service and ensure there is real reform, " Osai Ojigho, director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said about the findings. |
Chancellor George Osborne has put forward plans to give UK cities "a more powerful voice", and Labour leader Ed Miliband has set out plans for regional economic "powerhouses" to rival the capital. But how do those in rural communities feel? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Esther WebberBBC News It's 19:00 on the dot when Andrew Pike calls to order the meeting in Culmington Parish Council, which is congregated in a neat, modern village hall in the green and hilly Shropshire landscape north of Ludlow. Nine people sit around on chairs, all seemingly relieved by the news that a controversial planning application to build a campsite nearby has been withdrawn. This, it seems, is the bread and butter of the parish council's work. But the small band of committed volunteers take in a wide range of other issues too. Some of the topics up for discussion - such as the positioning of Neighbourhood Watch signs, and how to prop up an aged tree in the parish - are specific to the landscape of Culmington. But others - a disagreement over emergency services and local primary school staffing - are illustrative of the wider difficulties in providing services to rural communities. Shropshire is a predominantly rural county, populated by just one person per hectare (107,600 sq ft) - the average for England and Wales is 16 - which presents logistical challenges in terms of healthcare transport, education and broadband access. 'Not designed for us' These are the issues that come up time and again among local residents, according to Cecilia Motley, a Conservative member of Shropshire Council. She attends similar meetings in nine different parishes in order to get an idea of what people are discussing in the far-flung corners of her ward, and feed those views back to the larger council. One recurring source of frustration in rural Shropshire, she says, is the number of instances where "the rules are not designed with us in mind". Ms Motley gives the example of planning, where she says the need to demonstrate a demand for development projects over a number of consecutive years makes sense for areas where housing is highly sought-after, but not for Shropshire where demand is finite. "Nobody sat down and thought through how it was going to play out in sparsely populated areas like Shropshire, Cumbria and North Yorkshire," she argues. David Evans, another local councillor who runs a hardware shop and poultry business, agrees. He sums up the problem: "The trouble is city people don't understand rural areas." Both councillors are troubled by the idea of the countryside "as a theme park where you go for the weekend to breathe deeply and go cycling". "Actually people live here and work here, and it's often very hard work," says Ms Motley. The rural economy in numbers Figures: 2012-13 Source: Defra There have been a number of calls for cities to have more powers in the wake of the Scottish referendum. On Monday, Mr Osborne said Greater Manchester would get an elected mayor and more control over taxes, suggesting other cities would be "keen to follow Manchester's lead". Mr Miliband has also set out plans for local authorities in big cities to band together to create regional economic "powerhouses". The RSA City Growth Commission published a report in October that recommended allowing UK cities to make their own decisions on tax and spending to boost economic growth. However, in rural Shropshire, there's a feeling that politics is already dominated by urban concerns, and this would only get worse if more powers were devolved to cities. "If money goes into the city of Birmingham it never comes out again. It'll be another case of power going to the big cities and they don't really worry about their rural areas, they're all looking after their own interests," says Mr Evans. "What worries me is city-regions will not operate without bureaucracy - and that simply wouldn't be effective. What you get is not decentralisation but the top moving down to the regions," says Ms Motley. The prevailing message seems to be that government should avoid a "one-size-fits-all" approach. 'Smaller building blocks' It's not just Shropshire where these frustrations are felt. Anne McIntosh, the Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton - who also chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee which published a report last year criticising the government for not doing enough to tackle rural issues - says there is concern in North Yorkshire too. Discussing devolution, Miss McIntosh argues: "If Scotland gets more, and we're deciding how to devolve more powers within England, my feeling is that the building blocks should be smaller rather than bigger. "I'm concerned about emphasis moving from Local Enterprise Partnerships - which work with district councils and county councils - to city regions. That would risk rural communities' voice being lost," she says. Another MP who sits on the committee is Labour's Mary Glindon, whose North Tyneside constituency is mainly urban but also takes in significant rural areas, composed mostly of arable farming. She stresses that "if you have devolved powers to city-regions, you have to ensure a voice is given not just to urban communities but to people living rurally". Most plans for devolution to cities assume transport would be part of the package, and Mrs Glindon says it's important people understand how critical transport links in remote areas are in providing access to jobs. She is wary of what she describes as "one group of people - in cities - thinking they know best". Fears have also been voiced by campaign group Action with Communities in Rural England, who say they don't want to see rural areas "left behind" by plans to give more power to cities. The government has introduced several measures designed to champion rural issues, such as the establishment of the Rural Communities Policy Unit and its broadband rollout programme. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has insisted it is "investing in rural broadband, mobile coverage and providing funding to develop and grow rural businesses". However the government proceeds with plans to devolve powers, it will have to answer communities such as those in Culmington. As the clock ticks towards 20:00 in the village's town hall in one evening in October, parish councillors are still in the thick of a debate on the intricacies of a planning application for a new farm building in the area. It is thought to be intrusively tall and the assembled community conclude by vowing to haul in the applicant and go through his plans with a fine-toothed comb. The impression is that while their version of local democracy may not be perfect, it works reasonably well, and any attempts to revamp it - or give more powers to nearby cities - will be closely watched. |
A teenager has been shot in the leg in Sheffield. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Emergency services were called to Spital Lane at 00:10 BST and found a 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital where he remains in a "serious but stable condition". A large cordon remains in place at the scene as detectives investigate. South Yorkshire Police has urged witnesses and anyone with information to contact the force. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. |
A man has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving after a mother was knocked down at a pedestrian crossing. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Shantelle Kirkup was struck by a Ford Focus as she crossed St Cuthbert's Way, Darlington, in May 2018. The 29-year-old, of Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was with her five-year-old son, who was also injured. A 36-year-old Darlington man will appear at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court on 21 February. He has also been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Mrs Kirkup, a mother of two, was taken to Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital by air ambulance but later died. |
Every January for almost 50 years, world leaders, the bosses of the world's biggest companies and a sprinkling of celebrities have gathered in a small Swiss mountain town called Davos for the World Economic Forum. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Katie HopeBBC News, Davos But what is it and why do they go? Here are 10 handy facts to make sure when someone next mentions Davos you can nod wisely and look like you know what you're talking about. 1. It isn't really called Davos Although everyone calls it Davos, the January get-together is actually the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Davos is simply the name of the Swiss mountain resort where the summit is held. The town's association with the glitzy gathering means plenty of rival events have tried to capitalise on the name's cachet, with a proliferation of conferences claiming to be "Davos" this or that. But last year when a Saudi investment conference was dubbed "Davos in the desert" around the time of the controversial death of prominent government critic Jamal Khashoggi, WEF finally hit back. It warned it would use "all means to protect the Davos brand against illicit appropriation". 2. It's not just a conference The World Economic Forum is a not-for-profit group with the ambitious mission of improving the state of the world. Its annual jamboree is officially a conference. There are endless speeches and sessions on everything from the outlook for the global economy to managing stress. In reality, most people aren't there for the sessions but to network relentlessly. Being in a relatively tiny space for four days enables corporate bosses, politicians and journalists to have an incredible number of meetings in an efficiently short space of time with no travel required. This networking carries on late into the night with daily dinners, drinks and parties, put on by the firms who are attending. 3. Meetings can lead to action Forum founder Klaus Schwab started the annual shindig in 1971 to discuss global management practices. Now WEF has a much broader remit, but critics argue that it's still just a talking shop. But the isolated setting of Davos offers politicians a valuable chance to meet away from the public glare. North and South Korea held their first ministerial level meetings in Davos in 1989, for example. Last year, the Greek and Macedonian prime ministers met face to face for the first time in seven years, paving the way to the end of a 27-year dispute over Macedonia's name. 4. Only businesses pay (a lot) to attend The only attendees who pay to attend WEF are companies; all other attendees are invited free of charge. The charge for companies is 27,000 Swiss francs (£20,900; €23,800) per person. But that's not all. Attendees must also be a member of the World Economic Forum. There are a number of tiers of membership, starting at 60,000 Swiss francs per year to a whopping 600,000 Swiss francs to be a so-called "strategic partner". It's a pricey business, but top members get access to private sessions with their industry peers and unlike everyone else, slipping and sliding over the icy pavements, they also get a dedicated car and chauffeur. A price worth paying, some might say. 5. Conference passes are colour coded Improving inequality is always a big talking point at Davos, but WEF operates its own very unequal system determined by a complicated caste system of coloured badges. Yes you might be in the same place as Prince William or the New Zealand PM but it's unlikely you'll bump into them in the loo. Such high-profile guests get a white badge with a hologram on it, giving them access to everywhere - including the hyper-exclusive special backroom meetings. There are different coloured badges for participants' spouses and journalists, all offering various levels of access. The lowest level is a "hotel" badge, which means you can't get into the conference centre at all, but crucially can attend the nightly parties or indeed go skiing. Arguably the best badge going. 6. There are a lot of men In the 49 years since Davos started hosting its annual meetings, men have vastly outnumbered women despite a quota system for large firms who must bring one woman for every four men. "Davos Man" has even become a description in its own right, synonymous with the stereotypical attendee: a powerful and wealthy elite male - whom many see as out of touch with the real world. Of course, this largely reflects the current reality: those at the top in both business and politics are predominantly male. But while photos of the suit-heavy gathering captioned "spot the woman" do the rounds on social media every year, the situation is steadily improving. This year, 22% of attendees will be female. It's not great, but the percentage of women has doubled since 2001. 7. It's not a young crowd It takes time to claw your way to the top and wangle a Davos invite and the average age of attendees reflects this: it's 54 for men and 49 for women. Of course there are some anomalies. At just 16, South African wildlife photographer Skye Meaker is the youngest participant this year, while the oldest is 92-year-old broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. 8. It has its own language Complicated corporate jargon is a hallmark of the conference. What anyone actually means can be mystifying, even to the seasoned WEF watcher. Even the theme of each year's conference is often incomprehensible. This year's is Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What's it actually about? Umm, we'll let you know next week. 9. It's like flying... without the actual flying This year's attendees include Japanese and New Zealand PMs Shinzo Abe and Jacinda Ardern, as well as Prince William and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Given the high profile of many of the attendees, security is understandably tight. There are snipers on every roof and a secure zone that you need the right pass to access. Every time you enter the main conference centre you have to remove your coat, scan your laptop and bag and then put it all on again. It's like constantly going through airport security without ever flying anywhere. 10. Everyone loves a free bobble hat The attendees may be wealthy heads of state and chief executives earning hundreds of thousands or even millions, but the lure of a free bobble hat is surprisingly irresistible. Every year Zurich Insurance provides bright blue knitted hats you can help yourself to from a hole in the wall. And almost everyone does. Months later if you see someone wearing one, you can nod at each other discreetly. You're part of the Davos set. |
More than 40 flights were cancelled in Guernsey on Monday after heavy fog meant they could not take off or land. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The disruption continued on Tuesday but airport director, Colin Le Ray, said he was hopeful conditions would improve. The Jersey Met Office has said hill fog patches were likely on Tuesday and Wednesday across the Channel Islands but that they would clear. Mr Le Ray said they had got 26 flights out but only nine back in on Monday which he said was disappointing. Jersey flights to Southampton and to and from Gatwick were cancelled on Monday due to heavy fog. |
Police are investigating after a 19-year-old driver died in a crash in Rhondda Cynon Taf. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The man was declared dead after the crash, which involved no other vehicles, on the A465 northbound carriageway on Monday. The road, between Glynneath and Hirwaun, was shut for six hours after the crash, at about 16:50 GMT. South Wales Police said the victim's family was being supported by specialist officers. Officers have issued an appeal for witnesses. |
Thirty years after Pembrokeshire-born Terrence (Terry) Higgins became one of the first people in Britain to be claimed by Aids, the trust set up in his name is warning that Wales has once again become complacent about the threat posed by HIV. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Neil PriorBBC News The number of new cases each year remains low, but there has been a jump from 64 in 2001, to 160 in 2011 - a rise of 150% over the last decade. But while the first, 1980s wave of HIV disproportionately struck young heterosexual professionals, gay people and drug users, the Terrence Higgins Trust warns that a potential second wave in the 21st Century may cross demographics who believed they were safe. Of the 1,600 people in Wales currently living with HIV, it's estimated that 19% are unaware that they have it, and the majority of these are over 50. "It's dangerous to generalise too much, but there's a significant proportion of the over-50s in Wales who felt they are a group who were completely removed from the original Aids crisis in the 1980s," says Joshua Hall, service manager for Terrence Higgins Trust Cymru. At the time a lot of the people were in marriages or monogamous relationships, and so they didn't really need to worry, added Mr Hall. "But 20 or 30 years on, and we're seeing that a lot of those relationships have broken down, and that the over-50s are just as sexually active as any other group," he said. "What's more, because they're no longer of child-bearing age, over-50s in Wales are much, much less likely to use condoms with new partners." Under 25s are also at an increased risk, who have no recollection of the original publicity campaign in 1987. "The original Aids awareness campaign was probably one of the most successful pieces of public information of all-time," Mr Hall said. 'Dangers' "People who were old enough can clearly recall the 'Don't Die of Ignorance' slogan and the tombstone imagery, and as a consequence at-risk groups revolutionised their behaviour and really put the brakes on the spread of HIV. "But there clearly needs to be a repeat campaign, as young people now seem to have no cultural frame of reference to the dangers posed. "When we do work in schools, an alarming proportion of the pupils we talk to either don't believe there's such a thing as HIV anymore, or else believe that it's entirely curable." Terry Higgins was born in Haverfordwest in 1945, but friends say he left for London as a teenager as he felt uncomfortable growing up as a gay man in west Wales. By day he worked as a reporter for the House of Commons' official record, Hansard, and in the evenings as a nightclub barman and DJ. They were interests which would see him travel to work in New York and Amsterdam during the late 1970s. But in 1980 he was forced to return home to London with a series of persistent and - at the time - unidentifiable illnesses. In the summer of 1982 he collapsed while at work at the Heaven nightclub in London, and on 4 July he died of parasitic pneumonia. Later that year, Martyn Butler, from Newport, along with two of Mr Higgins's other close friends, established the Terrence Higgins Trust in his memory. It started in a London flat, but has grown to become a leading voice on sexual health, as well as providing counselling and clinics. 'Stigma' "Terry was a good friend of mine, but at the time HIV had not been identified, we just knew that something unpleasant was going around in the gay community," said Mr Butler. "We thought Terry may be at risk because he was a great traveller and he spent a lot of time in New York, where there were a lot of cases. "One thing that Terry's death taught me was that I wanted to be sure that nobody died alone and unaware of what was happening." But while the initial focus of the trust's work was on the gay community, Mr Butler explains that this is no longer the case. "We had to educate the gay community - that was where it was springing up, but that gave it the stigma that still echoes down into a lot of heterosexual boys nowadays," he added. "That is our biggest danger today - the gay community has educated themselves well but the heterosexual community often thinks it is not going to affect them. "They are not getting tested, and that is a huge worry for me." |
A block of flats in Galashiels has been torn down in order to make way for the reopening of the Borders to Edinburgh railway. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The properties at Beechbank Place had been earmarked for demolition for some time. Residents moved out of the buildings last year and the flats were pulled down at the weekend. It is hoped the £295m railway project will see trains running between the capital and Tweedbank by 2014. The flats were right on the route of the planned railway as it passes behind Galashiels town centre. Works were expected to have started on building the line by now but contractors have yet to begin. However, to speed up the eventual completion, trees and vegetation are being cleared from the side of the route, right down through the Borders. |
The last moments of Anne Boleyn who was the first English queen to be executed have been re-enacted. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The launch of the Last Days of Anne Boleyn saw her journey from Greenwich to the Tower of London, where she was imprisoned, brought back to life. The play at the Tower follows the final 17 days of her life from her imprisonment and interrogation, through to her trial and execution in 1536. The wife of Henry VIII had been accused of adultery and witchcraft. |
The way neurons communicate could inspire the next generation of computers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Researchers are developing novel computers by mimicking the way that neurons are built and how they talk to each other. Basing computers around neurons could lead to improvements in visual and audio processing on computers. It might mean that computers learn to see or to hear in the future rather than just rely on sensors. As well as building computers, the researchers are also helping to improve understanding of nerve cells and how they operate. Smarter seeing While artificial neural networks have been around for more than 50 years they typically do not copy real neurons very closely. By contrast the project being co-ordinated by computer scientist Dr Thomas Wennekers from the University of Plymouth wants to model specific physiological features of the way that neurons in one part of the brain communicate. "We want to learn from biology to build future computers," said Dr Wennekers. "The brain is much more complex than the neural networks that have been implemented so far." The early work of the project has been collecting data about neurons and how they are connected in one part of the brain. The researchers are focussing on the laminar microcircuitry of the neocortex which is involved in higher brain functions such as seeing and hearing. The data gathered has fed highly detailed simulations of groups of nerve cells as well as microcircuits of neurons that are spread across larger scale structures such as the visual cortex. "We build pretty detailed models of the visual cortex and study specific properties of the microcircuits," he said. "We're working out which aspects are crucial for certain functional properties like object or word recognition." There are hopes that the work will produce more than just improved sensory networks, said Dr Wennekers. "It might lead to smart components that are intelligent," he said. "They may have added cognitive components such as memory and decision making." They might even, said Dr Wennekers, start to be endowed with emotion. "We'll be computing in a completely different way," he said. Big brain While Dr Wennekers and his team are working largely with software simulations, Professor Steve Furber from Manchester is using the inspiration from neurons to produce novel hardware. Called Spinnaker, Prof Furber's project is trying to create a computer specifically optimised to run like biology does. Based around Arm chips, the Spinnaker system simulates in hardware the workings of relatively large numbers of neurons. "We've got models of biological spiking neurons," said Prof Furber. "Neurons whose only communication with the rest of the world is that they go ping. When it goes ping it lobs a packet into a small computer network." Spinnaker uses Arm processors each one of which runs about 1,000 neuron models. The current system uses an eight processor system but, said Prof Furber, the team is in the final stages of designing the chip with 18 Arm processors on board, 16 of which will model neurons. The ultimate goal, he said, was a system that controlled one billion neurons on a million ARM processors. "The primary objective is just to understand what's happening in the biology," said Prof Furber. "Our understanding of processing in the brain is extremely thin." The hope is also that the simulation leads to innovative computer processing systems and insights into the way that lots of computational elements can be hooked up to each other. "The computer industry is faced with no future other than parallel," said Prof Furber. Despite this, he said, industry understanding of how to get the most out of all those computational elements was lacking. The big problem, he said, was how to run the system without being swamped by the management overhead of co-ordinating those processors. Spinnaker might show a way to overcome some of these problems as the individual elements will be far smaller than the monolithic processors in use now and will, to an extent, to self-organise. They will also offer advantages in that they are likely to use a lot less power than existing machines. "We think there's a change in the game there," said Prof Furber. |
Millions of workers are doing their day jobs from makeshift set-ups in their living rooms and kitchens, while those in England who can't work from home are now encouraged to go back in if they can do so safely. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
But how exposed to coronavirus might you be in your job? And how does that compare to others? Data from the UK's Office for National Statistics, based on a US survey, puts into context the risk of exposure to disease, as well as the amount of close human contact workers had before social distancing and other safety measures were introduced. See how your job ranks by using the search below. A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. How exposed is your job? Enter your job below Can't find your job? Browse full list Rather search by typing? Back to job search Exposure to disease Closeness to other people While most jobs require people to work relatively closely to others - somewhere in the range between arm's length and a shared office environment - there are very few that typically involve exposure to disease more than once a year. It's important to note that the data on both exposure to disease at work and how close people are to others is based on interviews that took place with US workers before the pandemic broke out and social distancing recommendations were introduced. Some jobs may find it easier to adjust than others and there may be slightly different working practices and conditions in the US for certain occupations. The results can be expected to be broadly the same in most developed countries. Almost all the jobs that have a high exposure to both disease and other people are healthcare professions, while those who scored low on both measures include artists, lawyers and those in more typical office jobs like marketing, HR and financial advisers. Cleaners, prison officers and undertakers are among those who have relatively high exposure to disease without so much close interaction with other people. But the people who might be most at risk to a new infectious disease like Covid-19, are those who have lots of close contact with people, but aren't used to being exposed to disease. Bar staff, hairdressers and actors fall into this category, as well as taxi drivers and bricklayers. What do I need to know about the coronavirus? Other figures released by the ONS this week showed that deaths in the healthcare sector in the UK are no higher on average than those in the wider community, although social care workers were dying at higher rates. Given that these healthcare occupations are so exposed to both disease and other people, why have there not been more deaths? This could be because workers in these jobs are more likely to be using personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gloves, says Ben Humberstone, deputy director for health analysis at the ONS. They also follow regular hygiene measures like washing hands. One of the jobs which had many more coronavirus deaths than the average was taxi drivers. That's a job which scores highly in terms of closeness to other people, particularly among those jobs which are still actually possible to do at the moment. Bar staff, hairdressers and fitness instructors all score higher, but with bars, gyms and hair salons shut, most of these people will be isolating. As taxi drivers are less exposed to disease in normal times, there may not be an existing culture of regular hand-washing and wearing PPE. Some firms are trialling partition screens and distributing gloves and masks to protect their drivers and customers. Methodology The data in the look-up comes from this release by the ONS. The figures on proximity to others and exposure to disease come from a survey carried out by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) in which they asked respondents in the US to place themselves on a 1-5 scale for the following two questions. 1. How physically close to other people are you when you perform your current job? 2. How often does your current job require you to be exposed to diseases or infection? For exposure to disease, a score of one means they are never exposed, while a score of five means they are exposed daily. It's referring to any disease, not coronavirus specifically. For the physical closeness question, one means the respondent works more than 100ft away from the nearest other person, while five means they need to touch or be near to touching other people at work. The survey was carried out before social distancing measures were introduced and workers in certain jobs will of course find it easier to adjust than others. The responses for people in the same jobs were averaged together and extrapolated to form a score of 100. We've looked at these scores out of of 100 and given each job a ranking. If any two jobs had the same score we've given them a tied ranking. By Daniel Dunford, Sean Willmott, Marcos Gurgel and Katie Hassell. |
Rising knife crime is one of the biggest challenges facing the police, especially in the UK's major cities, but chiefs say they cannot solve the problem alone - and one mother is fighting hard to make sure more young people are protected from its dangers. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By June Kelly & Naresh PuriHome affairs, BBC News Alison Cope knows first hand how damaging knife crime can be. In September 2013, her son Joshua Ribera was stabbed to death at a party to commemorate the life of a friend who had died in a stabbing the previous year. The 18-year-old was a well known Birmingham rapper. To his fans around the country and to people around the world who knew him he was Depzman, an up and coming grime artist who had just produced his first album and was building his career, appearing on BBC Radio 1Xtra. But to his mum he was much more. "I say Joshua, not Depzman, not a grime MC, because Joshua is my little boy, my only son," she says. Row spiralled into fight "That little boy was a newborn baby in my arms, a toddler, and a totally obnoxious teenager who grew into the most beautiful young man. "So I need you to understand that Depzman was nothing to me. Joshua was everything to me." He became involved in a row over a girl which spiralled into a fight and his rival, Armani Mitchell, left the club but then returned with a knife. He said he wanted to cut Josh on the arm, but as he pulled the knife, Joshua raised his arm to protect himself and Mitchell plunged the knife into his heart. As a passionate anti-knife campaigner, Alison has now dedicated her life to convincing teenagers there is another path in life. Speaking to pupils at City of Birmingham school, which looks after children permanently excluded from mainstream education for a whole range of reasons - including having knives - she tells them the harsh reality of what happened to her son. "He fought back, seven heart attacks, multiple blood transfusions, they were cutting his body open from top to bottom and all the way across desperately trying to save his life," she says to the class. "But on the morning of 21 September at 05:58, my son gave up on life and he died. That changed everything for my family. "But it also changed the life of another 18-year-old boy, Armani Mitchell. He worked and was at college part-time. "He is now in a category-A prison, serving a life sentence. Two 18-year-old boys went on a night out and neither of them came home." Rapping was Joshua Ribera's route to success. Now Alison encourages teenagers and younger children to take part in sessions at a recording studio in Birmingham, to help harness their creativity and develop a sense of self-worth in the hope it will keep them away from gangs and knives. At the studio, another of those also trying to help the next generation is 27-year-old Nathan Chin, whose rap name is Lil Fella. As well as being a rapper, he is trying to set up a charity called Unity Each 1, Teach 1, to support people struggling to get into education and employment. Nathan spent most of his teenage years in and out of young offender institutions. He has been in prison for knife crime, but has tried to turn his life around believing people like him are well placed to try to stop teenagers carrying knives. "People who have gone to prison, real people who have been in situations, are the best people to help reform people," he says. Alison's final message to the teenagers is simple: "With the help of your teachers and your family, you have every chance of being an amazing successful individual. You have got a choice. "Make the best of your life." |
Has the London 'ghost town' disappeared? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Tom EdwardsTransport correspondent, London@BBCTomEdwardson Twitter Certainly Transport for London's (TfL) latest figures suggest footfall in the West End is up. Compared to a year ago, TfL's figures show there was a 27% increase in passengers using stations in the West End on Saturday night. There will be surprise at that from some businesses, particularly those that don't cater to the particular peccadilloes of Olympic tourists. But you can almost feel the relief from TfL. Message change It was under considerable pressure (and still is from some - particularly the black cab trade) after accusations it had over-cooked the transport warning messages. In the middle of last week it changed the message to one promoting central London. TfL says: "The sorts of patterns we are seeing are all consistent with previous Games. "Sydney, Athens and Vancouver all experienced similar patterns." The figures show that on 3 August, London Underground carried an all-time record of 4.4m people, compared with 3.7m on an average day in the same week last year. I used the Tube on Friday. It was busy - but not that busy. The difference at the moment seems to be the rush hour has spread out over the day and commuters have staggered their journeys. Bosses at TfL told me they do not think the Tube could have coped on Friday if they had all those passengers as well as commuters. Economic debate The transport plan - to ask (or scare?) Londoners to change their habits - to make room for spectators seems to have worked, in that we have not had too many big transport problems compounded by large crowds. The debate over whether the plan was the correct one is another matter. The fact is the system worked pretty well. Even the independent passenger watchdog London TravelWatch agrees with that. The economic debate is also very interesting if, in my view, only partly linked to transport. A number of politicians have claimed the Olympics would bring an economic benefit to London - contrary to previous evidence that shows most cities suffer a net loss in tourism short-term when they hold the Games. While I'm sure local transport is part of that debate - putting the blame solely onto it for scaring people away is simplistic. Other factors come into play including the recession, high room costs at some hotels, high flight prices and the preferences of Olympic tourists. Also don't forget the 'main' attraction is a brand new Olympic Park miles away from the centre of London. If you come to London to watch the Olympics that's where you'll be heading. Let me know your thoughts… |
Roald Dahl's run-in with her and a dead mouse as a boy inspired some of his most horrible characters but, as his centenary is celebrated across the country, who was the infamous Mrs Pratchett? And what became of her? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Lucy BallingerBBC News The image of her grubby fingers reaching into a sweet jar have disgusted generations of children. The fabled Mrs Pratchett was immortalised by Roald Dahl as "a small skinny old hag with a moustache on her upper lip, little piggy eyes and a mouth as sour as green gooseberry". Dahl and his friends played a trick on the sweet-shop owner by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar so "when she puts her dirty hand in to grab a handful, she'll grab a stinky dead mouse instead". The aftermath of the Great Mouse Plot "deeply affected" Dahl's writing, according to his widow Felicity, and is believed to have inspired some of his tales such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits and Matilda. But what was the world Dahl met the sweet-shop owner in? Dahl lived for the first nine years of his life in Llandaff, Cardiff. The suburb is a historic city in its own right thanks to its cathedral, built in around 1120. The main street is now home to boutique coffee shops and delis, but 100 years ago it had a dirt road, and horse-drawn buses. The shop at 11 High Street is now an unassuming two-storey building which houses The Great Wall of China takeaway. But in Dahl's time it was "the very centre of our lives", a place for the worship of sweets, packed with glass jars filled with colourful treats. Llandaff Society chairman Geoffrey Barton-Greenwood said: "Roald Dahl and his friends used to call at Mrs Pratchett's Sweet Shop fascinated by the delights in there. "They would spend their pocket money and were in awe of the revolting woman that was Mrs Pratchett. "But, of course, Mrs Pratchett wasn't her real name. Her real name, we believe, was Katy Morgan. "Mrs Morgan ran it with her daughters, who were elderly spinsters. They lived in reduced circumstances - running a little sweet shop was a means of bringing some money in." Widow Catherine Morgan and her daughters Kate and Sarah ran the shop for 37 years. Despite the delights on offer in the shop, Mrs Morgan was not the most welcoming shopkeeper. Dahl and his friends hated her so much they targeted her with the Great Mouse Plot. The schoolboy's friends distracted Mrs Morgan, 68 years old at the time, so he could sneak a dead mouse into a glass jar, filled with gobstoppers. The aim was to for her to pick up the dead mouse when she was next pulling out a gobstopper. The following morning the boys walked past the shop, to find it closed, with the gobstopper jar smashed into pieces all over the floor. Dahl was petrified he had killed Mrs Morgan with shock, only to be presented with her in the playground at school, picking out the culprits. The boys were then caned by the headmaster, while the shop-owner watched, with Dahl last in line. Speaking about it in an interview, Dahl said: "I knew that boys got beaten in the school, but I never knew that they watched each other getting beaten." He added: "On the second or third one we suddenly got the shock of our lives because, from the far corner of the room, came Mrs Pratchett's voice saying 'that's it, lay into him, headmaster' and all that sort of thing. "And we looked round and there was this foul, old hag sitting in an armchair watching. "And when I came up I remember her yelling 'that's the nastiest of the lot, you lay into him headmaster, don't let him off' and I limped out clutching my buttocks and whimpering." Dahl's widow Felicity said: "The consequences, of course, hit hard. "You could hear your fellow friends being caned, and you knew you were next. That is pretty tough. I think it affected him a lot, and of course it went through a lot of his children's literature." When his mother, Sofie, saw the marks from the cane she marched straight to confront the headmaster, and told him she would be taking Dahl out of the school at the end of the year. It was a decision which would mean his move to English boarding school and, ultimately, the family's relocation to Buckinghamshire from Cardiff. Sweets for sale in Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop Dahl said the impact of being caned when he was at school remained with him through his life. He said: "I can't conceive of doing it myself and I don't quite know how they did it, actually wounding someone in cold blood. "If I sit on a hard seat for two hours, I then begin to feel my heart actually beating along the stripes on my bottom where they were." But what had happened in her life to make Mrs Morgan such a loathsome and malicious character? She was born Catherine Lound, who married master shoemaker Robert Morgan in Llandaff Cathedral in 1875. The city's High Street was a dirt road then, with tumble-down thatched cottages on one side and hoardings on the other. The couple had three daughters, although one of them died in 1878, aged just seven months old. Soon after the death of their daughter, Mr Morgan died, although the circumstances of his death are unclear, leaving his widow a 26-year-old single mother-of-two. She tried her hand at dressmaking to try to make ends meet, before opening Catherine Morgan Confectioner and Tobacconist in around 1900. Sweet historian Tim Richardson, author of Sweets: A History of Temptation, said: "The local sweet shops offered cheap imitations of the high-class sweets which were in the high-class confectioners, such as candied orange peel and glacier fruits, which are still expensive now. "They were cheap shops to run, they were almost people's front rooms, they were very humble. "It would have had rows and rows of jars with hard, fruity sucker sweets, which were cheap to buy and lasted a very long time, and would have been popular with children like Roald Dahl." But Mrs Morgan was far removed from the childlike and avuncular character of Willy Wonka, whose face "was alight with fun and laughter". For her, the sweet shop was a way of surviving. Describing Mrs Pratchett in Boy: Tales of Childhood, Dahl wrote: "By far the most loathsome thing about Mrs Pratchett was the filth that clung around her. "Her apron was grey and greasy. Her blouse had bits of breakfast all over it, toast-crumbs and tea stains and splotches of dried egg-yolk. "It was her hands, however, that disturbed us most. They were disgusting. They were black with dirt and grime. They looked as though they had been putting lumps of coal on the fire all day long." He added: "She never smiled. She never welcomed us when we went in, and the only times she spoke were when she said things like, 'I'm watchin' you so keep yer thievin' fingers off them chocolates!' or 'I don't want you in 'ere just to look around! Either you forks out or you gets out!'" The three women lived on top of the shop, with a steady rotation of lodgers renting rooms. In sharp contrast, Roald Dahl was born on 13 September 1916 in a first-floor bedroom of Ty Gwyn, then Villa Marie - a house built by his Norwegian father Harald Dahl, who was a shipbroker supplying ships in Cardiff with everything they needed when they arrived at port. Cardiff docks was one of the largest coaling ports in the world at that time, with a large contingent of workers from Norway, and Mr Dahl was very successful. His large Llandaff house sat in half-an-acre, with later owners installing a tennis court in the back garden. Dahl said he grew up having a "marvellous family life" in Cardiff. He spoke Norwegian as his first language and was sent, aged seven, to attend the prestigious Llandaff Cathedral School, which still exists today. The sweet shop was a stone's throw from the imposing spires of the cathedral and was perfectly placed for the young Dahl and his friends to nip into on the walk home from school. The rows of glass jars filled with sweets in her shop laid the grounding for Dahl's love of confectionery and the traits of some of his characters. His widow Felicity said: "To him, with somebody being lucky enough to run a sweet shop - how could they be so horrible? So she had to be shown up, she had to be written about, it had to be recorded. "Wales was a large part of his memories and of his writing, without a doubt." And he never forgot his childhood in Llandaff, or Mrs Morgan. He said: "I think one unconsciously draws from childhood, you probably don't even remember it exactly, but when you are trying to think of something it comes back." He paid visits to Cardiff throughout his life as his parents and older sister Astri were buried in a leafy cemetery close to his childhood homes. In 1961, the then owners of the house he was born in got a surprise when he turned up on their doorstep, saying his mother had asked him to check the garden was being looked after. Margaret Edwards, now 101, lived in the house with her parents, and had no idea he was a writer. She said: "He was just Mr Dahl to me, and he said that his mother asked him if he could call, to see the rockery. "I took him around the garden, showed him the rockery and the whole garden, and he was very interested." Mrs Edwards later received a letter from Dahl's mother thanking her "for your kindness to my son" and saying Villa Marie had been her "dream home". On another occasion the then-headteacher of Elmtree House School - where Dahl went to nursery school - spotted the tall figure of the author standing across the road from the building smoking and looking intently at it. When she went to confront him and see who he was, she was surprised to learn it was the former pupil. He later sent her a signed photograph. While Dahl went on to become a world-renowned children's author, the sweet-shop owner of his childhood remained in his home-town becoming more and more reclusive. She finally died in the flat above the shop she had lived in for 64 years of senility, low blood pressure and bronchitis in 1939, aged 84. She is buried with her two daughters, who never married, in an unmarked grave just 200m (656ft) from her former sweet-shop. But despite her anonymous death, the impression she left on Dahl remained. As well as immortalising Mrs Morgan in the character of Mrs Pratchett, in Matilda, the schoolgirl's friend Lavender puts a newt into the water jug of the teacher Mrs Trunchbull. While the description of Mrs Pratchett's filthy clothes stained with food, smacks of the Twits. Dahl said: "Vicious people are much more interesting than nice good people. There is nothing more boring than a totally good person. They have got to have quirks and bad habits and things like that. "You can have a nice one as well chucked in there. But if you had a book filled with nothing but nice people it would be awfully boring." |
A man has died after being hit by a lorry. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 21-year-old was hit by the truck on the A16 at Newborough, near Peterborough, at about 20:25 GMT on Thursday and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the lorry was not injured and has not been arrested, Cambridgeshire Police said. The road was initially closed, but has since reopened. |
Hassan Al Babi, a Syrian refugee from Damascus, is steadily carving slices of chicken shawarma off a gas-heated rotisserie. It's lunchtime in Oberhausen and the German city's first Syrian restaurant is doing a brisk trade. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Howard Johnson and Tobias BrauerBBC News "It's not about the job as such," says Hassan. "It's about the fact that I'm working and producing and not waiting for help at the job centre." In the year since BBC News first visited Oberhausen, refugees have started to become part of the community. More than 2,500 refugees, many fleeing conflict in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, are currently settled in the city. The Royal Cafe opened in August this year. The €30,000 (£25,000; $32,000) start-up cost was covered by German-Palestinian, Omallah ali Maher. The café is managed by Mr Al Babi and another Syrian friend. It employs a further three Syrian refugees to serve its customers. Mr Ali Maher met them at the Red Cross camp in Oberhausen. "They told me that they wanted to work for themselves. They don't want to be beggars," he said. "We don't have a written contract. I just looked in their eyes I see they are really honourable people." All profits made by the business go towards paying the staff and paying back their debt. According to Mr Ali Maher, who helps the men by collecting supplies and doing their German paperwork, the café's model of using business to help refugees is the answer to Europe's migrant crisis. "We can be successful by solving the refugee problem in Germany, when we get people to work," he says. "I am 71 years old, I feel like 60 and I work from morning until the evening but I feel happy because I am doing a kind of nice work for those people and their families." Café Royal's success is a positive reflection of how refugees are adapting to life in Oberhausen. The city's new arrivals have now been moved from shared accommodation - blocks of flats used to house groups of migrants - and most are now in state-provided flats around the city. "I think we are on top of the situation completely," says Joerg Fischer of the German Red Cross. "Now a system is in place and is working well. Around 40 refugees arrive every week. This is nothing compared to last year when we had up to 300 a week. So we can manage this and the integration of those who've been here for longer." Oberhausen lies in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which took in 172,511 asylum-seekers in the first 10 months of 2016. That is almost 27% of the total number of people seeking asylum in Germany over that period, and more than double the number of the region with the next highest number of refugees, Baden Wuerttemberg. A BBC team first visited a year ago and returned last spring to speak to aid workers, residents and the asylum seekers themselves. How one German city is coping with migrant crisis - BBC visits Oberhausen in November 2015 Changing attitudes of a German city - BBC visits Oberhausen in April 2016 Settling into school In April this year Svenja Beyer's integration school in Oberhausen was struggling with a class made up of 34 pupils from nine different countries. There were problems with aggressive behaviour and fights between different ethnic groups. But now some of the older pupils have moved on to other schools and the number of pupils in her class has fallen to 12, although still of several different nationalities. "We have a different atmosphere now. It's calm, it's peaceful," she says. "The pupils are motivated and they learn very rapidly, they want to learn and so fewer children means more time for every child." For adults there are numerous state-run and non-governmental group initiatives aimed at helping them find work. But one that has made headlines is Serap Tanis's women's empowerment group, the Courage Project. The local group aims to help newly arrived immigrants and refugees realise their potential while living in Germany. Ms Tanis, the project leader, is herself an immigrant of Turkish descent. She moved to Germany from Istanbul when she was six years old. She compares herself to a pearl diver, believing that "there is a 'treasure in everyone hidden deep below". Through discussion groups she helps women to think about education and employment in a new light. However, Ms Tanis is keen to stress she's not trying to turn them into Germans or transform them overnight. "Empowerment is a process and we give them the courage to find their strength," she says. One of the women she is helping is Roudin Davo, a Syrian Kurd who fled from Kobane in Northern Syria after jihadist group Islamic State captured the city in October 2014. She arrived in Oberhausen in April 2016 after a treacherous journey through Europe with her husband and two young daughters. "We lost everything, but here we try to begin again from the bottom," says Mrs Davo. "Before [in Syria] I thought: I am a mother, I have to stay at home. But then my friends told me there is a school where they look after my girls and I can learn German." It's difficult to know whether schemes like the Courage Project have helped refugees into work, but unemployment in Oberhausen has fallen this year from 11.7% in March to 10.3% in October. That is still far higher than the 6% average across Germany. When BBC News last visited Oberhausen in April its Chief Police Inspector Tom Litges said there was a sense of fear towards refugees among some of Oberhausen's residents following the New Year's Eve sex attacks in nearby Cologne. Some of Oberhausen's residents even began calling for civil patrols. But nothing ever came of it and the fear has dissipated. "There haven't been any serious crimes related to migrants in the last six months," says Chief Inspector Litges. But right-wing activists have been targeting the city. Since April, there have been two anti-immigration rallies - made up of about 70 far-right protestors, mainly from neighbouring Essen. The right-wing nationalist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has been growing in popularity since it started in 2013 and now has MPs in nine of Germany's 16 state parliaments - although none in North Rhine-Westphalia. "Every now and then what we do have is [right-wing] demonstrations and usually those who are against the right-wing demonstrators are normally five, six, seven times more [in number], says Chief Inspector Litges. "So for that reason the people of Oberhausen show that they do not accept right-wing propaganda." The BBC will return to Oberhausen in six months to find out what happens next. |
Sorcery is alive and well in Venezuela, once the richest country in South America, now an economic disaster. Hand over $100 and - hey presto! - you get a wad of notes the size of two house bricks: 100,000 Bolivars. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By John SweeneyBBC Newsnight, Caracas But that's an all-too-simple trick on the black market. Shopping for chicken, rice, toothpaste, soap, flour and toilet rolls has been turned into a vanishing act. The government's fixed prices for staples are at such low values shops lose money if they sell them - so they don't. Pop-up queues appear when rumours swirl that a supermarket might have a batch of staples at the fixed price. That people in the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world queue for food is black magic indeed. Four soldiers in flamboyant uniforms - black shakos, red feathers, gold brocade - guard the shaman responsible. Hugo Chavez lies in his tomb, a hero to his supporters, to his enemies the founder of a political cult. The mausoleum smacks of a shrine to a god suffering, like his country, from devaluation. Alive, Chavez - "El Comandante" - at least had charisma. The sorcerer's apprentice, President Nicolas Maduro, used to drive a bus. The bad news for Chavismo - the movement or cult Chavez created - is that wheels on the Maduro bus are falling off. Statistics of any kind in Venezuela should be taken with a swig of the local rum - like beer, unavailable in a restaurant we visited in Caracas - but under Maduro the Bolivar is currently suffering from inflation of 141%, according to the government's own figures. The IMF predicts it will hit 720% later this year. One number is that the country is $120 billion in the red, with oil revenue - responsible for nine-tenths of the state's export revenue - collapsing. Without the oil money, the country can't feed itself. Fears over Zika There are $10bn in debt payments due later this year and Venezuela can't borrow easily because the international market suspects it will default. Investors are already spooked because it has expropriated billions of dollars worth of foreign-owned companies. Governing party MP Ramon Lobo told Newsnight: "The economic war has become even more vicious. It's an attack on the real economy. The oligarchs who still dominate food production are looking for a way to hang us by cutting production on purpose." Murder numbers are notoriously dodgy in South American, but Caracas, by some estimates, suffered nearly 4,000 murders last year, making it one of the most dangerous cities in the world. And then there is the Zika plague - the mosquito-borne virus that some doctors believe is responsible for a spike in cases of creeping paralysis, Gillain-Barré syndrome, and, in Brazil, deformed babies. (The World Health Organisation has urged caution because the science on Zika is not yet proven.) Maduro recently raised the number of suspected Zika cases from 4,700 to 5,221 with three deaths. Dr Jorge Luis Hernandez-Rojas, of the Chacao Health Agency in Caracas is part of a group of doctors who are close to the opposition. He told Newsnight: "We fear the true number of Zika cases is not 4,000 but 400,000." No-one knows for sure. Political stalemate Newsnight visited the neurology ward at the main hospital, home to patients suffering from a creeping paralysis, Gillain-Barré syndrome, linked to Zika. The ward was gloomy, with no air conditioning, conditions insanitary. The patients we spoke to were grateful for their treatment but no doctor was available to talk to us. Windows were open - so the obvious danger of mosquitoes biting Zika patients and then infecting fresh victims in the hospital was ignored. The ward felt like a plague factory. The opposition won a big victory in December, taking control of the National Assembly for the first time in nearly two decades. One of the first things they did was to take down the Chavez banners that draped the building. They also set out to challenge Maduro's emergency economic powers. The Supreme Court, stacked, says the opposition, with Chavistas, backed Maduro, so politics is stalemated. The eyes of Hugo Chavez stare down at you from sites across the capital. But what they look down on is a nation gone to seed: grungy high-rise buildings, the concrete crumbling, stray dogs pecking at the rubbish, heavily armed police toting shotguns at checkpoints and traffic jams. Petrol here is the cheapest in the world - our driver could fill up his tank for pennies - an absurdity that Maduro dare not address lest he trigger riots, like the "Caracazo" chaos in 1989 in which hundreds died. Financial meltdown, political stalemate: it might not come to it but some people fear this could lead to violence and even a military coup. John Sweeney's report aired on Newsnight on 1 February. You can catch up on iPlayer (UK only) |
Condor Ferries hopes to minimise delays while it makes repairs by switching two of its ships on routes between the Channel Islands and the UK and France. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The swap of the Rapide and Vitesse for a week will see the Vitesse operate between the islands and France. This will allow repairs to a fault in one of the engines to be conducted overnight while the vessel is in dock in St Malo. Condor Ferries said the move minimised changes to their schedules. Simon Edsall, managing director, said: "The majority of people travelling will see little difference aside of a different name on the ship." He said the switch delivered more passengers to their destinations closer to the original schedule than might otherwise be possible with the Vitesse operating on reduced power. Mr Edsall said those passengers affected had been informed of the changes. The fault to be fixed was found in a piston's lube oil system. |
Fermanagh business man Sean Quinn has been declared bankrupt at Belfast High Court despite the majority of the 64-year-old's holdings and debt being from the Irish Republic. So why has this happened? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By John CampbellBBC News The personal bankruptcy laws in the Republic are onerous - it typically takes 12 years to be discharged from bankruptcy, though in some cases it can be five. In the Republic you will also lose your pension. As a result there are a tiny number of bankruptcies in the Republic - just 30 in 2010. In Northern Ireland and the UK you can be discharged from bankruptcy after a year. You will also keep your pension. As a result the courts would process 30 bankruptcies in a slow week. This means that people with huge debts in Ireland are moving to the UK to take advantage of those differences. The Cork developer John Fleming who owes about 1bn euros was discharged from bankruptcy this week. He had moved to live in Essex. Contracts for Difference (CFD) were Quinn's undoing - in essence they are financial products which allow you to bet on shares without having to own the shares. In that respect they are a derivative - they derive their value from the underlying share. CFDs have three main advantages: Privacy - your name does not appear on the share register Tax - you don't have to pay stamp duty as you would if you bought the shares Leverage - As you are not buying the shares you don't have to put down the full amount of the money. You can 'lever- up' with borrowings. But with leverage always lies danger. Quinn was betting that the price of the shares would rise and he would profit from the difference between the price at which he bought the derivative contract and the new price. Hence 'contract for difference'. But when the Anglo Irish Bank share price nosedived Quinn was in trouble. He was hit with a series of 'margin calls' which meant he had to keep putting up more and more of his money. Eventually things got so bad he had to crystallise his losses by buying the shares outright - which he did by borrowing the 2bn euros from the Anglo Irish Bank. And it's due to those borrowings that he's bust. |
A funeral has taken place for Inverness man Liam Colgan, whose body was found 10 weeks after he went missing on his brother's stag party in Hamburg. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 29-year-old vanished on 10 February. His body was later recovered from the River Elbe in the German city. Some of the mourners at his funeral in Inverness wore Dundee United colours. Liam was a fan of the Scottish club. His Royal Mail colleagues also wore their uniforms as a tribute to his work as a postman. Liam's death has been described by his family as a "tragic accident". |
Back in the 1990s something happened in central Bosnia-Herzegovina that inspired people to this day and helps explain why that country now has more men fighting in Syria and Iraq (over 300), as a proportion of its population, than most in Europe. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Mark UrbanDiplomatic and defence editor, Newsnight The formation of a "Mujahideen Battalion" in 1992, composed mainly of Arab volunteers in central Bosnia, was a landmark. Today the dynamic of jihad has been reversed and it is Bosnians who are travelling to Arab lands. "There is a war between the West and Islam," says Aimen Dean, who, as a young Saudi Arabian volunteer, travelled to fight in central Bosnia in 1994. "Bosnia gave the modern jihadist movement that narrative. It is the cradle." UN firefight Conventional wisdom holds that it was the fight against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s that created the modern notion of jihad or "holy war". Aimen Dean's point is that the West and the Salafists (or adherents to a strict form of Islam going back to observance in the Middle Ages) were on the same side in Afghanistan, but became enemies in Bosnia. At first, in 1992, it was just a few dozen militants who went to defend their co-religionists in Bosnia, as Serbian paramilitaries drove them from their homes in the west and east of the country. But it was in early 1993, when it became a three-way fight against Catholic Croatians as well as the Serbs, that the Mujahideen Battalion swelled to the hundreds and started to hunt non-believers more actively. After Croatian militias massacred around 120 Bosnians in Ahmici in April 1993, the Mujahideen were involved in numerous reprisals. At Guca Gora monastery two months later, they drove out nearly 200 Croatians, who were evacuated by British United Nations troops. They then entered the chapel, desecrating its religious art, and filmed themselves doing it. British troops fought the Mujahideen Battalion at Guca Gora and elsewhere in the summer of 1993 - the opening shots of that army's fight against jihadism. Vaughan Kent-Payne, then a major commanding a company of British troops involved in those battles, says the foreign fighters were "way more aggressive" than local Bosnian troops, frequently opening fire on the UN's white-painted vehicles. In the nearby town of Travnik, that had been almost equally Muslim, Croatian and Serb before the war, the foreigners helped drive out thousands, and tried to impose Sharia law on those who remained. They were also involved in kidnapping local Christians, and beheaded one, Dragan Popovic, forcing other captives to kiss his severed head. 'They did Bosnia a disservice' The Popovic case eventually went to court, so the facts have been well established. But the Mujahideen Battalion was also suspected in many others including the kidnap and murder of aid workers as well as the execution of 20 Croatian prisoners. The foreigners never amounted to more than one per cent of the fighting force at the disposal of the Sarajevo government, despite the frequent claims of the Serb and Croatian media to have spotted Islamic fanatics from abroad just about everywhere. From an early stage the Mujahideen also started recruiting Bosnians and, by 1995, in the final months of the war, the incorporation of several hundred local men allowed the outfit to be expanded into the Mujahideen Brigade, around 1,500 strong. By the summer of 1993, the Sarajevo government was starting to wake up to the potentially toxic effect of these jihadists on their image as a multi-ethnic, secular republic. So, in an attempt to control it, the battalion was placed under the command of III Corps, the Bosnian Army formation headquartered in the central city of Zenica. Its commander at the time, Brigadier General Enver Hadzihasanovic, ended up facing a war crimes trial in the Hague on charges of overall responsibility for some of the Mujahideen's behaviour, including the Travnik kidnappings. In the end, the prosecution dropped those charges, but the general served two years, having been found guilty of having (Bosnian) troops under him who had abused prisoners. From the outset, the general had felt the Mujahideen were a dubious military asset, and wrote a secret message to army chiefs in 1993, saying: "My opinion is that behind [the Mujahideen] there are some high-ranking politicians and religious leaders." Reflecting now on the jihadists' participation in the war he adds, "they didn't help Bosnia at all, on the contrary, I think they did Bosnia a disservice." However, as the general's 1993 memo implied, there were some leaders, including Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnia's President at the time, who were happy to welcome the foreign fighters, partly as a way of keeping wealthy Arab donors sweet. Recruiting ban When the war ended, under the Dayton Peace Accord, all foreign fighters had to leave, and they were duly ordered out in 1996. Remembering that day, Aimen Dean says there were high emotions, shouting and tears at the Mujahideen base: "And the reason is because everyone was there hoping to die as a martyr. Now that chance was taken from them." Hundreds of Mujahideen went from Bosnia to Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Among their alumni were two of the 9/11 hijackers, the murderer of American hostage Daniel Pearl and numerous other al-Qaeda cadres. More than 300 of the foreigners remained in Bosnia, buried in its soil, a testimony to the heavy casualties taken by the unit. A few dozen Arabs who had met local women or were fearful of going home also managed to stay, by taking Bosnian citizenship. Today also there are suggestions in Sarajevo that the SDA - the late President Izetbegovic's party - is not taking a tough enough line against foreign fighters. Only this time they are the hundreds of Bosnians who are choosing to fight in Iraq and Syria. There is "a recalcitrance from more radical elements of the SDA" about condemning those who go to the Middle East to fight, says one Sarajevo diplomat. In fairness, the Sarajevo government has taken action to ban recruiting for foreign wars (in the name of any religion or cause) and has mounted numerous raids to disrupt extremist networks and arrest those who have returned from fighting in the Middle East. However, its critics note that for years it turned a blind eye to those Arab Mujahideen who remained in Bosnia but continued to agitate, and has allowed several communities of home-grown Bosnian Salafists to emerge in recent years. Among those who link what is happening now with the 1990s is Fikret Hadzic, who has been charged with fighting for the so-called Islamic State in Syria. He met our BBC team but said that legal restrictions prevented him giving an on-camera interview, however he was happy to be quoted in print. Hadzic had joined the Mujahideen unit in 1994. For years after the war he worked as a driver and mechanic before deciding he needed to join the fight against "the Assad Shia regime" in Syria. While he insisted he was not a member of IS, and disapproved of its methods, Hadzic told us that before returning from Syria last year he had met some Bosnian members of the organisation who appeared in an IS video that was released this June. Other Bosnians who served with that unit back in the war include the leader of an important Salafist mosque in Sarajevo, and Bilal Bosnic, who is in detention awaiting trial. Bosnic is charged with recruiting fighters for the Islamic State group. With IS now trying to start a "new front for the Caliphate" in the Balkans, there are many who worry that Bosnia is vulnerable because it remains so weak and fragmented, even two decades after its war ended. Mark Urban's report is on Newsnight on BBC Two at 22:30 BST on 2 July. Our World: Bosnia: Cradle of Modern Jihad? is on the BBC News Channel at 21:30 BST on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July and on BBC World TV at 00:30 BST on Saturday 4 July and also at these times. |
Matt Barnard's favourite memory of the recent Christmas holiday period was receiving a thank you letter from the 10-year-old daughter of a friend who'd been over for a meal. "I'm stunned you got me to like kale. I never knew I could like salad," she wrote. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Katie HopeBBC News, Davos The products had come directly from Mr Barnard's South San Francisco farm. It's a nice anecdote. Of course, food you've grown yourself tends to be fresher and taste nicer than the same stuff from the supermarket. But Mr Barnard's ambitions are a lot bigger than providing friends and their children with nice lunches. He is the chief executive of Plenty, a high-tech, agricultural start-up that he co-founded six years ago. He may only have two farms currently, with a third due to open later this year, but they are test pads for a much more ambitious global expansion plan. "Plant science artificial intelligence training centres" is how he describes them. Pole planting The crops are grown upwards on vertical poles, enabling them to produce higher yields on much smaller areas of ground, and the farms are indoors, meaning the weather has no impact. LED lights provide the equivalent of sunshine. The plants don't even need soil, instead they are fed by nutrient-rich water and there's no need for pesticides because there are no pests in this carefully controlled environment. For Mr Barnard, farming is a return to the family business. He grew up on an orchard but says he never expected to work in the industry because he "didn't enjoy growing up without any control over my livelihood". On his farms it's now all about control. The amount of water, ratio of minerals, humidity levels and different types and durations of LED light are all being varied and tested. "By giving plants different versions of perfect environments, we have the ability to influence the way they taste," he says. 'Bowling balls' The farms' small size means they can also be close to, or even within, big cities, dramatically reducing the distance produce needs to travel before it is eaten. He believes that fresh produce "gets a bad rap" because most fruit and veg crops are chosen for their durability, rather than their flavour. "Look at the iceberg lettuce. It's got no flavour and no nutrition, but it's the largest cash crop in the US because it's like a bowling ball making it resilient in the field and truck. That's what the supply chain dictates," he says. Local farms like his are able to grow more delicate and varied types of produce because they don't need to be as robust. "Working to produce food for people not trucks," is how Mr Barnard puts it. High energy He is optimistic that people will automatically choose to eat more veg if it tastes better. Such farms could also be part of the solution to obesity and to feeding a growing global population when we're running out of space to grow crops economically, he believes. As futuristic as it sounds, this kind of farming isn't new. There are similar companies elsewhere such as Jones Food Company in North Lincolnshire, Intelligent Growth Solutions in Scotland and the Growing Underground business in London. Internationally there are rivals such as Aerofarms in the US. Plenty of such farms have also failed, with critics saying the high cost of the energy required to run them stops them being commercially viable. Mr Barnard says it's an industry that is easy to enter with off-the-shelf systems, but argues that Plenty's use of machine learning and data is what makes it different. He says external changes, including a sharp drop in the cost of LED lighting, has also helped make it viable, with the farms more reliant on light than heat. Reconnecting It's easy to be sceptical, but he's been backed by some serious investors, raising $200m (£154m) from some big names, including Japanese media giant SoftBank, Alphabet's Eric Schmidt and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos in 2017. Prof Tim Benton, an expert in food systems from the University of Leeds, agrees there is a role for companies like Plenty, but says they are unlikely to replace conventional horticulture. "On average, if you divide global agricultural land by the number of people on the planet, each person uses a football pitch of land to crop the food we eat. Even if vertical farming stacks space high, it would be difficult to replicate even a big chunk of this space within cities. So, whilst part of the solution, it is not THE solution," he says. But like Mr Barnard, Prof Benton agrees vertical farming is one way to reconnect people with food, "converting it from a commodity that is plastic wrapped, cheap and 'waste-able', into something real, something local, something nurtured during production". Plenty's farms currently grow leafy green plants including kale, sweet lettuces and salad leaves, which require less energy compared to more substantial crops such as potatoes. The crops are distributed via online retailers, at special events and given to a small number of consumers to trial. Shelf life Mr Barnard says Plenty only sells its produce when it can do so at "median organic pricing or better". Of course, that is still much higher than rival non-organic produce, but Mr Barnard denies that his farms are simply producing tasty food for the middle class. Lab tests have shown the produce has a longer shelf life and he says that means people will waste less, which makes it more affordable. "Our mission is pretty ambitious. We've shown that it is possible at large scale relative to efficiency. Now we have to go about the hard work of building a business." That's why he's here at Davos to spread the word and secure further investment for his plan. Mr Barnard expects the business to accelerate after 2020, with expansion "likely to be outside the US". In the end, he will judge his success on whether he manages to "meaningfully change how people think about fresh produce" as something enjoyable to eat. So has he persuaded his own children, aged 11 and 13, to take an interest in veg? "More and more so. Both are eating more over time," he says. |
Australian and New Zealand scientists have launched a strategy to locate and preserve a hidden world of undiscovered species. They argue that increased research could bring about profound scientific benefits, but that time is running out, as the BBC's Phil Mercer reports from Sydney. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It is estimated there may be as many as 400,000 as-yet unknown animals, plants, fungi, microbes and other organisms in Australia. That comprises about 70% of all species across the vast continent, according to government and scientist estimates. Around 2,500 species are found and classified each year, including in recent times a rare horse fly (Scaptia beyonceae) with a golden bottom, and a tropical tree snail (Crikey steveirwini), both from northern Queensland. Taxonomists and biosystematists - the researchers who painstakingly find, identify and categorise organisms - have been naming all manner of creatures since the 18th Century. Often they have ascribed the names of the rich and famous, such as Beyonce and, as with that snail, Steve Irwin, partly to raise money and to attract attention to their often unheralded work. Mega-diverse environment Australia is rare among developed countries because it is described as mega-diverse, but experts warn that biodiversity is under threat from extinctions and environmental upheaval. The Australian Academy of Science and New Zealand's Royal Society Te Apārangi have called for a new plan to register hundreds of thousands of unknown species in both countries. "Exploring and discovering life on Earth has got to be one of the grand scientific challenges of our time," explains Dr Kevin Thiele, a plant taxonomist who is in charge of the Australian academy's expert working group on taxonomy and biosystematics. Dr Thiele says it would take current methods up to 400 years to discover and classify everything in Australia's animal and plant kingdoms, much of which are hidden. He would like the job to be finished by 2050, with the help of advanced technology. According to Dr Thiele, this should include the scanning of organisms' genomes, the study of DNA in soil and water samples to understand what lives there, and the use of supercomputers and 3D imaging. "What we would like to achieve is to really the change the fabric of taxonomy into what we could call hyper-taxonomy," he tells the BBC. Potential for discovery The possible benefits, Dr Thiele says, are immense. Australia's native species and agriculture could be protected from pests and pathogens, and, critically, there's the potential for new drugs and breakthroughs in the treatment of mosquito-borne diseases. Sea sponges found in Australia are often rich in compounds that form the basis for antibiotics. "Every species is a potentially critical discovery for the welfare of human beings," Dr Thiele adds. "Any species of those 400,000 could have the life-saving drug that we'll be developing in the future that will help us to deal with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, say. And every species that goes extinct, or that remains out there but we don't discover, is potentially an opportunity lost." It is estimated that 200 species of mosquitoes native to Australia have yet to be named or studied, and some could be carrying serious infections. Dr Thiele cites the Zika virus as a previous example. "It came out when a virus that was previously circulating between mosquitoes and animals jumped into humans and suddenly created problems," he says. "So any of these native mosquitoes may have similar types of diseases associated with them. Unless we document them, we will be behind the eight ball if one of those diseases suddenly jumps out and starts threatening people." Extinction threat But is there the political will? Australian government spending on the environment has decreased by a third since 2013, according to a submission to the Department of the Treasury in December. However, the government has consistently said it is committed to protecting the environment. Among its evidence, it has pointed to funding of programmes including a national threatened species strategy, and conservation efforts for the Great Barrier Reef. Jess Abrahams, a nature campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, says he is optimistic but believes that attitudes must change. "Australia has an unenviable record of having more mammal extinctions than any other nation," he says. "We have lost 27 mammals since colonisation and we have nearly 700 animals on the threatened species list. This is a national disgrace and Australia is in the midst of an extinction crisis, and that is just the species we know about." But he adds: "I am hopeful for the future because Australians love the bush and the wildlife, and I do honestly believe that future Australian governments will rise to the challenge of protecting nature." The ambitious trans-Tasman taxonomy strategy, launched on Friday, includes an endorsement by Sir David Attenborough, who has lent his name to several Australian animals and plants - such as a millimetre-long spider known as Prethopalpus attenboroughi. The British naturalist has lamented that funding for discovering and listing species was declining. "This has serious consequences for the future of life on Earth," he wrote. |
Plans to redevelop Liverpool's rundown Welsh Streets area have been put on hold after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles called for a public inquiry. But what is life there like for the people waiting to find out if their homes will be revamped or bulldozed? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Helen CarterBBC News, Liverpool The tinned-up houses in Wynnstay Street, Liverpool, are leaning precariously as the chimneys, roofs and brickwork list towards the ground. Green shoots sprout out of the brickwork. The street is eerily quiet aside from the odd passing taxi en-route to 9 Madryn Street, four roads down, the birthplace of Ringo Starr, scarred with graffiti. A yellow Magical Mystery Tour bus drives by the end of the street. Behind the metal sheets, the hall walls have crumbled, exposing the wooden frame like a skeleton. The staircase has gone and there are pigeon feathers and faeces carpeting the floor. Paint is peeling away and there are cobwebs and discarded bits of metal pipe. A once-elegant tiled porch is green with moss in the grouting. The facades of the abandoned terraces in Powis Street are painted black after posing as Birmingham's slums for the filming of the BBC series Peaky Blinders. Welcome to Welsh Streets. On Tuesday, many residents were dismayed when the £15m revamp plan for the streets was called in by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles for a public inquiry. It is the latest stage in more than a decade of trying to find a solution for the near-abandoned streets that have an enviable view of the city's Anglican cathedral. The proposals by social housing provider Plus Dane Group would see 150 new homes built, 280 demolished and 37 properties, including Ringo Starr's birthplace, renovated. 'So desolate' Veronica Griffiths, who has lived in Gwydir Street for a decade, said: "We can't do anything like decorating as you don't know whether to bother or if you're going to be demolished. We are just left in the middle. "I've seen rats running down the streets and it's not pleasant walking through all the empty streets as it's so desolate. "I want to move into a new home but now we can't because of Eric Pickles. "We're living in limbo and it's lonely. "Everyone keeps going on about Ringo Starr's house. Well he hardly lived in the bloody house and what's he ever done for Liverpool? He doesn't even like the place." Clearly house-proud, her terrace house has a hanging basket by the front door. Some residents have placed "Demolish" posters in their windows making their views clear in a single word. The homes were part of nine areas identified as "Pathfinders", which intended to replace terraced houses with modern homes with gardens. However, the scheme was criticised by the National Audit Office and was eventually wound up in 2010 by Housing Minister Grant Shapps, leaving many residents in limbo. In Liverpool, the £15m planning application was approved by the city council but stalled by the government when it announced a public inquiry earlier this week. Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said the residents had been "badly let down" by the decision. It was, he said, hugely frustrating and disappointing for the local community. The properties are nicknamed the "Welsh Streets" as they were built by Welsh workers in the late 19th Century and named after Welsh towns, villages and valleys. 'Disappointment after disappointment' Louise Davies, project director at the Plus Dane housing group, said they had "factored in" the decision being called in and were monitoring the situation closely. She said they had 70 residents who had suffered "disappointment after disappointment" while waiting to be re-housed into new-build properties. Campaign group Save Britain's Heritage bought a house in Madryn Street and has spent £3,000 renovating it with Perspex windows. A couple now live there. Jonathan Brown, from the group, said a decade ago the houses were in better condition and people were "happy to stay". "But since 2003 there has been a process of buying up and boarding up," he said. "We wouldn't be fighting for these houses if they were beyond salvation." He said engineers and estate agents had examined the houses and found they were "entirely viable". Mary Huxham, 75, lived in Powis Street for 68 years but moved to a new home in 2007. She said she was glad to leave the "fungus on the walls, ice on the inside of the windows". "I felt nothing but relief when I moved," she added. "They say memories are in bricks and mortar, but they're not. they're in your heart." Ms Huxham said the "worst thing is the old people who were waiting to move but passed away". "There was one woman who was looking forward to buying a pink three piece suite - but she never did get it," she added. Mr Brown said she welcomed the public inquiry as an opportunity to expose the "managed decline of the area" at an independent forum. The Department for Communities and Local Government maintains that "in this instance that the proposal may conflict with national policy and has greater than local importance". Mr Pickles has said arrangements for a public inquiry would be made shortly and details advertised. Planning Minister Nick Boles said the application had attracted national controversy and had broader implications for the historic environment. But for some living there, accepting those plans is the only option. Resident Nina Edge, who had previously opposed demolishing the homes, said she accepted the planning application because it was a "nightmare for all the residents who have lived with 10 years of constant worry". "I can't express what that does to your family and health." |
Campaigners have been persuading people in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, to sign a petition to keep the town's youth centre open. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Warwickshire County Council is reviewing its youth services and there are fears within the community that the centre will shut. Andy Norman, the centre manager, said he wanted to get at least 5,000 signatures. The council has said it is reviewing many of its services. The authority said it wanted to build on services delivered in collaboration with others. |
Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is facing the fight of her political life, as a major row over the country's migration and refugee policy threatens to topple her from the post she has held since 2005. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jenny HillBBC Berlin correspondent Rarely do German politics produce such high drama. One minister likened the twists and turns of the government crisis to an episode of Game of Thrones, while a German newspaper trembled: "The wolves are howling outside!" alongside a picture of the chancellery besieged by giant, Photoshopped beasts. In such a febrile atmosphere, it's tempting to imagine an embattled Mrs Merkel inside, furiously striding the corridors and wondering out loud who will rid her of this turbulent Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer. Mr Seehofer - leader of the Bavarian CSU party, in alliance in government with its sister party, Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats - is relishing the opportunity to make the chancellor, and his old adversary, squirm. Mrs Merkel has flatly rejected his plan to turn away migrants at the German border if they have registered elsewhere in the EU. She believes such a unilateral act goes against European principles and intends to seek an EU-wide solution. Mr Seehofer - long an outspoken critic of the chancellor - says he will do it anyway. Mrs Merkel is probably itching to sack him for such open rebellion. But she cannot do so without risking the CDU-CSU pact - and jeopardising her fragile coalition government. Emergency talks have, as yet, failed to soothe an increasingly bitter row, which is being replicated, albeit in perhaps rather calmer tones, in plenty of other EU member states - between those who believe there is still a chance for Europe to rise unified to the migration challenge and the, largely populist, figures who are sick of waiting for it act. But in Germany, there is a chance it could bring the government down. And Mrs Merkel would be, politically speaking, unlikely to emerge alive from the rubble. Even as he continues to flex his Bavarian muscles, Mr Seehofer says that is not his intention. Most assume he is grandstanding ahead of the autumn's regional elections. The far-right, anti-migrant Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) has made gains in Bavaria. In part, for Mr Seehofer, this is personal. He has reportedly never forgiven Mrs Merkel for her decision to allow asylum seekers trapped in Budapest passage to Germany, which, in effect, opened the country's doors to hundreds of thousands of people. Most entered the country through Bavaria. Mr Seehofer, then the regional prime minister, is also reportedly still angry that he was not consulted - apparently Mrs Merkel did call him but he did not answer his mobile phone. "I cannot work with this woman,"' he is reported to have told his party last week. But plenty of others can. Angela Merkel has, it is said, the support of most of her party. She also has a public approval rating of 50% - for now. Because, despite falling migrant numbers - more than 720,000 people applied for asylum in 2016 compared with 200,000 last year - the issue remains centre stage. This is largely due to AfD rhetoric and high-profile cases such as that of a failed Iraqi asylum seeker who has reportedly confessed to raping and killing a German teenager. Polls suggest most Germans want tighter border controls. Mrs Merkel has failed to entirely quell public concerns with her oft-repeated assurance that 2015 was a one-off, or with a series of measures to tighten asylum law - making it easier to deport or deny entry to people coming from certain countries, for example - or with measures to ease integration. So, if she cannot come back from the EU summit of leaders in just under a fortnight with some kind of plan or agreement, it will be open season on the German chancellor. Horst Seehofer, keen to emphasise that he's not backing down, has agreed to wait to implement his plan for two weeks. Mrs Merkel has a little breathing space - but not for long. Few expect a full-blown strategy to emerge - but it is not impossible that she will achieve something. The details are not clear - but Mrs Merkel is already working on bilateral agreements that could see migrants being sent back to entry countries, presumably in return for funding. She may be increasingly isolated among her European peers, many of whom make political capital at home by portraying her as the fiscal bully of the EU or by blaming her for the migrant crisis. But plenty of leaders share her resolve to strengthen external borders. And countries such as Austria, Italy and Denmark, whose governments talk tough on migration, may seize the chance to press ahead with plans for, for example, detention centres outside the EU. It is not inconceivable that Europe's shift to the right might aid Mrs Merkel now, just as did the closure of the so-called Balkans route - which she officially opposed - during the migrant crisis. Of course, any victory or concession would be claimed by Mr Seehofer, who will argue it was he who pushed her into action. He has little interest in watching the coalition fall apart. Few of its members do. Fresh elections would be a horror show for the Social Democrats, who are languishing in the opinion polls. There would be little gain for the CSU in seeing the government fail. Already, this episode is inflicting injury - one weekend opinion poll suggests the coalition has lost its majority. For now the drama is on hold. But this is no compromise. And it leaves Mrs Merkel, already weakened by a poor showing in the September elections and damaged by her subsequent difficulty in forming a government, terribly wounded. If those episodes represented the beginning of the end, this showdown is surely a staging post along the way. The German chancellor looks weary, worn down, out of energy. The way she steadily works away at challenges does not have the shine, the catchiness of the populist rhetoric with which she is battling. She has barely responded publicly to several days of furious attacks from the CSU. On Sunday evening, Mrs Merkel gathered with senior members of her party to watch Germany being beaten by Mexico in the group stage of the World Cup before discussing the government crisis. The result is not the best of omens for the chancellor who famously relishes the drama, the manoeuvring on the pitch. Germany is watching her now. Half of its population is willing her to come out on the attack instead of appearing to stand helplessly at the goal, watching as the balls sail past. |
There are certain tried-and-tested antidotes to the winter blues. Like looking up puppies on the internet. Or flicking through brochures of sun-drenched Caribbean holidays. And, when desperate, the fall-back option of browsing LinkedIn for profiles of old school friends with dreadful jobs. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter These are all free options. If you're up for spending a bit of money (£16-£67.50) to lift your spirits, then you might consider buying a ticket to see the musical The Boy in the Dress at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. It is a show that embraces the concept of feel-good entertainment like a banker receiving a bonus, which is to say, shamelessly. Anyone after intellectual nourishment will leave feeling distinctly peckish, but those seeking a warm bath of comfort and joy will wallow in this page-to-stage musical reimagining of David Walliams' best-selling children's book The Boy in the Dress. There is a decidedly showbizzy vibe to the production, from Aletta Collins' exuberant choreography to the deluxe stage design by Robert Jones. Hardly surprising, given the music and lyrics are by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, the songwriting duo behind late 90s pop hits Angels, Let Me Entertain You and Millennium. Williams said he and Chambers were given just two weeks to write the 17 catchy numbers that are the show's heart and soul, compared to the three years they took to write his latest album. All I can say is the album must be an absolute banger, because the tunes they knocked out in a fortnight for The Boy in the Dress are terrific - particularly if you're a fan of their early work, the hooks from which appear throughout. The story is a familiar tale of the misfit kid. Dennis is a 12 year-old football-loving schoolboy with inner feelings he doesn't understand. An existential angst not helped by his mother walking out on his father, and the locals bursting into a song about being Ordinary ("We said we're Labour, but we're voting Tory."), because, as they say, "What's the point of being different?" Dennis goes to his bedroom to sing If I Don't Cry and asks his big brother John for a hug, which goes down like a crate of non-alcoholic beer on a stag night. John turns away in disgust and explains that mothers do hugs, brothers do wedgies. And so, the light-hearted tone is set for two hours of gentle jokes and easy listening. John has a weakness for Magnum ice creams, Dennis likes magazines with pictures of ladies in dresses, while their dad (Rufus Hound) prefers magazines with pictures of ladies without dresses. As Dennis moves ever more confidently towards his desire to try a frock on for size, his role as star striker for the school's football team is put in jeopardy by a heavy cold (this is about as dramatic as the story gets). But this is theatre, so the game must go on with some posh boys providing the oppo (cue, topical joke). The match is played out before our eyes in a superbly executed scene seamlessly mixing puppetry, choreography and the imaginative direction of Gregory Doran. An effective staging device of having the football fixed to the end of a pole manoeuvred by a cast member is used throughout. Except for one moment when a loose football is placed for a crucial penalty, which, for the next sequence to work, has to be scored. All the goalie need do is dive out of the way so the ball can roll in. What could possibly go wrong? Well, on the night I went, the ball ricocheted off the keeper's legs and ended up in row G of the auditorium and not the back of the net. This led to an incongruous scene with the attacking team celebrating wildly having missed, while the ball is lobbed back into play from the stalls. Stick to the stick would be my note. It works. As does this show, even though there are times where it is a little rushed, and others that are a tad too pantomime hammy. At least for me. I doubt any of the younger members of the audience would concur, and it is at them the production is aimed. Those to whom I spoke afterwards loved every second: a chorus of approval that was palpable throughout, with rousing applause at the end of several of the big numbers including a glitter ball delight called Disco Symphony. The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) pulled off a remarkable feat with Tim Minchin's musical reinvention of Roald Dahl's Matilda a decade ago. It has been a huge commercial success for the company, enabling it to invest in education and outreach projects. The RSC is hoping The Boy in the Dress will follow suit and transfer for a long and lucrative West End run. Maybe it will, but the competition is a lot stiffer than when Matilda made the transition. The blockbuster juggernaut Hamilton wasn't about then, nor were Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Dear Evan Hansen - two musicals covering a similar ground of odd-one-out schoolboys. Those three have a very contemporary flavour, while The Boy in the Dress already feels more dated (the book was published in 2008). The issues it tackles are timeless and universal, but the central dramatic device of a boy wearing a dress doesn't seem particularly shocking in 2019. And supposed flashes of epiphany such as the radical idea of starting a girls' football team either need to be cut altogether or rewritten to reflect that women's football is now a major sport. But then we know The Boy in the Dress isn't frightened to be who he is and go toe-to-toe with the big guys. I hope it succeeds. There's plenty of room in this world for another joyful, uplifting musical - especially one that so unapologetically wears its heart on its sequined sleeve. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter |
What is more troubling - governments that apparently disregard the privacy of our phone calls and online activity in the interests of national security, or governments that seem to put a higher priority on hi-tech inward investment than on protecting national security? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Robert PestonEconomics editor In the past 24 hours, we have had alleged examples of both. There have been the reports in the Guardian that America's National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting customer phone records by the million from the telecoms giant Verizon and that it has direct access to the systems of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Skype, Facebook and YouTube, inter alia. (More on this from technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.) Although many are outraged by what they see as a Big Brother impingement on citizens' right to privacy, for others it is a "dog bites man" story. We might loathe the idea, but we probably expect our security services to be eavesdropping and trampling on our civil liberties. Which is certainly not to downplay the significance of the NSA trawling through big data on all of us. There is an important question about whether fundamental freedoms are threatened (though no one seems to be suggesting that the US government is breaking the law). Perhaps the more surprising revelation on Thursday was by the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee, chaired by the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind - because it revealed a mixture of complacency and extraordinary bungling by the British government over the purchasing of what the committee calls "critical national infrastructure" from a Chinese telecoms giant with "perceived links to the Chinese state". The infrastructure is BT's telecoms network, which was upgraded a few years ago as part of what was called the 21st Century Network Project. As part of this massive investment, BT bought transmission and access equipment, including routers, from China's Huawei, the world's second largest telecoms equipment company. As the committee says, it is the alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese state that are "concerning", as they "generate suspicion as to whether Huawei's intentions are strictly commercial or are more political". The committee also points out that "20% of detected cyber attacks against UK interests demonstrate levels of sophistication which indicate they are more likely to be state-sponsored" and "China is suspected of being one of the main perpetrators of state-sponsored attacks". Now the committee does not prove that Huawei has unhealthy links to the Chinese government. It points out that Huawei itself categorically denies direct links with China's government or military. But the committee regards these denials as surprising and can't verify them, so says that the British government should be vigilant, in case the links are real. What the committee argues is that the UK government has been anything but vigilant. Although BT first told government officials in 2003 of Huawei's interest in the network contract, it wasn't till 2006 that civil servants informed ministers - and that was a year after the contract had been signed. As the committee says, "there is no proper process of ensuring ministers are informed or consulted" which is "extraordinary given the seriousness of the issue". And, the committee adds, there is "a surprising lack of clarity as to which minister would be responsible for such decisions". In the event, the Home Secretary was eventually informed about the security implications, although the body that provided technical advice reports to the foreign secretary and the formal powers seem to rest with the culture media and sport secretary. It is a muddle. Nor is it clear whether the government has the formal power to intervene, should it choose to do so. Anyway, what's done is done. The provision of equipment by Huawei has been made. And, what's more, it seems to have been a stepping stone to a significant £1.2bn research investment by Huawei in the UK - which, in the light of Britain's economic woes, has been welcomed by the government. But the question remains whether British national security is at risk as a consequence of the Huawei contributions to BT's network. Again, the committee is not reassured or reassuring - even though one of Britain's intelligence agencies, GCHQ, said that it has confidence in BT's management of the network. The committee said: "The software that is embedded in telecommunications equipment consist of 'over a million lines of code' and GCHQ has been clear from the outset that 'it is just impossible to go through that much code and be absolutely confident you have found everything'." In 2010, the UK government raised its security concerns with Huawei, which agreed to establish a Cyber Security Evaluation Centre, called the Cell - which is supposed to verify that there are no security risks when Huawei equipment is sold to British businesses. However, the committee has a number of concerns about the Cell, namely that it has taken too long to be fully functional, that it is run by Huawei and it is staffed by Huawei people, albeit vetted by the British security services. The committee says "we remain concerned that a Huawei-run Cell is responsible for providing assurance about the security of Huawei products... A self-policing arrangement is highly unlikely to provide, or to be seen to be providing, the required levels of security assurance". There is a wider issue here for the committee, which is that there have not existed robust arrangements in government to vet procurement by private sector companies of all manner of equipment relating to critical national infrastructure projects. As the committee puts it, "where there is a privately owned company answerable to shareholders, many of whom may be based abroad, there will almost certainly be a tension with national security concerns". Or to put it another way, the imperative for a British public company will be to buy the best equipment at the lowest price. But the cheapest equipment may be the kit that is most vulnerable to cynical exploitation by a foreign government or other overseas interests with malign intentions. So the committee calls on the government to set up an effective early warning system for when there is foreign investment in critical national infrastructure and a procedure for assessing the immediate and longer term risks, As it happens, the government claims it has now developed just such a set of processes. But the committee caustically concludes that "whether these processes are sufficiently robust remains to be seen". |
At least 19 people have been killed in a freak accident in southern India, after a container slipped off a truck and rammed into a passenger bus. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Police are investigating the incident, but officials say the container came off its hinges after one of the wheels of the truck had a puncture. "There were about 48 people in the bus, and several are in a critical condition," an official told BBC Hindi. The incident occurred around 3:30am local time (21:50 GMT), police said. The bus was on a highway when the container slipped off the truck, which was in the opposite lane. It then rolled onto the other side, colliding with the bus. The Volvo bus, owned by the Kerala state transport corporation, was travelling from Bangalore city in the neighbouring state of Karnataka to Ernakulam in Kerala. The district collector, Dr Vijay Karthikeyan, told BBC Hindi that the cause of the accident was still being investigated. The driver of the truck is reportedly absconding. |
A new project to care for the terminally ill will be launched to replace a charity that went into liquidation in 2012. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Hospice at Home, Aberystwyth, replaces Beacon of Hope to support patients and their families in their home. The Ceredigion charity will co-operate with other charities as well and the Hywel Dda University Health Board. Around 100 volunteers joined a public meeting on Tuesday to support the new charity, which launches in April. Beacon of Hope had offices in Aberystwyth, Cardigan and Machynlleth. |
Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken to the streets of Edinburgh for a morning bike ride. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Setting off at a leisurely pace through the west end, the former governor of California promptly began cycling on the wrong side of the street. The Terminator star was in the capital to attend a black-tie dinner in his honour at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The Hollywood star is often spotted cycling at home in California. He shocked London commuters last year when he jumped on a Boris bike to enjoy a sightseeing tour. |
A young girl was detained at a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan wearing what officials said was a suicide vest. Spozhmai, who says she is nine years old, is now in the protective custody of the provincial government. This is her story in her own words. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It was late evening, the mullah was calling for prayers and my brother took me outside and told me to put on this vest. He showed me how to operate it, and I said: "I can't - what if it doesn't work?" And he said: 'It will, don't worry.' I was scared and he took the vest back from me and he hit me hard, and I felt scared. Then [he gave me back the vest and] left me near the checkpoint where he said I had to operate it. I realised it was a suicide vest because it was heavier than a normal one. He said: "If you operate this on the people at the checkpoint, they will die - you will not die." But I knew it was a suicide vest and I would die too. Then he went back home - the checkpoint is just near our house. After my brother left me… I slept in the desert and didn't see anyone that night. In the morning, a guy from the checkpoint came and took me to the checkpoint and said: "You need to tell your story to our commander." They found me, I didn't find them. When I told the commander my story he told me to go back home and I said: "No, they beat me there and I am not treated well." He said: "OK, well if you're not going home then we have to take you to the provincial capital." That's when they brought me [to Lashkar Gah and] I spoke to another commander, the senior commander, and that's how I come to be here. Even if the government says it will guarantee my safety I am not going back - the same thing will happen again. They told me: "If you don't do it this time, we will make you do it again." My father came here and told me to go back and I said: "No, I will kill myself rather than go with you." I don't have a mother, I have a stepmother and she was not very nice to me. I did everything at home. I cooked, I made bread, I washed clothes, I cleaned the whole house and they still weren't happy - they would treat me badly, as if I was a slave. I didn't go to school because they didn't let me. I can't read a word, I can't pronounce anything. It's because I wasn't taught - nobody taught me how… of course I want to go to school. My brother told me: "You're here in this world and you will die. You are not here to learn or to do other things or to expect that your word will carry any weight. You are here just to die and do your duty." Of course my Dad knew - they were all in it together. [This started with] my Dad first, and then my brothers were included. They were all in it together. I haven't spoken to [my brother] since the incident - I haven't seen him since. I want the government to let me stay here and not make me go back, otherwise the same thing will happen to me again. What can I say to [my family]? Even if I saw them again I would tell them: "I am not coming home. I am not coming with you." I have seven sisters and five brothers - three of my sisters are married and the others are little. One of my brothers is in the Taliban so I have never seen him, one of my brothers is married, and another one - a younger one, is the one who told me to do this. I can't tell his age but he's a big boy and has a beard. "Dozens of teenage boys who wanted to carry out suicide attacks have been arrested over the past few years, but Spozhmai is the first 'would-be female child suicide bomber' in the country held in protective custody," says Dawood Azami of the BBC World Service. "Initially, it emerged she was arrested at night when the police heard her crying on the other side of the river where she says she was forced to wear the vest. Then it was said she was arrested at home. But now, she says she spent the night outside on her own and was found by the police in the morning. "It was first reported that she was wearing a suicide vest at the time of her arrest. But later it emerged that she was not wearing it and her handlers fled with the vest. Her age is also a question of debate. The first official version said she was eight. Other officials later said she was 10. But now she says she is nine. "The Taliban have rejected all the allegations, calling them 'part of the usual propaganda campaign to defame them'. And they regard the appointment of children, especially girls, in their ranks as wrong." Spozhmai spoke to Newsday on the BBC World Service. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook |
The last five public toilets in Flintshire look set to be closed or offloaded in a move that will save the county council up to £94,000. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Facilities in Duke Street, Flint, will shut on 1 April while Mold's New Street car park toilets will be offered to the town council or close. Facilities in Holywell and Talacre will also be offered to community councils. Councillors discussed the plans on Wednesday but a final decision has yet to be made. A decision on the future of toilets at Mold bus station will be delayed. |
The 16th series of Celebrity Big Brother's about to begin. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Steve HoldenNewsbeat reporter Since switching to Channel 5, the show has been broadcast twice a year. Names being mentioned this year include X-Factor contestants Stevi Ritchie and Chloe Jasmine, former Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton and model Janice Dickinson. Even though the line-up is never confirmed until transmission, you can normally have a good guess at who's in it. So here is the definitive "recipe" for a classic Celebrity Big Brother. The reality star They're used to having their lives micro-managed on TV so getting an already established reality star to go on CBB is usually no trouble. TOWIE, Made In Chelsea and Geordie Shore have all been well represented in recent years. The alumni list includes Mario Falcone, Kirk Norcross, Lauren Goodger and Ollie Locke. There are rumours that this year it could be James Hill from the Apprentice. The Loose Woman Celebrity Big Brother LOVES getting a Loose Woman panellist to take part, presumably in the knowledge they're a little bit gobby. Carol McGiffin, Nadia Sawalha, Denise Welsh and Coleen Nolan have all taken part before. This year's representative could be Sherrie Hewson, who also used to be in Coronation Street. The random US actor CBB's US stars aren't exactly known for their A-list blockbusters. Instead, they're best remembered for their retro TV and straight-to-DVD films (although they're often dressed up as the "star billing"). For Series 12, producers got Dustin Diamond who used to play Screech in Saved By The Bell. Diamond is currently facing a different type of confinement - he's been charged with stabbing a man in a bar fight on Christmas Day. Meanwhile, on CBB series 5 it was Dirk Benedict from The A Team representing the US. Verne Troyer (Mini-Me in Austin Powers), Michael Madsen and Gary Busey all fitted that bill too. This year could be filled by Daniel Baldwin, who is best known for Homicide: Life on the Street. That person from the tabloids There's a formula for this one. Normal person gains infamy, notoriety or racks up the column inches in the tabloids. After weeks in the headlines, Celebrity Big Brother comes around and said person goes into the house. Deirdre "White Dee" Kelly appeared after getting everyone's attention on Benefit Street. Katie Hopkins was on the last series and former boxing promoter Kellie Maloney got signed up soon after she revealed herself to be transsexual. The 90s pop star If you're too young to remember the days of Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits then don't worry because CBB likes to remind you of the stars who were HUGE in the pop world when you were playing with Lego. Claire Richards from Steps, Abz Love from 5ive, Edele Lynch from B*Witched and Ben Adams from A1 have all taken part. Last time round it was 90s singer Kavana. The glamour model Putting a glamour model into the Celebrity Big Brother house means certain tabloids can plaster pictures of the model into into their papers for weeks. Usually, when they're announced the biggest reaction is: "Who? unless you're a regular reader of lads' mags. Recent signings include Lacey Banghard, Casey Batchelor, Nicola McLean and Cami Li. The buzz this year is a few of models are going in, including Tila Tequila. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat |
Once a year, some of India's captive elephants are whisked off to a "rejuvenation camp", where they are pampered and cared for by their caretakers. Omkar Khandekar visited one such retreat in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
After seven years of being a local celebrity, Akila the elephant knows how to pose for a selfie. She looks at the camera, raises her trunk and holds still when the flash goes off. It can get tiring, especially when there are hundreds of requests every day. Despite this, Akila, performs her daily duties diligently at the Jambukeswarar temple. These include blessing devotees, fetching water for rituals in which idols of the deity are bathed, and leading temple processions around the city, decked up in ceremonial finery. And, of course, the selfies. But every December, she gets to take a break. "When the truck rolls in, I don't even have to ask her to hop in," Akila's caretaker B Arjun said. "Soon, she will be with her friends." India is home to some 27,000 wild elephants. A further 2,500 elephants are held in captivity across the states of Assam, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. The country is widely believed to be the "birthplace of taming elephants for use by humans". Elephants here have been held in captive by Indians for millennia. But 17 years ago, after protests by animal rights activists over instances of handlers abusing and starving captive elephants, the government stepped in to give the animals a bit of respite. As a result, Akila and numerous other elephants held in temples around India are now brought to a "rejuvenation camp" each year, their caretakers in tow. For several weeks, the animals unwind in a sprawling six-acre clearing in a forest at the foothills of Nilgiris, part of the country's Western Ghats. The camps were described as an animal welfare initiative and have become a popular annual event for the state's temple elephants. The one Akila and 27 other elephants are attending currently opened on 15 December last year, and will go on until 31 January, costing about $200,000 (£153,960) to run. Supporters argue it is money well spent. A break from the city for these elephants is therapeutic, explains S Selvaraj, a forest officer in the area. "Wild elephants live in herds of up to 35 members but there's only one elephant in a temple," he says. "For 48 days here, they get to be around their own kind and have a normal life." Akila, who is 16 years old, has been a regular at the camp since 2012, the year she was sold to the temple. Arjun, who has accompanied her every year, is a fourth-generation elephant caretaker. At the camp, he bathes Akila twice a day, feeds her a special mix of grains, fruits and vegetables mixed with vitamin supplements and takes her for a walk around the grounds. A team of vets are on hand to monitor the health of the camp's large guests, while at the same time tutoring their handlers in subjects like elephant diet and exercise regimes. Akila has even forged a friendship with Andal, an older elephant from another temple in the state, said Arjun. But despite the shady trees and quiet, the getaway is a far cry from an elephant's "normal life". The walled campus has eight watchtowers and a 1.5km (0.93 miles) electric fence around its perimeter. While the elephants appear well cared for, they spend most of their time in chains and are kept under the close eye of their caretakers. And one six-week rejuvenation camp a year does little to assuage the stress of temple elephants' everyday lives, activists say. "Elephants belong in jungles, not temples. A six-week 'rejuvenation camp' is like being let out on parole while being sentenced for life imprisonment," argues Sunish Subramanian, of the Plant and Animals Welfare Society in the western city of Mumbai. "Even at these camps, the animals are kept in chains and often in unhygienic conditions," he adds. "If you must continue with the tradition, temple elephants should be kept in the camps for most of the year - in much better conditions - and taken to the temples only during festivals." Even among the company of their own, the elephants - like Andal and Akila - aren't allowed to get too close. "I have to make sure the two keep their distance - otherwise, it'll be difficult to separate them when we go back," Arjun explains. It is not just the animal rights activists who have concerns, however. The camp has become a tourist spot in recent years, attracting a steady stream of visitors from neighbouring villages. Most watch, wide-eyed, from the barricades. But not everyone outside the camp is happy. In 2018, a farmers' union representing 23 villages nearby, petitioned a court to relocate the camp elsewhere. The petition claimed that the scent of the animals - all female, as is the norm among temple elephants - attracted male elephants from the wild. This has caused them to go on the rampage, often destroying crops that farmers depend on for their livelihood. The union says 16 people have died in such incidents. But the court rejected the petition. Instead, it asked why there were human settlements in what was identified as an elephant corridor. It also criticised the state government's tokenism of rejuvenation camps. "Some day," it said, "this court is going to ban the practice of keeping elephants in temples." But Arjun can't bear the thought of parting with Akila. "I love her like my mother," he says. "She feeds my family, just like my mother used to. Without her, I don't know what to do." But he also understands that his elephant can get lonely. "And that's why I work twice as hard to make sure she doesn't." You may also be interested in: All photographs by Omkar Khandekar |
Frenchies in offices, staffies on building sites and labradors in campsites - these are just some of the sights you can expect to see on #TakeYourDogToWorkDay. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The hashtag has been used over 25,000 times at the time of writing, with people sharing pictures of their busy pooches on social media. The day was established in 1999 by Pet Sitters International to "promote dog adoptions and support local pet communities". Some might say these pups are getting a ruff deal, but you would have to be barking to think they aren't eager to spend more time with their human pals. You might also like: By Tom Gerken, BBC UGC & Social News |
A second man has been charged with murder after a 39-year-old who was found with serious injuries died. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Dego Ahmed was found with head and neck injuries at a property in Stapleton Road, Bristol, on 22 October and died in hospital on 6 November. Mohammed Farah, 39, of Stapleton Road, Bristol, appeared before magistrates on Tuesday and was remanded for a hearing at the city's crown court on Thursday. A 42-year-old man has also been charged with murder. Aden Mohamoud, of Stapleton Road, who was originally charged with wounding has been remanded into custody by Bristol Crown Court for a hearing on 10 January next year. |
Ethiopia is suffering its worst drought in 30 years, but the country is better equipped to cope than the crisis in 1984, writes the BBC's Clive Myrie, who has visited one of the worst affected areas. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It is a hard-scrabble life being a farmer in northern Ethiopia. Normal years are tough. In some areas the soil is poor for farming. There is little or no application of manure, so it is low in nutrients and crop yields are not as high as they could and should be. Any failure of seasonal rains spells big trouble, because reserve stockpiles of food will never be plentiful. Bertukan Ali has lived such a life like many of the rural poor in the district of North Wallo, the most drought-prone region of Ethiopia. Earlier this year she and her family waited patiently for the spring "belg" rains to fall. Day after day they waited. Their fields, full of sorghum seeds, were thirsty. But the rains never came. "OK", she said to herself, "we'll survive. The spring 'belg' are notoriously unreliable anyway, the summer 'kiremt' rains will shower the sorghum seeds in warm water." So they waited, and waited, but again the rains did not come. 'Everyone is suffering' When I met Bertukan a couple of days ago, she had just buried her five-year-old son Abdu Mohammed. He was a sickly child, not in the best of health, but when the family ran out of food because the rains did not come, he just got weaker and weaker. Bertukan and I visited his grave, crowned with a vibrant green canopy of vine leaves. We stood in front of it, and suddenly she began to cry. I did not know what to do. I did not know how to console her, help take away her pain. So I put my arm around her, it seemed to make sense at the time. Bertukan told me that when Abdu Mohammed died, she felt as if she'd lost everything. "Everyone is suffering," she told me. "We all have so little to eat because there was no harvest this season." The UN says that in one area, two babies were dying every day. So Bertukan had joined a growing list of other mothers who had been left inconsolable. As bad as 1984? Many Ethiopians still remember the famine more than 30 years ago that spawned a global humanitarian response. I met a man this week in North Wallo, less than 50 minutes drive from Korem, the area where so many people died in 1984, who recalls a "famine of biblical proportions". Abera Weldu is now 68 and he has a face full of character. Like someone out of a pulp fiction novel, he had seen it all, done it all. Every crease, every line, betrayed a life full of experience, and one of those experiences is having lived through the worst drought in a hundred years. He looked me right in the eye, and like the man from a pulp fiction novel, gave it to me straight, both barrels blazing. "Although this drought has just started, it's going to get worse," he said. "It's already really severe. Some people have died of hunger, others are sick in their beds - right now it's just like 1984." "Hang on," I thought to myself, "some estimates put those dying in the drought of 31 years ago at 100,000 to 200,000 people." But the UN confirmed what Abera knew in his gut, from experience. The failure of the rains in 2015 were indeed as bad as the failure of the rains in 1984. Much has improved But much has changed in the intervening years. In the 1980s, money that may have helped ease the effects of the drought, was instead used to fight a war to keep the country together, with the province of Eritrea wanting to break away. Eritrea gained independence in 1993 but later fought a bitter border war with Ethiopia, which ended in 2000. Ethiopia's economy is now one of the fastest growing in the world according to the International Monetary Fund - a far cry from the 1980s. So much so that the government is now able to set aside $192m (£127m) to help deal with the current emergency, although the UN says far more is needed. Poorer farmers in rural areas have for several years now been able to take advantage of a sort of social security safety net, where in lean times they have received money for public works, like digging water holes for animals. That has meant that fewer people have starved when harvests have been poor. And crucially Ethiopia has moved to a much more federal system of government since 1984. This means local officials have more autonomy to assess regional needs and mobilise resources more quickly to deal with hunger. When I spoke with Bertukan Ali, by the grave of her son, she was carrying one of her other little boys in a sling on her back. He looked fit and strong. Maybe he will survive this drought. |
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan is one of the few journalists in recent months who has been able to travel to the remote north-western Pakistani tribal district of Kurram, where members of the Turi tribe are waging a war of attrition with the Taliban. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A couple of miles east of Alizai town in the Kurram tribal district, north-western Pakistan, boundary walls of two large compounds are rising fast. Elders of the region's largest tribe, the Turi, say they are building homes for eight families from western parts of Kurram who have volunteered to resettle here. "Apart from a house, each family will get four acres of land for agricultural use," says Haji Hashim Ali, a Turi elder and in charge of the community project. "We hope to attract more than 200 families to this colony in a year's time," he says. Community volunteers The idea is to boost Turi presence in an area that belongs to the tribe but where the population has thinned out. That has allowed others to step in and bring Taliban militants with them, Mr Ali explains. The Turi tribe, which belongs to the Shia sect of Islam, has traditionally abhorred the Taliban - who adhere to a hardline Sunni form of the faith and many of whom consider Shias to be non-Muslims. Two years ago, the Turis fought a major battle with the Taliban in the surroundings of Alizai. They are now consolidating their hold on the region. To the south of Alizai, across the Kurram river, the tribe is building a 14km (8.6 miles) road to link Alizai with the Turi stronghold of Parachinar in the west. The Shurko road detours the Sunni-dominated town of Sadda, which is located on the region's main road that links Parachinar with Alizai and the rest of Pakistan. In Parachinar, the district centre, and all along the Shurko road, community volunteers man checkpoints and also guard the region's airport. There are no military checkpoints anywhere in the Turi lands from Parachinar to Alizai - and no Taliban. To a casual observer, this comes as a surprise because Kurram is the most important strategic site from where to launch guerrilla attacks inside Afghanistan. Its western tip is only 90km (56 miles) from the Afghan capital, Kabul. Local people say that Taliban started pouring into the area in 2006 and set up base at a mosque in Parachinar. "When we came to know of their presence, we took up the matter with the authorities, but they refused to expel them, saying the decisions were taken at a much higher level," says Ali Akbar Turi, another local elder. Bombed Fighting between the locals and the Taliban erupted in April 2007, and dozens of people were killed over the next year. Devoid of local support, the Taliban were forced to retreat to their bases in Sadda and Alizai in eastern Kurram, but from there they enforced a blockade of Kurram's only road link to Pakistan. "Our traders lost millions of dollars worth of merchandise when our trucks were bombed and burned down, and dozens of our people were beheaded," recalls Haji Hashim Ali. In August 2008, local elders decided that if the army wasn't prepared to deal with the Taliban, it was time to raise a tribal force and storm the militant bases themselves. Najib Hussain, a Kurram resident, fought on a front that finally led to the fall of Bugzai, a village that housed the Taliban's main base in the region, just across the river from Alizai. "We had about 100 to 150 fighters. We would rotate them in four hourly shifts," he says. "Fighting was intense. During the first 27 days I only came down twice from my position on the hill to take a bath. On the 27th day, I was hit and had to be carried away to the hospital." It took the tribal force 46 days of fighting - and the loss of around 400 fighters - to inflict a final defeat on Taliban. Nearly two years after the war, this entire area remains free of Taliban. 'Trapped' But further east, the Taliban continue to block their exit route. People can only leave Kurram in convoys, and only when the government provides security. Even then, they are regularly attacked. In the last attack in July, suspected Taliban gunmen killed 18 people travelling in a passenger van from Parachinar to Peshawar, the regional capital. Syed Abid Jan, 75, was one of four survivors. "We started in the convoy but our van fell behind," he says. "In Charkhel area, some 20km (12.4 miles) east of Alizai, about 10 gunmen fired at the van, causing it to overturn. Then they came closer and fired at the passengers trapped inside from all sides." Mr Jan was hit in the back. "When they went away, I looked around. My grandson was dead. He had fallen on me. I had fallen on my wife. She was also dead." After three years of road blockades, the intensity of war has left a mark on the people of Kurram. Trading and development work have come to a halt, much of the infrastructure of health, education and agriculture has been destroyed, and there is of course the emotional toll. "A friend of mine told me to beware of going mad. I think that warning has kept me from going mad entirely," says Aqeel Hussain, the owner of a petrol station in Alizai. "But sometimes I think I'm half mad. My blood pressure shoots up sometimes. It never used to happen before." After the fall of Bugzai, the Taliban twice offered to guarantee the safety of the road from Kurram to Peshawar in return for access for their militants through Kurram into Afghanistan. But this is an offer which the people of Kurram say they are determined never to accept. |
Education Secretary Michael Gove plans to scrap GCSEs in secondary schools in England and return to O-level style exams. Proposals include a single exam board and a different "more straightforward" exam, like the old CSE, for less academic pupils. Here union leaders, teachers and parents give their views. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Brian Lightman, Association of School and College Leaders It's very difficult to respond to announcements that are made via hearsay and leaks rather than through properly detailed and published proposals. I completely agree that our qualifications system needs to stand up to the best in other countries, but I cannot see how this proposal squares with the international research that says other successful countries don't have two-tier qualifications systems. Without seeing the DfE [Department for Education] proposals, it is difficult to judge the impact. It seems that reintroducing a two-tier system, which was scrapped years ago because it ended up failing large numbers of young people, would be a hugely backward step. O-levels were introduced for a small proportion of the population and CSEs were seen as an inferior qualification for the less able. I can't see how telling young people at age 14 that they aren't smart enough to sit a higher level GCSE will help to address social mobility and raising aspirations. However, we need to see the actual proposals from the DfE before we can accurately predict what the consequences, intended and unintended, will be. Russell Hobby, National Association of Head Teachers I've seen it in the Daily Mail just like everyone else, and that's not a good way to introduce this to the profession. I think a single exam board will remove a lot of concerns with the competition for easier exams. It isn't working and it's lowered trust in the system, so that's sensible. But I think the idea of an obviously two-tier exam system, the CSE/O-level split, doesn't sound like a good step forward to me. I think it takes us back to a stage where we make choices about what a child is capable of very early in their school career. And that we're creating a qualification that potentially doesn't fulfil the need of employers in this day and age, where we need strong literacy, strong numeracy and science skills in almost every student. We do need to demand high academic standards from as many lessons as possible, and I think it's the kind of core academic skills in literacy and numeracy, which actually are the truly vocational qualifications. But yes, children have different career paths and plans and some will be more inspired and engaged by a technical study, but that doesn't mean the technical and vocational qualifications are a lower exam to the GCSEs. They run in parallel. I think this is clearly labelled as an exam for less clever children in the way it's been presented and I think that we will find that that switches people off in the way that CSEs switched people off very early on. John Bangs, former NUT head of education I think there is a case for reform. But I think that's to do with considered reform, setting up an independent review as the previous government did with the Tomlinson report, involving people in what we want from examinations. But not doing headline-grabbing stuff saying that he believes current examination is broken beyond repair, incidentally casting thousands of young people into a state of despair because they're doing the exams at the moment, but doing it in a considered long-term way. It may not get the headlines but it's the right thing for education. Lord Baker, former education secretary I think Michael Gove is absolutely right to reduce the competition between the exam boards for English, maths and science, which have undoubtedly been downgraded through competition. And that's going to be good. Now he's a very radical reformer and is very interesting and rigorous at the heart of all his changes. What is important is to ensure that other subjects that are taken don't become second-class. Engineering at 16 is just as demanding as maths and science. That's what we have to ensure, and I think that will happen under the system that Michael Gove is going to introduce. Geoff Barton, head teacher of King Edward VI school, Bury St Edmunds What this government constantly tell us about is how we should look up to the international big boys with their national curricula and their tests and so on, and that's where we thought the direction of travel was. Next thing we hear is that we're not going to have a national curriculum, which seems to me utterly bizarre, and a system, whereby we're going to start choosing children on ability for which papers they can sit when they're 13 or 14. What we know about intelligence is that people improve and they develop, and we're in the business of motivating youngsters not de-motivating them. Dr Wendy Piatt from The Russell Group I certainly think the current system needs improving. The main problem is that some GCSEs simply don't stretch the very brightest. In some ways it does make sense to have two types of exam - one for the very academic and one for people who are less academic who want to do something more applied, more vocational. But there is a real danger here... there is a worry that at a very early age you will be pigeonholed and then put on a course that is not really suitable for you and you won't be able to change to the more academic course, which will open up opportunities to go to leading universities. Exam board Cambridge Assessment We support evidence-based educational reform and refute claims that competition has resulted in a "dumbing down" of standards. Arbitrary changes to the exams systems and the multiple purposes that qualifications are now often expected to take on - accountability, driving up standards in schools, individual selection, and allowing greater access to education - have made it difficult to maintain standards over time. There are challenges associated with a single qualification designed to recognise the achievement of all students - the current tiered system seeks to do that. However, we welcome a commitment to ensure that the 40% who do not achieve A*-C grades at GCSE are catered for and receive positive recognition of their achievement rather than simply 'failing' a GCSE. Any reform requires measured and careful implementation and we will be engaging in the process when there is a consultation. Jenny Cooper, parent My concern is not that there would be a change, but that it might not be quick enough. Our oldest daughter takes her GCSEs next year. I have another daughter two years behind her and a son in the year before that. With our other two children starting their courses before 2014, I wonder whether their exams will be devalued by the change. If they really feel that we ought to be moving to the O-level style exams, then they really shouldn't be waiting two years to do it. All the children taking the exams in the meantime are going to be taking papers like the old model of a car - devalued the minute people know a new model is coming out. My daughters' school has already made a decision to only do the International Baccalaureate at sixth form because they know there is change coming to A-levels but they don't know what the change is yet and they don't want to risk the children's education. For my children O-level style exams would be ideal. My children are academic. They are children who can learn a body of information and then use it. But the O-level style exams won't suit everyone. |
As details emerged about the identity of "Jihadi John", the masked Islamic State militant pictured in several hostage videos, questions started to arise about Cage, the advocacy group that had been in close contact with the man now known to be called Mohammed Emwazi between 2009 and 2012. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Henrietta McMickingBBC News Cage has caused controversy by suggesting that MI5 harassment could have contributed to the radicalisation of the Kuwaiti-born computer graduate who grew up in west London. Human rights groups say they are doing "vital work" but critics have called the organisation "apologists for terror". Cage describes itself as "an independent organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror" and has spoken out against the UK's anti-terrorism laws. Cage said Mohammed Emwazi had sought their assistance after being interrogated by a British security official in the Netherlands following an attempted visit to Tanzania. Prime Minister David Cameron has defended the security services amid criticism that they failed to stop Mohammed Emwazi from leaving the UK for Syria. London Mayor Boris Johnson said accusations that the security services were at fault were "incredible". He said: "It is beyond satire and amounts to nothing less than an apology for terror". 'Unwise language' Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terror legislation for the government, said: "At the very least Cage are guilty of sloppy thinking and very unwise language. "Before they can command any credibility from the wider community, they should make it clear that they reject the murder by ISIL of Christians and of Muslims who disagree with their views, and that they reject beheading and burning people alive. "They should also give clear advice that joining ISIL constitutes a criminal act." 'Hypocrisy ferments extremism' But the human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith defended the "vital" work of Cage and denied they are apologists for terrorism. He said: "They do important work and the UK authorities need to understand that alienating moderate Muslims is the worst thing that could possibly be done at this time. "I myself represent those said to be 'terrorists' and since Magna Carta, in 1215, we have presumed people innocent rather than guilty. "If criticism must be levelled, it should be aimed at those who betray the fundamentals of our legal system by locking people up without trials, or just assassinating people with drones. "Of the people who they said were the worst of the worst terrorists in the world, we have thus far demonstrated that at least 750 out of 779 were not - and that is a 96% error rate by the CIA and others. "While I do not know enough about the individual cases of Mohammed Emwazi and Michael Adebolajo and their radicalisation, it is clear beyond dispute that when we jettison our principles we make ourselves hypocrites and hypocrisy is the yeast that ferments extremism." What is Cage? Cage, formerly known as Cageprisoners, was set up in London in 2004, and has just four full-time employees. Moazzem Begg joined the group when he was released from Guantanamo in 2005 and is still the outreach director of the organisation. In February last year Mr Begg was arrested and held at Belmarsh prison on terrorism charges relating to the civil war in Syria. He was released after seven months, when all charges were dropped. Cage told the BBC that in the past they had been funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Roddick Foundation. However, Cage said their bank accounts were frozen last year, at the time of Mr Begg's arrest. Although he was cleared of all criminal charges, the organisation's accounts have not been reinstated and Cage say they now rely on community support. The Charity Commission told the BBC: "We have compliance cases open into both the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Roddick Foundation. "In both cases the Commission's regularity concerns are about how the trustees have ensured that charitable grants made to non-charitable bodies are only used for exclusively charitable purposes in line with their objectives. "This regulatory engagement has included robustly examining each charity's decisions to previously make grants to Cage, which is not a charity. "Public statements made in the last few days by Cage raise clear questions for a charity considering funding its activities as to how they could comply with their legal duties as charity trustees." Cage cases: Following the naming of Mohammed Emwazi, Cerie Bullivant, press officer at Cage, said: "There is going to be pressure on Muslims to condemn and apologise, but we must remember we are humans like every one else. "We feel the same shock and terror when we see these sights on TV, whether it is barrel bombs or beheadings. "We should not have to justify our humanity by running out and feeding into this idea that all Muslims are culpable for the actions of one person." |
All over the world, people flee in their millions from tyrannous regimes, but how often do they find the better life they were hoping for? In South Korea, statistics indicate that a startling number of defectors from the North end up taking their own lives. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Stephen EvansBBC News, Seoul You always hear of the celebrity defectors. They write best-selling books and appear on television. They can earn tens of thousands of dollars for an evening at a speaking engagement. They are eloquent as they tell their harrowing stories of dangerous flights from extreme oppression. But there is sometimes a darker side to the stories of those who flee their homeland. In South Korea, the statistics reveal a truth. The country's unification ministry says that over the past 10 years, 6% to 7% of defectors who have died killed themselves. But in recent months there has been a big rise - according to the ministry, 14% of deaths among defectors this year have been suicides. That is much higher than among the population in general, and South Korea consistently has the highest suicide rate of all the 34 industrialized countries in the OECD. There are a number of factors involved. One is that the home they've left is close but unreachable. Another is that their new economic reality can be very different from the glamorised life portrayed in the South Korean soap operas smuggled into the North. Kim Song-il is now in his seventh line of business since he defected 14 years ago. He's been a bus driver, a building labourer and has run a restaurant. Now he's started his own business selling chicken pieces. He buys whole chickens and has hired a handful of employees to cut them up and bag them for freezing to be sold - the price of the parts combined is greater than the cost of the whole. It's a struggle. "When my earlier businesses failed, I tried to kill myself three times," he says. "I had to keep reminding myself how I risked my life just to get here." Part of his difficulty, he says, is that he was a military officer in the North and was used to giving orders. Taking orders as an employee in capitalism has not been easy. Last year, there were 1,400 defectors. The flow is all one way - North to South. Or nearly all one way. Forty-five-year-old Kim Ryen-hi gave a tearful press conference recently and announced that she wants to go home. Four years ago, she arrived in South Korea via China and Thailand but now misses the North dreadfully. "Freedom and material and other lures of any kind, they are not as important to me as my family and home," she said. "I want to return to my precious family, even if I die of hunger." She is very much an exception - and there are those who succeed in the South. Lee Yung-hee has enterprise written right through her. She defected 14 years ago and now runs a busy restaurant - Max Tortilla - two hours outside Seoul. In the North, she'd never heard of this classic Mexican dish but when she reached the South she initially got a job selling kebabs - meat in a roll - and thought that adding rice would suit Korean taste even more. The result, she discovered, was akin to a burrito, so she went into the burrito business - very successfully. Initiative and hard work paid off. "When I first arrived here the South seemed so different," she says. "In order to succeed, I had to learn everything from scratch." Defectors get three months' training when they arrive but critics of the system say that's not enough to learn new skills. The government replies that the defectors themselves don't want prolonged periods of schooling. Some Christian groups provide vocational training and say that what works best is training in simple but useful skills like making coffee to serve in a cafe. But the lack of opportunities, beyond humble jobs like this, is one source of discontent. According to one survey 50% described their status in the North as "upper" or "middle" class, but only 26% said they fell into this category in the South. The vast majority - 73% - described their new status as lower class. Andrei Lankov, a historian at Kookmin University in Seoul who has also studied in Pyongyang, says the problem is that skills acquired in the North are insufficient for the modern South Korean economy. Doctors who defect, for example, often fail to get jobs in South Korean medicine. In his opinion, this has implications for unification whenever (and if ever) it happens. "Can a graduate of a North Korean medical school hope to get a license in post-unification Korea if all his (or, more likely, her) medical knowledge is taken from poorly translated Soviet textbooks that are a few decades old?" he asks in a story for the NK News website. And would a South Korean company hire a technician "whose job for decades has principally consisted of dogged - and often ingenious - efforts to keep Soviet-era vintage equipment working?" That is a dilemma for the future. In the present, the hidden problem consists of desperate North Koreans who are lonely and adrift in South Korea, teetering on the edge of taking their own lives, and sometimes tipping over the edge. Watch Stephen Evans's video, filmed for the Victoria Derbyshire programme. More from the Magazine Fifteen years ago, Kim Cheol-woong was a successful pianist living in North Korea - but his life suddenly changed when someone heard him playing a Western love song. Interrogated for playing the wrong tune (July 2015) Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
And we thought Christmas only came once a year. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporter The first full-length trailer for No Time To Die has been released, giving fans a flavour of what to expect from Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond. The promo, which launched on Wednesday and can be seen below, shows Rami Malek in character as the latest villain for the first time, as well as a new female agent with a licence to kill. No Time To Die is set to be released in April, but there have been one or two obstacles along the way - from Daniel Craig's ankle injury to the decision to change director. Danny Boyle was originally supposed to be at the helm for Bond 25, but he exited the project last August due to "creative differences". US director Cary Joji Fukunaga stepped in, and there was a race against the clock to keep the film on schedule for its April 2020 release date. "It has been an incredible honour, but it's also just been really hard," Fukunaga tells BBC News. "This was a very ambitious script for the time we had. "I got the role in the middle of doing press for Maniac [the Netflix series he directed], so I was doing interviews like this while trying to process the enormous excitement but also responsibility of taking on this project. "And I was very aware that with Daniel's departure, I had to get a script going and production going in a very short space of time. The lack of time was a sort of impetus for the pressure. It was like a very hot flame under our ass!" The project had the added complication of having to go back to the drawing board after Boyle's exit. "I love Danny's films, but on this one we basically had to start from scratch," Fukunaga explains. "It was the desire of the producers that we sort of start anew and figure out a new storyline for this one." The writing process involved bringing Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge on board to help polish the script. 5 talking points from the trailer Fukunaga refers to a new plot, but No Time To Die also appears to continue the overarching storyline which has run through the last four films. Spectre's ending seemed to tie that narrative up, which left many wondering whether the 25th Bond film would start afresh. But the inclusion of Waltz's Blofeld in the trailer puts paid to that idea and suggests it's a continuation - something Fukunaga appears to confirm. "I like to think of this as picking up from all the stories, from Casino [Royale] all the way through," he says. "And those who are fans will appreciate the layers that exist there, but I also think for new audiences, people who have never seen any of the films before, younger audiences, it's strong enough that they can get involved." As well as Maniac, Fukunaga has previously directed films including Beasts of No Nation and a 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska. 'Misogynistic dinosaur' Perhaps the most interesting part of the trailer is Lashana Lynch's appearance as a new member of MI6. Having a female double-O marks a slight change in direction in the franchise. No Time To Die is the first Bond film since #MeToo, but would the film series have evolved in this direction anyway? "Yes, I think so," Fukunaga says. "Bond started evolving probably 25 years ago, when Judi Dench's M called out Pierce Brosnan's Bond for being a misogynistic dinosaur and a relic of the Cold War." (He's quoting, almost verbatim, from one of the first scenes Dench and Brosnan shared in 1995's GoldenEye.) "I think Lashana's role is not about being female, she's just a younger generation," Fukunaga says. "There's the whole thing going around the internet right now about 'OK Boomer', and I just think of how younger generations challenge what the previous generations legacy means. "And I think for Lashana, she has a lot to prove, she's capable, she's physical, she's intelligent. And the world has changed, and she feels she's inheriting a world that agents like Bond had operated in. And it's like, they want to make their mark. That's how I think of it. Less so than just because she's female, we're in a world where that's not even the considerations. It's more, 'is she capable of being a double-O?'" One person who became (temporarily) incapable of being a double-O was Daniel Craig, who injured his ankle while shooting the film. But, Fukunaga says, that wasn't as disruptive to the schedule as you might imagine. "If you think about a film this ambitious, this long, with this many stunts, the fact that we had one sprained ankle and a concussion over that period of time was a pretty high achievement," he says. "[Craig's ankle injury] delayed us a little bit, but he didn't miss a day of being on set after that. He was on set working out and doing PT [physical therapy] the entire time. We had to do a little juggling on schedule and scenes, but that was pretty much it." No Time To Die isn't actually finished yet. Filming wrapped last month but the movie is now in post-production, which means Fukunaga "still hasn't had time to really process" the whole experience. "I think I'll probably have to sit down next summer and figure out what just happened," he says. Ask the directors of Cats or Sonic The Hedgehog whether launching a trailer is a positive experience and you might find them cowering in the corner of a room from the trauma. But Fukunaga is less anxious about the social media reaction to the Bond trailer. "We don't have any computer graphics animals in our trailer," he laughs, "so we're less worried about that." |
We have had countless snowmen and women, igloos too, but a County Armagh family have used the recent snow to build something 'udderly' original, a life-size replica of a Charolais bull. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Johnny CaldwellBBC News The impressive artwork took several hours to complete in a field on the Cavanakill Road outside Newtownhamilton. "It's a Charolais bull which are white anyway, " said Nadene Bailie. Nadene's two daughters, her husband and two brothers-in-law were all involved. "It took them about five hours to build it. It looked absolutely brilliant, a real masterpiece," she said. 'Considerabull' "Unfortunately though as soon as they had finished it, it started to collapse. "We got some great pics, but it's a real shame it didn't last longer given all the work that went into it." Would the artwork fetch a 'considerabull' amount of money on the open market? "As a joke, one of the boys Andy tried to sell it online," said Nadene. "He described it as being from the Coolontheknees herd, calling the bull Coolontheknees Stormzy." |
A man has been arrested after a woman was found dead at a house in a Cotswold village. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The woman, in her 40s, was found dead in Great Rissington, near Bourton-on-the-Water, at about 11:35 GMT on Sunday. Police were called to the scene by the ambulance service and say they are treating her death as "unexplained". A man in his 40s has been arrested in connection with the woman's death and is in police custody. |
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